Book Review: "An Exaltation of Larks" by Suanne Laqueur

This was one of my favorite books of the last decade, but when I was given the opportunity to receive a free copy of the book from Red Clover Digital and Suanne Laqueur, I wanted to reshare my review.

To borrow from a language spoken periodically in this book, Madre de Dios, este libro! (Mother of God, this book!)

"Second chances are given or made."

In 1973, 11-year-old Alejandro Penda is living in Chile in the midst of a military coup. Both of his parents are arrested, and Alejo doesn't know if he'll ever see them again. With the help of family friends, he escapes to America, to live with his uncle in the upstate New York town of Guelisten. Although the trauma of what he lived through, and his grief over his parents, is tremendously difficult for him, he finds himself becoming very close to the Larks, a large, active, warm family that is friends with his uncle.

Alex becomes best friends with Roger Lark, and he and the Larks' oldest daughter, Valerie, have a love/hate relationship which turns into infatuation when Valerie returns home from college. But although she and Alex are drawn to each other, they give each other the freedom to live their own lives for a while, with Val becoming a successful costume designer in New York, and Alex studying veterinary medicine in Colorado.

Javier Landes had a tumultuous childhood growing up in Queens. When a bout of teenage experimentation is discovered, he loses his family and is forced to make his own way. Through a chance meeting with an older woman, Jav becomes a successful male escort—he's always in demand, highly skilled, and well-versed to meet the needs of his clients. But the only thing that is missing is a love of his own, although he isn't sure exactly what he wants.

Alex and Val first meet Jav in New York City when they're in their 20s. These meetings leave indelible impressions on all three, and their interactions take on different dimensions and intensities before they go their separate ways. Through the years each experiences their own set of tragedies and challenges—Val and Alex together as a married couple, while Jav tries to find his way and his heart's true path.

Years later the three are reunited when Jav comes to Guelisten, after being named the guardian of his orphaned nephew. The three become inseparable, more like family than friends, and together they weather some difficult challenges, and learn some tough truths about one another. But it's the secrets they keep from one another, the feelings they try to keep hidden, the needs each person has that threaten to untie their bonds and unmoor them forever.

An Exaltation of Larks absolutely blew me away. This is a 500-page book and I literally stayed up until 1:30 a.m. because I desperately needed to finish it. This is a story about friends that become family as well as the often-blurred lines between friendship and love. It's a story about how we can never completely outrun the traumas we face, and some times our struggles are more difficult than others, yet life is worth living to the fullest, surrounded by those you love. This is also a book about the challenges of parenthood, the trust that is so key to the success of long-term relationships, and what it is like to feel like you keep missing your chance at happiness.

I absolutely loved these characters, every single one of them. Suanne Laqueur has such love and respect for them as well that she fleshed them out so skillfully and gave them so much complexity that I found myself feeling the same way about them that the other characters did. Yes, there are one or two coincidences that made me roll my eyes a tiny bit, but they didn't detract from the beauty of Laqueur's storytelling or the emotions she made me feel.

There are a few incidences of animals getting injured or dying, due to political unrest and accidents. Those scenes may be difficult for some to read or may make some avoid the book altogether, but I skimmed them and didn't miss anything.

This book, along with the two others in this series (A Charm of Finches and A Scarcity of Condors), are some of the best books I've read in years.

Book Review: "We Didn't Ask for This" by Adi Alsaid

It’s the annual lock-in night at Central International School, the night where students stay at school and enjoy fun events and a legendary secret party planned by a fellow student. It’s a night they look forward to all year, and younger students can’t wait until they’re in high school to experience it.

For some students this will be the night—the night they let their crush know what they’re thinking, the night they prove they’re the best athlete in the school regardless of gender, the night they finally feel like they belong. And for one student, this is the night to follow in his dying brother's footsteps and throw an unbelievable party.

But for one student, this night is the opportunity to take a stand against climate change. Knowing so many students have powerful parents from around the world, she and her supporters have a plan—they’ll chain themselves to every entrance, swallow the keys, and not move until their demands are met. And these aren’t just superficial demands: in some cases they’re asking for sweeping changes to society, like the ceasing of construction on an island.

We Didn't Ask for This follows the aftermath of the students chaining themselves to the doors and how everyone deals with it, from the students and the teachers in the school to those outside. I thought that the original premise of the story was such a good one, but this concept—while I understand the importance of standing up for our climate—just didn’t work. It dragged on way too long and was totally unrealistic, especially when the school had no windows that could open or other things.

I enjoy Adi Alsaid’s writing, as I’ve read some of his other books. I loved the way that the students’ sexuality was so matter-of-fact and no one cared, and a number of the characters were really appealing. I just wish the book didn't feel like two stories melded together into one.

I was part of the blog tour for this book. Thanks to Inkyard Press and NetGalley for the advance copy of the book in exchange for an unbiased review!!

Book Review: "Heartstopper Volume 3" by Alice Oseman

Volume 3 of Alice Oseman's amazing Heartstopper series hit me square in the feels, just like the last two books!

Nick and Charlie and their friends return in this, the third volume of Oseman’s amazing graphic novel series about young love, struggling with your identity, and finding the courage to be who you are and be with whom you choose.

Nick has just come out to his mother and he and Charlie take tentative steps toward becoming boyfriends. But both are nervous about how everyone—their friends and other classmates—will react to their being together, especially Charlie, who remembers being bullied horribly when he came out last year.

On a school trip to Paris, Nick and Charlie become more comfortable with their relationship and each other—and being open about it with their friends. And Nick and Charlie aren’t the only ones feeling romantically inspired in the City of Love!!

This series is so wonderfully drawn and is so beautifully heartfelt. Volume 3 touches lightly on mental illness and eating disorders and I imagine Volume 4 will address those issues more. (I hope I don't have to wait a long time for Volume 4. I don't know what I'll do!)

Even in moments of seriousness this book is so full of joy and love and wonder. I’ll trot out my broken record and say I wish books like these existed when I was younger, but I’m so glad LGBTQIA kids have them now.

This series doesn’t stop my heart, it makes it grow 10 sizes larger!! Kudos to Oseman for another beautiful, meaningful book.

