Early Review: The World Without You
28 May 2012 Leave a Comment
in New Release Reviews Tags: fiction, death, sisters, family drama, war, grieving, divorce, siblings, Iraq
The World Without You by Joshua Henkin (pub date 6/19/12)
A moving story about a dysfunctional family and the good that can come out of a terrible tragedy.
The Frankel family have gathered once again at their summer home for the Fourth of July. Three generations under the same roof. But they’re not there to have a cookout or watch fireworks. Instead they’ve come to mark the one-year anniversary of Leo’s death. Leo, the baby of the four Frankel siblings, was a journalist who was kidnapped and killed in Iraq, leaving behind a young widow and a two-year-old son. Now a year later, the family are gathered from far and wide for a memorial service and to mark the Jewish tradition of the unveiling of the gravestone.
Though the story is about a family memorial, its main focus is not on the person who died, but on the people who have to go on living without him. Each member of the Frankel family has his or her own secret or grievance. Noelle is a former party girl who reinvented herself as an Orthodox Jew and moved to Israel. She came back to the US with her husband and four sons to pay respect to Leo’s memory, but she finds that her marital issues have followed her all the way from back home. Lily still carries bitterness toward the other members of her family, and is quick to start an argument with her sisters rather than deal with the task at hand. Clarissa is consumed with trying to have a baby in her late 30s, even though she never wanted children before now. And their parents Marilyn and David are trying to face the truth that their 40-year marriage may not survive Leo’s death much longer. Meanwhile, Thisbe, Leo’s widow, has also arrived for the memorial, though she feels more and more like a stranger in the family.
The characterization is what really makes this book enjoyable. Though this is not a long book, Henkin spends a lot of time with each character, letting us know their personal histories, wants and fears, and letting us know how each one of them was affected by Leo’s death. Each character feels dynamic and real, and though Leo is not a character in the story, his presence is always felt throughout the narrative. Soon, I also came to feel as if I had known Leo.
Whatever your feelings about the war in Iraq, The World Without You is a bittersweet story about the families affected by war. It’s about the pain of acceptance and moving on, and the joy in finding friends and family to cling to in sad times. A great book for anyone who’s looking for a dramatic story with well-formed characters.
Early Review: Gone Girl
23 May 2012 1 Comment
in New Release Reviews Tags: crime, disappearance, fiction, kidnapping, marriage, media frenzy, missing wife, murder, sociopath, thriller
Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn (pub date 6/5/12)
“Can you imagine, finally showing your true self to your spouse, your soul mate, and having him not like you? So that’s how the hating first began.”
I’ve always believed that great characters are what make a great story. Making a fictional character seem human is a lot more difficult than it seems. I’ve read plenty of books in which the author spent way too much time on “what happens next” and no time developing the characters. But here is a book with incredibly realistic characters. . . in fact they’re frighteningly real.
It’s a story we’re all familiar with: a beautiful and much-loved woman goes missing, the story goes national, the public begins suspecting the husband. However, Gone Girl takes this storyline and turns it upside down. When Amy Elliott Dunne goes missing on her fifth wedding anniversary, her husband Nick is shocked and terrified. Despite the fact that their marriage had been rocky in recent years, Nick cooperates fully with the police investigation. Amy is controlling and often manipulative, but Nick still wants her back. But then the police discover Amy’s secret diaries, revealing secrets that Nick would rather have kept hidden. Suddenly the “golden couple” doesn’t seem so perfect.
The story twists and turns all throughout the book, keeping you guessing until the very end. Was Amy kidnapped, or did she run away to escape an unhappy marriage? Is the whole thing a hoax? Is Nick capable of murder? Filled with nonstop suspense, Gone Girl is both a thriller and a portrait of a marriage in trouble.
I want to go on but I don’t want to risk giving anything away. I simply loved this book. I can’t say enough how amazingly real the characters are. Nick and Amy are two incredibly dark, screwed-up people. They remind me so much of the couple from House on Haunted Hill (the Vincent Price one, not that remake garbage). The lies, the manipulation, the deviousness on both their parts, it all makes for an enthralling (and at times disturbing) read. And the ending is delightfully subtle, sure to inspire debate in book clubs everywhere. I personally couldn’t stop thinking about it for hours after I had finished the book.
