The River of No Return by Bee Ridgeway

Bee Ridgeway’s debut The River of No Return is an interesting tale of time travel, intrigue and a dash of romance. Nick, Davenant, aka Lord Nicholas Falcott, Marquees of Blackdown, learns that people have the ability time travel as he leaps from 1813 to 2003 as a French soldier is about to kill him on a battlefield. Introduced to the Guild he is set up for a comfortable life in the 20^th century. But after 10 years he is called back to England to do what he was told is impossible, travel back to his hometime. But it is not to be a mere visit, he has a mission to track down the splinter group, the Ofan, and beat them to the mysterious Talisman, which may hold the key to the future.

Now this may sound a bit cliché and Ridgeway does make use of some themes and concepts that are a bit worn, however, there are number of things that make tis a rather interesting story. First, is the innate ability of people to time travel without making use of any outside device. Some of the concepts relating to the time travel ability remind me of Hiro Nakamura from the TV show Heroes. Also, Ridgeway creates what is called the Pale, a point in the future that no one seems to be able to travel to or from. This point is also moving inexorable and inexplicable backwards in time.

The style is delightfully simplistic, especially when compared to many debut authors, and makes the 450 pages go by smoothly. She does get caught up at some points in the romance aspect of the story and in having the characters debating the various aspects of time traveling. The only point of the book I was a bit disappointed in was the lack of overarching resolution. Many of the plot lines came to a conclusion but the Pale and the actions of a few other characters still remain a mystery, indicating that perhaps Ridgway intends a series.

Hick-sick and other phrases

Mountains of the Moon is a masterfully written debut by new author I.J. Kay. The novel tells the story of a woman in her thirties newly released from prison after 10 years. We are introduced first to the ex-convict, Louise, but we are transported through time to when she was Lulu and Kim and Beverly and Jackie and Catherine. Many readers’ reviews have complained that the unnoted shifts in time are difficult to follow, but Kay uses the main character’s speech to clue the reader in to her age. The flashbacks provide the reader with background for the life that resulted in imprisonment and a subsequent pilgrimage to Africa that allows Louise to move forward after 30 years of being lost in a continual cycle of neglect and misunderstanding. Amidst the heartache of her childhood and the perilous entanglements of her teens and early twenties, you will find horrific pain, extreme beauty, and some humor to tie it all together.  

To me, this debut is one of the best I’ve read…ever. To be completely cliché, the book details the strength and endurance of the human spirit. However, like many people in these situations, Lulu only looks forward and keeps moving. Assuming you and Lulu have little in common, this book will make you thankful for the life you have.

The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry

The average person walks less than five miles a day going about his or her normal routines. Yachting shoes, or boat shoes (think Sperry Topsiders), were originally invented to provide traction on boat decks. Silent marriages typically do not last. Queenie is an old fashioned name in England.

How do these things connect? Ask Harold Fry.

Harold Fry is a retired man in a marriage that has all but dissolved. He spends his days puttering around his house, but never accomplishing anything worthwhile. That is, until he is contacted by Queenie Hennessey, a friend from the past. Harold discovers that Queenie has cancer and a hopeless prognosis. Harold cannot muster the proper sentiment for the letter he must write to Queenie, so he jots down a superficial note and leaves his house to take the letter to the corner mailbox. Harold’s inability to articulate in writing what he feels he must finally tell Queenie prompts a journey that serves many purposes: healing, appreciation, remembrance, grief, human connection.

I love a good story, but a story that actually makes you feel something is even better.  You might think that a book about a man in his sixties walking over 500 miles at a clip of roughly 8 miles per day is predictable, but you’d be wrong. While the reader is left to wonder if Queenie was a catalyst in the demise of this marriage, we are given a chance to see both Harold’s and his wife’s perspective of the path they took to reach the walk that would change everything.

In addition to the story of Harold Fry, the novel provides an opportunity to view our society and the importance we place on items, events, people, and life.

