The Registry

The Registry by Shannon Stoker

HarperCollins, 6/11/2013
Trade Paperback, 336 pages
ISBN-13: 9780062271723
https://www.facebook.com/AuthorShannonStoker

Description:

Welcome to a safe and secure new world, where beauty is bought and sold, and freedom is the ultimate crime
The Registry saved the country from collapse, but stability has come at a price. In this patriotic new America, girls are raised to be brides, sold at auction to the highest bidder. Boys are raised to be soldiers, trained to fight and never question orders.
Nearly eighteen, beautiful Mia Morrissey excitedly awaits the beginning of her auction year. But a warning from her married older sister raises dangerous questions. Now, instead of going up on the block, Mia is going to escape to Mexico—and the promise of freedom.
All Mia wants is to control her own destiny—a brave and daring choice that will transform her into an enemy of the state, pursued by powerful government agents, ruthless bounty hunters, and a cunning man determined to own her . . . a man who will stop at nothing to get her back.

My Thoughts:



The Registry is a dystopian  novel by Shannon Stoker that introduces us to a world where men purchase young women for wives through the Registry. Young men must all serve in the military before they are allowed to buy a wife. The girls are sold by their families and the government gets a percentage of the sale.  While female children are valued for the potential wealth they can bring to their fathers, the government encourages all male children to be given up to orphanages.

Eighteen year old Mia is sure she will bring one of the highest bride prices ever. That's all she is concerned about until her older married sister shows up at the house horribly malnourished and bruised. Even as their parents contacted her husband and he is dragging her away, she manages to tell Mia about information she left hidden at the house which proves that everything may not be exactly as it seem. A week later Mia learns her sister was murdered by her husband, and she begins to believe the information her sister left behind.

When Mia's parents plan to sell her to a cruel, wealthy man, Grant Marsden, she makes plans to escape along with her friend Whitney. They end up coercing Andrew, a young man who was working on her father's farm, into assisting them as they attempt to flee to Mexico.

The chapters open with quotes from either The Registry Guide for Girls or The Boy's guide to Service, depending upon from whose point of view that chapter is written.

While The Registry may sound eerily similar to Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale, please note that it's not of the same caliber. The Handmaid's Tale is by far the superior novel. This is a quick, easy novel to read and although Stoker has made some social statements in it, they aren't quite as finely honed and focused as Atwood's. Mia was also an implausible, sometimes annoying main character for me.

It's not that Shannon Stoker has written a bad novel. I actually enjoyed it quite a bit. I overlooked all sorts of inconsistencies and questions about the plot and the character's actions because, based on the opening chapters, I assumed that it was a young adult novel. I was rather taken aback when I discovered that it is not being marketed as such. With the age of the main characters, the simplicity of the plot and characterizations, I assumed it was YA - and liked it much better while I was under that assumption.  Adult readers may want to keep this in mind

It was also a bit disconcerting to see that The Registry is the first novel in a purposed new series. At this time I'm unsure if I would seek out the next in the series.


For the purpose of this review, I'm going to highly recommend The Registry by Shannon Stoker as a YA novel. 

Disclosure: I received an advanced reading copy of this book from the publisher and TLC for review purposes. 

F9

F9 by Michael McBride
DarkFuse, June 6, 2013

ebook, 65 pages (estimate)
ASIN: B00D9CKUW4
http://author.michaelmcbride.net/f9/

Description:

The rate of violent crime is on the rise, and nowhere is this more evident than in the state of Colorado.
Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me...
It's called Acute High-Altitude Neuropathic Dissociation—or, more commonly, Mile High Syndrome—and Dr. Ellis Randall Harding, a neurologist, is determined to understand why. For him, it's personal. He was there on September 24th, 1994 when a gunman walked into the library and started shooting.
I once was lost, but now I'm found…
The answer is locked inside the mind of a monster who shot and killed nine people in 1968. The problem is he's in a vegetative state and incapable of communicating with anyone, except for Dr. Harding, who has figured out how to utilize medical imaging technology to amplify and interpret the killer's brain activity.
Was blind but now I see…
But as Dr. Harding learns, there are some things that mankind was never meant to understand. Chief among them, the true nature of evil.

My Thoughts:

 

F9 is a new novella by Michael McBride. Mass murders are on the rise all over, but especially in Colorado according to research by Dr. Ellis Randall Harding. He is determined to talk to a surviving perpetrator of an event that happened years ago.