When I say that characters make the story, this is what I mean! Gone Girl has fascinating characters and a tightly woven plot, and is a must-read for fans of suspenseful stories.
Finally ‘Freed’
19 May 2012 Leave a Comment
in New Release Reviews Tags: banned books, BDSM, censorship, erotica, female submission, fiction, male dominance, obscenity
It seems that most of the American public (myself included, *blushes*) just can’t get enough of the Fifty Shades trilogy. From a Saturday Night Live parody to constant speculation about the alleged film adaptation to author EL James’ highly successful book tour, Fifty Shades is continuously in the headlines. Stirring the controvery surrounding the books is the fact that a Florida county banned the books from its public libraries citing its “perceived pornographic nature.” Because Heaven forbid that a book portray a woman enjoying sex. I guess women don’t have sex in Florida. But my mom lives in Florida and I sent her a copy of Fifty Shades for Mothers Day, so take that, rednecks!
Having just finished the third book, Fifty Shades Freed, I can see overall why the trilogy may be considered a little controversial, but in the end I think the books are fun and will do more good than harm. Anything that encourages women to enrich their sexuality and to tell their partners what they want in bed is ok by me…and I know that my own husband has had no complaints about me reading the books ;)
Some have argued that the books are anti-feminist, in that they portray a woman desperate to please her man, trying things she’s uncomfortable with just to keep his interest. Come on, really? I definitely believe in equality between the sexes and all that good stuff, but I don’t think these books are anti-feminist. Ana might be a little bit of a twit at times, but whereas Christian was used to dominating women, Ana is the first woman he’s encountered who dared to push back. After all, she never did sign his sex contract. In her own way, she started to stand up to him and question his demands, and that’s what really got his attention and (more importantly) his respect. I think what the books really show is that a woman can submit in the bedroom and still be her husband’s equal. Personally I think that’s the best of both worlds.
**[SPOILERS]**
While Freed was fun to read and just as kinky as the first two books, it was definitely the weakest of the trilogy. There were too many subplots that got wrapped up way too quickly, and I really did not care for Ana and Christian becoming parents at the end. Like I said in my post about Fifty Shades Darker, I want my smut to be smutty, and settling down and having a brood ruins the fantasy for me. It’s a tidy way to wrap up the story (“happily ever after” and all that jazz), but I think it would be bold and refreshing if just once a literary couple would choose to be childfree. But I digress…
I’d like to close this post by finally sharing some pics from the EL James signing in Philadelphia on May 3. I blew off work and spent the day in the city, and got to meet Ms. James and some pretty interesting people in the process. Two women I spoke to had driven overnight all the way from Ontario. Suddenly my hour train ride didn’t seem so bad. If you follow me on Twitter then you may have already seen these, but if you don’t follow me (@ChicksDigBooks), scroll down and enjoy! Sorry for the not-so-great quality of some of the pics; someone else took my camera and we weren’t allowed to actually pose for photos with Ms. James.
Me just moments before the signing! The lovely Canadians were nice enough to take a picture for me.
She’s here!
We meet at last…
Yup, she signed it “Laters, baby”!
Thanks for reading, everyone, and I’ll see you at the Fifty Shades movie!
Book Review: Seeing Soriah
15 May 2012 1 Comment
in New Release Reviews Tags: art, dead artist, family drama, fiction, mental illness, revenge, secrets, suspense, thriller
Seeing Soriah by Ivan Jenson (Kindle only, pub date 4/25/12)
“All art is dead. It only lives in our imagination, we the living.”
From artist, poet, and novelist Ivan Jenson comes a psychological thriller about revenge and family secrets.
