The Heaven’s Rise by Christopher Rice

The Heaven’s Rise by Christopher Rice

The Delongpre family disappeared a decade ago and pieces of their car were found in the dark and murky bayou.  What happened to the loving couple and their teenage daughter?  Nikki Delongpre left behind her best friend since childhood, Ben, and her high school sweetheart, Anthem, and neither man can get over her loss.  But is she dead?  Or simply missing?

Ben and Anthem continue on without Nikki but her absence is more of a presence.  Ben is working as an investigative reporter, determined to help his beloved New Orleans any way he can, especially after helping rescue people from the Ninth Ward after Katrina and experiencing the aftermath of the disaster firsthand.  Anthem takes up drinking but follows in his family’s tradition of becoming river boat pilots – except he takes huge containerships up and down the Mississippi.  But there is an evil in the bayou which has touched Nikki and a former classmate.  And now that evil is returning to New Orleans to hunt down Ben and Anthem.

I really enjoyed the first two thirds of the book.  The “evil” was different and well described but left a lot open for questions.  Things got a little too weird for my tastes the last third of the book.  The evil mutated and it just didn’t feel right to me.  I’m sure there are those who will love the direction the book took, but I wanted something more (or in this case a little less).  If you want horror set in New Orleans though, you really can’t miss with this offering.  The author follows in his mom’s footsteps with his sense of place.  (Christopher Rice is the son of Anne Rice of Interview with a Vampire fame.)

The Museum of Extraordinary Things by Anne Hoffman

The Museum of Extraordinary Things by Anne Hoffman

Coralie has a magical life among wondrous and extraordinary things.  Her father, Professor Sardie, is the owner of a very special museum in Coney Island.  Some may call the animals and people who reside there freaks of nature, but Professor Sardie calls them wonders.  And the most wondrous of all is his daughter Coralie.  Born with webbed hands she is billed as the living mermaid spending hours in a water tank wearing a fake tail and swimming before visitors from around the world.  But all is not as happy and joyous as Coralie believes in her girlhood.  As she grows older she understands more about the world around her and her place in it.  She begins longing for the extraordinary world outside the museum.

Overall this is a dark novel, for the 1910s were a dark time in New York City.  Disasters play a great role in the story, starting with the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire.  The other main character, Eddie, is a photographer on the scene of the fire, whose story later intertwines with Coralie’s.  Her innocence and his ability to see beauty through his camera lens where others can not provide the glimpses of light through the darkness of the time and the situations the characters find themselves in. 

While this is a great character study, and a great portrait of the time of labor disputes and corruption in New York City, the frame of the story is actually a mystery.  The storyline which ties all the others together is the disappearance of a young woman who should have been working at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory at the time of the fire, but no one remembers her there that day, nor has her body or any of her belongings been found in the ashes.

This is one of those infrequent books that I wouldn’t completely recommend on audio.  It is read by three readers and I just didn’t enjoy the voice of one of the actors.  She had a nasally and clipped reading style that I found jarring.  I kept listening despite that so I know the story was a good one!

The Good Luck of Right Now by Matthew Quick

The Good Luck of Right Now by Matthew Quick

Bartholomew Neil is 38-years-old and completely lost after the death of his mother.  He has no friends, no job (and never has) and doesn’t even know how his bills are paid.  He has been taunted with being slow all his life, but is he really?  Or is he just emotionally stunted from living his whole life with only his mother and the family priest for company?  Faced with the rest of his life Bartholomew starts writing letters to Richard Gere, his mother’s favorite actor and the man she most wanted to see, and frequently saw in Bartholomew, when she was dying of brain cancer.  Through his one-sided correspondence he learns more about himself and navigating the world around him then he thought possible.

This is a weird book.  What else would you expect from a book told in letters to Richard Gere?  The characters are quirky and damaged in a myriad of ways but their brokenness is what makes them so appealing and sympathetic.  I’m not sure how I feel about Bartholomew.  I know deep inside he is afraid he is mentally incompetent, but his letter writing and inner thoughts speak of a far greater intelligence.  I think he’s just feeling lost without the guiding force of his mother, but he desperately wants to connect with other people and live life out in the world.  I ended up feeling badly for him the further I read, but for the life he has missed, not the grief he is experiencing.  Maybe that’s what others will feel, maybe not.  Any way you read it, it is a different look at the grieving and healing process experienced by different characters.

