Lighthouse Island: A Novel

Title:  Lighthouse Island:  A Novel

Author:  Paulette Jiles

Publication Information:  HarperCollins. 2013. 392 pages.

ISBN:  0062232517 / 978-0062232519

Book Source:  I received this book through the GoodReads First Reads program free of cost in exchange for an honest review.

Favorite Quote:  "Nadia plunged into books because there was no danger of fictional characters disappearing, and eve better, they were not subject to arrest."

Nadia is a young woman growing up in a dystopian world. We first meet Nadia at the age of four when she is orphaned or abandoned on the streets. She grows up through the child welfare system. She becomes fixated on the idea of a vacation spot called Lighthouse Island. She sets off on a quest to find Lighthouse Island where life sure might be better and maybe she'll find her parents.

The dystopian society Nadia is in is the result of a population explosion and characterized by an extreme lack of even basic necessities like water. Lighthouse Island becomes a beacon of hope or the promise of utopia, a place where life still blossoms.

I have read and enjoyed several dystopian novels (The Here and Now, Cloud Atlas, The Hunger Games), but I had a very difficult time getting through this book, primarily due to the writing style.

The initial part of the books jumps from Nadia abandoned at age four, Nadia in an orphanage, Nadia going blind, Nadia regaining her eyesight, Nadia losing other people she cares about, Nadia in a couple of different foster homes, and more. These heartbreaking events should create a sympathy for Nadia's plight. Yet, they don't. The detached tone of the book and the quick jumping from point to point create a narrative and character that elicit no such reaction. Beyond that point, I really did not care what happened to Nadia.

The book also seems to go off in a stream of consciousness ramble with the story getting lost in the writing. A couple of examples.

"It signified the fascination with an avaricious past and a desire for the personal communication and entertainment devices that had turned humanity into consuming somnambulant narcoleptic zombies."

or

"James had been forced to sit in a cramped waiting room with a loud television blasting in his face along with other patients in their carefully repaired clothes and various forms limblessness, a sign of his descent from privilege to proletarian misery, of which he should not be contemptuous, except for him the consequences of official poverty would be fatal." 

The individual sentences have a lyrical quality to them, but putting many of them all together results in a whole lot of words with not much story.

The mechanical choice of not putting quotation marks around dialogue makes the book even more difficult to follow. I know other books have used this technique, but in this one, it was unsuccessful for me.

The premise of the entire book is the quest to reach Lighthouse Island, and without revealing the end, I will just say that it was rather abrupt. Yet, based on the rest of the book, I really don't want to know more.

Please share your thoughts and leave a comment. I would love to "talk" to you.

Just My Typo: From "Sinning with the Choir" to "the Untied States"

Title:  Just My Typo: From "Sinning with the Choir" to "the Untied States"

Author:  Drummond Moir, editor

Publication Information:  Three Rivers Press, Crown Publishing Group, Random House LLC, Penguin Random House Company. 2012. 192 pages.

ISBN:  0385346603 / 978-0385346603

Book Source:  I received this book as a publisher's galley through Edelweiss free of cost in exchange for an honest review.

Favorite Quote:  "All typos in this book are intentional. Any typos made by the compiling editor are also intentional, and are there purely for comic effect. If during the course of reading this book you think you spot a typo, you haven't. If you think you might have spotted one all the same, you haven't. No typos will be corrected for future editions."

Just My Typo is an eclectic collection of typographical errors found and collected by the editor. The book is relatively short and a quick read, but when you are dealing with a typo in a headline or a sentence, even a short length can encompass a lot.

The book organizes the collection by source/topic:

• Literature
• Media
• History/politics
• International
• Food related
• Legal
• Money related
• Auto correct errors
• Children's typos
• Religious texts texts
• Romance
• Life and death

Within each section, it also includes:

• Favorite typos submitted by editors and others.
• Typesetting mistakes that go well beyond just a typo.
• "Interludes" with typos or other language trivia that perhaps does not fit the rest of the structure of the book.

