Book Review: Bravely by Maggie Stiefvater

 

Book Review: Bravely by Maggie Stiefvater

I really loved the animated film Brave and when I heard on social media Maggie Stiefvater was given the opportunity to write the sequel to Merida's story, I was elated. And then I felt truly blessed when I was able to secure an ARC from NetGalley. 

My enthusiasm was well-met with Bravely, a story about growth and change, something people always seem to have a problem accepting or realizing the necessity of. 

Steeped in Celtic mythology, beautifully and poignantly written, Stiefvater fills out the dimensions of all characters within Merida's world, creating empathy and understanding where animosity would threaten to take over. The magical elements of the story make sense in the way that the mysterious does, and the ending steers clear of cliche and is entirely, complexly, and unexpectedly satisfying. 

I have already spread the word about this new story to my students, who I think will love it as much as I do, and plan on using it as a book club feature book perhaps as early as next semester. 

Book Rewview: Catherine House by Elisabeth Thomas

Book Review: Catherine House by Elisabeth Thomas

I received an ARC of this book, and this is my honest review.


I was excited about the opportunity to read Catherine House. There seemed to be a lot of hype surrounding this debut novel by Elisabeth Thomas, and I love a Gothic story.

Catherine House details the college career of Ines, a troubled teen accepted into the elite and renowned Catherine House for an accelerated three-year degree path, strictly isolated from the rest of the world but also completely free of charge. Ines and her cohort of friends indulge in school-sanctioned parties replete with frat-style binge drinking and indiscriminate sexual liaisons while negotiating ultra-challenging academic work and aspiring to the New Materials concentration, a coveted discipline studying plasm, the nebulous substance interconnecting all things. All of this is fascinating given the overall theme of isolation.

There are elements of Catherine House that I really enjoyed: the characters are interesting, flawed and broken. The house itself becomes a character, which is a device I have a particular affinity for. I was genuinely surprised by the ending. And, the novel reminds me a lot of Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go, a novel that has haunted me since I read it about 11 years ago.

However, on balance the book fell flat for me. Ines's mysterious past has a lot of holes. I felt I needed more of them filled so that I could understand her more fully. I simply could not relate to her incredibly sad antipathy and, because of that, I wasn't sure how much I cared about her. And, I really wanted to care for her because it seemed that so few people in her life did.

The mom part of me was angry at the lack of rules and boundaries for the students' social lives, and while I appreciated part of Catherine House's ethos is the mind-freeing nature of not having imposed rules and boundaries, the resultant free-for-all of behavior was concerning to me. Real colleges and universities have rules and boundaries for interpersonal behavior and resources for handling the ups and downs. Further, the cultish school culture is very concerning in large part because there appears to be very little outsider concern about the students at Catherine House.

I can definitely see the draw the book might have for other readers; it just didn't wow me. I appreciate the underlying themes: isolation, withdrawal, brokenness, scientific advancement (at what cost) are important and relevant discussions. But, I needed more.

Overall, I rate Catherine House 3/5 stars.

Book Review: An Anonymous Girl by Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen

Book Review: An Anonymous Girl by Greer Hendricks and

Sarah Pekkanen

I read this book as an ARC from NetGalley.com.

Jess Farris, a disillusioned make-up artist living in New York, sneaks into a psychological study about integrity, morality and ethics. Her responses captivate Dr. Shields, who invites Jess to participate in a more in-depth study in which Jess will be asked to do things that will reveal to Dr. Shields more information about how Jess views morality and ethics, but stresses that Jess will always be in control of the situations. And Dr. Shields will compensate Jess for her troubles. Compensate her very, very well. 

And so begins the rollercoaster ride Jess and Dr. Shields take the reader on. Hendricks and Pekkanen create a situation in which the reader, like Jess, wants to know what Dr. Shields is up to, where the study on morality and ethics will lead. Dr. Shields, who always seems controlled, slowly begins to reveal a crack in her facade, a fissure in her composure that threatens to destroy Jess if she continues in the study. But, Jess becomes captive to not only the money Dr. Shields provides, but to the consequences of coming clean about her own demons. And, she wants to understand Dr. Shields, who drew her in with gifts and comfort as she has never known. 

