The Age of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walker

In the summer of 2011, the publishing world engaged in a fierce bidding war for a debut novel. The Age of Miracles, written by Karen Thompson Walker, is a dystopian novel. Its portrait of an Earth slowing down after being knocked off its axis by a mysterious cataclysm spookily mirrored the newscasts broadcasting from Japan at the time of the auction. Japan had just been devastated by a real life natural disaster—a giant tsunami following a massive undersea earthquake.

The novel is told from the point of view of 11 year old Julia. She doesn’t have magical powers, she’s not in love with a vampire, and she’s not setting the world on fire with her archery skills. She’s simply a normal kid doing her best to survive the vicissitudes of adolescence. Julia describes her world and herself the following way:

“This was middle school, the age of miracles, the time when kids shot up three inches over the summer, when breasts bloomed from nothing, when voices dipped and dove. Our first flaws were emerging, but they were being corrected. Blurry vision could be fixed invisibly with the magic of the contact lens. Crooked teeth were pulled straight with braces … A few boys were growing tall. I knew I still looked like a child.”

Julia has the bad luck to enter her age of miracles just as Earth enters an age of winding down, exposing flaws no one knows how to correct. Thompson interweaves Julia’s observations of the “slowing” of the planet with the story of her budding romance with her schoolmate, Seth, and the unraveling of her parents’ marriage. Julia is young, but she faces her situation with a maturity many adults would envy. Walker makes her believable—and before I knew it Julia had crept into my heart.

Find and reserve this new book in our online catalog.

P.S. The book selling & publishing newsletter Shelf Awareness has dedicated an issue to The Age of Miracles.

Bleed for Me by Michael Robotham

Psychologist Joe O’Loughlin thinks his life is hard, but manageable. He’s separated from the wife he still loves, Julianne, but has hopes of reconciliation. He has two daughters he adores, Emma and Charlie, and he’s made sure he’s part of their everyday life. He’s still coming to terms with his Parkinson’s disease, but with medication, it seems controllable.

Then Charlie’s best friend, Sienna Hegarty, turns up at his family’s front door covered in blood and Joe O’Loughlin realizes just how much harder life can be. Sienna’s father, former police officer Ray Hegarty, has been murdered, and Sienna is the prime suspect. O’Loughlin’s professional instincts tell him she’s innocent, but when he comes to her aid he finds the situation more complicated than he realized. The people he’s dealing with are dangerous and soon Joe is fighting to protect not just Sienna, but himself and his family from enemies who seem to be coming at him from all sides.

Robotham’s writing is outstanding, particularly the scenes where O’Loughlin interviews clients and/or suspects. It is so good it pulled me through some very tough scenes. The people Joe is fighting are ruthless and they hurt anyone in their way, including (maybe even especially) the most defenseless among us, children. But Robotham made me care about the characters and I needed to know what happened to them. I needed to find out if Joe could persevere and save Sienna.

This is the fourth book in the award winning Joe O’Loughlin series (after Suspect, Lost, and Shatter). I usually read series in order, but I broke my own rule and read this book first because the reviews, both print and word of mouth, have been so good. I’m glad I did. Now I have the first three books to look forward to reading this summer.

Find and reserve this book in our catalog.

So Much Pretty by Cara Hoffman

I have read more books than I would like centered on the disappearance of a woman. Several recent titles that leap to mind are The Fates Will Find Their Way, In Search of the Rose Notes, The False Friend, and Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter. The missing women in these books are almost certainly dead, but we don’t always find out.

So Much Pretty is also about a missing woman, although in this case we do find out what happened and it is not pretty. The woman in question is 19 year-old Wendy White. Born and raised in the rural town of Haeden, New York, where people know their neighbors and believe themselves safe from violence, Wendy is a cheerful, pretty girl who works at the neighborhood tavern.

Her disappearance and ultimate fate galvanizes two local women, reporter Stacy Flynn and high school student Alice Piper into action. They are both disturbed by Wendy’s fate, and even more disturbed by the town’s denial that someone from Haeden could be responsible; locals insist a stranger must have done this–even if the evidence says otherwise.

For me, what sets this book apart from the others is the underlying emotion of the story. It is not grief, or fear, or even anger. It is absolute fury. The kind of fury that reminds you the word was inspired by the avenging deities in Greek mythology who torment criminals. Avenging deities usually portrayed as female.

Cara Hoffman’s ability to harness that fury and not let it overwhelm the story bowled me over. Her writing is controlled and pointed and utterly merciless. For me, this was a tough and at times a painful read. Nevertheless, I haven’t stopped thinking about this book and I will remember it long past the time books usually fade in my memory.

Find and reserve this book in our online catalog.

Birds of a Lesser Paradise by Megan Mayhew Bergman

I know you. You think you don’t like to read short stories. You’re not sure why, since you haven’t ever really read a collection of short stories penned by only one author, just the various stories you were assigned in school. But you’re pretty sure you don’t like them.

I’m a huge fan of short stories. I love their compactness, their conciseness, their ability to slay you with just a sentence, a phrase, a word. If I were in charge, the New York Times would have a bestseller list just for short story collections.