Harold Fry, the pilgrim in boat shoes.

As a side note, the novel was also nominated for the Man Booker Prize 2012. This is also a debut novel from writer Rachel Joyce.

Ready Player One

Imagine a world thirty years from now where things have devolved.  The recession has only gotten worse, the education system has fractured, and class differences have become entrenched. Entire communities have grown from stacking mobile homes on top of each other to the height of skyscrapers, held together only by weak scaffolding. Imagine being a teenaged orphan living at the top of the stacks, having to hide your valuables so that your aunt and uncle don't pawn them for drug money. Clearly, the only way to escape this bleak reality is an obsessive knowledge of 1980s pop culture trivia. 

Not following? I probably should've mentioned that James Halliday, a legendary billionaire video game creator from Middletown, OH, died with a will that bequeaths his entire estate to the person who is able to find the "Easter egg" inside the virtual reality he created, and in which many people spend most of their time and money. The video game creator was a child of the 80s whose affinity for video games and movies of that time were well-documented. The race to beat the system and find the hidden clues is serious business in 2045.

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline is pure homage to 1980s geekdom. Wade, the 18-year-old protagonist and narrator is likable and sympathetic, and his virtual friends are entertaining. Cline is a clever writer, and it's easy to imagine that Halliday's obsessions and interests are his own. I'm not sure how people who didn't grown up in the 80s would relate to it, but the references to John Hughes movies were gold for me. I've never played Dungeons and Dragons, rarely played video games, and my knowledge of movies like Blade Runner has come entirely from conversations with my husband, so I'm certain there are references I missed, but I was still able to appreciate the story. If you've got an appreciation for 80s pop culture and dystopian future all wrapped in one tidy package, this is definitely the book for you.

In which I admit that (yet again) I was wrong

I'd like to think it doesn't happen often but, when appropriate, I have no problem admitting that I was wrong. I'm growing convinced that if I write anything proclaiming a sweeping rule such as, "I don't like short stories" or "I have no interest in reading those acclaimed books" then I'm bound to find the exception to the rule within a matter of weeks. And so here goes: a few weeks ago, I shared my thought about the predictably and sameness of books that took place in prep schools and ivy leagues. And, of course, I have now found the exception that has forced me to admit, once again: I was wrong. 

The Year of the Gadfly by Jennifer Miller is difficult to categorize but it definitely takes place in a prestigious prep school and involves lessons learned about friendship and life, so I suppose you could call it a prep school coming of age novel. Unlike so many other books that might be considered its contemporaries, though, this book is not about ennui and disaffection. It is about a passion for getting to truth. It is about the resilience of humans (often illustrated by entomological comparisons). It is about the struggle to be true to yourself and the daunting odds that can be set against you in that struggle. And yet, it's also a page-turning tale of intrigue.

The book alternates between the viewpoints of three characters: Iris Dupont, a 14-year-old whose parents have recently located to Nye out of growing concern for Iris's metal health in the aftermath of her best friend's suicide and her subsequent friendship with an imaginary Edward R. Murrow; Jonah Kaplan, her science teacher who is himself an alumnus of the school and whose efforts to distance himself from the past have brought him squarely back to its epicenter; and Lily Morgan, the socially adrift daughter of the former headmaster, and whose narrative is kept in 1999. This book is cleverly constructed, well-written, and highly engaging. I enjoyed Iris's frequent, and vocal, disdain for cliches. On that ground alone, I think that Iris would approve of this book that breaks the stereotypes I had about prep school coming-of-age novels.  

Having fun with The Family Fang's dysfunction

I occasionally joke that my parenting style is to keep my children out of trouble by embarrassing them just enough that they'll never have to look for things to talk about in therapy someday. For the record, of course any existential angst or unresolved conflicts that I actually have created in them was purely unintentional. Caleb and Camille Fang, the parents of Kevin Wilson's The Family Fang couldn't necessarily say the same thing about their parenting choices for Annie and Buster. Caleb and Camille are performance artists dedicated to the idea that art is not about passive viewing or action itself but emotion and reaction brought about through action. They involve the unwitting audience in their shock and awe performances and, determined to prove that children are not the death of art, they involve their children as actors. As children, their lives revolve around a series of artistic endeavors that range from awkward to humiliating and, at times, painful. 

