Zo White and the Seven Morphs, by Barbara Silkstone

Zo White makes her living as an aerial acrobat, while seven men in morphsuits run around on the ground below her, acting as hypemen for the crowd of the Grimm Brothers Cirque.  When a tragic accident occurs during practice, it becomes clear that Zo is being targeted by a killer, and the Morphs decide to protect her.  This unlikely group gets involved in deadly situation including murder, drag queens, intrigue, turtles, mobsters, and some of the worst real estate ventures ever.  Who is behind all this deception, and more importantly, who are the men behind the morphsuits?

If you are looking for a fun read, a book that does not take itself too seriously, a story full of lighthearted comedy and heartwarming charm, then look no further.  Another book in the "Fractured Fairytales" series, this book is obviously a modern reimagining of the Snow White story.  But unlike with the Disneyfication of fairy tales, this version of Snow White is no wimp.  She is athletic, and crafty, and a total spitfire.  She would never waste her time merely singing with the birds, though she does spend quite a bit of time washing turtles.  I quite enjoyed Zo's character; she made me laugh at her antics, but more importantly, I rooted for her to have her own version of a happy ending.

Although the plot is humorous, it is also full of murder, mystery, and intrigue.  I find that, because of this, it is probably a lot closer to what fairy tales were originally intended to be.  This is obviously not a story for children, but really, neither were most of the original fairy tales.  I found the book to be quite witty, and I loved the subtle little references to many other fairy tales scattered throughout the book.  The book moves quickly, so readers need to stay on their toes.  At the end of the story, it will feel like you have been on a wild ride.  And like any ride, some will love it and some will hate it.  I went into this book looking for a flippant, slightly irreverent, funny alternative to the cookie cutter princess heroine.  And I think the book delivered just that.

I received a review copy courtesy of the author.

Gold, by Chris Cleave

Since they were teenagers, Kate and Zoe have always been in competition, both on and off the track.  As competitive cyclists, they have competed for spots on the national and international scale, and are now dealing with their final shot at Olympic gold.  Over they years, Kate has sacrificed winning for her personal life, while Zoe has sacrificed her social life for winning.  But, in the end, who will be the winner, both in the Olympics, and in life?

I sort of struggled with this book.  I found this to be a very timely read, as the 2012 Olympics are winding down.  I liked the timely nature of this book, and the Olympic aspect of the story.  And as far as stories go, this was a better than average story.  I liked walking into the story in the middle, then learning the backstory, before rocketing to the conclusion.  I enjoyed the structure, and found the writing to be solid.  I did somewhat struggle with the portions of the book dealing with a sick child.  It just made me a little uncomfortable, not only reading about this sick little girl, but reading it from her point of view.  It seemed a little confusing, and out of place.

In terms of the characters, I had an extraordinarily difficult time relating to, or being empathetic toward, Zoe as a character.  We hear so much about her difficult childhood, and her personal trauma, but I find her cold, and, in a word, unlikable.  I just really wanted to see her fail.  Her character caused a very strong reaction  Her character was my biggest problem with the whole book.  I just could not stand her, and I did not really want to read about her.

I think the only reason I enjoyed the book is much as I did is that it dealt with the current Olympic games.  But in some ways, I think the only kind of gold this book is, is fool's gold.

I received a review copy as part of the Amazon Vine program.

Following Atticus, by Tom Ryan

Tom Ryan lived a full, if not totally fulfilling, life as a reporter and newspaper man in Newburyport.  When an unwanted dog named Max enters his life, he opens himself up in a way he never imagined he could.  With Max's passing, Tom decides to adopt another dog, naming him Atticus M. Finch.  Never would he have imagined that Atticus would change his life in the ways that twenty pound bundle of fur did.  Over the course of several years, Tom and Atticus conquer hundreds of hikes of 4000 foot mountains, overcome sickness, raise money and awareness for good causes, and come to understand one of the purest forms of love ever.

I am always hesitant to read books about dogs.  As a dog owner and lover myself, I know that if these books foray into any kind of loss or sickness, I am going to be a blubbering mess, spending many hours hugging my dachshunds.  So, I was a little skittish about this book.  Never was I so happy that I took a chance on a book.  This book is, in a word, amazing.