I want to issue you a challenge. This summer, in addition to your usual beach read of choice — mystery, romance, biography, bestseller — mix it up a little. Make a librarian happy and try a short story collection. Specifically, try Megan Mayhew Bergman’s Birds of a Lesser Paradise.

I loved so many things about these stories. I liked that many of the tales are set here in North Carolina. Bergman is a native and it shows. She chooses just the right details to make you not only see, but feel and taste North Carolina. The overarching theme of how we relate to each other within families resonated with me, especially the stories centered on parent/child relationships. The emphasis on nature and how people experience it is also used to great effect. But what I liked best about this collection is that each one is memorable. I cannot choose a favorite. I recommend you read them all.

Find and request this book in our catalog.

The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller

This novel had a miraculous effect on me.  It made me regret that I didn’t pay more attention when studying The Iliad in school.

What a compulsively readable story Madeline Miller recreates from the famous epic.  The characters are famous, with names we recognize.  Achilles, son of a goddess and the greatest of all the Greek warriors.  Helen, another child of a god, whose beauty so enflames Paris he kidnaps her even if it means war.  Agamemnon, Odysseus, Hector, Menelaus, the centaur Chiron, Miller makes them all come alive in a way that was a revelation to me.

But the two characters I found the most fascinating were the least familiar.  The story is told from the point of view of Patroclus, beloved companion of Achilles.  He is mortal, the son of a king with none of the attributes valued by his father, and has been banned from his home for a childhood act.  But he does know how to love, and he will demonstrate this over and over again in his relationship with Achilles.

Thetis, the mother of Achilles, does not approve of Patroclus.  She has big plans for her son, will not brook any interference, and Miller makes her terrifying–Greek goddess as Tiger Mother.

The tension between Patroclus and Thetis, who both believe they are acting in the best interests of Achilles, is compelling.  The scenes of Achilles going to battle are dramatic and it doesn’t matter that you may already know how they will play out–Miller makes them exciting and fresh.

This is one of my favorite novels of 2012 .  Recommended for fans of historical fiction (especially readers of Mary Renault), Greek mythology and especially for anyone else who may have skated through the Iliad in high school or college.

Find and reserve this new book in our catalog.

The Book of Jonas by Stephen Dau

“What is it like to lose everything?” asked the man, the stranger who was there to help.
And Younis fixed him with his pale green eyes and said, “”What is it like not to?”"

These are big questions, with no easy answers.  They are the questions posed and explored in Stephen Dau’s beautifully written debut novel, The Book of Jonas.

The novel opens as Younis, a 15 year old boy, is in the process of being repatriated from his war ravaged country (which is never named) to the United States.  It’s not clear then what has happened to him, only that it was cataclysmic.  On the plane trip over he changes his name to Jonas, the English translation of his birth name, and begins a new life with an American host family in Pittsburgh.

But Jonas does not find it easy to fit in among his new family and schoolmates and eventually ends up in trouble and in counseling.  There, he slowly begins to allow himself to remember and reveal what happened to him and how it involved an American soldier, Christopher Henderson, who Jonas credits with saving his life.

This book is haunting me.  I read it just as the news about the killings of Afghan civilians by an American soldier broke.  It was impossible not to hear echoes of this book in the news coverage.  And even though Younis/Jonas’ story is heart rending, and it is tempting to turn away from such sadness, Dau’s beautiful writing and the importance of the moral issues he explores make that impossible too.

Find and reserve this book in our catalog.

City of Bohane by Kevin Barry

Profane, cinematic, hilarious, elegiac, brutal, poetic, original. I found City of Bohane to be all these things and more. The language is amazing. It took me a chapter or two to adjust to the vernacular Kevin Barry’s characters employ, but it was well worth the effort.  (You can view the author reading from the book here.)

At the center of the story is the struggle between rival gangs for control of the Irish city of Bohane, but there are also several fascinating subplots involving the personal lives of the gang members. The story takes place in 2053 or thereabouts but this is a world where people interact face to face, not electronically. Mastery of technology is not what’s important in Bohane; it’s loyalty, charisma and ruthlessness that are indispensable in the age old pursuit of power.

I can’t overstate how much I reveled in the language of this book. Two small examples:

“”Mouth of teeth on him like a vandalised graveyard but we all have our crosses.”"

“”Macu, polite as the seeping of a poison”"

There are many other examples but chances are they’re too bawdy or profane to post here. And be forewarned that these pages are populated by people who are not shy about employing slurs.

I would recommend City of Bohane to readers who like books by Paul Murray, Irvine Welsh, Dennis Lehane and George Pelecanos.  Also recommended to lovers of Irish fiction in general and literary fiction readers for whom language is paramount.

If you think of books in cinematic terms, I would compare this novel to the films of Quentin Tarantino, Martin Scorsese, and Guy Ritchie.

So visit Bohane.  I found it an unforgettable place.  I think you will too.

Find and reserve this book in our catalog.

Behind the Beautiful Forevers by Katherine Boo

At one time, the travelers on the road to the Suhar International Airport in Mumbai could look out their car windows and see a tall, shiny, aluminum fence.  Ads for a company that sold floor tiles ran its length.  “Beautiful Forever” read the corporate slogan.