The repercussions for Annie and Buster, known to their parents as Child A and Child B, are profound. As adults, they are both adrift. Annie has become an Oscar-nominated actress as an escape from the anonymity required to participate in her parents' performances. However, her career is suffering from some publicity misfires. Buster is an unsuccessful novelist who is seriously injured in a spud gun incident. Their misfortunes cause them to go to the one place neither wants to be -- their parents' home. It's a bad time for all the Fangs; Caleb and Camille are facing irrelevance and ineffectiveness. 

The amazing thing about this is that Wilson imbues this tragic, messed-up story with a truly touching approach to the Fangs. They are never the caricatures they make themselves out to be in their performance pieces. It's wacky and witty, but it's also warm and human. We'll be discussing The Family Fang at Monday's Uncorked meeting.  Join us at Rumbleseat Wine at 7 p.m., Monday March 19 to talk about this unique book.

Forget resolutions, the new year is a time for new books!

Like many people, I think of the new year as a great time to start fresh.  It's a time to work on breaking bad habits and replace them with better ones.  However, I realized I wasn't doing too well on some of the traditional resolutions (somehow, the resolution to re-landscape my front flower beds has been on the list for three years and still hasn't gotten done...but this year I mean it!).  So, instead of focusing on the resolutions that within a month I'm apt to get frustrated by, amused by my overly zealous ambitions, or just plain forget, I've decided to focus on the great books I'm looking forward to reading this year. 

I'll start by admitting that I'm a bit of a political junkie, but that I'm already a bit weary of the campaign season.  Thinking that we have another 10 months of ads and debates is enough to make me run for cover...the cover of Taft 2012.  This book, slated for release next week (Jan. 17, 2012), imagines an alternate history in which President William Howard Taft disappeared from the lawn of the White House after his defeat in 1912 only to reappear today.  As he considers running as an independent, he is forced to consider the impact of a changed time and culture.  I anticipate turning off the C-SPAN coverage of the real election and following this debut novel by Jason Heller, instead. 

American Dervish is Ayad Akhtar's debut novel.   Set in the pre-9/11 Midwest, it's about a Pakistanti-American boy trying to reconcile the conflicting roles and views he finds himself surrounded by, all while trying to navigate the emotional riptide of first love.

Moving from the Midwest to the South, I'm really looking forward to Joshilyn Jackson's newest release, A Grown-Up Kind of Pretty.  I've enjoyed her family dramas infused with humor in the past and am intrigued by the prospect of this story about the women of the Slocumb family and the curse that has brought trouble every 15 years for generations.

The best part about the new year's offerings of books?  This doesn't even get beyond the books scheduled to be published in January.  I'm excited to see what February brings!

Don't believe the hype -- discover the magic for yourself

When the reviews for a particular book read as though they're trying to top each other in their hyperbole, each struggling to be the most glowing, the most effusive in its praise of a book, I get suspicious.  Yes, I love finding a well-reviewed book just as much as the next person; it's nice to know going in that others have found it worth the time.  Still, a little too much praise and I start to get a little suspicious that's it a case of the Emperor's New Clothes, where everyone is just afraid to admit they didn't like it as much as the last person so they have to like it even more.  I've been burned before (I still won't cop to some of the best-reviewed books that I absolutely couldn't stand...unless you ask, in which case I'll share)...and I am, apparently, far more conspiracy-minded when it comes to book reviews than I had realized. 

Still, despite my trepidation based on the incredible reviews, the public clamor, and the fact that the book was optioned for a movie before it was even released, I was pleasantly surprised by The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern.  In addition to providing yet another title to my growing list of reasons to think that that sometimes the best books are, in fact, by first-time authors, The Night Circus also managed to prove that, sometimes, you can actually beat the expectations game.

