Five Stars for Halcyon by Rio Youers

Halcyon by Rio Youers was loved before I read page one. After reading, Youers The Forgotten Girl and Westlake Soul Youers would not disappoint me. However, despite Halcyon's obvious beautiful horrific charm - Westlake Soul is my favorite Youers's novel. That book truly has soul. The Forgotten Girl and Halcyon contains all of the expected thriller conflicts and frightful elements of situational irony making it fast pace and easy to read. In fact, I finished this book a few weeks ago, but a busy life prevented me from writing a noteworthy review of a writer who should be noted on a great many A+ platforms.

As I said, Halcyon contains conflict - The inner conflict between father and daughter suffering from tremendous loss. And sister and sister. Dramatic events giving rise to more chaos and destruction - our villain Mother Moon certainly started with my sympathy, but like many characters such as Abigail Williams/The Crucible, she lost my vote after becoming that which she despised. Yes, Abby and Mother Moon are different but are the same in how drama is often handled and pushed into chaos.

This book also paralleled with my own fears as a mother and - yikes a high school English teacher - that's a spoiler so no more on it. Youers also draws excellent details of romance like your spouse remembering the way you like your coffee, or leaving you a cup in the morning. It was these little elements that tied me to the main character in Halcyon and made me root for his happiness and that of his family.

Yes, Youers is a horror writer, but more he's able to tie it in with what makes us human luring even the most skeptical reader to the horror/thriller genre. Give him a chance. 

Five Stars for Middlemarch by George Eliot

Novelist Virginia Woolf called it “one of the few English novels written for grown-up people.”

I’m not sure if it's one of the few, but it is certainly for grown-ups. Middlemarch by George Eliot collected dust on my bookshelf for nearly fifteen years. My husband bought this book for me the second year we were married. Since, on more than one occasion, I tried to read it, but ended up shelving it. Set in England in the early 1900’s, the conventions hogtying a woman’s independence infuriated me, further the main character Dorothea created a bonfire of hatred in me. I couldn’t stand her indecisiveness, her ever-present idealism, and her clever mind often misdirected towards stupidity. But then I grew up. As I trudged through the quicksand of mediocrity and small talk within the novel, I began to reflect upon my own immature thoughts.

For instance, Dorothea’s first marriage to Casaubon, a man ridiculously older than Dorothea, but worse, he was a man clearly self-absorbed and incapable of loving Dorothea’s kind nature and clever mind. He insulted her in the worst possible way; he ignored her, and patronized her ideas. It was at this point in the novel; I began rooting for Dorothea. I wanted her to be able to pursue the idealistic view she held of the world, a view that believed in possibilities, and the goodness in people. Of course, this made her seem flighty, and possibly incapable of making good decisions, and never great decisions.

Her mindset reflected mine at nineteen years old, full of Hegelianism philosophy embracing the abstract reality and finding idealism in it all. My initial dislike of her grew out of my own dismissed idealism already replaced by realistic cynicism. I forgot how to hope and believe in the abstract. I grew into the adult world of mortgages, bills, and parenting which has nurtured old fears of not being good enough for the roles of adulthood. I lapsed into childhood holding onto Star Wars toys and dreams of fame out of complete self-sacrifice. Reading Middlemarch, following Dorothea’s quest for happiness wrought out of idealism and self-sacrifice; I let go of fears oppressive and bound to my own stupidity. I realized I can be an adult and still have my toys and dreams. And sometimes there’s that middle as in Middlemarch that feels like real life, a growing up kind of quicksand. In parting, I highly recommend Middlemarch. It’s worth the quicksand to find yourself at the end and placing understanding yourself in a grown-up world.