Book Review: "We Love Anderson Cooper: Short Stories" by R.L. Maizes

I'm a big fan of short stories, but it doesn't seem like there have been many collections this year that have caught my eye. I'll need to remedy that, because every time I read a collection of stories I'm reminded of how much I like this format, and how incredibly writers can create compelling scenarios in just a small number of pages.

I was drawn to R.L. Maizes' debut collection, We Love Anderson Cooper, because of the title, first and foremost. (I do love him, honestly.) But I stayed for the stories. While not all of the 11 stories clicked for me—and one was so short that it seemed like I was missing something—I was so impressed by Maizes' writing, her imagery, and her creativity.

My favorites in the collection included: "Tattoo," about a talented yet struggling artist who turns to tattooing and begins to create designs which become reality; "Couch," which tells of a therapist whose practice—and life—are upended by the purchase of a new couch for her office; "The Infidelity of Judah Macabee," where a man feels betrayed by his cat; "Collections," about an older woman left behind when her companion, whom she cared for, left her with nothing even though she thought of him as her husband; and the title story, which tells of a young man planning to out himself at his bar mitzvah, but isn't sure of the consequences.

Some of the characters in these stories are memorable, some of them are very twisted and even cruel. There are a few stories which might trigger those uncomfortable with animal cruelty, descriptions of animals dying (accidentally and on purpose), murder, and blood. (It's funny, I didn't realize how crazy some of the stories were until I started writing this list!)

The stories I loved in this collection will definitely linger on in my mind. There's no doubt that Maizes is a talented writer with a very bright future, and I look forward to seeing what comes next for her. For those of you who enjoy short stories, you might want to check this collection out!

Book Review: "The Saturday Night Ghost Club" by Craig Davidson

There's a tremendous sense of nostalgia that pervades every page of Craig Davidson's The Saturday Night Ghost Club. Not only does the book take place in the 1980s, but the storytelling seems to hearken back to a simpler time, when we were far less aware of the horrors that could take place in our very own communities, horrors which didn't involve monsters or ghosts or creatures from another dimension.

"Looking back, I am struck by how precious little it takes to convince an unwilling outsider and the new kid in town to agree to any plan, even one that involved following a gangly middle-aged man into haunted territories."

Jake Baker grew up in Niagara Falls in the 1980s. The town, which came alive in the summer thanks to tourism but was fairly deserted in the winter, was one of those places where not much happened, where people had to live to pursue a better life, and everything—and nearly everyone—had seen better days. A loner who was often bullied by his peers, Jake spent a lot of time with his uncle Calvin, a kind but somewhat goofy and eccentric man who owned a shop in town specializing in the occult and the mysteries of the beyond.

It was Uncle Calvin who helped Jake wrangle the monsters hiding in his closet, let him watch scary movies (at least until his parents found out), educated him on the existence of ghosts and other shadowy creatures, and taught him that there were mysteries in this world that didn't have easy answers. The summer Jake was 12 years old, he became friends with Billy, the new boy in town, and Dove, his erratic, mesmerizing older sister, and Calvin welcomed all of them into "The Saturday Night Ghost Club," a group determined to look into some of the more mysterious stories of their town.

But the more they start looking into these mysteries, the more Jake becomes confused by Calvin's behavior and his lengthy disappearances. He learns what it is like to have a friend you can depend on, and he is drawn to Dove and her brave yet uneven mood swings and actions. And then Jake learns that behind many mysteries there are real truths, truths we may not be ready to bear the burden of knowing, yet we must all the same.

"The brain is the seat of memory, and memory is a tricky thing. At base level, memories are stories—and sometimes those stories we tell allow us to carry on. Sometimes stories are the best we can hope for. They help us to simply get by, while deeper levels of our consciousness slip bandages on the wounds that hold the power to wreck us. So we tell ourselves that the people we love closed their eyes and slipped painlessly away from us. That our personal failures are the product of external forces rather than unfixable weaknesses....Tell yourself these stories long enough and you will discover they have a magical way of becoming facts."

Although The Saturday Night Ghost Club delves briefly into matters of the occult, ghost stories, and the like, at its heart, this is a coming-of-age book about a boy who learns perhaps earlier than he needs to about the horrors that both defy explanation but are, at the same time, very real. This is a book about the bonds of friendship, about understanding fellow misfits, and how people who are truly good at heart may have their own battles to fight.

I thought the book started a bit slowly but once it shifted away from the ghost stories and the occult and focused on relationships and the real stories, it grabbed my heart completely. Davidson did a terrific job telling this story and it felt very true to its time and place, yet at the same time when the chapters shifted to look into the future, those felt very real as well.

While the book is compared to Stranger Things and Stand By Me, I would only make that comparison in terms of their stories about friendship. And while reading The Saturday Night Ghost Club, I was reminded of my favorite quote from Stand By Me: "I never had any friends later on like the ones I had when I was 12. Jesus, does anyone?"

Book Review: "The Music of What Happens" by Bill Konigsberg

Whenever I read a YA rom-com featuring LGBTQ characters, I feel so happy that kids today have these books to read, to see that finding someone to love doesn't have to be a dream they'll have to give up because of whom they're attracted to.

At the same time, I can't help but be a tiny bit bitter that these books didn't exist when I was a teenager, because I certainly could have used that encouragement instead of having no role models or examples to look toward.

Bill Konigsberg's The Music of What Happens is sweet and funny and romantic, but it's also poignant and deals with some serious issues as well.

Max is an athlete. He's tremendously easy-going and never appears to let anything faze him. His closest buddies are totally cool with him being gay, as is his mom.

Jordan is highly strung, a talented poet who doesn't believe he's worth much of anything. He totally wants a boyfriend but doesn't think anyone would find him attractive or interesting enough to have a relationship with him (or even sex), so he spends most of his time hanging out with his two girlfriends, whom he calls his "wives."

"The world will make you vulnerable. If you're acting like you're not, that's what you're doing. Acting."

