Classics Corner: The House of The Spirits by Isabel Allende; A Grand Epic Magical Realism Novel About Three Generations of a Chilean Family

Classics Corner: The House of The Spirits by Isabel Allende; A Grand Epic Magical Realism Novel About Three Generations of a Chilean Family

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews




Spoilers: I am becoming quite a fan of Magical Realism so much that it is my favorite subgenre in Fantasy.
Magical Realism is when fantastic events happen in a real world setting. It could be in history or in present day but it is a realistic setting. However something magical happens that suddenly makes it not so real. Perhaps a fantasy character like a fairy appears or some characters have supernatural abilities.
Many Central and South American authors practically own this genre with many names such as Gabriel Garcia Marquez (Colombia), Paulo Coelho (Brazil), and Isabel Allende (Chile) coming from these countries. Their books demonstrate how the magic is joined with the mundane.
The key isn't necessarily the magical elements but it's how they relate to the mundanities of the rest of the plot. Most of the time they are considered a regular element even a part of the novel's history and culture.Sometimes the magical elements are simply treated as a non-event or just one of those things.

Isabel Allende's House of the Spirits is a perfect example of a magical realistic novel in which some characters are endowed with unusual qualities and fantastic situations but they also have to live in a real world of political upheavals, domestic violence, unhappy marriages, and abject poverty.
The most fantastic elements of Allende's epic novel occur in the lives of two Chilean sisters: Rosa “The Beautiful” and Clara “The Clairvoyant” del Valle. The interest in their magical uniqueness is actually downplayed to where other characters remark on them but no more than they would if say a character was extraordinarily gifted in math and science or a beautiful girl is noticed for her striking good looks. Their odd qualities are interesting but not considered outlandish or otherworldly to others. They are just accepted as a part of them.
Rosa has natural green hair thereby proving the possibility that her mother's family might be descended from mermaids. Oh well, they say, it makes her more beautiful but other than that so what? Clara is highly clairvoyant, has an uncanny success rate of predicting the future, and talks to spirits. Some may find it weird but most people come to her with questions about family members or the results of the next election. The magical elements blend in so well with the realism that the Reader begins to accept the idea that they might be a part of daily Chilean life.

Besides their magical abilities, the two sisters become well developed characters in their relationships with others particularly with Esteban Trueba, a former laborer with plans to move ahead in life as the owner of Tres Marias, a country estate. At first he is engaged to Rosa but when she dies, he goes to seek his fortune only to return to marry Clara. (just as she predicted.)
Esteban and Clara's marriage is a study in contrast and displays the complexities of Magical Realism in which the two elements may exist but it is not always a peaceful coexistence. Clara represents the magical and Esteban represents the realism.
Clara dresses all in white and lives mostly within herself. She reads Tarot Cards and participates in Spiritualism conversations with ghosts through table rapping and befriending mediums. She spends most of her days writing detailed notebooks about her life, interpreting her dreams, seeing the future, and living in a separate existence apart from her family particularly her cruel and at times abusive husband. Even after she gives birth to three children, they are often left in the care of servants, Clara's far seeing grandmother, or Esteban's prim sister while Clara participates in her Spiritualism activities. Occasionally she takes an interest in the physical world around her such as when a massive earthquake kills or incapacitates several members of her family and she assumes her role as the lady of the estate. However she always returns to her secretive spiritual world, the world that she prefers to the natural world of an unhappy marriage, constant strife and conflict, and threats from various revolutionaries.

While Clara exists in the supernatural world, Esteban prefers to make his home in the physical world around him. He is concerned with getting more money and bringing progress to Tres Marias even if it means exploiting his workers to do so. He is also at the center of various political conflicts in the novel. A Conservative Senator, Esteban becomes a symbol of the decadence and cruelty of the upper class. He becomes the target of various revolutionaries particularly Labor Unions, Socialists, and Militarists all who would love to make Esteban and his family an example of their treatment towards their enemies.
The conflict between Esteban's realism vs. Clara's magic makes their marriage a deeply troubled one as Clara ignores her husband most of the time and Esteban either yells at or strikes his wife to get her to obey him.

Esteban and Clara's divergent world views are also carried over into their children particularly their daughter, Blanca and granddaughter, Alba. Blanca inherits her father's involvement in politics, but she also has some of her mother's precognitive abilities allowing her to visualize a better world and become something of an idealist. This idealism puts her at odds with her father as she is committed to help the poor and befriends and eventually becomes lovers with Pedro Tercero Garcia, the son of Tres Maria's foreman. Her father forces her into an unhappy marriage with an obnoxious count with a rapacious sexual appetite. She eventually leaves him and returns to her parents becoming the target of her father's anger but her mother's affection.
Even after Clara dies, the Trueba's connections to the magical supernatural world continue as Blanca's daughter, Alba, not only inherits Clara's precognition but also Rosa’s green hair. She also possess a unique ability that no one else in her family has: the ability to soften Esteban as he bonds with his granddaughter while still estranged from his daughter.