4 Stars for A Head Full of Ghosts by Paul Tremblay

"It is so pleasant to be out in this great room and creep around as I please!" "The Yellow Wallpaper," by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

Paul Tremblay begins his Exorcist/Linda Blair spookfest novel, A Head Full of Ghosts with this quote. A Head Full of Ghosts is not for the light-hearted, but its not just for the folks who want to see "Blood and gore and guts and veins in their teeth!" Some of that is there, but Tremblay's story digs deeper asking the reader to examine the psychological walls of sanity holding us inside a kind-of yellow wallpaper probing at the normalcy of all the characters in the story. This story examines other themes as well, such as feminism, good and evil and how they can often fade the thick black lines separating them by our own fears. 

Tremblay does a phenomenal job with plot, twisting and turning the horror of what Marjorie, the possessed, will do next. The ending is not what you will expect and it further drowns you in the same questions you've asked all along. However, my questions felt answered after I decided who Marjorie, and Merry, the younger sister played in Gilman's yellow wallpaper. Because, yes, Head Full of Ghosts felt like it was plastered on every page with evil yellow wallpaper. And, both girls are trapped, either in the room or in the wallpaper. One will be free and the other will forever be locked inside her own mind. It is an interesting read, scary, yes but in a way that is based on the real demons located in us all and we can only pray we don't succumb to them. I recommend it. 

Five Stars for The Orphan Master’s Son by Adam Johnson

The Orphan Master’s Son came highly recommended by someone who is considered a friend.
Thank you. Please recommend more!

With that said, I dive into my review with gusto even though the water I dive into is dark and dangerous with glimmers of light frosting the surface. The Orphan Master’s Son was much like this…

“The darkness inside your head is something your imagination fills with stories that have nothing to do with the real darkness around you.”
― Adam Johnson, The Orphan Master's Son

You are in the protagonist, Jun Do's head a lot, but you are also outside of it covered in darkness and hoping for the propaganda of the light.  Is it propaganda and is as false, how dark? - well you’ll have to read the book to find out. It is a spoiler to tell you what happens to Jun Do/John Doe, but it is a fate you root for simply because he belongs to all of our human psyche and dreams.

There is a story here, and a plot line that weaves its way through a maybe orphan boy’s world but that is only the baseline. This is so much deeper - playing with nasty polarities of communism and capitalism, truth and lies, and my favorite, freedom and confinement defining the last in a spectrum of definitions. This is why The Orphan Master’s Son easily transcends to great novels like George Orwell’s 1984 and The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood. Despite the many alluring themes, it was freedom and love that captured my interest, my heart. And in the end, it is love and its desire to be free that seals the deal and makes me buy into this book.

“They’re about a woman whose beauty is like a rare flower. There is a man who has a great love for her, a love he’s been saving up for his entire life, and it doesn’t matter that he must make a great journey to her, and it doesn’t matter if their time together is brief, that afterward he might lose her, for she is the flower of his heart and nothing will keep him from her.”
― Adam Johnson, The Orphan Master's Son

Okay, so this is Bee Gees “How Deep is Your Love,” Capitalism and Communism Edvard Munch screaming freedom. I dig it. It is my (NOT Dear Leader or Big Brother’s) memory hole but it is my place where love cannot be denied and a hero can be found. I highly recommend it to those willing to travel a darker path. It is not for the light of heart. 

5 Stars for As You Like It

This is my first Shakespeare comedy, at least reading it straight through. First, I picked it up to read, because the school I teach at has a number of these books in the classroom. Books are certainly a luxury at my school. Second, I've been teaching Othello the past few years along with The Crucible, and The Great Gatsby, so I needed an uplift, something I knew would end well. Last, the premise of this particular comedy drew me in because it appealed to a theme of rediscovery of oneself especially when the idea of home is lost. In this play, the main love birds Orlando and Rosalind are banished. Sure they fall in love all Romeo and Juliet style, but unlike the star-crossed lovers they have to discover an inner strength accepting a new home and a new life unlike the wealthy one they have been accustomed. This theme of acceptance and self-discovery lends itself to the young person leaving home and embarking upon the forest of Arden/college/workforce/etc.

