Vol. 11 #4
Just a reminder, the books reviewed here are recommended. I can't see wasting time reading a book I don't like when there are so many fabulous reads out there. Every book here kept me reading instead of dropping it and going on to the next book.
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Mainstream/ Character/ Setting/ Story
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A wow of book. Set in a time before cell phones when the clack of typewriter keys could still be heard in school hallways Travis Shelton, drop out, discovers a field of marijuana while out fishing in the Appallachian mountain streams of western North Carolina to make money to pay his truck insurance. Taking six of the plants to the local drug dealer, a former school teacher who lives in a book filled trailer, he makes more at one shot than he would make in weeks of hard work. Even though warned not to go back to the marijuana field owned by a couple of bad ass redknecks, he does and ends up caught in a bear trap. Moving in with Leonard Shuler after Carleton Toomey has seriously injured him and his father, resenting the hospital bills has hit him, Travis delves into his own family history, falls in love, and studies for his GED. Real, unforgettable characters in a story that sinks its hooks into ones psyche and a true flavor of the region that goes bone deep make this an extraordinary read.
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Crime/ Mystery & Detective Stories/ Amateur Detectives / Private Detectives
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A real estate developer, loathed by many, is found ground to death under the tracks of a bull dozer with a young environmental activist at the controls. It looks like an open and shut case but his attorney calls in repayment for a horse so Ben Abbott is on the case. Ben is familiar with the victim who was know as quite the land raper for subdividing lovely areas into small lots and throwing up huge McMansions on them. Ben turns to his not quite respectable cousins on his mom’s side and his ultra respectable aunt on his dad’s side for help in clearing his client’s client. Scott has created a character in real estate agent/ P.I. Ben Abbott who readers will want to revisit time and time again and he has peopled the story with quirky and interesting characters.
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YA/ Issues/ Crime |
A preppy type Portland skateboarder goes to a scary skate park under a bridge and ends up taking off with a sketchy kid when he mentions that he’s always wanted to try hopping a train. Arriving at a freight yard just blocks from the skate park they are beset by a security guard who seems to really want to do them damage. The protagonist strikes him with his skateboard and he is caught up by the train and pulled under its wheels. The other kid takes off and our protagonist runs. Told in a series of letters, we never know the name of the skateboarder but the reader really feels his anguish over the incident, his total confusion on what to do, and his fear when it is investigated as a murder. We really get to know him and the problems caused by his parents’ divorce and his own shaky relationships with his girlfriend and a neighbor who once had a crush on him. Paranoid Park is the fictional equivalent of Burnside, a famous skater destination and one that I’ve visited. I’m a skateboarding fan not a participant. I really enjoyed reading a book about skateboarding and a skateboarder even though our protagonist isn’t great at his sport. It made me want to dig out one of my old skate videos and put some ska in the CD player.
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YA/ Issues/ Homelessness/ Crime |
Ian McDermott, a fifteen-year-old skater with punked out hair believes that the administration and coaches at his high school will not give him a fair shake. If he were to cut his hair, lose some of the metal in his ears, and go out for the track team his life at school would be much easier. On the homefront he is the caregiver and breadwinner for his ten-year-old brother Sammy who is not really handicapped, he is just a little slow. Their mom is never around, spending weeks at a time away with her drug dealing boyfriends. When things at school really start going bad and a coach grabs Ian’s shoulder, Ian punches him and the two boys go on the run from Spokane to Walla Walla looking for the dad who abandoned them before Sammy was even born. Along the way they meet a kind farmer and run afoul of a lone sheriff. One can feel the cold, hunger, and bone numbing fatigue Ian and Sammy experience on their trek. The characterizations are wonderful and the problems at the school are unfortunately all too common in this age of “No Child Left Behind.” Readers who like K. L. Going’s Saint Izzy, books by Chris Crutcher, Terry Trueman, and Terry Davis will be delighted with Michael Harmon’s debut novel.
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Romance/ Historical/ Georgian
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Ross is in peak form with her latest beautifully told tale of love. Sarah Gallaway approaches Guy Devoran, the nephew of a powerful duke for help in finding her cousin Rachel, her only relative in the world, who she believes has been kidnapped. Guy, who knows far more about Rachel than he lets on, is enthralled by the freckled widow who works as a school teacher in Bath and is considered by almost all who meet her to be exceedingly plain. As Sarah and Guy search for Rachel they discover that she truly is in danger. Clandestine is the most perfect romance novel I’ve read this year. It features multi-dimensional characters caught up in an unusual situation and is filled with suspense. The conflict is a new one and is not the least bit contrived or silly. I loved that the characters were true to themselves. While Ross writes sizzling sensual scenes, each and every one is very natural and actually works within the framework of the plot and moves the story forward. This is a must read and is definitely in my top ten for the year.
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YA/ Issues/ Homelessness |
After Tyrell’s father goes back to prison he, his mom, and his little brother become homeless. All the shelters are full so they are sent to a disgusting roach filled hotel. Tyrell tries to take care of his younger brother. He runs a subway scam where for cash he uses his monthly pass to let people through the turnstiles but when he finds out his family won’t be moved out of the crummy hotel because his mother has welfare fraud convictions he decides he has to make enough money to move them into an apartment. Even though his mother wants him to take up drug dealing for the money he resists. He has a conservative girlfriend but also some involvement with a girl who is living in the same hotel. The use of language is very interesting and makes Black English make sense while really giving a flavor of this particular culture. Readers will root for Tyrell as he strives for success while trying to stay true to himself.
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Historical Fiction/ Western/
Mountain Men |
Sam Morgan and his beloved wife Meadowlark head to California with Captain Jedediah Smith’s brigade of mountain men who are hoping to find a river that will lead to the Pacific. Instead they encounter heartbreaking country as they travel through and barely survive the Mojave Desert and a huge chunk of desolate landscape. Blevins, a Spur Award winner, is a master storyteller making the reader care about Sam and Meadowlark as well as the other members of the brigade, human, coyote, and horse. Sam’s story embodies all the qualities that made Westerns popular for so many years, the qualities that rank high on this reader’s scale. Dancing with the Golden Bear offers fascinating glimpses into history, a heartfelt romance, and maximum adventure.
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Teen/ Historical Fiction
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Amari, a fifteen year old anticipating her wedding witnesses the slaying of everyone in her African village but the strong young adults who are taken captive as slaves. After surviving the horrifying middle passage she is bought at auction as a gift for Clay Derby the son of a plantation owner in South Carolina. Polly, born in Beaufort, Carolina Colony is an indentured servant with fourteen years to serve for her parent’s debt who is sent to Derbyshire Farm at the same time and ordered to train Amari who has been renamed Myna. This harrowing tale of life for both girls and those they meet brings the early 18th century vividly to life. It is full of adventure as the two girls and the cook’s young son who had been used as alligator bait escape and head south toward Spanish Florida. Draper is known for her fine and compelling contemporary fiction but with Copper Sun she proves that she has what it takes to write compelling historical fiction with characters who come to life in a well researched milieu. It is one of those rare books that keeps the reader thinking and wondering about history long after the pages are closed.