The irony is that the most seemingly magical member of the Trueba family, Alba, is also the one who is the most involved in the real world around her. She attends Socialist rallies and is involved with a young activist who ends up on the run. When Chile is taken over by a military junta, Alba is imprisoned and tortured by a soldier whose advances she once spurned and who also happens to be Esteban's illegitimate son with Pedro Tercero Garcia’s aunt.
Both Alba and Blanca use their home as a temporary stopping place for refugees to escape the junta. This creates a clever play on words and a fascinating amalgam of the magical and mundane because the Trueba family home was once considered a home to many of Clara's supernatural spirits that she communicated with now becomes a temporary home to physical spirits, or people who are planning to escape the tyrannical government.

Isabel Allende's House of the Spirits does a terrific job of balancing Magic and Realism making this a perfect example of the genre. It shows what a great fantasy novel can do.

Classics Corner: A Winter's Tale by Mark Helprin; A Disappointing and Overly Long Fantasy Romance

Classics Corner: A Winter's Tale by Mark Helprin; A Disappointing and Overly Long Fantasy Romance

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews




Spoilers: I feel like someone's mother when I say, “I am very disappointed in you, A Winter's Tale!”

The truth is I wanted to like it. I really did. I heard the plot and realized that it was a modern fantasy set in 19th New York City. How could I not like it?

Well let me count the ways.

1. Spotty characterization- Many of Mark Helprin's characters only show brief glimmers of being interesting characters but are mired by a convoluted plot in which bizarre things just sort of happen to them with no reason and with no change in character whatsoever. While the protagonist, Peter Lake has a very interesting back story (He was left adrift by his immigrant parents when they were denied entry in the U.S. because they carried consumption. He was then found by a group of Baymen, people who lived in settlements by the water, who raise him in a communal environment. He was then trained as a builder and engineer before stumbling onto a life of crime as a burglar), there are only vague attempts at making him anything beyond a sketch. He has some sweet romantic moments with Beverly Penn, a dying heiress, and when he travels to the Future he actually shows something of culture shock/PTSD of being out of his element. However through most of the book, he is the same dull flat character who doesn't change much even when the world around him does.
Peter is only slightly more interesting than the other characters around him. His love interest, Beverly Penn is presumed to be the love of his life when they only met and became involved for a few days. While she shows some brief signs of intelligence and empathy particularly as she studies the stars, most of the time she comes across as a spoiled brat. When Peter doesn't agree to her terms, she screams at him until he does. Her behavior left this Reader irritated and wondering if she was trying to milk sympathy out of her lover than thinking “Gee, I hope this woman gets her final wishes granted.”
Some villainous characters are there to….well be villainous with no discernible reason. Actually most of the characters have no discernible reason for what they do which leads to my next point….

...2. Unexplained Magical Elements-I don't usually mind ambiguity in a book. It can be very useful and provides the Reader with some interesting analysis and critical thinking when it's done correctly. It however is not so in A Winter's Tale.
When writing a fantasy, an author must be well practiced at world building even in a real world setting. The author must make a conscious effort to create reasons why the magic exists or do it in a way that weaves the magic alongside the mundanities of every day life. (See my review of House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende for a better example of such writing.) But A Winter's Tale never achieves that.
A white horse appears at the beginning and rescues Peter on several occasions and leads him to the Penn home. Is he a spirit guide? We don't know. Is he a guardian angel? We don't know. Is he Silver to Peter's Lone Ranger? We don't know. Helprin fails to mentions it.
When Peter passes through some sort barrier and travels from 1899 New York to 1999, no explanation is given to the barrier nor why Peter is the only one who seems to have crossed it (or why It's even important that he needed to.)

3. Ridiculous Plot Contrivances-If the Fantasy elements weren't bad enough the real world plot elements are much worse. While it may be interesting for Peter to encounter maybe one old friend or enemy or descendant of the same in 1999, it is rather ridiculous for him to have encountered several. Nor is there any explanation given for their sudden longevity, particularly when some of them were several decades older than him in 1899.
While it was okay for Peter to be involved with one woman and maintain a fatherly interest in a young girl in 1899, was it really necessary for him to develop another romance with another woman and maintain a fatherly interest in another young girl in 1999?(The only difference was the girl in the former was Beverly's younger sister while the latter was the daughter of Virginia, the second love interest) Not to mention that the two love interests have a tentative connection to each other.

4. Obvious Padding-A Winter's Tale is one monster of a book and that's not necessarily a good thing. There are plenty of sections that could use a good trim.
The biggest offender is after Peter goes through the barrier and the Reader is given a whole section devoted to some superfluous secondary characters before briefly returning to Peter's story late in the following section.
It might have been interesting to introduce these new characters in a few chapters but not whole sections that last several hundred pages and especially not to characters that are extremely tedious, dull, and have no major bearing on the plot.