After reading this silly play, I found a number of reasons to recommend it...

1. It will make you laugh out loud. The scenes between Rosalind as Ganymede and Orlando were absurdly silly to the point of belly aching laughter.

Rosalind: (dressed as the man Ganymede)"What would you say to me now, an I were your very, very Rosalind?"
Orlando: "I would kiss before I spoke."
Rosalind (dressed as the man Ganymede): "Nay, you were better speak first..."

2. Memorable lines I now know the origin of:

"no sooner looked but they loved; no sooner love but they sighed; no sooner sighed but they asked each other the reason..."
"All the world's a stage, And all the women and men merely players."

3. Touchstone: An Aristotle clown.

On the lie of good manners: "All of these you may avoid but the lie direct; and you may avoid that too, with an 'If'."

4. Rosalind: The woman mastermind behind the inevitable happy ending. She is brilliantly clever. Her character is one of the reasons Shakespeare was ahead of his time with ideas of feminism. Plus, as mentioned previously I could not read about Desdemona's outcome under the tragic Othello again. My heart couldn't take it.

There are many other reasons to recommend this play, but these stand out the most to me.

5 Stars for Westlake Soul

 "Wouldn't it be nice," for a cool beach boy dude like Westlake Soul to wake up from a vegetative state that resulted from a surfing accident? Wouldn't it be nice to see him marry his first love or someone equal to the romance induced by Beethoven's Sonata Pathétique – no. 5? Wouldn't it be nice to see superhero/genius Westlake Soul defeat his enemy - Dr. Quietus?

Westlake Soul by Rio Youers is a journey awaiting not especially an ending, but - perhaps heartbreaking resolution. I fell in love with Westlake's voice, his love of life through his optimism for it and not in one relationship, but all of his relationships along the human spectrum of emotion that strumed with The Beach Boys, and Beethoven.

Further...

Despite the sad premise, Youers decorated every word with echoing hope. It is the book that makes you dive back into your own psyche and dig for what makes you stay golden, for me, this is only found in a "Box of Rain" battling my own supervillain, the infamous Sandman.

I listened to this book via audio in a young Big Lebowski voice that reeked in surfer dude making the slang adorable, and even funny. Last, I am hoping to find a printed copy. I'd like to gift it to another soul looking to stay golden. I highly recommend this book.

5 Stars for Lyndsay Fayes's Gods of Gotham

The Gods of Gotham by Lyndsay Faye is an extraordinary read. Highly recommended by a good friend, this book turned my friend into a great one. Great friendships are certainly underlined with books like The Gods of Gotham.

On the surface, this book is a mystery for murder, but beneath the many layers of plot, motive, red herrings, and need of justice this book is a journey for the hero, one in which he discovers a little hero in himself despite some heartbreaking circumstance. I fell in love with Timothy Wilde, the narrator of the novel. Cut raw in bland honesty, he came away from the ugliness and beauty of 1849 New York with humility and forgiveness. The characters around him drawn equally in weight only added to his characterization, especially his brother, Val, a foil in every way. So, when the book showed Val's softer side, shock knocked me as hard as it did Timothy.

Setting the characters aside, the setting breathed authenticity through every sense even the sixth one. The scene opening up to the murders and graves are especially heartbreaking without pestering a reader with gruesome images that linger, no Faye left me with something deeper probing my very humanity about the wrongness in murder.

Setting the beautiful descriptives aside, and recalling the mystery, Wilde revealed the culprit(s) in a twisted probable scenario that lead to shocking, complicated truths. I highly recommend this book to mystery lovers, but also to those who enjoy a character driven novel bent upon truth and justice and not abstractly.

5 Stars for Purgatorio by the Italian writer Dante Alighieri

Upon setting out to read Purgatorio by the Italian writer Dante Alighieri, (with cliff notes, end notes and google) I realized much of it didn't come together, so I took a step back after reading and picked up the BBC version of The Divine Comedy. I suppose one has to go through Hell to get to Heaven, and this is what I did in my journey to understand this fantastical beast breathing fire, redemption and ultimate humility and grace inside a long narrative poem.

