Cost by Roxana Robinson

Title:  Cost

Author:  Roxana Robinson

Release date:  May 26, 2009

Publisher:  Picador

Pages:  448

Genre:  Adult fiction

Source:  Library

Julia Lambert is vacationing in Maine with her elderly parents, and when her oldest son, Steven, joins them for a weekend, it comes to light that her younger son, Jack, is addicted to heroin.  Julia enlists the aid of her parents, Steven, her ex-husband Wendell, and her sister Harriet, to collect Jack, conduct an intervention, and send him to a rehabilitation program.  Of course, drug addiction is not something that can be fixed overnight, and Jack is especially reluctant to accept help, so each of his family members must deal with their grief about his addiction in their own ways.

Have you ever seen that show Intervention on TLC?  Well, Cost is basically an episode of that show in book form.  I mean, truly, the novel focuses on one family’s experience of addiction – on the addict, Jack, of course, but addiction destroys an entire family, not just one person.  And the book really shows how Jack’s addiction has tremendous ripple effects on each member of his family, and how everyone in the family must make a change in order for Jack to even have a chance of recovery.

While the novel is about Jack’s heroin addiction, and the intervention the family has, and the fruits of that labor, I found Cost to be more of a character-driven novel than anything else.  Robinson pays considerable attention to the details of each and every character, drawing the reader into the novel by the relationships between the characters, by the way they each react to Jack’s addiction and their role in it, and how they each handle the result of their efforts to help Jack.  Honestly, these characters captivated me.  I hung onto their every word, onto their every thought and action, I was completely swept away by the novel.  Robinson so expertly crafted these people, she weaved their stories together so perfectly that I am unable to find the words to explain how fantastic of a novel this is.  It just blew me away.

While I was initially interested in reading Cost because of the subject matter (I have personal experience with addiction in my family and the subject of addiction both intrigues and fascinates me), I ended up loving it because of the intricately crafted characters, the relationships in the book, and Roxana Robinson’s beautiful writing.  The plot is superb, too, don’t get me wrong – it’s just that this novel is so much more than just the story.  I cannot recommend Cost high enough, and I will absolutely be reading more of Robinson’s work in the (very) near future.

The Russian Dreambook of Color and Flight by Gina Ochsner

Title:  The Russian Dreambook of Color and Flight

Author:  Gina Ochsner

Release date:  February 8, 2010

Publisher:  Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Pages:  384

Genre:  Adult fiction

Source:  Publisher

The Russian Dreambook of Color and Flight focuses on five residents of a crumbling apartment building in post-Soviet Russia.  We have Olga, a translator for the Red Star and her son Yuri, Azade, the bathroom-attendant who is mourning her husband who has recently fallen off their roof and died, and Tanya, a tour guide at the Museum of Art nearby.  We learn about their struggles and triumphs, the relationships between the five of them, and about how their environment shapes and changes each of them.

I didn’t have any specific expectations for this novel when I started it, but I was certainly hoping it would be an enjoyable read.  Unfortunately, I have to say that I didn’t like the book all that much.  Let me try and tell you why…

I think my main issue with the book is that I didn’t quite understand where it was going.  I found the plot sort of meandering and I thought that some of the bigger elements of the story could have been introduced a bit earlier, which perhaps would have helped me get interested in the book a little more.  I also thought it was really, really hard to get through.  I had a difficult time picking it back up after putting it down for a day or two because I just couldn’t get invested in the book.  Honestly, if I hadn’t committed to a review I don’t think I would have finished it.

In the end, I was sort of left with a “so what?’ type of reaction.  The story did have a lot of heart, and was very funny at times, but I just couldn’t “get” it.  Perhaps other readers would better appreciate this novel.

Tender Morsels by Margo Lanagan

Title:  Tender Morsels

Author:  Margo Lanagan

Release date:  October 14, 2008

Publisher:  Knopf Books for Young Readers

Pages:  448

Genre:  Young adult fiction, Fantasy

Source:  Library

When Tender Morsels begins, we meet Liga Longfield, a teen girl who has suffered years of sexual abuse and rapes by her father, eventually resulting in a pregnancy and birth of a daughter, who she names Branza.  Shortly after the birth of Branza, Liga is gang raped by a group of boys from a neighboring town and nine months later, gives birth to another girl, Urdda.  After going through all these horrible things, Liga is transported to a magical heavenly place with her daughters for many years, where they live in peace and harmony together.  Eventually the three of them are pulled back into the natural world, and they must find a way to live there among the pain and difficulties that come with that reality.

