A Good Man is Hard to Find
Author: Flannery O'Connor
Narrator: Marguerite Gavin 
Publication Date: 1953
Publisher: Blackstone Audio
Audio Sample
[Goodreads|Audible]

Blurb(GR): This book of short stories revealed O'Connor as one of the most original and provocative writers to emerge from the South. Her apocalyptic vision of life is expressed through grotesque, often comic situations in which the principal character faces a problem of salvation.

Review:

I enjoy all kinds of writing.  I like the simple, breezy writing that’s entertaining and takes very little effort to understand.  I like the dense, loaded writing that takes weeks of thought and discussion to fully unpack.  The remarkable thing about the writing of Flannery O’Connor is that it somehow seems to encompass that entire spectrum. 

Her writing is without a doubt easy to digest, but I would never in a million years call it simple.  Reading her prose feels less like reading and more like having her thoughts and imagery mainlined into my brain with no translation necessary.  And yet, she also packs a massive punch of history and depth into her stories – a depth of meaning that, for me, sometimes didn’t become fully apparent until I’d thought about these stories (and mostly about these characters) for days.  She has this incredible, consummate control over her words that I’ve rarely (if ever) seen.  She manages to be succinct, yet descriptive; bare, yet three-dimensional; meaningful in a fraction of the words it would take a lesser writer.  Her characters are so three-dimensional it’s like they spring up in your head, fully alive. 

And oh boy, does she write some reprehensible characters.  Never before has an author so quickly succeeded in making me not only hate her characters, but anticipate their downfall with a sort of sadistic glee.  Her characters are good, upstanding country people who feel reassured by their habits and place in the world.  And it’s oh so easy to sit on high and judge them for their willful ignorance – to feel holier, more worldly.  Meanwhile, they’re feeling holier than everyone else in their community – set apart.  But by the end, Flannery O’Connor shows you (more like punches you in the face with the fact) that the joke’s actually on you and her characters both.  The world of Flannery O’Connor is a brutal, violent place where no one is ever safe or set apart – especially not her readers and ESPECIALLY not her characters.

One of my favorite stories in this collection is Good Country People, about an upstanding southern mother and her thirty year old, “crippled” daughter who holds a Ph.D in philosophy but who still lives at home and is viewed as a child due to her condition:

“Nothing is perfect.  This was one of Mrs. Hopewell’s favorite sayings.  Another was:  that is life!  And still another, the most important, was: well, other people have their opinions too.  She would make these statements, usually at the table, in a tone of gentle insistence as if no one held them but her, and the large hulking Joy, whose constant outrage had obliterated every expression from her face, would stare just a little to the side of her, her eyes icy blue, with the look of someone who had achieved blindness by an act of will and means to keep it.”

With that tiny paragraph, she says more about their relationship than I could ever say in any summary.  The story follows Joy, (who has rechristened herself “Hulga” in an act of rebellion) as she decides to condescend to have a fling with a simple, travelling bible salesman, gets more than she bargained for, and stumbles over her own true core beliefs in the process.  My other favorites were A Good Man is Hard to Find, A Stroke of Good Fortune, A Circle in the Fire, and The Displaced Person.  (A couple of these are available for free online so I've linked to them here.)

Narrator Marguerite Gavin is excellent as always.  She nails all of the different Southern accents...and tackles more N-bombs than I'm guessing she's ever said in her entire life.  I know there's been some claim that these stories are racist, but I would wholeheartedly disagree.  Rather, these stories are about racism and about racist characters - one never gets the sense that Flannery O'Connor holds these beliefs herself or is complicit.

Perfect Musical Pairing
Tammy Wynette – Count Your Blessings (Instead of Sheep)

This book is the muddy green of a baptismal river and the rusty brown of old blood…It’s the starched white of new handkerchiefs and the tattered yellow of a family bible…and it’s soundtrack is Tammy Wynette.

Ever After (The Hollows, #11)
Author: Kim Harrison
Publication Date: 1/22/13
Publisher: Harper Voyager

[Goodreads|Amazon]

Blurb(GR): The ever after, the demonic realm that parallels the human world, is shrinking. If it disappears completely, so does all magic. It's up to witch-turned-daywalking-demon Rachel Morgan to avert catastrophe and keep life from changing... for the worse.

While saving the world is important, it isn't Rachel's only motivation. There's also the small fact that she caused the ley line to rip in the first place, setting off a chain reaction of unfortunate events. That little mistake has made her life forfeit unless she can fix it. It's also made her more than a few enemies, including the most powerful demon in the ever after—a terrifying entity who eats souls and now has an insatiable appetite for her. He's already kidnapped her friend and goddaughter to lure her out, and if Rachel doesn't give herself up soon, they'll die.

But Rachel has more than a few impressive and frightening skills of her own, and she isn't going to hand over her soul and her life without one hell of a fight. She's also got a surprise: elven tycoon Trent Kalamack. With this unlikely ally beside her—a prospect both thrilling and unnerving—she's going to return to the ever after, kick some demon butt, rescue her loved ones... and prevent an apocalypse before it's too late. Or, at least that's the plan...

Review:

The Hollows are back…and so am I!  (I hope.)  What better way to kick off my reviewing dust than to write about a series I’ve loved for almost a decade?  Even though I was mostly disappointed last January by the slow-moving rehash of old events that was A Perfect Blood, I knew that this author wouldn’t hold still for long.  This series, which now encompasses eleven books and will end at book thirteen (Thanks Megan!) never ceases to be inventive and surprising.

This book sees Rachel & Co. moving forward once again.  Trouble is afoot in the ever after as Ceri and baby Lucy are kidnapped in the opening chapters and Rachel’s ley line suddenly starts draining the ever after at an alarming rate.  The demons find it more convenient to blame Rachel, even though they all know that lab-created demon monstrosity Ku’Sox (aka Cute Socks) is to blame.  In an effort to save the day for everyone once again, Rachel finds herself working more closely with Trent and the elves than she ever has before.

