Lucy Hull is fresh out of college when she accepts a job as a children's librarian in Hannibal, Missouri. Her boss is a forgetful probably heavy drinking head librarian. The other two librarians don't seem to be any more effective. Rocky is the only fellow librarian who Lucy can form a friendship with and she is guessing he is falling in love with her. Lucy originally hails from Chicago and is the daughter of a bombastic Russian immigrant who left the former USSR under a cloud of rebellion. Lucy's father is disappointed that she has not reached for something greater in life than a librarian in small town Missouri. He wants her to use his many connections for something better.
Into the library walks Ian Drake...more like storms into the library. He is always with a babysitter who seems to direct his reading toward areas Ian continues to resist. Then Ian's mother comes in and gives Lucy a list of what Ian should be dissuaded from reading. The list includes Harry Potter, anything magic, with dragons, wizards or or features weaponry, the Theory of Evolution, Halloween, or is "written by Roald Dahl, Lois Lowry, Harry Potter (sic) and similar authors."
Lucy begins to help Ian smuggle books out of the library, checking them out on her card. Ian brings Lucy a Christmas gift of a origami Baby Jesus in the Manger. As she examines the gift further she sees that it is fashioned from a page of a testimonial written by his mother. Ian's family is sending him to Pastor Bob's Glad Heart Ministries that is dedicated to the "rehabilitation of sexually confused brothers and sisters in Christ." Ian, who is commonly thought of as a budding 10 year old gay boy, IS only 10 years old. Lucy cannot let this go as she continues to bring her horror of Ian's situation to her lunches with Rocky. But what can she do?
One Sunday she goes into the library early to work on a program and finds Ian hiding in the library with a back pack. She decides to take him home but he first leads her through Hannibal and then threatens her that if she takes him home he will claim she kidnapped him. Thus kidnapped is Lucy...a willing victim of her kidnapper and actually is really helping her kidnapper to run away from the homelife Lucy finds horrific.
Lucy and Ian begin a cross country journey together. The book is very funny. It is written in first person as Lucy is the narrator. Ian and Lucy have much in common: especially their capacity to recreate reality via story telling (read--lying).
Through the whole book I wonder if Lucy will get arrested for kidnapping. I wonder if Ian really has a grandmother in Vermont? Is Lucy's father part of the Russian mafia?
Does Lucy save Ian? Can a person really leave home?
Thursday, February 16, 2012
Monday, February 6, 2012
V is for Vengence Sue Grafton
I think Sue Grafton has improved upon this series. This is unusual since most mystery series loose steam after 10 books. I think it is because she has improved in her writing skills and seems to not bow to publisher pressure to publish once a year. She seems to come out with a new book every 24 months. This one took 12 months only to come up with the storyline and another 10 months "of hard labor" to finish the book.
It shows. This book has many plot lines that come together seamlessly. It was enjoyable to read this novel. I missed Kinsey's neighbor who had to travel to care for his oldest sibling, his 90 something year old sister. His other siblings who live with her are not able to handle her care, characters that reminded me of Anne Tyler's book that was made into a movie: The Accidental Tourist.
The story begins with a young Ivy League graduate borrowing money from a loan shark to feed his gambling addiction. Then Kinsey witnesses shoplifters in her local Macy's like mall department store. Kinsey points the choreographed thieves' actions to her clerk acquaintance. Little did she know that she would be drawn into the case by one of the thieves' widower retired boyfriend who had no idea she had such a secret life. There is a Hollywood wife who is about to be thrown over for a younger secretary and a mobster boss who is bucking the family business in his own way.
If you like the mystery genre, I recommend this book. It can be read without reading the whole series.
It shows. This book has many plot lines that come together seamlessly. It was enjoyable to read this novel. I missed Kinsey's neighbor who had to travel to care for his oldest sibling, his 90 something year old sister. His other siblings who live with her are not able to handle her care, characters that reminded me of Anne Tyler's book that was made into a movie: The Accidental Tourist.
The story begins with a young Ivy League graduate borrowing money from a loan shark to feed his gambling addiction. Then Kinsey witnesses shoplifters in her local Macy's like mall department store. Kinsey points the choreographed thieves' actions to her clerk acquaintance. Little did she know that she would be drawn into the case by one of the thieves' widower retired boyfriend who had no idea she had such a secret life. There is a Hollywood wife who is about to be thrown over for a younger secretary and a mobster boss who is bucking the family business in his own way.
If you like the mystery genre, I recommend this book. It can be read without reading the whole series.
The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach
Yes, it is a baseball book but it is so much more. I do not ususally read sports themed novels. This one attracted me because of an article in Vanity Fair Magazine, October 2011. It is titled: "The Book on Publishing" by Keith Gessen. Gessen and Harbach met at Harvard College in the late 1990's. The Vanity Fair article uses Harbach's book as an example of what the state of publishing is in here in the United States. This article completely captivated me.