I found myself reacting differently as I read along depending on the exact error:

• Some are an interesting historic tidbit, and I found surprising. For example, I learned something about our Declaration of Independence.
• Some require a little background to figure out the typo. I found myself looking up certain information, but that added to my interest.
• Some I had to read a couple of times before the error jumped out at me. Of course, once I see it, it becomes obvious.
• Some tend to repeat time after time in different scenarios. It was interesting to see those patterns emerge.
• Some are just funny, enough to have me laughing out loud. Sometimes, that alone makes a book worthwhile.

I also love finding books that can appeal to children and adults. Parts of this book definitely are sharable with children. I find myself sharing the things I read with my family and around the dinner table. This book is also one that you can read cover to cover, or pick up and put down as you will. You could flip open to any page and find some enjoyment. I really enjoyed it and look forward to additional collections. I also can see myself sharing this with the editors and other lovers of the written word in my life. This book is just my type of book!

Disclaimer:  Any typos in this review are not intentional. I hope that I have found and corrected them all. If you find any, please let me know.

Please share your thoughts and leave a comment. I would love to "talk" to you.

A Song for Issy Bradley: A Novel

Title:  A Song for Issy Bradley: A Novel

Author:  Carys Bray

Publication Information:  Ballantine Books. 2014. 352 pages.

ISBN:  0553390880 / 978-0553390889

Book Source:  I received this book through the LibraryThing Early Reviewers program free of cost in exchange for an honest review.

Favorite Quote:  "Anyone can be brave for five minutes or an hour or two. The bravery no one talks about is the hardest bravery of all. When you get up in the morning even though you'd rather be dead, that's brave. When you build instead of breaking downs. No one gives you a slap on the back for it, no one tells you your salvation's assured, but it's brave."

Issy Bradley is the youngest of the Bradley children. She succumbs to a sudden, virulent illness and dies. This book is the story of those left behind - her father Ian, her mother Claire, her sister Zippy, and her brothers, Alma and Jacob. At the heart of this book is the idea of faith and the role it plays in moving on after a devastating, unexplainable loss such as the death of a child.

Ian Bradley is raised in a home driven by faith and serves as a Bishop in his Church. His faith is central to all he does and who he is. He is devastated by the loss of his child, but continues to believe. "One day we'll understand why bad things happen and it'll make sense."

Claire joined the Church upon her marriage to Ian. She has doubts and cannot believe that any rationale could explain this catastrophic event in their lives. "Faith in the face of mountainous evidence to the contrary has always felt like a trick or a trap:  if she convinces herself to believe, if she manufactures assurance and pus all of her eggs in faith's basket, how much worse off will she be if it breaks?"

Zippy is a teenager. She believes in the tenets she has been taught and in the rules of right and wrong. Yet, she struggles with temptations that lie beyond those rules, and with friends who push the boundaries further.

Alma wants to be a young man, playing football and hanging out with his friends, without the restrictions that the Church places on him. In his actions, he follows the principles of honesty and truthfulness but struggles with the strict religious rituals.

Jacob is a little boy. He believes in miracles with the innocence of a young child.

The Bradley family follows the Mormon faith, reflecting the author's own background. Carys Bray was raised in a strict Mormon family, but she left the faith in her early thirties. I know very little about faith, its teachings, or its rules. So, I don't know the accuracy with which the book reflects it.

However, as far as the story is concerned, it does not make a difference to me. The rituals and rules presented may accurately or inaccurately reflect the Mormon faith, but the emotions and the journey of faith transcends any given religion. That is where the story lies.

How do you deal with such a life altering event? What do you do when "the house is full of sadness. It's packed into crevice and corner like snow." Do you continue to hold onto belief? Do you turn away in sadness and look to blame? Do you hope for a miracle?

This book does a beautiful job of exploring those emotions through the perspectives of the Bradley family. What I also really like is that the book does not imply a judgement as to what the right answer is or even if there is a right answer in the author's mind. The ending itself is open to interpretation for there is no one answer. It is an answer that each person must discover for themselves. The book poses the question, and documents different paths. For the questions it poses, I see this as a great book for book clubs.

Please share your thoughts and leave a comment. I would love to "talk" to you.

Bittersweet: A Novel

Title:  Bittersweet:  A Novel

Author:  Colleen McCullough

Publication Information:  Simon & Schuster. 2014. 384 pages.

ISBN:  1476755418 / 978-1476755410

Book Source:  I received this book as a publisher's galley through NetGalley free of cost in exchange for an honest review.