This is the installment that the Rachel/Trent fans have been waiting for.  Harrison has been flirting with the idea of them as a couple for quite a while, and in this book I felt like she finally jumped off that cliff.  I’m still not sure if I will be able to buy into their relationship as a long term thing.  Harrison has certainly laid a lot of ground work over the past books, but a huge part of me will probably never be able to stop seeing Trent as the spoiled, arrogant rich pretty boy he was in the first book.  (He also made a comment at the end of this book that really turned me off.  It's pretty spoilery but I'll discuss in the comments if anyone's interested.) 

However, it’s refreshing to look back and realize just how much he (and Al and Rachel and Ivy and well…everyone) has changed.  This series never stagnates for me because Harrison lets her characters grow.  After reading this book, I now feel like while A Perfect Blood may have been slow and tedious to read; it was ultimately a necessary step in the series.  Rachel is more at home with her demon identity than ever, and it’s exciting to see her finally accept and use her powers to their fullest extent, without endless angst about the consequences.  Harrison grows her characters slowly but surely – in short, realistically.  Perhaps that means that one or two of these books has been more like a “transition” book but I think the end result is a much more fulfilling, believable story.  I have faith that she'll make me believe in Trent by book thirteen.

(As an aside – Harrison’s short story, Trouble on Reserve, available for free with download of the Sony Reader App – went a long way toward convincing me of Trent’s worthiness and feelings for Rachel.)

As an extra today, I’d like to pay homage to one of my favorite posts of Flannery’s by listing “50 things very nearly guaranteed to happen” in a Hollows book.  Like Flannery, I write these very much in good humor as a super-fan of Kim Harrison and her Hollows books.  Yes, there is a certain formula to these books but what impresses me the most is how much Harrison frequently tosses that formula out the window.

Attachments
Author: Rainbow Rowell
Publication Date: 4/14/11
Publisher: Dutton Adult
[Goodreads|Amazon]

Blurb(GR): Beth and Jennifer know their company monitors their office e-mail. But the women still spend all day sending each other messages, gossiping about their coworkers at the newspaper and baring their personal lives like an open book. Jennifer tells Beth everything she can't seem to tell her husband about her anxieties over starting a family. And Beth tells Jennifer everything, period.

When Lincoln applied to be an Internet security officer, he hardly imagined he'd be sifting through other people's inboxes like some sort of electronic Peeping Tom. Lincoln is supposed to turn people in for misusing company e-mail, but he can't quite bring himself to crack down on Beth and Jennifer. He can't help but be entertained-and captivated- by their stories.

But by the time Lincoln realizes he's falling for Beth, it's way too late for him to ever introduce himself. What would he say to her? "Hi, I'm the guy who reads your e-mail, and also, I love you." After a series of close encounters and missed connections, Lincoln decides it's time to muster the courage to follow his heart . . . even if he can't see exactly where it's leading him.

Written with whip-smart precision and charm, Attachments is a strikingly clever and deeply romantic debut about falling in love with the person who makes you feel like the best version of yourself. Even if it's someone you've never met.

Review:

My favorite thing about this book is that Rainbow Rowell took so many of the “chick lit” hallmarks – a down on luck main character who’s living at home, a crappy job, a bad break-up, a love from afar, a makeover, a new apartment, a feisty old lady friend (with a basset hound!), a wedding, and a baby – and thought…yeah, I could cast a dude in that lead role.  And it worked! 

This is the one and only chick-lit novel I’ve ever read that featured a man as the lead character, and I have to say that Rowell really pulled it off.  It probably doesn’t hurt that she has an impressive ability to craft nerd girl versions of the superhunks.  In Eleanor & Park, she gave us a new wave listening, comic book reading, eyeliner wearing introvert who has a thing for the awkward ladies – so, pretty much my dream guy in high school.  Here, she gives us Lincoln – an intellectual homebody who is a gentleman, hates bars and casual relationships, loves Dungeons and Dragons and computers but also somehow manages to be sort of cool – so, pretty much my dream guy right now.  In fact, I may actually be married to a version of this guy.  Clearly, Rainbow Rowell knows what makes a nerd girl’s heart go pitter-pat, is what I am saying.

However, when I look at my overall love for this novel, Lincoln and his goofy cuteness are really just the cherry on top of everything else.  Through Lincoln, we are given the friendship between Beth and Jennifer, two writers at the newspaper office he’s tasked with monitoring for email violations.  And their friendship is really what charmed me the most.  Throughout the work day, they exchange emails filled with random comments, inside jokes, painful revelations, and tough love.  They encapsulate everything wonderful and good about female best-friendship.  Reading their very familiar conversations made me so thankful for every best friend that I’ve had in my lifetime.

Rowell again lost me during the mushy romance parts (which happen at the end in this novel).  Although I was really rooting for the romance, it all happened a bit too quickly and neatly to be believable for me.  But, I think that for most romance-lovers, this sweet book will be a home run.

Perfect Musical Pairing
Frank Sinatra – The Way You Look Tonight

This book is that mushy romantic tune that everyone and her sister has as the first dance at her wedding (it was the first dance at mine!).  It’s replayed over and over again, but everybody just smiles and sheds a tear because it is so timeless, genuine, and classic.  Maybe we’re all familiar with the themes and outcomes, but still…this book is a pleasure to read.

3.5/5 Stars

I'm sure I'm not the only one who's happened to glance at her list of books to be reviewed after a few busy months and suddenly realized that said list is now in the dreaded DOUBLE DIGITS.  In an effort to play a bit of catch-up, I am taking a leaf out of Flannery's book and writing a batch of mini-reviews.  These are YA, adult, old, new, not-yet-released...basically it's a mixed bag here.  The one thing uniting them all is that I really wanted to write something about them, even though I've been short on time.  So hopefully you all can forgive this Reader's Digest collection of my reviews for today!