The world of The Night Circus and its cast of characters were far more unique than you might suspect from the many comparisons to Harry Potter and Twilight that have been made.  And, if I can digress for a moment, I would like to implore book reviewers to stop comparing every book with some element of fantasy to Harry Potter and Twilight  They were blockbusters in their own rights without question, but not every book that involves a bit of magic should be compared to them.  If you want the Hollywood pitch of this-meets-that, I'd argue that you should think Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell meets Something Wicked This Way Comes.  Comparisons aside, Morgenstern has crafted a world of dreamy wonderment with the Cirque des Reves.  Her writing was so evocative that I could swear I tasted the caramel corn and heard the music.  I was immersed completely in the world she created and I want to go back.  If only I can get the reveurs to tell me where it will be next...

A book I won't read in bed

Once again, I'm feeling a bit in awe of a first-time novelist.  I've read so many good first-time books in the past few years that I'm beginning to think that I could be perfectly content reading only debut novels. David Whitehouse's debut novel Bed is the latest to join the list.

The story itself is interesting, if a little odd.  Really, though, it's the characters who drive this book.  It's narrated by the unnamed younger brother of Malcolm "Mal" Ede, a man who takes to his bed on his 25th birthday never to get up again.  As Mal's weight increases (by the time we meet him 27 years later, he's well over 1,000 pounds), so does the emotional weight constricting his family.  In a series of flashbacks, Whitehouse takes the reader through the family dynamic that always held a portent of an unhappy future.  Their mother clearly favored Mal over his brother and indulged Mal's every whim, even as he displayed anti-social tendencies that suggested a troubled inner life.  Their father, overwrought by guilt from a mining accident in an elevator he designed, was reclusive and spent his time in the attic.  Meanwhile, the narrator seems aware of his limited life lived in the shadow of his brother but, in resignation to this fate, acts only in reaction to others.  The characters and their actions (or lack thereof) were often frustrating, but consistent in their helplessness. 

Whitehouse's simple style should not be dismissed as simplistic.  He was able to effectively transmit a great deal of information about thoughts, motivations, and relationship dynamics in sparse descriptions.  One such time was a simple reflection back on a boyhood campout in the backyard that conveyed much more about the family: "We played travel versions of popular games.  We didn't have the full versions.  We never really traveled." 

It would be easy to focus on the sensationalistic literal weight that pins down Malcolm to his bed, but Whitehouse was deft at using it instead as a manifestion of the many other, metaphorical, weights that held them down.  Ultimately, Mal's revelation of why he took to bed serves to tie the physical and the metaphorical together. The book moves quickly, and it served as an inspiration to get up and do something.  While I'll definitely be watching for more from Whitehouse, I don't imagine reading his books in bed.   

New Authors Turn up the Heat!

It's summer.  At least it feels like summer with the 90 degree temperatures.  Here are a few authors who blazed to the top of the charts with their first novel.  Some though written years ago continue to be best sellers.

This list would be incomplete without Kathyrn Stockett's The Help. A superb story of troubled times in American History. The characters are believable, you fear for them, hope for them and long for their lives to change.  Stockett creates a truly incredible story that will keep you transfixed and reading until its conclusion.

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini  is a novel that leads you to understand how a country in turmoil impacts all those who live there. It's a story of two boys from different background who grow up together.

The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson
When the unnamed narrator's world goes up in flames, he spends months recovering in a burn unit. He then meets Marianne Engel, a sculptor who claims they first met in medieval Germany. An incredible story that will hold you captive. 

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee is a classic it was published in 1960 and won the Pulitzer Prize.  An excellent novel about a white man in depression era Alabama who defends the black man charged with the rape of a white girl. 

Find more captivating novels here there is sure to be one that will turn up the heat!  Just sit down under a shade tree. Grab a nice cold lemonade and read a great book!

