Georgia Bottoms

Georgia Bottoms by Mark Childress
Little, Brown & Company, February 2011
Hardcover, 288 pages
ISBN-13: 9780316033046

recommended

Synopsis

Georgia Bottoms is known in her small community of Six Points, Alabama, as a beautiful, well-to-do, and devoutly Baptist Southern belle.
Nobody realizes that the family fortune has long since disappeared, and a determinedly single woman like Georgia needs an alternative, and discreet, means of income. In Georgia's case it is six well-heeled lovers-one for each day of the week, with Mondays off - none of whom knows about the others.
But when the married preacher who has been coming to call (Saturdays) decides to confess their affair in front of the whole congregation, Georgia must take drastic measures to stop him. In GEORGIA BOTTOMS, Mark Childress proves once again his unmistakable skill for combining the hilarious and the absurd to reveal the inner workings of the rebellious human heart.

My Thoughts:

In Georgia Bottoms by Mark Childress the title character keeps herself busy trying to support her mother and brother in a small Alabama town. She's a mistress to six men - each one knows nothing about the others. Each man leaves her a little something after their evening is done. And Georgia has another on-going money making scheme. The problem is that Georgia's carefully planned way of life is threatening to fall apart.

Despite the fact that it does have some funny moments, Georgia Bottoms is not hilarious. Although I was interested in seeing her through her various predicaments, Georgia is a shallow and self-centered character. I never felt she was this loveable, quirky character full of Southern charm. Additionally, there are parts that could very easily even be offensive to some readers. Examples include Georgia's feelings about religion, her taking advantage of one group of women for profit, the use of the "N" word, the racism, and Georgia's annoyance that 9/11 precludes her ladies luncheon.

Perhaps it is because I'm not at all familiar with small Southern towns, but I actually found it hard to believe this novel was set in recent time, especially with the racism. It felt like it was set earlier. Georgia Bottoms is a quick, easy, and entertaining novel - amusing, but basically forgettable. I do think that Childress is a good writer, which helped elevate the novel to Recommended status for me.

Disclosure: My copy was sent to me by the publisher after I won a giveaway.

Quotes:

If only Eugene didn't run on so long in his sermons, Georgia thought, a person might not have time to think about how hot it was in this church. opening

She never missed a Sunday in church. There had to be other doubters in the crowd, but Georgia was fairly certain she was the only one who attended every Sunday without believing a single word of it... pg. 6

Members of Georgia's family had sat in this pew for generations, since before her grandmother Big Sue changed the family name from Butts to Bottoms because she thought it sounded more genteel, pg. 7

Eugene in bed was much like Eugene in the pulpit: earnest, sincerely grateful for your attendance, but always wandering off down these unproductive side alleys. pg. 9

She saw how it was going to go. Eugene meant to confess his infidelity right here in front of God and everybody. In front of Brenda and his lovely daughters and the congregation....

What he didn't realize was that he was risking much more than Georgia's reputation. One word could ruin a lot more than that. pg. 12

Georgia made sure she was well into the aisle, clear of the pews on both sides. She didn't want to get hurt. Her eyelids fluttered. Her gaze turned upward. all the muscles in her body went limp. She collapsed into a heap on the carpet - a most convincing and ladylike faint. pg. 13

To Georgia, the silliest argument of all was this endless wrestling match over race. As far back as she could remember, everyone in Alabama had been re-fighting the Civil War, a hundred forty years later. Someone was always trying to send the black man back into slavery, or raise him up higher than he was ready to go. To Georgia, the solution seemed simple: Everybody just forget about it. White people, get used to it. Black people, stop dwelling on it. Let's just pretend we're equal, and get on with our lives. pg. 30

Each man thought he was the only one. That was essential to Georgia's arrangement. She never let herself get cavalier about the details. Only by observing strict rules of separation was she able to keep all these plates spinning on sticks.

It wasn't just for herself that she was doing this. It was for Little Mama, who'd had three husbands but never one who left her a nickel... and for useless Brother... but mainly for someone who waited for a sum of money every fourth Saturday at the Western Union, Poydras Street, New Orleans.

