The Hand that First Held Mine

Several years ago, I read a book that was gothic and complex, moving and tender, and spoke of the tragedy that can come from the harsh actions that are sometimes taken in the name of love and propriety. The book was The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox, by Maggie O'Farrell, who has wowed me yet again with her latest novel. The Hand that First Held Mine, a book that shares several themes with her earlier work, is the story, told in alternating chapters, of two women living fifty years apart. Lexie, a girl from the countryside, is making her way in London in the 1950s as an emerging art critic, while Elina is a new mother who cannot remember giving birth after a traumatic delivery in the present day. As Elina's story progresses, it becomes increasingly about her boyfriend. Ted, Elina's boyfriend, had no memories of his childhood before age 8 until he became a father, at which point early childhood memories begin to come unbidden and drive him to distraction. Given that the two stories are in the same book, it seems obvious that the characters' lives will intersect at some point, although it is not immediately apparent how. When it begin to dawn on me what the connection was, I found myself so immersed in the story that I felt simultaneously compelled to rush to the end and to stop reading so that I could confirm that what I didn't want to be the truth was, in fact, their story.

O'Farrell's writing is beautiful and elegant. In one scene, Lexie's activities are visually rewound, and presented as if watching the movie of her life in reverse, to explain how she from the country to London, and I found myself reading and re-reading the scene because the imagery was lovely and was presented in such a unique way. O'Farrell writes of the lasting impact of tragedy, the tricks of memory, and of the heartbreak that comes with too much knowledge. While Ted and Elina's story is fascinating and vital to the book, it is Lexie whose vibrancy drew me and left me wanting more. If you've never read any Maggie O'Farrell, start with The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox or The Hand that First Held Mine and I suspect that, like me, you'll be eager to see what this gifted author comes out with next.

Second Time Around

Let's be frank: it's not that unusual for an author to explore what happens if a character is given the chance to finally fulfill a lifelong dream.  There's nothing trailblazing in a book where a group of women shuck off the expectations of others to find that out who they really are.  And, really, how surprising is that along the way to putting their internal lives in order, those women find or rediscover a great love?  But sometimes, a fun, escapist book where everything is neatly wrapped up in a package that you see coming from page one is exactly what's needed.  For me, that time is usually the midst of the summer heat, when the humidity has left me barely enough energy to turn pages, let alone wrap my head around books that make me...what's the word?...think.

In Second Time Around, Beth Kendrick offers a look at a group of four friends whose lives are all in limbo somewhere between their quarter-life and mid-life crises.  The four come together when the fifth member of their group dies and leaves each woman $250,000 with the stipulation that she must use it to realize her life's dream.  While there's nothing particularly unique or surprising about Second Time Around, and it relies on contrivances (it is terribly convenient that each woman's life dream also serves to further her friends' dreams), it's an enjoyable, light book, perfect for a summer read, perhaps in one of those Adirondack chairs on the cover. 

P.S.  The worst thing about this book is that its title got a theme song from a particularly cheesy 1990s sitcom stuck in my head.  I can hardly blame the book, but still... five bonus points to anyone who knows to which sitcom I'm referring -- not because this knowledge is particularly worthy of a reward, but because if you know it and now have it stuck in your head, I feel I owe you. 

Let's Be Pirates!

Have I ever told you about the day I almost met Steve Jobs? I know it sounds like the beginning of a bad joke, but I kid you not. Ahhh, I remember it like it was yesterday. It was the spring of 1989. I was just a freshman at the University of Cincinnati and a computer science major, pursuing my goal of becoming a programming superstar. (We all know how that turned out!) Jobs was scheduled to speak at an on-campus colloquium touting his new line of NeXT computers, and apparently my FORTRAN (yes, FORTRAN) professor thought highly enough of me to invite me along. But what did I do? Dumb kid that I was, I blew it off and never went! Now you're probably wondering what this has to do with anything. Well, about a month ago I watched a favorite movie of mine, Pirates of Silicon Valley (yes, I do own it), which of course made me long for those glorious childhood days I spent exploring the holy trinity of home computers: Commodore, Apple, and Atari. It also prompted both the memory above and a reading of Jeffrey S. Young's iCon: Steve Jobs, the Greatest Second Act in the History of Business. This book takes you from Jobs's early days of phone-phreaking ("completing calls by playing certain frequencies of tones into telephone receivers") to Apple's lowly beginnings in his parents' garage to his unceremonious ousting from the company he co-founded and beyond. And all along that gloriously bumpy road you're riding shotgun, witness to both Jobs's legendary ability to inspire those around him and his equally legendary tirades and tantrums. Personal facts abound as well, such as Jobs's relationships with his daughter Lisa, his wife Laurene, and his sister, bestselling novelist Mona Simpson (betcha didn't know that one...neither did I). So, whether you're a closet nerd like me or you'd simply like to know more about the man behind the gadgets you can't live without, give iCon a spin. It's one heck of a ride, and I trust that it's not over yet! 

