Books Blog : debut novel, reviews

Addition by Toni Jordan

Shh_ImReading@evpl — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 23:47:00 GMT

In Toni Jordan's Addition, we meet Grace Vandenburg, who likes to count. No, Grace loves to count. She's loved to count ever since she was a little girl. On her nightstand she keeps the Cuisenaire rods from her childhood and a framed picture of her hero, Nikola Tesla, for whom she has much affection. Grace knows how many paces it takes her to get from her apartment to her favorite cafe, or to the grocery. Her apartment is perfectly ordered. She has daily routines that start at 5:55 a.m., when it's time to get out of bed. Every day she has hot cocoa and orange cake at the cafe and every night she has chicken and vegetables for supper. On Sunday, her mother calls at 8:00 p.m. and her sister Jill calls at 8:20 p.m. So when she meets Seamus O'Reilly, where does he fit into her routines? Seamus makes Grace very happy and she wants to make him happy. On his suggestion, she enters therapy for her obsessive counting and begins taking prescribed medication. With therapy and medication come a new set of problems for Grace and Seamus. Can Grace give up counting and still be her true self? Will she still be the woman Seamus so loved and wanted to help?

I'm already looking forward to reading whatever Toni Jordan decides to write next. She has done something fairly unique with Addition. It is a romance in a way, but in another way it's a real look at identity and what it means to be well. The story is told in the first person, from Grace's perspective, with much wit. So, the book's tone changes when Grace enters therapy, taking you deeper into her experience. Grace is the star of the story, but the supporting cast of characters are fun too. Seamus is both loving and intuitive to Grace's needs, or at least he tries to be. Her niece Hilly (a.k.a. Larry), though a child, is the one who often knows Grace best. The germaphobics in Grace's therapy group are an interesting bunch. Nikola Tesla was as much a part of the story as any of the other characters; Grace liked to compare situations in her life to situations in her dear Nikola's life.

In the acknowledgements, the author gives credit to two books for information on Nikola Tesla. If you're interested, both are available from the EVPL: Tesla: Man Out of Time by Margaret Cheney & Wizard: The Life and Times of Nikola Tesla by Marc J. Seifer.

I'll confess it was the bright, pretty cover that first attracted me to Addition, but had it not caught my eye, I would have really missed out.

click here for Toni Jordan's website

The Girl She Used To Be by David Cristofano

Guatemama@evpl — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 23:02:00 GMT

A captivating and bittersweet debut novel, The Girl She Used To Be grabs ahold of your senses in its first few pages and doesn't let you go until the very last sentence. With its thrilling tug-of-war storyline and writing style this was the first book in quite some time that I simply could not put down.

At the tender age of six Melody Grace McCartney's life is turned upside down when she and her parents happen upon a member of a notable Mafia family "gutting" a man at their favorite Italian restaurant. For the next 20 years Melody assumes personality after personality in the Federal Witness Protection Program and grows bored and restless with this crisis of identity. So much so that she fakes being found out (once again) just so that she can move on to a new place, a new character, and new circumstances. But in truth she has been found by one of the Bovaro clan and he has come to "save" her.

Should she stay in protective custody maintaining the safe yet mediocre and mundane life she has lead for 20 years? Or will she risk it all to be her true self with a family of murderers? Can she stay alive long enough to make any decision at all?

The Nightingale by Morgana Gallaway

Guatemama@evpl — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 18:04:00 GMT

In her stunning debut, Morgana Gallaway delivers big with The Nightingale, a story of love and hope amid the horror of war torn Iraq. Simultaneously giving a glimpse into the daily lives of Iraqi citizens and shining a spotlight on the atrocities and inhumanity unleashed by Americans upon the detainees of war, Gallaway effortlessly weaves a tale of one young woman's courage, conviction, and tough choices as she pursues her dreams in the face of unthinkable circumstances.

