The Liar by Nora Roberts

Everyone has a guilty pleasure.  Some people drink.  Other people smoke.  I read trashy romance novels and then deny it when asked.

Yes, it’s true.  Try as I might to refute anyone accusing me of being a Nora Roberts fan, I actually sorta am.  Some of her stuff I’ve rolled my eyes at, figuratively and literally (the O’Dwyer trilogy? BARF!).  I find most romance novels to be extremely formulaic if not downright predictable.  But as a certain instructional leader once said, “sometimes you just want to sit by the pool and read garbage like a Harlequin novel”.  I won’t go THAT far (*shudders at the thought*), but I do like some of Roberts’ novels and like to get on the waiting list at WHPL when a new one is published.  I really did love Whiskey Beach and The Witness, and so requested this one and joined to queue to wait for it to come in.  This particular copy is WHPL’s; remember West Haven residents get first dibs if you’re on the list for something on order.

Shelby has everything a bumpkin who wants to escape country life could ever want: rich husband, McMansion in a desirable big city suburb, beautiful baby girl, jewelry, designer clothes, furs, art, cars….until it all comes crashing down when her husband dies in a boating accident.  The young widow begins to realize her life was a lie.  The jumbo mortgage is in her name and in default.  All her nice things are purchased on credit cards in her name.  The cars are leased in her name.  There is no life insurance; he lied about that too.  There are no savings nor investment accounts.  Even the diamond ring on her finger turns out to be fake.  Shelby finds herself owing millions of dollars in an instant.

Rather than panic, Shelby meticulously starts to plan to pay off her debts, selling off what the creditors haven’t repossessed.  She takes her young daughter back to Tennessee, where her roots and family are.  She sells the house and continues to list things on eBay and puts other things out on consignment. 

While some of the family welcomes Shelby home, along with her daughter Callie, others are cool towards them.  Old friends want nothing to do with the woman who couldn’t be bothered to come home for funerals and weddings.  Complicating things is a handsome contractor named Griffin, a friend of her Shelby’s brother.  Callie instantly takes to Griffin, helping Shelby to trust him.  It doesn’t hurt when Griffin buys a puppy either.

But then things get weird.  A woman shows up claiming to be Richard’s wife.  A private investigator and the FBI both come with questions for Shelby.  Someone hacks into her computer, along with her father’s and Griffin’s.  A hired crook runs Griffin off the road, and tells everyone Shelby was the intended target.  And who is watching Shelby and Griffin through binoculars all the time?

This was a great book.  I especially liked Shelby’s mother and grandmother.  Down South Mommas who 

protect what’s theirs!

Remember to tweet what you’re reading at #whhssummerread

The President's Shadow by Brad Meltzer

If you've ever watched Lost History or History Decoded on the History Channel, you know the host, Brad Meltzer.  I used his book History Decoded in my English II classes.  This book was both on the bestseller list and recommended by Amazon.  I thought I'd really like it....

I HAVE NEVER BEEN SO CONFUSED BY A BOOK IN MY LIFE!!!!

There are really only 6 main characters.  But who is working for whom and who is allied with whom....ever changing point of view....flashbacks and flashforwards....double and triple crosses....oy.  I still am not sure who was on what side by the end of the book!

Taking place sometime after President Obama's term, various agencies are both horrified and mystified when a severed arm turns up in the First Lady's garden then another at Camp David.  Somehow this is connected to secret military experiments done in the Caribbean 30 years ago.  It also connects to the National Archives (a really cool place to visit), librarians, the CIA, the Secret Service, Lincoln, JFK, Reagan....it was just too much to keep straight!

I really hate to call it a bad book.  It was just a super confusing book!

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Up in the Old Hotel by Joseph Mitchell

Yes, I skipped the first article and went to the second, "Mazie", before reading anything else!

Up in the Old Hotel is a collection of four previously published short novels and several articles from New Yorker by reporter Joseph Mitchell.  Imagine "The People of New York" (check it out on Facebook!) but of the 1930s and 40s.  In the introduction, David Remnick says "he was not much interested in the good and the great...he was drawn to the 'visionaries, obsessives, imposters, fanatics, lost souls, the-end-is-near street preachers, old Gyspy kings and old Gyspy queens, and out-and-out freak-show freaks'".

These are very short reads that stand alone and as a collection.  You can read just the ones that interest you, or read the entire set as a glimpse into the New York City of the past.

