Under This Unbroken Sky

I’ve been picking this book up and putting it  down for a month now. Finally, I decided to read it. After thirty pages, I knew I had found a really good one. Shandi Mitchell has written a deep and heart-rending tale of family, greed, strength, and weakness. Where she pulls this from is beyond me. What I do know is that I could not put this novel down. It is awesome in it’s starkness. Alan Drew, the author of ” Gardens of Water”, would call it harsh. It almost tore my heart out.

Shandi Mitchell starts her austere novel in 1933, in a little town in Alberta, Canada, really a tiny outpost of sorts in this most Northern area of Western Canada. Then the novel moves back and forth in and out of the years, ending in 1939.  This is a novel written in many voices. There are plenty of well established authors out there who wouldn’t even attempt this, but Mitchell not only does it well, she snags into your psyche and quickly reels you into the world she has created; a world filled with coldness and cruelty, madness and bitterness. It is a timeless story of family and a mother’s love. The voices of the children ring true and strong giving substance to their characters and life to their world.

Two families have bled almost entirely into one as the story begins.  Anna and her two children are living in the big house on the property while Maria and her five children are living in the stock shed behind. Maria’s husband, Teodor, has been unfairly dragged off to prison for stealing his own grain. Anna’s  husband is not to be found for now, so there are two women struggling to keep themselves and their children alive.  The homestead is in Anna’s name but Teodor has been working the land and bringing in all the income. All of it.

The story really begins when Teodor arrives home suddenly from prison. He shows up filthy and looking skeletal in the noon sun. No one recognizes him. Not even his children. But Teodor thrives after weeks of working the fields and eating regular, if scant, meals. Then Stefan, Anna’s husband, returns. And the story is cranked up yet another notch.

Teodor is shown as a bitter man who feels betrayed and can never get a break. But he is willing to start over. He works hard. He loves his family. They all begin to feel the weight of the world being slightly lifted from their scrawny shoulders. But even as the author is showing this, I am tensing up, knowing something awful must be coming. And it is.

It’s not often we see a family so torn, lifted up over and over, only to be slammed back down. Even though some of the content is hard to read, I found myself riveted to it like someone watching a train wreck, if you may.

The writing is superb. The characters are brought vividly alive through the voices given them. The descriptions of the landscape, the nature of the animals, the research done to perfection, all make for a novel you will not be able to put down.

Big Books New This Week

FORD COUNTY by John Grisham (stories)

LACUNA by Barbara Kingsolver

KINDRED IN DEATH by J. Robb

NO LESS THAN VICTORY by Jeff Shaara

RAINWATER by Sandra Brown

KNIT THE SEASON by K. Jacobs

ONE SIMPLE ACT by Debbie Macomber

CHRISTMAS BLIZZARD by G. Keillor

A FRIEND OF THE FAMILY

Good cover, good intro. Okay, I’ll give it a try. Lauren Grodstein has written a fast-paced novel with engaging characters and a sense of mystery throughout.

Pete and Elaine Dizinoff and their son Alec, ritually vacation on the Delaware shore with their friends, Iris and Joe Stern and their three children. The story begins with a scene from one of those halcyon summers. So, we see how close the two families are and begin to understand their backgrounds. Bits and pieces of the past slip in and out of the story. Laura is the Stern’s oldest child and we find a terribly disturbing fact of her teenage years.

Grodstein’s character development is solid and sometimes even harsh as she attempts to delve into our minds with snippets from Laura’s past. As a mother and grandmother, there were many times I felt both horrified and troubled by the findings.

To what lengths would you as a parent go to to protect your child? Most of us are never pushed to the limit that Pete is. Thank God. Hormones rage, peer pressure exists, and teenagers are just plain stubborn and unknowing of our parental love.

As I kept turning the pages deep into the night (once even getting up in the middle of the night), I couldn’t help but think of my own teenage years. Yes, I had given my mother more than her share of angst. At the time it was all about me and how I was misunderstood. So, I was able to put myself in Alec’s place in some instances. I think most kids believe they are omnipotent and do not think far out of the box when pushed into a corner. They rebel.