Seeing Soriah is a story about a man haunted by the sins of his father. Jordan is an art dealer who left his life in New York behind to be with his elderly father in Michigan. His father, Harold, is an artist, and Jordan is pooling all his efforts into opening a retrospective exhibit of his father’s art. Shortly before the defining moment in his career, Harold confides in his son that he has been seeing a woman who resembles his dead first wife. Knowing that his father has a history of mental illness, Jordan wonders if his father is experiencing a mental break…until he starts seeing the same woman. This event causes Jordan to dig into his family’s past, and uncover a secret his father has kept hidden for fifty years.
Last summer I reviewed Jenson’s first novel Dead Artist. And while I found that book to be enjoyable, I was much more impressed by this book. Seeing Soriah is suspenseful and disturbing, and a more mature and multi-layered story than Dead Artist. It’s a book about secrets and lies, with a touch of satire thrown in. While the main plot by itself is quite interesting, what I enjoyed even more was the commentary about art and the life of an artist. Toward the end of the book, Jordan and his father disagree about whether an artist’s life is worth more than the art he creates. It’s a compelling question that stayed with me long after I had finished reading the book.
Seeing Soriah is an excellent follow-up to Dead Artist, and a compact but very interesting novel. Great for anyone who’s into indie authors and stories that are a little out of the ordinary.
Book Review: Conjugations of the Verb To Be
10 May 2012 Leave a Comment
in New Release Reviews Tags: fiction, life and death, literary fiction, love, montana, short stories
Conjugations of the Verb To Be by Glen Chamberlain (September 2011)
If you’re looking to feed your mind with some beautiful and intelligent writing, look no further. Here is a collection of short stories about the universal truths that bind us all: living, loving, and dying.
Written by prize-winning author Glen Chamberlain, all of the stories in Conjugations are set in Montana, and most are set in the small town on Buckle. Chamberlain truly transports her readers to this beautiful setting with her stories of hay stacking, horse breeding, and rural farming. Each story is unique in its own way, but together they form this small but powerful book.
In each of the stories in Conjugations, the characters experience a profound moment in their lives. In “The Tracks of Animals,” a woman searches for her missing husband. In “Horse Thieves,” a farm hand finds meaning in her life when she nurses a sick foal back to health. In “A Mother Writes a Letter to Her Son,” a mother tries to reveal a painful secret to her son, but doesn’t know if she can send him the letter. And in the title story, a teacher wonders if she has wasted her life on a thankless career.
My favorite story was the longest one, “Stacking,” in which three generations of women from the same family experience love and death. I found this story interesting because it hints that these women have a destiny they cannot escape, a sort of cycle that must be completed. It’s almost as if they are predetermined to relive the actions of their foremothers. This story felt so real to me that I could almost smell the hay on the family ranch. It’s a beautifully tragic tale. Another remarkable story is the disturbing ”Twin Bridges, Montana,” in which a group of orphans discover a boy frozen beneath a pond. But instead of being frightened, they come to think of him as a playmate, and come up with stories about who he is and where he comes from.
The connecting threads in Conjugations are life, death, and love, and each character experiences these in a different way. This is a unique group of stories about the things that make us human, with beautiful prose that needs to be read slowly to be appreciated. Moving and well written, this book is perfect for anyone who loves great writing. It would also make a great gift for the literary-minded person in your life.
Book Review: Afterwards
06 May 2012 Leave a Comment
in New Release Reviews Tags: arson, crime, england, family, fiction, mother daughter relationship, supernatural, suspense, thriller
Afterwards by Rosamund Lupton (pub date 4/24/12)
“And for a moment he feels my presence. For a second I am a draft on his back, a tingling in his scalp, something touching his thoughts. A mother. A guardian angel. A ghost.”
Imagine being the victim of a terrible incident, and wanting to help uncover the truth about what really happened but being unable to. Not because you are too afraid to speak up, but because no one can see or hear you. For the protagonists in this excellent novel, this is their reality.