Jackaroo (Kingdom, #1)
Author: Cynthia Voigt
Publication Date: 8/26/86
Publisher: Collins
[GR | Amazon]

Noelle mailed me the second book in this series last year for my birthday and then challenged me to actually get off my butt and read it this month for She Made Me Do It.  And then, she also sent me the description for this book – the first in the series – by email like a juicy little lure.  A description which contains mention of a feisty innkeeper’s daughter who’s independent and strong and doesn’t want to get married and who stumbles across a disguise for the legendary Robin Hood type figure Jackaroo and decides to start dressing up in his clothes.  Noelle definitely knows how to get me interested.  Needless to say, I finished this in a very short amount of time and stayed up way later than I should have in the finishing.  This is classic female hero driven fantasy at its best, and I would absolutely recommend it to fans of Tamora Pierce or Maria V. Snyder.

I loved that Cynthia Voigt took inspiration from the middle ages, but didn’t romanticize the middle ages.  Gwyn’s life is brutally hard, and the struggles of the people around her are dire.  I loved that Gwyn saw how impotent she was to change everything, but still felt compelled to try.  Her actions as Jackaroo are sometimes harsh (the phrase “vigilante justice” comes to mind) but so is her world.  The only part of this story that I didn’t really love was the ending.  Yes, it’s what I wanted and it was very satisfying.  However, I really wish that Gwyn had gotten there by choice.  It’s lucky for her that she randomly fell into a marriage with the man who was perfect for her all along, but it would have been much more fulfilling for me if she had actually chosen that relationship on her own. 

3.5/5 Stars

Eleanor & Park
Author: Rainbow Rowell
Publication Date: 2/26/13
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
[GR | Amazon]

This was my blackout read and it served its purpose incredibly well.  I was utterly absorbed by this story – much more than I ever expected to be.  This book reminded me that I am a closet romantic and I really do enjoy romance when it’s done well.  Even when prickly Eleanor and quiet Park were saying some pretty cheesy things to each other, my cringe level stayed surprisingly low.  But then, Rowell does such a wonderful job of bucking the typical YA romance roles.  Eleanor is overweight, dresses in ill-fitting thrift store clothes, has a thorny personality, and has to deal with poverty and an extremely bad home life.  Park is an outcast both at home and with his classmates.  He’s quiet and small; he wears black and listens to new wave.  He’s the lone Asian kid in a WASP community. 

When these two slowly forged a connection – through nonverbal sharing of comic books and music at first, and then eventually through…you know, actual talking – I bought it.  This book also reminded me vividly of how horrible it can be to be a child, completely beholden to someone else for your shelter, food, and security – and not always someone with your best interests at heart.  I didn’t connect quite as well with the middle of the book, when it got super romancey with the declarations and whatnot but I thought the ending was pretty great.  It was just resolved enough and it felt realistic.  I will definitely be looking for Attachments by this same author, as I hear that it’s even better.

3.5/5 Stars

Sorta Like a Rock Star
Author: Matthew Quick
Publication Date: 5/1/10
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
[GR | Amazon]

Have you ever wondered what would happen if Pollyanna had a baby with Benji and that baby grew up to be a quirky urban YA novel with lots of weird slang?  Well, wonder no more, for here lies your answer.  Amber Appleton is an irrepressibly optimistic teenage girl who travels through her town spreading hope and cheer wherever she goes.  Nothing can get her down for long – even the fact that she’s living in a school bus with her alcoholic mom and it’s the middle of winter.  She seems to thrive on being selfless and generous – on kindling hope in others.  In short, she’s exactly the opposite of how I would be in that situation. 

But what happens when Amber’s already rough life is rocked by a huge tragedy?  What happens when the ambassador of hope loses the ability to help everyone who’s been counting on her?  Well, if you’ve seen either Pollyanna or Benji, then you will probably know the answer to that question (minus that whole subplot in Benji with the kidnapping scheme).  What elevated this book a bit for me was the style of the writing.  There’s some weird slang in this book, and it is very distracting to begin with but it became more and more endearing the more I read.  Truth?  Truth.  Amber has a kind of merry band of misfit boys, she loves to talk to the big JC (aka Jesus H. Roosevelt Christ, for all the Outlander fans), she regularly debates an ancient pillar of negativity, and she runs a Motown chorus for recent Korean immigrants.  Where this book felt formulaic and predictable in its story, it felt fresh and creative in its style.  I think this would make a great movie.  It even has the perfect Hollywood ending.

3.5/5 Stars

Deathless
Author: Catherynne M. Valente
Publication Date: 3/29/11
Publisher: Tor Books
[GR | Amazon]

Undoubtedly this is one of the most brilliant things I’ve read this year.  I’m coming to realize that that statement will probably apply to just about every Catherynne Valente I read.  One of the major reasons that I didn’t review this upon finishing it was that I just had no idea how I was going to possibly say anything coherent about something so over the top amazing.  HOW?  How do I explain that this is one of the most seamless, meaningful unions of fantasy and reality that I’ve ever read?  Not only does she bring Stalinist Russia to life, she populates it with legendary fairy tale characters, magic and myth.  In a time of revolution – in a time when new ideas are embraced and the old are burned – she gives us the stories that are so ingrained in the soil and the sky and the blood of the people that they can’t ever truly disappear. 

I had never read about Koschei the Deathless, or Ivan or Marya  Morevna before, but from what I understand (mostly from reading Wikipedia articles – not gonna lie) she turns this story on its ear.  She takes a story featuring the archetypal captured girl (innocent and helpless), the cruel captor (evil and selfish), and the rescuing hero (stalwart and brave), and turns it into something completely different.  What if the girl, through blood and battle, became a formidable woman?  What if she didn’t want to be rescued?  What if the captor were the only man who could truly match her?  I won’t forget this story for a very, very long time.

4.5/5 Stars

And here’s a song, because I just can't help myself on this one:
Dmitri Shostakovich - Symphony No. 7, "Leningrad"

Necromancing the Stone (Necromancer, #2)
Author: Lish McBride
Publication Date: 9/12/12
Publisher: Henry Holt & Company
[GR | Amazon]

This one is going to be super short because I just don’t have much to say.  I never do about this series, even though I love it.  These books are completely enjoyable and fun and they make me smile.  I love that Sam, the “sensitive beta-male” isn’t afraid to let his alpha girlfriend be a powerful leader, even at the expense of their relationship.  I love that he’s willing to step aside and respect her decisions and give her time to work out her own life.  Sam is like that sweet, crunchy granola guy who I’m sure we’ve all met a few times in our lives – he’s unassuming and kind, easy to talk to, and he just wants to get along.  In this book, he has to take a bit more decisive action in his life, but he finds a way to do it that’s true to his character and I really appreciated that.  He also becomes somewhat of a badass (in a crunchy granola sort of way) which is pretty satisfying to witness.  This book also had me cackling like a mad woman.  Lish McBride’s humor is easy and effortless and often reminds me of me and my friends just sitting around making random jokes.  Which is probably why it completely works on me.