An old debt Georgia was still paying down. pg 38-39

Feed

Feed by Mira Grant
Orbit, 2010
Mass Market Paperback, 608 pages
Newsflesh Series, #1
ISBN-13: 9780316081054
http://www.thefeedbook.com/
http://www.miragrant.com/
highly recommended

Synopsis

The year was 2014. We had cured cancer. We had beat the common cold. But in doing so we created something new, something terrible that no one could stop. The infection spread, virus blocks taking over bodies and minds with one, unstoppable command: FEED.
NOW, twenty years after the Rising, Georgia and Shaun Mason are on the trail of the biggest story of their lives - the dark conspiracy behind the infected. The truth will out, even if it kills them.

My Thoughts:

Feed by Mira Grant takes place in 2039, 25 years after the Kellis-Amberlee virus that turns infected people into zombies was released. Now zombies are simply a part of life and social media, especially blogging, is how people get their news. The protagonists who own a blogging news site include: George (Georgia), Shaun (George’s brother), and Buffy. They are all thrilled when Sen. Peter Ryman invites them to be the bloggers who cover his presidential campaign. At the end of each chapter are excerpts from the characters’ blogs.

This is a world where a bloggers' market share rules and people have learned to cope with the zombies. Actually, Feed is more a political thriller than a zombie novel. The zombies are there, but generally secondary to the intrigue. While there isn't much blood and gore, there is a clear indication of how living in a society where zombies are a reality is handled, including constant blood tests for infection and sterilization techniques in place. Various zones are rated by degree of safety.

I liked the way Grant had the Kellis-Amberlee virus developed from the mixing of two cures. She also handled all the precautions people would learn to take by necessity well. There was, however, also a lot of repetition of information that could have been edited out.

While some people likely will enjoy all the pop culture reference, personally, I didn't care for all of them because I didn't think some of them would still be in use in this future. What they do is place the novel firmly in the current time period. For example An "Irwin", as in Steve Irwin, is a blogger who likes action or "to poke things with sticks" - in this case, Shaun. I became quite weary of reading, as a running joke, about how Shaun wanted to poke a zombie with a stick. Mentioning it a few times would have been enough. I get it. Other pop culture references abound: Hunter S. Thomas, JFK, mp3's... even Buffy's nickname seems unlikely.

I also couldn't buy these young adults, born after the zombie apocalypse, describing something as "a cross between a carnival and a frat party" (pg. 196) when it is made quite clear that young people in this future do not like crowds and avoid them due to the risk that someone may go zombie-viral. Both a carnival and frat party are unlikely events. Sometimes it felt like some of Grant's references and/or descriptions distracted from the story.

Feed is told in a first-person narrative, which works well for a novel featuring bloggers but it might have been even better if it were told from multiple viewpoints. It is entertaining escapism even though the antagonist is easily and immediately identifiable. (Mira Grant is the pen name of author Seanan McGuire.) This is the first book is a purposed 3 book series. While I basically enjoyed it, I'm not planning to immediately get the next book in the series.
Highly recommended - for fun

Quotes:

Everyone has someone on the Wall.
No matter how remote you may think you are from the events that changed the world during the brutal summer of 2014, you have someone on the Wall. Maybe they’re a cousin, maybe they’re an old family friend, or maybe they’re just somebody you saw on TV once, but they’re yours. They belong to you. They died to make sure that you could sit in your safe little house behind your safe little walls, watching the words of one jaded twenty-two-year-old journalist go scrolling across your computer screen. Think about that for a moment. They died for you.
Now take a good look at the life you’re living and tell me: Did they do the right thing? opening

Our story opens where countless stories have ended in the last twenty-six years: with an idiot—in this case, my brother Shaun—deciding it would be a good idea to go out and poke a zombie with a stick to see what happens. pg. 5

You get enough of the infected together and they’ll start displaying pack hunting techniques; they’ll start using actual tactics. It’s like the virus that’s taken them over starts to reason when it gets enough hosts in the same place. pg. 7

Most of California was reclaimed after the Rising, but no one has ever managed to take back Santa Cruz. The geographical isolation that once made the town so desirable as a vacation spot pretty much damned it when the virus hit. Kellis-Amberlee may be unique in the way it interacts with the human body, but it behaves just like every other communicable disease known to man in at least one way: Put it on a school campus and it spreads like wildfire. U.C. Santa Cruz was a perfect breeding ground, and once all those perky co-eds became the shuffling infected, it was all over but the evacuation notices. pg. 11-12

Kellis-Amberlee blood testing units hurt on purpose. Lack of sensitivity to pain is an early sign of viral amplification. pg. 20