As the story galloped to the finish, I found the last fifty pages riveting. Lauren was able to tie up the loose ends nicely and I was able to finally take a deep breath. At times the story telling is confusing. As the author slips in these snippets of the past, it is easy to become lost for brief moments until you realize where she’s taken you. But, all in all, this is a solid novel with a different twist and characters who resonate.  I truly enjoyed it. I think you will too.

IN A PERFECT WORLD

IN A PERFECT WORLD, by Laura Kasischeke, was calling to me from a table filled with plenty of other  books. It does not have a a bright or even significant cover. But what it had for me was a blurb on the front cover from Katrina Kittle. That was enough to get me interested. I attended Antioch Writers Conference three summers in a row where I met Katrina. She is an accomplished writer herself. I respect her opinion. So, I took a closer look. I’m always looking for something just a little bit different. Something edgy and very well written.  Seeing Laura has published poetry collections is a big plus. I immediately knew the prose would be stellar.

This oh-so-different tale told through the clear voice of Jiselle caught me by surprise and kept delivering right on through. Jiselle is a smart, single never married flight attendant when the story begins. She is being courted by a very handsome and widowed pilot, Mark Dorn. Jiselle has not met Mark’s three children. But she decides to accept his marriage proposal  anyway. Then she meets the brood.

The wedding of Jiselle and Mark does not go well. The honeymoon does not go well.  The outbreak of a flu that is slowly becoming  pandemic seeps into the forefront of this story and becomes the main character. What begins as a fairy tale, begins to look more like a horrible nightmare. If only that was the case.

Laura uses research she has amassed and weaves it through the story giving it authenticity. Motherhood is shown as self-sacrifice as well as unconditional love. Motherhood does not just mean biological motherhood. Being a mother is in the actual act not just the blood-line. Then there is the exploration of global warming. All this is tackled in this breathtaking novel. I just didn’t want to put it down.

These characters are totally alive. They could be your neighbors. There are lessons to be learned here. The story made me think and think.

IN A PERFECT WORLD will go on my table. Not only is the content timely, it is on fire.

Maurice On Books In Naples Daily News

Now you can  find me, a couple times a month, on the Community pages of the Naples Daily News. This is a big step for me. For almost a year now I have been blogging so I can share what I’m reading with friends and fellow workers. I found some customers were finding me online as well. Then my company showcased me and my blog on our  in-store company website. So, my audience has expanded.

My  objective is to write about books that I’ve read and liked. Many, I have truly loved. A family member told me I owe it to my readers to give unfavorable reviews as well as the favorable ones I give.  When I told him I did not read bad books, he looked perplexed.  I don’t waste time reading a book that doesn’t grab me in some way. There are enough paid reviewers out there who get paid to read. They are the people who come up with the unfavorable reviews. I do read books that do not make it to the blog screen. They may be books I think are too frivolous or just not that well written. Let’s face it, every book I pick up isn’t worthy.

I woke up this morning to find my newest review in print and in color. Even my mug shot looks better in color. I hope you will enjoy reading my column as well as my blogs. In the future, I will be writing new reviews for the paper, then adding them to the blog.

I’m still enjoying doing the blog. It allows me to let you know what I’m reading and what I think of it.  Now, with the column, word is spreading quickly. I hope  you will feel free to leave comments. I love the feed back!

Cleopatra’s Daughter

This colorful  historical novel by Michelle Moran is stuffed  with accurate material that packs punch after punch. Coming on the heels of two awesome novels of Egypt, I was wondering how this one would hold up. Well, not to worry, it is another winner.

Long a huge fan of Cleopatra and her Marc Antony, I always look forward to more about them both. When I heard Michele Moran was coming out with this title, I was thrilled. Moran always does her homework. Her approach to research is stellar; you can count on her to tell the truth and pull stuff from seemingly out of nowhere.  Selene, Cleopatra’s daughter, is just that. Her other two children, Alexander and Ptolemy, are more of the same.