 

"His name was Niall Lester Davenport and on December 12, 1968, he walked into a crowded ski lodge in Breckenridge, Colorado, wearing a white ski suit and balaclava and opened fire with a twelve-gauge pump-action Remington shotgun. Nine people were killed. Another twenty-two received various degrees of medical treatment. Eyewitness accounts couldn’t agree as to how many times he stopped to reload, but all of them concurred when it came to the fact that not only had he taken his time, he had hummed the entire while. I simply called him Subject F-Zero, or FØ. (Location 29-33)

 

The trouble is that Davenport has lapsed into a vegetative state and he is completely unresponsive to outside stimuli. Dr. Harding has a theory that he wants to test: is geography, something in the actual physical location of the front range in Colorado, some how responsible for producing mass murderers?

 

McBride has Harding introduce himself to us and his theory:

"My name is Dr. Ellis Randall Harding M.D. and I’m a neurologist. I also completed an additional neuroradiology fellowship, which allows me to interpret, if not formally diagnose, CT—computed tomography—and MR—magnetic resonance—medical imaging scans. I’ve spent the majority of my adult life and the entirety of my professional career researching the unique phenomenon I’ve coined the “Mile High Syndrome,” or, more formally, Acute High-Altitude Neuropathic Dissociation. (Location 81-84)"

 

Dr. Harding was himself a victim of a school shooting incident in 1994, which fuels his desire to find an answer.

"I found myself gazing into the abyss from beneath a table in Norlin Library on the University of Colorado campus in Boulder, Colorado, on September 26, 1994. I’m sure you remember the date. Definitely not one anyone around here is likely to forget anytime soon. (Location 123-124)"

While he utilizes magnetic imaging to unlock the secrets hidden in Davenport's brain, Dr. Harding's research may uncover facts he didn't know existed and set into motion actions he can't control.

 

In F9, McBride has written a fast-paced, satisfying, extremely well written novella. It's material of this quality that makes me a fan of short stories. (Perhaps a collection could be released someday?)

 

 I very highly recommend F9.

 

Disclosure: My Kindle edition was courtesy of DarkFuse via Netgalley for review purposes.

 

The New Flesh

The New Flesh by Keith Deininger
DarkFuse, 5/21/2013

paperback, 260 pages

ISBN-13: 9781937771775

 http://www.keithdeininger.com/the-new-flesh.html

Description:

When Jake, a shy fourth grader, starts a fire in the woods behind his school that gets away from him, he's punished and forgiven. But his life is never the same. Three years after the incident, the dreams begin. Dreams of flames and a strange creature Jake calls The Melting Man. Waiting and watching with an insidious grin, it lures him deeper and deeper into his darkest fears, and closer to an otherworld of fire and torment. And then, Jake begins to see The Melting Man wherever he goes.

Come with me, Jake...Come and see...

As his dreams bleed into waking life, Jake realizes he's being dragged toward a very real apocalypse, and that The Melting Man's powers are growing stronger. Asleep, awake, or trapped between the two, Jake must fight to understand not only who and what The Melting Man is and what the dreams mean, but how this creature and Jake's mysterious family legacy ties into a disturbing, violent and enigmatic film associated with his father, a failed screenwriter.

But there may be no way to stop what has already begun...because this is a new nightmare...a new terror...a new Flesh...

My Thoughts: 

The New Flesh by Keith Deininger struck a wrong chord with me right at the start. I couldn't blithely accept the whole violent porn-film-making right at the start and didn't want to. The plot just kept going downhill for me. While it was setting up the horror part of the novel, I couldn't get beyond my initial disgust and it just got worse.  Although I normally only accept copies of novels I think I will appreciate, I am sorry but I can't recommended The New Flesh.

 

Disclosure: My Kindle edition was courtesy of DarkFuse via Netgalley for review purposes.

Salt Sugar Fat

Salt Sugar Fat by Michael Moss 

Random House, 2/26/2013
Hardcover, 480 pages

ISBN-13: 9781400069804

http://michaelmossbooks.com/

Description:

From a Pulitzer Prize–winning investigative reporter at The New York Times comes the explosive story of the rise of the processed food industry and its link to the emerging obesity epidemic. Michael Moss reveals how companies use salt, sugar, and fat to addict us and, more important, how we can fight back.
 
In the spring of 1999 the heads of the world’s largest processed food companies—from Coca-Cola to Nabisco—gathered at Pillsbury headquarters in Minneapolis for a secret meeting. On the agenda: the emerging epidemic of obesity, and what to do about it.
 
