Jump the Gun

This fluffy little mystery from Zoe Burke is the first of a proposed series starring Beatrice Annabelle Starkey, book sales rep. Unlikely that she would meet the man of her dreams at a book convention in Chicago, but there he is, and even more unlikely is that she agrees to accompany him to Las Vegas for a little vacation after knowing him just one day, but she does. Before they even get unpacked in their luxury suite, she is kidnapped at gunpoint while Mickey is downstairs in the gift shop. Turns out Mickey gets kidnapped too, but they knock out the bad guy and tie him to a table with ....the big roll of dental floss that Annabelle always keeps in her purse. While escaping from this thug, who turns out to be a bent LV policeman, they run into a woman who used to be in the same nursing home as Annabelle's recently deceased Nana. Then they barely escape more bad guys posing as cops by hopping in a cab being driven by a suspended LV policeman. When Annabelle finally has a chance to call home and tell her cat sitter Cassie that she will be a little delayed getting back, the phone in her apartment is answered by yet another policeman who tells her Cassie has been murdered. Mickey and Annabelle hop a flight to San Francisco and, yet another coincidence, the investigating officer is a former college chum of Mickey's. The coincidences keep piling up and it's hard to tell who is on the up and up and who is part of the conspiracy. References to movies are liberally sprinkled throught as Annabelle is a big movie buff. Reminds me of another somewhat preposterous and thoroughly enjoyable book called Agnes and the Hitman. Read both for some light entertainment.

The Dreaming Tree

This is a compilation of The Dreamstone and The Tree of Swords and Jewels by C.J. Cherryh. Although the writing is lovely in places, I found it just confusing and the storyline too condensed in others. This is an astoundingly prolific author of science fiction and of high fantasies. Usually I really like this type of thing but found the heavy use of Welsh/Celtic/Old English names really tiresome at times. Maybe I was just not in the mood. This is the story of Arafel, last of the Elves left behind after the rest have departed the world of "Men." Arafel continues to stand guard over the Faery world of Eald as well as the mortal world of Man with their poisonous use of iron (roughly a Medieval time frame). She is lonely and occasionally tries to befriend a particular human but is often disappointed as humans are both in awe of and in fear of the Faery folk--not without reason. There are still plenty of other magical beings around, some mischievous, some cold and calculating, and others downright dark and evil. Generations of men pass is a blink of Faery time. The main characters in this book have elven blood in their background which allows them a somewhat increased access and affinity--or fearfulness--toward all that is Faery. One has asked Arafel's help in winning a war and she agreed and has indeed continued to exert beneficent oversight on this human, his subsequent family with two children, and the lands over which he is now lord. Farms have prospered, peace has reined. But Lord Cieran's brother, Donnchadh, as well as other lords are being advised by darker beings who foster distrust of Ciaran, particularly with the King. When things don't move fast enough, Donnchadh and the other greedy lords kill the King, and now war--not just among men, but among all things Faery--is coming and sweeping everything before it into destruction.

Divergent

So for a summary plot line (and complete cast of characters) of this first installment of Veronica Roth's trilogy, see the Wikipedia entry. If you liked the Hunger Games, etc. you will enjoy this. On the day when every 16 year old must choose a faction in which to live and work for the rest of their lives, Beatrice abandons Abnegation and chooses Dauntless, leaving behind her parents, her brother Caleb, and everything she has ever known. The simulation which is supposed to accurately assess personality type and help people correctly choose a faction found Beatrice to be both Abnegation and Dauntless, in other words, a Divergent, although the test administrator entered her results as Abnegation to "protect" her. Beatrice chooses the name Tris to accompany her new life and, surprisingly given her small stature, moves into the top ranks of initiates among the Dauntless. Her divergent mind gives her the ability to manipulate the fear-inducing simulations all initiates are put through, giving her an edge. She also falls in love with one of her instructors and the two of them temporarily foil a truly evil plot by the Erudite faction to use mind control computer programs to turn the Dauntless into killers and eliminate the ruling Abnegation faction. Although written for YAs, it has well-developed characters, an interesting premise, and fast-paced plotting. I will undoubtedly read the next two installments, Insurgent and Allegiant, so I guess I'm not quite done with my YA reading binge :-) Apparently this has just been made into a movie which is due to come out this month (March , 2014).

