Book of the Month - The Girl Who Played With Fire

The Girl Who Played With Fire by Stieg Larsson

Bookviews’ Book of the Month for October was The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo – a highly popular page turner with a unique set of characters and a wonderfully exciting plot. Well, Stieg Larsson’s sequel, The Girl Who Played With Fire is just as good, if not better than his first attempt.

Lisbeth Salander, the unique, at times bizarre and always fascinating young woman, introduced in his first book, is back and carrying on as she began.

The Plot: Dag Svensson, a young journalist, comes to Mikael Blomkvist and the Millennium (magazine) Board with a proposal: his fiance is writing her dissertation on the sex trade in Sweden and how it is supported by public and private officials who should know better. In order to expose this scandal widely, Svensson asks that Millennium devote its May issue to the sex trade and at the same time publish a book based on the dissertation. Needless to say, many important and several very dangerous folks object.

Because Lisbeth has been doing a bit of her own sleuthing, she becomes linked to this project and manages to become the primary suspect when three people (one of whom is her former guardian) are brutally murdered. Mikael and his magazine are determined to prove her innocent and to publish their expose no matter the cost.

The Wiki article on The Girl Who Played With Fire calls Lisbeth “a punk, avenging angel with boxing skills and a photographic memory.” Despite seeming to be amoral, Lisbeth has a fine-tuned sense of justice and a strict personal moral code upon which she will act (aggressively), if she feels she is right.

I highly recommend The Girl Who Played With Fire. It is a page turner to the very end.

A little bit about the author: Stieg Larsson, a noted Swedish journalist, activist and writer, died in November, 2004, of a heart attack. The three books that form the Millennium Crime Trilogy are being published posthumously. Book three is entitled The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest and is due to be published in May 2010. Meg

Book of the Month - The Street Gang

The Street Gang by Michael Davis

Sunny day, sweeping the clouds away,On my way to where the air is sweet.
Can you tell me how to get…how to get to Sesame Street?

As the Google seach page has been reminding us this past week, Sesame Street is 40 years old! Big Bird, the Cookie Monster, Burt and Ernie, Oscar the Grouch – all are names that parents and grandparents and their kids know well. And just in time for this anniversary comes Michael Davis’ Street Gang: The History of Sesame Street.

For those of you who remember back before there was Sesame Street, the concept of combining early childhood education with a television show was, to say the least, unique. Getting a toddlers’ attention by singing the alphabet or using a vampire to learn numbers (remember Count von Count?) was entirely new and many of Sesame Street’s revolutionary ideas were reponsible for the early educational development of many children.

Michael Davis, who was a writer and editor for TV Guide for 9 years, brings his reporter’s expertise and writing skills to the many characters – both real and imaginary – that created the Muppets and peopled Sesame Street for a long time.

Davis begins with a watershed moment for the Sesame Street Gang – the sudden death of creator and master-puppeteer, Jim Henson. As Davis lists some of the people who attended Henson’s funeral (over 5,000 people crowded into the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City) you begin to realize how this “simple” children’s show touched many. As Davis says, Henson had invented characters (think Kermit) “that made you smile just thinking about them.”

But Street Gang is more than just a tribute to Jim Henson. It is a look inside that creation called the Children’s Television Network and all the people and effort that went into starting Sesame Street and keeping it up and running despite money crises, critics and detractors.

Street Gang is subtitled The Complete History of Sesame Street and I highly recommend it. It’s fun and educational….and brought to you by the letter “A.” Meg

Book of the Month - The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson

Sometimes I like to read books that have a “buzz.” Such is true for this month’s book, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo was published in 2008 and its sequel, The Girl Who Played with Fire is already out, but the Dragon Tattoo book still has lots of people reading it and talking about it.