After five years of work, we've managed to convert a mostly gutted Channel 7 news van into a state-of-the-art traveling blog center, with camera feeds, it's own wireless tower, a self-sustaining homing device, and so many backup storage arrays that it makes my head hurt when I think about them too hard. pg.22

"They picked up our application. They picked us. We're going to do it.
We're going to cover the presidential campaign." pg 47

Before them, blogging was something people thought should be done by bored teenagers talking about how depressed they were. pg. 47

The "real" media was bound by rules and regulations, while the bloggers were bound by nothing more than the speed of their typing. We were the first to report that people who had been pronounced dead were getting up and noshing on their relatives. pg. 48

Packing for Mars

Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void
by Mary Roach
W.W.Norton & Company, 2010
Hardcover, 334 pages
ISBN-13: 9780393068474
http://www.maryroach.net/

From the Publisher

Space is a world devoid of the things we need to live and thrive: air, gravity, hot showers, fresh produce, privacy, beer. Space exploration is in some ways an exploration of what it means to be human. How much can a person give up? How much weirdness can they take? What happens to you when you can’t walk for a year? have sex? smell flowers? What happens if you vomit in your helmet during a space walk? Is it possible for the human body to survive a bailout at 17,000 miles per hour? To answer these questions, space agencies set up all manner of quizzical and startlingly bizarre space simulations. As Mary Roach discovers, it’s possible to preview space without ever leaving Earth. From the space shuttle training toilet to a crash test of NASA’s new space capsule (cadaver filling in for astronaut), Roach takes us on a surreally entertaining trip into the science of life in space and space on Earth.

My Thoughts:

Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void by Mary Roach is an informative, engrossing, and entertaining examination of what it takes to actually get humans into space. Roach includes many witty footnotes throughout the text. At the end of the book is a brief time line of space exploration and an extensive bibliography.

In Packing for Mars Mary Roach provides the answers to many of the questions you didn't even know you might want to ask, including the psychological profiles of those best suited for space, zero gravity, space suits, motion sickness, bodily elimination (lots of bathroom talk), hygiene, eating, and, well, keeping the astronauts alive. Although she certainly doesn't even remotely try to provide extensive scientific information about all space programs, what she does provide is a very entertaining look into several different aspect of the space program.

While Stiff had me feeling queasy for much of the book, it was a pure pleasure reading Packing for Mars. Some readers might be put off with all the bathroom talk, but handling bodily functions is, by necessity, a big concern in any space travel. In fact I never personally really seriously considered all the problems that had to be solved in order to even consider a space program.

I found Packing for Mars entertaining as well as informative and would very highly recommend it, but be forewarned about all the talk of bodily elimination - pee, poop, and vomit.

Very Highly Recommended

Quotes:

To the rocket scientist, you are a problem. You are the most irritating piece of machinery he or she will ever have to deal with. You and your fluctuating metabolism, your puny memory, your frame that comes in a million different configurations. You are unpredictable. You’re inconstant. You take weeks to fix. The engineer must worry about the water and oxygen and food you’ll need in space, about how much extra fuel it will take to launch your shrimp cocktail and irradiated beef tacos. A solar cell or a thruster nozzle is stable and undemanding. It does not excrete or panic or fall in love with the mission commander. It has no ego. Its structural elements don’t start to break down without gravity, and it works just fine without sleep.

To me, you are the best thing to happen to rocket science. The human being is the machine that makes the whole endeavor so endlessly intriguing. To take an organism whose every feature has evolved to keep it alive and thriving in a world with oxygen, gravity, and water, to suspend that organism in the wasteland of space for a month or a year, is a preposterous but captivating undertaking. Everything one takes for granted on Earth must be rethought, relearned, rehearsed — full-grown men and women toilet-trained, a chimpanzee dressed in a flight suit and launched into orbit. An entire odd universe of mock outer space has grown up here on Earth. Capsules that never blast off; hospital wards where healthy people spend months on their backs, masquerading zero gravity; crash labs where cadavers drop to Earth in simulated splash-downs. opening

Welcome to space. Not the parts you see on TV, the triumphs and the tragedies, but the stuff in between — the small comedies and everyday victories. What drew me to the topic of space exploration was not the heroics and adventure stories, but the very human and sometimes absurd struggles behind them. pg. 18

Early in my research, I came across a moment — forty minutes into the eighty-eighth hour of Gemini VII — which, for me, sums up the astronaut experience and why it fascinates me. Astronaut Jim Lovell is telling Mission Control about an image he has captured on film — “a beautiful shot of a full Moon against the black sky and the strato formations of the clouds of the earth below,” reads the mission transcript. After a momentary silence, Lovell’s crewmate Frank Borman presses the TALK button. “Borman’s dumping urine. Urine [in] approximately one minute.”