Oh, and here’s a song for this one too:
Peter, Bjorn, and John - May Seem Macabre

Heart of Steel (Iron Seas, #2)
Author: Meljean Brook
Publication Date: 11/1/11
Publisher: Penguin
[Goodreads|Amazon]

Blurb(GR): The Iron Duke introduced the gritty, alluring adventure of the Iron Seas, where nanotech fuses with Victorian sensibilities—and steam.

As the mercenary captain of Lady Corsair, Yasmeen has learned to keep her heart as cold as steel, her only loyalty bound to her ship and her crew. So when a man who once tried to seize her airship returns from the dead, Yasmeen will be damned if she gives him another opportunity to take control.

Treasure hunter Archimedes Fox isn't interested in Lady Corsair—he wants her coldhearted captain and the valuable da Vinci sketch she stole from him. To reclaim it, Archimedes is determined to seduce the stubborn woman who once tossed him to a ravenous pack of zombies, but she's no easy conquest.

When da Vinci's sketch attracts a dangerous amount of attention, Yasmeen and Archimedes journey to Horde-occupied Morocco—and straight into their enemy's hands. But as they fight to save themselves and a city on the brink of rebellion, the greatest peril Yasmeen faces is from the man who seeks to melt her icy heart.

Review:

Last week, Noelle recommended three books to me based on my love of a song, my love of old-school girl hero fantasy, and lastly, based on my need for a mindless, no regrets sort of read.  Naturally, I jumped all over that last one.  I was promised “humor, action and adventure, some swoon for good measure and oh so much fun” with this book and I was not disappointed.  Yes, this is in fact a sequel and no, I have not read the first book.  I may have missed a few things here and there about the “rebellion” and Da Vinci and giant emotion-dampening towers and blah blah blah.

Listen, you can put away your lovingly decoupaged review notes journal right now, because keeping track of the details is not what this book is about.  This book is about fun and romance and cheesy, CHEESY lines and happily ever after.  It’s also about a nanobot-engineered badass female hero/airship Captain and her secret fictional crush who COMES TO LIFE.  Yep.  And not only that, but it turns out that he’s a hero in his own right, a feminist, and he wants nothing more than to fall in love with her.

This book has what I’d say roughly about 95% of romance novels out there* do not have: namely, love interests who are on equal footing.  They support each other, respect each other, and don’t try to parent each other (ugh, nothing annoys me more than that in a romance novel).  On the one hand, I am ecstatic to find that here, in a very traditional romance.  Previously I think I’ve only come across a pairing this balanced in fantasy (in The Queen’s Thief series or The Chronicles of Lumatere for example).  On the other hand, this all just reminds me of that Chris Rock bit about people** taking credit for things they’re just supposed to do anyway.  Your love interest is supposed to be supportive and respectful of you!  Your love interest isn’t supposed to treat you like a child and patronize you at every opportunity!  I wish this type of relationship were so much the rule that I didn’t even feel compelled to discuss it here.  But, here we are.

However, this IS a very traditional romance.  These two don’t have too many stumbling blocks or challenges, and one gets the feeling that they will of course be riding off into the sunset (on an airship, naturally) in the end.  This relationship, while remarkable in the equality of its lovers, didn’t pique my interest in any way.  I guess I just like my romances to be a bit more prickly and difficult.  So I can’t say that I’ll really remember this read in a year’s time, but hey – that was also advertised to me in the recommendation so I guess you can consider me one satisfied customer.

And despite the large number of cheesy lines, there were a few lovely ones:

“…I am not crew, but I would like to stand behind you.  Not above, not below.  To back you up, should you ever need it.”

Perfect Musical Pairing
Ed Sheeran – Kiss Me

I am choosing this song, number one, because these two take waaaaaay too long to kiss, and they basically equate kissing with falling in love in a way that completely reminds me of the lyrics here.  And number two, because this song is very sweet in a way that kind of makes me cringe if I listen to it too many times.  I can only take so many of these disco chicken reads per year, but I’m glad that I spent this year’s allotment on this one.

*Believe me, I have read a TON of romances.  My second pregnancy was basically like a 9 month haze of breeches, bodices, drawers, and corsets.  
**And yes, I know that bit isn't really about "people" in general, but I am staying well away from that can of worms.

3.5/5 Stars

Arcadia
Author: Tom Stoppard
Publication Date: 1993
Publisher: Faber & Faber
[Goodreads|Amazon]

Blurb(GR): Arcadia takes us back and forth between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, ranging over the nature of truth and time, the difference between the Classical and the Romantic temperament, and the disruptive influence of sex on our orbits in life. Focusing on the mysteries—romantic, scientific, literary—that engage the minds and hearts of characters whose passions and lives intersect across scientific planes and centuries, it is “Stoppard’s richest, most ravishing comedy to date, a play of wit, intellect, language, brio and . . . emotion. It’s like a dream of levitation: you’re instantaneously aloft, soaring, banking, doing loop-the-loops and then, when you think you’re about to plummet to earth, swooping to a gentle touchdown of not easily described sweetness and sorrow . . . Exhilarating” (Vincent Canby, The New York Times).

Review:

This weekend I was looking at my almost seven year old daughter and marveling at how quickly she’s grown up.  I thought: she’s still so young and she’s still so new.  But then I thought: no, she’s not.  Not really.  The atoms and molecules that make up her body are actually billions of years old.  Inside, she carries pieces of what are now distant stars.  She carries pieces of the original humans.  She carries pieces of me.  She carries pieces of her children.  And yet, there has never been and there will never be her exact configuration of all of these pieces.  She will only exist for a fraction of the blink of an eye in the history of the universe.  She’s eternal, and she’s so terribly finite.

