Sue's Picks

 

 

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Sue's Past Picks

Full disclosure first! I have met the author of this book and Becca Fitzpatrick is delightful and smart! Also, she lives in Colorado and has promised to come visit us. Now, about the book! There is an international quest to find the new Twilight series; something that can compete with the Vampire stories of Stephanie Meyer. This book is not competition. It is the real thing! I am not a Twilight basher, but I can say unequivocally that this book is better written and a much more compelling story! I really hope that it will capture the teen reader who loved those other books! It should because it is a story of a young high school sophomore who lives an unconventional life as she is left alone quite a lot by her oft out of town working mother. Her father was murdered a year before the story begins. While that is mostly an aside to the story, it lingers in the sensibilities of the protagonist, Nora, and provides a tidy wrap-up in the end. Nora’s atypical independence and maturity gives her the means to follow her instincts, when she is faced with complicated and disruptive paranormal intrusions into her life. Characterization is a strong point of this book, and Nora’s mysterious lab partner, Patch, unfolds completely throughout the story, as do all of the characters. I like that the teenage angst is present but not overwhelming. Nora and her friend, Vee, are not silly. They are real in their intentions to make hard decisions in the face of their own youth and really difficult, out of the ordinary situations. Paraphrasing our buyer, Kathy, Fallen Angels are the new Vampire! And, don’t worry, as the concept of the Fallen Angel is fully explained in the text! Go ahead and judge this book by the cover! The cover art is fabulous and should be enough to draw you right in. For those who care, sexuality is implied but not explicit in this book. I found it appropriate for the teen reader. And, just as a warning, I will so be pushing this book! I loved it!

With each new Kate DiCamillo book, I yearn for the days when I read aloud to my children at bedtime…really, at anytime! As mine are too old for this, I implore all parents of children to take up DiCamillo’s stories and make them part of your reading and storytelling routine! Like The Tales of Desperaux, The Magician's Elephant is an old-time fairy tale that draws us in and keeps us occupied until the very end. I don’t know how the author continues to write stories for children that are such a delight for adults, but she does it. This book has everything a reader/young listener could want: an orphan with a very strange guardian, a fortuneteller, an extraordinary magician, who says: Magic is impossible…it begins with the impossible and ends with the impossible and is impossible in between. That is why it is magic. And, then there is the elephant! Honestly, I felt as though Kate DiCamillo was personally reading this story aloud to me! Like The Tale of Desperaux, there are some frightening aspects to this story that may be too much for the very young. Also, it is a complex tale, which is what will keep Mom and Dad engaged! Save it for your 8 year old and above. I am still trying to figure out if “above” could mean that I can cajole my 22, 28, and 31 year olds to sit at my feet and listen…perhaps in exchange for a lift ticket?

Okay, I am admittedly and quite possibly the only bookseller who has taken not one but two college level Toni Morrison courses! She is my hero, so I am stating that upfront! Her most recent book is in keeping with her fine written language that has won her a Pulitzer Prize and the Nobel Prize in Literature. In interviews, Morrison describes this story as one based on when slavery was not part of racism. Thus starts the tale, or rather self-professed confession, of Flores, a 16-year-old slave girl. The book is set in colonial 1690 America where Flores finds herself among multicultural characters typical of the times. Morrison engages us with her paradigmatic cast of many well-developed characters, her own knowledge of the setting, and mysterious, sometimes obscure prose. As with most of her books, you will find yourself re-reading portions and coming to a much deeper understanding of the story through those re-readings. I found the pure beauty, allegory and structure of this recent Morrison book to be reminiscent of the triumphs, horrors, and social conventions of Morrison’s 1973 novel, Sula. I get mushy about every Morrison book, and so I am about this one! If you are a Morrison enthusiast, you will love this book. If you have never read Morrison, there are several I would recommend to be your first exploration into her compilation. That said, starting with A Mercy would not be a mistake!

I feel obligated to tell readers to stick with this book, even though there are numerous times in the gloomy story that one might be tempted to put it aside. If you know of Erdrich’s writing, give her the benefit of the doubt, knowing that she will not disappoint! If you do not know her work, don’t introduce yourself to her with this novel, but put it aside for later! (I recommend starting with her novel, Love Medicine.) Now, on to Shadow Tag! I can’t think of a more compelling and controversial Book Club selection. This is the story of a marriage and a family. Erdrich weaves into her narrative her characteristic Native American stories, but this is a story of a modern family; a gifted artist who uses his wife as a model for his art, while she imagines herself as a historian while writing simultaneous journals, one to be read surreptitiously by her husband and one hidden away in a safe deposit box. There is a lot of pathology contained in these pages, but it is the mystique and frank voyeurism that captivates. The reader knows that something will happen to end the torture of Gil and Irene’s relationship, but wonders at the real damage that will result to them and to their children. This is a moving, haunting, and ultimately surprising story.

This book comes to us from a publisher whose salesman describes their book choices as, “the greatest books never read!” Unbridled Books is a small press that really chooses their authors and books for true literary content and conscientious storytelling. The story begins when James Gates is a seven-year-old boy--a boy with one green eye and one brown eye--a light-complexioned boy with African textured light colored hair. His mother was a slave; his father the master of the plantation on which they lived. This father scoops him up one morning and sends him off to boarding school in England, freedom papers and a copy of the “Declaration of Independence” in hand. While now free, his plight goes from bad to worse as he makes his way back to the States with his British accent and education. He discovers that if he wears a hat and turns the right way, he can “pass” in white society. And, regardless of the documents that he carries in his pocket, passing is still of utmost importance post Civil War. Always in   the forefront of his thought are the parting words given to him by his father, “We all suffer...and we are all going to die.  It’s a law of nature...we are not in control. We do not live for ourselves. But, we are free!” Because his father always walked to the cabin to see James and his mother, James changed his name to Freeman Walker. He too was a walker and he walks as he fights in the Civil War. Post-war he walks to search for his mother. He walks west in his attempts to find gold and himself. Here the book takes on a local favor for westerners that are informative and uniquely part of Freeman Walker’s story. This is a great tale that gives the reader views into American slavery, the underbelly of London in the mid-1800s and the unidealized era of this nation’s new frontier. Beautifully written, I found myself reading aloud passages just to hear the magic of the words.