Fifty pages into Tender Morsels, I was loving it.  I liked Liga SO much and my heart just broke for her, for all the pain she went through and for the way that she was treated by her own father.  I was even starting to think that this might end up being one of my favorite books of the year.

BUT.  I didn’t love the entire middle section of the novel.  I want to preface this by saying that I think I am not the best judge of the book, as there are few fantasy novels I’ve loved.  I try to like them, and I am a huge fan of some, but generally I am difficult to please when it comes to fantasy.  So, yeah, the fantasy world in Tender Morsels didn’t exactly win me over.  And the multiple points of view (constantly changing without rhyme or reason) sort of annoyed me.  And confused me.  Also, I missed hearing so much from Liga – she was the only character I really liked, so I wanted more from her.

The end of the book came together for me, and it redeemed itself to the point where I can safely say that I enjoyed the experience of reading it.  And I can see what’s so amazing about Lanagan’s writing, about the world she created here, and about how much she has to say about life and love and what it means to be human.  So, while Tender Morsels didn’t work perfectly for me, I can see the beauty in it and I would still recommend reading it for yourself.

Cunt: A Declaration of Independence by Inga Muscio

Title:  Cunt:  A Declaration of Independence

Author:  Inga Muscio

Release date:  October 15, 2002

Publisher:  Seal Press

Pages:  416

Genre:  Nonfiction, Feminism, Women’s studies

Source:  Personal copy

In this provocative piece of women’s studies writing, Inga Muscio traces the history of the word “cunt” and explains that while once the word was a term of respect and power between and about women, over the years the patriarchy turned it into something disgusting, shameful, and just about the worst insult in the English language.  With this book, Muscio hopes to empower women to understand that they hold their own power in their very actions towards the world, with how they choose to support or not support the patriarchy, how they choose to support or not support institutions that harm women, and how every decision women make can be a feminist, political one.

I’d been meaning to read this book for ages, but when Eva talked about how much she loved it, I knew I had to bump it up to the top of my list. Cunt is absolutely a wonderful book.  It is exactly what its title proposes:  a declaration of women’s independence.  Independence from the institutions in society that keep us less than, from the messages we face every day that tell us we are unworthy, from the male-dominated companies making decisions about the products and services that only (or at least, primarily) women consume.

I have to say that while I don’t agree with all of Muscio’s opinions, she definitely gave me plenty of food for thought.  For example, I personally LOVE my oral contraceptives because they do wonders for my body in a lot of ways, and Muscio is opposed to them on principle (why should women have to alter our body’s chemistry for the benefit of men, etc…), but her stance on the issue made me think about what other things I might be doing to my body or my mind because society tells me I have to.  It also made me grateful to know that we live in a world with the availability of these medicines, and the ability for every woman to decide for herself the best way to prevent unwanted pregnancies and regulate her body’s cycle (or not).

I have to honestly say that I know Cunt won’t be for everyone.  Muscio is a really, really radical feminist – perhaps the most radical one I’ve read – and her attitudes won’t be shared by every reader, but I do think it’s a worthwhile read nonetheless.  Like I said, I don’t agree with several of her arguments, but I still found the book eye-opening and a valuable asset to my collection of feminist works.  If nothing else, the book will help you define your own opinions about feminism and how women can take more control and have more power in this male-dominated world.  If you are at all interested in feminism and/or women’s studies, Cunt:  A Declaration of Independence is a must-read!

Stealing Heaven by Elizabeth Scott

Title:  Stealing Heaven

Author:  Elizabeth Scott

Release date:  May 27, 2008

Publisher:  HarperTeen

Pages:  320

Genre:  Young adult fiction

Source:  Library

Danielle has been stealing things from stranger’s homes for her entire life.  She and her mother move from town to town, looking for houses to break into, and at eighteen, she has never even attended school.  While Danielle is used to her life and doesn’t expect more, she dreams of a “regular” existence – one with friends, close family, and a place she can call home.  When her mother chooses the small beach town of Heaven as their next destination, Danielle assumes it will be exactly like all of their other stops – a few weeks in, no attachment to anything, take what they want and leave.  But what she finds is something totally different – a girl who might want to become her friend, a boy who really seems to like her, and a town she can see herself falling in love with.  But of course, her mother is there on a mission, and Danielle’s dreams of having a normal life slip further and further from her mind as she and her mother get closer to their goal in Heaven.