And I guess that is the main thing that blazed out at me from the pages of this play.  I may have missed the point.  I may have missed several points.  But overall, Stoppard made me think a lot about how we are both eternal and momentary.  Nothing is guaranteed.  Maybe there is a formula which could take into account the exact position and direction of every atom at a single moment and predict the future.  But there will always be an element of the unpredictable.  There will always be a theorem too long to transcribe or a letter gone astray or a candle left burning.  You might die on the eve of your seventeenth birthday.  You might live out decades of solitude and regret.  You only get this brief lifetime to make new discoveries and fail spectacularly and learn to waltz.  Our lives are one long chain of entropy trade-offs until we finally have nothing left to trade and become dust and ash.  But then again, we live on: in memories, however false; in our children; in the very soil.  Even things that we think are lost irrevocably have a tendency to turn up again (and again and again – if only we had the perspective to see it happening).

“We shed as we pick up, like travelers who must carry everything in their arms, and what we let fall will be picked up by those behind. The procession is very long and life is very short. We die on the march. But there is nothing outside the march so nothing can be lost to it. The missing plays of Sophocles will turn up piece by piece, or be written again in another language. Ancient cures for diseases will reveal themselves once more. Mathematical discoveries glimpsed and lost to view will have their time again.”

These are just a small fraction of the thoughts which were awakened to vivid clarity in me by this deceptively short, two act play.  Stoppard weaves together two generations with history, coincidence, and conjecture.   In the past, young student Thomasina and her tutor Septimus discuss geometry, thermodynamics, and carnal embraces during an eventful period at Sidley Park Manor.  In the future, “gutsy” academic Bernard tries (and mostly fails) to decipher the past and stir up some scandal about Lord Byron, while the more level-headed Hannah plays the voice of reason.  The two generations bleed into and out of each other.  Into this circular timeline Stoppard flawlessly integrates Fermat’s last theorem, fractal geometry, Newtonian physics, chaos theory, botany, adultery, and fatal monkey bites. 

I know that all sounds monumentally intellectual but please don’t be scared away.  This play is above all, witty, entertaining, and profoundly meaningful.

Perfect Musical Pairing
Chopin - Waltz Op. 64 No. 2 
Bonus (Flannery's pick!): Brad Mehldau - Exit Music (For a Film)

After reading this play I now have two more things to add to my bucket list:
1) Learn to Waltz
2) See Arcadia performed on stage.

5/5 Stars

Reviews:

Many of my friends have urged me to try out C.K. Kelly Martin over the past year, and it just so happened that I ended up reading two of her books in succession this summer – two very different books, as it turns out.  I liked one of them a good deal and the other one…not so much.  So today, I thought I’d pull out the old Sandwich Method ™ and review them both in one post. 

So.  Firstly, for the delicious bread part of the sandwich (I’m thinking it’s Great Harvest white cheddar and garlic):  Come See About Me really stands out amongst its YA brethren.  Which may or may not be because it’s actually an adult novel.  Yeah, okay…maybe it’s not quite appropriate for the younger side of YA, but I would easily recommend this to anyone 16 and older.  The protagonist is in her early twenties and is experiencing debilitating grief for the first time.  She’s a young person trying to learn how to cope with loss, school, parents, and relationships.  It reads like a YA.  It walks like a YA.  It quacks like a YA.  The only way that it doesn’t quite fit the YA mold (particularly in America) is that it contains a few sex scenes. 

Let’s talk about the sex scenes because they were – seriously – my favorite part of the book.  (Cue the studio audience track going Oooooooooh.)  No, no, not in that way.  (Okay, a little bit in that way.)  The sex scenes in this book are some of the most honest and healthy portrayals of sex I’ve ever read.  The  sex here is messy and awkward.  It’s fun.  It’s a stress-reliever.  It’s healthy.  It’s casual, but not callous.  And the lovers somehow manage to do it without being perfect the one forever and ever for the rest of eternity soul mates.  All of which is depressingly unheard of in our stories about young people.  I love the relationship between Leah and Liam – two very flawed characters who don’t have a perfect relationship but still find some small measure of solace with each other.

I also really love the way that C.K. Kelly Martin writes.  Her prose is very straightforward and stripped down in a way that reminds me of Sara Zarr.  It’s the kind of writing that tends to gut me about 90% more efficiently than flowery prose ever will.  However (and here’s where we start to bleed into the filling part of the sandwich – I’m thinking it starts off with mayonnaise, blergh) that just never happened for me.  I never connected emotionally with this book.  I think this just might be one of those times when a book and I simply don’t fit.  I couldn’t relate to Leah and her complete, debilitating breakdown.  No part of this story resonated with me.  My own grief stayed silent and cushioned and safe in all the corners where I like to stash it away.  Maybe that’s because I am not really a breakdown kind of person.  I am more of a recovering shove-it-all-down-and-soldier-on type of person.  Where the matter of fact voice of Holly from Holier Than Thou nearly ripped me in half, Leah’s story did almost nothing for me (more on this later).

And now we come to the part of this review where I’ve (hopefully) wedged my negative thoughts between two slices of deliciousness.  Yesterday.  I have very little praise for this book.  I felt turned off almost immediately by this girl, who is a tall blonde piece of gorgeousness with a past and a special power she doesn’t understand and whose biggest source of angst (besides this past/power combo) is the annoying way that every boy in school wants to date her.  I wish I had a loaf of Great Harvest white cheddar garlic bread for every time I’ve read that set-up in a YA novel.  

The beginning is practically all telling with almost no dialogue or action – like the main character is quickly summarizing her own life.  Then he told me all about something or other.  Then I walked to school.  Later that week I had a sandwich.  Then I talked to some more people. It’s set in the eighties, but everything feels incredibly superficial.  There are here and there references to things like new wave and pay phones but it never feels immersive.  It feels like fakey window dressing for a flimsy, half-constructed place.   

