The Sugar Queen by Sarah Addison Allen

Sarah Addison Allen takes chick lit and mixes it with a pinch of magic and a good dollop of whimsy to give us her second novel, The Sugar Queen. Josey Cirrini is 27 years old, unmarried, living with her mother, and she has a secret. Hidden in her bedroom is a closet filled with all the sweets the sugar queen can’t live without. Mallomars, Little Debbies, candy corn, cookies. She secretly munches on these delights as she waits for the highlight of her day — the arrival of Adam, the hot ex-ski bum who now delivers mail.

One day she opens the door to her secret stash and is startled to find Della Lee, a rough-around-the-edges waitress, who has decided to crash in Josey’s closet indefinitely, hiding from problems of her own. Over time, Della Lee encourages Josey to expand her horizons and literally “get a life” outside of her closet and house.

Allen’s book, Garden Spells, (reviewed here) was a delightful first effort and The Sugar Queen is just as charming. I love the magic interwoven into each of the books (Josey’s friend Chloe attracts books — they literally show up out of the blue and place themselves where she can’t miss them). I also love the detailed artwork on the covers of each book, and the North Carolina setting (one of Josey’s secret treats are Moravian cookies!).  An easy, fun read that is highly recommended.

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Persepolis: the Story of a Childhood by Marjane Satrapi

With hopes that it doesn’t reflect poorly on my intelligence, I must admit that I always have loved graphic novels (also known as comic books by certain cretins who don’t understand the art form). Persepolis certainly falls within the description of a graphic novel and is the story of Marjane Satrapi as she grew up during the Islamic Revolution and the Iran-Iraq war when she was a child in Tehran. Satrapi’s story begins in 1980 when she was ten years old and continues until she leaves Iran at age fourteen with Persepolis 2: The Story of a Return picking up her tale. I have only had the opportunity to read Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood and this is an informative and entertaining read with stark, honest drawings to accompany the text.

Satrapi takes her reader through a world filled with everyday people and their everyday concerns living during an exceptional period of Iran’s history. Her grandmother tells her how they were so poor during the reign of Reza Shah Pahlavi that she would pretend to cook so that the neighbors wouldn’t notice their poverty. Satrapi deals with her feelings on the unfairness of social castes when she tells the story of their maid, Mehri, who falls in love with the neighbor’s son and pretends to be Satrapi’s sister. When the neighbor’s son finds out that Mehri is the maid and not the daughter, he leaves her. A chapter on “Heroes” tells of Siamak Jari and Mohsen Shakiba, Communists who were imprisoned and tortured before finally being released and the passionate feelings that Satrapi and her family endured as these men told their own stories. And all the while, the young Satrapi expresses her feelings of injustice, fear, intense love of her family, and her hatred of oppressive regimes as she struggles to be a child then a teenager in country torn first by war then by religious extremism.

Persepolis is a powerful little book that packs a forceful punch, putting a human face on Iranians and their deep love of country and family without sacrificing the truth of governmental and mob brutality against people. This is a very well rounded story of growing up and living in Iran and I would suggest anyone who is interested in Iranian culture to put aside their graphic novel prejudices and read Persepolis.

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Priest by Ken Bruen

Oh, wow, what do you say about Ken Bruen?  Well, my Wild Things, you know the Book Dragon will find something! Priest is the first novel I’ve read by Bruen, and I must say I was hooked on his Irish pop-poetry grab-you-by-the-eyeballs-and-don’t-let-go writing style from page one. Priest is fifth in the Jack Taylor series, but it stands alone beautifully dark as the devil’s soul. (A quick side note: although I did read the sequel to Priest, Cross, I have not had an opportunity to read The Guards or any of the other titles in this series.)

Jack Taylor is a man beset by demons and an internal wrath that few can truly appreciate when we are first introduced to him in the madhouse.  Slowly he comes back to himself and is released into the world where he is thrown into the confrontational arms of his guardian angel, a Ban Garda by the name of Ridge, with whom Taylor shares a love/hate relationship.  Ridge informs him of the decapitation of a priest in a Galway confessional and this noir mystery is off and running with Jack nurturing his rage while hunting both a stalker and a priest killer.

Bruen makes you feel the need to feed the alcoholic beast and the horror of a fury buried deep with no physical outlet.  He takes you deep inside Taylor’s mind and doesn’t let you go until the end when you finally feel you can breathe again.  What a ride!  I finished it in one sitting.