5. Anticlimactic Ending-The book just kind of ends with no real purpose. Oh there is some tension particularly as a massive fire hits Manhattan. One thing Helprin gets right is that his writing shows how much he loves New York City. Many sections lovingly describe the streets and boroughs in a way that reads almost like a love letter to the city. Knowing that it is rather heartbreaking to read about the city he loves so much reduced to cinders and ash.
But after the fire, there really is nowhere to go. The Reader prepares for a final battle between Peter and his surprisingly immortal enemy but one never comes. Plots are left unresolved and characters disappear in ways that are ridiculously hand waved.

Unlike many of the other books I disliked this year, I had high expectations for A Winter's Tale But to be let down so much by this book when I had such high expectations, makes it one of the worst books I read this year.

Weekly Reader: Other Kingdoms by Richard Matheson; A Brilliant But Slightly Flawed Fantasy About Witches, Fairies, and WWI.

Weekly Reader: Other Kingdoms by Richard Matheson; A Brilliant But Slightly Flawed Fantasy About Witches, Fairies, and WWI.

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews




Spoilers: Richard Matheson's Other Kingdoms could go down in that legendary file marked “Modern Fairy Tale” in which characters encounter fairies, magic, and other situations in the 20th and 21st century. Luckily, he does so in a book that is clever and brilliant but with some flaws that keep it from being a perfect retelling.

Much of the cleverness lies in its protagonist. Alex White AKA Arthur Black, a popular author in his 80’s, retells his past of when he was an 18-year-old WWI vet. Many times he comments on his past actions with a self-aware wryness and wit such as when he calls his younger self an idiot for doing certain things. Alex also is found of complimenting his own writing by referring to a particularly poetic quote as “worthy of Arthur Black.”

One particular moment that displays Alex (and Matheson's) clever narrative is that he at first refuses to go into too many gory details about trench warfare by saying “it's too horrifying” and that he “will tell (The Reader) later.” When later comes and he graphically describes the death of a fellow soldier, Harold Lightfoot complete with intestines blown out of his body and rats scurrying from the approaching bombs, Alex then adds “I told you it would be horrifying.”

The self-awareness of the genre also continues when Alex moves to Gatford, England, Lightfoot's childhood home. (Alex, an American, has nothing to go back to except an abusive widowed father whom he dubs “Capt. Arthur Bradford White USN” or sometimes “You Know Who.”) At first he is confused by the superstitious locals who warn him of fairies which he mocks. It is only when he encounters the fairies for the first time that he realizes that they have reasons to be superstitious.


Far from being a stereotypical Fairy Tale, Matheson turns the genre on its head by making the Fairy Tale stock characters more relatable and interesting than most of the human characters except Alex. He is warned at first away from “The Witch in the Woods” but when he encounters, Magda Variel, he sees a kind beautiful woman who is in mourning for her late husband and son. She also explains that she is a Wiccan telling him about the nature based religion (earning this Wiccan's gratitude). Finding her to be beautiful yet troubled and her magical practice to be fascinating and not scary, the much younger Alex engages in an affair with the middle-aged Magda. (Leaving the older Alex to be both proud of his younger self for getting lucky with an older woman and appalled because he knows what is to come.)

Matheson is also brilliant in reconstructing the Fairies making them very developed and somehow...human. Alex encounters Ruthanna, a lovely Fairy and falls in love with her. He is warned by everyone including Magda that the fairies are shape shifters and mischief makers who will use any trick to lure a human because it amuses them. So when he encounters Ruthanna, he and the Reader, are on guard for any mischief.

Instead Ruthanna reveals herself to be a complex misunderstood being who genuinely falls in love with Alex at first sight. She and the others of her kind explain that many of their tricks such as shape shifting are survival instincts to avoid the human race that have been known to hunt the Fair Folk down to potential extinction.

Matheson's complex writing is particularly noticeable when Magda and Ruthanna both confront Alex. They both say they can be trusted and the other is lying. Alex (and the Reader) are not sure who to trust. All of thee stereotypes surrounding them have been challenged so who is right and who is wrong? It becomes a well-written dilemma as Alex is uncertain so Magda makes the decision for him.

Unfortunately, Magda's decision leads to the book's huge glaring flaw. Once it is made, Alex joins Ruthanna in her Fairy World. There are many beautiful moments as the two explore the world together and Alex learns about Fairy culture from her Uncle Garal. (He also learns the late Harold Lightfoot was her brother who died fighting for a human country in which he felt a deep connection). Their romance would be complete if not for Magda.

Once Alex gets involved with Ruthanna, Magda just kind of disappears. In her final confrontation with Alex, she reveals some graphic secrets that the Reader never learns if they were true or just a blatant attempt to push Alex away because she is angry with him. The book never tells us and she fades into the background becoming an afterthought. For a character to begin so brilliantly realized to have such an anticlimactic resolution is wrong somehow.

However Alex and Ruthanna's romance is solid and is movingly felt even long afterwords when Alex becomes exiled from the Fairy World after a confrontation with Ruthanna's bad tempered kinsman.

Despite the lack of resolution with Magda, the book is an excellent modern fairy tale that gives compelling characters, plenty of magic, and an ending that may not be happily ever after but for Alex White and Ruthanna might be as close as they are going to get.