Two lines further along, we see Lovell saying, “What a sight to behold!” We don’t know what he’s referring to, but there’s a good chance it’s not the moon. According to more than one astronaut memoir, one of the most beautiful sights in space is that of a sun-illumined flurry of flash-frozen waste-water droplets. Space doesn’t just encompass the sublime and the ridiculous. It erases the line between. pg. 19

Reality Is Broken

Reality Is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World by Jane McGonigal
Penguin Group, 2011
Hardcover, 388 pages
ISBN-13: 9781594202858
nonfiction
http://realityisbroken.org/
http://janemcgonigal.com/

Recommended

From the Publisher:

More than 174 million Americans are gamers, and the average young person in the United States will spend ten thousand hours gaming by the age of 21. According to world-renowned game designer Jane McGonigal, the reason for this mass exodus to virtual worlds is that videogames are increasingly fulfilling genuine human needs. In this groundbreaking exploration of the power and future of gaming, McGonigal reveals how we can use the lessons of game design to fix what is wrong with the real world.
Drawing on positive psychology, cognitive science and sociology, Reality is Broken uncovers how game designers have hit on core truths about what makes us happy, and utilized these discoveries to astonishing effect in virtual environments. Videogames consistently provide the exhilarating rewards, stimulating challenges and epic victories that are so often lacking in the real world. But why, McGonigal asks, should we use the power of games for escapist entertainment alone? Her research suggests that gamers are expert problem solvers and collaborators, since they cooperate with other players to overcome daunting virtual challenges, and she helped pioneer a fast-growing genre of games that aims to turn gameplay to socially positive ends.

My Thoughts:

In Reality Is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World, Jane McGonigal purports that gamers can make reality better for everyone. She writes, "The real world just doesn't offer up as easily the carefully designed pleasures, the thrilling challenges, and the powerful social bonding afforded by virtual environments. Reality doesn't motivate us as effectively. Reality isn't engineered to maximize our potential. Reality wasn't designed from the bottom up to make us happy." (pg. 3)

The book is divided into three sections: Part I: Why Games Make Us Happy; Part II: Reinventing Reality; Part III: How Very Big Games Can Change the World. At the end of the book she helpfully includes an appendix to help you find more information on the games she's mentioned, notes on her sources, and an index.

Jane McGonigal is most enlightening and convincing in the first part of her book where she is explaining how games can make us happy. In parts two and three, she began to lose me. Part two deals with specific games and mainly some she's work on designing. In part three, although I could see some of the benefits she was claiming, I ended up feeling more concerned than hopeful. (More on that later.) She certainly validates gamers and the time they spend gaming as a new form of collaboration and community building.

The book itself is a quick and easy read. Although she's not the best writer, the writing is very accessible. Actually, since a speech she made motivated her to write this book, the whole book comes across as a motivational speech stretched out to book length. But at least in this form it includes the appendix, notes, and index.

Basically, I had three problems with Reality Is Broken.

I might as well admit that while reading Reality Is Broken the song "The Future's So Bright, I Gotta Wear Shades" by Timbuk3 started playing through my head in a continuous loop. And that is one of the huge problems with her whole argument. She never addresses any negatives (or dismisses them quickly.) She's w-a-y too much of an optimistic futurist rather than a pessimistic realist. McGonigal is an enthusiastic, chipper, pro-gaming cheerleader.

She writes, "The truth is this: in today's society, computer and video games are fulfilling genuine human needs that the current world is unable to satisfy. Games are providing rewards that reality is not." (pg. 4)

Additionally, she notes that "Philosophers, psychologists, and spiritual leaders agree: the single best way to add meaning to our lives is to connect our daily actions to something bigger than ourselves - and the bigger, the better." (pg.97)

I have a problem with the whole premise that games are the bigger thing that we need to connect to in order to have meaning in our lives. Is it truly better to have an unending supply of meaningless rewards in order to be happy? It seems to me that if people are playing games to escape reality the problem runs much deeper than something games can fix. I'm not sure if providing more rewards or making up games for more escapism is truly beneficial. And do all of these gamers who want to escape reality also want to save the real world?

