Dede
writes: Mark Haddon’s newest
novel, A Spot of Bother (0385520514)
,
made me laugh a lot. George has just retired.
He is a quiet man—maybe too quiet. He is having
terrible panic attacks. He doesn’t want to face
the fact that his wife is having an affair;
that his handsome, successful son is gay and
that his divorced daughter is going to marry
the wrong man. How can all this be funny? How
can one man be so misguided? In Haddon’s hands,
A Spot of Bother is indeed a very funny
book. The author juggles the chainsaw and the
watermelon deftly with grace and compassion,
as he did in The Curious Incident of the
Dog in the Night-Time (1400032717).
And, incidentally, the groom-to-be is just great.
Hurrah for the happy ending!
The
New York Times calls Anna Quindlen’s
new novel “her best yet,” and I agree. Rise
and Shine (0375502246)
is about two sisters, orphaned early in life
and raised by a warm and caring aunt and uncle.
One sister grows up to be the most famous woman
on television and the other to be a harried
but effective social worker in the Bronx. They
remain close though the balance of power is,
as always, uneven. Then Meghan mutters two unprintable
words about a well-known politician after an
interview, not knowing that her microphone was
still recording. For the first time in her life,
she is not in charge of her world and needs
her sister’s help. As you know, Quindlen is
an acute observer and writes of our complicated
American life with compassion. (If you are from
New York, you will love this novel because the
city is almost another character in the book!)
Take
a trip to Tahiti in Celestine Vaite’s
new novel, Breadfruit (0316016586).
Meet Materena and Pito. They have been together
for twelve years—since they met at sixteen—and
have three beautiful children. Suddenly Pito
proposes marriage! Materena needs to give it
some thought. After all, she is young and independent
and a “professional house cleaner.” But then
again, Pito is handsome, a cheerful father and
great at the “sexy loving.” (Never mind that
he drinks a little too much beer and thinks
that a frying pan is an acceptable birthday
gift). Will she or won’t she? You will have
fun following them and their large, noisy and
nosy extended family to the conclusion.
Don’t
forget that Zadie Smith’s superb novel
On Beauty (0143037749)
has just been issued in paperback. This book
won the Orange Prize for fiction and was a “best
book of the year” in most of the major newspapers—here
and abroad—when it was published in hardcover.
Alice
writes: Due out in the beginning of
September is Alice McDermott’s After
This (0374168091).
I have never read anything by her and was dazzled
by her style instantly. The author of Charming
Billy and Child of My Heart, her
newest book follows a family of six in post-WWII
Long Island. Just as Roth captured diverging
generations in American Pastoral, McDermott
follows the changing values and lifestyles of
the parents and children in a family from the
same time period. Instead of the Roth’s Jewish
family, this novel follows the Keanes, an Irish
Catholic family swept into the Vietnam War era.
The chapters are like vignettes, snippets from
the characters’ lives. Exploring the changing
attitudes towards faith, family, friendship
and desire, McDermott nicely renders a time
period and a family’s life.
Next
up, on Tuesday, September 12th
from 7-8 p.m., we’ll discuss Ann Bauer’s
A Wild Ride Up the Cupboards (0743269500).
In her well-written and compelling debut novel,
Bauer follows a family where the first-born
child is retreating into the withdrawn and sleepless
existence of what is diagnosed as autism. Threaded
through the novel, too, is the tale of the mother’s
late uncle Mickey, who may have suffered from
a similar disorder during a time when society’s
notions of parenting, pediatrics and psychology
were dramatically different from today’s. As
Rachel delves into her own family history in
search of answers, flashbacks to Mickey's life
afford moving insights into both the nature
of childhood trauma and the coping mechanisms
that families employ. Upon its release, The
Providence Journal praised the book saying
that it “recalls the early work of Sue Miller
and Anne Tyler.” Honest and poignant, I liked
the convincing depiction of parenting, marriage
and the human psyche.
From the Children’s
Room:
Pat
writes: A new group of books at BookEnds,
just right for the second and third grade reader,
are by author Jill Tomlinson. The
Cat Who Wanted to Go Home (140521080X),
The Hen Who Wouldn’t Give Up (1405210834),
The Penguin Who Wanted to Find Out
(1405210850)
and The Owl Who Was Afraid of the Dark
(1405210931)
are fun stories about animals and their adventures.
Written in short chapters with charming black
and white illustrations, they are entertaining
books for The Magic Tree House crowd.
A
beautiful new edition of The Little Red
Hen (0803729359)
has just been released. Illustrated by one of
America’s most admired children’s book illustrators,
Jerry Pinkney, the book tells the traditional
story about the little hen who plants the seeds,
prepares the wheat and bakes bread with no help
from her neighbors until they all are more than
willing to help eat her wonderfully baked concoction.
Pinkney gives us beautiful, full-page illustrations
on each page—a wonderful book for every young
child’s library.
