BookClique

Photographer Edmund Clark presents a remarkable photo essay of ‘home’ at Guantanamo and Omar Deghayes ‘home’ in Britain.  Also containing a sampling of the letters of support Deghayes received from around the world, Clark’s juxtapositions of the prison camp and the suburban British home tell a truly human story of an inhuman situation.  Clark specializes in the subject of control and incarceration.  Guantanamo: if the light goes out by Edmund Clark is an important contribution to the understanding of the War on Terror.

Amy P.

Filed under: Non Fiction, Uncategorized by stacyw
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I’m a sucker for a book with an interesting title and this one got my attention. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon is an intriguing book and different from anything I’ve read in awhile.  For instance, the chapters are numbered with only prime numbers and it’s written as if done by the main character, Christopher who is a 15 year old autistic boy in England.  After his neighbor’s dog is killed, Christopher decides to write a murder mystery to figure out who the killer is. Inspired by his favorite character, Sherlock Holmes, Christopher questions his neighbors (despite his father’s warnings not to) and eventually finds a lot more information than he bargained for and some upsetting family secrets are revealed. Christopher can’t tell lies, and has various ‘behavior problems’ which he lists in the book.  Some of the items on his list are serious, but others are amusing. I don’t know much about autism so it was interesting to live inside the mind of this character. How accurate it is, I don’t know.  But as I was reading along, his strange quirks actually started to make sense to me: like why he doesn’t like the colors yellow and brown, or why he likes “doing maths” and prime numbers, or how he likes all things logical, or how counting calms him.  All in all it’s a quick and easy read and it has inspired me to learn more about Autism.  I found Christopher to be a likable and interesting character and I enjoyed the narrative writing style. The author shows readers life through the eyes of someone with autism, which is fascinating to anyone who likes reading something a little out of the ordinary.  I would recommend this novel to those who seek an easy to read, quirky book that highlights someone with an irregular life.

Tia L.

Filed under: Fiction by stacyw
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*May B.: A Novel by Caroline Starr Rose*

A young girl’s struggles

Told in verse.

Abandoned on the Kansas plains.

Finding her voice amidst

the howling silence.

If you like Sharon Creech,

Karen Hesse.

A historical with heart.

Cathy R.

Filed under: Children's, Fiction, Historical by stacyw
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The Call by Yannick Murphy is a neat book that tells the story of a rural large animal veterinarian and his family. There aren’t really chapters-the book is split into parts that coincide with the seasons and inside those parts the author lists the vet’s call-outs: what was wrong, what action he took, the result, his thoughts, and what the animal’s owner and the vet’s family said and did. Like a lot of men, he also seems to be obsessed with what’s for dinner. After a hunting accident, his son slips into a coma and the vet has to continue working when all he wants to do is search for the anonymous hunter who caused the accident. Meanwhile he is worrying about the economy and whether or not he is getting less call-outs as people try to deal with their animals’ illnesses themselves. I realize it is fiction, but there are still lots of interesting animals and farmers in this book! As the author’s husband is a veterinarian, I’ll bet she has heard a lot of stories from him over the years and incorporated some of them into this book. I really liked the no chapter format!

Stacy W.

Filed under: Fiction by stacyw
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In my opinion, the best writer of Nordic noir is Jo Nesbø. I first encountered his writing with his third novel, Redbreast, and was electrified by its complex plot moving between contemporary life and the last days of World War II. I’ve just finished The Snowman, Nesbø’s latest novel, and I will never view this iconic winter image in the same fashion again. While the tale is not as complex or as well-written as Redbreast, The Snowman features Detective Harry Hole as he faces off against a killer who attacks with the first snowfall. Hole, the most fallable and obsessed of detectives is drawn very well as is Katrine Bratt, a new officer, whose role in the mystery contains many surprises. If you enjoy Patricia Cornwall’s Scarpetta novels, you will like Nesbø.

Amy P.