Max and Jordan's meet-cute is at a food truck. Jordan and his mother have just resurrected his father's food truck for the first time since he died, and they're desperate to make it work, since they're in significant financial need. But neither Jordan nor his mother know the first thing about food trucks, or cooking, or food safety, and Max arrives at the counter just as Jordan's mother begins melting down. So Max, who likes to cook, volunteers to help save the truck—and, perhaps, their lives.

The last thing Jordan wants is to spend the summer with a dude bro like Max, but of course he realizes Max is far more complex and sensitive than he leads anyone to believe. As the two of them strive to take the food truck world by storm, they start enjoying each other's company more and more, and they don't let any truck-related setbacks get them down. But deep down, both boys are struggling—Max with a painful secret that confuses even him, and Jordan with his having to parent his mother, who is in a destructive spiral that could hurt them both.

"I think about the half notes of dissonance, between what I hear and what someone else hears, and those moments where the world is so cold, and when someone reaches their hand out to you. In those symphonic, connected moments where another soul joins you and feels what you feel, and you can breathe again. Like right now."

The Music of What Happens may not surprise you and it may not break new ground, but it's utterly charming and just so wonderful. I love the fact that Konigsberg avoided the typical drama when a character reveals to their peers or their family that they're gay, and instead just began from a place where it wasn't a big deal to those around them, the way life should be.

I believed in these characters. They felt authentic and dealt with real problems, and I totally believed that the two would fall for each other. I also believed in their struggles, the things about their friends and family that bothered them but they never spoke up about, and the unique perspectives each brought to their own lives and their burgeoning relationship. If there was any false note, it was Jordan's mother, who seemed to fade in to cause chaos and then fade out again.

This is the first of Konigsberg's books I've read and I absolutely loved it. I need to go back and read all of his earlier books because I love the openness of his storytelling and the complete charm of his characters. They're funny without being stand-up comedians, they're sensitive and romantic.

I hope that there are kids out there who feel encouraged by books like The Music of What Happens. The YA genre continues to be so rich with talented writers tackling important issues with humor and grace, and showing that no matter whom you love, your love story can come true. Don't we need more of that?

Book Review: "Two Can Keep a Secret" by Karen M. McManus

With Two Can Keep a Secret, her follow-up to the excellent One of Us is Lying (see my review), Karen M. McManus proves she's not a flash-in-the-pan talent, but rather a pretty terrific storyteller, one who is tremendously skilled at depicting the complex behaviors of teenagers, and the mysteries that unfold in front of our eyes.

Ellery and her twin brother Ezra have to leave their California home and move to Echo Ridge, a small town in Vermont, and live with their maternal grandmother while their mother goes to rehab. They've never been to Echo Ridge before, and barely know their grandmother, despite the fact that their mother grew up there, and was even crowned homecoming queen. But that night, their aunt (their mother's twin sister) disappeared and was never seen or heard from again.

Their aunt's disappearance wasn't the town's only tragedy. Five years ago, Lacey Kilduff was crowned homecoming queen and was then found murdered shortly thereafter. It's a crime that affected many in Echo Ridge, as the murder was never solved, yet many town residents have their suspicions about who is guilty, and they take it out on anyone connected to him.

"'I should probably preface this by saying...I think about crime a lot. Like, an abnormal amount. I get that. It's sort of a problem. So you have to take what I say with a grain of salt, because I'm just this...naturally suspicious person, I guess.'"

For someone fairly obsessed with true crime, a town with as many secrets as Echo Ridge is a treasure trove for Ellery. Not only does she want to understand what happened to her aunt Sarah all those years ago (not to mention why her mother has kept them from Echo Ridge), but she begins finding clues to what might have happened to Lacey. And when it appears that someone is threatening to harm another candidate for homecoming queen, Ellery is determined to uncover all of the answers—but it may put her own life in danger in the process, because someone wants to keep the town's secrets hidden.

Just like anytime I read a book that has any type of mystery component, I'm immediately suspicious of everyone. A new character shows up? Bam, they're a suspect. The funny thing is, McManus really did keep me guessing here, and while I wasn't shocked with how things resolved themselves, I wasn't disappointed either. There definitely were some good twists to be had here, and McManus gave you characters to root for and characters to instantly dislike. (And here's a funny point—this is the third book I've read in the last year with a main character named Ellery.)

A hallmark of YA books is characters that are more articulate and sarcastic than most adults, and while that's certainly the case with the characters in Two Can Keep a Secret, it felt right here and didn't detract from how much I liked this. I also liked the way diversity was presented as almost an afterthought—there was too much going on in the high school and around town for anyone to focus on someone's sexuality or ethnicity. (I would have liked a same-sex relationship thrown in, but I know that wasn't the focus of the story.)

As far as I'm concerned, McManus is now two for two, and seeing as I started this book the day after it was released, I'll probably have a while to wait until her next book. I'm sure it will be worth the wait, but until then, I love marveling at the incredible depth and breadth of talented writers creating such fantastic YA books these days.

Book Review: "The Outsider" by Stephen King

Despite its name, Flint City has always been more like a small town, where everyone knows everyone's business. The town is rocked by the brutal violation and murder of 11-year-old Frank Peterson, and everyone wants justice to be served swiftly once the perpetrator is caught.

The police have the fingerprints and eyewitness testimony they need to make an arrest. Shockingly, everything points to Terry Maitland, an English teacher, husband and father, and beloved Little League coach, who was named Flint City's Man of the Year just a few years earlier. Driven by a zealous DA and a police detective whose son was once coached by Maitland, the police make a very public arrest of their suspect—within the last few swings of a decisive Little League game.

No one can believe "Coach T" is guilty of such an unspeakable crime, but once they hear of his arrest, everyone is quick to condemn a man who enjoyed coaching and teaching adolescents. Maitland not only insists he is innocent, but he provides significant evidence to bolster his alibi, enough to make the police wonder whether they made a mistake arresting him before fully investigating his whereabouts the night of the murder.

When DNA evidence backs up the police's suspicions, they aren't quite sure what to think. How could Maitland have been in two places at once? Was he simply setting up an alibi because his crime was premeditated, is someone trying to frame him, or is there something (or someone) else to worry about? After a succession of tragedies, the police need to figure out exactly what happened to Frank Peterson, and whether or not Terry Maitland was responsible, or they'll have to face serious repercussions.

