Goodnight iPad- a Parody for the next generation

Stars: 3/5

Author: Ann Droyd, aka David Milgrim

Subjects: Parody, Technology, bedtime, children, humor, electronics, plugged in, Goodnight Moon

ISBN: 978-0-399-15856-8

Copyright Year: 2011

Other Comments: This child's book is a bedtime story, that is a parody of Margret Wise Brown's "Goodnight Moon". Although it is a cute story for children with rhyming lines and adorable illustrations, it drives home a moral that's important for adults to hear as well. In the story, much to the mother's dismay her family becomes so "plugged in" to their devices, they can no longer get to sleep. So, the mother eradicates her house of the distractions and her family can miraculously sleep once again. We should all take note from this story. I love my gadgets as much as the next person but we should realize that we do need to unplug every once in a while and try not to get so caught up in the gadgets and gizmos; that we lose sight of the important things in our lives. Disconnect and don't get so caught up in the digital world, that we lose sight of the present.

Flash and Bones

Stars:5/5

Author: Kathy Reichs

Subjects: Murder, mystery, NASCAR, Charlotte, Anthropology, Bones, Forensics, Police, FBI, Right-Wing Extremists, cover up, conspiracy, bio hazards, suspense, science, Temperance Brennan, novel

ISBN: 978-1-4391-0241-1

Copyright Year: 2011

Other Comments: Kathy Reichs does it once again! This was an outstanding novel, complete with plot twists and turns that keeps the reader guessing until the very end. We meet up again with the protagonist, forensic anthropologist, Dr. Temperance Brennan, in her hometown of Charlotte, NC just as race week is about to begin. Just as fans are filing in for the NASCAR event a body in unearthed in the landfill adjacent to the speedway. Sure enough, Tempe is called in to complete the autopsy. The discovery then leads to a complex investigation involving multiple bodies, the FBI, a disgraced ex-cop, extremists, and bio hazard scares that all keep the pages turning.

House of Mist

Stars: 1/5
Author: María Louisa Bombal

Subjects: pre-magical realism, mystery, South America, Latin American women, Latin American men, Chile
ISBN: 0374531366
Copyright Year: 2008 (first edition by Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
Other Comments:  I rated this book so low because I felt like this mystery had plot holes and the characters seemed really flat.  They didn't seem to change in any extremely significant way.  Also, the ending didn't seem to fit.  This book deconstructs the romantic fairy tale through Helga and her marriage.  This novel is a precursor to magical realism, so it's interesting in that respect.  I did think the deconstruction of the romantic fairy tale worked as well.

Love, Anger, Madness

Stars: 3/5
Author: Marie Vieux-Chauvet
Subjects: Haiti, military rule, class wars, psychological terror
ISBN: 9780812976922
Copyright Year: 2009
Other Comments: To be completely fair, I only read Anger.  This was a book assigned to me in my global literature class.  I have the translation into English by Rose-Myriam Réjouis and Val Vinokur.  I found this novel truly disturbing but very powerful.  I only rated it a 3 because I was upset with all the unnecessary martyrdom.  Although I understood that anger caused the deaths in the end, I still desperately wanted to save the grandfather, the invalid, and Rose.  Third person omniscient narration gets pretty confusing in the beginning and when the narration switches between characters quickly.  The plot is about a family who suddenly has their land stripped from them by the ruling military regime.  The family each have their own motives for wanting their land back.  Eventually the manipulations of the characters lead to a tragic ending.  This is not a tale for the faint of heart.  There is a great deal of violence.  I did enjoy reading it, however and would recommend it to others.