Inferno made me sympathize heavily with Virgil, whereas Purgatorio expected me to already understand why he came to reside in Hell.  The fourth circle of Hell paralleled strongly with Dante's darkness inside himself contemplating darker choices. Although every soul coming in contact with Dante saw his breath, and saw he still lived. It was the realms like pride, anger and hopelessness that drew me towards Dante's humanity which came in contact with my own.

Paradiso detailed the art of both Inferno and Purgatorio answering questions of hope, faith and ultimately love. The abstract became concrete in God's light and some Italian opera sounding overwhelmingly angelic. It is a beautiful poem with images both horrific and impressionistic. In the end, there seemed to be two ways to view it: 1. literally 2. as a sermon of ethics and morality. I think I took a little of both, and will be revisiting this poem for years to come.

Five Stars for the show NOS4A2

NOS4A2 is one of the best tv series shows I've watched in a long time. It is certainly not average. First, it is not often a show can make the pay off the book does. I read NOS4A2 several years ago and the concept, plot detail and strength of the female lead blew me away.

After watching the first three episodes of this series, I am in awe once more plus the tv series offers up a few sympathy cards for good and evil that were not present in the book adding to unbelievable characterization.

Every character in the series is completely flushed out, and I don't mean solely through their past, but also the actions of their present and all the neat mannerisms drawn in their favor.

The lead protagonist may be a young Jennifer Lawrence. She possesses all the subtle nuances to create both sympathy and respect. Zachary Quinto playing Charlie has the seductive charm every great villain should possess. I look at him and think Joker/Hannibal/Master Vampire from the book Salem's Lot. He's scary - real scary, remember Quinto in American Horror Story. Besides being scary with a fantastic cast, this is a great concept pushed and sewn together with a Singer and believe me I am singing praises. I cannot wait to see the rest of the season.

4 Stars for Sleeping Beauty

As far as concept goes, Stephen King will not disappoint. Sleeping Beauties by both Kings, Stephen and his son, Owen is not an exception. The story is not one especially horrifying, but more mystifying posing questions like: 1. What would happen if all the women in the world fell asleep inside a butterfly-like cocoon that posed deadly consequences if removed. 2. What would happen to all the men in the world if there were no women? 3. What would happen in a world of women without men?

Focused in a small Appalachia region in an impoverished town, a psychologist, and a sheriff fight to protect a possible cure (a woman named Eve Black) to the sleeping disease known as Aurora - the disease stealing women and maybe saving the world and beginning it again. And now, this poses another question: Is Aurora something that needs to be cured? By the end of the novel, this might be a question best left for the reader to decide.

Because of the clever concept, fleshing out the characters boiled down to the deflowering of only one onion, the person left to decide the fate of all women. The Kings did a good job of peeling that particular onion; however, there were too many other characters. I could not cling to any of them with the exception of the chief decision maker.

Plot spun itself unraveling to a satisfying ending, but leaving an intricate, ambiguous web. My biggest question being: Who was/is Eve Black? There was certainly a lot of speculation including allusion from Mercutio's famous Queen Mab speech in Romeo and Juliet. Queen Mab is a fairy playing pranks in the minds of her sleeping victims. There is also the choice of a name, Eve, another possible allusion to the Bible's first woman. The idea of her true identity being left to ponder did not bother me because the theories felt like a swirl of rainbow cotton candy turning sugar sweet in my mouth. In the end, who Eve Black is/was did not matter because the fate of all women rested on one.

In addition, I found the idea of two men writing a book analyzing the psychology of a woman's mind refreshing. Refreshing because it was filled with understanding, compassion, and the humility it takes for men and women to live together without some strange unnecessary power struggle.

