Brittney's Review: Everything I Never Told You

Author: Celeste Ng
Series: None
Publication Date: May 31, 2015
Publisher: Penguin Books
Pages: 320
Obtained: Purchased
Genre: Literature
Rating: 5/5
Bottom Line: Emotional & tender – a glimpse into a family coping with grief
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Summary:

“Lydia is dead. But they don't know this yet.” So begins this exquisite novel about a Chinese American family living in 1970s small-town Ohio. Lydia is the favorite child of Marilyn and James Lee, and her parents are determined that she will fulfill the dreams they were unable to pursue. But when Lydia's body is found in the local lake, the delicate balancing act that has been keeping the Lee family together is destroyed, tumbling them into chaos. A profoundly moving story of family, secrets, and longing, Everything I Never Told You is both a gripping page-turner and a sensitive family portrait, uncovering the ways in which mothers and daughters, fathers and sons, and husbands and wives struggle, all their lives, to understand one another. – powells.com

Review:

There is a reason this title was selected as a New York Times Notable Book of 2014.

After the death of their daughter, the Lee family goes through absolute hell in dealing with their loss. And as both police and family try to piece together details of Lydia's passing, the reader is left with many questions: How did she die? Who was at fault? Did Lydia want to die, and had she given up?

Celeste Ng weaves a story complete with flashbacks of James & Marilyn's first meeting, their marriage, their successes and failures. And over time, pieces of the puzzle slowly take shape. At first glance, you might think that Marilyn is living her life through her daughter, and pushing her too hard to fulfill her own dreams. By the end of the novel, the picture is clear: you'll never expect the ending.

A tale of heartache, overcoming grief, and how to move on, this book gets one of my few 5/5 scores. Don't skip Everything I Never Told You. Grab a copy and a comfortable chair and clear out your afternoon. You won't be able to stop after the page one.

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Julie's Review: In The Unlikely Event

Author: Judy Blume
Series: None
Publication Date: June 2, 2015
Publisher: Alfred Knopf
Pages: 416
Obtained: purchased
Genre:  Fiction, Women's Fiction
Rating: 5/5
Bottom Line: Judy Blume at her best
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Summary: In 1987, Miri Ammerman returns to her hometown of Elizabeth, New Jersey, to attend a commemoration of the worst year of her life. Thirty-five years earlier, when Miri was fifteen, and in love for the first time, a succession of airplanes fell from the sky, leaving a community reeling. Against this backdrop of actual events that Blume experienced in the early 1950s, when airline travel was new and exciting and everyone dreamed of going somewhere, she paints a vivid portrait of a particular time and place—Nat King Cole singing “Unforgettable,” Elizabeth Taylor haircuts, young (and not-so-young) love, explosive friendships, A-bomb hysteria, rumors of Communist threat. And a young journalist who makes his name reporting tragedy. Through it all, one generation reminds another that life goes on. In the Unlikely Event is vintage Judy Blume, with all the hallmarks of Judy Blume’s unparalleled storytelling, and full of memorable characters who cope with loss, remember the good times and, finally, wonder at the joy that keeps them going. ~amazon.com

Review: In the Unlikely Event is pretty much everything you want in a Judy Blume novel. She's written fantastic characters that will stay with you the rest of your life and a near perfect storyline. I loved that it was based on actual events that happened in New Jersey during the 1950s and something that I had no prior knowledge about.

The story is told beginning in 1987 when Miri Ammerman is about to go back to "celebrate" one of the worst years of her life but we don't really know what happened yet. Why was it the worst? How has it shaped her? Most of the novel is spent from 1952 onward and this is where we get to know Miri, Rusty, Harry and Irene, et all. There are a whole host of characters in this one but you know pretty darn quickly who the focus is on..the Ammerman's. I adored Miri; I felt for her and I wanted to hug her. She was coming into the hardest years of her life and then to have two traumatic situations happen in her backyard, made being 15 even worse.

Everyone around her is affected in different ways. Her best friend, Natalie, starts to act strangely and Miri wonders what she can do to get her old friend back. She really does just want things they way they were before the accidents.

Miri is a wonderful character. She's everything that I love in a heroine. She's bright, spunky and endearing. Actually I really loved her whole family; from her mother, Rusty to her Uncle Henry. They are a tight family unit but Miri has questions about her father. This is where the family clams up but sometimes you can't stop things from happening no matter what you want.

I also loved the time period that Ms. Blume chose because it is such a significant time of change for the country. This mirrors the time of change that Miri is going through as well. While this is marketed as an adult novel, I view it as a coming of age story. Sure it's a flashback from Miri's POV but it's really about her being 15 and experiencing a range of emotions. It is about finding what love and heartbreak is all about while dealing with a phenomenon you don't quite understand.

There's really not more I can say except it's a wonderful book and it's JUDY BLUME! So, do yourself a favor and read it.