Increasingly, the salt-, sugar-, and fat-laden foods these companies produced were being linked to obesity, and a concerned Kraft executive took the stage to issue a warning: There would be a day of reckoning unless changes were made. This executive then launched into a damning PowerPoint presentation—114 slides in all—making the case that processed food companies could not afford to sit by, idle, as children grew sick and class-action lawyers lurked. To deny the problem, he said, is to court disaster.
 
When he was done, the most powerful person in the room—the CEO of General Mills—stood up to speak, clearly annoyed. And by the time he sat down, the meeting was over....
 
In Salt Sugar Fat, Pulitzer Prize–winning investigative reporter Michael Moss shows how we got here. Featuring examples from some of the most recognizable (and profitable) companies and brands of the last half century—including Kraft, Coca-Cola, Lunchables, Kellogg, Nestlé, Oreos, Cargill, Capri Sun, and many more—Moss’s explosive, empowering narrative is grounded in meticulous, often eye-opening research.
 

My Thoughts:

 

Salt Sugar Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us is by Michael Moss, a Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times journalist. While Salt Sugar Fat may seem like a nutritional guide, it really is a look at the history of the convenience food industry and their use of sugar, salt and fat in their products. Moss takes us inside companies like General Foods, Kellogg, Coca-Cola, Kraft, and Nestle, and shows us the development of some famous products. From the lab research to the marketing campaigns, Moss delves into what the food giants do to entice us not only to try their products, but to crave them and  keep coming back for more.

 

Part of this requires finding the bliss point for the food. Moss writes: "For all ingredients in food and drink, there is an optimum concentration at which the sensory pleasure is maximal. This optimum level is called the bliss point. The bliss point is a powerful phenomenon and dictates what we eat and drink more than we realize. The only real challenge for companies when it comes to the bliss point is ensuring that their products hit this sweet spot dead on. (Location 515-518)."

 

Of course it is sugar, salt, and fat that people enjoy and the food giants would not have products without these key tastes. Combine the bliss point in the convenience foods with clever marketing campaigns and it's no wonder people are deceived by what the labels really indicate. It is not the presence of sugar, salt, and fat in foods, but the large quantities found in convenience foods that may end up spurring a national debate on health.  Diabetes, high blood pressure, and obesity are all linked to the highly processed foods and their phenomenal amounts of sugar, salt, and fat.

 

Yes, we all knowingly buy the soda, chips, cookies, and cheese that may be undermining our health. One of the questions may be at what point are the food companies responsible for the unhealthy amounts of the sugar, salt, and fat in the things we are buying? Aren't we responsible for our own choices? But aren't they also responsible on some level for the deceptive advertising on products? Or the marketing of these products to children? I think these questions have actually been asked for years with no satisfactory answers.

 

While I'm not going into specifics, I see enough examples of unhealthy lunches being provided to children by parents who, I truly believe, think they are providing a healthier lunch than what the schools could provide. The sugary drinks, convenience yogurts, snack packs, prepackaged meals, sugary processed fruits....  While I can't hold the food giants responsible for parental choice, I can't help but wonder if these highly processed foods teeming with salt, sugar and fat were not available wouldn't these kids be taking a healthier lunch? Of course, looking at the other side, these foods normally do ensure that the child will be eating some lunch. Obviously, I'm not going to solve the questions here, and we all need to accept the fact that the food giants will not be giving up these three key ingredients.

 

In the epilogue Moss writes: "It had taken me three and a half years of prying into the food industry’s operations to come to terms with the full range of institutional forces that compel even the best companies to churn out foods that undermine a healthy diet. Most critical, of course, is the deep dependence the industry has on salt, sugar, and fat. Almost every one of the hundreds of people I interviewed in the course of writing this book—bench chemists, nutrition scientists, behavioral biologists, food technicians, marketing executives, package designers, chief executives, lobbyists—made the point that companies won’t be giving these three up, in any real way, without a major fight. Salt, sugar, and fat are the foundation of processed food, and the overriding question the companies have in determining the formulations of their products is how much they need of each to achieve the maximum allure. (Location 5662-5668)"

 

Will this book change me? It may certainly make me more intentional in the grocery store. All of the processed convenience foods were originally imagined as occasional fare rather than a staple or all inclusive part of our diet. Salt Sugar Fat may be part of the clarion call that sends more people back to preparing most meals from scratch. However, I think even Moss would admit that to expect people to give up all convenience foods will likely not happen, and in the end he doesn't provide any answers to the problem.

 

Very Highly Recommended

 

Disclosure: My Kindle edition was courtesy of Random House via Netgalley for review purposes.