In need of help, they turn to Holly Gibney (a character from King's Mr. Mercedes trilogy) for investigative assistance. But what she and the police begin to uncover is something far more troubling than they could ever imagine. Was Maitland the innocent man he said he was? Did he pull the wool over everyone's eyes, including those closest to him? Or is there more to fear?

Stephen King fires on all cylinders with The Outsider, using his immense talent for evocative imagery and multidimensional characters which creep you out. I wasn't sure what was going to happen in this book, although I had my suspicions, but King threw in lots of twists and turns here to keep me guessing. Nothing was quite like what it seemed, which made this story so compelling.

The one problem I've had with some of King's books in the past is I feel they lost steam as they wind their way toward a conclusion. That happened here as well—just as I expected everything to speed toward the conclusion, things seemed to peter out a little bit, and I felt like the ending was a bit of a disappointment, almost an afterthought given how well he set this book up.

I've been a big fan of King's work since the 1980s, and I don't believe that will change anytime soon. If you like his writing, you should enjoy The Outsider. His writing is once again pretty terrific, and he can tease out suspense and fright like no one else out there.

Book Review: "An Exaltation of Larks" by Suanne Laqueur

To borrow from a language spoken periodically in this book, Madre de Dios, este libro! (Mother of God, this book!)

"Second chances are given or made."

In 1973, 11-year-old Alejandro Penda is living in Chile in the midst of a military coup. Both of his parents are arrested, and Alejo doesn't know if he'll ever see them again. With the help of family friends, he escapes to America, to live with his uncle in the upstate New York town of Guelisten. Although the trauma of what he lived through, and his grief over his parents, is tremendously difficult for him, he finds himself becoming very close to the Larks, a large, active, warm family that is friends with his uncle.

Alex becomes best friends with Roger Lark, and he and the Larks' oldest daughter, Valerie, have a love/hate relationship which turns into infatuation when Valerie returns home from college. But although she and Alex are drawn to each other, they give each other the freedom to live their own lives for a while, with Val becoming a successful costume designer in New York, and Alex studying veterinary medicine in Colorado.

Javier Landes had a tumultuous childhood growing up in Queens. When a bout of teenage experimentation is discovered, he loses his family and is forced to make his own way. Through a chance meeting with an older woman, Jav becomes a successful male escort—he's always in demand, highly skilled, and well-versed to meet the needs of his clients. But the only thing that is missing is a love of his own, although he isn't sure exactly what he wants.

Alex and Val first meet Jav in New York City when they're in their 20s. These meetings leave indelible impressions on all three, and their interactions take on different dimensions and intensities before they go their separate ways. Through the years each experiences their own set of tragedies and challenges—Val and Alex together as a married couple, while Jav tries to find his way and his heart's true path.

Years later the three are reunited when Jav comes to Guelisten, after being named the guardian of his orphaned nephew. The three become inseparable, more like family than friends, and together they weather some difficult challenges, and learn some tough truths about one another. But it's the secrets they keep from one another, the feelings they try to keep hidden, the needs each person has that threaten to untie their bonds and unmoor them forever.

An Exaltation of Larks absolutely blew me away. This is a 500-page book and I literally stayed up until 1:30 a.m. because I desperately needed to finish it. This is a story about friends that become family as well as the often-blurred lines between friendship and love. It's a story about how we can never completely outrun the traumas we face, and some times our struggles are more difficult than others, yet life is worth living to the fullest, surrounded by those you love. This is also a book about the challenges of parenthood, the trust that is so key to the success of long-term relationships, and what it is like to feel like you keep missing your chance at happiness.

I absolutely loved these characters, every single one of them. Suanne Laqueur has such love and respect for them as well that she fleshed them out so skillfully and gave them so much complexity that I found myself feeling the same way about them that the other characters did. Yes, there are one or two coincidences that made me roll my eyes a tiny bit, but they didn't detract from the beauty of Laqueur's storytelling or the emotions she made me feel.

There are a few incidences of animals getting injured or dying, due to political unrest and accidents. Those scenes may be difficult for some to read or may make some avoid the book altogether, but I skimmed them and didn't miss anything.

This is a big, gorgeous story that would make an amazing movie, but it is one heck of a book. I'll certainly be ready very soon to read the sequel, A Charm of Finches, because I already miss these characters and I just finished the book less than 24 hours ago. In short, I fell in love with this book. All in.

The author provided me a copy of the book in exchange for an unbiased review. Thanks for making this available!

Book Review: "Heretics Anonymous" by Katie Henry

Michael has tried to stay positive. But after his family moves for the fourth time in 10 years—and a month and a half into his junior year of high school, no less—he's starting to lose himself. Especially this time, when his parents have enrolled him at St. Clare's, a prestigious Catholic prep school. Because Michael, you see, is an atheist.

"I didn't lose my faith or anything. I never had it in the first place. I never believed in any kind of God, just like I never believed in werewolves, or ghosts, or that mixing Pop Rocks and soda would make your stomach explode."

Angry at his father for uprooting the family once again and then never being home on top of it all, Michael is still determined to find a friend, just so school doesn't totally suck. In his history class, he witnesses a fellow student exasperating the nun who is their teacher, and he thinks he may have found a fellow atheist. Instead, he discovers that Lucy is a Catholic and wants to be a priest, but she isn't satisfied with the Church's attitude toward, or treatment of, women, among other things.

Outcasts in their own way, Lucy and Michael become friends, and she introduces him to the school's other "fringe" students: Avi, who is Jewish—and gay; Max, who wants to wear a cloak even though it clashes with St. Clare's dress code; and Eden, who is a Celtic Reconstructionist Polytheist (she believes in multiple gods). Together, they are Heretics Anonymous, a secret society which exists mostly to give them an outlet to be free to be whomever they want to be.