Here’s a hint. For me (and many people I have talked to about the book) it took about 30 pages to really get hooked. The first chapter is all about a libel trial wherein our protagonist, Mikael Blomkvist, is tried and convicted of libel due to a story he wrote and published in Millennium, the magazine Blomkvist co-edits. The tale of the trial and its results is rather dry reading, but, as the reader comes to find out, everything that happens in that first 30-page chapter is important to later developments.

There are many levels of plot. There is the libel trial and Blomkvists’ efforts to prove that what he said about ruthless industrialist Hans-Erik Wennerstrom was, in fact, true. There is the research (into the many generations of the Vanger family) and the investigation (into the disappearance of Harriet Vanger 23 years ago) that Blomkvists agrees to undertake for Henrik Vangar. There is the series of horrendous murders that Blomkvist accidentally stumbles upon in the course of his investigations. And then there is Lisbeth – the girl with the dragon tattoo, incidentally – her unusual (to say the least) life, her unusual appearance, her unusual outlook and her incredible talent for finding things out. (This is due in no small part to her photographic memory and hacking ability with any computer or program known to man – or woman.)

One of the things that kept me reading was the characters. Blomkvist is a really honest, likeable journalist with a passionate concern for Sweden, its politics and its economy. His co-editor, Berger, is also an honest and hardworking woman. Their relationship is a curious blend of the traditional and very modern. The Vanger family, from Henrik the patriarch, to his sisters and brothers, their wives and sons and daughters are all well-drawn and memorable. But Lisbeth is the character that, once met, held my interest and astonishment throughout.

And Steig is very clever, because he intersperses what are sometimes longish explanations of what Blomkvist is investigating with a single paragraph that keeps tabs on Lisbeth and her sometimes bizarre activities.

This book is not for the faint of heart or the squeamish. It is, however, a very good story, with some real suspense and dread. I highly recommend it. I am planning to read The Girl Who Played with Fire very shortly! Meg

Book of the Month - The Magicians

The Magicians by Lev Grossman

Reason for reading: I read lots of reviews about lots of books, but the review of Grossman’s latest book (he also wrote The Codex), intrigued me. First of all, the reviewer compared it to Harry Potter and Hogwarts and I have been looking for books that are as good and as enjoyable as J. K. Rowling. Also, it sounded like a very clever mix of science fiction, reality show and magical realism.

First line: "Quentin did a magic trick. Nobody noticed.”

Plot in a (not so short) nutshell:

A group of young people are selected to attend Brakebills, a college for young magicians. They muddle through several years of magical education, pass some unusual tests, graduate and arrive in the “real” world, with not a clue what to do with themselves. (Clearly guidance counselors were not a staple at Brakebills.)

After drifting and drinking around for a while, they decide to go on an adventure to Fillory (read Narnia) to put some meaning into their lives. In Fillory they certainly have adventures, only the adventures are very real, difficult, desperate, and lead to several casualties. Our “hero” Quentin winds up in a coma for several months, gets well, shoots a Questing Beast, gets three wishes and wishes to go home.

Once home he tries to shut off all magical impulses, as well as all emotions and ambitions. He is finally rounded up by the friends who survived the Fillory expedition and they decide to return – and do it right this time.

Quite frankly I did not know what to make of this book. It seems to be a cross between (among?) Harry Potter, Alice in Wonderland, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Dead Poets Society and the Matrix. And if that doesn’t confuse you, imagine how confused I was.

When children go through the looking glass or into a wardrobe, they bring all their innocence and child-like beliefs with them. When adults (or, as in this case, young adults) push a magic button and find themselves in another dimension they bring all their character flaws, doubts and cynicism, bad manners and bad habits.

The Magicians was slow to start (I kept waiting for something to happen); full of surprises and incongruities; peopled by characters who are not very admirable. The only thing is I couldn’t stop reading it. You decide if you want to try. Meg

Books of the Month - The Hour I First Believed and Columbine

The Hour I First Believed by Wally Lamb
Columbine by David Cullen

Mr. Lamb’s book, The Hour I First Believed, is a work of fiction whose main characters are a young couple, one a teacher and one a school nurse, who both happened to have worked at Columbine High School on Tuesday, April 20, 1999 – the day when 12 students were killed by Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, seniors, who then took their own lives.