Best of the Best: Favorite Books Read in 2018

2018 was a great year for reading. I read some very memorable books. I have compiled my favorites of the books that I reviewed.
Now only a few books were actually published in 2018. Most were written long before then. I am just counting them as books I read this year.
I also chose a book each month from my categories. Some have two books from the same category. So you don't get confused the categories are:

Weekly Reader-Books that have been published since 2000. They aren't always new. In fact most aren't.
Classics Corner- Books that were published from 1999 on down.
Forgotten Favorites- Books that could have been published anytime but I feel could use more recognition. Either they are out of print or unnoticed by the general public.
New Book /New Author Alert-These are books that have been published in 2018 and most were requested reviews by the author or publisher.
Lit List- A list of books sorted by category according to subject.

I must also mention that while I am trying to keep spoilers to a minimum, I can't make any promises so I warn you there may be spoilers dead ahead.
I hope you enjoy this list. What are some of your favorites read this year? Do you have any reading suggestions for 2019? Please let me here or on Facebook. Happy New Year and as always Happy Reading.

January

Weekly Reader: Brida by Paulo Coelho-While Paulo Coelho's The Alchemist gets the lion's share of the attention, his book, Brida should not be missed either.
This magical mystical journey of self-discovery is about an Irishwoman who trains to be a witch. The book is filled with moments in which Brida uses magic in everyday situations such as visualizing the contents of a store window or experiencing messages from her Tarot cards during a dull conversation. Brida is also involved in a love triangle that is refreshingly understated that allows the Characters act like mature adults instead of lovestruck teenagers leading the resolution to be a natural one that brings out the best in all participants.

Classics Corner: The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood-Certainly among the most controversial and challenged books in the past couple of years, The Handmaid's Tale is a landmark in post-modern feminist literature.
The world in which Offred, the titular handmaid lives is intentionally frightening and uncomfortable as women are stripped of all rights and reduced to being the property of their male commander and the commander's wives.
Through it all Offred is an intriguing character as she rebels in covert ways such as getting favors from her Commander and remembering her life before the events. It is a good reminder of what women have to fight for and to continue fighting so this world never becomes a reality.

Forgotten Favorites: Second Best by David Cook- This touching father-son story is brimming with well developed characters and moving moments.
The relationship between Graham Holt, a middle-aged postmaster and Jamie Lennards, his potential adopted son is very real as the two take tentative steps towards becoming a family.
 The Reader experiences the past traumas from their previous relationships (Graham's parents had little time for him and Jamie longs to be with his imprisoned father) without feeling like it's overdone or manipulative. Because of the natural way the two become closer, it is a genuine heartfelt moment when they finally accept one another as father and son.

Lit List (Best Self-Help Books) The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change by Stephen R. Covey- This self-help classic combines both spiritual and practical advice on how Readers can use this advice on how to be better people in their professional and personal lives.
Covey uses practical techniques such as Becoming A True Leader (as compared to being a Manager) and Practicing Listening Skills to improve relationships to others. He also asks the Reader to dig deeper into their inner selves to review the kind of person that they are and want to be. Nowhere is this more present than the exercise in which he asks the Reader to imagine they are at their own funeral and what they want people to say about them.

February

Forgotten Favorites: Amethyst by Mary-Rose Hayes- This invigorating book is about female friendship and empowerment as well as prophecy. Four British women meet as schoolmates when Victoria Raven, an lord's eccentric daughter predicts success for the other three but that they will be one less in twenty years time.
The book develops the four women  as they achieve successes as a painter, fashion model, hotel magnate, and war correspondent and find romance with various men in their lives. Their journey from snobbish upper class women content to live lives of marriage and boredom to being fulfilled successful independent women is a mesmerizing one indeed.

Weekly Reader: The Sugar Queen by Sarah Addison Allen
This charming sweet tale about magic in a Southern small town goes down like fine candy. Josey Cirrini, an heiress finds Della Lee Baker, an abrasive waitress hiding out in her closet from her abusive boyfriend. Della Lee seeks to change Josey's life by helping her get together with the man of her dreams and introduces her to Chloe Finley, a. waitress with an unusual gift for books appearing when she needs them.
Josey, Della Lee, and Chloe make for a great trio as they inspire each other to maintain independence and fulfill their dreams. They also learn some interesting links that strengthen their bonds.

Lit List (Best Fiction For Black History Month): Temple of My Familiar by Alice Walker
This memorable book links several different people who try to explore their family roots as they learn not only about their own histories but the history of all people.
The characters are a diverse group from different walks of life from a college professor, to a rock star, to a seamstress and so on as they become linked in unusual ways. (One character runs off with another's mother, another moves to a boarding house run by another character etc.). They also research their families and find common links in their ancestry involving genocide and displacement.
The highlight is the history told by Miss Lissie, who recalls African history that she experienced it through previous incarnations. Her recall of running free on the old continent, being sold into slavery, becoming emancipated and so on are descriptive and bring a personal involvement to such important times in history.