As Michael's friendship with his fellow Heretics grows (as do his feelings for Lucy), the group starts to wonder whether it can serve a greater purpose and effect change within the school. But what starts as a set of humorous pranks aimed at highlighting the inconsistencies in some of the school rules (not to mention its treatment of sex), begins to take on a life of its own when something happens to a beloved teacher. Suddenly Michael wants the group to call attention to the school's true hypocrisies, but he doesn't realize just how much he's putting at risk, including his friends.

"The only thing more dangerous than someone who doesn't care about the rules is someone who does—and wants to break them anyway."

When you've finally found a community in which you belong, is that enough to satisfy you? Is it our responsibility to point out to others the hypocrisies that surround them, even if they may not be interested? When you don't believe in something, do you need to pretend you do just to make others happy? In Heretics Anonymous, Katie Henry attempts to answer those questions against the backdrop of familial angst and the heated emotions of high school relationships.

I really enjoyed this book. Henry hooked me from the beginning, and while she did paint some of the school's rules and administration as hypocrites, she didn't make them caricatures, and showed a different side of Catholicism through Lucy's character. While not every character is as fleshed out as I would have liked—I feel that there were some great stories to be told by delving deeper into Avi, Max, and Eden's characters—Lucy and Michael are flawed but utterly fantastic.

While this book is about religion in a small way, it's more about friendship and belonging and trust, about the hopes we hold on to long after we should lay them to rest, and the hurt that we feel when we realize people don't keep their promises. This is a sweet, funny, thought-provoking story, and I wouldn't have minded spending more time with these characters. I'll definitely keep an eye out for what Henry comes up with next!!

Book Review: "Boomer1" by Daniel Torday

A fascinating, timely, and thought-provoking meditation on the craziness of our internet-obsessed culture, the generational divide between Baby Boomers, Generation X, and Millennials, and just how far our lives can drift from what we've planned, Daniel Torday's Boomer1 is both funny and eerily prescient.

Mark is a bluegrass musician, a journalist and editor, and a student completing his PhD in English. He hopes to find fame as an insightful political writer, although he wouldn't mind if his band hit it big either. When he meets Cassie, a fellow musician, who plays bass in an all-female post-punk band, he feels like he has met a kindred spirit, especially when he discovers Cassie knows how to play the fiddle as well. The two embark on a relationship, which brings both security, if not wild passion.

But as Cassie's media career starts to take off, Mark finds himself at a dead end, which doesn't help their struggling relationship much. After she rejects Mark's marriage proposal, he's left with no prospects, career- or otherwise. With no money and nowhere else to turn, Mark decides to live the Millennial stereotype—he moves home to Baltimore to live in his parents' basement.

As he starts figuring out his future, his anger grows, so he adopts a pseudonym and starts filming a series of online video rants against baby boomers. The so-called Boomer Missives tap into a vein in society, of people stuck in the same rut he is, feeling the same feelings, and wanting to find someone else to blame. But before he knows it, these videos become a rallying cry for those who feel downtrodden, put upon, and want their chance without having to wait to pay their dues. Suddenly, he goes from spokesperson to revolutionary—with potentially dangerous consequences.

Narrated alternatively by Mark, Cassie, and Mark's mother Julia, a child of the 1960s who thought her life would be much more rebellious than it turned out, Boomer1 delivers quite a punch. There are times when it almost doesn't seem like fiction, because you could totally see something like this happening in today's world.

This is a very well-written book, but I found the pacing really slow. Although I've seen other reviews say that things started to pick up, it didn't for me. I definitely enjoyed the story, but I just wanted things to move quicker, and I wanted to like the characters a bit more, but the book certainly gave me a lot to think about.

If you like a dose of reality mixed in with your fiction, Boomer1 may be just the ticket for you. It will definitely get you thinking!

NetGalley and St. Martin's Press provided me an advance copy of the book in exchange for an unbiased review. Thanks for making this available!

Book Review: "Emma in the Night" by Wendy Walker

I've remarked in previous reviews that much like they say in spy movies, my philosophy when reading thrillers is simple: trust no one. Any character that appears I immediately view as a possible suspect.

Of course, while that thought process makes it a little more difficult when reading, it helps me avoid being irritated when the resolution of a book includes a character who came totally out of the blue. Where Wendy Walker's crazy, twisty, yet surprisingly weighty new book, Emma in the Night, was concerned, I may not have been ultimately surprised by everything, but Walker took me on quite a journey to get there, full of surprises and twists which kept me guessing.

One night, 15-year-old Cassandra Tanner and her older sister Emma disappeared. Emma's car was found on a beach, but there was never any trace of the girls. FBI forensic psychologist Abby Winter suspected there was more to the girls' disappearance that met the eye, but she couldn't convince her supervisors, and the case nearly destroyed her. But three years later, Cass has returned home without Emma, but she pleads desperately that they rescue her sister.

Cass' story is a harrowing one, of being kept captive on a remote island with Emma. She sacrificed a lot to get home, and is afraid her sister might not still be on the island, or even be alive once the FBI figures out where they've been held captive. Cass' return has also thrown her divorced parents into turmoil, as they are happy that Cass is back but they fear for Emma's safety, and they want to understand what happened to the girls three years ago.

But the more Cass tells, the more Abby wonders what the truth is. Her initial suspicions about all not being right in the household where the girls grew up returns with a vengeance, and Abby wonders what Cass is hiding, and whether she's trying to lead them somewhere, to someone, but is unable to say anything directly. These issues of narcissistic personality disorder are ones that Abby knows too well, and she wonders if her suspicions are true, or if she is being influenced by her own experiences.

"Not knowing, not seeing, being deceived—it makes you question everything you have come to trust. It makes you doubt your own judgment, and the truths you have come to believe in, which sometimes are so deeply embedded, you don't even know they're there, shaping your thoughts."

What happened the night that Emma and Cass disappeared? Where is Emma now? Was their disappearance random, or was it caused by, or the result of, something else in their lives? Is Cass hiding something? Time is running out, and the FBI must figure out the truth and bring Emma home before it's too late.

I liked Emma in the Night more than I thought I would. There was a brief period a little more than a quarter into the book where I worried one of the characters would be such a huge part of the plot that I didn't think I could stand it, but I persevered, and I'm glad I did. This is a book that isn't afraid to paint its characters as not entirely sympathetic, and you're not sure what to believe and you don't know which character to root for.