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Brittney's Review: Close Your Eyes, Hold Hands

Author: Chris Bohjalian
Series: None
Publication Date: May 26, 2015
Publisher: Vintage; Reprint edition
Pages: 288
Obtained: Purchased
Genre:Literature-Coming of Age
Rating: 4/5
Bottom Line: Heartbreaking, raw – a must read.
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Summary:
Emily Shepard is on the run; the nuclear plant where her father worked has suffered a cataclysmic meltdown, and all fingers point to him. Now, orphaned, homeless, and certain that she’s a pariah, Emily’s taken to hiding out on the frigid streets of Burlington, Vermont, creating a new identity inspired by her favorite poet, Emily Dickinson.

Then she meets Cameron. Nine years old and with a string of foster families behind him, he sparks something in Emily, and she protects him with a fierceness she didn’t know she possessed. But when an emergency threatens the fledgling home she’s created, Emily realizes that she can’t hide forever. – amazon.com

Review:

I have a soft spot for books that get me emotionally wrapped up into a character. Such was the case for Emily Shepard, our main protagonist.

Chris writes a no holds barred look into the life of a not-your-average teen who lives through the unthinkable, and just when you think things couldn't get worse, Emily endurs even more. It's rare to see a level of writing that is so factual when portraying a teen, which is probably why I find the YA genre difficult to read. Not the case here: Chris delivers writing that is beautiful, raw and realistic. This is far from a YA read and in the end, is a beautiful coming of age story.

This book is a stark reminder that we never know the battle someone else is fighting until we've walked a mile in their shoes.

I snagged Close Your Eyes, Hold Hands from the new trade paperback releases shelf at the airport about a week ago, and only later realized that Julie had reviewed the hardcover edition. I echo her sentiments in that this would make a fantastic book club read. It'll provide some difficult questions for the group to debate, as so much controversy and pain surrounds Emily's life.


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Julie's Review: The Magician's Lie

Author: Greer Macallister
Series: None
Publication Date: January 13, 2015
Publisher: Sourcebooks Landmark
Pages: 320
Obtained: publisher via Shereads.org
Genre:  Fiction, Historical Fiction
Rating: 5/5
Bottom Line: Simply Stunning
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Summary: Water for Elephants meets The Night Circus in The Magician’s Lie, a debut novel in which the country’s most notorious female illusionist stands accused of her husband's murder —and she has only one night to convince a small-town policeman of her innocence. The Amazing Arden is the most famous female illusionist of her day, renowned for her notorious trick of sawing a man in half on stage. One night in Waterloo, Iowa, with young policeman Virgil Holt watching from the audience, she swaps her trademark saw for a fire ax. Is it a new version of the illusion, or an all-too-real murder? When Arden’s husband is found lifeless beneath the stage later that night, the answer seems clear. But when Virgil happens upon the fleeing magician and takes her into custody, she has a very different story to tell. Even handcuffed and alone, Arden is far from powerless—and what she reveals is as unbelievable as it is spellbinding. Over the course of one eerie night, Virgil must decide whether to turn Arden in or set her free… and it will take all he has to see through the smoke and mirrors. ~sourcebooks  


Review: The Magician's Lie has elements of both those fantastic novels named above but it really is it's own book. It's been a while where I've been mesmerized by a lead character and Arden/Ada/Miss Bates entranced me. I can say that up until the end of the novel, I really wasn't sure if she was telling the truth. I wanted to believe her, just like Officer Holt but based on what she did for a living it made me think twice about taking her story at face value. Oh what a story! As Office Holt "arrests" Arden for the murder of her husband, she implores to him that she's innocent. He wants her to tell her the story of what happened that night but of course the history leading up to that point in time must be told. This is where Arden hooks you. Her story of loss, abuse, gaining power, gaining control and finding love are beguiling.

It is not only in Arden's story that Ms. Macallister sets the tone but also in the history of illusions and illusionists. It is in the way she describes Adelaide's show and how Arden feverishly watches them to learn their secrets. As I read the novel, I could hear the roar of the audiences as Arden would describe them. I could feel her pain as she described the abuse/torture she lived through. I could feel the power of her illusions and the control she had over them. Arden's home was with the family she created with her crew and performers.

In Arden, we have a strong, independent woman who fights for what she believes is right and also for her own future. She is smart and beautiful. I never found her to be cunning. Instead I found her to be brutally honest and sincere in the end. 

There isn't much I can tell you about the plot frankly without giving the good bits away, so I won't. I will say the plot is well-written and even with some plot twists along the way, they never felt contrived. As a reader you are pulled into a time when entertainment traveled by rail and everything you saw on a stage was new and exciting. You were simply dazzled by the performances.

That's how I feel about this novel, I was dazzled. I wanted to race to the end to find out what happened and I also didn't want it to be over. I wanted Arden to be happy but not at an awful price.

If you love books about the late 1800s and early 1900s then The Magician's Lie will transport you to that time. As I read the book I was recalling a few movies from 2006 featuring illusionist as main characters: "The Illusionist" (Ed Norton & Jessica Biel) and "The Prestige" (Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale). Also, if I were to cast Arden it would be Emma Stone.

For me this book was magic in the best way and the way Arden would want it to be.