Victory
(1416914773)
is a newly released title by Newbery Medal and
Honor winner Susan Cooper. Historical
fiction written for ages 9-11, this book will
interest boys and girls. Molly, a transplant
from England to Connecticut, is trying to adjust
to her new life and family. Having nothing in
common with her new step-brother and his pain-in-the-neck
friend and finding life very different here
makes Molly very homesick. During a family outing
to a bookstore at Mystic Seaport, she finds
and purchases an old book about the life of
Lord Nelson. With this, a fascinating adventure
begins. Chapters alternating between Molly in
2006 and Sam, an 11-year-old sailor on the HMS
Victory with Admiral Nelson at the Battle of
Trafalgar in 1805, make for a unique and interesting
connection. Finding a fragment of the flag flown
from the ship hidden within the book leads Molly
further into the history of the Victory. A surprise
ending makes for a satisfying conclusion.
Into
the Firestorm: A Novel of San Francisco, 1906
(0375836527)
by Deborah Hopkinson will be released
in the middle of September. Written for the
upper elementary grade reader, it is the adventure
of a young boy newly transplanted to California.
After Nick’s grandmother dies, he leaves Texas
and his life as a cotton-picker and travels
to San Francisco, “the Paris of the West.” Making
his way there by hitching train cars, he finally
arrives—hungry, dirty and with no idea of what
he is going to do. Besides the clothes on his
back and the hat that Gran had bought him, the
only things that he has of any value are the
two lucky quarters that she had left him before
she died. Fortunately they do bring him luck,
and he is able to convince Pat Paterson, a local
shopkeeper, to hire him on a trial basis. It
is April 1906, the time of the devastating San
Francisco earthquake. With the shopkeeper away
at this time, Nick takes responsibility and
manages to save some of the shop’s valuables
as well as Pat’s cherished pet, Shake. When
fire breaks out, everyone is evacuated from
the area. Nick helps a young girl and her mother,
who is expecting a child, walk to safety, over
Nob Hill and all the way to Golden Gate Park.
With the fire finally contained, Nick returns
to the shop and finds the owner has returned.
Thrilled that all was safe and that his beloved
pet was cared for, Pat reopens his shop with
the help of Nick at his side.
Judy
H. writes: Two great new children picture books are When Sheep
Sleep (0810954699) written by Laura Numeroff and illustrated by David
McPhail and Uno’s Garden (0810954737) by Graeme Base. When Sheep Sleep is a delightful
book following the adventures of a little girl
who is having trouble falling asleep. She tries
the “tried and true” method of counting sheep.
But what do you do if the sheep are asleep? Follow
her adventures as she finds all sort of animals
who are sound asleep. McPhail’s illustrations
of slumbering animals are terrific. This is
a must-have for the reluctant sleeper.
Uno’s Garden, as with all of Base’s books,
is a marvelously illustrated picture book. The
story is about Uno’s garden and all the fantastic
creatures and plants that grow and flourish
in it—such as Puddlebuts, Whynevines, and Shortlepigs.
But Uno’s garden falls prey to advancing civilization
and pollution and is almost utterly destroyed. However,
the garden, plants and creatures do survive
and flourish again. This book not only educates
children on environmental issues but also cleverly
incorporates the math concepts of addition,
subtraction, doubling and square roots.
Avi’s
newly released book, Crispin at the Edge
of the World (078685152X),
is the second in his proposed trilogy about
the young boy Crispin. Set in chaotic
14th century England, Crispin and Bear—his surrogate
father—are trying to elude members of a secret
brotherhood. Members of John Ball’s rebel brotherhood
believe Bear has informed on them to the government
and are seeking revenge. Bear and Crispin
meet two outcasts: Troth, a young disfigured
girl, and Aude, a pagan healer. The chaos,
violence, injustice and hardships of 14th Century
Europe are described in Bear and Crispin’s flight.
This is another quality novel by Avi for upper
elementary and middle school aged readers.
Coming out September 12th is Patricia
Reilly Giff’s third book about Nory Ryan’s
family, Water Street (0385730683). This
book centers on Bird Mallon, the daughter of
Nory Ryan and Sean Mallon. Bird lives with her
family in 1875 Brooklyn, the time of the construction
of the Brooklyn Bridge. Bird is struggling
with many issues—how can she stop her brother
Hughie from his self-destructive fighting, how
can she help her sister Annie find love, how
can Thomas Neary—an upstairs neighbor—find peace
with his family, and most importantly, how can
Bird find confidence in herself and become a
healer like her mother? This excellent
historical fiction novel gives a glimpse of
life and the struggles of first generation Irish
immigrants.
Marilyn
writes: The Snow Spider (0439846757)
is the first book in a new trilogy (Magician
Trilogy) by Jenny Nimmo, author of
the popular Charlie Bone series. Student
reviewer Brendan, aged 8, writes, “On his ninth
birthday, Gwyn is given 5 gifts to prove if
he is a magician: a piece of seaweed, a yellow
scarf, a tin whistle, a twisted metal brooch
and a broken horse. ‘Give them to the wind,’
said his grandmother Nain. Each time he gave
them to the wind he got something magical back.
And one of those things was the snow spider.
I loved this fascinating book. It’s special
because there is always something surprising
about this book. I would recommend this book
to anyone from ages 7 to 12.”