And When She Was Good

And When She Was Good by Laura Lippman

HarperCollins, 6/4/2013
Trade Paperback,  314 pages

ISBN-13: 9780062197733 

http://lauralippman.net/and-when-she-was-good/

Description:

In the comfortable suburb where Heloise Lewis lives, she's just a mom, the youngish widow with a forgettable job who somehow never misses a soccer game or a school play. In the state capitol, she's the redheaded lobbyist with a good cause and a mediocre track record.
But in discreet hotel rooms throughout the area, she's the woman of your dreams—if you can afford her hourly fee.
But now, after a decade, her secret life is under siege. Her once oblivious accountant is asking loaded questions. Her longtime protector is hinting at new dangers. Her employees can't be trusted. One county over, another so-called suburban madam has been found dead in her car, a suicide. Or is it? And then she learns that her son's father, a killer and former pimp, might be released from prison. With no formal education, no real family, and no friends, Heloise has to remake her life—again. Disappearing will be the easy part. The trick will be living long enough to start a new life.

My Thoughts:

 

In Laura Lippman's And When She Was Good Heloise Lewis, aka Helen, is, from all appearances, a single mother and successful lobbyist for the Women's Full Employment Network living in Turner's Grove, Maryland. Only a select number of people know that in reality she is a suburban madam. Heloise keeps her personal life and privacy carefully guarded while she tries to run her successful business and raise her son.

 

Heloise grew up as Helen Lewis, the daughter of an abusive father and submissive mother. When her father told her that her looks were forgettable (and later beat her), she took it to heart and now, as an adult, she tries to blend in, and avoid arousing anyone's suspicions. While she blames her father for the path her life took and her lack of education, they are the result of Heloise's own poor choices. But Heloise is intelligent and resourceful, as she manages to build up a successful business behind a legitimate business facade.

 

The chapters alternate between the current day Heloise and Helen from earlier times. As Heloise struggles with her current problems, we slowly learn what took place in her life as Helen and how her actions and decisions back then are encroaching on her life today. Heloise wants to live a quiet life with her son, Scott, but circumstances are looking more and more like someone wants her dead - and it could be Scott's father, a man who knows nothing about his son. Most people think Heloise is a widow, but Scott's father is alive and well - and in prison.

 

The suspense slowly builds as more and more of Heloise's past is revealed and the reader begins to suspect the problems that may arise in her present situation. While it's no real surprise who the bad guys are in this novel, it is a pleasure reading to find out what is going to happen next. In deference to Lippman's considerable talent and writing ability, I'll admit I read And When She Was Good quite quickly because I was simply unable to put it down. 

 

I did struggle with an inability to be completely accepting of Helen's feelings that she was trapped in her life's choices. I just kept saying in my mind that her problems were a result of her poor choices. Yes her father was an abusive jerk, but he didn't force her down the path she chose. And, while I agree that in the sex and porn industry that the women are someone's daughter, neighbor, mother, sister, it should be noted that the men who objectify and take advantage of the woman are a large part of the problem. It is a hot topic that merits debate way beyond the scope of a novel.

 

Highly Recommended

 

Excerpt

 

 

 

Laura Lippman is the author of eleven novels featuring Baltimore private detective Tess Monaghan, seven stand-alone novels, and a short story collection. Her six most recent books have all been New York Times bestsellers. Lippman has won numerous literary prizes for her work, including the Edgar®, Anthony, Nero Wolfe, Agatha, Gumshoe, Barry, and Macavity Awards. A recent recipient of the first-ever Mayor's Prize, she lives in Baltimore, Maryland, with her husband, David Simon; their daughter; and her stepson.

 

Disclosure: I received an advanced reading copy of this book from the publisher and TLC for review purposes. 

The Land of Decoration

The Land of Decoration by Grace McCleen 

Picador, 3/5/2013
Trade Paperback, 320 pages

ISBN-13: 9781250024077
http://www.gracemccleen.com/

 

Description:

Judith and her father don’t have much—their house is full of dusty relics, reminders of the mother she’s never known. But Judith sees the world with the clear Eyes of Faith, and where others might see rubbish, Judith sees possibility. Bullied at school, she finds solace in making a model of the Promised Land—little people made from pipe cleaners, a sliver of moon, luminous stars, and a mirror sea—a world of wonder that Judith calls the Land of Decoration. Perhaps, she thinks, if she makes it snow indoors (using shaving cream and cotton balls and Scotch tape) there will be no school on Monday. Sure enough, when Judith opens her curtains the next day, the world beyond her window has turned white. She has performed her first miracle. And that’s when her troubles begin.
With its intensely taut storytelling and gorgeous prose, The Land of Decoration is a breathtaking story of good and evil, belief and doubt.