Lamb describes well the horror of that day, but his focus is the effect of the tragedy, first on the narrator's wife, and then by extension on the narrator's own life. Worlds were changed forever that day, and Wally Lamb does a credible job of taking us inside the event and it aftermath.

David Cullen’s book, Columbine, is, in many ways, revisionist history. Reporters, law officials and the general public have, for a long time, had a certain “take” on the events at Columbine – and Cullen’s thesis is that this “take” has been incorrect. Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold were not social outcasts on the fringe of their high school world. Klebold had been accepted at college, had recently gone to his prom with a date, and was part of a definite circle of friends. Harris was a bit more on the periphery, but was also part of that circle of friends. He had a steady job and just recently been given a promotion.

Cullen’s bottom line is that Harris was a pyschopath and Klebold suicidal and malleable. It was a deadly combination.

What struck me in both of these books was that evil – as a force? an emotion? – was also a character. And the complicated nature of that force (whatever you call it) that drove these two boys to planning and carrying out a massacre with spirit and enthusiam is chilling.
I urge you to read both. It is quite an education. Meg

Book of the Month - Olive Kitteridge

Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Stout

Olive Kitteridge, by Elizabeth Stout, won the Pulitzer Prize award for fiction this year. Olive Kitteridge is the title character in a series of 13 stories, all taking place in a fictional Maine town, Crosby, and all focusing on Ms. Kitteridge and her interaction with family and various townsfolk. What makes this novel special is Olive herself. Olive is a retired, seventh-grade math teacher who is “quick, sharp, big, gossipy and not an easy force to reckon with.”

Along with Olive’s character, the rustic locale of small coastal town Maine becomes a character in itself. Author Stout was brought up in small towns in Maine and New Hampshire and she knows whereof she speaks. The combination of town, town characters and Olive makes for a classy and captivating read.

Other Pulitzer Prize winners for 2009 are:

History – The Hemingses of Monticello by Annette Gordon-Reed
Biography – American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House by Jon Meacham
General Non-fiction – Slavery by Another Name by Douglas A. Blackmon. Meg

Book of the Month - My Sister's Keeper

My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult

I am not a big Jodi Picoult fan, but I must admit that My Sister’s Keeper kept me reading (right through breakfast, at one point) until I had finished.

The story is about a loving family torn apart by one sister’s mortal illness and her parents’ attempt to deal with that illness. Kate comes down with APL, acute promyelocytic leukemia, a particularly nasty disease with a horrible prognosis. A subtle suggestion from one of their doctors leads Sara and Brian, the parents, to deliberately have a child that will be a stem cell donor for their sick child. Anna is born and does donate her umbilical cord stem cells to Kate, and all is well for a while. Until Kate has a relapse – and Anna is once again pressed into service as a bone marrow donor; a blood donor; and so it goes, until Anna turns 13 and is asked to donate a kidney. She takes all her savings and hires an attorney to file for medical emancipation from her parents.

It is the interaction and relationships of the famiily (mother, father, Jesse the older brother, Kate and Anna, her lawyer, Campbell, and her guardian ad litem, Julia that make this book of complex medical and moral issues come alive. Picoult uses all her characters as narrators and so you get various points of view – a device I often dislike, but that works very well in this instance.

My one quibble is an ending that is a total surprise and a bit contrived. But the issues brought up by this extremely difficult and complex situation and the real attempt by all the characters involved to act in a manner they consider morally sound makes for a fascinating and thoughtful read. Meg

[Incidentally My Sister’s Keeper has been made into a movie, starring Nick Cassavetes, Cameron Diaz and Alec Baldwin. The movie is due out mid-June.]