The rollercoaster ride is exhilarating as Hendricks and Pekkanen create corkscrews, sheer drops, and lurches with each encounter between Jess and Dr. Shields. Ultimately, the reader is blindsided as the cart comes to a complete stop. What a rush!

Things I Loved:

1. Jess's believability: She's an ambitious young woman who finds her dreams crushed by a selfish toxic man abusing his position of power. She has a heart of gold, but also an edge. She's complex and fluid. She's real.

2. Hendricks and Pekkanen's choice of voice for Dr. Shields is brilliant. In writing Dr. Shields in passive voice, they add a layer of complexity to her character, emphasizing her dissociation from her actions and her own ethics and morality. Dr. Shields's passive voice also reveals some fragility of her character, that she's not secure in her own thoughts to fully, actively inhabit them and chooses to ride above or below the murkiness she is creating with her morality and ethics study. Dr. Shields's voice rings through loud and clear.

3. Noah's respectability: I love that he doesn't cave to Jess's turbulence. He stands his ground with his expectations and deal breakers. It's nice to see a male character follow more than his hormones.
4. The surprise twist at the end: I love a thriller that really gets in one last thrill when I think all the loose ends are tied up. Brava, Hendricks and Pekkanen!

Things I Liked (a little) Less:

1. I didn't like Jess's promiscuity. While some see it as sexual agency, I felt like her attitude about one-night-stands as distasteful as Noah appears to find them.
2. I wish there was a confrontation between Jess and Gene French, her victimizer. I would have liked to see Jess be part of his fall from grace, if for no other reason than I believe every victim should have the opportunity to witness her victimizer's downfall. Hearing about it just didn't seem enough.

If you like a good thriller, check out An Anonymous Girl. You won't be disappointed!

Book Review: Night of Miracles by Elizabeth Berg

 Book Review: Night of Miracles by Elizabeth Berg

I received an ARC of Elizabeth Berg's novel Night of Miracles through NetGalley.com.

In the little town of Mason, Missouri, readers meet Lucille (an elderly baker who teaches her culinary arts); Tiny (a heavyset taxicab driver); Iris (a middle-aged divorced transplant to Mason); Abby, Jason, and their son Lincoln; and Monica (a lonely diner waitress), and upon entering the community of these characters discover beauty in the mundane.

Lucille, a retired teacher in her 80s, fights off the angel of death as long as she can, is the glue that binds these characters together, even though some of them don't meet her until her death. She hires Iris, who is hiding from facing her marriage that failed due to her shattered dreams of having children while her husband did not want the same, to help manage Lucille's baking classes and the two become fast friends.

Meanwhile, Tiny and Monica maneuver through misunderstandings as neither can put into words their attraction to and admiration for one another, and Monica mistakes Iris's proximity to Tiny as Tiny's romantic interest in Iris.

Further, Lucille babysits Lincoln while Abby and Jason struggle with Abby's diagnosis and treatment of leukemia, but Lucille and Lincoln develop a beautiful friendship as Lincoln matures beyond his years, understanding more of the situation than either of his parents want to acknowledge.

Berg crafts characters who are beautiful, testaments to unforeseen friendships forged in a small town, developed in some of the most difficult times in life, and resulting in the deeply lasting relationships most people search for. These characters reveal miracles in the everyday, little graces we bestow on one another that make life seem miraculous.

The choices each character makes weave a fabric that is strong enough to protect all the members of this makeshift family. I recommend this beautiful story as a quick, enriching, life-affirming story.

Source:

Berg, Elizabeth. Night of Miracles. Random House, 2018.  

Book Review: The Dinner List by Rebecca Serle

Book Review: The Dinner List by Rebecca Serle

I read an ARC of Rebecca Serle's novel The Dinner List.

The premise of this book is interesting: what would you do if you could spend an evening's dinner with any five people of your choosing--living or dead? Who would you invite? Why? What would you all talk about?