My Thoughts:

 

In The Land of Decoration by Grace McCleen a ten year old girl, Judith, creates everything in her land of decoration from bits of scraps and rubbish. The book opens with Judith creating her land following the creation story from the book of Genesis. Judith's mother died after her birth, leaving her stern father to raise her alone. She and her father read the Bible daily and belong to a religious group that is sure Armageddon is coming soon and requires them to go door to door proselytizing others.

 

Her father works at the mill, while Judith attends the local school where she is bullied daily. After she is inspired by a visiting preacher, Judith is convinced that she is able to perform miracles when she makes it snow in her land of decoration and then a freakishly early, hard snow storm occurs in real life. She also is convinced that she is hearing God's voice. When the workers at the mill go on strike mill and her father becomes a scab, the teasing and tormenting of the family escalates, putting both Judith and her father into a crisis of faith. (Not that it matters to the story but Judith and her father are probably Jehovah’s Witnesses.)

 

This is a difficult novel to assign a rating. First, I had to force myself to keep reading at the beginning of The Land of Decoration. It just wasn't flowing for me or capturing my attention in any way. It did, eventually, but I couldn't help but think that if the prose had been tightened up, if the action picked up a bit quicker it might have been more engaging right away. I guess there were several other tough parts of the book for me. I struggled with Judith's inability to talk to her father. Her miracles and conversations with God left me wondering if she was schizophrenic.

 

Recommended, but a rather disconcerting book

 

Excerpt

 

Disclosure: My Kindle edition was courtesy of Picador via Netgalley for review purposes.

Glass House 51

Glass House 51 by John Hampel

Bzff Books, 3/17/2013
paperback, 432 pages
ISBN-13: 978-0962799228

 

Description:

Glass House 51 is the insanely amazing adventure—or misadventure—of a lifetime, of one Richard Clayborne, a hard-charging young marketing maverick at gigantic AlphaBanc's San Francisco branch.
Hyper-ambitious Richard has been offered an intriguing assignment: Get online via NEXSX and make e-time with the lovely, brilliant (and doomed) Chicagoan Christin Darrow. All to set a trap for the reclusive—and very deadly—computer genius, Norman Dunne, aka the Gnome.
Three lovely young women dead in the streets of Chicago. And the Gnome, a former AlphaBanc employee, is the main suspect. But there just might be another AlphaBanc agenda in the works. . . .
Little does clueless Richard know what is in store: a tangled, twisted—and very treacherous—journey through the AlphaBanc underground, but by the time he realizes it, he's in too deep to get out.

My Thoughts:

When John Hampel wrote Glass House 51 his goal was an updated version of 1984. What makes his take on the future so chilling now, is the current controversy on exactly how much personal information the government is collecting on all of us. In Glass House 51 the giant banking corporation AlphaBanc is collecting, storing, and using all kinds of information about their employees - and many other citizens. Richard Clayborne is an employee on the fast track to the inner echelon of  AlphaBanc. But what exactly are the plans these power-hungry men (and woman) have and does Richard really want to be a part of these plans? And have they revealed their true reasons for wanting to catch the Gnome, a coding genius?

 

I had to chuckle at Hampel's description of the programmers AlphaBanc seeks:

“But seriously, it is the ones who fail to show up for the interviews, those who favor long hair down to their shoulders—or are shaved completely bald—and wear the same wretched plaid lumberjack shirt for weeks on end because they are positively glued to their workstations, those are the ones we seek out.” (Location 1277-1279)

 

Take note of the following quote:

“Well then the world we live in now is totally crazy—and really frightening,” said Clayborne. “Is that the trade-off today? Personal freedom, the right to privacy, sacrificed for our fight against terrorism?”

“Right now it is. I have to admit that even I was kind of freaked out about the, uh, incredible surveillance technology out there, but now,” the Epenguin yawned, “I guess I’m just resigned to it..." (Location 1708-1711)

 

The absolute most chilling thing about Glass House 51 and AlphaBanc is the news while reading it. The NSA's collecting information on average citizens, the IRS targeting citizens, the complicity of technology companies in granting them access to collect information, the new X-box requiring a camera which is potentially always watching and listening ... Good golly! It is well on it's way to the new 1984 in John Hampel's Glass House 51. That's maybe all I want to say because this book review is probably already being flagged for my mention of the NSA... twice.

 

highly recommended

 

Disclosure: My Kindle edition was courtesy of Bzff Books via Netgalley for review purposes.