The sci-fi elements are introduced gradually to begin with, which is really what kept me reading – even as I was bored, I still wanted to find out what was really going on.  But then at around 60%, the main character bizarrely decides (or rather, insists) that she needs to see a hypnotherapist – one that she randomly selects from the phone book – to uncover her latent memories.  And it works.  And then it turns out that what she’s been suppressing is a 20 page long, dry, encyclopedic history of her entire world – a world that seems to check every single box of the “derivative futuristic sci-fi” checklist.  I wouldn’t recommend this for sci-fi fans.  Or people who hate infodumps.  I'm not sure what the filling of this sandwich is, but it’s dry, boring, and forgettable.

The only positive for me is that the romance is rather angst-free.  There’s no unexplained love at first sight, and no tortuous “I want you but I can’t have you…” moments.  Unfortunately, this book – unlike Come See About Me – contains the standard YA super long make-out scenes that the main characters seem only too willing to stop abruptly with no joy.  If the survival of the human species depended on the teenagers of YA, we’d all be doomed.

Anyway, enough about that.  Let’s get back to the bread.  Come See About Me is one of the best self-published books I’ve ever read.  Admittedly, I haven’t read very many but I’m pretty surprised that this book wasn’t picked up by someone.  My friend Kelly from Stacked also compared Holier Than Thou to Come See About Me, saying (about Holier Than Thou):

“This would be a neat book to pair with CK Kelly Martin's COME SEE ABOUT ME since they tackle grief and figuring out what lies ahead for those who are young but not teenagers. I didn't think Buzo's book was as strong, but it was still enjoyable.”

I completely agree (well, except that I preferred Buzo's book).  I have this theory that those of us who related strongly to Holier Than Thou won’t connect with Come See About Me and vice-versa.  I’m mailing my copy of this book to Tatiana to see if my theory holds water.  I have three data points so far - if you've read both of those books I'd love to have more!

As for my future with C.K. Kelly Martin, I will definitely be checking out more. I can't recommend Yesterday, but Come See About Me is worth reading.  I love her writing style, and I'm convinced that one of her books will work for me.

Final Verdict:
Come See About Me: 3.5/5 Stars
Yesterday: 2/5 Stars

Serena
Author: Ron Rash
Publication Date: 10/7/08
Publisher: Ecco Press
[Goodreads|Amazon]

Blurb(GR): The year is 1929, and newlyweds George and Serena Pemberton travel from Boston to the North Carolina mountains where they plan to create a timber empire. Although George has already lived in the camp long enough to father an illegitimate child, Serena is new to the mountains--but she soon shows herself to be the equal of any man, overseeing crews, hunting rattle-snakes, even saving her husband's life in the wilderness. Together this lord and lady of the woodlands ruthlessly kill or vanquish all who fall out of favor. Yet when Serena learns that she will never bear a child, she sets out to murder the son George fathered without her. Mother and child begin a struggle for their lives, and when Serena suspects George is protecting his illegitimate family, the Pembertons' intense, passionate marriage starts to unravel as the story moves toward its shocking reckoning.

Rash's masterful balance of violence and beauty yields a riveting novel that, at its core, tells of love both honored and betrayed.

Review:

I promised a review of this book this week and it looks like I just made it!  Phew.  Sunday totally counts, right?  I finished this book quite a while ago but as always, life intervened and there was much internet-free gallivanting and acres of sand between my toes and billions of hours of driving last week, all of which conspired to prevent me from writing this review.  Here’s a picture of where I was:

(That's not even a random photo that I found on the internet - my brother in law took that.  That's what it looks like.  All the time.)  Can you really blame me for procrastinating?  Can you?  

Alright, well all excuses aside I really loved this book.  This was one of Karen’s picks for me a few weeks ago on She Made Me Do It and I’m so glad she put it in front of my eyes because I might never have found it otherwise.  My favorite part of this book, without a doubt, is its titular character Serena. 

Some people, after suffering years of adversity, will become twisted and damaged and unable to function.  Maybe even most people.  And then there are people like Serena – who go up against adversity and seem to become honed by it.  They walk through tragedy and all of their softer layers seem to get sloughed off, leaving them hardened and sharp.  Serena is a girl who survived a deadly flu epidemic, burned her childhood home to the ground, braved the wildernesses of Colorado, found herself a suitably powerful lumber baron to marry, and set her sights on expansion.  Any challenge that nature lays before her feet, she seems ready to take on - whether it be a deadly virus, the rattlesnake population, or the acres of virginal Brazilian rainforest she longs to mow down.  And it isn’t as if she triumphs over nature; she’s far too much a part of it herself to be set apart in that way.  Rather, she is the smartest, deadliest predator in the natural world she inhabits.  In this wild place where several men die each week in the pursuit of lumber, Serena – a young, petite woman – seems the most fit to survive.  She is willing to do whatever is necessary to ensure her place, including murder anyone who gets in her way, or anyone who may or may not get in her way at some unspecified future date.  With her deadly pet eagle on one arm and her dedicated assassin on the other, Serena blazes off the page.

Which is interesting, because the narration never hovers over her thoughts.  Instead, it moves between Pemberton, Serena’s formidable husband, and Rachel, Pemberton’s teenage plaything from his life before Serena – neither of whom are even a tiny bit as interesting as Serena herself.  Rachel’s story really leads the narrative, and she’s no doubt a very sympathetic character, but every time the narration switched over to her I felt a bit bored.  Rachel struggles to survive on her own with an unwanted pregnancy and almost no support from anyone in the town.  She scrimps and works her fingers to the bone and gets by on very little and raises her son well.  It’s all very inspiring…but honestly, I just wanted to get back to Serena murdering people.  That was much more interesting to me.

However, as Serena’s sights turn to Rachel, the mother of what it turns out will be Pemberton's only child, Rachel is forced to become craftier, harder, and more violent…and then I started to like her a great deal more.  I also just love that, by tormenting Rachel, Serena essentially becomes the instrument that hones her into a worthy adversary.  That’s just good old fashioned poetic justice right there.

This book is like a brutal fairy tale set in the 1920's wilderness of America and starring the wicked witch.  I really enjoyed every sinister minute.  And I will never doubt Karen's taste.  It is impeccable!