Book of the Month - Out of the Deep I Cry

Out of the Deep I Cry by Julia Spencer-Fleming

I published a post in February about Ms Spencer-Fleming’s series of books featuring the Reverend Clare Fergusson and Chief of Police Russ Van Alstyne. I’m back again, and calling book number three, Out of the Deep I Cry, a Book of the Month because I am so impressed by this series. Julia Spencer-Fleming’s website calls her books “novels of faith and murder for readers of literary suspense” and that is indeed a good description.

The plot of Out of the Deep takes place in two eras, and the author moves us back and forth between these time periods effortlessly. The story involves the Millers Kill free medical clinic and the disappearance of its one doctor. Dr. Rouse’s disappearance and the funding of the clinic are intwined with the history of a old-time Millers Kill farming family, their tragic loss of four children to a 1920’s diptheria epidemic, the subsequent disappearnce of the father and the widow’s decision to fund a free clinic for the town. How the current doctor’s disappearance is tied to that family’s ill-fated history forms the basis of the story.

What makes this book so special is not the plot however, but the characters Spencer-Fleming creates, and especially the developing relationship between Clare and Russ. Reverend Fergusson and Sherrif Van Alstyne, from the moment they meet, know they are soul mates. The problem is that the sherif is, if not happily married, at least well content with Linda, his wife and honorably bound to keep his wedding vows. Clare is an Episcopal priest who has not taken vows of chastity, but who is certainly expected to set a moral example for her congregation, her Bishop - to say nothing of her own moral conscience.

Their struggles with temptation and attraction are the stuff of Greek tradgedy and Spencer-Fleming handles their emotional dilemmas and the story’s detective problems admirably. Meg

Book of the Month - Sunshine

Book of the Month - Sunshine

Vampires seem to be “in” these days – beginning with the Joss Whedon television series, Buffy (and its spinoff, Angel), right down to the current explosion of vampiric romances, the legendary figure of the vampire seems to have come into his/her own.

Laurel Hamilton’s series starring Anita Blake, vampire hunter, is a sexy, violent but enthralling look at a New York City where vampires, werewolves, zombies and those who hunt them are commonplace.

Christine Feehan writes vampiric romances that originate in the Carpathian Mountains. Her “dark” series is “peopled” with strange gods and wraiths and spirits as well as vampires.

But if you would like to try a “gentle” vampire romance that is romantic, adventurous, complex and unsettling at times, try Sunshine by Robin McKinley. McKinley is an award winning children’s author (The Hero and the Crown) and also writes for teens (Beauty: A Retelling of the Story of Beauty and the Beast). Sunshine is her first adult book and she succeeds beautifully at drawing us in and telling a story of tragedy and love.

Rae “Sunshine” Seddon is living in a post Voodoo-War world, earning her living making cinnamon rolls in her stepfather’s bakery. One night she is captured by rogue vampires and imprisoned, in an abandoned mansion, next to a wounded vampire, Constantine, who is also being held captive. He does not attack her, however, but convinces her to distract them both by telling stories. It is at this moment that Sunshine comes into her powers, bequeathed to her by her grandmother, but forgotten until now. She turns a pocket knife into a key and releases them both.They escape back to town, despite a dangerous dawn, and together they decide to face Constantine’s enemies, who have now sworn to destroy Sunshine as well.

Booklist calls this story “a luminous, entrancing novel with an enthralling pair of characters at its heart.” Sunshine also won the 2003 Mythopoeic Society Award for Fantasy for Adults. Meg

Book of the Month - The Knitting Circle

The Knitting Circle by Ann Hood.

This is actually the book that got me started knitting, because, in a way, I was looking for healing, too, and reading Ann’s book and actually learning how to knit as part of a knitting circle, helped in many ways.