After Octavian swept into Egypt and caused the suicide of both Antony and Cleopatra, he captured the children and took them back to Rome to parade them through the streets for all to see: his chattel. You have children in a dangerous and barbarous new strange land, who have lost their entire family, their home, and their kingdom.

Octavian has a sweet sister ,Octavia,  who takes the children into her  home. She was once married to Marc Antony, strangely enough. Antony forsake her for Cleopatra. And yet she is the one we come to love. Livia is Octavian’s cunning and jealous wife. Meaner than a snake. These two women play prominently in the raising of Cleopatra’s children.

Almost immediately, there begins a struggle for the throne. Who will be the heir to Octavian’s seat? This even as we do not see Octavian going anywhere soon.

Selene steps up to the plate and shows herself to be keenly intelligent, beautiful to a fault, charming, and full of spunk. Thankfully, she has been taught well in languages and is a brilliant student of architecture. When her depiction of a temple in Alexandria comes to light, she is quickly chosen to work with the most respected architect of Roman time. I visited the Pantheon in Rome a few years ago with my husband, and I must say after reading Moran’s portrayal of the plans for this magnificent monument, I am even more enthralled with it.

Meanwhile, a secret character signing his name Red Eagle, is terrorizing the aristocracy with his notes left in prominent places about slavery. Who is this person? Who would dare such a feat, risking their life? It has to be someone close to the royal family. Everyone is suspect.

Moran shows with vivid detail and huge insight, how the people of Rome lived in the days of Cleopatra. Not much is left to the imagination. I felt the heat in the summertime on Capri and enjoyed the beauty of the island paradise. The marble and stone of the palaces and royal buildings shone smoothly as they cast their cool, clean lines. The colors of the clothing and the styles of the day come across brightly and realistically.

The politics of the times were mostly brutal and wrought with theatrics and despair. People didn’t expect to live long lives. They mostly lived for the moment. Off with your head was a daily promise in ancient Rome.

The story was so realistic to me that it still pains me that Selene had to leave Alexandria at all. I would have loved to have spent more time in that magical city of light and splendor.

CLEOPATRA’S DAUGHTER  is historical fiction at its best. If you want more of Michele Moran, you can find it in her other two historical fiction novels: NEFERTITI  and  THE HERETIC QUEEN. They are both set in Egypt and you are certain to love them.

Books This Week

Simon & Schuster :

• THE CLINTON TAPES, by T. Branch
• HER FEARFUL SYMMETRY, by A. Niffenegger
• THIS FAMILY OF MINE,  by Victoria Gotti
• TIME OF MY LIFE, by Patrick Swayze

HarperCollins :

• HAVE A LITTLE FAITH, by Mitch Albom

Penguin :

• ROUGH COUNTRY, by John Sanford
• JULIET NAKED, by Nick Hornby

Dreaming in French

Megan McAndrew is the author of this very adult, young adult novel. You will find this story in the adult fiction section in stores. But, I quickly tagged it with the aforementioned hook. The protagonist is fourteen at the onset. Her sister is sixteen. These two precocious young women are the main event ,with walk in and walk out scenes  taking place starring their mother, father and aunt.

Charlotte is a fourteen year old young woman ,living in Paris in the late 1970’s with her family. She seems quite immature at first. She attends a snooty international school which is tres costly, and is where she meets her snooty peers. They are all spoiled brats being raised by celebrities and people with more money than sense. She visits quaint cafes, smoking and drinking and putting up pretenses for all to see. In one scene Charlotte whips out a copy of one of the classics to impress one of the popular guys. She is trying to be like  her sister who is aloof and boring but quite popular.

This story takes you from the rich cityscape of Paris to the cold oatmeal-like landscape of Warsaw. Poland  is still staggering from the war; suffering in it’s old world  haze.  Charlotte’s mother shows a side  that brings the house of cards to it’s knees. Charlotte’s  coming of age ticks like a time bomb.  The story is riddled with sibling rivalry, poor parental regulation and the trials of human nature.