Code Name Verity

       Elizabeth Wein is the author of this "companion novel" to Rose Under Fire, but I urge reading this one first to enhance understanding. These two books were both driven by the author's fascination with the Air Transport Authority--British women pilots in WWII.  The story is divided into two parts, the first told by captured British spy, Julia Beaufort-Stuart, who is being held and tortured in the Gestapo headquarters of a French town. Per her account, which is conveyed via the notes she is supplying to the Germans in exchange for her life--temporarily--she is a traitor of the worst sort, supplying radio codes, names of airfields and types of aircraft. It is a somewhat rambling account that documents the development of her friendship with ATA pilot, Maddie Brodatt. Maddie, we learn from Julia, has been mechanically inclined all her life, able to take apart and repair all kinds of engines, and she is also passionate about flying. Julia is shown photos of the plane in which Maddie flew her to France that crash landed after Julia parachuted. The photos supposedly document the complete incineration of the plane, with Maddie onboard. The accounts of torture, for both Julia and the resistance fighters also being held in the same prison, are horrific, if somewhat obliquely described.
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     The second part of the book is Maddie's tale, told through notes she kept while hiding with the Resistance fighters in France. We learn that, due to an emergency, she decides to fly Julia to France, even though technically she is not authorized to fly into a war zone. ATA pilots were only supposed to ferry planes within Britain. They come under fire, damaging the tail of the plane and forcing Maddie to crash land after dropping off Julia. The plane was supposed to return British pilots, being helped and hidden by the Resistance, back to England. Now she becomes one of those in hiding and puts her skills to use learning to make explosives. Indirectly, through her section leader, she learns that Julia has been captured and is very likely being held and tortured in the nearby town. One night, her group of saboteurs get information about a prisoner transport and determines to blow up a bridge and free the prisoners. Things go terribly wrong and Maddie kills Julia--at Julia's request--to avoid her being taken to the concentration camps for medical experiments. A woman who had been present at Julia's interrogations secretly brings Julia's notes to Maddie and she learns that, in spite of Julia's reputation within the prison as a collaborator, she has revealed not a single piece of useful information to the Germans.
There is a several page "Author's Debriefing," after the story itself, that describes some of the source material for the novel and it is well worth reading. Although ostensibly written for young adults, these are really remarkable stories, with compelling characters, clever plotting, and a sometimes painfully clear description of what happened to people in WWII. Highly recommended for adults and recommended with caution for YA's. This review in the NYT also gives a wonderful flavor for the book.

Rose Under Fire

I am copying here the review I wrote for Children's Literature Comprehensive Database for this book by Elizabeth Wein. It inspired me to find and read the "companion novel" written by Wein, Code Name Verity, which I review next.

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            This is billed as a “companion novel” to the award winning book, Code Name Verity. Rose Justice is working for the ATA (Air Transport Auxiliary) in 1944, delivering planes from the factory to airfields where they are needed, or taking planes from their fields into repair facilities. Even though Rose is only 18 years old, and American, she has been flying since she was 12 years old, because her father owns a flight school. As soon as she graduates high school, she starts pressuring her Uncle Roger, an engineer in the British military, to get her this job and now she’s here. She has more flight experience than many of the young men flying into combat, but women aren’t allowed to be combat pilots. When the Allies land at Normandy and start pushing the lines back toward Germany, her Uncle persuades the powers that be to let Rose deliver him to France where he supervises the building of temporary bridges.

On the way home from this assignment, Rose spies a V-1 rocket and, relying on conversations she has had with other pilots, successfully disrupts the rocket’s course sending it prematurely to the ground before it reaches its target. However, in the process, she gets way off course, is found by two Luftwaffe planes and brought back to Germany where she eventually ends up in the notorious women’s concentration camp, Ravensbrück. The bulk of the book then is her remembered account of what she endured during her six months imprisonment before she escaped with two other prisoners. It is both a heartbreaking and heart-warming story. Prisoners endure not just cold and starvation and beatings and often death, but they are daily submitted to the greatest humiliations and dehumanizing conditions, e.g., being given two shoes of differing sizes to wear, having to stand for hours and even days in the freezing cold as punishment while their bodily waste runs down their legs. In spite of the conditions, or because of them, they defend each other fiercely and often take life-threatening chances to hide those who have been selected for execution. Based on extensive research, no holds are barred in describing the treatment in the camp, so this book should be recommended with caution, but it is a compelling story of human resilience in the face of absolutely overwhelming challenges. The author provides a list of source materials including those with primary source materials (interviews with survivors) and one with a teaching guide.

