Daughter of the Loom by Peterson and Miller

Mrs. Patricia Libero, our Board of Education Chairwoman (and Mrs. Gardner's aunt and long-time friend of my Dad's), donated several books to the WHHS LMC upon cleaning out her mother's home library.  Some were added to our collection, some were donated to the Public Library, some are now part of the book tree (yes, it's back!), and a few came home with me.  This was one that I chose to take home.

I have family ties to Lowell, Mass.  My grandfather was given up at birth in Cambridge.  He bounced around foster homes and orphanages until he turned 18 and joined the Navy.  One the places he was fostered was in Lowell.  And by fostered, I mean he was child labor for an upholsterer.  So, naturally, I was intrigued by the description on the cover about the Industrial Revolution and the mills of Lowell.  This is the first in a series, of which there are 3.  All of them will be added to our collection in the LMC.

Lilly is the youngest child of a farmer in what was East Chelmsford, now Lowell.  Sadly, her parents are now both deceased and Lewis, her older brother and a gambling addict, has sold off the farm to the factory investors.  Lilly has no choice but to seek work in the mills she despises.  Worse, she learns her former love is one of the investors. 

Lilly is on a mission, one she believes God has set for her, to sabotage the mills from within while earning enough to survive.  She befriends the matron of her boarding house and the other miller women living there.  Lilly is not the only one out to ruin the mills though.  I won't spoil any more. 

This was a pretty quick read, done in an afternoon.  Be aware, there is much conversation about God and being Christian, just in case that's not your cup of tea.

My one wish is that there was more background information given in this piece of historical fiction. 

@RamblingsLMS
#whhslmc

In a Dark, Dark Wood by Ruth Ware

This was on the NYT bestseller list for a while, so I put in a request for it at WHPL.  It took nearly all summer.  To be honest, I'm not sure it was worth the hype!  I did not feel all of the characters were developed well enough to flesh out the plot.  I feel like I know more about the sassy gay friends than the main antagonist.  More on that in a minute.

Clare is getting married.  Her best friend and maid of honor (and seriously obsessed bordering on crazy) Flo is throwing her a hen party.  This is what we call a bachelorette.  The story takes place in England, but there is not enough to confuse the reader with British vs. American English.  Flo invites dozens of people, but only a handful show up.  These include Nina (one of the sassy gay friends), Tom (the other), Melanie (a new Mom), and Leonora (who has not seen Clare in 10 years and is not invited to the wedding). 

Now, WHY do we need TWO stereotypical homosexual characters?  I mean, every stereotype known is thrust on these two characters--from Nina being a big girl to Tom being in theater--it was overkill.  Trying to be inclusive?  Didn't know which fit better (gay guy or lesbian woman)?  It was almost silly.  Melanie also serves no purpose other than to find the phone line has been cut when she tries to call home to check on her new baby. 

Someone cuts the phone lines.  There are footprints in the snow.  Drunk (and some high) playing with a Ouija board.  Sound a little cliche?  It was. 

We later learn Leonora once dated the future groom.  When he is shot in the dark, it becomes a blame game.

I won't spoil who did it vs. who gets the blame.  I barely made it to that point anyway.

All in all, I can't say I'd recommend this one!  I really wanted to, but without any feeling toward the characters (neither love nor hate), I had no vested interest and really didn't care by the end.

Speaking of which, there is a cliff hanger at the end.  If you haven't figured it out by reading my previous posts....I HATE THAT!!!!!  And it was a STUPID one at that!!!!!

#whhslmc
@RamblingsLMS

Welcome Back!!

Just wanted to give a quick hi and welcome to our new and returning readers!

We are very excited in the LMC for the new school year!

Bookmark this blog to read about upcoming events, LMC news, and Mrs. W.'s book reviews.

You can also follow Mrs. W. on Twitter at @RamblingsLMS.

Remember to turn in your summer reading forms to either your English teacher or the Library Media Center.  The prize drawings will be held September 13th!

Attention Incoming Freshman!

From Mrs. Gardner:
ATTENTION ALL INCOMING WHHS STUDENTS - Freshman Orientation will be held on Friday, August 21st from 8:00am – 11:00am. Students will tour the school, have a breakfast snack in the cafeteria, tour the library, meet with Freshman Academy teachers, meet the administrators, security and school counseling, and participate in a raffle. Buses will be available at 7:15am from all West Haven Elementary Schools (Stiles, Molloy, Forest, Thompson, Pagels, Mackrille, Haley, Washington, and Savin Rock). Parent Orientation will be held at 8:30am in the auditorium. Doors open at 7:30am for students to pick up their orientation packet with their schedule and locker combination. Looking forward to seeing you on Friday!

Plot Holes and Loose Ends!!!!!