Who knew cake had feelings?

I've never been a huge fan of the magical realism that has made books like Gabriel Garcia Marquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude or Laura Esquivel's Like Water for Chocolate so popular that they became "must-reads."  Still, I'm a sucker for a good title, so when I saw the advance reviews for The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake, I was intrigued and had to give it a try. 

On Rose Edelstein's ninth birthday, her mother makes a homemade lemon birthday cake.  It is a cake that everyone else in the family delights in and happily eats.  To Rose, however, it tastes of lonlieness, emptiness, and despair.  It is on her ninth birthday, through her mother's cake, that Rose discovers food tastes of the emotions the cook was feeling.  She is overwhelmed by the emotions and the knowledge that comes with them to the point that eating any homemade food can make her ill.  The feelings of love and contentment she tastes in her friend's school lunches only serve to highlight the troubles she tastes brewing at home.  As Rose ages, she learns which processed food is made "touch-free" and subsists on these machine-made junk food staples. 

Be warned: despite the delish-looking cake on the cover, there is very little sweetness to this book.  The Edelstein family is detached and uncommunicative, and each member tries to find his or her own way to get distance from the other members in the family.  Rose, her brother Joe, and their father all have special "gifts" that exacerbate and allow for this tendency.  This story is, in a sense, about the way that they use or hide from these unique talents.  It is also about Rose's need to find a way to accept her life, strange as it is, and to live with, rather than hide from, her unique sense of taste.

Even for those who, like me, aren't typically fans of magical realism, this is a palatable book.  Like the cake that first introduced Rose to her emotional tastebuds, its characters' sense of detachment leaves a somewhat hollow feeling, but provide plenty of fodder for thought and discussion. 

In the Queue

Kings of the Earth by Jon Clinch
Three brothers live together on a farm in New York. When the eldest brother dies, suspicion falls on the two younger brothers. Could one be guilty of murder?

Lucy
by Laurence Gonzales
Fifteen-year-old Lucy is rescued from the jungles of the Congo after her father is killed.  Most teenagers are a little weird, but Lucy is stranger than most.

Zoo Story: Life in the Garden of Captives
by Thomas French
What happens behind the scenes in zoos? The author confronts the on-going controversies about zoos where conservation sometimes takes a backseat to commerce.

Get an "Adrenaline Rush" in July!

The Great Books theme for July is Adrenaline Rush!

Adventure books typically have fast-moving plots, exotic settings, and larger-than-life heroes. The hero (usually male) is involved in death-defying activities and the stories can be set at any time during the last several centuries.

Read one these adrenaline pumping titles and put it on your reading entry for both Summer Reading Program and The Great Books Challenge!  Two for the price of one!

Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton
Cloned dinosaurs on an island preserve escape and wreak havoc when a thief causes a power outage.

Cathedral by Nelson DeMille
St. Paddy’s Day in New York City turns deadly when IRA terrorists take hostages and lay siege to St. Patrick’s Cathedral.

The Perfect Storm by Sebastian Junger
This storm of Oct 1991 created waves 10 stories high & winds of 120 mph. It was witnessed by only a few including the six-man crew of the fishing boat the Andrea Gail tragically heading into the storm’s center.

Some classic adventure authors to try are Max Brand, Zane Grey, Louis L'Amour, Jack London, Alistair MacLean, and Patrick O'Brian.

Try more great adventure books on the library website.

A Special Place: The Heart of a Dark Matter

It was in this fashion that Keith Hayward acquired the boy known as Miller.

And it was that single sentence in Peter Straub's novella A Special Place: The Heart of a Dark Matter that sent a chill right through me. If you've read Straub's A Dark Matter, published earlier this year, then you've already met Keith Hayward--and his suave Uncle Till, a serial killer known in the local rags as "The Ladykiller" and a doting uncle who recognizes and nurtures the darkness within Hayward. A Special Place sheds a bit of light on Hayward's childhood in Milwaukee, providing backstory for some of the grim events that transpire in A Dark Matter. Here we are able to eavesdrop on conversations between uncle and nephew that circle and dance around the truth of who Uncle Till really is and what Hayward is slowly becoming. It doesn't take long for Hayward to figure his uncle out, though: "They had talked long and often since that moment, but never, Keith now saw, of actual murders--murders of human beings. Here was the great dark door before which he had quailed; here was the true, the real abyss. And as he stood before it, the door swung open, and the abyss yawned wide." As for the boy known as Miller, well, you can only imagine what becomes of a defenseless boy who is rescued from bullies by a monster. The fate he ultimately meets in Hayward's "special place" will break your heart. A Special Place is Straub at his deadly best, and the contents of this slim volume will stay with you long after you've finished. Look for it soon here at the library.