4/5 Stars

Today, a double dose of Tana French love!

Broken Harbor (Dublin Murder Squad, #4)
Author: Tana French
Publication Date: 7/24/12
Publisher: Penguin
[Goodreads|Amazon]

Blurb: The mesmerizing fourth novel of the Dublin murder squad by New York Times bestselling author Tana French

Mick "Scorcher" Kennedy, the brash cop from Tana French’s bestselling Faithful Place, plays by the book and plays hard. That’s what’s made him the Murder squad’s top detective—and that’s what puts the biggest case of the year into his hands.

On one of the half-built, half-abandoned "luxury" developments that litter Ireland, Patrick Spain and his two young children are dead. His wife, Jenny, is in intensive care.

At first, Scorcher and his rookie partner, Richie, think it’s going to be an easy solve. But too many small things can’t be explained. The half dozen baby monitors, their cameras pointing at holes smashed in the Spains’ walls. The files erased from the Spains’ computer. The story Jenny told her sister about a shadowy intruder who was slipping past all the locks.

And Broken Harbor holds memories for Scorcher. Seeing the case on the news sends his sister Dina off the rails again, and she’s resurrecting something that Scorcher thought he had tightly under control: what happened to their family one summer at Broken Harbor, back when they were children.

With her signature blend of police procedural and psychological thriller, French’s new novel goes full throttle with a heinous crime, creating her most complicated detective character and her best book yet.

Reviews:

After more than 6 months filled with disappointments that came like blows from my favorite authors (Bitterblue, Holier Than Thou, Gone Girl, The Calling), I thought I couldn't count on any of my precious to deliver the goods. Apparently, I can still rely on Tana French to keep up her standards. Broken Harbor is not maybe my favorite novel of hers (I think Faithful Place is), but definitely not weaker than any of her previous works.

All her books are psychological thrillers, not fast-paced, not action-packed, but slow-moving and interrogation-heavy, and Broken Harbor sticks to the same format. At first, I intended to say it was possibly the "most psychological" out of her psychological thrillers, and the most crazy-driven. However, if I look back, all her novels without fail explore the depths of human mind, power of memories and their effect on investigative work, and involve mentally unstable characters.

Like detectives in all previous books in Dublin Murder Squad series, the chief investigator Mick (Scorcher) Kennedy is full of mental baggage of his own (who doesn't have it though?). I have only the vaguest memory of him from Faithful Place, so he is almost a completely new personality to get to know within the framework of this series. Behind Scorcher's unwavering, never-failing, upright cop facade, there is a lot of tension and a lot of self-control that come only to people who have battled through serious life challenges and learned to cope by keeping themselves tightly guarded and emotionally removed. Even though Scorcher has dealt with most of his childhood traumas, he is not free of them. His half-mad, volatile sister is a constant reminder of past dealings with mental illness and a disturber of his peace.

When Scorcher dives into investigation of the assault of the Spain family, French, as you would expect, pushes him into facing the darkest corners of his memory. Gradually learning of the economical and psychological demise of the Spains, Kennedy finds it hard to watch the parallels between the Spains' and his own family's stories. Will he be able to keep his cool and stay objective, not let his personal feelings influence the investigation? You'll just have to read and see.

The murderer in this case is fairly obvious and pretty early in the book, I would say. The pool of suspects is just too small. But the pleasure of unpacking this novel is not exactly in knowing who, but why and how. This is where the leisurely pace and lengthy interrogations work the best - you have an opportunity to get into all the suspects' minds, and what's inside is not pretty - psyches ravaged by strains of financial hardship, instability, uncertainty and, surprise! online bullying (of sorts). How current!

It is interesting that Broken Harbor has a very similar setting as Gone Girl - a well-to-do family loses financial security, and almost immediately loses its integrity, both material and psychological. But where Flynn's characters annoyed me with their, what I perceived, self-entitled whining, French's characters made me live through their difficulties as if they were my own.

I know, this review is kind of vague, I tiptoe around the subject a lot, trying not to spoil the reveals, but just know this - Broken Harbor is a story a picture-perfect family that crumbles under the weight of money problems and a desire to save public face at all cost. And this story is horrifying and sad.

4/5 stars

Tana French is responsible for some of the most all-consuming, vivid characters I’ve ever experienced.  Reading her books, for me, is often like becoming a different person for a little while.  She doesn’t just write characters; she seems to channel them.  More than just about any other writer’s, her characters are like real people to me - and these are not simple, happy people.  These people have pasts.  They have layers and layers of coping mechanisms and justifications and habits that shield them from those pasts.  And most of all, they have gaps in those layers – tiny ones that even they don’t know about – where the outside world can get in.

Mick “Scorcher” Kennedy has his rules and he has control.  Oh sure, his childhood was a bit difficult (is what he’ll tell you), but he got over that.  He put in the work – in therapy, rigid vigilance, and in his precious hard-earned control – and it paid off.  Now he has the best record on the Dublin Murder Squad.  When a high profile case comes in – the murder of two children and their parents in the quiet suburbs – Scorcher is assigned the case.  With his rookie partner-in-training Richie, he dives into it with single-minded determination.

“My solve rate is what it is for two reasons: because I work my arse off, and because I keep control.  Over situations, over witnesses, over suspects, and most of all, over myself.  If you’re good enough at that, you can compensate for just about anything else.  If you’re not, Richie, if you lose control, then it doesn’t matter how much of a genius you are: you might as well go home.  Forget your tie, forget your interrogation technique, forget all the things we’ve talked about over the last couple of weeks.  They’re just symptoms.  Get down to the core of it, and every single thing I’ve said to you boils down to control.”

The case appears simple at first, but of course there’s far more to the story.  I'm not going to give away any details, because I don't want to ruin it for anyone.  Tana French truly got me with this one.  For the first time in one of her books, I genuinely had no idea who the murderer was or what happened on the night of the crime until she wanted me to.  All I want to say is that, in my opinion, this is the most tense, frightening book she’s ever written.  There were a few places where I had to put it down for a while and go hug my family for comfort.  And of course, this is Tana French, so a large part of the reason I was so deeply unsettled was because I could relate at least in part to just about everyone here – the victims, the family, even the murderer.  But most of all, I related to Scorcher Kennedy.  He got under my skin so very much.  