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Julie's Reviews: The Orphan Sky

Author: Ella Leya
Series: None
Publication Date: February 3, 2015
Publisher: Sourcebooks Landmark
Pages: 368
Obtained: publisher
Genre:  Fiction
Rating: 5/5
Bottom Line: Simply brilliant
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Summary: Set at the crossroads of Turkish, Persian and Russian cultures under the red flag of Communism in the late 1970s, The Orphan Sky reveals one woman's struggle to reconcile her ideals with the corrupt world around her, and to decide whether to betray her country or her heart. Leila is a young classical pianist who dreams of winning international competitions and bringing awards to her beloved country Azerbaijan. She is also a proud daughter of the Communist Party. When she receives an assignment from her communist mentor to spy on a music shop suspected of traitorous Western influences, she does it eagerly, determined to prove her worth to the Party. But Leila didn't anticipate the complications of meeting Tahir, the rebellious painter who owns the music shop. His jazz recordings, abstract art, and subversive political opinions crack open the veneer of the world she's been living in. Just when she begins to fall in love with both the West and Tahir, her comrades force her to make an impossible choice. ~amazon.com  

Review: The Orphan Sky  is the rare gem of a novel where that it exceeds expectations. I LOVE when that happens. Leila is a wonderful character and she grows up before our eyes. It is not an easy coming of age tale to read but it is one of enlightenment. Leila has grown up in the upper echelon of Soviet Society in Azerbaijan which has given her many privileges. She is a member of the youth communist party and a gifted pianist.  It is both of these that gain her access to represent the Soviet Union in various piano competitions.

It is not until Farad assigns Leila with a mission to spy on a suspected traitor that her eyes begin to open to music/culture other than that which is deemed appropriate by the Soviets. It is here with Tahir where she hears Billie Holliday for the first time. It is here where Tahir challenges her to open up her mind and free her soul. He tells her to feel the music, not to just play the music. Unfortunately, unleashing her feelings while she's playing is not how they are to play in communist countries, she is to play it as it is written.

As Leila experiments with her feelings through her music it begins to open her eyes and heart to other things surrounding her. She begins to visit with Tahir to learn more about the Western culture, specifically music but also because she's intrigued by the man himself. It doesn't take much to decipher that Tahir and Leila will fall in love with each other.

I don't want to give you readers the idea that The Orphan Sky is a love story because it is so much more than that. The love story is just one aspect of the novel but it is this love that catapults her to explore the life she lives. There are other situations that cause Leila to grow up and grow up quickly. These weren't easy to read and it just made you want to shelter her. It is never good to live in a "bubble" but her's burst abruptly.

Ms. Leya does a fantastic job of describing Soviet Azerbaijan. The way she describes the mix of the
Communist culture and Islamic culture is fascinating. The fact that Islamic culture still existed is what I found fascinating since Communism is the only thing that its citizens should believe in.

If you have any interest in more modern history, than I say you pick up this fantastic debut. I can't wait to see what else Ms. Leya will write in the future.


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Alice's Review: Silver Linings Playbook

Summary: An enchanting first novel about love, madness, and Kenny G. The Silver Linings Playbook is the riotous and poignant story of how one man regains his memory and comes to terms with the magnitude of his wife's betrayal. During the years he spends in a neural health facility, Pat Peoples formulates a theory about silver linings: he believes his life is a movie produced by God, his mission is to become physically fit and emotionally supportive, and his happy ending will be the return of his estranged wife, Nikki. When Pat goes to live with his parents, everything seems changed: no one will talk to him about Nikki; his old friends are saddled with families; the Philadelphia Eagles keep losing, making his father moody; and his new therapist seems to be recommending adultery as a form of therapy. When Pat meets the tragically widowed and clinically depressed Tiffany, she offers to act as a liaison between him and his wife, if only he will give up watching football, agree to perform in this year's Dance Away Depression competition, and promise not to tell anyone about their contract. All the while, Pat keeps searching for his silver lining. In this brilliantly written debut novel, Matthew Quick takes us inside Pat's mind, deftly showing us the world from his distorted yet endearing perspective. The result is a touching and funny story that helps us look at both depression and love in a wonderfully refreshing way.

Review:  One of my favorite movies from last year was Silver Linings Playbook .  When I learned it was based on a book by Matthew Quick, I knew I had to read it.  I normally only read books written by women authors, a book has to be pretty special for me to break that rule.  This book was. 

Pat Peoples is close to overthrowing Alan from Adi Alsaid’s SomewhereOver the Sun as my favorite male fictional character.  Pat was broken.  He was so not perfect.  I love a character layered in flaws and hope and that’s exactly who Pat is.  He is a study of optimism.  The story begins with Pat’s release from a mental institution (which he refers to as the bad place) and into his mother’s care.  What follows is Pat’s road to recovery as he makes his way back into the arms of his wife, Nikki.  At least, that’s what he hopes but we all learn that sometimes life gives you what you need and not what you want. 

With each experience, Pat learns more about what his behaviors were to get him into the “bad place” and what he has to do to continuously see the silver linings.    It’s quite a journey for him especially since his support system doesn’t really know how to help him.  He has a father who cares more about Eagles football than his own son’s mental health, a mother who treats Pat more like a five year old rather than a grown man, and a therapist who straddles the line between friend and doctor.  Now throw into the mix a feisty stalker names Tiffany with her own set of problems and you can understand how difficult recovery is for him and how wonderful it makes his journey. 