I am planning to donate my copy to the WHHS LMC, so look for it when we come back!

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Saint Mazie by Jami Attenberg

There’s a saying that one good book leads to another.  Well, we’re heading back to New York City.  To Coney Island, the Bowery, Little Italy, Chinatown….

Mazie Phillips Gordon was a real person, dubbed Saint Mazie by the homeless men she helped over a 30+ year period in the dirty streets of the Bowery.  Her life was chronicled in an article in New Yorker, which now appears in Up in the Old Hotel, a collection of articles by Joseph Mitchell.  I bought Up in the Old Hotel at the Scholastic Book Fair a few weeks ago, but haven’t read it yet.  I HAD NO IDEA I would read Saint Mazie and realize her “real” story was sitting on my ottoman awaiting me.  Thank you Amazon for telling me read Saint Mazie after my review of Church of Marvels.   Seriously, weird coincidences!

Saint Mazie follows a researcher, perhaps a graduate student or new reporter, as she tries to piece together the story of Mazie, who ran the ticket booth at the Venice theater in the Bowery.  There are excerpts from her actual diary, fabricated excerpts from a fictional diary, and “interviews” with fictional representatives of her past.  Mazie’s story begins in Boston, the middle child of a drunk abuser and his mentally ill wife.  Older sister Rosie, having run off to New York, arrives in the middle of the night to rescue her much younger sisters, Mazie and Jeanie.

Rosie and her husband Louis Gordon adopt the two girls, being childless themselves.  Mazie has a wild streak, and to keep her in check, Louis gives her a job taking tickets at his theater in the Bowery.  The family moves to Coney Island, where Jeanie’s love of dance and acrobatics is fostered.  Mazie’s story takes us through World War I, Prohibition, and the Great Depression.  Mazie becomes somewhat famous as the tough girl running the theater and, later, as the saintly woman giving money and food to the poor men of the street.  Jeanie takes off performing, Louis becomes increasingly involved with shady dealings, and Rosie slips into madness.  Mazie falls in love with a Naval officer, her old neighbor, and a Nun, among others.     

Mazie died in 1964, a woman still very much ahead of her time.  I look forward to reading the article that made her famous outside of the Bowery next.

There are some brief sexual scenes.

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Returning to Coney Island...a review of Church of Marvels

I have a blast every time we go to Coney Island.  We like the rides at Luna Park, and the New York Aquarium is right next door (almost fully recovered now since Hurricane Sandy nearly leveled it).  We're eagerly awaiting the day my son is tall enough for the Cyclone roller coaster there.  The best part (a bit of sarcasm here) is hearing your little one ask "Mommy, what does 'real, live women' mean?"  Yeah, he really asked that when he about 5 as we passed a strip club.  Coney Island has experienced a resurgence in popularity recently as an amusement park attraction.  A long time ago, though, it was a haven for carnivals and freak shows. 

One of my favorite books of late is The Museum of Extraordinary Things by Alice Hoffman.  In the novel, a "mermaid" (really just a girl in a costume who can hold her breath a really long time and has a hidden breathing tube at the back of her tank) falls in love with a budding photographer, Eddie Cohen.  The Russian immigrant is hiding from his heritage and ethnicity when he takes an incriminating photo at the Triangle Shirtwaist Company fire.  I suspect my high rating of that book led to Amazon recommending Church of Marvels by Leslie Parry to me, which is currently on the bestseller list as well. 

In this story...

Two sisters appear in their mother's Coney Island circus in the 1890s.  Isabelle is able to bend herself pretty much every way possible and swallow swords.  Her sister is somewhat physically handicapped and has knives thrown at her.  A terrible fire brings down the Church of Marvels, killing their mother and several performers.  Shortly thereafter, Belle disappears into Manhattan with just a short note to her twin.  This doesn't sit right with Odile.

Sylvan Threadgill is a nighttime port-o-potty cleaner, for lack of a better description.  One night he finds a infant near death in one of the toilets.  Vowing to not let the child be abandoned like he was, he takes the little girl home and then to a friend to look after her.  He then promises to find the baby's mother and offer his help to either reunite them or place the infant in a good home.

Alphie is a former prostitute who falls in love with a rich mortician.  Nothing she does is good enough for her new mother-in-law.  When Alphie fails to get pregnant within a few months, she finds herself desperate.  One morning she wakes up in an insane asylum and has no idea how she got there (side note: although it is never named, this "island" is likely Roosevelt Island, where parts of the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was filmed.  There was a massive hospital and asylum there and you can still visit them as historic sites via a really nifty air tram).