I’m quite the fan of Elizabeth Scott’s young adult novels, and Stealing Heaven was no exception to that rule.  While I would say that this novel was on the lighter side of YA fiction, it had plenty of heart and a really wonderful main character who I loved right away.

Danielle was such a fantastic character.  She had been through so much in her life – never really knowing her father, being forced to steal with her mom, never attending school or making friends or having a real family.  It broke my heart how she ached for these things in life that everyone else takes for granted, while the whole time knowing she would never have the opportunity to have those things.  It was no surprise that the second people started showing interest in getting to know her, she jumped at the chance to maybe have a few friends.

I love Scott’s writing style.  It feels completely natural, as if I’m talking to these characters rather than reading a novel about them.  She made this completely strange situation seem completely normal, as if Danielle was a regular girl just like any other.  The story was as believable as can be and I so hoped that Danielle would find what she was looking for.  To top it all off, the idea for the novel was so creative to me – I seriously wondered how Scott came up with the idea of writing a book about a pair of mother/daughter thieves.  Either way, it really worked for me!

Overall, Stealing Heaven was a wonderful young adult novel, containing everything I love about YA fiction.  As typical for Elizabeth Scott books, Stealing Heaven comes highly recommended by me.

TSS: Leaving on a Jet Plane!

Good morning, friends.  This is going to be short and sweet because I have lots to do in the next hour or two before I have to go to the airport.  Yep, that’s right… I’m FINALLY getting to visit my family and friends back home in Chicago!  I’m very excited, especially since I will spend every day with my niece as I’m going to watch her while my sister is at work all week.  I really don’t have solid plans for the week, other than a few dinners or lunches with friends, a trip downtown on Saturday night to go out with my best friends, and of course, the baby-sitting all week.  I’m sure the week will fly by.

I’m not sure if I’ll be blogging while I’m away, I am taking my netbook with me so I’ll definitely have access to it, but I may just take the entire week off and just read in whatever free time I have.  I’m not expecting too much free time, but I must admit I’m taking seven (!) books with me on the trip.  I don’t plan to finish them all, but you never know.  :)

I hope you all have wonderful weekends and even better weeks.  Happy reading!

How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff

Title:  How I Live Now

Author:  Meg Rosoff

Release date:  April 11, 2006

Publisher:  Wendy Lamb Books

Pages:  194

Genre:  Young adult fiction

Source:  Library

How I Live Now starts out in modern-day New York City, with fifteen-year-old Daisy being told by her father that she must go live with her cousins in England, as she is having trouble getting along with her stepmother.  Daisy arrives at the airport in London, and is picked up by her cousin Edmund, then taken back to the farmhouse in the country where she is greeted by her Aunt Penn and Edmund’s three siblings.  The six of them enjoy life in the country for several months, and Daisy is incredibly happy there – she even falls in love with Edmund and the two of them begin a secret, passionate relationship.  But when war breaks out, and the enemy occupies England, the family is split up.  Aunt Penn is away in another country, the three boys go to an unnamed place to work, and Daisy and her youngest cousin Piper travel to another farm to help out with the soldiers there.

This is an extremely beautifully written, thought-provoking novel that I have to admit I have mixed feelings about.  Generally speaking, I really liked it, but there was one thing that bothered me a LOT:  the relationship between Daisy and Edmund.  Perhaps it made me so uncomfortable because Rosoff wrote it so well that it felt very real to me, but at the risk of sounding immature, it grossed me out.  So that definitely tarnished the book for me, I just couldn’t “get” that aspect of the novel.  I also didn’t understand why Daisy’s father would send her halfway across the world just because his wife didn’t like her.  That aspect of the novel made me so sad.

That being said, there are many other aspects of the book I did like.  Daisy’s voice was completely authentic and very real for a teenager faced with living through a world war.  I listened to this book on audio, and the narrator did a great job channeling that teen voice in her speech patterns and tone of voice.  Daisy started out so immature, so young-sounding, and as the book progressed, as she had to deal with harder and harder times, she grew up quite a bit, and Rosoff really reflected that through Daisy’s first person narration.

The war was a huge part of the book, and it was written in a believable, completely terrifying way.  I definitely thought about what my life would be like if World War III broke out on American soil, what would possibly happen, where I would go if we were to be occupied, etc. There were some scary thoughts running through my mind as I read about Daisy and Piper surviving horrific conditions.