The Signature of All Things

I have read another book by Elizabeth Gilbert that I quite liked, Committed, on the history of marriage. She is a good researcher and good writer. I enjoyed the movie based on her book, Eat, Pray, Love, but never read the book. A good friend raved about this book and it has received fairly universal positive reviews (fascinating one in the NYT). That being said, I struggled occasionally with this book. I grew impatient with it. But I kept coming back to it, and in fact would read well past my bedtime because I just had to know what was going to happen next. It is not, however, a plot driven book; rather, we are immersed in character and the scientific research that Gilbert must have done in spades to write this historical novel of a woman botanist in the 19th century. This was not a time period when women had many options, but Alma Whittaker's father was a driven and successful businessman who rose from abject poverty in England to astounding wealth in the New World; his wealth and fondness for Alma gave her opportunities most women never dreamed of. Henry Whittaker's passion for botany led him to medicinal plants and eventually the pharmaceuticals business, which seemed nearly immune to financial fluctuations and always seemed to do better when things were at their worst. He and Dutch wife Beatrix ( he contracted with her to marry--a decision which resulted in her being disowned by her family) had only the one biological daughter, but adopted a 2nd girl of Alma's age when Alma was 10 years old. Prudence could not have been more different than Alma. Alma was brawny and unattractive and brilliant. Prudence was also smart but was devastatingly beautiful. Like every relationship Alma had, the one with her sister was complex. Alma was insatiably curious and rational and an acknowledged botanical expert--even published--when she was quite young; she could never let any question rest, even questions of the heart. Prudence could never catch up. It was only when scion Henry Whittaker died and left his estate to Alma that she learned what her sister had sacrificed for her. Alma fell in love first with a scientific publisher, who married someone else, and then with an uncannily talented younger artist. His death drives the 2nd half of the book as Alma seeks to understand him. Gilbert is a talented writer, and in fact, it feels presumptuous even to attempt a critique of such an extraordinary piece of work. But it did not move me as it apparently has so many others.

The Warlock and The Enchantress

These are the final two volumes in "The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel" series by Michael Scott. I have read, and in fact own the four earlier installments: The Alchemyst, The Magician, The Sorceress, The Necromancer.  You will probably feel hopelessly lost if you try jumping into the series without having read the preceding volumes. Josh and Sophie are 15 year twins residing with their Aunt Agnes in San Francisco while their parents travel the world on archaeological digs. Josh works in a bookstore and Sophie across the street in a coffee shop. The bookstore is owned by Nick and Perry Flamel, the several-hundred-year-old immortals seeking the "twins of legend," who are--you guessed it--Josh and Sophie. The adventures are fast and furious in what turns out to be a battle for the future of the world as Josh and Sophie know it, being fought by Dark Elders and their minions, versus those magical beings who value the humani (as humans are referred to) and want them to continue existing. Read the earlier reviews to get a sense of the vast cast of characters who enter into this battle. In The Necromancer, Dr. Dee has apparently helped Josh gain the power to bring back the dead, and convinced him the Flamels are evil. This has split the twins for the first time in their lives, and they are now working towards very different ends.  Dee will use Josh, Machiavelli, Virginia Dare, Billy the Kid and others to free the accumulation of mythical monsters and evil forces he has collected on Alcatraz in order to destroy San Francisco. Sophie and the Flamels, who are no longer immortal and powerful, also have allies in trying to stop this, but they seem grossly outnumbered and overpowered. These two volumes are full of surprises though as we find that Aunt Agnes has actually been watching over the twins and their predecessors for thousands of years, Josh and Sophie are not really twins, and their parents are ... well you better dive in for a wild ride and read the series. Will the prophecy really come true about the gold and silver twins--one to destroy the world and one to save it? Is it possible for both to happen? These last two books could probably have been condensed into a single volume, i.e., I think this series went on a bit too long, but I enjoyed it nevertheless and highly recommend if you are a fantasy fan.

The Ocean at the End of the Lane

Another little gem from Neil Gaiman, author of Stardust, Good Omens, The Graveyard Book, and many more. Told as a recollection by a middle aged man who has returned to his childhood village for a funeral, we experience his memories of an eventful few days when he was a small, bookish and bullied 7-year old boy who inadvertently sets loose dark forces that want to take control of him, his family, the village, and maybe much more. The imagery is vivid and compelling, creating a real sense of menace and inescapability.  Fortunately for the boy, he has help in the form of the remarkable women (if they are women) at Hempstock Farm down at the end of the lane. Eleven-year old Lettie promises to protect him from the trouble if only he hangs on to her hand, but he drops it for only a moment and the damage is done. Nevertheless, he eventually makes his way back to Lettie, Mrs. Hempstock and old Mrs. Hempstock who take on the mysterious magical forces that threaten everything he thought he could count on. And Lettie does protect him, sacrificing herself to save him. The muddy duck pond at the farm is, as Lettie had asserted, really an ocean--an ocean of knowledge, and perhaps renewal. You might call this a really good ghost story; like other reviewers, once I started I could not put it down.