The Knitting Circle is Ann Hood’s fictionalized account of the tragic death of her 5-year-old daughter, Grace, due to meningitis.** In The Knitting Circle, Mary Baxter has lost her small daughter, Stella, and after much doubt and reluctance, joins a knitting circle in Providence (RI) “as a way to fill the empty hours and lonely days.” The circle of friends she meets and the knitting she learns, which does soothe and calm, changes her life.

Each woman teaches Mary a new knitting technique, and, as they do, they reveal to her their own personal stories of loss, love, and hope. Eventually, through the hours they spend knitting and talking together, Mary is finally able to tell her own story of grief, and in so doing reclaims her love for her husband, faces the hard truths about her relationship with her mother, and finds the spark of life again.

This is a beautifully written, emotionally powerful novel.

** For a memoir that recounts the real events, read Comfort: A Journey Through Grief. For anyone who has lost someone close, this book is a gift and a burden. Publishers Weekly says Ann’s account reads “like a tightly controlled scream,” and the first chapter is as profound a description of grief as I have ever read. She does make her way through and up into healing and peace, but the journey is a difficult one. Meg

Book of the Month - Gone with the Wind

Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell

When I turned to a friend for reading suggestions, she surprised me by asking, “Have you ever read Gone with the Wind?” Of course I have seen the movie several times. (Who could forget the dashing Clark Gable as Rhett Butler or Vivien Leigh’s portrayal of Scarlett O’Hara – that combination of independent Irish femme fatale and Southern belle?) But I had never actually read Margaret Mitchells’ 1,000 page opus.

So I took a chance and began. Let me say right up front that although (at least so far) the book follows the movie closely, there is a depth of character and place that I am growing very fond of.

The plot is the “love” story between Scarlett and Rhett, but the heart of the book is the tragedy that was the Civil War. Mitchell portrays this tragedy on many levels and you come to feel deeply for the characters as they lose their land, their livelihood and their world in a futile attempt to stop the march of time and Union troops.

Another book I read recently, Song Yet Song by James McBride, presented a different view of the Civil War and slavery. McBride’s setting was the Eastern Shore of Maryland, and where Mitchell focuses on large plantation owners and their scores of slaves, McBride talks about the very small farmer, ekking out a bare existance with 1 or 2 slaves who had become truly (at least in his book) part of the family.

Both books lead to the conclusion, however, that small farmer or large plantation owner, slavery is not a viable or moral institution and its collapse brings about other kinds of destruction as well. If you have not read Gone With the Wind, I highly recommend it. Meg

Book of the Month - Cross Bones

Cross Bones by Kathy Reichs

I love the TV series, Bones, starring Emily Deschanel and David Boreanaz (Angel of Buffy fame), so I thought I would try the book series that the show is based upon. The books are a bit different. Dr. Temperance Brennan is still a forensic anthropologist, but she works both in Quebec and North Carolina for two different forensic laboratories. There is no Seeley Booth (Boreanaz’s character).

The books are well written and Cross Bones, the first one I tried, seems to be quite good. A picture of a mystery skeleton shows up in the course of the investigation of a suicide, soon discovered to be murder. This skeleton is thought to be one of the discoveries found at an ancient dig in the fortress at Masada in Israel, and for some unknown reason, the skeleton’s existance has been kept a very dark secret. This secrecy might just be the motive behind the suicide/murder with which the book begins.

Dr. Brennan’s police side-kick in the books is Andrew Ryan, an SQ detective. They are totally involved with each other (unlike Booth and Brennan in the TV series – who just flirt on the edges of involvement). Together Brennan and Ryan try to puzzle out the reason for the secrecy and the reason for the murder.

The characters are well drawn; the dialogue often clever; and the forensic details as prominent and relevant as in the TV series. If you enjoy a bit of science and detail with your mysteries – give this series a try. Deja Dead, written in 1997, is the first title in the series. Cross Bones is number 8. Reichs has written 11 Temperance Brennan mysteries in all, the most recent being Devil Bones (2008). Meg