Walker does a great job unraveling the plot little by little, and while some of it seemed a little too predictable, there was still enough that kept me guessing. I've never read anything by her before, but I was impressed not only with the way she generated suspense, but the in-depth attention she paid to the depiction of narcissistic personality disorder. That is something that unfortunately I've experienced, and she was right on the money with that.

This wasn't a perfect book by any means, but I enjoyed it and couldn't stop reading. Definitely a good book for a last gasp at the beach, or to occupy you during a long trip or commute. I'll definitely need to read Walker's first book now!

Book Review: "The Jealous Kind" by James Lee Burke

Through the years I've had the opportunity to read books by so many incredibly talented authors. I have "discovered" new authors I've never heard of and experienced the latest works of authors whose every book I've read. Of course, along the way, I've developed some favorites, but I'll tell you this: when he's at the top of his form, there is no one who writes like James Lee Burke. No one.

While Burke is best known for a few series of books, particularly those featuring Louisiana police detective Dave Robichaux and his erstwhile troublemaker friend, Clete Purcell, The Jealous Kind is a stand-alone novel, although tangentially related to Hackberry Holland, a character in another one of Burke's series.

It's 1952 in Houston, Texas. The world is on the cusp of the Korean War; the economic disparities between the haves and have-nots couldn't be more clear; and racial relations are continuing to deteriorate. Aaron Broussard is a high school junior who has always done a good job fading into the crowd, although his familial history of mental illness and alcoholism leaves him prone to "spells," fugue-like states when he doesn't quite know what he's doing. One night while at a drive-in in Galveston, Aaron sees the beautiful, feisty, and intelligent Valerie Epstein, and he is instantly smitten. When he sees Valerie fighting with her boyfriend, Grady Harrelson, a petulant rich kid with a penchant for violence, Aaron suddenly feels emboldened enough to step into the middle of the fight and protect Valerie.

This one act sets a chain of events in motion, events which mire Aaron, his best friend Saber, Valerie, Aaron's family, and others in a spiraling web of violence, degradation, and betrayal. There are run-ins with organized crime, street gangs, and one of the richest families in Texas with nefarious connections. There are also undertones of corruption, Communism, and the brainwashing and abuse of young men. All of this is territory that James Lee Burke can mine to exceptional results.

As Aaron tries to protect his family and further his relationship with Valerie, he is determined to right whatever wrongs he caused, as well as find out exactly who is behind the threats and the violence being perpetuated. He is a young man with a strong sense of honor yet the immense need to say whatever is on his mind, no matter whom it might hurt, and more often than not he winds up blundering into a situation which puts him and those he cares about at risk.

While this is a stand-alone novel, the characters of Aaron and Saber reminded me a great deal of Dave Robichaux and Clete Purcell. Dave, although tremendously flawed and enormously troubled, has a very strong sense of right and wrong (which is sometimes misplaced), but it doesn't stop him from angering the wrong people, who wish to do him harm. And Clete, like Saber, is a character who cannot leave well-enough alone and is his own worst enemy, but his pride and his loyalty to his friend often get him into trouble.

Beyond the violence and tension in this book, which Burke ratchets up periodically, this is a book about the power of first love, and how far we'd go to protect it. It's also about overcoming your family's ghosts and scandals, but doing right by those who raised you. And it's also a story about the depths some will sink to in the name of greed, revenge, pride, and jealousy.

There's so much I liked about this book, but as always, I'm transfixed by the sheer power of Burke's words and his vivid imagery, which conjures up the place and time of this book (and many of his others) so perfectly. If you've never read his work before, this isn't a bad one to start with, but I'd encourage you to pick up a Dave Robichaux novel or two as well, to see the master at work.

NetGalley and Simon & Schuster provided me an advance copy of the book in exchange for an unbiased review. Thanks for making this available!

Book Review: "Me and Earl and the Dying Girl" by Jesse Andrews

Yep. All the feels. And what would you expect from a book with a title like Me and Earl and the Dying Girl?

When I read Jesse Andrews' soon-to-be-published second book, The Haters, last month, I remarked that I had wanted to read Me and Earl and the Dying Girl first, but had held off because I thought I might see the movie version instead. But I never got around to seeing the movie, so I gave the book a shot, given the rave reviews it has gotten.

Happily, I wasn't disappointed. Me and Earl and the Dying Girl is goofy and a little juvenile at times (but then again, so am I), but it has tremendous heart and humor, and is far more realistic dialogue-wise than a lot of other young adult books out there, where the characters are so clever and wise beyond their years it's easy to forget they're supposed to be teenagers.

Greg Gaines is an awkward, self-deprecating high school senior, who spends most of his time trying not to be noticed. He's nice to everyone but not too nice, for fear that people might think he's affiliated with a particular group or clique and judge him for it. He's basically just trying to bide his time and stay out of sight.

"So in order to understand everything that happened, you have to start from the premise that high school sucks. Do you accept that premise? Of course you do. It is a universally acknowledged truth that high school sucks. In fact, high school is where we are first introduced to the basic existential question of life: How is it possible to exist in a place that sucks so bad?"

Greg really only has one friend, Earl, although their relationship mostly revolves around grossing each other out, cursing, eating, playing video games, and making really amateurish films. So Greg is utterly unprepared when he learns that Rachel, a girl he used to know from Hebrew school, is dying of leukemia, and his mother wants him to spend time with Rachel to cheer her up.

This book isn't one of those in which the main character makes remarkable discoveries about life and friendship while spending time with a terminally ill friend. Greg doesn't really have an epiphany—in fact, he spends most of his time with Rachel vacillating between trying to make her laugh, making her laugh, and saying things he wished he didn't say. And then things devolve even further when Greg and Earl are convinced to make a film for Rachel, and they have no idea what to do, and what the consequences of their actions will be.

I laughed out loud more than a few times reading this book, and I got choked up more than a few times, too. But while the book is a little bit zany at times, it felt very real—while it's been some time since I was a teenager, Greg reacts to situations in ways I'd expect less-than-well-adjusted teenagers would react. I liked that Andrews didn't try too hard to hammer you with messages about cherishing every moment, or fighting as hard as you can, since that wouldn't have fit with the book.

