A Brief History of Seven Killings

A Brief History of Seven Killings Marlon James 4/5	Published 2014 First Sentence "Listen. Dead people never stop talking."
Publisher's Description: From the acclaimed author of The Book of Night Women comes a masterfully written novel that explores the attempted assassination of Bob Marley in the late 1970s. On December 3, 1976, just before the Jamaican general election and two days before Bob Marley was to play the Smile Jamaica Concert, gunmen stormed his house, machine guns blazing. The attack nearly killed the Reggae superstar, his wife, and his manager, and injured several others. Marley would go on to perform at the free concert on December 5, but he left the country the next day, not to return for two years. Deftly spanning decades and continents and peopled with a wide range of characters—assassins, journalists, drug dealers, and even ghosts—A Brief History of Seven Killings is the fictional exploration of that dangerous and unstable time and its bloody aftermath, from the streets and slums of Kingston in the 70s, to the crack wars in 80s New York, to a radically altered Jamaica in the 90s. Brilliantly inventive and stunningly ambitious, this novel is a revealing modern epic that will secure Marlon James’ place among the great literary talents of his generation.
Dear Reader, -What the bombocloth this is? -A review of this book called "A Brief History of Seven Killings" -What kinda batty boy business is dat? -I can assure you, I'm not a batty boy. Although, before reading this book I would have had no idea what that even meant. -Who the r'asscloth-you-talking-to? -The readers, they want to know how the book was and if they should read it. -Tell dem is no business of dem. This too big for you. -Excuse me? Too big? Now THAT is a challenge, haha. -Brethren, who the r'asscloth going care, eh? -Trust me, people will. Now leave and let me get down to it. Now where was I? Oh yes, the book. Wow, what a giant doorstop filled with an entire world I hardly knew existed. I was scooped right up into the tropical paradise of the ghetto, a great vacation spot. To be honest with you, no review I can do will ever do justice to this book. This must be experienced first hand, you'll have to struggle with the patios just like I did. Surprisingly enough, the first half was my favorite, the second part brought me out of the experience (when everything moved to NY). This would have been a five star read for me if it stayed native and felt closer to that feeling the first half of the book was chock full of. I'm not going to lie to you, this book is NOT easy... you will struggle BUT this struggle is completely worth the pay out. This book will probably be dropped by many who don't feel like wasting time with immersing themselves in the world/language... and as understandable as that is, it also saddens me. Those of you... will be missing out. So without spoiling things or attempting to review a book that is beyond words for me, I'll leave it up to you. Don't be a bombocloth, try it... you might like it. Happy Reading, AmberBug P.S. - This book is also a contender for the Tournament of Books this year.

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& Sons

& Sons David Gilbert 4 / 5	Published 2013 First Sentence "Once upon a time, the moon had a moon."
Publisher's Description: The funeral of Charles Henry Topping on Manhattan’s Upper East Side would have been a minor affair (his two-hundred-word obit in The New York Times notwithstanding) but for the presence of one particular mourner: the notoriously reclusive author A. N. Dyer, whose novel Ampersand stands as a classic of American teenage angst. But as Andrew Newbold Dyer delivers the eulogy for his oldest friend, he suffers a breakdown over the life he’s led and the people he’s hurt and the novel that will forever endure as his legacy. He must gather his three sons for the first time in many years—before it’s too late. So begins a wild, transformative, heartbreaking week, as witnessed by Philip Topping, who, like his late father, finds himself caught up in the swirl of the Dyer family. First there’s son Richard, a struggling screenwriter and father, returning from self-imposed exile in California. In the middle lingers Jamie, settled in Brooklyn after his twenty-year mission of making documentaries about human suffering. And last is Andy, the half brother whose mysterious birth tore the Dyers apart seventeen years ago, now in New York on spring break, determined to lose his virginity before returning to the prestigious New England boarding school that inspired Ampersand. But only when the real purpose of this reunion comes to light do these sons realize just how much is at stake, not only for their father but for themselves and three generations of their family.
Dear Reader, I was surprised to like this book as much as I did. I received it quite a while ago as a First Reads from Goodreads, but kept never getting around to it. On a whim, I picked up the audiobook of the title instead, and because I seem to be able to read audiobooks with a lot more regularity these days than regular books (listening while walking the dog & doing chores helps with this!), I had much more success getting into it. The story was something of a meta-novel, where the novel itself revolved largely around the 1960s publication of a Catcher in the Rye-type book - by which I mean it had achieved the same sort of success, and A.N. Dyer was still being read as required reading in high schools 50 years later. It certainly felt to me as if Dyer was intentionally supposed to be a fictional Salinger. Which was fascinating, because it meant we got to glimpse what Salinger's life might have been like, particularly if he'd fathered three sons. It was interesting to see how people treated Dyer and his family because of this fame - it's certainly a different flavor of celebrity than that of a movie star, but it retains its own cachet. As well as its own sort of fan base. I have to say I wasn't particularly fond of how the narrator was omniscient; it made the telling of all angles of the story somewhat awkward at times. While being a tenuous family friend (with a bit of a heavy-handed obsession with Dyer), Philip managed to insinuate himself into quite a bit of the story. I felt as if this was an odd choice of narrative technique, but it did allow the reader access to various parts which a normal first-person narrative would not have. Why the author chose to go with that rather than a third-person perspective, I don't know. It was a bold if possibly unnecessary choice. There was a big twist to the book, too, which I don't want to discuss too much, but it was pretty refreshing and a clever, very unique idea. It made the reader think a lot about the possibility and its implications. Arg, that isn't helping much. All I will say is that it made reading the book worthwhile; it is "revealed" rather early, but makes the rest of the story so much more intriguing. Yours, Arianna