But my main problem with her book is the Big Brother overtones that come with tracking where people are through their cell phones - in order to play a game. I find it truly frightening when she writes "...it represents the new kind of epic win that is possible in a world where more and more people are willing to use their mobile phones to broadcast where they are and what they need." (pg. 257) Being tracked is not an "epic win" in my mind. And I can also see where many of her ideas for creating happiness while interacting with others could also easily be used for nefarious activities. The final part of the book only convinced me that in the future there will be an even greater need for more safe guards of our personal online security.

I would be remiss if I didn't add that I could see several positive uses for new games in the future that would be epic wins, especially in education, which is why the book is recommended.

Recommended

(Disclosure: I received this copy from the publisher after winning an online giveaway.)

(Additional note: My son, a programmer, said to tell people to read Halting State by Charles Stross. It's relevant to the topic but not nearly so optimistic.)

Quotes:

Gamers have had enough of reality. opening

What if we decided to use everything we know about game design to fix what's wrong with reality? What if we started to live our real lives like gamers, lead our real businesses and communities like game designers, and think about solving real-world problems like computer and video game theorists? pg. 7

And I've come to believe that people who know how to make games need to start focusing on the task of making real life better for as many people as possible. pg. 8

The people who continue to write off games will be at a major disadvantage in the coming years. Those who deem them unworthy of their time and attention won't know how to leverage the power of games in their communities, in their businesses, in their lives. They will be less prepared to shape the future. pg. 11

In fact, it's a truism in the game industry that a well-designed game should be playable immediately, with no instruction whatsoever. pg. 25

....it's evidence that gamers aren't escaping their real lives by playing games. They're actively making their real lives more rewarding. pg. 51

Games like Lexulous and FarmVille ensure we'll show up and do our part to nurture our relationships daily, and make a gesture of friendship whenever it's our turn. pg. 81-82

By the age of twenty-one, the average young American has spent somewhere between two and three thousand hours reading books - and more than ten thousand hours playing computer and video games. pg. 266

Into the Looking Glass

Into the Looking Glass by John Ringo
Baen Book; copyright 2005
Mass Market Paperback , 366 pages
Looking Glass Series #1
ISBN-13: 9781416521051
http://www.johnringo.org/

highly recommended

Synopsis:

When a 60-kiloton explosion destroyed the University of Central Florida, and much of the surrounding countryside, the authorities first thought that terrorists had somehow obtained a nuclear weapon. But there was no radiation detected, and, when physicist Dr. William Weaver and Navy SEAL Command Master Chief Robert Miller were sent to investigate, they found that in the center of the destruction, where the University's physics department used to be, was an interdimensional gateway to.... somewhere. An experiment in subatomic physics had produced a very unexpected effect. Furthermore, other gateways were appearing all over the world¿and one of them immediately began disgorging demonic visitors intent on annihilating all life on Earth and replacing it with their own.

My Thoughts:

Into the Looking Glass by John Ringo is the first book in his Looking Glass series. When an accident in a physics lab at University of Central Florida causes a huge explosion, physicist William (Bill) Weaver and Navy SEAL Command Master Chief Robert Miller are sent in to investigate. They discover that an experiment in subatomic physics has produced a gateway to another world - and the gateways are spreading.

This is military science fiction novel. Ringo adds some humor along with the science (and some parts were quite funny), but the star of this book is the military action. After the initial explosion the novel slowed down while the physics of the event were being explained, but the action soon took off at a breakneck pace.

Let me reiterate that this is military science fiction. If supporting the American military or the warrior culture of the military is going to offend you, don't read this book. It's pro-military. It's also science fiction, so, if (simplified) scientific explanations are going to confuse you, don't read this book. If neither the military nor science aspects are going to bother you, then by all means read Into the Looking Glass. (Additionally, keep in mind that the novel supports conservative political views.)