I am angry.  Last night I finished Black Eyed Susans by Julia Heaberlin.  It was a page-turner for sure!  I could not put it down.  Once I finished it, I put it down.  Hard.  Slammed it.  So hard my husband jumped.  There were holes all over the plot like the Swiss I'm using in his lunch wraps this week.  So many loose ends you could trip over them.  What. The. French. Toast?!?!?! 

Tessie was teenager when she was abducted from her usual jogging path.  She was found, barely alive, in a ditch on a nearby farm with three other dead young women.  A witness claimed to see a large black man leaving the area at the time she would have been thrown there.  A quick trial, white girl accuses black man of abduction/torture/rape, and the accused is sentenced to death.

Fast forward fifteen years.  Terrell has exhausted all of his appeals.  His execution is rapidly approaching.  Several groups, from those who proclaim his full innocence to those who feel he was railroaded due to race to those who are simply anti-death penalty, beg Tessie, now Tessa and mother to Charlie, to reconsider her testimony as a teen. 

Tessa has been keeping a secret all these years.  She does not believe Terrell is guilty.  Every few years a patch of Black-Eyed Susans, like the ones she was found in, appear near where she is living or a property important to her.  Her best friend disappeared immediately after the trial.  There have been threatening notes. 

I have to say I was surprised by finding out "whodunnit".  But at the same time, there are huge holes in the plot!  I felt like I was watching the old movie Clue.  No matter which ending you think is correct, there are problems with each.  Really, is Tessie crazy or not?  What was going on with her best friend and father?  How does she have such a great relationship with Charlie's absentee military father?  Why does the author feel the need to bring up tampons so many times?

Readable, but not a recommend.

The new hashtag will be whhslmc!

 

Sequel Disappointment

Sometimes the sequel is better (Terminator 2: Judgement Day, The Empire Strikes Back).  Sometimes the sequel is a huge disappointment (Jurassic Park 3, The Phantom Menace).  Dark Eden: Eve of Destruction falls into the disappointment category.

I eagerly requested this after reading Dark Eden (read the review below).  I wish I hadn't.  Will and 5 of the other "cured" teens are locked in the missile silo under the pond after being summoned back to Fort Eden.  They are sent on what seems like wild goose chases, and it is not clear who is on which side.  I almost gave up reading about halfway through.  I couldn't keep straight which kid was in which room and who was working with or double crossing whom.

There was a touch of supernatural in the original and that continues in this sequel.  Science and magic intersect.  The question (inspired by Jurassic Park no less) "just because we can do something, should we?" is central to both novels.

All in all, I can't say I recommend this one.

Now that summer is drawing to a close, I won't be hashtagging my tweets relative to book reviews to summer reading.  I am looking into what to use to draw more students into my reviews.  I don't want to use the generic whhs.  If you have a suggestion, get in touch with me!

The Good Girl by Mary Kubica

Mia is the younger daughter of a wealthy judge in the Chicago area.  Her sister Grace is the judge's protege: straight A's, graduated magna cum laude, law school, making firm partner in less than 5 years.  Mia, on the other hand, spent her teenage years behaving like a juvenile delinquent.  Her father bribed the police to not charge her after nights of binge drinking and pot smoking.  On her 18th birthday, Mia packed up and left.  She became an artist, then an art teacher at a school for troubled youth.  Her tiny apartment costs nearly her entire salary.  Their father still pays for Grace's lavish apartment.

One night Mia is to meet her on-again off-again boyfriend at a bar, but as often happens he is a no show (it may be inferred he is sleeping with his boss).  Mia meets a handsome man and, slightly tipsy, returns to his house for a no-strings one night stand.  Instead, she finds herself being kidnapped.  Colin is a hired hit man, with instructions to deliver her to an African terrorist.  Colin is suspicious however that Dalmar will do more than just hold her for ransom.  Getting cold feet at the drop off, he takes Mia to his father's abandoned hunting cabin in Minnesota.

Over the next few weeks, Mia and Colin, calling themselves Chloe and Owen, form a bond.  They have to depend on each other or they will freeze to death in the Minnesota winter.  Whether Stockholm syndrome (having feelings for your kidnapper) or something else, they become lovers.  Although she does not know it, Mia/Chloe becomes pregnant.

Back at home, Mia's mother desperately tries to hold out hope her daughter is alive.  Meanwhile the judge seems uncaring.  Eve becomes more and more attached to Gabe,the detective assigned to her daughter's case.  When Mia is finally "rescued", she develops traumatic amnesia.  She is unable to remember what happened.  Her parents assume the pregnancy is a result of rape. 

The story flips back and forth from the perspective of Eve, Gabe, and Colin/Owen and flashback to present and reverse.  But let me just say, the ending was a TOTAL surprise.  The last chapter is told from Mia's perspective in retrospect.  It explains everything.  And, just WOW.