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Tell the Wolves I'm Home

Tell the Wolves I'm Home Carol Rifka Brunt 4 / 5	Published 2012 First Sentence "My sister, Greta, and I were having our portrait painted by our uncle Finn that afternoon because he knew he was dying."
Publisher's Description: In this striking literary debut, Carol Rifka Brunt unfolds a moving story of love, grief, and renewal as two lonely people become the unlikeliest of friends and find that sometimes you don’t know you’ve lost someone until you’ve found them. 1987. There’s only one person who has ever truly understood fourteen-year-old June Elbus, and that’s her uncle, the renowned painter Finn Weiss. Shy at school and distant from her older sister, June can only be herself in Finn’s company; he is her godfather, confidant, and best friend. So when he dies, far too young, of a mysterious illness her mother can barely speak about, June’s world is turned upside down. But Finn’s death brings a surprise acquaintance into June’s life - someone who will help her to heal and to question what she thinks she knows about Finn, her family, and even her own heart. At Finn’s funeral, June notices a strange man lingering just beyond the crowd. A few days later, she receives a package in the mail. Inside is a beautiful teapot she recognizes from Finn’s apartment and a note from Toby, the stranger, asking for an opportunity to meet. As the two begin to spend time together, June realizes she’s not the only one who misses Finn, and if she can bring herself to trust this unexpected friend, he just might be the one she needs the most. An emotionally charged coming-of-age novel, Tell the Wolves I’m Home is a tender story of love lost and found, an unforgettable portrait of the way compassion can make us whole again.
Dear Reader, This book has been on my list for ages, and I'm not sure exactly why I picked it up when I did, but I am glad to have finally read it. It is a memorable story about a young girl's relationship with her recently deceased uncle. It takes place in the '80s and she loses him in the early years of the AIDS epidemic. So while June wrestles with her own emotions and reactions to this great loss - her uncle was one of her best friends - she must also grow through adolescence, trying to figure out who she is in relation to her family, her friends, her social life, and the greater world. All of this is complicated by the presence of her uncle's boyfriend Toby, who has been shunned by the family as Uncle Finn's murderer, having passed on the AIDS virus before anyone really knew that was a thing about which to be wary. Toby reaches out to June because they both loved her uncle in a special way, and the two form a rather unlikely (and very covert) bond. June's parents are CPAs, which keeps them extremely busy during tax season, and she is able to leave her upstate NY town regularly to visit Toby in the city, where the two share small adventures and bond over their mutual loss. But as June becomes closer and closer to Toby, she is losing her connection to her family, particularly the strong friendship she used to share with her older sister. This story has so many complexities which make it a really beautiful one. I have heard June compared to Scout from TKAM, and it is an understandable parallel: both young girls have very narrow world views which lead them to draw simple connections in their heads to explain their environments. When their worlds are burst open, everything changes - the transition from black and white to color, essentially. I definitely look forward to seeing more from Brunt, if this first novel is any indication! Yours, Arianna

