Books Blog : first novel

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 Little Giant of Aberdeen County by Tiffany Baker

HRevvdon@evpl — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 19:13:00 GMT

I didn't know what to expect from The Little Giant of Aberdeen County (2009) by Tiffany Baker, it was recommended by a friend and I had not heard anything other than it is a first novel from Baker.

The story is about two children in a very small northeastern town. Serena Jane is the older child and is a beautiful petite child. Then there is the younger sister. When their mother is close to giving birth to the younger sister she is so big that the townspeople start taking bets on how many babies she will have. She has one very large child, and dies in childbirth. The doctor misunderstands the mother's delirious ramblings and names the child Truly. This is really Truly's story. Truly is large and keeps growing.

As children the two are separated at the death of their father - Truly to a poor and bad-luck farmer's family and Serena Jane to the preacher's home where she is pampered and coddled. Serena Jane's life is tangled with the town doctor's family and she marries his son, Robert Morgan - Bob Bob. She has a son and then runs off. Truly then becomes housekeeper and her life becomes tangled with Robert Morgan.

Truly realizes that an antique quilt holds the secrets of Robert Morgan's greatgreat-grandmother - reputed to be a witch. She learns the secrets of herbs and plants to help cure, and the secret of how they can harm or kill. At first the knowledge gives Truly something of her own to hang on to, but then she learns it can also be a burden if she does not use it correctly.

I enjoyed this book and thought it an impressive first novel. My one problem was that from time to time I forgot that it was not set in an earlier time, but in today's world. The book does not dwell on the reason for Truly's being a "little giant", just that it makes her very different. I liked that.