Favorite Quote:  "I grow very tired of egalitarian generalizations - all men are not equal, nor are all women. Individualism should be prized."

I loved the premise of this novel. Four sisters - two sets of twins - set out in the 1920s to carve their futures as trained nurses. They are to become some of the first specifically trained nurses.

Edda wants to be a doctor but settles for nurses' training as that is what is available. Grace wants to get married and raise a family; she goes to nursing to be with her sisters. Tufts wants the independence that knowledge and training will bring. Kitty fights against her own beauty, seeking to be recognized for the person that lies behind the beautiful face.

The four sisters, born to the same father but two different mothers, are growing up in 1920s New South Wales, Australia. The nursing training offers a new and acceptable opportunity through which to escape their dominating mother. Maude is mother to Tufts and Kitty, and stepmother to Edda and Grace.

Along with the story of the sisters comes the story of the men surrounding them. Jack is the bachelor running his ranch. He is a friend to Edda, but is he more?  Dr. Liam Finucan is a physician at the hospital. He is knowledgeable and kind. He too becomes a friend to the sisters. Bear is a traveling salesman whose relationship begins with a chance meeting. Charles is the heir to a local fortune; he is also a physician, whose life up to this point has been spent in England.

1920s and 1930s Australia provide the backdrop to this saga. The weather, the political climate, the economic depression, and the societal role of women all play a role and provide a context to this book. However, the background is not sufficiently developed, just briefly introduced where relevant. This is not an epic book of Australia; it is family saga set there. The focus is definitely not the bigger context.

The premise of this book holds such promise - four strong young women seeking change and independence. If romance and relationships come their way, great. If not, the focus remains on their individual journeys and their sisterhood.

Unfortunately, the reality of this book leans significantly toward the romance and the relationships rather than the development of these young women. At the end of the day, "there were men's things and women's things; they led on from the manifest differences of anatomy into the realms of the intangible soul."

As a result, several of the characters seems one dimensional and undeveloped. For example, early on, the book reveals that Kitty is the sensitive one that the other three protect. We know that this is the result of childhood experiences, but that is all. The reference is repeated several times during the book, but never truly explored. The characters could have been compelling and could have drawn the story together, had they been more fully pictured.

A somewhat disappointing development to a promising beginning. Without giving things away, I will say that I was also particularly disappointed in the ending point of two of the sisters' stories. Some of it seemed unbelievable, and some of it disappointing. I wanted and expected the story of women doing great things or at least managing life on their own; what I got was a romance with heroes and villains.

Please share your thoughts and leave a comment. I would love to "talk" to you.

Here Is Where: Discovering America's Great Forgotten History

Title:  Here Is Where: Discovering America's Great Forgotten History

Author:  Andrew Carroll

Publication Information:  Crown Archetype. 2014. 473 pages.
ISBN:  0307463982 / 978-0307463982

Book Source:  I received this book as a publisher's galley through Edelweiss free of cost in exchange for an honest review.

Favorite Quote:  "Travel is a glorious form of procrastination, allowing us to put off the daily deluge of e-mails, phone messages, and countless burdens with a simple, socially acceptable excuse:  'Sorry, I'm on the road...'"

Here is Where:  Discovering America's Great Forgotten History is part travelogue and part history book. It all begins with Andrew Carroll's collection of "forgotten history" - notes he took whenever he encountered "a relatively unknown incident" of history.

He sets out on a quest to "search for unmarked sites across America that have been forgotten over time. One trip, all regions of the country. And not only in major metropolitan areas but in small towns and communities from coast to coast." Some of the rules for his journey:

• The place and history must meet his definition of "forgotten."
• The incident and place must "be nationally significant and represent a larger narrative in American history."
• "No weird stuff."

I love history, trivia, and travel. This book sounds like the perfect combination!

The historical incidents presented in the book are the best part of the book. Some are more memorable than others, and some have been forgotten for a reason:

• Did you know that Edwin Booth (the brother of John Wilkes Booth) once saved the live of Robert Todd Lincoln (Abraham Lincoln's son) at a train station in New Jersey?
• Did you know that one of the Japanese pilots in the attack on Pearl Harbor crashed on one of the Hawaiian islands?
• Did you know that Union Pacific would hire immigrants from diverse backgrounds such that the different cultures and languages would keep the groups separate and make unionization more difficult?
• Did you know that cartographers sometimes include fictional entries on maps to protect their copyrights - a copied map will have the fictitious entry whereas another cartographer who has done original research would see the fiction?
• Did you know that on Hart Island in the Bronx is a 101 acre cemetery where New York state buries its unclaimed dead?