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We Are Not Ourselves

We Are Not Ourselves Matthew Thomas 3.5 / 5	Published 2014 First Sentence "His father was watching the line in the water."
Publisher's Description: Born in 1941, Eileen Tumulty is raised by her Irish immigrant parents in Woodside, Queens, in an apartment where the mood swings between heartbreak and hilarity, depending on whether guests are over and how much alcohol has been consumed. When Eileen meets Ed Leary, a scientist whose bearing is nothing like those of the men she grew up with, she thinks she’s found the perfect partner to deliver her to the cosmopolitan world she longs to inhabit. They marry, and Eileen quickly discovers Ed doesn’t aspire to the same, ever bigger, stakes in the American Dream. Eileen encourages her husband to want more: a better job, better friends, a better house, but as years pass it becomes clear that his growing reluctance is part of a deeper psychological shift. An inescapable darkness enters their lives, and Eileen and Ed and their son Connell try desperately to hold together a semblance of the reality they have known, and to preserve, against long odds, an idea they have cherished of the future. Through the Learys, novelist Matthew Thomas charts the story of the American Century, particularly the promise of domestic bliss and economic prosperity that captured hearts and minds after WWII. The result is a riveting and affecting work of art; one that reminds us that life is more than a tally of victories and defeats, that we live to love and be loved, and that we should tell each other so before the moment slips away.  Epic in scope, heroic in character, masterful in prose, We Are Not Ourselves heralds the arrival of a major new talent in contemporary fiction.
Dear Reader, This book was...good but not excellent, not life-changing or world-revealing or anything. Just a good, solid family history. Some tough but important parts about Alzheimer's. It was interesting how the story began from Eileen’s POV way early, but perhaps the author needed to explain why she became a nurse, how her life turned out as it did, and why she had such aspirations for her son. The theme of the book seemed very generational. It was very much story-based rather than point-based. This was the story of Eileen and her legacy, and that was pretty much it. No lessons to be learned (except maybe to love what you have while you still have it) and no real takeaway, although it is also a story I know I will remember for quite a while.  This book recalled to me something more along the lines of an Irving or Franzen novel, with its sweeping storylines that didn’t focus too tightly on any one time of anyone’s life for too long. I enjoy those books, but I never know what I am taking away from them. It feels often to me more like I am a voyeur in someone else’s life than I am learning from the experience of standing in their shoes for a while. I think I prefer the latter sorts of books, for the most part. But the author wrote his characters' inner thoughts and motivations beautifully and so effortlessly, which I think won my heart in the long run. Mare Winningham narrated the audiobook, surprisingly! That was a nice bonus, and I think her voice fit Eileen’s story and personality really well. Excellent casting. Overall, I think I would recommend this book, but I doubt I could vocalize why. I think it was a worthwhile way to spend my reading time, is all I can say.  Yours, Arianna P.S. I also really do love the cover art...the way it throws suburbia and "the American Dream" on its side, literally - much like the book! (I originally thought it was a Ferris wheel, and now can't stop seeing that, though...)

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BEA 2015 - Books to Check Out

This year Book Expo America has a TON of books that look interesting.

This is just a few of the many good books coming out this Fall.

1. Armada by Ernest Cline

2. Girl Waits With Gun by Amy Stewart

3. City on Fire by Garth Risk Hallberg

4. Cleopatra's Shadows by Emily Holleman

5. You're Never Weird on the Internet (Almost) by Felicia Day

6. The Lost Landscape by Joyce Carol Oates

7. The Last Pilot by Benjamin Johncock

8. Listful Thinking by Paula Rizzo

9. Why Not Me? by Mindy Kaling

10. Purity by Jonathan Franzen

11. Seveneves by Neal Stephenson

12. 100 Years of the Best American Short Stories by Lorrie Moore & Heidi Pitlor


Are you coming to BEA? Maybe we'll bump into you! What books are you looking forward to grabbing?