Classics Corner: I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
Angelou's memoirs about her childhood is both heartbreaking and heartfelt.
She recalled her upbringing by her religious grandmother with full sensory description and clear affection for the wise stern woman who raised her. She also remembered the early inspirations to her brilliant literary career such as William Shakespeare (whom she described as her "first white love.")
Angelou also unflinchingly describes the racism and sexism she encountered throughout her life with heartbreaking realism. An encounter in which she was sexually assaulted by her mother's boyfriend is graphic as is a condescending speech that a white educator gives his black audience in which he states that they will never be good at anything but sports. Angelou's memoirs are heartbreaking but it is clear that they helped shape her into the woman that she became.

March

Forgotten Favorites: The Heroines by Eileen Favorite
 This book could be every book lover's dream or nightmare come to life. Anne Marie Entwhistle, a single mother runs a boarding house in which literary heroines appear for a bed, a cup of tea, and some R&R from their storylines.
Told by Anne Marie's precocious daughter, Penny, Favorite balances both her characters and other authors' making it a brilliant ensemble.
The Heroines are cleverly recaptured with all of their verbal tics and hang ups that they inherited from their books. They are often eloquent, confused and helpless in the face of their literary destinies. Anne Marie and Penny are also a memorable duo as Anne Marie welcomes and nurtures the Heroines and Penny goes through her growing pains such as fighting with her mother and falling in love...with a literary hero.

Weekly Reader: A Train in Winter: An Extraordinary Story of Women, Friendship, and Resistance in Occupied France by Caroline Moorehead
This book is a thrilling account of the various women who took part in the French Resistance against the Nazis during WWII. They ran the gamut from mothers, writers, scientists, and doctors all contributing their expertise to the greater cause of Freedom.
The book is filled with memorable heroes such as Danielle Casanova, a dentist who acted as a courier between various Resistance factions and who recruited others. It also has some genuine moments of suspense and tension as they were betrayed by non-Resistance members and sent to a concentration camp.
The final pages recount the accolades these women received as well as the physical and mental health issues they continued to have after the war ended showing that they indeed acted with great courage and sacrifice.

Classics Corner: Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
Woolf captured her stream of consciousness writing of analyzing her characters and giving them insight expertly in her book, Mrs. Dalloway.
Her two lead characters Clarissa Dalloway, a bored English housewife and Septimus Warren Smith, a depressed WWI vet are foils for each other sharing much of the same confusion and bitterness about their lives. When she hears of Septimus' suicide at her dinner party, Mrs. Dalloway really opens up as she realizes how false her life is and how miserable she had become.

Lit List (Best Non-Fiction For Women's History Month) Eighty Years and More by Elizabeth Cady Stanton/Failure is Impossible: Susan B. Anthony In Her Own Words by Lynn Sherr
These two biographies of the Suffrage giants captured their contrasting personalities and made them understandable and relatable.
Stanton's autobiography is a warm grandmotherly chat as she lovingly recalls the beginnings of the Suffrage movement, her childhood questions about women's rights, and her happy marriage to the supportive Henry Stanton. Anthony's book is a collection of her quotes about her life and are terse, succinct, and witty as she recalls her Quaker upbringing, her stunts to promote women's suffrage, and her unmarried status.
The books recall their commitment to women's rights and activism in as well as their co-leadership and friendship in which Stanton was the quiet writer and Anthony was the fiery orator. Together these books showed how their friendship comepleted each other and the movement.














 April   

Forgotten Favorites 1: The Bestseller by Olivia Goldsmith
This sharp witty book is a clever satire about the publishing industry as four authors aspire for their books to be published by the fictitious Dash &, Dash.
The authors are winning characters that range from Opal O'Neil who totes her late daughter's magnum opus around hoping that it will be read to Judith Gross, who pens a thriller that is stolen by her egocentric husband.
The authors and the staff of Dash & Dash are brilliantly dissected as they try to achieve lasting success in the literary world and will shamelessly turn on one another to get it.

Weekly Reader: Then We Came To The End by Joshua Ferris
This hilarious satire set in an ad agency skewers office workers and their internal politics and relationships to each other.
There are many farcical situations such as when a prankster duo pull an epic joke on a colleague. However the characters are instantly identifiable from the Gossip, to the Storyteller, to the Tough but Fair Boss. We all knew someone like them or maybe are someone like them.

Forgotten Favorites 2: Little Little by M.E. Kerr
 This cute YA novel is a unique teen love story between three little people.
Told in alternating chapters between Little Little La Belle, an heiress and Sydney Cinnamon, who works as an advertising mascot the book is filled with witty observations and memorable moments such as when the two recall when they first encountered other little people like them. The two are extremely likeable as they take giant steps towards friendship and romance.

Classics Corner: We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson
Jackson' most famous novel is a classic in the Horror Gothic genre and deservedly so. Narrated by Merricat Blackwood, one of a pair of eccentric sisters, the story is eerie as she recalls the deaths of various family members by poisoning leaving only her and her sister, Constance.
The two sisters are  memorably explored as Constance reveals her agoraphobia and Merricat displays her dark fantasies.  Their relationship comes to a head when a conniving male cousin is drawn into their home. Dark forebodings are abound as the Blackwood Sisters livelihood is threatened by this new arrival.