I recommend the King books not only for story and concept, but for the clairvoyance it takes to understand the human condition in the mind of a woman. Joe Hill, Stephen King's other son, does this as well. I recently had the pleasure of viewing the first three episodes of his NOS4A2 on AMC with a young strong female protagonist. I read the book, NOS4A2 several years ago, and enjoyed it enough to read it in four days. I posted a review here in favor of this book and posted a review on my blog for the new AMC series show, because after all this is a book site not a film site.

Go out and read a King/Hill novel today!

Forgiving your flaws. Embracing your virtues. 5 Stars for The Memory Keeper's Daughter.

The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards at its heart is about forgiveness. David, a doctor, husband, father, and once a child growing up poor with a sick sister makes the choice to give away his own daughter (Phoebe) because she is sick. She simply is born with Downs Syndrome a condition that results because a child is born with an extra chromosome. Notable characteristics of this condition are eyes that slant upward, short stature, and a flat nasal bridge.

Developmentally they are behind their peers and they often make poor judgements combined with impulsive behavior. They are prone to many health issues including heart defects that cause them not to live long; however, there are exceptions to this. David, the protagonist of the story and the memory keeper knows all the this the moment his daughter is born and he combines this knowledge with the sister who caused his family so much pain due to physical defects.

Once being drawn into this book because of the premise, I was further drawn into effects of David's choice to give his daughter away. I wanted to know if happiness and forgiveness is possible after such a choice. Edwards wove the human condition of not just David's feelings, but an intricate pattern of his wife's, son's, surrogate mother's, and finally his own tragic quilt piece into a beautifully odd blanket highlighted by Phoebe's open embrace.

A few years ago, I met a young man with Downs Syndrome and was lucky enough to be in his life on a daily basis for the course of one year. After knowing him, I concluded that his extra chromosome was like an extra sight into the human emotional psyche. He seemed to understand someones's happiness, sadness, and anger before even they did, and often he placed someone else's happiness above his own. He genuinely wanted to make those around him happy though his very simple and rose colored glasses. 

Often I have found myself cynical pondering the flaws of the universe I cannot explain. This young man was like rope in an endless space of darkness. He gave me hope reminding me not of vices but of virtues. Fortunately, his family saw him in the same hope filled light. Kim Edwards understood this with Phoebe, and it was why even the darkest secret can often be forgiven. If you want a story about real forgiveness, read The Memory Keeper's Daughter.

Stephen King and Bob Dylan

For me, a good Stephen King book is like a Bob Dylan concert. Sometimes it's a Subterranean Homesick Blues night, other times it's Blowing in the Wind. Doctor Sleep was far from Blowing in the Wind. It is fast paced scare-the-bejesus out of you horror that is my kind of book. A great many things worked it in this book from plot, tone, minimal imagery allowing the reader to fill in the gaps, to characterization.

The story was told by Danny from King's first book, The Shining; however, Danny is Dan and all grown-up and ready to deal with the monsters of the past and present. Problem is Dan is a recovering alcoholic who has some of his own demons to battle first. He's not hero material and gosh I love a well-flawed character to meet a super villian. King knows how to create those. I'm thinking of Pennywise and the Master Vampire from Salem's Lot. Doctor Sleep has Rose the Hat, a seductive beauty when she's not killing and drinking the steam of the young. She has a single tooth then and a wicked appetite.

I understand The Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe's White Witch is playing Rose in an upcoming movie. I can't think of a better person for the role.

I'd love to see this movie!
I highly recommend the book!

BUT.. save the movie for after. I still haven't read The Shining by King, but have watched the movie. I regret that. Always read the book first.

War painted in Fauvist Reds and Grays - 5 Stars for The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara

Fauvism is style of painting that used pure, brilliant color aggressively applied straight from the paint tubes to create a sense of an explosion on the canvas. This is what the imagery in The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara looked like when I read it. Of course, it is a book rooted in war and there seems to be nothing more explosive - other than the grief and silence of death. The explosion of color paralleled Stephen Crane’s Red Badge of Courage, but it also favored Crane’s book with blooming characterization from seed to wintery death.