You've probably heard of the mole people of New York City--people living underground in old subway and train tunnels, deep in the electrical and sewer pipes.  They make an appearance as well.  You've probably also heard of homes for young unmarried women going to have their babies, who are then sold to wealthy families unable to conceive.  We visit one of those too.

In short, the novel takes us through Brooklyn and Manhattan's underworld of the past.  These lives--Belle, Odile, Sylvan, Alphie, the baby girl, and others interweave to tell a fascinating story.  Definitely a recommend! 

Note, some profanity and sexual allusions.

Finders Keepers by Stephen King

I. Love. Stephen. King.
Now that we've got that out of the way...

Finders Keepers is not truly a sequel, but the events of this novel take place after those in Mr. Mercedes.  3 main characters from Mr. Mercedes play important roles in Finders Keepers.  I would definitely recommend reading Mr. Mercedes first then Finders Keepers.

Anybody out there read The Catcher in the Rye?  The numbers of kids who have read it are dwindling, mostly because it's been phased out of curricula as irrelevant (rich and white kid, boarding school, actual records) for today's students.  I read Catcher on my own in middle school.  Reaction?  Mind. Blown.  It was like this:

"For readers, one of life's most electrifying discoveries is that they ARE readers--not just capable of doing it, but in love with it.  Hopelessly.  Head over heels.  The first book that does that is never forgotten, and each page seems to bring a fresh revelation, one that burns, and exalts "Yes!  That's how it is!  Yes!  I saw that, too!"  And, of course, "That's what I think!  That's what I FEEL!"

That is from this novel.  The main character is obsessed with The Runner and its author Rothstein.  Rothstein is modeled on Salinger.  He never writes another word after the publication of The Runner trilogy.  The truth though, is that he has been writing.  A fourth and fifth novel in the series.  Morris Bellamy breaks into Rothstien's home and steals the notebooks on which the two sequels are scrawled.  Bellamy ends up prison, and the young boy, Pete Saubers, who now lives in his old house finds them, along with several thousand dollars.

What ensues is a cat and mouse game between Bellamy, Saubers and his sister Tina, a rare book collector, Bellamy's parole officer, and Finders Keepers.  Finders Keepers is a quasi-private detective/bounty hunter agency comprised of three characters from Mercedes: a former cop, a hermit, and a college kid who's personality switches back and forth from educated young man to slave.

King leaves the door open to make this series a trilogy with a visit to a now "brain dead" Mr. Mercedes.  I'll be looking for it!

Note, as Bellamy serves time in prison, there are allusions to institutional rape.

Don't forget, if you're part of the WHHS community, tweet what you're reading at #whhssummerread

UPDATE 11/21/15....YES, THERE IS A 3rd BOOK COMING! #knewit

The Breaking Point by Jefferson Bass

A few things before we delve into this book.  Jefferson Bass is not a real person, but the Body Farm is a real place.  Jefferson Bass is actually two people: writer Jon Jefferson and Professor Bill Bass.  Dr. Bass supervises the Body Farm, which is a research facility at the University of Tennessee.  Bass's pioneering work in decomposition has helped solve many cases.  The facility has been feautred in several NatGeo and other documentaries.  Jefferson fictionalized Bass into Dr. Bill Brockton, main character in the Body Farm novels.  I have LOVED all but one of the Body Farm stories.  Recently, the team published a "prequel" to explain the beginnings of the series.  This book follows that prequel and preceeds the first published book in the series.

A little history on The Body Farm: the facility takes donated corpses and subjects them to assorted conditions to monitor decay.  It simulates different scenarios a body may be in as it decomposes.
Bass's work in infestation by assorted bugs helps medical examiners determine time of death.

In The Breaking Point, Brockton (the fictional version of Bass) is starting to gain acclaim for his and his team's work.  He has already consulted on a number of FBI cases and is asked to help identtify remains after a high profile plane crash involving a rich humanitarian.  That same humanitarian, however, may be running more than disaster relief supplies and may be mixed up with a Mexican drug lord.  Brockton's credibility is called into question, helped along by an overzealous young reporter claiming Brockton's work on dead bodies is disrespectful to the dead (she uses military veterans specifically as an example to pull at heartstrings).  Brockton is reaching his "breaking point" when his wife of 30 years tells him she is dying of an aggressive uterine cancer.  How does he deal with all of this at the same time?