May

Weekly Reader: Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
This popular psychological thriller effectively captures the decline of a marriage.
Nick and Amy Elliot Dunne are an unhappily married couple whose lives change when Amy goes missing and Nick is declared prime suspect.
The narrative is brilliant as we get both Nick and Amy's points of view often giving contradictory information. The narratives are almost like a sporting match as the two challenge each other and the Reader's sympathies go back and forth. In the end, the bickering duo are given the most fitting of punishment: still married and stuck together until death.

Classics Corner: The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster
This clever juvenile fantasy is a veritable buffet of plays on words and numbers but is a smart allegory on the importance of learning.
Milo, a depressed young boy, receives a mysterious tollbooth in the mail and goes on a magical journey through the the world's of Dictionopolis, a city run by words and Digitopolis, a city of numbers. The book is filled with winning passages such as a place called Conclusions which can naturally be found by Jumping to it and a boy who is literally the .58 of his average family of 2.58 children. Besides the clever plays on language, Juster reminds us how important learning is by creating villains based on our own fears, despair, and ignorance.

June

Classics Corner: Imajica by Clive Barker
This is among the best books that I read this year. It is a vibrant imaginative almost hallucinatory journey through the Five Dominions, Five Parallel Universes including Earth. The parallel worlds are descriptive and filled with amazing detail such as sky that changed color, creatures with hands for heads, and a living city.
Imajica also has great characterization. An artist called Gentle, his ex-girlfriend Judith, and Pie'oh'pah a shapeshifting hired assassin travel through these worlds and discover deeper connections between themselves and the worlds. As they travel, the trio question their identities and whether they have free will or are manipulated by divine beings.

Weekly Reader: All the Single Ladies: Unmarried Women and the Rise of the Independent Nation by Rebecca Traister
 Traister's intelligent book is a ten year study of unmarried women and the changing perception that society has for them.
Traister counts many of the good things that single women have such as financial freedom, closer relationships with female friends, and independence in their livelihoods. She is also honest about the bad things single women experience such as discrimination, wage gaps, and loneliness. She celebrates single hood as something in which to be proud.

Classics Corner: Drawing Down The Moon: Witches, Druids, Goddess-Worshippers and Other Pagans in America by Margot Adler
This book is the definitive account of Paganism. Margot Adler wrote a fascinating account of the spiritual movement as she deconstructs the so-called Pagan Myth that many believed and acknowledges the legacy from the original founders of Wicca such as Gerald Gardner, Doreen Valiente, and Raymond Buckland.
Adler also reveals the many branches of Paganism including Wicca and its many forms, Asateru, Church of All Worlds and the Discordians to show how different these branches are from each other. She also offers the changing image of the individual Pagan who are anything from off the grid hippies, to eccentric computer programmers, to conservative military members, to just about everything else in between.

Forgotten Favorites: The Boy Detective Fails by Joe Meno
This book is a clever, hilarious, and heartbreaking look at the life of a former boy detective based on Encyclopedia Brown.
Billy Argo comes out of a ten year institutionalization to try to rebuild his life and discover why his sister, Caroline committed suicide. Meno peppers his book with clever references to the kid detective genre such as characters based on Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys. It also reveals some dark themes such as when Billy encounters a graphic scene that led to his sister's death and he realizes some mysteries are better left unsolved.

Weekly Reader: The Witch of Portobello by Paulo Coelho
A spiritual successor to Coelho's Brida, this book explores a woman's involvement in Paganism and Goddess Worship to the point that she becomes a leader of the movement.
Told by various other characters, Athena Khalil's life is contradictory, mysterious, and enigmatic and that what makes her fascinating to some and baffling to others. The book is filled with passages in which Athena leads dancing sessions and meditation courses in which people are connected to a higher feminine power called Haigha Sophia.
The alternating viewpoints portray Athena as a savior, leader, manipulator, fraud, or a cult leader. She is whatever the people see her.

August

Classics Corner: Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil
This classic of literary non-fiction uses literary tools like setting, character, and theme to recount the true story of the shooting of 21 year old hustler Danny Hansford by his presumed lover antiques dealer Jim Williams. The Savannah, Georgia setting is detailed down to the last building filled with eccentric characters that are so desperate to keep their past that they are unwilling to let big businesses move in.
The book is filled with memorable characters that are almost too weird to be true. Besides Williams and Hansford there is the defense attorney who practically worships the University of Georgia football team, Lady Chablis a saucy drag performer who was dubbed "The Grand Empress of Savannah," and Minerva, a Voodoo priestess who helps Williams communicates with Hansford from beyond among plenty of others.