Sabrina's Dinner List wish is granted on her birthday as she spends an evening dining with her deadbeat, alcoholic father (Robert); her ex-boyfriend (Tobias); her best friend (Jessica); her favorite philosophy professor from college (Conrad); and movie star Audrey Hepburn.

Serle weaves flashbacks into the dinner party scenes, revealing intimacies she and Tobias shared which ultimately led to their break up. Sabrina's conversations with Robert, Jessica, and Tobias dominate the dinner as she has unresolved issues with each of them, and Conrad and Audrey serve as mediators of the sometimes intense emotions bubbling to the surface while Sabrina tries to beat the midnight toll which will end her evening dinner.

Serle's ability to weave the past events into the current events in the novel results in powerful storytelling. Tobias and Sabrina share a heart-rending love story that magnifies the abandonment she feels from Robert's escape into alcoholism and his new family she is not part of. And, Jessica's love for Sabrina stems from Jessica's desire for her friend to have the best life has to offer, which Sabrina interprets as judgment, leading to rifts in their once very tight friendship. The story is poignant, real, raw, and at the same time fantastical in its origins.

This is not a love story per se; it's more a story of one woman's struggle to find enduring love and to offer and accept forgiveness, a story that magnifies the messiness that life really is for many.

I really enjoyed this novel because I found the Sabrina's and Jessica's angst real and honest, but I found myself wishing we discovered more about "how" this event was able to happen. The question is raised a few times by the characters, but never really addressed. And, I wished Audrey Hepburn had a more purposeful role. I loved that she was present and appreciated her connection to Tobias and Sabrina's story, but felt her presence at the dinner was somewhat underdeveloped.

I love, LOVE the concept of this book and appreciate Serle's execution. Pull up a seat and join the dinner party: read The Dinner List.

Source:
Serle, Rebecca.The Dinner List: A novel. Flatiron Books, 2018.

Book Review: Tobit's Dog

Book Review:  Tobit's Dog by Michael Nicholas Richard

(blog post originally published on ltwrmama.blogspot.com; moved to wellbreadwoman.blogspot.com 1/18/2016)

Although I am familiar with writers such as Flannery O'Connor, whose work is infused with and informed by her Catholicism, but is not overtly Catholic, I was only moderately aware of a growing genre of writing for Catholic audiences by Catholic writers that is more overtly Catholic.  So, it has been an extremely happy opportunity to read and review Tobit's Dog by Michael Nicholas Richard for Ignatius Press.

Tobit's Dog parallels the biblical Book of Tobit, a book commonly excluded from non-Catholic Bibles as non-canonical. The Book of Tobit offers a parallel story of Sarah, a young woman whose fiancés each mysteriously die, labeling her a cursed woman, and Tobit's son Tobiah, who is sent to collect a debt owed to his father.  Catholics consider the Book of Tobit a precursor to the wisdom books, and support for the Church's teachings of the purity of marriage and the intercession of angels (809).

Set in the Jim-Crow south, Tobit's Dog chronicles the Messager family's experiences through the patriarch Tobit and his sole son Tobias as they attempt to seek justice for a brutally murdered boy from their community.  Okra, Tobit's rescued dog companion, accompanies both men as they do their parts in pursuing justice for Jamie.  Police corruption, domestic violence, homophobia, and racism provide the backdrop, which allows faith, hope, and love to ultimately transcend and lead to a modicum of justice for Jamie, but also for Tobias, Tobit, the deputy sheriff Del, and the mechanic Crafty.  

Things I Loved:

1.  Layering the ugliness in with the beauty of this world:  As Catholics, we know that the things of our earthly world are not ultimately worthwhile or lasting.  We know that our earthly world is neither fair, nor kind.  We know that justice often is skewed during our lifetimes. However, we also know that our God has given us beautiful, awe-inspiring moments in our lives. We know that the beautiful things are ways we can see God's presence.  We also know that the ugliness is evidence of man's sinfulness, our choices to turn our back on Him.  There are so many beautiful moments in this story and they are juxtaposed against a story of brutal degradation, and, like our real lives, these beautiful moments are invitations to see God's work in our lives not as a puppet-master, but as our loving Father providing a shoulder to lean on in the hard times.  Although we work hard to make our world better, we also must acknowledge that our world will never be perfect, and Richard's novel gets at the heart of this paradox.