Remember to tweet what you're reading at #whhssummerread
 

Long Lost by Harlan Coben

I am a fan of Coben's books.  Not a huge, get on the waiting list fan, but I tend to like what I read of his.  This was the second book I picked up the other day at WHPL while my son was upstairs.  It is a sequel apparently, but that did not hinder my understanding.  There were a few references to prior events, but not enough to confuse a new reader.   

Myron, a sort of sports agent sort of private investigator sort of lost soul, gets a call from a former lover.  Terese is in Paris and needs help.  She doesn't elaborate.  Having just been dumped by his longtime girlfriend, Myron sets off for Paris to find and help Terese.

Along the way, we meet Win--a rich, and I mean super rich--eccentric who likes young Asians and old Scotch.  He's comic relief in a really weird sort of way.  We also meet Terese's now remarried ex-husband, who has serious issues, his new wife and child, a Muslim radical nicknamed Dr. Death, and two former female pro wrestlers: Big Cindy and Esperanza.

The story is a crime thriller, but it gets off on the slow side.  Things pick up mid-book in my opinion.  Imagine a wickedly evil radical Muslim terrorist group masquerading as a right wing Conservative Christian group.  Save the Angels' mission is to end abortion, stem-cell research, and place unwanted IVF embryos with adoptive families.  I won't spoil what the group is really up to.  It's downright scary that it could be true and actually happen.

Note there are allusions to sex, but nothing mentioned outright.  There are also references to post-9/11 torture styles, but nothing overly graphic. 

Tweet what you're reading at #whhssummerread

Those Girls by Chevy Stevens

This was a tough read.  I picked it up on a whim at WHPL.  My son was upstairs in the Graham Room getting (yes, more) Weird School books, so I meandered around the new fiction.  The cover looked interesting, as did the snippet on the jacket, so I checked it out along with another book.

I found the writing style to be similar to Gillian Flynn's (of Gone Girl fame, but this was more like Sharp Objects or Dark Places).  I also wish we lived in a world where events like this were only fiction, but alas we hear and read about abductions, hostages, and sexual violence almost daily.  

Jess, Courtney, and Dani live as ranch hands in Canada.  Their mother is dead.  Their father is an abusive alcoholic who disappears for weeks at a time.  Other people watch out for the girls, giving food and clothes when they can, but the girls have also learned to steal what they need.  A loaded shotgun keeps them safe.  When their father returns, drunk and abusive as ever, he gets furious with Courtney.  He has heard rumors of her sleeping around (which are entirely accurate).  Being drunk, he gets carried away in beating her as punishment.  Jess picks up the shotgun and kills him.  Dani, as the oldest, knows what will happen if he is found.  They will be split up, in worse foster homes than ever.  The girls make a run for it, heading for Vancouver, where they can get lost in the city.

Along the way, their battered truck breaks down, but they are "rescued" by the nephews of a local auto shop owner, Brian and Gavin.  I say "rescued" because these young men have rather evil intentions.  The girls are beaten, raped, and tortured.  None of this is described in detail; the author leaves the horror up to the reader's imagination, which inherently makes things worse.  The girls manage to escape with help from a local pub owner, who sets them up with a contact in the city who takes in runaways and juvenile delinquents.  He helps them procure new identities and he and his wife arrange a cheap apartment and jobs.  Several weeks pass when Jess, now Jamie, realizes she is pregnant by Brian.

The intention is to give the baby up for adoption, but Jess/Jamie cannot go through with it and keeps the baby girl, naming her Skylar.  Dani becomes Dallas; Courtney becomes Chrystal.  17 years pass while Dani/Dallas becomes a gym instructor and boxer and Jess/Jamie works the front desk at the gym and as a hotel maid.  Chrystal/Courtney gets involved in drugs.

Jess/Jamie never tells Skylar the truth, instead fibbing she was the product of a summer fling with no way to contact her father.  One night, in a drunken-high stupor, Chrystal/Courtney lets slip what really happened.  She tells Skylar one day she will get revenge.  The next day, she disappears.  Skylar deduces she has gone to find Gavin and Brian and takes off after her aunt.

The remainder of the story is a page turning, quick moving series of events.  Gavin and Brian are no better than when we last saw them 17 years ago. Although Brian has married and has two children, Gavin seems to be sicker than before, especially with the comments he makes toward and about his existing and new found nieces.

Again, this was a tough read, but it was also inspiring.  I have two younger sisters and would do anything for them.  Dani, Jess, and Courtney go through horrors I cannot even fathom, but their bond is unbreakable.

Tweet what you're reading this summer at #whhssummerread
Follow me @RamblingsLMS
P.S. I plan to keep the reading blog going after summer reading is over!