Each bit of history is presented in a about eight to ten pages. That makes this book easy to pick and put down and read a little bit at a time. As each of the stories is distinct, you can also flip through the table of contents and pick one to read. Even though it is part travelogue, the book does not have to be read beginning to end.

The book organizes the events by topic, ranging from coming to America to medical pioneers to stories about the dead. The book has a detailed table of contents, allowing a reader to get to each separate story quickly. The book also includes a list of sources at the end to authenticate the information presented. What would improve this aspect of the book would be an index, a map of the locations, and perhaps illustrations or photographs.

Some of the descriptions include references to other similar incidents in history. Unfortunately, these are mentioned in a couple of sentences and not developed. At times, these prove to be a distraction - I either want to get back to the main description, or I want to know more about the reference.

As a travelogue, the book is less successful for me. The organization by topic prevents me from getting a sense of Andrew Carroll's journey. It seems to jump from place to place without a sense of continuity throughout. A geographic or chronological organization would lend itself better to understanding his trip. In this setup, I found myself skimming over his personal comments to get back to the historical story he is telling.

An entertaining read, but just not what I expected. I would definitely recommend it to the history buffs in my life.

Please share your thoughts and leave a comment. I would love to "talk" to you.

Close Your Eyes, Hold Hands: A Novel

Title:  Close Your Eyes, Hold Hands: A Novel

Author:  Chris Bohjalian

Publication Information:  Doubleday. 2014. 288 pages.

ISBN:  0385534833 / 978-0385534833

Book Source:  I read this book because I enjoy the author's work (The Light in the Ruins, The Night Strangers, The Sandcastle Girls). I haven't liked all the books, but I always seek out the new ones.

Favorite Quote:  "I was homesick and sad - and you don't know homesick until you think you will never, ever see your home again. But sometimes I think I was at my best when the world seemed to be at its worst."

The books explains its title, "Close you eyes, hold hands." The reference is to the school shooting in Newtown Connecticut in 2012. The adults in the school had to walk the surviving students out of the school. Yet, in their path lay the bodies of their fellow students who were killed in the shooting. To prevent the children from witnessing that, the students were instructed, "Close your eyes, hold hands."

A powerful reference and image for a powerful book.

Vermont is nicknamed the "Green Mountain State" and is known for its rustic and natural beauty and its spectacular fall colors. In this beautiful setting, Chris Bohjalian places the Cape Abenaki nuclear power plant. The term "abenaki" comes from the tribe name of one of the Algonquin Native American tribes of the Northeast. Disaster in the middle of nature's paradise. "The foliage the autumn after Reactor One exploded was phantasmagorically beautiful ... What every understands but no one this about is that the leaves are spectacular because they're dying ... That beautiful red leaf, in other words, is slowly starving to death."

This book is Emily Shepard's journal. It is sometimes lost and scattered like her. It is sometimes confused and sad like her. The book acknowledges that as well. "Someday I should rewrite this whole mess. Try to put it in some kind of order. Someday I should probably do lots of things."

Emily is a teenager and the daughter of two people who work in the power plant. An accident occurs. One reactor explodes, creating a huge disaster for the plant and a huge surrounding area. Emily's parents die in the explosion, and her father is held responsible for the accident. Emily survives, and she runs. She runs from the disaster. She runs from the notoriety. She runs from the grief. She runs from the shock.

That is where the book begins. Shock, grief, and mental illness all play a role in this book. Emily ends up homeless, living on the streets of Burlington, Vermont. "Life on the streets is f***ing exhausting. It really is. There's nothing harder."

She ends up alone, until she finds Cameron, a little boy running from abuse at a foster home. That humans connection and feeling of responsibility keeps Emily herself safer and away from destruction. "There were times when I was a totally unfit guardian (I almost wrote "big sister"), but not those nights."