I adored many things about Silver Linings Playbook.  I loved Mr. Quick’s approach to mental illness.  He conveyed the severity of Pat’s illness however, he throws in the right amount of realistic humor.  I also loved the well-rounded characters.  This novel straddles a fine line between doing what is necessary to help someone who has mental issues without either cradling them or pushing them further into their depression.  Silver Linings Playbook gives us only a peek into what his family was going through.  I loved Pat’s mom and the relationship Pat had with his brother.  I loved the Asian Invasion and Pat’s doctor.  Even though I am far from a football fan, I didn’t mind all the football talk. 

The one thing I didn’t like was Tiffany.  She was nuts and I don’t mean that as a slight to mental illness.  She was dealing with her own demons after the death of her beloved husband.  Grief was her undoing.  She took crazy chances.  The one thing I will commend her for is her courage.  She wasn’t afraid to put it all on the line for Pat.  I wonder if I would have felt differently about Tiffany if the novel was written in third person rather than from Pat’s point of view.  Perhaps spending some time getting to know Tiffany away from Pat would have given me greater insight. I think it was smart to write this novel from Pat’s point of view only.  I had an idea of what his family was going through and had Mr. Quick dove further into their experience, I know I wouldn’t have liked Pat as much as I did.  Truth is, the novel wasn’t about them.  It was about Pat. 

Simply, this novel is wonderful.  I absolutely loved it.  One thing I learned and am trying my best to apply to my life is Pat’s sound advice…

“Practice being kind, not right.”

Final Take:  4/5
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Alice's Reviews: Million Dollar Baby:Stories From the Corner

Summary:  Originally published as Rope Burns: Stories From the Corner, this debut collection has been reissued to coincide with the Oscar-nominated film Million Dollar Baby, based on Toole's short story, directed by Clint Eastwood and starring Eastwood, Hilary Swank, and Morgan Freeman. ~ powells.com

Review: This is my first attempt at reading boxing-centric stories.  The main reason I requested this collection of short stories from NetGalley is because I am a fan of boxing and movies* about boxing.  I loved Million Dollar Baby and wanted to read the story because we all know the book is always better than the movie. I am glad I took a chance on something that was far from my usual reading material because Million Dollar Baby: Stories from the Corner is one of the best short collections I have ever read.

Mr. Toole writes with so much heart.  As a boxer and trainer himself, he gives his readers his unique point of view for everyone involved in the sport.  From the Boxers themselves to the Trainers and Cutmen, I loved reading about the sport from this angle.  Each of the characters he introduced us too were so real, they came to life on the page.

What surprised me was that in all the stories I read, Million Dollar Baby was not my favorite.  I actually began listing all my favorite stories, but when I got to five I went back and edited this review.  Each story was better than the last.  Each character so simple yet complex, so brilliant and real.  It was true joy to spend time with them.  My only struggle was in reading the detailed description the author uses to describe boxing.  I’m not quite sure how to explain it to you other than to say the semantics of it was hard for me to understand.  What I got loud and clear was the people, the emotion in which each character felt.  It was beautiful.

Million Dollar Baby: Stories from the Corner honors the human spirit.  And Mr. Toole honors those who fought before him and those who will continue to fight after him.  I believe if you are a fan of boxing, this is a must read. 

Final Take:  4/5

* One of the best boxing movies ever is Girlfight starring Michelle Rodriguez.  You must check it out.

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Alice's Review: Whistling Past the Graveyard

Summary:  In the summer of 1963, nine-year-old spitfire Starla Claudelle runs away from her strict grandmother's Mississippi home. Starla hasn't seen her momma since she was three--that's when Lulu left for Nashville to become a famous singer. Starla's daddy works on an oil rig in the Gulf, so Mamie, with her tsk-tsk sounds and her bitter refrain of "Lord, give me strength," is the nearest thing to family Starla has. After being put on restriction yet again for her sassy mouth, Starla is caught sneaking out for the Fourth of July parade. She fears Mamie will make good on her threat to send Starla to reform school, so Starla walks to the outskirts of town, and just keeps walking. . . . If she can get to Nashville and find her momma, then all that she promised will come true: Lulu will be a star. Daddy will come to live in Nashville, too. And her family will be whole and perfect. Walking a lonely country road, Starla accepts a ride from Eula, a black woman traveling alone with a white baby. The trio embarks on a road trip that will change Starla's life forever. She sees for the first time life as it really is--as she reaches for a dream of how it could one day be. ~powells.com

Review:  This is something that has never happened before.  Although I finished this novel about a week ago, I have been unable to write the review.  The reasons preventing me have nothing to do with time and everything to do with how this novel has seeped into my soul.

It’s crafty and original:  Racism in the 1960s told from the point of view of a precocious girl.  It’s wonderfully written and although sometimes very difficult read, beautifully told.  This novel has all kinds of goodness.  It is funny, sad, poignant and touching.  I couldn’t put it down because I needed to know what would happen next.  Ms. Crandall does a wonderful job of conveying the urgency of the time.  Like Starla, I got angry at the injustice Eula faced and all because of the color of her skin.  It was a disgrace what she went through. 