A Little Life

A Little Life Hanya Yanagihara 5/5	Published March 10th, 2015 First Sentence "The eleventh apartment had only one closet, but it did have a sliding glass door that opened onto a small balcony, from which he could see a man sitting across the way, outdoors in only a T-shirt and shorts even though it was October, smoking."
Publisher's Description: Brace yourself for the most astonishing, challenging, upsetting, and profoundly moving book in many a season. An epic about love and friendship in the twenty-first century that goes into some of the darkest places fiction has ever traveled and yet somehow improbably breaks through into the light. When four classmates from a small Massachusetts college move to New York to make their way, they're broke, adrift, and buoyed only by their friendship and ambition. There is kind, handsome Willem, an aspiring actor; JB, a quick-witted, sometimes cruel Brooklyn-born painter seeking entry to the art world; Malcolm, a frustrated architect at a prominent firm; and withdrawn, brilliant, enigmatic Jude, who serves as their center of gravity. Over the decades, their relationships deepen and darken, tinged by addiction, success, and pride. Yet their greatest challenge, each comes to realize, is Jude himself, by midlife a terrifyingly talented litigator yet an increasingly broken man, his mind and body scarred by an unspeakable childhood, and haunted by what he fears is a degree of trauma that he’ll not only be unable to overcome—but that will define his life forever. In rich and resplendent prose, Yanagihara has fashioned a tragic and transcendent hymn to brotherly love, a masterful depiction of heartbreak, and a dark examination of the tyranny of memory and the limits of human endurance.
Dear Reader, Is it too much to say this book is one of my all time favorites? Ever!? Well too bad! I'm going to stick by this statement. I haven't read a book that made me cry so hard in a LONG time. A Little Life is tragic, emotional, heartbreaking but beautiful, loving and warm at the same time. Right from the start, we are introduced to this close knit group of friends that intertwine in so many ways but all the lines end with Jude. Jude is the private, quiet but sentimental sweet one. He is also looked out for by the group due to a disability. You don't have to try very hard to love Jude, I guarantee you'll be as head over heals with him as I was within the second/third chapter. Not to say that all the other characters don't have as much to give, because they each have a great personality and story to tell. Malcolm; the ambitious architect, JB; the talented addicted artist, Willem; the theater boy turned famous actor, and Jude; the tortured lawyer. The list of amazing characters doesn't even end there though, we have Harold; the kind old man who mentors Jude and Adam; the overcaring doctor that tends to Jude at whatever day or time is needed. When I first read the description of this book, I have to admit I did an eye roll... ayep. I'm so OVER the friendship stories that span a lifetime, yes... they speak to me and I can relate to them BUT enough of them already! Boy, I was in for a treat. I had read Yanagihara's first book, "The People in the Trees" and really enjoyed it and if it wasn't for that, I probably would have missed out on this excellent piece of literature. I would like to kiss Yanagihara's feet for this book (and I HATE feet). Some parts of this book had that brilliance that we got to see in her first book, like when Harold drones on and on about law, but ultimately, this dribble of a speech is fascinating. Who would have thunk!? Yanagihara, thank you so much for coming into my life! I need more books, please! Let me gift you with a few glorious parts I had to save for later: "Fairness is for happy people, for people who have been lucky enough to have lived a life defined more by certainties than by ambiguities." "His persistent nostalgia depressed him, aged him, and yet he couldn't stop feeling that the most glorious years, the years when everything seemed drawn in fluorescents were gone. Everyone had been so much more entertaining then. What had happened?" "Relationships never provide you with everything. They provide you with some things... don't you see it's a trap? If you keep trying to find everything, you'll wind up with nothing." I think what brought me so close to this book and Jude is that I can completely relate to the way he deals with problems (no, not cutting). Those parts that describe memories like hyenas snapping and hungry, clawing at the door, wanting to break free. I know exactly what that is like, and being able to relate to that brought me very close to Jude. In no way is my life even close to being as messed up but I think anyone who knows what suppressing bad memories is like, will be able to relate to this character. Yanagihara can clearly paint a picture of someones life, I can only imagine she knows what suppressing bad memories feels like (there is no way she did it so clearly without that experience). I have SO much more to say but it would go beyond what is acceptable to talk about in a review. I want this book to be a little surprise to everyone... so before you read this, do what I did and roll your eyes and say, "not again!" Trust me, you'll be in for a big surprise! Happy Reading, AmberBug