One great take away from the book: Bartholomew’s mom’s theory of the Good Luck of Right Now. 

Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer

Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer

 

The border of Area X, a contaminated wilderness created by a human-made disaster of some sort, is growing and an understanding of the ecology and inhabitants of Area X is needed.  Therefore the twelfth expedition, of an all female crew is sent to Area X.  They are poorly prepared for what they will find.

I finished this book about a week ago and it’s still poking at my brain.  I honestly don’t know what happened or why, but neither does the main character, so I guess that is okay.  This is thought provoking sci-fi with a pronounced horror bent that will keep you guessing long before you close the cover of this short but engrossing book.  The second and third parts of the trilogy are being released later this year; I’ve got the second one on hold so I can (hopefully) find out what’s going on! 

Still Life with Bread Crumbs by Anna Quindlen

Still Life with Bread Crumbs by Anna Quindlen

This is the story of Rebecca Winter’s “take two” at life.  A famous photographer, most known for her iconic shot “Still Life with Bread Crumbs,” her artistic popularity has waned.  She has been divorced for some time.  Caring for her aging parents is dwindling her bank account.  She moves to rural upstate New York, into a very cheap ramshackle cabin, to earn extra income by subletting her New York City apartment.  In this unexpected place she finds artistic inspiration, friendship, companionship and love, of course with bumps along the way.

I thoroughly enjoyed this late in life romance and novel of self-discovery.  Lyrically told and fast paced I finished it in just a couple of days.  It truly is never too late to start over again!

After I’m Gone by Laura Lippman

After I’m Gone by Laura Lippman

Sandy Sanchez is a former detective with the Baltimore Police Department who is now a consultant that investigates cold cases.  He is intrigued by the murder of Julie, a woman who was in the headlines years before her body was discovered in a city park, because she was thought to have run away to meet her lover, Felix, who himself disappeared to avoid a prison sentence.  Sandy interviews Felix’s family, his wife and daughters he left behind, and Julie’s sister as well as friends of both of them, trying to piece together what happened to Julie decades earlier.  Did Julie go to meet Felix?  Where did Felix’s money go?  Did he leave and not provide for his family or did the money too simply disappear?

While this is a mystery, solved by a very intelligent and driven investigator, it is more a psychological study of what happens to a family when one of the members disappears.  It is about the emptiness that is left in their wake and the hurt that never goes away.  A good pick on audio.

The Headmaster’s Wife by Thomas Christopher Greene

The Headmaster’s Wife by Thomas Christopher Greene

Arthur Winthrop, headmaster of a prestigious New England private school, is being questioned by New York City police after being found wandering naked in the snow in Central Park.  So begins The Headmaster’s Wife. 

This book is not what you think it is as you begin reading.  It is a psychological tale about the effects of guilt and grief on two individuals and how they each cope with their feelings.  Could I say more?  Of course.  Will I?  No.  This is a changeable tale that goes topsy turvy right about in the middle.  This is a book best savored snuggled in a quilt and a steaming cup of tea or cocoa and a mind willing to be played with a bit as the reader reads on.

The Good Lord Bird by James McBride

The Good Lord Bird by James McBride

Henry, a young boy of ten, is wearing a potato sack dress when he is “saved” from slavery by Old John Brown.  Henry didn’t much want to be saved, but he’s kind of stuck with the Old Man for the moment.  But one moment becomes a day, becomes a month, becomes years.  And all that time John Brown, and his army, believe Henry, or Henrietta, is a girl.  Henry was going to correct the mistake but being a girl keeps him out of the fighting and that is just fine by him.  He knows he isn’t going to be going anywhere any time soon since he ate the Old Man’s lucky onion.  Hence the nickname Onion and the idea that the Old Man needs to bring this young “girl” everywhere to bring him luck.  That is until Harpers Ferry when everyone’s luck runs out.