Starla was a great character.  The girl had moxie and as a reader, I couldn’t help but hope things turned out well for her.  There were times when she was blissfully ignorant to the times around her.  It saddened me when she began having very adult realizations about life during that time.  Her innocent was stolen right before my eyes. 

I believe the real star of this novel is Eula.  She was such a beautiful character who risked herself to protect those she loved.  There was a simplicity in her and a vulnerability.  She loved fiercely in spite of the horrors she faced.  She was Starla’s biggest protector and their unlikely friendship is what carried them through their difficult times.

I highly recommend  Whistling Past the Graveyard.  It is an inspiring read.  Be sure to have some tissues handy, you will need them.

Final Take: 4/5
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Alice's Review: The House at Belle Fontaine: Stories

Summary: The powerfully intimate stories within The House at Belle Fontaine span the better part of the twentieth century and almost every continent, laying bare apprehensions, passions, secrets, and tragedies that resonate across time and space. In crisp, spare, and penetrating prose, Lily Tuck unveils and suppresses personal truths as her characters navigate exotic locales and immediate emotional territory: an artist learns that her deceased ex-husband had an especially illicit affair seventeen years before his death; a young couple living in Thailand worries about the mental stability of their best friend, a U. S. army captain; on a ship bound for Antarctica, a retired couple strains to hold together their forty-year-old marriage; and a French family flees to Lima in the 1940s with devastating consequences for their daughters young nanny. ~powells.com

Review: I am a fan of short stories.  I have always believed that writing a short story is more difficult than a novel because you have a limited amount of words in order to get your point across.  Some writers struggle with this, however others are wildly successful.  I believe Lily Tuck is truly gifted.

There were several stories that I especially liked.  Those are The House at Belle Fontaine, Lucky and My Music.

This collection encompassed stories that were very different with the common denominator being Ms. Tuck’s prose.  She writes factually but with certain poetry.  She chooses her words carefully so they have the strongest impact.  Her characters are memorable as well with my favorite being Helen from Lucky.  She was strong, sad, beautiful.

If you enjoy a wonderful collection of short stories, I highly recommend picking this up.  This is perfect for the novice short story reader as well.  I look forward to reading Lily Tuck in the future.  The House at Belle Fontaine:Stories was simply breathtaking.

Final Take: 4/5

Alice's Review: I am Lucky Bird

Summary: Fleur Philips' I AM LUCKY BIRD is an intensely gripping, deeply emotional literary novel, telling the heart-wrenching narrative of its young protagonist, Lucky Bird, after her mother AnnMarie mysteriously vanishes, and her childhood comes to an abrupt end. Left alone to defend herself against her suddenly abusive grandmother, Marian Bird, and forced to endure the twisted predatory game played out by Marian's lover Tom Cressfield, Lucky's life soon descends into a nightmare. Even when she manages to escape, the outside world can't take away the brutal images of her past. Still haunted by her mother's disappearance and the trauma that followed, Lucky is easily led down a path of self-destruction, a path that only the intervention of a handsome young stranger and his family seems to offer any hope of guiding her away from. But first, she will have to confront her demons, and the dark truths that they kept hidden... I Am Lucky Bird has made it onto the 2011 list of finalists for ForeWord Reviews' Book Of The Year Awards- surely only the first of many awards to come! ~ amazon.com

Review: Although this novel is very short, it packs quite a powerful punch. I am Lucky Bird is not your typical coming of age story about a young girl in rural Montana in the early 90s. Lucky Bird is not your typical girl. At 11 years old, Lucky lives in a small home with Marian, a nurse at the local hospital who found a newborn Lucky abandoned behind her favorite tavern, and AnnMarie, Marian’s quiet introspective daughter and Lucky’s closest companion. The novel follows the next 6 years of Lucky’s life. A life that is plagued with tragedy and horrifying revelations.

My one concern with I am Lucky Bird is that as tragic and heartbreaking as is it, the author was able to wrap it up in a pretty little package complete with a bow and confetti. It was hard to imagine things ending so perfectly for Lucky. It was too perfect and as annoyed as I was, I did cry at the end. Those tears were pure joy for her because she deserved it.

It’s very easy to overlook that minor infraction because the rest of the novel is brilliant. Ms. Philips skillfully creates the characters of Marian, AnnMarie and Lucky. Of the three, the one I was drawn to the most was AnnMarie. She is the one character we got to know through others only and she was the one I was most curious about. I wondered what she was feeling, what was going on behind the silence and wall of books she surrounded herself with. That’s probably what endeared me to her. It’s easy to relate to someone who lives her life in books and avoids the outside world.

Although I am Lucky Bird is incredibly dark and heart wrenching, I highly recommend it. It reads like a memoir. It reminds me of a Lifetime movie, but in a good way. Ms. Philips definitely made a fan out of me and I look forward to what she will do next.