First, I have to say that Tom is such an eloquent writer.  He is clearly a man of words, he admits that he loves literature, and it clearly comes through in his writing.  I think the reason Tom has been so successful at so many things (writing, hiking wild mountains, and a perfect relationship with Atticus) is because no matter what he does, he has intense respect.  He respects Atticus too much to try to write in the dog's voice.  He respects the mountains too much to forget their awesome power.  And he respects words too much to use them in a flippant or hyperbolic manner.  As a result, you have a book written with so much heart, so much earnest honesty, it seems improbable that any would not like it.  

I absolutely stand in awe of Tom and Atticus, not only for what they have achieved with hiking the 4000 footers, but just of their relationship in general.  There is no denying that this was a perfect match.  The story is so heartwarming and inspirational, I dare anyone to read this without being deeply touched.

The book focuses a lot of the time on the treks through the White Mountains, and describes the hikes in detail, so it will appeal to nature lovers, as well as fans of literary and poetry masters such as Thoreau, Wadsworth, and Longfellow.  One cannot read this book without feeling a bit of the adventure seep into his very being.  I only wish I had a great a command of language as Tom, to give this book adequate praise.

I received a review copy courtesy of TLC Book Tours.  See the rest of the tour here.

 

The Kissing List, by Stephanie Reents

Traveling through the rugged terrains of love and sex is never easy, but traveling these territories while trying to preserve friendships is even trickier.  We watch a group of women navigate relationships with various, and at times the same, men, as well as their relationships with each other.  These are their stories.

The idea behind this collection of short stories is that we follow a group of women through various stages of their lives (college, young adulthood, engagements, long distance romances, terminal illness, etc).  However, I found not a single of the females in the book to be well developed or the least bit memorable as characters.  I had difficulty remembering who was who, how they were related, and any previous stories in which she was involved.  In short, I found this book to be a hot mess.

I felt like the author tried to hard to be edgy.  She would use expletives, not to give a rhythm or cadence of realism to the dialogue, but to be shocking.  She had explicit and taboo sex scenes for the same reason.  The plot and dialogue of many of the stories felt flat and stilted.  Nothing intrigued me about any of these women or their stories.  Some of the stories were fairly well written, but all in all I just found myself incredibly disappointed.  Particularly because the summary featured on the jacket and on commercial website indicates the book to be a cohesive collection following 4 women through their romantic travails, much like Sex in the City.  What you get, instead, is a hot hot mess.

I received a review copy courtesy of the Amazon Vine program.

Brooklyn Zoo, by Darcy Lockman

After four years of doctoral coursework, Darcy Lockman completed a year long internship.  Her placement was at the Kings County Hospital, in Brooklyn.  Her assignment was building G, where several notorious patients have resided.  The hospital was under investigation, and it becomes quickly apparent to Lockman that the system is horribly flawed.

As someone trained in psychology and counseling, I thought this book was going to be so interesting, but I found myself horribly disappointed.  The book summary on commercial websites talks about "haunting" cases, and really hypes the book up to be a sort of expose to the horrors of Kings County Hospital.  And perhaps to someone unaware of the realities of the mental health system, that is what this book is.  But to me, this book sounds a lot like Lockman trying to justify her behavior and pass the blame for her bad experience on to the institution.  Sure, the system is overburdened, and sure, I am a little appalled that the supervisors provided no supervision, but we must remember that this is the reality as Lockman presents it, perhaps not reality as it actually was.

I found the writing to be really dry.  Any of the patient cases that were presented were done so in such an emotionless, removed way.  I feel that Lockman is full of contempt, for her supervisors, peers, and her patients, and that contempt drips from the page.  What I found most appalling was how unprepared she was for this internship.  After 4 years of doctoral work, she had never encountered treating someone with an addiction, never encountered a simple phobia, and barely knew the DSM criteria for diagnosis?!  I know she was training in psychoanalysis, but come one, these are pretty common and basic things here.  Things I covered at length in my own Masters program.  Things any doctoral program should cover in an Abnormal Psych class.  