The Help

Stars: 4.5/5
Author: Kathryn Stockett
Subjects: domestic help, racial tensions, Jim Crow Laws, African American Women, white women, gender roles, writing, publishing, small town, civil rights
ISBN: 978-0425245132
Copyright Year: 2011
Other Comments: The Help was a fantastic book.  I would have given it a perfect 5/5 stars had it not been for some situations that seemed slightly unbelievable.  The Help is about three women, two of which are black women who work as domestic maids and nannies.  The other young lady is a white woman writer.  Eventually all of them come together to do something no one has done before - write about what its like to serve as the help for white families.  During the civil rights movements and the Jim Crow Laws, this was a dangerous idea for all of them.  However, against all odds, they manage to write the book and publish it.  They then begin to watch as the town around them starts to change.  The Help is widely popular right now and a movie has just been produced based on the book.  I would suggest reading the book first and then seeing the movie.  Both are excellent works!

Flabbergasted

Stars: 2.5/5

Author: Ray Blackston

Subjects: Jesus, God, Presbyterians, Church, Singles, Romance, Amazon Basin, Missionary, South Carolina, Ecuador

ISBN: 080073453X

Copyright Year: 2010

Other Comments: I enjoyed Blackston's humor in his novel, Flabbergasted.  I found this perspective on Presbyterian Christians altogether funny, friendly, and quirky.  I am NOT a romance novel fan, but I was happily surprised to figure out this book is indeed contemporary romance.  There was a lot of genuinely good humor.  However, I did find the ending slightly disappointing but I did get the point.  I was not impressed with the subtle inclusion of stereotypes for women and minorities, however.  If it weren't for these blaring realities, I would have rated this book a lot higher.

The Canopy

Stars: 3.5/5

Author: Angela Hunt

Subjects: Amazon, jungle, God, Jesus, prion diseases, FFI, biology, atheism

ISBN: 0849943450

Copyright Year: 2003

Other Comments: This was my first brush with Christian fiction and I was pleasantly surprised.  I was debating on the score of this book - between a 4 or 3.5 out of 5 stars - but I chose 3.5 because it took me a while to really get into the story.  Once I finally did though, I had a hard time putting it down until I was finished.  The story is about a young woman named Alex who has FFI and is searching for the cure with a group of researchers in the Amazon jungle.  She is an atheist with a genius daughter (who is also on the trip) and an ex-husband who could care less about them.  Then there is Michael, a Christian pediatrician practicing at a free clinic in the Amazon.  When a strange patient is carted in for surgery from a spear wound, Michael finds his brain riddled with prions - and yet he seems to suffer none of the effects of the disease.  He then takes this information to Alex and they seek his village for the cure.  This book was full of battles - spiritual, physical, emotional, verbal, etc.  After reading it, I decided I liked the Christian fiction genre and would continue to read more of it.

You Remind Me of Me

Stars: 3/5
Author: Dan Chaon
Subjects: identity, psychology, city and town life, fate and fatalism, middle west, psychological fiction
ISBN: 0345441419
Copyright Year: 2004
Other Comments: Dan Chaon's You Remind Me of Me is about two half brothers.  The first one, Troy, is given up for adoption when his mother, Nora, is 15 years old.  The second one, Jonah, comes along approximately five years later and lives with Nora's son until she commits suicide.  Jonah finally finds Troy and tries open a connection between them based on familial ties.  However, Troy is more concerned about his predicament of potentially losing his child and being put on house arrest for selling drugs to pay attention to the lonely Jonah.  Jonah eventually becomes so desperate he does something drastic.  This story is beautifully written, but extremely depressing.  It truly is psychological fiction.  I felt nothing but pity for Jonah and Troy, wishing, hoping they would find ways to better lives.  Although the novel ends fairly happy, I was still left with a sense of grief.  This story wasn't my favorite thing I've read by Dan Chaon.  I actually had the privilege of meeting him at the college I attend and was excited to find out that he currently lives in Ohio.  He is hilarious in person and I actually preferred his short stories.  He also acknowledges that his occupation is a short story writer in the back of this book.