We are introduced to Miranda, Brockton's assistant in the subsequent novels.  She is one of my favorite characters in the novels.  We also meet the young versions of Brockton's grandsons, who provide comic relief throughout the series.

I suggest reading the first prequel Cut to the Bone before reading this one.  Trust me, you'll want to keep reading the series.

The Bloodletter's Daughter by Linda Lafferty

Some times books fall into your hands in weird ways.  It's no secret the WHHS LMC isn't exactly rolling in the dough.  We are always on the lookout for cheap but current materials, especially popular fiction.  Amazon actually has a list of the top 100 books under $5.  I found this in that list with good reviews.  I had no idea there was a local connection.  More on that in a minute.

This was not an easy read.  It is also based on a true story.  Head back to the start of the 1600s....

King Rudolf is rumored to be dabbling in Satanism, withcraft, fortunetelling....at a time when Catholics and Protestants battle over land Muslims want.  Rudolf has no legimate heirs, but a pletohra of children by mistresses.  He is very protective of them, even though they can never inherit the throne.  Instead, Rudolf's younger brother Matthias, a fierce warrior, awaits the day he will be crowned king.  Matthias is running out of patience however.  As time passes, it becomes clear Guiglio, also known as Julius, the king's oldest son, is crazy.  No; he's a psychopath.  Binge eating and drinking, murder, rape...he takes pleasure in all things evil.

Marketa is the daughter of a bloodletter.  Little background here--people used to think one could cure their ills with bloodlettting by leeches.  Ick.  Anyway, Marketa knows the craft/science better than anyone thanks to her father's teachings, but as a woman, she can never be a "doctor".  Instead, she is doomed to life as a bathhouse maid, run by her greedy mother, who eagerly awaits the day she can sell off this "another mouth to feed".

When the King realizes Matthias intends to use Julius's mental illness in an attempt to take over the throne, Rudolf has Julius imprisoned in a castle near Marketa's home.  Marketa assists her father in treating the insane man.  Part infatuation, part defiance, part attempt to marry rich, Marketa ignores her heart (she has fallen in love with a fellow scientist named Jakub), and she goes to Julius's tower cell late at night.  You can imagine what ensues.

Marketa's rape and near murder is horrible and not easy to read.  BUT she survives, and begins a plot to save the world from the evil that is Julius.  With the help of a witch (Annabelle), a nun (her aunt), Jakub, and priest....well, I won't spoil any more.  Just remember the state summer reading theme is heroes.

This is based on a true story.  The rape and murder of Marketa Pilcherova shocked Bohemia.  What is interesting for us here in the New Haven area is in the notes to the story, the author tells us that the book Julius was obsessed with (central to the plot, but I won't tell how here) now lies in the Beinecke Library at Yale.  And it is inscribed with the name Jakub.  Did Jakub help along Julius's madness?  Did he too believe some of the occultish stuff Julius did, even though he was a scientist?  We will never know.

As stated, some sexual content including a rape.

Am I really old enough to be called HISTORICAL?

ALA 2015 Top Ten Best Fiction for Young Adults
Chicago Weekly Best Books of 2014
A Michael L. Printz Honor Award Winner
Winner, 2014 Helen Sheehan YA Book Prize
Kirkus Reviews Best Books of 2014
Finalist, William C. Morris Award
It's 1993, and Generation X pulses to the beat of Kurt Cobain and the grunge movement. Sixteen-year-old Maggie Lynch is uprooted from big-city Chicago to a windswept town on the Irish Sea. Surviving on care packages of Spin magazine and Twizzlers from her rocker uncle Kevin, she wonders if she'll ever find her place in this new world. When first love and sudden death simultaneously strike, a naive but determined Maggie embarks on a forbidden pilgrimage that will take her to a seedy part of Dublin and on to a life- altering night in Rome to fulfill a dying wish. Through it all, Maggie discovers an untapped inner strength to do the most difficult but rewarding thing of all, live. The Carnival at Bray is an evocative ode to the Smells Like Teen Spirit Generation and a heartfelt exploration of tragedy, first love, and the transformative power of music.