Final Take: 4/5

Julie's Review: The Land of Decoration

Summary: A mesmerizing debut about a young girl whose steadfast belief and imagination bring everything she once held dear into treacherous balance. In Grace McCleen's harrowing, powerful debut, she introduces an unforgettable heroine in ten-year-old Judith McPherson, a young believer who sees the world with the clear Eyes of Faith. Persecuted at school for her beliefs and struggling with her distant, devout father at home, young Judith finds solace and connection in a model in miniature of the Promised Land that she has constructed in her room from collected discarded scraps—the Land of Decoration. Where others might see rubbish, Judith sees possibility and divinity in even the strangest traces left behind. As ominous forces disrupt the peace in her and Father's modest lives—a strike threatens her father's factory job, and the taunting at school slips into dangerous territory—Judith makes a miracle in the Land of Decoration that solidifies her blossoming convictions. She is God's chosen instrument. But the heady consequences of her new found power are difficult to control and may threaten the very foundations of her world. With its intensely taut storytelling and crystalline prose, The Land of Decoration is a gripping, psychologically complex story of good and evil, belonging and isolation, which casts new and startling light on how far we'll go to protect the things we love most. ~amazon.com

Review: I really don't know what to make or think of The Land of Decoration. I found Judith to be a little eccentric for 10 years old and perhaps too wise for her own good. She carries around tremendous guilt. Guilt that her mother died, guilt that it was her fault, guilt over her father's sadness. Judith is picked on by a boy, Neil, who tells her that on Monday she better know how to hold her breath because her head will be in a toilet.

That weekend she meets a man at her church meeting and he tells her about the power of miracles. Judith begins to pray for and then make snow. It snows so much that she doesn't have to go to school. Therefore, avoiding getting her head swirled in a toilet. You know the saying "Be Careful what you wish for?", well someone should have informed Judith of this and change wish to pray. By making small miracles, Judith changes the lay of the land and she alters the future. At 10, she doesn't quite grasp the concept that small things lead to bigger things and it gets out of control.

Throughout the novel I had to wonder if Judith was just having a dream, a hallucination or if all of this was really happening. It was that kind of writing that kept me wondering until the very end of the novel. I was also left wondering for most of the novel where and what time period this story takes place in. I enjoyed the fact that I couldn't figure it out, which for me meant that the story spanned time. Perhaps that's because of the way the book is written. You get so wrapped up in Judith's world that you don't need to know the place. Ms. McCleen transports you to a world in which the belief in God and the Armageddon is so strong that it outweighs living in the present. Which led me to think, how can that be healthy for a 10 year old girl? How can that be healthy for anyone?

I'm not sure how the very last chapter fit into the book but could only think that it had to be related to her mother and father's relationship and the story Judith told in the course of the novel. Things are slowly revealed about her parents and about her relationship with her father. There are some great little nuggets of wisdom in this book:

"I think people don't believe in things because they are afraid. Believing something means you could be wrong, and if you're wrong you can get hurt." - page 46

"Evidence isn't all there is to believing, and neither is being able to explain it. Even if people can't explain something - like seeing a ghost or being healed - once they have experienced it, they believe it,----though they might have spend their whole life saying it was nonsense. Which means that people who say something is impossible have probably just never experienced it." - page 48

In the end, I'm sending this to Alice because I think it's more up her alley than it is up mine. Plus I want to have someone to discuss it with eventually. Even if I have to refresh my memory of it.

Final Take: 3.5/5

Thanks to the publisher for an ARC copy of the book.

Group Review: The Night Circus

Summary: The circus arrives without warning. No announcements precede it. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not. Within the black-and-white striped canvas tents is an utterly unique experience full of breathtaking amazements. It is called Le Cirque des Rêves, and it is only open at night. 

But behind the scenes, a fierce competition is underway—a duel between two young magicians, Celia and Marco, who have been trained since childhood expressly for this purpose by their mercurial instructors. Unbeknownst to them, this is a game in which only one can be left standing, and the circus is but the stage for a remarkable battle of imagination and will. Despite themselves, however, Celia and Marco tumble headfirst into love—a deep, magical love that makes the lights flicker and the room grow warm whenever they so much as brush hands.

True love or not, the game must play out, and the fates of everyone involved, from the cast of extraordinary circus per­formers to the patrons, hang in the balance, suspended as precariously as the daring acrobats overhead.

Written in rich, seductive prose, this spell-casting novel is a feast for the senses and the heart. ~product description

Alice's Review:  This novel is visually stunning.  From the dust jacket art to the embossed cover, it’s perfect.  What thrills me is the beauty is carried through the novel in words.  Erin Morgenstern is amazing; simply amazing.   From the first page, she drew me into a world of black & white and vivid color.  If I closed my eyes, I was there.  I wanted to be there.  Oh, how I wished the circus were real.  Everything about this book is magical.  Everything.

From the moment I heard about this novel, I was intrigued.  Between the circus setting and the love story, I knew The Night Circus would be pure magic.  And oh, there are so many things that make this novel magical.  I’m not even sure where to begin. Should it be the characters or the concept or the beauty of words Ms. Morgenstern enchants us with?  This novel has it all.  Mystery, betrayal, love, hope.