2.  Unapologetically Catholic moments:  Discussions of the outward signs of our faith abound in this novel.  Holy water, incense, mass, Eucharist, burial of the dead, and angels are all integral components of the story. Emphasizing these outward signs is the understanding we Catholics have that we are imperfect in everything we do, but we persevere in our love for our God and, through Him, our love for our fellow man.  What I think is wonderful about this element is that these concepts are not fully explained in this text; it is not a teaching text after all but a novel.  However, if a non-Catholic reads this novel, he or she will become intrigued by the mention of these things, hopefully interested enough to ask questions and not rest in uninformed presumptions, to investigate further the beauty of our Catholic faith.  And, Catholics who read this novel will be reminded of the beautiful elements of our faith that we too often take for granted.

3.  Tobit's willingness to do the right thing:  From the beginning, when Tobit rescues Okra and his siblings from drowning, Tobit exhibits strength of character that is inspiring.  Tobit faces significant challenges--a crooked sheriff, blindness, persecution, and incarceration--and never opts for the easy way out.  Tobit's prayers remind us that God is not a wish granter, but we can rely on God to walk with us in our troubles.  This reminds me what I have always told my children:  the right thing to do is often the most difficult thing to do, and that is how you know it is the right thing to do.  Tobit's humanity shows through, too.  He is a man of faith, but he is also a man.  He wishes his blindness would go away; he wishes his son did not have to leave him; he wishes the white deputy sheriff had more backbone.  He doesn't doubt God's presence or justice; more correctly, he questions other men's actions.  Tobit's actions throughout the story are a constant reminder that "Thy will be done" even though he never once iterates that phrase.  

4.  Infusing of biblical narrative into contemporary fiction:  One of my favorite subgenres is novels that take on the stories of Biblical characters, especially lesser-known characters, and fill in their backstories or provide new perspectives on the events in their story.  Tobit's Dog reminds me of a class I took at CSUSM by Dr. Madeline Marshall (The Bible as Literature) for which I wrote a paper about the women "missing" in the narratives of the Bible. The women are mentioned, but we rarely hear directly from them, and I always want to know more about them.  Although Tobit's Dog does not attempt to retell the Biblical story of Tobit, Tobias, and Sarah, it does use those characters and elements of the Biblical story to create a new narrative infused with the model of the Book of Tobit.  Additionally, the nominal focus on Tobit’s dog (Okra) provides something for dog-loving America to connect with.  This all combines to create an interesting, engaging original narrative.

One Thing I Liked (a little) Less:

Not enough of the title character:  Okra is a wonderful character, but there is simply not enough of him in the story.  Perhaps it is my recent rereading of The Art of Racing in the Rain and my familiarity with Marley and Me that have led me to expect more from a dog in a story.  However, Okra is a great character, but his role is too limited.  I would have loved to see more of Okra as an agent of action, especially given that he is the title character, but perhaps that would be imposing an element of “untruth” that Richard did not want to play with.  True, there is an element of realism in Okra as he is, and there is a beautiful homage to Okra at the end when Tobias reminisces that Okra's eyes were always a reminder of his father's (Tobit's, but also God the heavenly father) presence.  I can’t help but feel that developing Okra's presence in the novel more throughout the text would have reinforced and enriched a beautiful message.

Tobit’s Dog is a moving look at how a man’s faith sustains him.  Tobit’s Dog reminds us that in an era of blatant racism, there are those who ignore the social customs and pursue decency in spite of the repercussions.  Tobit’s Dog also shows that a just man’s involvement is justified in helping to see that a young boy’s cruelly motivated murder.  Despite the sadness surrounding the story, there is an incredible light that emanates from the story, and this truly does imitate many of our own personal stories, making this novel a very good read.

Sources:

Richard, Michael Nicholas.  Tobit's Dog.  San Francisco:  Ignatius Press, 2014.  eBook.
Tobit.  New American Bible.  Revised Version.  United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Ed.  Harper Collins Publishers, 2012.  eBook.