The Lost Symbol

Stars: 4/5

Author: Dan Brown

Subjects: History, Symbols, Masonic, Washington DC, Robert Langdon, Thriller, Drama, Family, Religion, Spirituality

ISBN: 9780385504225

Copyright Year: 2009

Other Comments:

Out of the previous two books in the series following the protagonist Robert Langdon, The Lost Symbol, is defiantly the weakest of the three. It follows Langdon, on his quest to save one of his best friends, Peter Solomon’s life. Peter is like a father to Robert. He is a prominent and the highest ranking Mason in the Washington DC area. The only way to save the kidnapped man’s life is for him to be thrown headlong into the secretive Masonic world. Decoding the Mason’s most protected secret will be the only way to ensure Peter’s safety, but will Robert a non mason be able to achieve the feat? Only a wild, Dan Brown styled trip around Washington DC, studying the symbology will tell us now.

Kindred

Stars: 4.5/5
Author: Octavia Butler
Subjects: African American women, slaveholders, time travel, slavery, slaves, Los Angeles, southern states, science fiction
ISBN: 0807083690
Copyright Year: 2003
Other Comments: Kindred is an excellent science fiction novel about a young African American woman named Dana.  We are first introduced to Dana in the late 1970s in Los Angeles.  It isn't long, however, before Dana is sucked into the antebellum south during the 1800s.  She goes back in time to save her white male relative, Rufus, from drowning.  This pattern repeats with Rufus getting older and older and Dana getting sucked back in time to save him, only leaving to return to her own time when her own life is threatened.  Each subsequent return becomes more and more dangerous and finally she is forced to extreme measures to save her own life.  This book portrays slavery in all its horror - from the abusive and murdering tactics of slave drivers; to the abusive relationships white males inflicted on white women and African American women; to the destruction of the white and black family; to the unbearable conditions and suffering of the African American slaves.  Octavia Butler makes it clear that the past cannot escape us and also points out how important it is to learn from it and not repeat the same mistakes.  This book was entertaining, horrifying, thrilling, disturbing, uncomfortable, and important.  I would recommend this book to those who enjoy science fiction novels or who have a hard time reading slave narratives. 

Angels and Demons

Stars:5/5

Author: Dan Brown

Subjects:Illuminati, Rome, Vactican, Pope, Secret Societies, Murder, Drama, Physics, Antimatter, Religion vs Science, novel

ISBN: 9870743493468

Copyright Year: 2000

Other Comments:

This is one of the best books I have read in a very long time. The blend of facts and fiction is seamless. Dan Brown weaves a story aboutfictional characters in fictional situations, all while maintaining historical facts and places. The novel is extremely fast paced and intense. It is a riveting, page turner that one can just not put down. The plot takes the protagonist on a journey across the Atlantic, on a crash course to the contrasting world of cutting-edge science and deep-rooted religion. This will ultimately lead to the finale epic confrontation between the two major powers in the Religion vs. Science battle, the Vatican and the “mythical” Illuminati.

The Girls



Stars: 3.5/5
Author: Ladette Randolph
Subjects: dogs, dog sitting, orchid, torture devices, phallic decor
ISBN: 0-299-21510-5 (collection by Ladette Randolph: This is Not the Tropics)
Copyright Year: 2005 (collection)
Other Comments: "The Girls," by Ladette Randolph was first published in Clackamas Literary Review and then again in Randolph's collection of short stories This is Not the Tropics.  The fictional short story is about a young woman named Becca who dogsits for a professor at Pilgrim's College; a certain Professor Blakely.  However, Becca is surprised to find herself surrounded by torture devices and phallic decor.  She ends up also babysitting an orchid.  By the end of everything, she gains an appreciation for Blakely's unique family.  I was irked by all of the phallic symbols and torture devices and got an extremely creepy feeling - especially since it was a young woman dog sitting in an older man's house.  I thought the story was going to go a whole different direction, but Professor Blakely turned out not to be a sexual molester - to my relief.  However, the whole story was odd.  I was especially irked by how accepting Becca was of her surroundings.  Although, in the end, I think what saved this story was the divergence from the expected.  If Professor Blakely had been a sexual molester, I would have hated this story.  Instead, there was a sweet connection between the dogs, Becca, and the orchid.  I read some of the other stories in This is Not the Tropics and I would have to say I enjoyed those more.  Finally, I got the chance to meet Ladette Randolph.  She is a current editor of Ploughshares and has a novel as well as her collection of short stories.  She is such a wonderful and witty woman and I am glad I got the chance to talk with her.