Leila al-Ghani wants nothing more than to become a doctor and to be "modern" and wear the fashions of the Western world, but her role as the youngest daughter in a traditional Iraqi/Muslim family dictates a much more traditional style of dress and sooner or later an arranged marriage to a cousin she abhors. So when the opportunity arises for her to work in the field of medicine Leila does not hesitate to take the job, despite the fact that it is a job as a translator in the hospital of the American Army base. Taking great lengths to hide the true nature of her work from her father and the insurgents- at great personal risk, Leila thrives in her new role and befriends many Americans including James, a Captain with the Special Forces unit. But just as the relationship between Leila and James is heating up, so, too, is the hostility of the war and the insurgency, forcing Leila to choose where her true loyality lies.

Will she follow her dreams and betray her family? Will she decimate her new friends for the love of her father? Who can she trust? Who has already betrayed her? Will she live long enough for any of it to matter?

Thurber Prize for American Humor

Meditatinglibrarian@evpl — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 13:43:00 GMT

The 2008 Thurber Prize for American humor has been awarded to Larry Doyle for his first novel, I Love You, Beth Cooper. Runners up for the prize were Patricia Marx for Him, Her, Him Again, the End of Him and Simon Rich for Ant Farm: and other desperate situations.

So if you are in the mood for some well-written, humorous fiction, these would be some good titles to try.

I Love You, Beth Cooper will soon be a movie directed by Chris Columbus (currently planned for March 2009 release). The story is about a nerdy high school senior who proclaims his love for the most beautiful, popular girl in school in his valedictorian speech. Then she shows up at his door wanting to show him the best night of his life. Doyle has written for Beavis and Butt-Head and The Simpsons, and his first novel "both celebrates and mercilessly satirizes all things teen with razor-sharp humor" according to Publishers Weekly (PW) in their review of his book.

Simon Rich, author of Ant Farm, is a contributor to Mad magazine and former president of the Harvard Lampoon. Ant Farm is a collection of short, humorous pieces, half of which formerly appeared in the Harvard Lampoon. Most of the 57 pieces are only two pages long, and each with a different topic. The PW review says, "The tone remains constant throughout, but the topic changes every page with the abruptness of an iPod shuffle." True, these fragments are fun, and some are so abrupt they could have been iPhoned in."

I enjoyed the start of Claudia Deane's review of Him, Her, Him Again, the End of Him in The Washington Post: "There are college boyfriends. There are caddishly bad college boyfriends. And there are caddishly bad college boyfriends you somehow can't quit. And now, thanks to Patricia Marx's Him Her Him Again the End of Him, there's Eugene.

Encountered while her 21-year-old narrator is studying abroad at Cambridge University, Eugene is a budding philosopher, fresh out of Princeton and AmeriCorps with a copy of the Magna Carta in his pocket."

Author Patricia Marx is a former Saturday Night Live writer and a New Yorker contributor.

"The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society" by Mary Ann Shaffer

Guatemama@evpl — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 15:24:00 GMT

In looking for the next "good" book to read I happened upon a review of this title and was quickly drawn in by... well, just about everything. It centers around an unlikely book group. It makes mention of and draws parallels with some great authors and their literary works - the Bronte sisters to name a few. With a setting in London and the Channel Islands just after the German Occupation of World War II, this novel appealed to my love of historical fiction. And it is a debut novel... something I am always fascinated to find and explore!

As I began to read, I was put off just a little by the book's format, a series of letters written between the people of Guernsey and a young author in London, but quickly found this quite charming. (Not to mention this succinct style worked well for me -- a mother of two young children!) I was quickly and thouroughly drawn into the correspondence between this varied group of people. And though I thought I knew what I was getting into with this book, I found it to be anything but predictable. I was hooked from the first page to the last and even with a joyously happy ending I was left wanting to know more. And hoping to read more from Mary Ann Shaffer and her aunt/co-author Annie Barrows in the future!

Find The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society at EVPL

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