Filed under: Fiction, Mystery by stacyw
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I was pleased to be able to read V.C. Andrews latest novel called Into the Darkness this week. This book was released at the end of February 2012 and is the first V.C. Andrews book released in 2012. Another interesting fact about Into the Darkness is that it is only the 2nd V.C. Andrews book that does not have a series attached to it, with My Sweet Audrina being the other novel that is a stand alone.  Into the Darkness follows the motif of past V.C. Andrews novels in that teen Amber Taylor is picked upon by her fellow classmates due to her being shy and introspective. Amber falls for the new neighbor that moves in that summer named Brayden. They have many adventures that lead Amber to see parts of her town that she has never seen before, plus her self-confidence blossoms. However as quickly Brayden moved in next door he vanishes leaving Amber to find out the truth.  Overall this novel was enjoyable and if you are fan of V.C. Andrews novels or other authors such as Nora Roberts, Mary Higgins Clark or Barbara Michaels this is a good book that I would recommend.

Jolene L.

Filed under: Fiction by stacyw
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If you normally do not read westerns, you might want to start with S. Craig Zahler’s  A Congregation of Jackals. It’s a story of four bad guys gone good and the moment when their past catches up with them. No-one close to the men knows of their past as a gang of bank robbers and murderers and they strive to keep it that way. There are, however, degrees of wickedness and when you meet the other gang in the story (led by a psycho named Quinlan), you come face to face with true evil. After years of searching, Quinlan’s gang tracks down the former bank robbers to even an old score. Gathering to celebrate the wedding of one of their men to (of all things) the daughter of the town sheriff, the men try to vigilant but the evil guys get through. This story is full of surprises and the author did not take the easy road with the ending. One warning: very violent and sometimes that violence involves animals.

Stacy W.

Filed under: Fiction by stacyw
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The Traitor in the Tunnel by Y.S. Lee. Mysteries hold a special place in my fourth grade Nancy Drew-loving heart. Which is about the age you start to realize how much life isn’t particularly fair. At least with mysteries, you can count on a little justice at the end.  Book 3 of The Agency series has upped the stakes for secret agent Mary Quinn, who has been planted in Buckingham Palace to solve a small problem for Queen Victoria. Start at the beginning with The Spy in the House, when Lee starts weaving pure fiction. As she says in the flyleaf, “If a top secret women’s detective agency existed in Victorian England, it left no evidence—just as well, since that would cast serious doubt on its competence.” I would not hold it against Lee if she didn’t keep her word at limiting this series to a trilogy, for the glow has not worn off Mary Quinn. Recommended for readers who enjoy strong female characters or Nancy Springer’s /Enola Holmes/ series.

Cathy R.

Filed under: Fiction, Teen by stacyw
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If you think you read everything/don’t want to hear any more about the tragic life of Sylvia Path and her husband/fellow poet, Ted Hughes, think again! Her Husband: Hughes and Plath—a Marriage by Diane Middlebrook tells a profoundly human and frequently joyful story of talented people passionate about their art and their life. It made me ready to reread their literary work and celebrate their contributions to western culture. ALA’s Booklist magazine sums it up perfectly. “Middlebrook, the author of a seminal biography of poet Anne Sexton, presents the most balanced, most literary and interpretatively astute, and best-written analysis yet of the saga of Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes. By mapping the attractive, aggressive, ambitious, and profoundly inspired poets’ family histories, and delving deeply into their dynamic imaginations, personal mythologies, and galvanizing poetry, Middlebrook brings mystical yet rapacious Hughes and frenetic and determined Plath into crisp focus, brilliantly explicating each poet’s incomparable gifts and tragic flaws.”

Amy P.

Filed under: Non Fiction by stacyw
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The City of Ember was a Young Hoosier Book Award Nominee from 2005-2006. It is the first of four children’s fantasy books called The Books of Ember from the author Jeanne DuPrau. The story follows two twelve year olds, Lina and Doon, as they challenge the only way of life that they have ever known, and discover a way to leave their crumbling city. Wendy Dillon read this audio book and was able to bring the story to life. The audio book had a few subtle sound effects in the background to give the listener a better idea of the building of the city by pinging of hammers and the swooshing, flowing sounds of the river.  This story is great for children and young adults who like to follow characters while they put pieces of a puzzle together to solve a problem.

Marlene K.

Filed under: Fiction, Teen by stacyw
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