The Borrower

Rebecca Makkai is also a new author for me, but my friend Anne Z. said she was sure I would go for this book. And indeed the characters are very engaging, primarily Lucy Hull, who is filling in on a rather long-term basis as a children's librarian at the public library in Hannibal, Missouri, and her most bibliophilic patron, 10-year old Ian Drake. It turns out that Ian may be exhibiting behavior that leads a lot of people to think he is gay and his parents are so phobic and fundamentalist that they not only forbid his reading of anything to do with wizardry, adult content or evolution but they have signed him up for "Reboot Camp," run by the Reverend Bob Lawson's Glad Hearts Ministry, designed to help strays return to the (heterosexual) fold. Lucy is enraged but limits herself to surreptitiously checking out books for Ian in her own name until one fateful morning. She arrives early at the library to find Ian has spent the night, is running away, and is begging her to drive him to his grandmother's house--even though Lucy knows he does not have a grandmother. Crazily enough, she gets in the car with him and they begin driving, with her thinking at every point that she will take him home, as soon as she has inoculated him, somehow, to stand up to the anti-gay regimen to which he is being subjected. But they never manage to have that conversation and they keep driving--all the way to Vermont and the Canadian border--and it turns out that Lucy is running away as well. Is Lucy a kidnapper or the kidnappee, a savior or an intrusive busybody. Eventually Ian decides to return home. I felt a bit let down at the end. Lucy manages to sneak a list of "must read" books past Ian's mother and then goes on her way, hoping Ian will triumph and most readers will be left hoping, too. Lucy moves on to another job and reconciles herself somehow to a past and a parent she doesn't fully understand. What shines through this narrative is Lucy's faith that books can save people, and since I believe that, too, it wasn't a bad journey to take with Lucy and Ian.

Timeless

It seems like forever since I posted my own reading, partly because I did just a slew of review books and never seemed to get to my own books. But I am doing some catching up and have been reading things passed along by friends. My pal Dale and I love this series "The Parasol Protectorate" by Gail Carriger (see my earlier posts of Soulless, Changless, Blameless, Heartless). This is the 5th and apparently last installment featuring the preternatural Alexia Tarabotti, aka Lady Maccon. Married to the head of a werewolf pack, and now living in the household of a notorious vampire hive (Lord Akeldama) as a condition for her daughter to remain alive, Alexia is again up to her stylish hat brim in adventures. She--or more accurately her daughter, Prudence--has been summoned to Alexandria by the oldest vampire in the world, Queen Matakara. For what purpose is not entirely clear and it would also not be best, politically speaking, for it to be general knowledge in London that Lord & Lady Maccon were abroad at the bidding of the Queen. So Alexia contrives to have Ivy Tunstell's acting troupe, of which she is the patroness, be invited to Alexandria. Other mysteries are afoot. The God-Breaker plague appears to be spreading. The Kingair pack's beta has gone to Egypt to investigate only to return and be immediately shot dead. A secret kept by Lady Maccon and Lord Maccon's beta, Professor Lyall, has been revealed by Alexia's spiteful sister and threatens to significantly damage her marriage to Lord Maccon. The "tongue-in-cheek" tone of this book always makes me laugh as do the ridiculous terms of endearment ( e.g., my darling chamomile bud) showered upon Alexia by Lord Akeldama. Although I think this book would stand on its own, I would strongly recommend starting from the beginning if you are going to partake. I am really sorry this will be the last of the series, because I really enjoy these characters.

When Women Were Birds

This memoir from Terry Tempest Williams was given me by my sister-in-law who is not only a voracious reader but can recite poetry she has read on demand. Never ceases to amaze me. Anyway, she is formidable source and so I started the book right away--my first exposure to Terry Tempest Williams. Perhaps it was not the best place to start. Williams is spurred to write this exploration of women's voices by being bequeathed her mother's journals--three shelves of them--which, when examined, all turned out to be blank. Well that would certainly set you back on your heels. So a significant part of this book is about trying to figure out what her mother meant by this obviously  sustained act of subterfuge. Apparently, it is a primary role of women in Mormon families to be the recorders of history and keep journals. Her mother certainly communicated her thoughts and feelings in other ways and there are excerpts from her letters to Terry--very loving ones--as well as from her church talks. But the book overall feels disjointed and I often did not really know where I was in the chronology of Williams life when reading a particular chapter. The chapters are occasionally polemic about her indignation over the rape of the environment or the limitations placed on women's lives. I can live with that, but it is uncomfortable at times. And discouraging, even though she means, I think to exhort us to action on behalf of our convictions. And there are also moments of shining beauty in her perceptions and descriptions. It felt as though I were sometimes being abraded or scorched--so perhaps she is simply very good at conveying what she experiences. I kept coming back and felt drawn on and had trouble putting the book down. Just be warned before entering.