Behind that wall promising eternally beautiful floors lay what airport management didn’t want customers to see:  Annawadi, a slum first settled in 1991 by workers brought in from southern India to repair an airport runway.  Seventeen years later, when Katherine Boo did the research that led to this book, three thousand people still lived and worked there.

Boo introduces us to several Annawadi residents and gives us intimate glimpses into their lives.  There is Abdul, the young entrepreneur striving to improve the fortune of his family through recycling garbage.  We meet Asha, a rising star in the political life of the settlement.  We watch Abdul’s neighbor, Fatima, make a fateful choice that changes lives forever.

This is a gorgeously written book, but not an easy story to read.  Abdul, Asha and Fatima are people with few resources struggling to succeed in a corrupt system that does not seem very fair, especially to the poor.  Boo shows how precarious their lives are, and how quickly hardworking people can find their lives turned upside down by circumstance.

Boo, a Pulitzer-Prize winning journalist and current staffer at The New Yorker, has spent two decades writing about poverty.  She hopes this book will “show American readers that the distance between themselves and, say, a teenaged boy in Mumbai who finds an entrepreneurial niche in other people’s garbage, is not nearly as great as they might think.”

She succeeded with this American reader.  I quickly grew to care about the people Boo portrays so vividly, especially Abdul.  The three years Boo spent in Annawadi researching this story were evident.  She made me see the dwellings and the faces of the people she met, and experience their daily struggles.

I would recommend this book to readers who like nonfiction that reads like fiction, people interested in India, readers with an interest in economic issues, nonfiction book clubs looking for a title with themes that easily lend themselves to discussion, and last, but not least, to devotees of beautiful writing.

Find and reserve this book in our online catalog.

American Dervish by Ayad Akhtar

American Dervish begins in the early 1980s and is told from the point of view of 10 year old Hayat Shah.  His mother’s best friend is just about to move to Milwaukee from Pakistan, to live with Hayat’s family while she recovers from a disastrous marriage.  Mina is beautiful and smart and brings laughter to the often somber Shah household.  Hayat is enchanted.  Mina is also a devout Muslim and Hayat is only too glad to let her teach him about his Islamic heritage and their holy book, the Quran.  What no one is prepared for is where Hayat’s devotion to Mina and the Quran will lead.

American Dervish is an engrossing novel with a sympathetic narrator in Hayat.  The other characters are vivid, even the secondary ones.  I thought Akhtar did a wonderful job of giving the reader just the kind of details about a character that makes them spring to life on the page.  There are big themes in this book, but they are not forced upon the story, rather the action illuminates the issues.

As I read a book I often ask myself who I would recommend it to.  This book brought to mind readers of The Kite Runner.  Both books revolve around a boy who doesn’t fully understand the political undercurrents in his community and because of this he makes a choice he is haunted by for the rest of his life.

Unlike The Kite Runner, this novel doesn’t take place in a faraway land but in this country.  Yet, like that novel, the culture it portrays was fascinating to me because it’s one with which I am unfamiliar.

Ayad Akhtar is an American of Pakistani heritage, raised in Milwaukee.  He has written several screenplays, and was nominated for an Independent Spirit award for co-writing the screenplay for The War Within.  American Dervish is his first novel.  I suspect it won’t be his last.

Find and reserve this book in our catalog.

The Scrapbook of Frankie Pratt by Caroline Preston

If you’re looking for a book to read on your new e-book reader, don’t start here.  Don’t look here for your next audio book either.  A quick search of online booksellers will confirm that this novel is not available in either of these formats, even if you wanted to ignore my advice.

That’s because The Scrapbook of Frankie Pratt is meant to be leafed through the way you would leaf through, say, a scrapbook.  Viewing one page at a time, as on a typical e-reader, would not serve this book well.  The vintage pictures used to illustrate the story need the space of the two-page spread so the eye can easily move from text to picture and back to text.  This book is a feast for the eye and needs a format that can showcase the many changes in font, color, and background.  And for now, in my opinion, that optimal format is paper.

Caroline Preston has said it was her lifelong love of vintage materials that inspired her to create what some would call her first graphic novel.  (For more detail watch an interview with her and read an article on how she created this book at her website, carolinepreston.com.)

The story centers on Frankie Pratt, a young girl from a family of modest means.  The time period is the 1920s and Frankie may be from a small New Hampshire town but she has big ambitions.  She dreams of going to college at Vassar, and upon graduation, embarking on a career as a writer.  The Scrapbook of Frankie Pratt chronicles what happens to Frankie as she tries to make her dreams come true.

Frankie is a sympathetic heroine and I loved the combination of text and vintage pictures.  This is a book I savored, looking at the images, reading the text, then looking back at the pictures and reconsidering them in light of what I had just read.  Something about the interplay between the written word and visual images lent a poignancy to the story that I found moving.

If you are a fan of either historical fiction or graphic novels, give this book a try.  I also think it would appeal to teen girls and is a good choice for book clubs, especially those looking for something a little different from what they usually read.

Find and reserve this book in our catalog.