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The Girls Who Went Away: The Hidden History of Women Who Surrendered Children for Adoption in the Decades Before Roe v. Wade by Ann Fessler

If you have preconceived notions of adoption and the young birth mothers forced to relinquish their children during the post World War II years in America, you’ll not have them when you finish The Girls Who Went Away.  This book grew from an audio and video installation project that Ann Fessler began in order to interview women who surrendered their children for adoption.  An adoptee herself, Ms. Fessler begins and ends her book with her own successful search for her mother, which she chronicles with painful honesty and clarity.  Each section is devoted to a different aspect of being the invisible birth mother: “Breaking the Silence” / “Good Girls v. Bad Girls” / “Discovery and Shame” / “The Family’s Fears” / “Going Away” / “Birth and Surrender” / “The Aftermath” / “Search and Reunion” / “Talking and Listening” and within each section are the stories of two different birth mothers.  Over and over, these women speak of the anguish of parting with their newborn infants and the purgatory of living in society’s imposed silence of their ordeal.  Each birth mother expresses in her own way her rage, terror, and feelings of abandonment by her family and society in addition to the intense love she experiences for the child she is forced to give away.

 

Some of these women find peace, others are still angry, and others reunite with their lost children, but all of them will live in your heart long after you put this book down.  The Girls Who Went Away is so terrifying because the comfortable lies we have told ourselves over the years are shattered by nineteen women and their courageous stories.

 

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The Hearts of Horses by Molly Gloss

It’s 1917 in the waning years of the romantic old west, when farmers and ranchers still used horses for work and transportation and automobiles and tractors were only just becoming commonplace.  19 year old Martha Lessen arrives in Elwha County in eastern Oregon looking for work breaking horses for families whose sons have left to fight the first World War in Europe.  Soon she’s living with George and Louise Bliss and “riding a circle” around Elwha County using her own style of horse whispering to break horses for different families.  Along the way, the shy tomboy starts to feel like part of the community and we learn about the joys and sorrows faced by the folks of Elwha County during the war years.  I’m a horse lover so I ate up the details about the horses, their different personalities and Martha’s ways of training them.  Her budding romance with a ranch hand on a neighboring ranch was also charming.  For me, the book was uneven, satisfying in parts and dragging a bit in others but still recommended.

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Duma Key by Stephen King

Before I begin, I must unequivocally state that I’M YOUR NUMBER ONE FAN, MR. KING — yeah, that’s right, I was reading Stephen King novels while some of you were still struggling to comprehend the plot developments of Goodnight Moon, so no matter what I write next, just remember I’M YOUR HARDCORE NUMBER ONE FAN, MR. KING, and with that said, I’ll move to Duma Key.  Most of Stephen King’s Number One Fans already know that our hero Edgar Freemantle was in a horrible construction accident that severed his arm, damaged his brain, and destroyed his marriage.  On the plus side, Edgar happens to be filthy rich and can afford to get away from his demons by renting a beach house on a little isle called Duma Key where he discovers his hitherto unknown artistic talent.  Enter weirdness through the paint canvas as the ether world and a host of memorable characters begin to play their roles.  However (ah, but for the inevitable “but”) something was missing for me.

 Mr. King’s earlier novels were written with the stacatto beat of heavy metal but now move with the fluidity of a symphony, and though I love the way he’s always seeking new ways to work with words, Duma Key was a little too neat.  I never felt the tenseness or the terror in Duma Key that I loved in his earlier novels, ‘Salem’s Lot, for example, which I still read with one eye gauging the shadows of my room.  Everyone in Duma Key knows something strange is happening, and they’re all just a little too agreeable to help curb the evil.  (Well, gosh darn, Willie, I reckon there’s a ghost out there.  Well, by golly, Bob, let’s go out and kick some spectral tushy; you get the flashlight and I’ll grab the thermos!)  A good contrast would be ‘Salem’s Lot, which was so horrific because no one in the town wanted to admit there was something wicked in their way; they were all too busy hiding under their beds.  I found Duma Key to be very well written, albeit a little too long for my tastes, but like all of Stephen King’s novels, great comfort food for the brain!