Another loss occurs, and Emily runs again. She runs from who she cares about and from people who care about her. "I couldn't do anything right. I didn't belong ... I had betrayed him, and now I was deserting him."

The emotion of this book is vivid and evident on every page. As with other recent books with young protagonists and narrators (Land of Love and Drowning and The Goldfinch), I want to reach out and protect Emily. Emily uses bad language. She is self-destructive. She chooses a path of drugs and prostitution at times to survive. Yet, on the flip side, she is intelligent. She spends hours at the library reading. She is passionate about the poetry of Emily Dickinson. She is all of these things together, and she is still a child who has lost all she holds dear in the world. Through all her bad choices and means of survival, I care and wonder who can help her and how. I wish that I could.

The book is dark and sad. Emily's has her flaws, and her decisions not always likable. Yet, Emily's character becomes so real through the book that I care deeply about her fate. The best recommendation for the book is that as it ends, my reaction is, "But no. I want to make sure she is going to be okay. What happens to her? What happens next?"

Please share your thoughts and leave a comment. I would love to "talk" to you.

We Are Not Ourselves: A Novel

Title:  We Are Not Ourselves:  A Novel

Author:  Matthew Thomas

Publication Information:  Simon & Schuster. 2014. 640 pages.

ISBN:  147675666X / 978-1476756660

Book Source:  I received this book as a publisher's galley through NetGalley free of cost in exchange for an honest review.

Favorite Quote:  "They gave out no manual when you got married, no emergency kit with a flashlight for when the power went out. You had to feel your way around in the dark for the box of matches."

If I had to summarize this book in a few words, the words would be, "Life happens." Sometimes life happens as you plan it. Sometimes, life happens while you are busy making other plans.

Eileen Tumulty wants the American dream - the big house, the family, the status. Growing up in a poor Irish family in Queens, New York, Eileen dreams. When she meets Ed Leary, she falls in love. She also feels that they share their dreams, and that Ed will provide the means for her to achieve what she has always wanted. After all, Ed is an educated, up and coming scientist.

They marry, and then comes the reality of marriage. Eileen discovers that Ed does not share the same dreams. He is comfortable in his job and in his home and does not aspire to more. Eventually, along comes a child - Connor. Eileen continues to hold on to her dreams, thinking that she can convince Ed to go along.

Ed does change, but not in the way that Eileen expects. Darkness and sadness enters their lives. "Life, she thought, was like that sometimes; for years, things were a certain way, and then, in an instant, almost without conscious thought, they weren't that way any longer, as if the hidden pressure on their having been the way they'd been had found release through a necessary valve." Ed seems to slip further and further away, and along with him go Eileen's dreams.

Yet, this family struggles along, holding together in their love for each other. At one point, Eileen realizes that "there was something perfect about the imperfection of her husband - her mortal, living husband."

This book is the story of a life - the sometimes free fall spiral of a family's life. The story covers a broad spectrum - from Eileen's childhood through the entire scope of their marriage. In each era of their lives, we see the reality shift and the comparison of that reality to Eileen's American dream. We see neighborhoods transition. We see careers build and careers end. We see children grow up. We see friendships come and go. We see life take completely unexpected turns. We see regrets for the paths not taken. We see dreams given up and dreams held on to. All the ups and downs of life.

This book is not action driven and not even much plot driven. Life happens, but at the same time, nothing much happens - there are no moments of climax or big dramatic events. It is the drama of life - day by day and year by year. The book is centered around the characters of Eileen and Ed, and to some extent, Connor. As a result, the book is slow moving, and at over 640 pages, that can be tough. Yet, I found myself engrossed in the Learys and their lives.

The sadness of life permeates this book, but it is not without its uplifting and humorous moments. That balance touched me. The writing itself also touched me. I found myself highlighting statements to remember and to think about later:

• "So much of life was the peeling away of illusions."
• "Maybe your imagination stopped at the boundaries that contained it."
• "She wanted the next phase of her life to remain forever potential."
• "I have to invent myself before I can reinvent myself."
• "This was his final gift to her:  to silence her regrets about the paths she hadn't taken."

With its length and its character focus, this book is not for everyone. It completely worked for me. This book is Matthew Thomas's debut novel. I can't wait to see what he does next.

Please share your thoughts and leave a comment. I would love to "talk" to you.