It had so many morsels of goodness too.  By the time I was done, I had so many flags sticking out of the pages it looked more like a college textbook than a novel.   It touched my heart, my soul.  Not only was I transported to a world I wish existed beyond Ms. Morgenstern’s imagination, but also I was inspired.   

I love when she writes “There’s emotion…It almost contradicts itself. It’s as if there is love and loss at the same time, together in a kind of beautiful pain.”

My favorite chapter in this novel is called Movement. It is when Celia meets Herr Friedrick Thiessen, the clockmaker. Although Celia’s heart belongs to another, there is something so wonderful in reading how their friendship began.  How there is mutual respect and admiration between them.  He was one of the few people Celia trusts.  I love how Friedrick  says, “Because I do not wish to know. I prefer to remain unenlightened, to better appreciate the dark.”

And finally I love how Marco builds Celia a ship. “Only the ship is made of books, its sails thousands of overlapping pages, and the sea it floats upon in dark black ink.”

Perfect.  Now go read it.  Trust us.

Final Take: 5/5

Jenn's Review:  I was mildly interested in this book when it came out, even though it is outside my normal comfort genres.  The buzz was good and it sounded like an interesting premise.  However, without this challenge, I may never have picked it up, and that would have been a tragedy.

I find myself for a loss of words, and that in itself is a rarity.  There aren't enough words to describe the wonder that is The Night Circus.  It's stunning.  The novels I adore are the ones that keep me from becoming a writer; I could never be this imaginative or this creative... Erin Morgenstern makes all my ideas mundane.  Her writing ebbs and flows and eddies and swirls... but in something more viscous than water... perhaps molasses.  It was gooey, but never heavy, enveloping and delicious.

The premise, the characters, the setting, all fabulous and brought to life by Ms. Morgenstern's languid style.  What I found most interesting, though was the way the chronology of the story jumps between the present, 1902, and the past.  It takes real talent to make time shifts work without being confusing.  Ms. Morgenstern gives the reader glimpses of what is to be and then the story of how it came to be ~and it's done perfectly.  I was so entranced in the story that the glimpses of where the story was headed, though intriguing, didn't consume me with questions they just lit the path.  Only once did  I draw an inference from a flash-forward, and I was completely wrong; I stopped analyzing and let Ms. Morgenstern spin her story.  That's another wondrous achievement, for since I've become a book blogger I often find I read more critically.  Ms. Morgenstern allowed me to read like a reader, to just be consumed be the pages.

This is not just making my top reads of 2012 list, but one of my top reads ever.  It is one of those books I will recommend to strangers in book stores, because I just can't help sharing.

Final Take:  5/5


Julie's Review:  Spellbound, enchanting, mystical and wondrous. I can't think of better words to describe Erin Morgenstern's debut novel The Night Circus. This book had a ton of buzz around it and now that I have read that final page, I can understand why. It is just so beautiful and magical. I don't usually like to draw comparisons to Harry Potter and JK Rowling but this book while not the same gave me the same feeling that I had while reading HP. I felt as if I was transported to another world. A world where I wanted to be and wish existed.

What I loved about Ms. Morgenstern's writing was that the love story was secondary to everything else that was going on in the book. At least it was to me. I was more in love withe the circus than I was with Celia and Marco. Now that's not saying that I didn't thoroughly enjoy that part of the book because I did, but I loved that it wasn't the focus of the entire novel. By the time it happened, I felt that it was natural and meant to unfold the way it did. All the secondary characters are vivid, mysterious and delightful. There is no character that is flat in this novel. Perhaps the biggest character is the circus itself. It is alive and vibrant; the center of the novel. She is also the master of not revealing all of her cards until the perfect time and she does this several times during the book. I wasn't sure how she was going to wrap everything up but she did so perfectly. There were no strings left untied.

I loved Celia. I loved her essence, her talent and her heart. She was easy to like and root for throughout the book. You also knew that she was heavily manipulated by her father and waited for her to break the strings that tied her to him. Marco was a wonderfully complex and mysterious character.

I was totally enraptured by this book. If I go on any longer, I would spoil plot points that are best left to the reader to explore themselves. I loved the book jacket for the hardcover. It is intricate, ornate and captures the novel. I don't normally "feel" the cover of the book but something my fingers to that circus tent and what a joy it was to discover that there was more to it than meets the eye.

Go read this book! You will be taken somewhere that you will want to never forget and will want to revisit many times.

Final Take: 5/5


Already read The Night Circus?  Join our discussion of this fabulous novel here on Goodreads.