I am also slightly squirmy that this memoir was ever written.  Sure, she does change identifying information regarding patients, but I think she still leaves to much in there, about staff and patients.  It would not be hard to connect the dots.  Nothing in this book serves to help the mental health community, to fix the clearly broken system, or to do any good.  It only serves for her to make a name for herself.  So, she is using the suffering of her patients for her own notoriety.  That seems counter-intuitive to the therapeutic ideal of "first do no harm".

I think, in short, the book is more telling about the flaws within the author that the flaws within the mental health system.

I received this book for review as part of the Amazon Vine program.

What Alice Forgot, by Liane Moriarty

Life can change in an instant, as Alice is about to find out.  One moment she is 29, pregnant with her first child, and madly in love with her husband Nick.  The next thing she knows, she is waking up on a gym floor, and nothing at all seems to be making sense.  She is surrounded by strangers, and the few people she does know look, well, odd.  It turns out Alice has suffered an accident at the gym that has wiped out the last ten years of her memory.  She is now 39.  She has forgotten her children, her sister's struggles with infertility, the death of her best friend, and shockingly enough the breakup of her marriage.  How did her life become this, and where does she go from here?

I have read many novels that have a plot involving amnesia or waking up in another life.  Of all these stories, this one is the best I have read.  I thought the story was poignant, and often felt myself slipping into melancholy while reading.  I just felt so sad for Alice, waking up in this life she was so sure she hated.  But she had gotten there somehow.  Haven't we all had moments where we wondered how our lives ended up the way they did?  This book allows us to reflect on the changes that can occur in a decade, and whether or not we realize that we have control over these changes.  

In addition to Alice's story, we catch glimpses of her sister Elizabeth, chasing motherhood with relentless force.  She has suffered many miscarriages, and gone through grueling rounds of fertility treatments and interventions.  She is chasing a dream.  So is Frannie, Alice and Elizabeth's pseudo grandmother, who spent her entire adult life chasing love that is impossible.  We see in these women a glimpse of what Alice may be headed for, a life full of regret and impossible dreams.

I feel like Alice is being given a second chance at a happy life, but her life seems so foreign to her.  The eventuality is that the memories of the past years will flood back, and it is up to Alice to determine how it will affect her decisions.  We all have that same ability to chose.  I was a little unhappy at the turn I thought the book was taking toward the end, but quite pleased with the final resolution.

I felt the female characters in the book were, for the most part, fascinating and vividly developed.  The only character I wished was fleshed out just a little more was Gina, the best friend of Alice who has died.  All in all, I found this a touching story, and think many fans of contemporary women's literature will appreciate the book.

This book is from my personal library.

Shadow Show, edited by Sam Weller and Mort Castle

Every now and then, an author comes along whose impact is tremendous, whose mark on the face of modern literature is indelible.  Such is the case with Ray Bradbury.  The name alone conjures up iconic images of post Apocalyptic book burnings and rocket ships.  Bradbury's genius touched many, including some writers who are brilliant in their own rights.  This book is a collection of short stories inspired by and celebrating the works of a truly incredible man.

Having not really spent much time with Bradbury's works (a pitiful situation I hope to change soon), I was a bit nervous to read this book.  Would it be all Martians and robots?  Would I fully appreciate the impact of the stories?  In short would I "get it"?  Imagine my surprise when I not only "got it" but felt the desire to immediately read everything Bradbury had ever written.  This book is brilliant, and I desperately want to learn more about the man who inspired such brilliance.

As with any short story collection, some stories were more my style than others.  In a book full of stories by well know writers, the two that stuck out to me were the book's opener, "The Man Who Forgot Ray Bradbury" by the incredible Neil Gaiman, and the beautifully melancholic "Children of the Bedtime Machine" by Robert McCammon.  Something about these two stories, in particular, struck at the very heart of my humanity, at the depths to which I love literature.  

There was not a single bad story in this book.  Bradbury recently passed away, but he knew this collection was being done, and even wrote a short introduction for it.  I cannot imagine the pride with which he is now looking down, seeing the lasting impact he will forever have on American Literature.  I am so thankful to have said yes to this book, and to have a newly sparked appreciation for a truly gifted writer.

I received a review copy courtesy of TLC Book Tours.  See the rest of the tour here.