“It was like the gray floor of hell.” Gettysburg as described by Joshua Chamberlain, Union commander.

“War, the red animal, war, the blood-swollen god, would have bloated fill.” Red Badge of Courage

Gray or red each color describes the aftermath of war like ash and fire. Both Crane and Shaara leave the reader with infinite fauvist portraits of war.

The characterization of Lee, Chamberlain and Longstreet, unlike Henry in Red Badge of courage, began in full bloom rather than innocence, men already full of age and wisdom with stubborness as a crutch to choose poorly or not. In Shaara’s retrospective study, Lee’s stubbornness caused the turning point in the war at Gettysburg; whereas, Longstreet saw a better path, one not filled with human pride. The dynamic presented between Longstreet and Lee did not define one man as right or wrong. Shaara did an amazing job of showing the beauty in both of their choices.

My favorite character was Chamberlain. His character examined the reasons for the war exploring not just slavery, but the essence of the human condition which is Shakespeare - and also where the title of the book seem to come from:

“Once Chamberlain had a speech memorized from Shakespeare and gave it proudly, the old man listening but not looking, and Chamberlain remembered it still: “What a piece of work is man...in action how like an angel!” And the old man, grinning, had scratched his head and then said stiffly, “Well, boy, if he’s and angel, he’s sure a murden’ angel.”

This line is from Hamlet where Hamlet glorifies man and then finds man and the world around him as mere dust. It reminds me again of the men that fought and then the imagery presented, gray and red; man comes in like a fiery angel only to turn to dust leaving a gray floor of hell. At its heart, Killer Angels begs the question of why any man may fight and kill another sacrificing his own life. It is worth the read and maybe a second one.

Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer is a great source for young people who want to pursue a dream without being ridiculed. After reading Krakauer's intense journey into the psyche of Chris McCandless which unraveled with meticulous journalism; I found myself doing everything but poking fun at Chris. In fact, I ended up admiring his deep passion that unfortunately led to his death. And in the end, this is what a good writer does - they change your mind.

I often wonder if a great many people who live an entire life lived the full life Chris McCandless did in twenty-four years. Krakauer did an admirable job of following Chris's journey to Alaska and then his stay there allowing the reader to make their own mind up about whether or not Chris was a kook, an idealistic idiot, or a passionate youth who made a couple of wrong choices. Sure, there was some biased. It was obvious from the author's note in the beginning Krakauer made his mind up early on about Chris. Krakauer even compared his own youth when he climbed a hazardous mountain called Devils Thumb. Krakauer was only a year younger than Chris when he followed what he described as a "scattershot passion of youth and a literary diet in works of Nietzsche and Kerouac." 

But the parallels Krakauer made to Chris scoped way beyond his own youth, but that of other daring adventurers following their dreams. So, even though Chris's story seems unbelievable at first glance; it is not original. There seems to be a Jack London fascination with the harrowing outdoors that extends into the core of mankind. Without bold strokes of generalization, this fascination makes Chris like so many other youthful men his age. 

For myself, the virtuous characteristics that separated Chris into the individual were those that extended to others outside of his dream. Despite the pain his family went through, Chris possessed an empathy towards others especially those starving and homeless. It was a generosity that bled from him infecting everyone who encountered him on his journey to Alaska. Even though Chris rebelled against the need for others; he embraced it along his journey and in the end his discovery of his need of others was his ultimate epiphany. 

"Happiness only real when shared."

Krakauer had a similar discovery:

"I convinced myself for many months that I didn't really mind the absence of intimacy in my life, the lack of real human connection, but the pleasure I felt in this woman's company - the ring of her laughter, the innocent touch of a hand on my arm - exposed my self-deceit and left me hollow and aching."

Into the Wild is about self-discovery, and no matter what your age; we should always be open to growth.