Set in England, Afterwards is both a thriller and a story about the power of a mother’s love. Grace is a typical upper middle class wife and mother, whose teenage daughter Jenny and eight-year-old son Adam attend a prestigious private school. On a seemingly ordinary day, Grace is rushing to get her children to school for its annual sports day. Later that day, a fire breaks out in the school, and Jenny is trapped inside the building. In an attempt to save her daughter, Grace runs inside the building and is injured when part of the structure collapses on her.
Grace and Jenny are rescued and rushed to the hospital. Both are in a coma, and it is unsure if either one of them will survive for long. Shortly after arriving at the hospital, both Grace and Jenny find themselves having an out-of-body experience. They are able to see their own bodies, to move around the hospital, and to see and speak to each other. But tragically they are unable to speak to their loved ones, or to the police who are investigating the fire. Grace’s husband and sister-in-law are determined to uncover the truth about who started the fire, and piece by piece, the key players and clues are revealed.
I really enjoyed this inventive and suspenseful novel. Afterwards combines a Law & Order type of story with supernatural elements, creating an engrossing book. The story pulls you in from the first page and keeps you guessing until the very end. The characters feel very real, and Lupton does a great job of depicting the attitudes and social politics of the parents and teachers at the school.
Afterwards is a perfect book for anyone who enjoys thrillers. But it’s also a deeply moving story about the nature of a parent’s love. It’s altogether a compelling and well-crafted book.
Early Review: The Unfinished Work of Elizabeth D
25 Apr 2012 1 Comment
in New Release Reviews Tags: death, depression, diary, fiction, friendship, marriage, motherhood, secrets, sisters, women's relationships
The Unfinished Work of Elizabeth D. by Nichole Bernier (pub date 6/5/12)
“That’s the funny thing about people who don’t fit into a box. They grow to infiltrate everything, and when they suddenly go missing, they are missing everywhere.”
Who knows you the most? Is there anyone in your life who knows all of your secrets, your past, your craziest thoughts? Think about the people in your life closest to you: your spouse/partner, parents, friends. Is there a part of you that none of them knows? For some people, the one who knows them the most is not a person but a journal.
The Unfinished Work of Elizabeth D is about a thirty-something wife and mother named Kate whose best friend Elizabeth died in a plane crash. Several months after Elizabeth’s death, Kate finds out that Elizabeth had willed her a trunk full of old journals, along with explicit instructions that Kate be the one to read them. Though she is at first reluctant to read her friend’s private journals, Kate accepts her new duty out of loyalty to Elizabeth.
Kate takes the journals along on her vacation, and quickly discovers an Elizabeth completely unlike the one she thought she knew. The cheerful, capable Elizabeth was a mere shell, hiding a painful past and crippling depression. Kate struggles to reconcile her own guilt over not recognizing her friend’s suffering, and also deals with constant inquiries from Elizabeth’s widowed husband Dave about what is in the journals. Resentful that the journals were given to Kate and not him, Dave has doubts about what his wife was really doing on the day she died.
I really enjoyed this bittersweet debut novel. Bernier captures all of the joy, angst, and uncertainty that comes with the best friend relationship. And though Elizabeth’s character is dead all throughout the story, she came alive through the journal entries. It takes a great writer to make a dead character seem alive, and Elizabeth is a rich and dynamic character, as is Kate.
I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys stories about women’s relationships, and also to anyone who enjoys real-life human drama. It’s an absorbing and very enjoyable story, and it might make you think about the secrets we all keep, even from our best friend.
‘Darker’ I Go!
23 Apr 2012 1 Comment
in New Release Reviews Tags: BDSM, erotica, female submission, fiction, male dominance, relationships
Since I admit that I enjoyed the first one (probably more than I should have), last week I decided to go ahead and read the second installment of the Fifty Shades trilogy, Fifty Shades Darker. Someone gave me an Amazon gift card for my birthday, so I really had nothing to lose. I wanted to see if the story was worth continuing and also what other crazy hijinks America’s most delightfully perverted couple can get into. So here we go:
**[SPOILERS: They have sex]**
After Ana dumped Christian at the end of the first book, she spends all of the first chapter of the second book feeling sorry for herself and trying to move on with her life. By the end of the second chapter, she and Christian are back together. So much for moving on. Not able to endure the agony of their eight minute breakup, Christian begs Ana to take him back and promises to curb his BDSM-related desires in order to be in a “vanilla” relationship with her.