The above is copied and pasted from Amazon.com.  It was the description I read online after a student recommended The Carnival at Bray to me.  Yes, you read that right.  I take recommendations from my kids very seriously.  If they are reading it, I want to.  Why does this book appeal to them?  Better question, why do they think I would like it?  What makes them want to share this book with me?  In this case, I was actually sorting the summer reading booklets into piles by teacher names with my phone playing music to keep me focused.  It was on random shuffle when a Nirvana song came on.  And off she went into the book (Nirvana is a central element of the plot, bet Cobain never expected that).  I requested it through the Graham Room at WHPL since it is technically YA lit.    

Now, that description from Amazon does a pretty good job with the hook.  But let's be clear here.  This is sex, drugs, and grunge.  There is profanity, drinking, and plenty of disrespect to adults.  In short, it's 1993-1995 in the midst of teenage angst in the grunge era.

It's also, gulp, my teenage years.  I was 13-15 in the years this story is set.  And by the spine label, those years have now been dubbed historical fiction.  WHAT?  No, that's the Civil War and Red Badge of Courage.  That's Vietnam and The Things They Carried.  Surely, I'm not that...old?

Wait, maybe I am.  Maybe that's why this book took me in.  It's a glimpse of the past that I remember and changed the lives of so many people, some for good, others not so much.  It's kinda like when I talked about TTTC with my Dad.  He LIVED during Vietnam.  He had friends who didn't come home.  Cobain's death shook the music industry for sure, but it shook Nirvana's fans a whole lot more.  People of my Gramma's generation talk about remembering when Kennedy was shot (she was taking a bubble bath, FYI).  I remember hearing the news of Cobain's suicide during the ride to Bailey in my Dad's white truck.

And there you have it.  This is fiction.  During a historical event.  Wow. 

Memory Man by David Baldacci

Before I begin, please note this book contains some mature content in the violence department.  Being a parent and teacher in Connecticut, reading about a mass school shooting is tough.  It's something I think about often.  When I had a classroom, right after Sandy Hook, I wondered if I could hide 30 sophomores in a women's bathroom across the hall.  Could we make it down a flight of stairs and out to G-wing roof?  Could we make it to the other end of the hall, up, and to the main roof?  Now, as an LMS, teaching in the biggest room in the school, where massacres often begin, I have several plans to hide my kids or get them out.  I won't share those ideas here to protect my kids, heaven forbid I ever need to.  For those of you reading this outside education, remember these are things we, as teachers, have to prepare for.  How we would protect your children.  And like the teachers of Sandy Hook, and a teacher in this novel, put ourselves between a shooter and those kids to save them.
Now, onto the novel.  I have read a few of Baldacci's books prior (all from the WHHS LMC), and this was on the NYT bestseller list.  Imagine Sheldon Cooper meets Columbine meets Caitlyn Jenner.  Sounds like some pretty heavy reading, BUT I finished this in a little over 3 hours as my son took his brown belt test.  It was that much of a page turner. 
An NFL player, a walk on defensive player, takes a huge hit in his first pro game.  As has been documented, he suffers a brain injury that changes him.  In this case, he develops a photographic memory.  Fast forward ten years.  He is now a police officer, a great one with his memory and way of seeing things.  Amos comes home to find his wife, daughter, and brother-in-law brutally murdered.  The case goes unsolved.  Amos, unable to cope, spirals down, losing his job, home, respect, etc.  He ends up a seedy PI, living in a motel on the outskirts of the town.  The town itself, now devoid of jobs, is going downhill as well.  The once large employers have closed, the Army has relocated from its nearby base.  Enrollment in the high school has dwindled so much that two whole floors are unused and boarded up.  Times are tough for pretty much everyone.  Then one day a huge man in camo walks in to the high school and kills several students, a coach, and an assistant principal.  He vanishes without a trace.  The only thing anyone has anything to go on is that the bullets from the school shooting match the gun used to kill Amos's wife.
Now, that's where I'm going to the leave the summary, because this is a crime/thriller and I don't want to spoil too much.  But you are probably wondering why I mentioned Caitlyn Jenner, above.  Well, there is a character who is transgender who figures greatly into the plot.  Things today are much different than twenty years ago, when this individual transitioned.  If you are not mature enough to discuss the Jenner story, you should not read this book.  Without getting into the what makes a hero/what is bravery debate, not everyone is comfortable or accepting of LGBTQI, and if that's you, well, you won't be able to understand the character's motivation and you'll miss a lot in reading this.    

Summer at the West Haven Public Library

WHPL Summer Reading Registration

The link to register for the West Haven Public Library Summer Reading program has gone live:
http://ct.evanced.info/whpl/sr/homepage.asp