They came together because they both felt like fish out of water with all the prep school educated classmates they were surrounding them and bonded over their mutual state of shock and feeling of being terribly unsophisticated. Harbach was from Wisconsin and Gessen from New York but went to public schools. After graduation, Gessen and Harbach went onto do other things but came back together to start a literary magazine called n + 1. Meanwhile, Harbach worked on his novel. He worked on it for 10 years. He rewrote it three times. Then an agent read his manuscript and became very passionate about Harbach's book. And it was published with great critical proclaim.
The book is primarily told from four characters' perspectives. Henry Skrimshander is a baseball genius whose showstopping skill proves to be short of a miracle. He is found by a college player, Mike, who recruits Henry for his small liberal arts college in Wisconsin. The other narrators are the college's president, Guert Affenlight and his daughter, Pella, who comes home from a four year marriage that began as she graduated from high school.
Pella had a bright academic future but was attracted to a much older man who was giving a seminar at the college. She now wants to pick up her life and go back to school. Her father wants to rebuild his relationship with Pella. Her father also has a secret--a crush on Henry's gay roommate who is also on the baseball team.
The story begins with Guert's life as a student at the college. He discovers speech hidden deeply in the college's archives that was written/given by Herman Melville. Thus proof that Melville had visited the small liberal arts college, Westish College of Wisconsin. Guert returns to Westish as President from years at Harvard.
Then the story picks up with Henry's entry into the college, jumping to Henry's third year at the college. Henry is being watched by major league scouts, the team is on their way to their first winning season and are looking toward winning the conference and nationals. Henry's flawless throwing changes with one throw hitting his roommate in the dug out. This throw is the act that changes all of their lives...
Henry cannot throw anymore while playing a game. He throws the ball but it does not go the way he intends or he hesitates just that bit of time that causes an error (I think that is the technical term for an error). He is one of a hand full of players who have the baseball players' equivilant to writer's block. Meanwhile, Mike does not get into the schools he has applied to for his postsecondary education plans. Pella already has seen what it is like to start on a course as an adult and see it fail or see it change. All three young people learn life is full of change, failure, different choices, need for try it/fix it approaches to life decisions. These lessons are not easy but the author takes the reader on a journey that is lyrically written and fascinating to witness.
Please read this book. I promise you will not be sorry.
They came together because they both felt like fish out of water with all the prep school educated classmates they were surrounding them and bonded over their mutual state of shock and feeling of being terribly unsophisticated. Harbach was from Wisconsin and Gessen from New York but went to public schools. After graduation, Gessen and Harbach went onto do other things but came back together to start a literary magazine called n + 1. Meanwhile, Harbach worked on his novel. He worked on it for 10 years. He rewrote it three times. Then an agent read his manuscript and became very passionate about Harbach's book. And it was published with great critical proclaim.
The book is primarily told from four characters' perspectives. Henry Skrimshander is a baseball genius whose showstopping skill proves to be short of a miracle. He is found by a college player, Mike, who recruits Henry for his small liberal arts college in Wisconsin. The other narrators are the college's president, Guert Affenlight and his daughter, Pella, who comes home from a four year marriage that began as she graduated from high school.
Pella had a bright academic future but was attracted to a much older man who was giving a seminar at the college. She now wants to pick up her life and go back to school. Her father wants to rebuild his relationship with Pella. Her father also has a secret--a crush on Henry's gay roommate who is also on the baseball team.
The story begins with Guert's life as a student at the college. He discovers speech hidden deeply in the college's archives that was written/given by Herman Melville. Thus proof that Melville had visited the small liberal arts college, Westish College of Wisconsin. Guert returns to Westish as President from years at Harvard.
Then the story picks up with Henry's entry into the college, jumping to Henry's third year at the college. Henry is being watched by major league scouts, the team is on their way to their first winning season and are looking toward winning the conference and nationals. Henry's flawless throwing changes with one throw hitting his roommate in the dug out. This throw is the act that changes all of their lives...
Henry cannot throw anymore while playing a game. He throws the ball but it does not go the way he intends or he hesitates just that bit of time that causes an error (I think that is the technical term for an error). He is one of a hand full of players who have the baseball players' equivilant to writer's block. Meanwhile, Mike does not get into the schools he has applied to for his postsecondary education plans. Pella already has seen what it is like to start on a course as an adult and see it fail or see it change. All three young people learn life is full of change, failure, different choices, need for try it/fix it approaches to life decisions. These lessons are not easy but the author takes the reader on a journey that is lyrically written and fascinating to witness.
Please read this book. I promise you will not be sorry.
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