By the time Charlotte and her mother leave Paris, and make a new life in NYC, lives have been uprooted and whole families destroyed. I enjoyed getting a peek into the lifestyle of living in Paris in the 1970’s. So, when they moved the story to NYC, I was a bit bummed out. But, not to fear, there were more trips back to Paris.

The lack of parental guidance caught me off guard. Now I ask myself if parenting is just different in France. I really think Charlotte’s parents were so involved with their own lives that they copped out of good parenting. While I was into the story, I couldn’t help but just think they were simply stupid.   Who in their right minds would sit by while their teen-age daughters were having  sex in their homes. They seem to condone it. Still reeling over this. But all in all, I did like the way the story convened.

I am still thinking about DREAMING IN FRENCH, and it has been a couple weeks since I read it. So, I have to say, McAndrew has done something right with the novel. She is making me think outside the box. It is giving me insight into the way other people think and how they live.

New This Week In Books

Penguin:

• HOTHOUSE ORCHID by Stuard Woods
• HARDBALL by Sara Paretsky

Random House:

• YEAR OF THE FLOOD by Margaret Atwood
• SIXTY FEET, SIX INCHES by R. Jackson
• ECHO IN THE BONE by Diana Gabaldon

Hachette:

• CHANGE IN ALTITUDE by Anita Shreve
• LOVE REVOLUTION by Joyce Meyer

Simon & Schuster:

• PAULA DEEN’S COOKBOOK FOR THE LUNCH-BOX SET by Paula Deen
• JUST AFTER SUNSET by Stephen King in trade paperback
• ARGUING WITH IDIOTS by Glenn Beck
• GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH by Dawkins

HarperCollins:

• AMERICA ON PURPOSE by Ferguson
• BARACK AND MICHELLE by Anderson

Macmillan:

• BRUTAL TELLING by Louise Penny( new B&N recommend)

Dan Brown Does It Again!

THE LOST SYMBOL has been out almost a week now. I hear it sold one million copies the first day. That’s amazing! Two years ago ,the title showed up on data bases all over the world as SOLOMON’S KEY. So, naturally we thought the book’s arrival would be imminent. Not so. Not only was it not imminent, it took two more years to appear and then with a totally different name. But that’s okay. Dan Brown has risen to the occasion and presented us with a masterpiece.

The story begins in Washington D.C. in a sacred temple in the middle of a secret ritual. This is where the villain is introduced to us even though we do not realize it. Then moves on to introduce Robert Langdon and his best friend Peter and Peter’s sister, Katherine. Peter has long been a member of the Masons, a secret society dating back hundreds of years. Katherine is deeply involved in a science project that wows the imagination. Robert Langdon is a professor of symbology, and anyone who has read the other Dan Brown books knows he gets involved in intricate dealings with codes and religion and really bad guys.

A big main character in this fast paced thriller is the great city of Washington D. C..  The many museums, historic monuments, political edifices,  not to mention the  many interwoven streets, trains and metro cars, are all a huge part of the story. For those of us who have been to D.C., these landmarks help take us along for the ride. I visited the Capital building when I was a teenager many, many years ago. I vaguely remember seeing artwork on the dome. Now I would love to take a good look up close and personal. Same with the Washington Monument and the Smithsonian. So much of the puzzle in the story is buried in the city in various locations.

Puzzles, codes, religious rites, and secret societies: all fabulous stuff for thriller lovers. I do love a really good thriller.  Dan Brown knows how to deliver. Watching Brown being interviewed on TV gave me a chance to catch the enthusiasm he has for his story. I enjoyed hearing about his writing habits. He gets up at four a.m. every morning to write. Very dedicated. When I heard him say he is working on an idea for the next book, just the idea, mind you- well, it made me smile.

Dan Brown has taken us to many exotic locations around the world: Paris, Rome, and Washington D.C. to name a few. I can’t wait to find out where he takes us next.