Alice's Review: Speak Softly, She Can Hear

Summary: Blurbed by Wally Lamb as "a sexy and suspenseful psychological thriller," Lewis's debut opens with shy, overweight New York City schoolgirl Carole Mason heading to a Vermont cabin, where she intends to lose her virginity to handsome but venal Eddie Lindbaeck. Soon after she does, Eddie's friend Rita shows up for a threesome. When a bout of rough sex leaves Rita dead, Eddie convinces the drunken Carole that she broke Rita's neck. Carole's best friend, Naomi, arrives at the cabin, and the three of them dump Rita's body in a snowdrift, swearing to never reveal what has happened. The reader knows (if Carole doesn't) that Eddie and Naomi will use this secret to make her life a living hell. Eddie demands that Carole give him stolen presents, extorts money from her and seduces her mother. Carole responds by leaving college and starting a new life as a waitress in Manhattan. Eddie finds her, and she runs again, and again, winding up in Vermont not far from where they buried Rita years before. Eddie and Naomi turn up and cause more trouble until a final confrontation settles the matter once and for all. There aren't many surprises, but this is well-written and gripping enough that readers will stay up late to see whether beleaguered, tortured Carole can free herself from the despicable Eddie. ~amazon.com

Review: Speak Softly, She Can Hear is one of those novels that is an unexpected surprise.  I have a fondness for novels about girlfriends and sisters.  When I purchased this novel last year, I was intrigued by the tale of two friends, a pact to lose their virginity and a handsome and fatally charming stranger.  What I received was a story of one woman's resiliency. 

Carole was the average girl.  She felt she wasn't anything special, plain, slightly overweight, normal when she would rather be anything but.  Actually, that's not entirely true.  One of Carole's characteristics I really like was her confidence in herself yet that confidence didn't communicate with her classmates.  Sadly, I think she was the odd girl in class.  Nothing really wrong with her, yet the perfect target for bullies and snobby girls.  I think her desire to be perfect was her biggest downfall.  With each page, I felt more compassion for Carole.  She was thrown into a situation by the one person she felt was her friend yet Naomi was just a troubled young girl. 

I was extremely impressed with Ms. Lewis.  This story was a relatively simple.  One girl, one villain, one secret. It was intriguing, a page turner.  I turned every single page because I needed to know how Carole would escape under the weight of guilt she felt over Rita's death and under Eddie's thumb.  She was a survivor, a fighter. A runner but she did what she had to for self preservation.

What drives me crazy about novels like this is that if only Carole has told the truth, none of this would happen.  Then again, there wouldn't be a novel if she had.  What I'm getting at is people are so afraid of the truth.  In reality it is the lies and deception that harm us.

This novel is a must read.  As a debut for Ms. Lewis, it is stellar.  I'm looking forward to what else she brings us.

Final Take: 4/5

Alice's Review: The Double Bind

Summary:  Readers will be startled to learn early on that the heroine of this engrossing puzzle, 26-year-old Laurel Estabrook, was born in West Egg. Wait a minute, wasn't West Egg where Jay Gatsby lived? Laurel works in a Burlington, Vt., homeless shelter and is trying to overcome mental and physical scars incurred from a brutal assault some six years earlier. After being given a portfolio of photographs taken by a recently deceased resident of the shelter, Bobbie Crocker, she becomes obsessed with questions surrounding what appears to be a picture of herself shot on the day of her attack. Laurel's already fragile mental state begins to unravel as she follows Bobbie's life from his rich-kid childhood on Long Island to homelessness in Vermont. The Gatsby references form the basis of the mystery, compelling readers to try to imagine how this fictional backdrop relates to the novel's "reality." It's a high-wire act for bestseller Bohjalian (Midwives), and while the climactic explanation may be a letdown for some, he generally pulls off a tricky and intriguing premise. -Publishers Weekly

Review: This is the kind of novel I would never pick up myself, even with stellar reviews and recommendations from my fellow Girls Just Reading cohorts. In fact, if it wasn’t part of the reading challenge I am involved in with Julie, I still wouldn’t have read this novel. I can tell you right now that would have been a, quoting Vivian from Pretty Woman, “big mistake, huge mistake”.

This novel was a real page turner for me. I loved Laurel. I loved how she overcame the most horrific thing that can happen to anyone: being attacked, almost raped and killed while bicycling through the woods in Vermont. If it wasn’t for other cyclists, she wouldn’t have survived. After the attack, she moved on with her life. She finished college, she started working at a homeless shelter, she dated. I loved how strong she was. With everything she went through, she learned to rely on herself.

When Bobbie Crocker, one of the shelter charges dies suddenly, Laurel is given the task of cataloging the photographs he had with him. And here is where the mystery begins. Through these photographs, Laurel begins to unravel the truth about who Bobbie Crocker was, where he came from, who his family was. Imagine my surprise when Mr. Bohjalian incorporated The Great Gatsby into this novel, making Jay Gatsby, Daisy Buchanan, and others real characters instead of fictional classics.

The Double Bind totally blew my mind. Seriously. It was quick moving and kept me on the edge of my seat. It was a real page turner. I was as invested in finding the truth about Bobbie Crocker as Laurel was. The closer she came to the truth, the more addicted I became to words on a page. I had to do that thing where I fight with myself because all I want to do is flip to the final pages and satisfy my curiosity. I’m really glad I didn’t because the final three pages rocked. I did not see the final twist in the novel coming at all. I was so shocked the first thing I did was text Julie, “Holy Beep!!!”

If you have read this novel already, it’s worth a revisit and if you haven’t, then you need to go pick it up soon. And be prepared to have your mind blown.

Final Take: 5/5