Weekly Reader: Dog Sees God: Confessions of a Teenage Blockhead by Bert V. Royal
This play is an angst filled journey into the teen years of the Peanuts gang.  It explores real world issues such as suicide, sexuality, mental illness, drugs, and a search for ones identity.
After the death of CB's (Charlie Brown) dog (Snoopy),  he explores the concept of death with his sister (Sally), and his friends the bully Matt (Pigpen), party girls Tricia and Marcie (Peppermint Patty and Marcy), shy pianist Beethoven (Schroeder) with whom CB forms a relationship, pothead Van (Linus), and his institutionalized sister (Lucy). The transformation of the friends into darker and angrier characters many of whom are enemies rather than friends is heartbreaking and ultimately cathartic as after a tragedy occurs CB receives answers to his questions from his Pen Pal (who is aptly named CS).

September

Banned Books Special: The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
This moving book is a strong one about childhood friendships and how they change when adulthood and international conflicts occur.
Amir, a wealthy Afghan boy and Hassan, the son of his family's servant are best friends until an incident in which Hassan is raped. This incident and the Soviet-Afghanistan conflicts cause them to separate and Amir's family to emigrate to America.
The final chapters are particularly gripping and mournful as Amir returns to Afghanistan and sees his former country as a shell of its former self. He also confronts his former guilt in a way that is hopeful and tragic at the same time.

Weekly Reader 1: Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
This is another of my favorite books that I read this year. Six stories are connected throughout time from 1840 to a post-Apocalyptic future like one long stream throughout time.
The protagonists in the stories are a memorable bunch from Robert Frobisher, a bisexual composer to Luisa Rey, an investigative journalist and Somni 451, a cloned fast food worker among others. The parallel situations in these stories and their links to each other are brilliant aspects to remind us about the legacy we leave behind.

Weekly Reader 2: Hidden Figures: The American Dream and The Untold Story of The Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped The U.S. Win The Space Race
By Margot Lee Shetterley
This inspirational biography is about the West Langley Computers a group of African American female mathematicians who computed Alan Shepherd and John Glenn's flights into space and Neil Armstrong's flight to the moon.
The book focuses on the struggles experienced by three women in particular Dorothy Vaughan, Mary Jackson, and Katharine Johnson. Challenged because of their race and sex, they computed figures,  researched astronomical travel, published works, and made suggestions on space travel that became beneficial for the space program. Without the work of the brilliant trailblazers, it is unlikely that Americans would have ever made it out of earth's hemisphere let alone into space.

Forgotten Favorites: Very Special People: The Triumphs, Loves, and Struggles by Human Oddities by Frederick Drimmer
This unique biography tells the stories of human oddities, people with physical abnormalities that often worked in sideshows.
Various people are mentioned from Charles Sherwood Stratton a Little Person who went by the stage name of General Tom Thumb Jr., Joseph Carey Merrick the infamous Elephant Man and Violet and Daisy Hilton, conjoined twins sisters. The stories don't just dwell on their abnormalities but also their relationships, careers often in the sideshows, rejections from many around them, and their triumphs as they became noted for their performances and hidden talents.

New Author/Book Alert World Shaken: Guardians of the Zodiac by J.J. Excelsior
A new voice in Science Fiction/Fantasy, J.J. Excelsior takes the Reader on a mesmerizing through the Solar System as each celestial body is affected by a natural or sociopolitical disaster. The planets' only hope are the Guardians of the Zodiac: 12 men and women who lead their planets.
The characterization is sharp as the Guardians are hardly perfect beings but instead filled with insecurities, anxieties, pride and other issues that prevent them from functioning as a team. Excelsior also is an excerpt at matching the corresponding character with their sign. For example Namur the Highest Aquarius is humanitarian with his concern for his people but he is also independent in that he turns down the Guardians request stating that why should he join a group that can't get along.

October

Weekly Reader: Six Women of Salem: The Untold Story of the Accused and Their Accusers by Marilynne K. Roach
This is one of the definitive accounts of The Salem Witch Trials. Roach personalizes the well-known events by focusing on six specific women including Tituba, a slave who was the first person accused, Rebecca Nurse, a religious woman who was also accused, and Anne Putnam Sr. whose family made most of the accusations.
Roach's writing recounts the horror not only for the historical accuracy but also by using literary techniques such as getting into their thoughts to show how these tough times affected the specific individual rather than the whole community.

Forgotten Favorites: The Lamplighter by Anthony O'Neill
This psychological thriller asks some pretty provocative questions about dreams and reality.
A serial killer is on the loose in 19th century Edinburgh and it is connected to Evelyn Todd, a mysterious young woman who dreams of the murders each night. The pages are filled with genuine terror such as when the killer transforms into a thing of nightmares and when Evelyn, under hypnosis reveals a past in which she was abused and tortured. The book takes a metaphysical slant as Evelyn's nightmares consume to where she can't tell fantasy from reality.

Classics Corner: The Witching Hour by Anne Rice
Anne Rice's real masterpiece is a grand historical epic about 13 generations of the Mayfairs, a family of witches.
After she saves the life of Michael Curry, Dr. Rowan Mayfair, receives word to visit her estranged family in New Orleans. As Rowan finds her place with the eccentric Mayfairs, we learn about their history going back to 17th century France. Rice does an admirable job of not only telling different historical eras with great detail but characterizes the Mayfair Family particularly the Witches, thirteen members with magical abilities. They stand out as individuals as well as are tied by familial bonds.