After the Workshop

Stars: 3/5
Author: John McNally
Subjects: Authors, Publishing and Publishers, Iowa City
ISBN: 9781582435602 
Copyright Year: 2010
Other Comments: The main character, Jack Hercules Sheahan, is a broke media escort living in Iowa City, struggling to finish a novel that never seems to be done.  His world is filled with wacky characters such as a goofy pothead neighbor, an insane stalker publicist from New York, crazy writers, and the run-of-the-mill ex girlfriend.  The setting is so dismal and the character's self loathing is so great, I began to hate the setting and the character.  I wasn't satisfied with the ending either, although I understand the point.  Otherwise, this novel is filled with enjoyable haphazard events and humor.

The Sherlockian

Stars: 4.5/5

Author: Graham Moore

Subjects: History, Crime, Sherlock Holmes, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Historical Fiction, Secret Societies, Murder

ISBN: 978-0-446-57259-0

Copyright Year: 2010

Other Comments:

This is a great Historical Fiction novel. Although it is a work of fiction it is steeped in real historical knowledge. It follows the search for the missing diary of Dr. Doyle, by Harold White after the death of a prominent member of the secret society, The Sherlockian, who claims to have found the diary. The only real issue I have with the book is it is a little bit hard to follow. The novel has alternating chapters between two settings: the first in the present and the second in the 1890s-1900s. The point of view switches every chapter from the present to the actual missing diary entries of Dr. Doyle. The plot weaves an intricate web that keeps the reader hanging on until the very end.

The Good Thief

Stars: 2.5/5
Author: Hannah Tinti
Subjects: orphans, New England, United States History 1783-1865
ISBN: 9780385337458
Copyright Year: 2008
Other Comments: I actually had the pleasure of meeting Hannah Tinti at an author reading at Salem College.  She explained this novel was about different types of "monsters" - dwarfs, giants, murderers, the undead, etc. The setting of the novel is New England sometime during 1783-1865.  The novel follows Ren, a young orphan who lost his hand at a young age.  Benjamin Nab whisks him away from the orphanage on a dangerous and dark adventure to make money any way possible - including grave robbing.  In the end, Ren comes face to face with the man who killed his mother.  There were several things about this piece of historical fiction that turned me off.  First was all the violence.  There were bloody scenes of dismemberment and murder all throughout the novel.  Second was the fact that the title wasn't very fitting.  I didn't consider any of the characters "good".  Finally, the ending felt very rushed and abrupt; especially after all the lead up and the short appearance of the main villain.  I usually can handle dark fiction, but this gave me a very disturbed after taste and I am not sure I will be reading anything else by Hannah Tinti.

The Kitchen Daughter

Stars:4/5

Author: Jael McHenry

Subjects: Family, Loss, Death, Asperger's Syndrome, Cooking, Coping, Ghosts

ISBN: 978-1-4391-9169-9

Copyright Year: 2011

Other Comments:

This is a heartfelt story about a young college graduate with an undiagnosed case of Asperger's Syndrome and her attempt to cope in a world filled with grief. The story begins at her parents funeral, the people that sheltered her from all of the problems in her life as well as the world. She did not have a problem or anything wrong with her, she had a "personality" and her own definition of what is normal. The story is about how she copes with the loss and learns how to assimilate into society and her own. Her coping mechanism is cooking. She is an amazing cook, and soon learns her cooking has the power to "call forth the ghost of any dead person whose dish she prepares" (McHenry). This is the way she learns of her past and then learns how to move past this and on with her life. I thought this book was easy to read and touched on some delicate topics very well.