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Adam

Adam Ariel Schrag 2/5	Published 2014 First Sentence "Adam stared up at the tree leading to Kelsey Winslow's bedroom window."
Publisher's Description: When Adam Freedman -- a skinny, awkward, inexperienced teenager from Piedmont, California -- goes to stay with his older sister Casey in New York City, he is hopeful that his life is about to change. And it sure does. It is the Summer of 2006. Gay marriage and transgender rights are in the air, and Casey has thrust herself into a wild lesbian subculture. Soon Adam is tagging along to underground clubs, where there are hot older women everywhere he turns. It takes some time for him to realize that many in this new crowd assume he is trans -- a boy who was born a girl. Why else would this baby-faced guy always be around? Then Adam meets Gillian, the girl of his dreams -- but she couldn't possibly be interested in him. Unless passing as a trans guy might actually work in his favor... Ariel Schrag's scathingly funny and poignant debut novel puts a fresh spin on questions of love, attraction, self-definition, and what it takes to be at home in your own skin.
Dear Reader, Gah! This book is so frustrating. I'm really mad at it. Maybe that was the point? Adam is a typical teen boy with no real knowledge of the world around him. He travels to NYC to stay with his college-age sister for the summer, during which time he becomes enlightened to the LGBT community. His sister, lesbian dating transgender, brings him to parties and introduces him to a whole new world. The potential to be something great was here, and the Author did a great job (in my opinion as a cis-female) giving a nice overview and facts surrounding what someone transgender has to go through. While the beginning of the book started impressing me, the lies start stacking up... and if there is one thing I hate more than anything is the kind of lies that can destroy someone. Adam stacked his lies SO high that you knew it would crumble before the end. I don't want to give much away but it's hard for me because the majority of my gripes come from that awful ending. I'm going to make this review very brief because of spoilers BUT I will say the message the Author was heading towards was extremely thoughtful and intriguing. However, the ending unraveled everything the Author worked towards in one fell swoop. The audacity to write something so well researched and informative but then wipe all that away with a terribly offensive ending, was heartbreaking. Maybe this is what makes the book controversial but I'd rather have not read it at all. I threw the book at the wall in anguish at how terrible this made me feel, I was angry at everything it represented and I guess that might be why I should have rated it higher, it made me feel something, right? I just can't get past it... For those of you who know the ending, I'd gladly discuss this in the comments (those who don't want spoilers, avoid the comments please). Happy Reading, AmberBug

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In One Person

In One Person John Irving 4/5	Published 2012 First Sentence "I'm going to begin by telling you about Miss Frost."
Publisher's Description: "His most daringly political, sexually transgressive, and moving novel in well over a decade" (Vanity Fair).   Winner of a 2013 Lambda Literary Award   A New York Times bestselling novel of desire, secrecy, and sexual identity, In One Person is a story of unfulfilled love—tormented, funny, and affecting—and an impassioned embrace of our sexual differences. Billy, the bisexual narrator and main character of In One Person, tells the tragicomic story (lasting more than half a century) of his life as a "sexual suspect," a phrase first used by John Irving in 1978 in his landmark novel of "terminal cases," The World According to Garp.
Dear Reader, John Irving has done it again! If you've read Irving before, you know what to expect and this didn't disappoint. Irving brings us a little closer to sexuality with this one, it's a little more "in your face" without hiding it within. He tells the story from the perspective of Billy, a bisexual growing up in Vermont during that time when sexuality was being questioned more than ever. Billy attends an all male school with a step father who teaches the drama class there. His Grandfather is a somewhat closeted cross-dresser (mostly cross-dressing in the Shakespeare plays the school puts on). All around him he has signs that his family is inclined to be somewhat "different" and during this time he starts figuring out his own bisexuality. Apparently, Irving has openly admitted to having crushes on his male schoolmates and this is where the idea of the book came from. I've always wondered what Irving's sexuality was like since he focuses his books on many controversial sexual related topics. He doesn't state outright that he is bisexual, he does live with his wife in one of his three homes of Toronto, Vermont and Pointe au Baril. I love that he writes what he knows and uses his own experiences in his books. He has a creative mind but the realistic characters come out so vividly, they must be modeled from people he has known. Getting back to the story, we follow Billy to New York City during the AIDS epidemic and this section of the book was extremely upsetting and sad. During the 80's, AIDS became so prevalent that sometimes you didn't know someone was LGBT until they started dying from the disease (THIS is when they would or had to come out of the closet). I can't imagine what it would have been like to have all your close friends dropping off like flies from this virus. The main character, Billy, even emotes how awful he feels when people ask if he is sick and he has to reply that he isn't. To feel guilt from not catching the virus, that thought amazed me but when I put myself in his shoes... I started to realize that I would have felt the same way. I think the title of this book is a reflection on how people can have more than "one" person inside of us. How one person can be so many things, why must we narrow it down? Why can't we love people for people and not for what gender they are. Why must we classify ourselves as female or male? Isn't it true that we have characteristics of both, how many times have you heard someone say that they are "Metro" or a "Tom Boy"? This is only a step or two from dressing a different way or trying out a different style. I'm happy we've come this far but this book just made me want to scream at how far we have to go. If you take away anything from this book... take this... Love people or don't love people but don't hate those who love people. Enough said! Happy Reading, AmberBug

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