Ringo is not the best writer technically but then, that's not really what you'd be looking for in a military science fiction novel. He does deliver on the action and the battle scenes. I'm looking forward to reading the other three novels in this series sometime: Vorpal Blade (Looking Glass, Book 2) by John Ringo; Manxome Foe (Looking Glass, Book 3) by Travis S. Taylor; Claws That Catch (Looking Glass, Book 4) by John Ringo
Highly Recommended - especially if you enjoy military science fiction

Quotes:

The explosion, later categorized as in the near equivalent of 60 kilotons of TNT and centered on the University of Central Florida, occurred at 9:28 a.m. on a Saturday in early March, a calm spring day in Orlando when the sky was clear and the air was cool and, for Florida, reasonably dry. It occurred entirely without warning and while it originated at the university the effects were felt far outside its grounds. opening

The rumble of the detonation was felt as far away as Tampa, Cocoa and Ocala and the ascending mushroom cloud, roiling with purple and green light in the early morning air, was visible as far away as Miami. Flaming debris dropped into Park Avenue in Winter Park, setting the ancient oaks along that pleasant drive briefly ablaze and crushed the vestibule of St. Paul's Church. pg.2

"Right now this ... event is not consonant with a nuclear attack, sir," the specialist said, firmly. "There is no evidence of EMP or radiation. Nor ..." He paused and then squared his shoulders. "Nor does it appear to be an asteroid strike." pg. 10

The base of the cloud was dark, obscuring the light from the sun that still hadn't reached zenith. But near the ground there was a deeper darkness. There was a crater as well, one that looked very much like an enormous bomb hole. The darkness, though, wasn't at the bottom of the crater. Then an errant gust of wind pushed some more of the dust aside and the darkness was revealed. It was a globe of inky blackness, darker than the spaces between stars on a cloudless night. It seemed to absorb the light around it. And it was hovering above the base of the crater, right about where ground level had previously been. pg. 16

It was a giant insect.
No.
It was... It had black and red markings, mottled, not like a ladybug but some of the same color. It was... his sense of perspective zoomed in and out oddly. It couldn't be as large as it looked, but if it wasn't, then the
pilot in the front seat was a child and his head the size of baseball. Crichton shook his head as the thing, using too many legs, wriggled and got to its feet. It was the shape of a roach, colored red and black and it had... more, way more, than six legs. It looked... wrong. Everything about it was wrong. It scared him more than any spider, however large and they got pretty damned large in Florida, he'd ever seen in his life.
It wasn't from this world. Not in this time. Or from any time in the past. And, hopefully, not any time in the future. It was from... somewhere else.
It was alien. pg. 17-18

What we have now is some sort of gate. pg.26

That big black ball could be a boson, but it does not meet the theory of a Higgs boson particle or its effects. Yes, something came through, that might have been from a Higgs boson universe but, again, it doesn't fit the theory. Shouldn't be able to get in or out of the universe. Also, its physics should be different, so different that it would have either died right away or, more likely, exploded. pg.27

"Where are the bugs?" the SEAL said, ignoring the comment.
"The sergeant and I trussed them up with duct tape and then dumped them in the back of a Humvee with all the windows rolled up and big signs on it not to open it. But they're both dead, sir. They just stopped twitching after a while."
"I guess something on this side is poisonous to them," Glasser said. "Which is the first good news I've had today. And bad, for that matter, it doesn't mean the other side isn't poisonous. Any idea what?"
"No, sir," Crichton responded. "They were moving fine and strong as bejeezus. Sergeant Grant helped me because he usually works in an alligator farm wrestling gators. And it took both of us on them to get the tape on them. They didn't attack us or anything but it was like riding an elephant if you know what I mean; they just didn't seem to feel the weight, even the smaller one. If I'd make a guess, sir, I'd say that it's a higher gravity world on the far side and that something in our air, carbon dioxide or oxygen, is probably what killed them. Too high or low of oxygen or too high carbon dioxide. pg.32

A year, about what it would take despite the "recommended" three years, in the People's Republic of Massachusetts was more than he could stand. pg.36

River of the Brokenhearted

River of the Brokenhearted by David Adams Richards
Arcade Publishing, copyright 2003
Hardcover, 381 pages
ISBN-13: 9781559707121