Literary Legacies

This month three authors with "connections" are making their debuts.

Maggie Pouncey is the daughter of Peter Pouncey (Rules for Old Men Waiting) and her new novel, Perfect Reader, is about family secrets.

Chris Binchy is the nephew of Irish novelist Maeve Binchy.  His fifth novel (first in the United States) is Five Days Apart and is a family drama ala auntie Maeve.

Carin Clevidence is the stepdaughter of Annie Dillard (Pilgrim at Tinker Creek) and her first novel is The House on Salt Hay Road which is set on the beach just before the Long Island hurricane of 1938.

Now these three are not the first with relatives in the book business--here are a few others that come to mind:

Joe Hill--son of Stephen King
Carol Higgins Clark--daughter of Mary Higgins Clark
Christopher Rice--son of Anne Rice
Jeff Lindsay of Dexter fame--nephew of Ernest Hemingway by marriage

Can you name some of your favorite authors with literary relatives?

The Solitude of Prime Numbers

Sometimes I want to dislike a book.  I'm not particularly proud of that, because it's never for a noble reason.  Take The Solitude of Prime Numbers.  The title immediately and completely drew me in.  I knew that I absolutely needed to read the book.  Then I read several reviews that mentioned its excellence.  I saw that it had won the Premio Strega, Italy's premier literary award.  These only made me want to read it more.  But then... then I read the author bio, and decided that I had to hate the book.  The author is a 27-year-old particle physicist.  And the book has nothing to do with particle physics.  What's next, curing cancer while running a marathon?   

Still, I overcame my blinding insecurities about my inability to either a) understand the Hadron Collider beyond the basic idea that if you steal anti-matter, it makes the Illuminati angry or b) tell a compelling story that doesn't begin with "Once upon a time..." and I read the book.   I have to tell you, I couldn't hate the book. It was beautiful. 

Giordino crafted (and he didn't just write, he crafted) a book about two characters who were together in their solitude, and whose solitary natures kept them from being together.  As the New York Times review of the book said, "For once a title is more than a suggestion; here it conveys not only the novel’s gist but also its style and heart. "  Mattia, one of the main characters, becomes a mathemetician who studies prime numbers, specifically twin prime numbers, the phenomenon when two prime numbers are remarkably close, but never quite connect (11 and 13, 17 and 19, and so on, but increasingly rarely as the numbers get bigger).  Mattia and Alice, like the twin primes they are, are two deeply wounded people who recognize their separation from the rest of the world, but don't really understand how to move beyond it.

A great deal of credit should also go to Shaun Whiteside, who took the beautiful elegance and imagery of Giordino's words and brought them to those of us who, in addition to not being able to write evocative, painfully beautiful novels or understand particle physics, also don't speak Italian.

Saving CeeCee Honeycutt

Have you ever lost at the expectations game?  Something that might be truly nice comes off a slightly...less when you go into it expecting something amazing.  I had heard really great things about Saving CeeCee Honeycutt by Ohioan Beth Hoffman.  It's a perfectly nice book but it is, in many ways, a very, very familiar story of coming of age in the South in the 1960s.  Cecelia (CeeCee) is a lonely, awkward 12-year-old when her mentally ill mother dies and her father sends her from her home in Ohio to live with a wealthy great-aunt in Savannah.  As you can probably imagine, once she arrives in Georgia a fleet of strong, compassionate, slightly eccentric women surround her.  They help her come to terms with her mother's death, her father's abandonment, and her own insecurities.  While full of cliches the story is as warm and comforting as one of the cinnamon rolls baked up by Oletta (because, of course, there's an African American housekeeper who becomes a mother-substitute for CeeCee).  While Oletta herself never breaks out of the stereotype her role boxes her into, she is pivotal in introducing the issue of racial tension and awareness for CeeCee, one of the few parts of the book that really stood out to me. 

