Book Review: The Shadow of What We Were by Luis Sepúlveda

The Shadow of What We Were is a novel that reads like a memoir.  In this book by Luis Sepúlveda, the lives of three former communist exiles intersect back in their homeland of Chile.  Tales of younger men are also interwoven in the story, displaying a snapshot of the legacy the anarchist movement had on some of the individual citizens of Chile.  Though the topic is serious, the story is told with a dry self-deprecating humor that makes it an entertaining read, despite the grim circumstances.

Cacho Salinas hated chickens, hens, ducks, turkeys, and any creature that had feathers, but even so he stopped to look at the spit on which forty-odd broilers were turning, lined up in ranks like the robot soldiers in Star Wars.

“How are the chickens?” he asked the vendor, who was busy reading the sports page of a newspaper.

“Stark naked and dead, what do you expect?” the man replied.

He hated chickens, not because of their taste, but because they were stupid and he blamed them for passing on a disease the first symptom of which was a lack of imagination.  Lolo Garmendia had asked him to take care of the food for the group, and, when he e-mailed him to ask what he should buy, the answer was categorical: Buy chickens.

At only 132 pages, it is a quick read, yet still gives the reader brief glimpse into the sense of the history of the life in Chile as experienced through multiple generations.  The characters make an impression, from the aging and cautious former revolutionaries to the bumbling couple whose lives are accidentally thrust into the middle of a potential scandal when a record player is tossed out a window.  Through a series of happenstance episodes, they all converge into an unexpected climax that is as unlikely as the accidents leading up to it.

The Shadow of What We Were is a title published by Europa editions, a fairly recent label that specializes in translating bestselling and award-winning authors from other languages into English.

Book Review: Blue by Lou Aronica

I had the pleasure of reading Blue while on a long flight to Tokyo.  It was the perfect fantasy world in which to immerse myself to make the time pass more quickly.  Author Lou Aronica creates a world that manages to be both surreal and tangible.  Reading this book is like experiencing a lucid dream with depth and detail that play on all five senses.

The story focuses on Chris, a divorced father, and his teenage daughter, Becky.  During her bout with leukemia as a child, Becky and her father created a bedtime story about a fantasy world called Tamarisk.  Their elaborate nightly tale centered around a young princess named Miea, who is sensitive, regal, and committed to her kingdom and her people.  When Tamarisk is unexpectedly threatened by a blight with the potential to wipe out all life, Becky finds herself pulled back into a world she thought she had set aside, along with her childhood when her parents divorced.  As the story progresses, it becomes clear that reality and fantasy are interwoven in unlikely ways, and it is up to Becky to decipher how close her link to both her family and to Tamarisk really is.

“They made a left turn and went through a doorway outside. Becky received an immediate sensory barrage. The colors were almost physically overwhelming. Of course, there was blue everywhere — Becky thought having blue leaves in Tamarisk rather than green was a fun twist — but so many other colors were totally new to her. Was this what aquamaroon looked like? Could that lemon-tangerine-melon bloom be the color she named juce?”

Though the momentum starts off a bit slow, the pace picks up about a quarter of the way into the book as more scenes are set in Tamarisk.  More than a simple fantasy novel, Blue is a story about family, relationships, and the bonds between loved ones.  Despite the fact that the main character is a teenager, I would certainly not categorize this novel as strictly young adult.  Though teens might certainly enjoy this book, fathers with teenage daughters and parents in general would likely find this fantasy relevant and intriguing as well.

Lou Aronica has been writing books for many years and has also worked in the publishing industry for most of his career.  Blue serves to launch his own imprint, Fiction Studio.

This article was first published as Book Review: Blue by Lou Aronica in Blogcritics magazine.

Giveaway Winners for The Strain

Congratulations Kerrie Mayans and Robert Hood, the two lucky winners of The Strain giveaway!  Please send me an email with your address information, and your free copy of The Strain by Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan will be mailed directly from the publicist.  (If I don’t hear from you by Aug. 15, I’ll go back to the list and choose a new winner at random.)

Thank you everyone for your participation.  Please be sure to check back regularly for more reviews and giveaways.

Giveaway: Win a Copy of The Strain by Guillermo del Toro & Chuck Hogan

Just three more days left to win your free copy of The Strain by Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan.  Just click here or scroll down to comment on the original giveaway post, for your chance to win.

Click here to read my review of this spine-tingling vampire novel.

Giveaway: The Strain by Guillermo del Toro & Chuck Hogan

The Fall, the second book in The Strain series by Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan will be released soon.  If you haven’t yet read the first book in the series, you absolutely must begin with The Strain, which was just released in paperback.