The humor is a bit juvenile at times, and there is a lot of cursing (because, again, teenagers). But if goofy and puerile don't put you off, you'll be rewarded with a book that has sweetness within its ornery nature, and balances the funny with the emotional. For me, that makes a pretty enjoyable read.

Book Review: "Aquarium" by David Vann

Here's a conundrum: how do you review a book that is dazzlingly beautiful but otherwise relentlessly brutal? Do you focus on how it's written or how it makes you feel? David Vann's Aquarium is a book that makes me ponder those questions. Vann's writing is truly masterful, but this is a book that hits you with a wallop.

Twelve-year-old Caitlin is growing up in Seattle, being raised by a single mother who works at a local container port—a menial, laborious job that barely helps them make ends meet. Because her mother can't afford child care, and can't pick Caitlin up directly after school, Caitlin spends each afternoon at the aquarium, which is no punishment for her, since she loves fish more than anything.

"The only thing that kept me moving along that street each afternoon was the blue at the end, the sea visible because we were on a hill. That blue promised the aquarium. A gauntlet leading to a sanctuary. I could have stayed in an after-school program, but it was my choice to visit the fish. They were emissaries sent from a larger world. They were the same as possibility, a kind of promise."

Caitlin studies the fish each day, and reflects on their place in the world at large. One day, she meets an old man who seems as enamored of the fish as she is. He strikes up conversations with her and is amazed at her knowledge of these denizens of the deep. They begin to meet at the aquarium each afternoon. As Caitlin struggles with what is going on in her life—her mother coming under scrutiny for bringing her to work at night when she does overtime, Caitlin's feelings for her best friend Shalini—the old man proves to be her salvation. Although Caitlin wants to keep him a secret from her mother because she is worried how she'll react, the man insists Caitlin introduce him to her mother.

But little does Caitlin know what fissures this man will open in her life, in her relationship with her mother, and her mother's psyche in general. For the first time in her life, Caitlin sees how brutal and painful life can be, how it can derail you from all you want and all you hope for. She finds herself living in fear of losing all that she loves, and all that she wants.

Aquarium is truly a sucker punch to the gut. It is vivid in its depiction of how hurtful and cruel a person who feels they are wronged can be, and how easily they can injure another person physically and emotionally. It's a book about how the sins of adults are often visited on their children, and how easy it can be to take your own frustration and sadness out on those who are more vulnerable. But as brutal as it is, there is still a glimmer of hope deep inside.

"The worst part of childhood is not knowing that bad things pass, that time passes. A terrible moment in childhood hovers with a kind of eternity, unbearable."

I found this book tremendously difficult to read and a bit disturbing. The transformation Caitlin's mother undergoes, while realistic, is so drastic and shocking it's nearly over-the-top, but you can understand how a woman so beat down by life could have so much anger inside her. But in trying to illustrate this point, I felt that Vann might have taken it a little too far, because it became difficult to sympathize with her, and those who watched her actions occur.

I'd never read anything Vann has written before, but I was truly amazed at the depth of his talent. And it is that talent, that storytelling ability, that kept me reading even as my heart hurt for Caitlin. This isn't necessarily a book you'll enjoy, but it is one which will leave your mind reeling.

Book Review: "This Song Will Save Your Life" by Leila Sales

Wow, I loved this book. If you've ever felt like you don't fit in, or that no one understands who you really are, this book is for you.

Elise Dembowski has never quite gotten it right, socially speaking. Deemed a social misfit through no real fault of her own (except she's driven to try to hard), she's never really had any friends, and she's been the butt of every joke. Ostracized in every way, she has always turned to music for comfort, feeling secure with her headphones on and music playing.

"I was born to be unpopular. There was no other way it could have gone."

The summer before her sophomore year of high school, she is determined that this year will be different. She spends the entire summer studying the latest trends, the latest gossip about fashion, celebrities, and music, and spends more money than she'd like on trendier clothes. Yet when the first day of school arrives, she's virtually ignored by her classmates, and it becomes too much to bear.

"They will still see past that, see you, the girl who is still too scared, still too smart for her own good, still a beat behind, still, always, wrong. Change all you want; you can't change that. I know because I tried."

Nearly at the end of her rope, one night she accidentally discovers Start, an underground dance party. No one there knows her, and, more importantly, the people she meets seem to like her. Before long she is sneaking out of her mother's house every Thursday night to attend Start, and starts to develop some friendships—with Vicky, the confident singer who knows all too well what Elise has gone through; Pippa, a confident, cocky English girl and Vicky's best friend; and Char, a cute DJ who takes Elise under his wing.

It is at Start that Elise starts to blossom and feel more confident. Even though the rest of her life continues in the same fashion it always has, at Start, she is accepted, because no one knows the way she has been treated all these years. Char teaches her how to DJ, and she takes a shine to it—and to Char. But of course, she begins to realize that finally being accepted, finding friends as well as something that you love to do all comes with a price, and rules you never realized you had to be mindful of. And once again, Elise struggles with the isolation of high school and feeling like no one truly knows or understands the real her.

I thought this was pretty excellent. I certainly identified with some of the feelings Elise had and understood her isolation, loneliness, and lack of self-worth, so the story really resonated for me. The characters were clever and complex without being stereotypical teens, and they weren't too quirky—everything that happened was completely believable. Leila Sales really did a great job hooking me almost instantaneously on Elise's story, and I read the entire book in a little more than a day. (Of course, I was sad once I finished, because I could have spent more time with these characters.)

This Song Will Save Your Life is another example of how excellent the young adult genre is these days. I never once felt like the book was below my comprehension level, and it didn't seem necessarily geared to a younger reader. If you know how Elise felt, you'll be moved by this book. So glad I read it. While this book didn't save my life, it impacted me, even in a small way.

People are cretins...

Don't know if you saw this story in the news earlier in the week, but I've been to busy to post this before.