This novel has been touted as a young adult/adult fiction crossover, and I would agree with that assessment.  How I Live Now is a stunning read for all ages.  While I didn’t love every single thing about the book, overall it made me think and will stay with me for a long time.  And the writing is beautiful – I will definitely read more from Meg Rosoff in the near future.

The Crowning Glory of Calla Lily Ponder by Rebecca Wells

Title:  The Crowning Glory of Calla Lily Ponder

Author:  Rebecca Wells

Release date:  July 7, 2009

Publisher:  Harper

Pages:  416

Genre:  Adult fiction, Southern fiction

Source:  Publisher

Calla Lily Ponder was born in La Luna, Louisiana to wonderful parents and spent the first fifteen years of her life surrounded by love, laughter, and plenty of friends and family.  But after some tragedy strikes her family, Calla Lily is ready to get out in the world an explore things beyond La Luna.  So she enrolls in a prestigious beauty academy in New Orleans, with the goal of one day opening her own salon, following in the footsteps of her mother.  With Calla Lily’s new life comes ups and downs, new experiences and unexpected tragedies.  But through it all, she retains her Southern charm and good manners, and always keeps her roots, her family and friends in La Luna, close to her heart.

I am a huge fan of Rebecca Wells.  In fact, Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood is one of my absolute favorite books.  Still, when Calla Lily first came out, it received mixed reviews, so I was a little hesitant to read it at first – I really didn’t want to be disappointed.  I needn’t have worried because this novel was truly a delight to read.  I’m so happy I finally made the time to read it!

This book was just full to bursting of good old Southern charm.  Calla Lily was such a wonderful character – she was kind and compassionate, loved her family to pieces but had an independent streak which caused her to move to New Orleans for several years, and she was just so honest, so upfront about everything.  I loved when she fell in love with her (gay) beauty school teacher – she was convinced that if he saw just how wonderful she was, he would eventually fall for her too.  That whole section of the book just exemplified, for me, what was so sweet about her – she was so innocent, yet so determined to get what she wanted all at the same time.  Of course, eventually she realized that you can’t change a person’s sexuality, and so she became best friends with him instead.  And I loved the deep, intense love she had for her family, her friends, and her hometown of La Luna.  She was constantly trying to find a way to take care of others, she wanted so badly for everyone around her to be happy and she would have done anything to make that the case.

I also loved how Wells was so descriptive with the setting of the novel.  I have never been to Louisiana (although I’d love to go someday), but I so enjoyed reading about the streets of New Orleans, about the night life there, and also about Calla’s sleepier hometown of La Luna, where everyone was like family.  Wells really made me want to travel to Louisiana sooner than later, and I completely understood why Calla Lily loved Louisiana so much!

While The Crowning Glory of Calla Lily Ponder does deal with some pretty serious subjects, the overall feel of the book is on the lighter side, which was perfectly okay with me.  This would be a perfect novel to take to the beach or the pool this summer and just enjoy while laying out and having a few cocktails (or sipping on water…. whatever your pleasure).  I truly enjoyed this novel and I’m happy to say that Rebecca Wells is still one of my favorite authors.

A Thread of Sky by Deanna Fei

Title:  A Thread of Sky

Author:  Deanna Fei

Release date:  April 1, 2010

Publisher:  The Penguin Press HC

Pages:  368

Genre:  Adult fiction, Multicultural fiction

Source:  Publisher

Irene Shen’s husband has just passed away unexpectedly, leaving her stunned and craving more family time with her three daughters:  Nora, a successful Wall Street trader, Kay, a student currently studying abroad in China, and Sophie, just about to graduate high school and attend Stanford for her first year of college.  Irene plans a trip to China for the four of them, along with her sister Susan and her mother, Lin Yulan.  As these six women aren’t exactly best friends, none of the six of them (with the exception of Irene) has high hopes for the trip, but they all agree to go anyway.  Although there are some major tensions and skirmishes that occur throughout the trip, it really ends up being a chance to get to know one another better, and to better understand their family’s history and with that, themselves.

I wasn’t sure what to expect with this read.  I received it as a surprise from the publisher, and initially I wasn’t planning on reading it.  Then I read the summary and I decided I would have to give it a try, as I love stories about women’s friendships/relationships/whatever.  I have to say that A Thread of Sky was  much better than I was expecting, and I’m very glad I gave it the chance it deserves.