Very Highly Recommended

Synopsis

Spanning generations, River of the Brokenhearted tells the life and legacy of Janie McLeary, a strong-willed Irish Catholic girl who dares to marry a man from the Church of England. Their union is quickly deemed scandalous, and when her husband dies young, just before the Great Depression, Janie is left alone to raise a family and run a business - the first movie theater in town. Through the strength of her character, she succeeds in a world of men. For that she is ostracized and becomes a victim of double-dealing and overt violence. Based on the author's own grandmother, Janie is a pioneer before the age of feminism, but her salty individualism burdens the lives of her children and grandchildren." Her son Miles, impish and genteel, tragically misunderstood and quietly courageous, is bullied and bruised by those his age, and unable to escape his mother's shadow. When sorrow befalls the family he retreats into eccentricity and alcoholism. The specter of Janie is raised again in her granddaughter Ginger - brilliant, funny, tempestuous, as fiery in spirit as Janie ever was. But moving without her grandmother's sure-footedness through an equally treacherous world. Ginger forms an alliance with the one person most likely to destroy her.

My Thoughts:

David Adams Richards uses the life of his grandmother as inspiration for the character Hanna Jane (Janie) McLeary King in River of the Brokenhearted, a multigenerational family saga set in a small New Brunswick village. The novel is narrated by her grandson, Wendell King, and covers four generations of the McLeary/King family. Joey Elias is the family's nemesis, as well as the Druken family. Where Janie's tenacity helps her overcome great persecution and brings her financial success, her family crumbles due to her lack of emotional support. They are overwhelmed with the petty cruelty of their lives and become alcoholics.

Richards is a brilliant writer. He always covers conflicting themes of love and hate, good and evil. His character development is exquisite. And while all of his characters are flawed and struggle with memories, faith, and integrity, often their reflections strike the core of a vital truth for all of humanity. Even as Janie's descendants fail to learn from their mistakes, there is the underlying sense that redemption is possible for even the most flawed characters and that in the end justice will prevail.

The sense of time and place remain consistently strong in River of the Brokenhearted. Richards has a gift for setting the scene and placing his characters squarely in that world. Even their speech patterns are distinct for each character. He can also clearly record the irrational thinking processes of those overwhelmed by greed or drink and the explanations they give themselves for their actions.

I am starting a personal David Adams Richards Fan Club. After reading Mercy Among the Children and The Bay of Love and Sorrows I can safely say that Richards is an incredible, amazing writer who deserves a wider audience - and a fan club.

Very Highly Recommended

Quotes:
The graves of the Drukens and the McLearys are spread across the Miramichi River valley. If you go there you might find them -- “run across them” is not the exact phrase one might want to use for graves -- in certain villages and towns. I don't think we have hamlets here, but if we do, then in certain hamlets as well.
What is revealing about these graves is their scarcity. opening

My father Miles King once told me that some are damned by blood, by treason, by chance or circumstance, some even by the stars themselves, or as Shakespeare, denying that, said, by ourselves. This in a way is a journey back in time to see how I was damned.
My name is Wendell King, and I have looked for these forgotten places, and found them in their quietude and hope, and have gone to the archives, reading old tracts, deeds, family history, searching out what I can, to try to dislodge the secrets that have plagued my father's life. pg. 4

The McLeary family arrived in 1847. They left Ireland crammed into a ship's steerage with those like themselves, unseafaring and sick. pg. 7

Both families, never forgetting their children on the gallows, carried this holy war against each other, a war of attrition, war of words and staffs and peevies, all the way from Ireland into each other's little houses and sheds in Newcastle, New Brunswick, a full century later. pg. 9

I am the happier. For this Hanna Jane McLeary, this darling rebel girl, this sweet lost light of Bobby Doyle's eye, became my grandmother, became in all her dancing, tragic scope one of our great Maritime women, although she never wanted greatness - no, thrust upon her. pg. 11

That he was dying was a shame. However, the other life, the one that tells people someone else's death is not a shame if it opens a door for themselves, was now opened. pg. 18-19

It was the first time he felt her temperament - her will. And it was not like her old drunken father, whom he bullied and laughed at. He had not felt it before, not directed precisely at him. pg. 27

He himself had not seen it, which was a little thing - but Harris was a little thinker. If he had been the sort of thinker he pretended himself to be, the smallness and pedestrian quality of his life would have appalled him. pg. 40

In fact, all men should blush at the moment of death - just because of the great foolishness of their dreams. pg. 159

It was as if her womb, so silent for so long in such a bitter life, started to bleed again. pg. 226