In his mind, the world falls into a rigid order – if you play by the rules and do everything right, then you will survive.  If you don’t, then you will pay the price.  But what if there is no rhyme or reason to this world?  What if horrible, unthinkable things can happen to people who do everything right?  Everything that he believes about himself rests entirely on his flawless control.  So what happens when he loses it?  Who is he then? 

“All those years of endless excruciating therapy sessions, of staying vigilant over every move and word and thought; I had been sure I was mended, all the breaks healed, all the blood washed away.  I knew I had earned my way to safety.  I had believed, beyond any doubt, that that meant I was safe.”

He infuriated me with his self-important lectures to Richie, he disturbed me with his unhealthy relationship with his sister, and he surprised me with how viciously pleased I felt at some of his more callous policing tactics.  His loss of control felt satisfying and thrilling and terrifying and painful and so very real.  This book is another triumph in psychological mystery for Tana French.

Perfect Musical Pairing
Arcade Fire: The Suburbs

Tana French does another brilliant turn in this book by overlaying the entire mystery with the current economic climate in Ireland.  With thousands unemployed and many suburban housing developments that were half-built during the economic boom now sitting abandoned, the suburbs of Ireland have a lot of dark, desperate potential these days.  The setting here immediately made me think of Arcade Fire’s The Suburbs, which is about loss of innocence and the slow but unstoppable crumbling of suburban life.  

5/5 Stars

Whispers Under Ground (Peter Grant #3)
Author: Ben Aaronovitch
Publication Date: 7/31/12
Publisher: Del Rey
[Goodreads|Amazon]

Blurb(GR): A WHOLE NEW REASON TO MIND THE GAP
 
It begins with a dead body at the far end of Baker Street tube station, all that remains of American exchange student James Gallagher—and the victim’s wealthy, politically powerful family is understandably eager to get to the bottom of the gruesome murder. The trouble is, the bottom—if it exists at all—is deeper and more unnatural than anyone suspects . . . except, that is, for London constable and sorcerer’s apprentice Peter Grant. With Inspector Nightingale, the last registered wizard in England, tied up in the hunt for the rogue magician known as “the Faceless Man,” it’s up to Peter to plumb the haunted depths of the oldest, largest, and—as of now—deadliest subway system in the world.

At least he won’t be alone. No, the FBI has sent over a crack agent to help. She’s young, ambitious, beautiful . . . and a born-again Christian apt to view any magic as the work of the devil. Oh yeah--that’s going to go well.

Review:

Oh, these books are just so much fun.  I doubt I will ever stop reading them.  The mysteries confuse me (and are mostly forgettable), I still don’t really understand how the magic works (and neither does the main character), and I really have no idea where this is all going.  But I enjoy every minute of these books and most of all, this character.

What a witty, likable, self-deprecating, fully-realized character Ben Aaronovitch has created here.  I could spend hours just reading his random asides about tedious police procedure or his commentary on the people/geography of London:

“For decades, Notting Hill has been fighting a valiant rearguard action against the rising tide of money creeping in now that Mayfair has given over entirely to the oligarchs.  I could see that whoever had done the conversion on the mews adopted the spirit of the place, because nothing says ‘I’m a part of a vibrant local community’ quite like sticking a bloody great security gate at the entrance to your street.  Guleed, Carey, and I stared through the bars like Victorian children.”

Do you see what I mean?  If you find the above even the least bit funny, then I think you should give these a go.  This one starts off with a mysterious murder-by-potsherd in an underground train station, travels through the frou-frou art world, and ends hilariously in a romp through the London sewers – which was one of the funniest things I’ve read all year. 

Lesley is back in action in this one, which I was very happy about (no more crazy flings with slags, Peter – do you hear me?!!).  There’s some minor advancement in the romance department, but nothing huge.  These books aren’t really about the romance.  I really love the dynamic between Peter and Lesley as partners though:

“’There’s always a secret door,’ I said.  ‘That’s why you always need a thief in your party.’

‘You never said you used to play Dungeons and Dragons,’ Lesley had said, when I explained my reasoning.  I’d been tempted to tell her that I was thirteen at the time, and anyway it was Call of Cthulthu, but I’ve learned from bitter experience that such remarks generally only make things worse.”

There’s also a new side character in this one, in the shape of an American FBI agent.  Now, I admit that I was more than a bit excited when she was first introduced.  If Peter’s going to have crazy flings with slags, they can at least be American slags.  My mind filled with dreamy visions of Peter waxing poetic about how sexy the American accent is…how gorgeous American women all are…how strong, courageous, and noble….  Yeah, my imagination may or may not have run away with me on that one, but in my defense I’m like two shades away from being a desperate housewife (those two shades being wealth and plastic surgery).

So imagine my disappointment when Ms. American FBI turned out to be an uptight, trigger-happy religious nut.  Look, Peter, I know how we are over here.  I know that that particular shoe fits more times than it doesn’t…but it still hurts, okay?  The truth can hurt.  *sob* Would it have killed you to at least comment on the accent?  You gotta admit that it’s sexy…all those hard r’s.  Rrrrr. 

I could be wrong but I think that maybe this series is heading in the direction of assembling a magical team of characters who will be featured in all the books.  If that’s the case, I am very excited!  I love magical crime-fighting ensemble casts.  I should also mention that this entire story takes place over the Christmas holidays and features blissfully cold weather and snow storms.  I truly can’t think of a better read to escape from the stress and heat of this summer.

Perfect Musical Pairing
En Vogue – Giving Him Something He Can Feel

Dear Peter,

I challenge you to watch this video and not fall immediately in lust with America.  We’re not all uptight over here.  Also, I saw these ladies strut their stuff a few years ago and they’ve still got it.  Which I think is pretty solid evidence that American women maintain their allure well into their thirties and forties.  Just sayin’.

4/5 Stars