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Girls of Riyadh by Rajaa Alsanea

The girls of Riyadh are much like girls anywhere else in the world.  They go to school, shop, wear makeup and designer clothes, and spend a lot of time talking and thinking about boys.  The difference is, these girls can’t drive a car, vote, or even go out of the house alone.  Originally published in Arabic in 2005, The Girls of Riyadh was immediately banned in Saudi Arabia (although black market copies were around and it is now apparently legally available).  In 2007 it became available in English.  It follows the story of four girlfriends from Riyadh named Sadeem, Michelle, Gamrah and Lamees.  The book follows each girl by way of emails which are sent each Friday to members of an online list-serv by the unnamed narrator.  The details of the oppressive culture are interesting, especially the marriage traditions, though the writing is somewhat pedestrian and even overwrought in places, such as when Sadeem and Firas reunite after his engagement to a more “suitable” woman.   “The two lovers lost the last of their reservations … now fate, with the tender love of a father who cannot bear to see his children in torment, gripped their hands and led each to the other.”  The author, Rajaa Alsanea is herself a 20-something girl from Riyadh now studying endodontics in Chicago.  Recommended.

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Lady Macbeth by Susan Fraser King

Many of us are familiar with the treacherous and somewhat maniacal Lady Macbeth portrayed by Shakespeare in his classic play.  Forget all that!  This book is a novel based on the scanty historical details of the wife of Macbeth, whose true name is even a mystery.  When I say scanty, I really mean it. There is only one line in one historical document that refers to Lady Macbeth.  The rest of this story was pieced together by King, a writer and student of Medieval history, based on recent research into the historical Macbeth and his queen. 

Gruadh (GROO-ath) is a teenager when her noble father, Bodhe, marries her off to Gilcomgan, a middle aged lord.  Bodhe and Gruadh are descended from one of Scotland’s most royal lines.  Soon Gruadh is pregnant, but Gilcomgan is murdered by Macbeth in retaliation for the murder of Macbeth’s father by Gilcomgan.  Macbeth immediately claims Gruadh as his wife in the tradition of the the Scottish warriors.

Resentful at first, Gruadh gives birth to a son, Lulach, and gradually begins to see that Macbeth is a good, if ambitious, man whose destiny it is to become King of Scots.  Gruadh has queenly ambitions of her own and together they plot to overthrow Duncan, the inept King who is bringing Scotland to ruin.

You might be put off by this book if you assume it’s just another historical romance, but it is much more.  Although there is a bit of romance, the focus is on intrigue, politics, daily life in Medieval Scotland, mysticism and the history of the Scottish warrior society.  Highly recommended.

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No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy

I’m not sure if “Loved It” is strong enough to convey how I felt about this book.  WOW!!  Booklove turned me on to McCarthy’s The Road some time ago, and I really enjoyed that book, but this, THIS, is the kind of book that I love to read. As with all of McCarthy’s novels, it is dark and violent, but it is not gratuitous violence, every event has meaning and leads to the next incident. McCarthy constructs a tale of a drug run gone bad and the ramifications of one decision made by one individual to take the money and run. The language is simple and precise and McCarthy wastes not a word, reminding me in some sections of Hemingway’s short story “Hills Like White Elephants,” delivering dialogue so meticulous you always know the speaker and their intent. The last quarter of the book took me completely by surprise, both in plot development and technique, but it did not disappoint. Knowing that the film version of this novel rests in the competent hands of Joel and Ethan Coen, I can’t wait to see the movie. The voices of McCarthy’s characters will resonate in your head long after you finish No Country for Old Men.

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What I Was by Meg Rosoff

This coming of age story is a quick read, and in fact Meg Rosoff  has previously published in the young adult category.  This one straddles the line between young adult and adult fiction.  Nearing 100 years old, Hilary looks back upon his life and the time he spent in the 1960’s  at St. Oswald’s, a private school for boys with a “long history and low standards.”  Having managed to get himself expelled from several other schools, his parents half-heartedly hope that this time Hilary will make something of himself.

Gloomy Victorian buildings, vile food (pink sausages, green liver, brown stew, cabbage boiled to stinking transparency), and an undistinguished faculty do not bode well for Hilary’s success in turning his life around.  Then one day, while engaging in a fitness run along the beach with his classmates, Hilary falls behind and comes upon a cottage on the beach inhabited by a boy named Finn.  What follows is something of a love story, though not so much physical love as romantic.  Hilary becomes infatuated with Finn, devising ways to slip away from school and spend time with him, desperately trying to gain the affection of the elusive Finn, who lives a solitary Robinson Crusoe style life alone on the nearly inaccessible beach.  A touching story of first love with a surprising twist at the end. 

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