New Book Alert: Stories of the Vale: Path of the Dragonfly by Kathy Ann Trueman
Trueman's book is a great addition to the epic fantasy genre. Stories of the Vale is rich in deep characterization as Shak, a former soldier must take two children to a place called The Vale so they can reunite with their families.
There are plenty of passages describing magic, dragons, and elves. But what really makes this book stand out is the four main characters, Shak, the children Falin and Celia, and the antagonist Lord Sefal. Their interactions with each other, motivations, and transformations the journey brings makes them stand out as real characters and not just fantasy tropes.

November

Classics Corner: The Vicious Circle: Mystery and Crime Stories by Members of the Algonquin Round Table
These mystery stories are perfect for any student of early 20th century American literature.
The witty brilliant Algonquins skewer the mystery genre with parodies of drawing room mysteries and hardboiled detective stories. They also create memorable narrators as they capture various speech patterns and storytelling techniques. They also write about characters who do terrible things but with a sharp wit and engaging outlook that makes the Reader understand and even root for them.

New Book Alert: Resurrecting Cybele by Jenifer Mohammed
Mohammed's book is a sharp and brilliant satire of the dangers of cults and when it's leaders obtain a God delusion.
Cybele, a graduate student and Janus, a counselor want to create a religious following for the Phrygian goddess, Cybele. While Cybele wants to truly help lead people to embrace their inner goddess, Janus is more concerned with the monetary gain and how to manipulate the people around him. Mohammed's writing is both hilarious such as when the two compare life to their favorite science fiction TV shows and dark when their divergent leadership styles clash leading to a dramatic confrontation.

Weekly Reader: The 13 Original Clan Mothers by Jamie Sams
The meditations and stories in this book help the Reader embrace the Sacred Feminine as 13 Goddess figures represent various aspects in women's lives from Walks Tall Woman, an athlete to Wisdom Keeper, a scholar.
Each figure is given a beautifully descriptive story in which the Sacred Mother has a problem and has to rely on her connections to animal spirits and unique abilities to solve them. Readers will hopefully find these stories enlightening and uplifting as well as find solutions to their own problems.

Forgotten Favorites: The Fairy Rebel by Lynne Reid Banks
This enchanting juvenile reads like a modern fairy tale. Tiki a young blue jean wearing fairy helps a childless English couple by creating a daughter. This action plus her subsequent involvement in the girl's life puts her in danger with the tyrannical fairy queen.
Banks filled her whimsical book with wonderful details about the Fairies and their world. Everything from the food they eat like sugar eggs, to their slang terms like Earthed touching a human, and their gifts like various magical presents that Tiki gives the couple's daughter fill this book. Banks has a great imagination to create that world.

December

New Book Alert: Trailer Trash: An '80's Memoir by Angie Cavallari
Cavallari's hilarious Memoir tells of her youth growing up in a trailer park in Tampa, Florida during the 1980's.
Her work is filled with references from that time from music videos, movies, shows, and fashion trends bringing that time alive for those of us who lived through it. She also describes the trailer park and its residents in a very clever manner such as providing a glossary of Trailer Park terms such as TPD (Tampa Police Department who get called every night.)

Classics Corner 1: The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus by L. Frank Baum
This holiday reading tradition of mine is a beautiful story of Santa Claus's origins and could be considered a Pagan holiday story.
The story builds on the Santa Mythos by explaining away various aspects like why he made toys because he saw the plight of children so he wanted them to hold onto their childlike innocence. Baum's work is also filled with vatiouv concepts that are synonymous with Pagan beliefs. Claus is aided by various nature spirits particularly The Great Ak and Queen Outline, a God and Goddess who co-rule world their world. When Claus becomes the gift giver we know and love, he is like various mythological heros who have to die or surrender their old selves to be reincarnated into a higher power.

Weekly Reader: Marley's Ghost by Mark Osmun
Osmun's book tells the hard life and magical post-deatg story of Jacob Marley, partner and friend to Ebenezer Scrooge.
Marley's youth and adulthood is marred with many of the problems found in many Dickens novels like the hard graphic conditions of the coal mines and the greedy and corrupt businessmen who profit of others miseries. The highlight of the book is the Afterlife as Marley tows his thick heavy chains through a barren wasteland where he meets three familiar spirits.

Classics Corner 2: The House of The Spirits by Isabel Allende
Allende's masterpiece is a classic of magical realism.
Two unusual Chilean sisters become involved with Esteban Trueba, a laborer turned landowner as  Clara, the younger sister a clairvoyant marries Esteban. The book is filled with magical touches such as Clara's sister, Rose and granddaughter, Alba having natural green hair or that Clara holds frequent seances to communicate with spirits. Magic is also mixed with real world events such as domestic violence, infidelity, and particularly political upheaval as revolutionaries transform Chile from a democracy to a military junta.