Even though Christian promises no hardcore stuff, Darker still delivers all kinds of “kinky fuckery,” in which Ana and Christian express their renewed feelings for each other by having sex on a boat, a billiard table, a coffee table, a grand piano, in an elevator, in his childhood bedroom, and I think in a bed. To shake things up, the book goes all Lifetime Movie and throws in a psycho ex-girlfriend and some sexual harassment by Ana’s new boss.
Despite all my common sense telling me I should hate this book, I had the same dumb smile on my face while reading it that I did when I read the first book. For the brutally hot sex scenes, I was willing to forgive the lame dialogue and barely-there plot. I was even willing to overlook the return of the annoying e-mails and the much-hated “inner goddess.” However, some of the dialogue was just so cheesy it was awesome. Among my personal favorites were Christian’s lines “I don’t know whether to worship at your feet or spank the shit out of you,” and “Why, why do you defy me?”
**[REAL SPOILERS]**
One thing that perturbed me about Darker however, aside from the awkward ice cream scene, was Ana and Christian getting engaged. Not because of the fact that they have only known each other for a few weeks, but because it ruins the spirit of the books. I don’t want to read about two people getting married…I am married. These books are about fantasy and about exploring taboo subjects in a fun and safe way, so having Ana and Christian get married is just so…blah. Their tempestuous, sometimes dangerous relationship and Christian’s mysterious persona are what made the first book fun and exciting. But now he’s supposedly cured of his dark impulses, and so they’re engaged and he bought her a ring and a huge house and of course she’s quickly developing a case of Baby Rabies. *sigh* It’s great to want those things in real life, but in a story that’s supposed to be dark and erotic, those things just kill the mood.
Of course I’m not criticizing marriage as an institution (I am married, remember), and I’m certainly not saying that married couples can’t experiment with or enjoy a BDSM lifestyle. I’m just saying that in terms of pure escapism and erotic fantasy, the “happily ever after” has got to go.
Granted, I haven’t yet read the third book in the trilogy, so I don’t know what happens next. But deep down inside I’m hoping just a little bit for Christian to get cold feet, or for another psycho ex to ruin their wedding. Because I don’t want Ana and Christian to be happy. I want them to be tortured and confused. Why? Because they’re not real people! I’m real, and reality is boring. Domestic bliss has no place in this story. I want my smut to be smutty; I don’t want my favorite friends with benefits falling in love and picking out china patterns. So while I am still (ashamedly) eager to read the next and last Fifty Shades book, I’ll be sorely disappointed if it turns out to be five hundred pages of “I love you” and the two of them exchanging innuendos while doing the dishes.
Laters, baby!
Book Review: Nocturnal
17 Apr 2012 Leave a Comment
in New Release Reviews Tags: cults, fiction, horror, monsters, occult, police, san francisco, undergroud
Nocturnal by Scott Sigler (pub date 4/3/12)
“Bryan said what he always said–that killing a man felt awful.”
I feel like I’ve been posting reviews on mostly serious, dramatic books lately. So it’s time to get back to my horror roots and have a little fun! I’ve never read a Scott Sigler novel before, but when I came across the book trailer for Nocturnal on Twitter, I knew I had to read it:
Set in San Francisco, Nocturnal is a book about the battle between monsters and men, and even dares to blur the line between the two. Our protagonist Bryan Clauser is a homicide detective, rough around the edges but still basically a good man. Stuck with the nickname “The Terminator” due to the number of criminals he’s killed, Bryan tends to see right and wrong strictly in black and white. His partner Pookie Chang provides the comedic relief and also serves to keep Bryan grounded.
When Bryan and Pookie begin investigating a series of gruesome murders, Bryan begins to feel as if he’s losing his mind. He starts dreaming about the murders (even as they’re happening), and he begins to wonder if he’s somehow connected to them. Little by little, he and Pookie start uncovering clues to the killings, clues which point to a 200-year-old cult, a strange teenage boy, a vigilante killer, and a legion of monsters living in shadows beneath the city.