The women in A Thread of Sky were written very well – I empathized with each one of them, and each personality was fully developed.  I think Fei did an excellent job of really creating complex, interesting characters, which isn’t easy to do for six people in one novel.  She definitely did that – I felt something for each of these women, and although I didn’t like them all, I definitely felt like they were actual people, not simply filler characters.

I also appreciated that the relationships between these six women were not at all one-dimensional or stereotypical.  Each of them had been hurt by some or all of the other five, and the trip was a way for them to come to terms with all the pain they carried around up until that point.  I think Fei really fleshed out these relationships and helped the reader see how one person’s actions affected the other five, and how different choices the women had made in their younger years snowballed and had drastic effects, two generations later.

There were a few things I didn’t love about A Thread of Sky, I must admit.  While I liked how the perspective of the book shifted from woman to woman throughout, sometimes I felt like the transitions were a bit clunky.  As in, I’d have to double read a few sentences to figure out whose voice I was reading at a few points throughout the book.  Also, I would have liked to get a little bit more about the actual scenery of China, more details about what they were visiting, what they saw, etc.  I guess what I’m saying is that I don’t know if Fei cultivated a sense of place as well as she could have.  And the cover is nothing to write home about, unfortunately.  While these are minor quibbles, they made the reading experience less than perfect for me, and it would have been a better book, for me, if some things were improved a bit.

Regardless of the few things I didn’t love about A Thread of Sky, I found it to be a very solid novel, and a really enjoyable one too.  This is Deanna Fei’s first novel and it is definitely an impressive debut.  I absolutely recommend trying it out for yourself.

The Danish Girl by David Ebershoff

Title:  The Danish Girl

Author:  David Ebershoff

Release date:  February 1, 2001

Publisher:  Penguin

Pages:  270

Genre:  Adult fiction, historical fiction, GLBT fiction

Source:  Publisher

The Danish Girl is based on the real-life story of the first ever gender reassignment surgery and the man who undewent said transformation, Einer Wegener, a Danish painter who had the operation in the 1930′s.  When Einer realizes that he is a woman trapped inside a man’s body, he is happily married to a wonderful woman named Greta, who accepts his alter-ego, Lili, as her husband’s truth. The Danish Girl is the story of Einar and Greta, in the years up until and then shortly after his physical transformation into the woman he had always been inside.

I loved this book. LOVED IT.  I am not sure that I can coherently explain my feelings on it, but allow me to try.

First of all, the subject is fascinating.  Reading about how Einar discovered his authentic self, and the slow way he began to understand that in order to be happy, he needed to become a woman in both body and spirit, was just so interesting.  I know that the book is only loosely based on Einar’s story, and Ebershoff certainly had no way of knowing what Einar was thinking and feeling during this time in his life, but I have to believe that Ebershoff captured Einar’s experience pretty accurately.  Ebershoff’s portrayal of Einar was just so honest, I couldn’t help but be drawn into him and his story, and so much about it broke my heart.  He was becoming physically ill, even to the point of almost starving, because of his internal anguish at his unresolved gender state.  It just made me feel so much, sadness, sympathy, understanding, everything.  How Ebershoff managed to do that with a relatively unknown person in history simply astounds me.

Although Einar is technically the focus of this story, for me, the book was so much more about Greta than it was about Einar.  Greta showed Einar the kind of deep, all-encompassing, ever-forgiving, perfect love that most of us hope to one day experience.  She would have done anything, absolutely anything, to make him happy, to make his life better, to sustain the comfort and security that the two of them had together.  I loved getting inside Greta’s head and learning how she was dealing with all these changes in her husband’s life – she never really knew exactly how to react to what was going on, or the appropriate things to say or do, but no matter what, she was committed to sticking by her husband and supporting him through it all.  And she absolutely did that, even when just about every woman in the world would have abandoned Einar (especially in 1930).

I also want to say that Ebershoff impressed me so much with this novel.  His ability to understand his characters, to make the audience empathize with them, is fantastic.  He handled an extremely touchy subject with depth, compassion, and true grace.  He brought Einar Wegener and Greta Waud to life, he made me believe in them, in the love they shared, and he made me fall in love with both of them. The Danish Girl is beyond stunning – in fact, I can’t think of a proper word for it.  I loved it to pieces, and I do hope you will read it soon.