Apparently the grandmother of Max, a 13-year-old boy with autism, received an anonymous letter at her home in Newcastle, Ontario, Canada. The letter, signed by "One pissed off mother," refers to Max as a neighborhood "nuisance," "retarded," and a "dreadful" noise polluter.

But worse than that, the letter says, "Personally, they should take whatever non retarded [sic] body parts he possesses and donate it to science. What the hell else good is he to anyone!!! Do the right thing and move or euthanize him!! Either way we are ALL better off!!!"

See for yourself:

There are no words for someone like this. If the author of this letter is actually a parent, I fear for this person's children. Canadian police are investigating.

Sometimes people just baffle me.

Book Review: "Visitation Street" by Ivy Pochoda

Dennis Lehane is one of my favorite authors. While I've tended to love his grittier books more than his recent forays into historically-tinged fiction, I absolutely love the way he writes and the way he creates and develops his characters.

Lehane recently started his own imprint at HarperCollins Publishers, called (what else?) Dennis Lehane Books, and Ivy Pochoda's terrific Visitation Street is the first book released under this imprint. It's truly a book worthy of its impresario, and I believe it signals the arrival of a fantastic writer with a tremendous amount of promise.

Valerie Marino and June Giatto are 15-year-old best friends growing up in Brooklyn's Red Hook neighborhood. It's summer and the two are bored, and starting to feel the pull of maturity separating them, as June wants to be treated like an adult and hang out with boys, while Val is still content to go on doing the same things they always have. But Val doesn't want to lose June, so in an effort to seem more mature and brave, she encourages June to accompany her on a late night ride on the East River, using a pink rubber raft. On the water that humid night, something happens, and only Val returns, washed up on the shore under a pier, injured but alive.

June's disappearance lights a spark among those in the neighborhood, for different reasons. Jonathan Sprouse, a disillusioned musician-turned-music teacher who rescued Val from underneath the pier, is haunted by his own demons and the questions and aftereffects his heroic act leaves behind. Fadi, the Lebanese owner of a neighborhood bodega, fancies his store as the community center of Red Hook, and hopes June's disappearance and his attempts to bring the community together around it will help his business and his sense of belonging. Cree, a friend of Val and June's, dreams of getting away from Red Hook but finds himself rooted there because of his mother's inability to let go of his father's memory—and his own pursuits leave him vulnerable to suspicion. Ren, a talented graffiti artist with a mysterious past, is determined to try and insulate Cree from suspiccion—for mysterious reasons.

But of course, the person most affected by June's disappearance is Val. Unable to remember (or perhaps acknowledge) what happened on the river that night, afraid that taking responsibility might mean June really did die, she starts acting out in strange and potentially dangerous ways, if for no other reason than to feel a part of something again, to feel that someone else other than June cares about her.

The characters all collide around the events of that summer, a summer that sees the Red Hook neighborhood struggle with potential gentrification and the arrival of the first cruise ships to the area, as well as the usual distrust and dissatisfaction that occur among racial, cultural, and socioeconomic lines. It's a story about friendship, relationships, and how important it is to come to terms with your own demons, as well as how you can't always tie yourself to your past and need to move on.

This isn't a mystery per se, in that June's disappearance seems fairly self-explanatory, but the book is more about the events that incident sets into motion. I thought Pochoda did a terrific job setting the story and giving life to her characters, and I really found myself captivated from start to finish. Having read many books that have had similar plots, I worried that Visitation Street might veer into more clichéd territory and was so pleased it didn't. I really flew through the book and actually wanted it to be a little longer, because as is the case with many books I enjoy, I wanted to know what happened next to the characters.

I'm very excited to see what's next for Ivy Pochoda's career, and look forward to seeing the next books to emerge from Dennis Lehane Books. If they're as good as Visitation Street, Lehane may prove himself to be just as successful finding new talent as he is showing off his own.

Dear me...

For ESPN The Magazine's recent Kids in Sports Issue, 12 professional athletes were asked to write letters to their younger athletic selves.

There's reigning U.S. Open champion and Gold Medalist Andy Murray, who at 26 years old, reminisced about being thrown out of the finals of the Scottish junior championships because of his temper. He told his 12-year-old self, "Even if I could stop you, I wouldn't. You need to see that racket fly through the air in Craiglockhart — fly for what seems like forever, until it lands by the umpire's chair and slides under the fence, out of reach. You need to feel sick about getting thrown out of a Scottish junior championship that you should've won."

He continues by saying, "There will be this thing called YouTube, Andy. And when you're my age, you'll use it to look back on your first pro appearance at Wimbledon. It will take you another six years, but when you get there, you'll be skipping around the court wearing such a big smile that your face almost cracks. That's when you'll realize you love this game too much to let something as childish as anger get in your way. You'll start breathing evenly and keeping your head clear on court changes. You'll learn to put tactics over temper. And you'll have so many memorable matches, it will make your 12-year-old head spin."

Athletes included in this series include Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers, Olympic gymnast Gabby Douglas, star soccer player Abby Wambach, NBA star Dwight Howard, NASCAR star Jeff Gordon, and Tampa Bay Lightning forward Steven Stamkos.

But my favorite letter is from LA Galaxy midfielder Robbie Rogers, who came out of the closet a few months ago and retired briefly before returning to the game he so loves. He told his 14-year-old self:

"You're walking around with a cramp in your stomach. You feel trapped within yourself. The pressure of being a high school freshman and playing for the U16 national team is stressful enough. But on top of that you're worried that you're different from everyone, especially your teammates. And you think that if they figure out who you are, you won't be able to play the sport you love, or your family won't agree with it. Sometimes you pray and think: I don't wanna live through this. Why can't I be like my brothers and sisters?"

He continues, "I know I said I wouldn't tell you what your future holds, but I will tell you that everything's going to be fine -- one day you'll be happier than you ever thought possible. And while you can't envision sharing your secret now, the world is changing. People are becoming more accepting. And when the time is right, the day might come when you're ready to face the world as the beautiful person you truly are."

The whole feature is tremendously moving, in some cases humorous, and truly insightful. You can read all of the letters at http://espn.go.com/espn/feature/story/_/id/9418365/notes-younger-self.