With plenty of twists and turns, interesting characters, and a fair share of blood and gore, Nocturnal is an enthralling read for horror fans. Even at almost 600 pages long, the story stays fresh and the writing keeps pulling you back in. It’s definitely not for the squeamish, but still an extremely enjoyable and unique read. Sigler clearly took the time to develop his characters and provide an origin story for his monsters, making them seem even more real.
Overall, Nocturnal is a hard-hitting story for the true horror fan. It’s part crime drama, part creature feature, and altogether a well-written and intelligent book.
Fifty Shades of ‘The Room’
13 Apr 2012 3 Comments
in New Release Reviews Tags: BDSM, erotica, fanfic, female submission, fiction, male dominance, twilight fanfic
Two weeks ago I was in Barnes & Noble, (almost) minding my own business, when I observed a middle-aged woman excitedly approach a store clerk and ask if he had Fifty Shades of Grey in stock. When the clerk explained that it was currently still only available as an e-book, the woman rushed to the front of the store and bought a Nook. It has to be said that what I witnessed was a miracle of modern marketing. Impressed by the fact that this woman was willing to spend over $100 on an e-reader just to read this book rather than wait four days for it to be released in much cheaper paperback, I decided to give in and find out what all the fuss was for. So here goes:
**[NOTE: By now the whole world pretty much knows what the plot is, but if you're not sure, look it up on Amazon or B&N.com. The customer reviews alone are worth reading!]**
I had heard it compared to Twilight before I read it, but it wasn’t until after I started reading Fifty Shades that my friend and fellow book blogger told me that it was actually written as a Twilight fanfic. *sigh* And except for the sex of course (and the fact that Christian Grey is more like Patrick Bateman than Edward Cullen), Fifty Shades is pretty much just like Twilight in terms of characterization: she’s bumbling and awkward, he’s cold and distant, and both are equally annoying. The story is forced at best and the dialogue is atrocious. I rolled my eyes so many times during the first two chapters I thought I would lose a contact lens.
But still, I couldn’t help but notice a certain level of enjoyment that I experienced in reading this book. Every time I tried to tell my husband about how stupid it is, he countered with “Oh yeah, then why are you smiling?” And he was right. As silly as it is, I was enjoying it, and I was looking forward to lunch breaks and coming home from work to read more of it. Sure, the sex is hot, but the rest of it is just ridiculous. So what gives?
Then I realized that perhaps the reason I enjoyed Fifty Shades is because it reminds me of my all-time favorite bad movie The Room. If you’ve never heard of The Room, you need to Netflix it right now! It has to be one of the worst movies ever made, yet I have watched it so many times I have it memorized. I find such exquisite joy in watching this terrible movie that it’s almost criminal. And for me, Fifty Shades has a lot of the same elements as The Room: under developed characters, repetitive and laughable dialogue, sex scenes that come out of nowhere, contradictions, and characters who enter a scene just to leave it again two seconds later. What’s not to love?
I’ll give credit where it’s due: the sex scenes are hot, and it is a remarkable feat that this story started out as a simple online fanfic and achieved so much success in such a short time. But basically, Fifty Shades is just a fun erotic story that perpetuates the cherished but unfortunate myth that the “bad boy” can be changed. “Oh, he told me he doesn’t want a relationship and that he’s had fifteen women before me and that he doesn’t love me, but I can change him!” *sigh* Ana’s inner monologue is just annoying (What 21-year-old says ”holy moses”?!), and all that “inner goddess” and “my sex” (just say vagina!) stuff made me want to scream. But I admit that I enjoyed it for how silly it is, and yeah, ok, I bought the sequel. And I’m sure I’ll have a big dumb grin on my face when I read that too.
Want more Fifty Shades goodness? Check out what my BFF Jenn N. at the Booksellers Without Borders blog had to say about it!