I’m hosting a giveaway!  Two lucky readers will each receive a free copy of The Strain by Guillermo del Toro & Chuck Hogan.  Please simply write a comment below for your chance to win a free copy of this New York Times bestselling novel.  The deadline to enter is Aug. 10, 2010.

Book Review: Spells by Aprilynne Pike

Spells is the second novel in Aprilynne Pike’s series about faeries. Like the first novel in the series, Wings, this book features the main character Laurel, a young teenage female faerie who was adopted and raised by human parents.  Her romantic intrigues continue, torn between her human boyfriend, David, and the faerie who loves her, Tamani.  In this second book, Laurel makes her first visit back to Avalon since coming to live in the human world.  She attends school and begins to learn the art of potion-mixing that is her responsibility as a Fall Faerie.

“Laurel was startled for a moment, then remembered that she had spent seven years in Avalon before going to live with her parents. The fact that she couldn’t remember anyone didn’t mean they couldn’t remember her. It made her strangely uncomfortable to wonder how many of the faeries she passed on the grounds could remember a past she would never recall.”

Blooming with fresh ideas and intrigue, the traditional faerie tale takes on new life in Pike’s series.  The world of Avalon described in Spells is vivid and captivating. The concept that faeries are descended from plants and divided into seasons by both birthright and talent is a plot detail that is well-developed and adds a unique twist to capture the imagination of the reader.

My one major criticism is that the story revolves too much around the teenage romantic triangle of Laurel and her two potential loves rather than the plotlines related to Avalon, the trolls, or the new hunter character, Klea, who is introduced in the book.  There was so much potential for intrigue in Avalon, yet all Laurel ever seemed to think about was David or Tam.  I’ve read enough young adult fantasies to come to terms with the fact that this formula is true to form for the genre, and Pike’s main target audience must certainly enjoy it because her debut novel, Wings, hit number one on the New York Times bestseller list.

Overall, the book is a page-turner.  I found myself engaged and wanting to learn more about Pike’s faeries and Avalon, as well as what will become of Laurel in the human world.

To learn more about Aprilynne Pike, you may read my author interview or my review of her debut novel, Wings.

Note: This article was first published as “Book Review: Spells by Aprilynne Pike” on Blogcritics.org.

Book Review: Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout

It was my turn this month to choose the selection for my book club, and I thought I’d multitask by choosing something from my review pile.  I dove to the bottom of my mountain of review books and found Elizabeth Strout’s novel, Olive Kitteridge.  A review copy of Olive Kitteridge was sent to me when it was first released in 2008, and I’m ashamed to say that it’s taken me until now to get around to reading this 2009 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction winner, but I’m so glad I finally did.

Elizabeth Strout’s writing style is exceptionally elegant and understated. Reading the story and having the tale unfold was like watching someone weave an intricate tapestry.  The main character, Olive Kitteridge, is only occasionally written in the first person.  Primarily, we catch snapshots of her brief interactions and impact on others, as revealed through the experiences of external characters.  It was almost like having glimpses through the window into someone’s life, trying to piece together who this woman really was.

“Mrs. Kitteridge. Holy Shit. She looked exactly the same as she had in the classroom in seventh grade, that forthright, high-cheekboned expression; her hair was still dark. He had liked her; not everyone had. He would have waved her away now, or started the car, but the memory of respect held him back.”

Olive spans years throughout her adult life in the story trying to figure out herself just who she is.  Olive is not a particularly compassionate or sensitive woman.  She is strong in personality and strong in her opinions.  Often feared by the students at the school where she taught math, her impact on others is not always a positive one.  Sometimes she makes a difference in someone’s life, but more often than not, she makes mistakes, particularly with her own family.  There were times in the story where, as a reader, I wasn’t particularly sure if I cared for her, but I was compelled to find out how she evolved and what happened to her.  Olive loves, but she is flawed.  Ultimately, she is simply human.

Note: This article was first published as “Book Review: Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout” on Blogcritics.org.

Book Review: Bite Me by Christopher Moore

The third installment in Christopher Moore’s comedic vampire series, Bite Me: A Love Story, is without a doubt the funniest book I have read in ages.  Told with the same off-kilter humor that is found throughout all of Christopher Moore’s novels, it is definitely not your average run-of-the-mill vampire tale.  It’s a love story with a twist.

Set in San Francisco, Moore’s vampire series features characters that include Abby Normal (a perky goth teen with a flair for the dramatic), a giant cat named Chet, a homeless man who is the self-proclaimed Emperor of San Francisco, a team of mostly-stoned graveyard shift grocery store stock clerks who find themselves in the roles of impromptu vampire hunters, a brilliant but nerdy grad student named Steven “Foo Dog” Wong who Abby claims as her ”manga-haired love slave,” several ancient and powerful denizens of the night, along with a couple of likeable yet fairly ordinary under-achievers who just happen to be vampires.