Salvation City

Salvation City by Sigrid Nunez
Publisher: Penguin Group, 2010
Hardcover, 288 pages
ISBN-13: 9781594487668

http://www.sigridnunez.com/salvation.htm

Highly Recommended

Synopsis

After a flu pandemic has killed large numbers of people worldwide, the United States has grown increasingly anarchic. Large numbers of children are stranded in orphanages, and systems we take for granted are fraying at the seams. When orphaned Cole Vining finds refuge with an evangelical pastor and his young wife in a small Indiana town, he knows he is one of the lucky ones. Sheltered Salvation City has been spared much of the devastation of the outside world.
But it's a starkly different community from the one Cole has known, and he struggles with what this changed world means for him. As those around him become increasingly fixated on their vision of utopia - so different from his own parents' dreams - Cole begins to imagine a new and different future for himself.
Written in Sigrid Nunez's deceptively simple style, Salvation City is a story of love, betrayal, and forgiveness, weaving the deeply affecting story of a young boy's transformation with a profound meditation on the true meaning of salvation.

My Thoughts:

Salvation City by Sigrid Nunez is a coming of age novel set in a changing world. Young teen Cole Vining is the narrator. He has lost his parents, Miles and Serena, in a global flu pandemic and, after a brief stay in an orphanage, is currently living with Pastor Wyatt (PW) and his wife Tracy, who hope to adopt him.

As Cole remembers his past with his parents, both academics and atheists, he clearly recalls the tension and their arguments. He knew their marriage was on the verge of divorce. This past contrasts sharply with life in the Christian community of Salvation City with PW and Tracy, where home life is calm and secure, based on their Christian faith. Nunez handles equally deftly the characterizations of both Cole's atheist parents and the Christian Wyatt's.

This is not a dystopian novel intent on showing the collapse of civilization. Because the story is told through Cole's perspective and his memory is imperfect, we don't have a clear global view of what the pandemic has wrought. Instead, we have glimpses of the horrors, as recalled by Cole. While the flu pandemic does influence all aspects of the story, it is truly more of a coming of age story set during hard times and a character study.

Nunez does an excellent job in developing her characters using a deceptively simple style of writing. I really felt that the story was being told by a young adolescent boy, with all of his insecurities and conflicted emotions. He struggles with change just as we all would. (In fact, she actually did such a good job that some reviewers incorrectly labeled Salvation City as a YA novel. It isn't.) She never falters from telling the story through Cole's perspective and in the end we are hopeful he will find the right direction for him in his changed world.

Even though I was expecting Salvation City to be more of a dystopian thriller, I actually quite enjoyed this thoughtful novel based on Nunez's writing alone.

Highly Recommended

Quotes:

The best way to remember people after they've passed is to remember the good about them.

The first time Cole hears Pastor Wyatt say this he remembers how his mother hated when people said passed, or passed away. opening

He was not yet comfortable looking Pastor Wyatt in the face. Cole was keeping so much in - he had so many secrets - he did not like to look anyone in the face if he could help it. He knew this gave the impression he'd done something wrong, and that is just how he felt; as if he'd done something wrong and was trying to hide it. pg. 4

Pastor Wyatt still shakes hands with people. He pays no attention to the warning to switch to the elbow bump. pg. 5

But he is not sure anymore if in fact it was his mother he heard that day. Maybe it was his father. This has become a familiar problem. Cole gets mixed up. He is never completely sure of anything he remembers anymore. He was told that after his fever broke he did not even remember his own name. It wasn't exactly amnesia, but the illness had damaged his brain. He was not the only one to whom this had happened. pg. 8

And if they had never moved, if they had stayed in Chicago, would his parents still be alive? Cole thinks the answer is yes, even though he knows that many people got sick and died in Chicago, too. In the big cities, so many people died so fast that bodies kept piling up and there were corpses everywhere, even outdoors. It is another one of Cole's guilty secrets that he wishes he could have seen this with his eyes. That, and the riots. pg. 12-13

Cole hopes to go around the world one day. One of his favorite words is explorer. pg. 20

Back in the fall, at the beginning of the first wave - the milder and less infectious flu that would kill mostly old people or babies or people already weak from other diseases - back when Cole was still living in Chicago, the assistant principal (the principal was out sick) stood on the stage of the school auditorium and introduced a man from the public health department. pg. 25-26

When the second wave hit, everyone hoped it, too, would be mild. A hope that died by the end of the first week. pg. 35