I'd recommend this book to fans of The Secret Lives of Bees and The Help.   With its cast of eccentric women, it's also a good choice for fans of the movie Steel Magnolias.  It's not that I didn't like the book.  It was perfectly fine.  It just didn't live up to my expectations.  Then again, now that I've lowered yours, perhaps you will win at the expectations game and be blown away by how good it is.

The Opposite of Me

Upon learning, four years ago, that my second child would be a girl, a sister to my older daughter, one of my first thoughts was, "How do I prevent them from being labeled 'the pretty one and the smart one?'"  Every pair of sisters I know has been labeled as such, and every women I know who has lived with this label has been shaped by it.  It gives me some comfort to know that even if such labels are applied to my girls, it might at least give them fodder for writing a book someday.   

In The Opposite of Me, the debut novel by Sarah Pekkanen, young, ambitious Lindsay (the smart one) is forced to reconsider her life and her view of herself when a series of unfortunate events sends her back to her parents' home while trying to hide that she no longer has a job.  Meanwhile, her sister Alex (the pretty one) has a life that, by all appearances, is perfect and only getting better.   Before long, Lindsay must confront the extent to which she has played a role in perpetuating and living her life by the labels.  Cue personal growth, a new relationship with her sister, and a fresh start on life. 

Other books have addressed this dynamic between sisters, such as Claire Scovell LaZebnick's The Smart One and the Pretty One, The Opposite of Me is the best I've read at the way it shapes not only the relationship between the sisters, but also on the way each views herself as an individual.  While the book is predictable and, at times, feels overly contrived, there is a poignancy to the story that will resonate with anyone who has ever felt burdened by the labels given by others. 

Sex, Drugs, and Shakespeare

I learn so much from reading.  For example, I never knew that psychedelic mushrooms grew in cow pies until I read My Name is Will: A novel of sex, drugs, and Shakespeare.   I read it, in part, because it was written by Jess Winfield, one of the founding members of The Reduced Shakespeare Company and co-creator of The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged).  For some reason (probably just the subtitle, to be honest), it also reminded me of a book I read and enjoyed a few years ago, How I Paid for College: A Novel of sex, friendship, and musical theater by Marc Acito. 

Like How I Paid For College, My Name is Will is a bawdy tale, but the similarities pretty much end there.  My Name is Will follows Willie Shakespeare Greenberg, a UC Santa Cruz student in the mid-1980s who is ostensibly working on a master's thesis to prove Shakespeare was secretly Catholic, but really prefers to spend his time smoking hash, avoiding his thesis, and relentlessly striving for...well, the first part of the subtitle.  He also has a mission to raise some money by delivering the biggest psychedelic mushroom (yes, found in a cow pie) to a drug dealer.  Interspersed with the stories of Willie is the early life of William Shakespeare, who is struggling as a Latin teacher, but really prefers to spend his time with the players, avoiding the new headmaster and striving for....well, you know.  He also has a mission to deliver a sacred Roman relic to the erstwhile headmaster who, as a Catholic, departed for safer environs.

This is definitely not a book for everyone, specifically those who aren't comfortable with a bit of bawdiness, but if you're looking for something a little bit different with a bit of historical Shakespeare thrown in the mix, it's worth a read. 

Life as I Know It

I've always enjoyed the plot device wherein a person has a defining moment that allows a glimpse into what  life would be like if only one thing had changed.  It's been used both in movies (Sliding Doors and The Family Man and, of course, It's a Wonderful Life come to mind) and in books, including the Sarah Mlynowski's chick lit take on it, Me vs. Me.  It's a fun little mental vacation to think about how life would be different if twists had turned differently.