This is a really interesting way to tell a story.  It’s told as a memoir from Onion’s point of view, a completely made up character thrown into historical events.  We meet Frederick Douglass and Harriett Tubman as well as some really amazing characters on the journey.  This is a very human, and very flawed, view of America at the time as well as a story of what could have happened leading up to the raid on Harpers Ferry.  Some of what you read is based on fact, and some is complete fiction, filling in the gaps of what might have been.

McBride manages to tell his story with warmth and humor but still manages to spark outrage in his readers at certain points.  This is also the best use of dialect I have ever read.  It’s not over the top, like Huckleberry Finn felt to me, but it’s there and really brings Onion and the other characters to life.

Perfect by Rachel Joyce

Perfect by Rachel Joyce

In 1972 scientists discovered that the atomic clock was “off” and an extra two seconds needed to be added to correct time.  Twelve year old best friends James and Byron are deeply disturbed by the idea that time can be altered so easily.  Byron in particular is very concerned about when the two seconds will be added, especially when he sees his watch jump as his mother is driving him and his sister to school.  As those seconds are added he sees the girl on the red bicycle out of the corner of his eye.  He knows they have hit her with their car, just as he knows that his mother has no idea what she has just done.  Those two seconds will change the lives of everyone in the story for their lifetimes.

This is a slow building book with two storylines set in the past and the present.  It is amazing to see how much one event, two seconds, impacts so many lives.  The story, the interconnectedness of all the events and consequences, unfolded little by little making sure the cause and effect were evident, until you realize that misassumptions have been made.  (Can’t tell you what I mean, there is a whopper at the ending.)  A good choice on audiobook.

The Martian by Andy Weir

The Martian by Andy Weir

Mark Watney was the seventeenth person to set foot on Mars.  He was also the first person reported to have died there.  This is the story of the man left behind; relying on his wits, sunny personality and mechanical know-how to keep him alive in a place no human can live.  Bad luck (a bizarre sequence of events made his fellow crewmates believe he was dead) has stranded him on a planet with no means of communication with Earth or his ship.  He’ll need some good luck (which I must say he does not have much of) to survive until he can get a lift home.

Told through Watney’s journal entries from Mars and concurrent meetings within NASA on Earth this is a book of what would have happened if you put MacGyver in space.   Yes, Watney does some not-so-smart things but we forgive him because he is basically brilliant. 

All space nerds and mechanical engineer wannabes will really enjoy this one.  Those looking for a thriller, maybe not: it’s very technical, yet humorous, and a good choice for something out of the ordinary. 

The Tilted World by Tom Franklin and Beth Ann Fennelly

The Tilted World by Tom Franklin and Beth Ann Fennelly

 

Ingersoll and Ham are two federal revenue agents sent to Hobnob, Mississippi to find out what happened to the other two “prohis” who were sent there weeks ago and close down the local still.  To complicate matters the Mississippi River is rising.  And rising.  And rising some more.  It is 1927, and for those who aren’t familiar with their Mississippi River history, the worst river flood in United States history is about to occur.  To further complicate things Ham and Ingersoll find an orphaned baby on their way to Hobnob.  Ingersoll is tasked with bringing the baby to the local orphanage but he can’t seem to leave the little guy there.  Instead he asks around and is steered to Dixie Clay, a local Hobnob woman who had lost a very young son.  Little does Ingersoll know he has just given the babe to the very person he is looking for.  Yes, this still is run by a woman.  Dixie Clay is an interesting woman, and despite her illegal profession, you can’t help but like her and be impressed with the business she has grown and how she has kept going despite all the hardships life has thrown at her.    

I did an informal poll and I was glad to discover that I wasn’t the only one ignorant of the events of 1927.  I had no idea that the Mississippi flooded so badly!  The river was 60 miles wide at Memphis.  Sixty miles!  I was there a few years ago and I can’t even image the devastation that would have caused.  An eye opening account of life around the Mississippi at the time and how the river’s rising was handled before, during and immediately after things went terribly wrong.