I was delighted to discover that much of the book was narrated by the character of Abby Normal, the proud minion of her somewhat bumbling vampire masters.  Her voice is simultaneously sarcastic, melodramatic, and full of over-the-top teen slang.

“I weep, I brood, I grieve — I have sniffed the bitter pink Sharpie of despair and mascara tears stripe my cheeks like a mouthful of chewed up black Gummi bears has been loogied in my eyes. Life is a dark abyss of pain and I am alone, separated from my darling delicious Foo.

But check it — I totally kicked ass against a gang of vampyre kitties.”

Having also read the first two books in the series and intrigued by my intermittent fits of giggles while reading the book during our vacation, my husband could hardly wait for me to finish Bite Me before he began reading it himself.  He literally laughed out loud during certain chapters, something I can’t say I’ve ever seen him do before while reading a book.

Moore’s vampire series begins with the book Bloodsucking Fiends and is followed up with You Suck.  Bite Me is the most recent novel in this fun-filled fantasy adventure that is definitely more comedy than horror.  Though it would be difficult to equate Moore’s humor to that of anyone else’s, it might loosely be compared to that of best-selling author of the Discworld series, Terry Pratchett.  Moore’s writing style is a bit more edgy and outrageous, while Pratchett’s humor is more subtly finessed, but both are sure to keep their readers laughing out loud.  My other favorites in Christopher Moore’s collection include Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal and The Stupidest Angel: A Heartwarming Tale of Christmas Terror.

Note: This article was first published as “Book Review: Bite Me by Christopher Moore” on Blogcritics.org.

Book Club Contest: Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger

Attention Book Clubs:

Audrey Niffenegger’s eagerly anticipated new novel, Her Fearful Symmetry, will be released at the end of September.

In acknowledgement of the fact that book clubs helped to make Niffenegger’s first novel, The Time Traveler’s Wife, such a resounding success, Regal Literary is offering a special contest for book clubs.

• Ten book clubs will receive first edition hard cover copies (up to twelve for each book club chosen) signed by the author.
• Three book clubs will have the opportunity to “meet” with Audrey online.
• One lucky book club will get Audrey in person during her book tour.

To enter, simply send a letter including the names, email addresses, and signatures of your book club members to:

Her Fearful Symmetry Special Offer

Regal Literary

Penthouse

1140 Broadway

New York City, NY 10001

The winners will be announced on September 29, 2009 on the Her Fearful Symmetry Facebook page.

Best of luck!  (But I really hope that my book club wins!)

Free Giveaway: Dying for Mercy by Mary Jane Clark

I have been offered two hard cover copies of the latest thriller by New York Times bestselling author Mary Jane Clark.  The book is titled Dying for Mercy, and it just hit bookstore shelves today.  Clark draws on her background in broadcast journalism to create a unique setting for her fiction.  Dying for Mercy promises to be a page-turner of a suspense novel.

The description that I was sent reads:

When death shatters the serenity of the exclusive moneyed enclave of Tuxedo Park, New York, Eliza Blake, cohost of the country’s premier morning television show KEY to America, is on the scene. While attending a lavish gala at her friends’ newly renovated estate, Pentimento, Eliza’s host is found dead—a grotesque suicide that is the first act in a macabre and intricately conceived plan to expose the sins of the past involving some of the town’s most revered citizens.
 
Determined to find out the truth, Eliza and her KEY News colleagues—producer Annabelle Murphy, cameraman B.J. D’Elia, and psychiatrist Margo Gonzalez—discover that Pentimento holds the key. Nestled in the park’s sprawling architectural masterpieces, picturesque gardeners’ cottages, and lush, rolling landscape, the glorious mansion is actually a giant “puzzle house,” filled with ingenious clues hidden in its fireplaces, fountains, and frescoes that lead them from one suspicious locale to another—and, one by one, to the victims of a fiendish killer.
 
As Pentimento gives up its secrets, it becomes clear that no amount of wealth or privilege will keep the residents of Tuxedo Park safe. But just when Eliza unearths one final surprise, she comes face-to-face with a murderer who believes that some puzzles should never be solved.

There is also a preview trailer for the book.

If you would like to enter this contest, please simply leave a comment on this post, which will serve as your official entry.  Each individual may enter only once.  I’ll be running the contest for the next week, so please leave your comment no later than Aug. 4, 2009.  Two winners will be chosen.