The latest take I've seen on this is the US debut novel of British writer Melanie Rose, Life as I Know It.  Unlike the other stories of this type, the second life main character Jessica Taylor gets to live is not her own.  After being struck by lighting, single Jessica wakes up in a hospital where the nurses are calling her Lauren and her husband and children are waiting to see her.  Lauren, it seems, was also struck by lightning at the same time, but her soul passed on.  Jessica lives a day as Lauren but, when she goes to sleep, awakes as Jessica.  The cycle repeats: every time she goes to sleep as one, she wakes up in the body and life of the other.  Suspend your disbelief and enjoy the ride.  During the course of jumping back and forth Jessica has to make some serious decisions about both lives.  She finds herself increasingly attached to Lauren's four children, who were in desperate need of a more maternal figure, but is also reluctant to give up her life as Jessica, who recently met and fell in love with her dream man. 

It sounds complicated and, I'll admit, a bit silly, but it didn't read silly.  The characters were compelling and I felt very drawn into the story, which is surprisingly easy to jump into despite the need to susbend disbelief.

Still Alice

I've been accused once or twice of becoming too engrossed in and empathizing too much with characters in books.  Not long ago, as my husband walked into the room, I promptly gave him specific instructions about what to do in the event that I ever don't recognize him or our children.  He looked at me, sighed, and asked, "What are you reading now?"  The answer was Still Alice, by Lisa Genova.  I had heard about this novel when it was chosen for the Strong Starts Great Books list and was intrigued. 

Still Alice tells the story of Alice Howland, a 49-year-old cognitive psychology professor at Harvard who is diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer's disease.  The book chronicles her descent from a mentally acute, highly intelligent professor of cognitive psychology through the rapid progression of the disease.  The author has a PhD in neuroscience and is a columnist for the National Alzheimer's Association. She uses her knowledge to craft a complete, compelling story told from Alice's perspective.  I felt a bit devastated as Alice learned that she had potentially passed on the gene for the disease to her children, as her marriage began to show the effects of her disease, and as she began to fail to recognize the things and people she valued most.  It wasn't an emotionally easy read, but it was informative, compelling, and one I highly recommend.

Great Books - More Strong Starts

The focus on Strong Starts (great books by first-time authors) continues this month.  While you're checking out first-time books by authors, don't miss local author Martha Moody's visit.  She'll be at the Centerville Library at 7:00 p.m. on February 10.  Her first novel was Best Friends.

Some other great first novels to check out include:

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

Amidst the religious, social, and political turmoil of Afghanistan from the 1970s to the present, two young boys from different backgrounds grow up together.

To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Six-year-old Scout Finch observes the reaction when her father defends a black man accused of raping a white woman in Depression-era Alabama.

The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski
When mute Edgar is unable to save his father from death-or to prove his uncle’s culpability for it, he is forced to flee to the woods that surround his family’s dog breeding farm.

For a complete list of Strong Starts, check out the featured list here.

Great Books - Strong Starts February 2010

The Great Books Great Libraries celebration continues this month with a new featured list.  February's focus is Strong Starts, highlighting great books by first-time authors.  As with all of the featured genres this year, a paper booklist is available at the Readers' Advisory table at each library, and an expanded list is available online.

Occasionally, an author bursts onto the scene with a book that makes people take notice, whether it's because they become overnight success stories or because the books is high-quality writing that brings with it the promise of many great books to follow. Several of the books selected for this month are considered classics and have been read for decades. Others are more recent but are modern-day classics sure to be read for decades to come. Finally, we've included some that slipped under the radar, but we think are great books by first-time authors that we encourage you to give a chance.

Three of the headliner books this month are:

The Alchemist: A Fable About Following Your Dreams by Paulo Coelho

When a Spanish shepherd boy dreams of a treasure in the Egyptian pyramids, he decides he must follow the trail to his dream and learns many lessons along the way.

The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson

When the unnamed narrator’s world goes up in flames and he must spend months recovering in a burn unit, he meets Marianne Engel, a sculptor who claims they first met in medieval Germany.  (This is the book that will be discussed at the Page Turners book discussion group on February 10 at 1:00 at Woodbourne Library.) 

When the Elephants Dance by Tess Uriza Holthe
“When the elephants dance, the chickens must be careful” explains the father of a Filipino family hiding with neighbors in a basement as they attempt to ride out the final days of World War II.