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