The Handbook for Lightning Strike Survivors

The Handbook for Lightning Strike Survivors Michele Young-Stone 1.5/5	Published 2010 First Sentence "She was a girl like you, or like someone you knew - from a cracked home, a fault line between her parents, for which she felt responsible."
Publisher's Description: When lightning strikes, lives are changed.   BECCA  On a sunny day in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, eight-year-old Becca Burke was struck by lightning. No one believed her—not her philandering father or her drunk, love-sick mother—not even when her watch kept losing time and a spooky halo of light appeared overhead in photographs. Becca was struck again when she was sixteen. She survived, but over time she would learn that outsmarting lightning was the least of her concerns.   BUCKLEY  In rural Arkansas, Buckley R. Pitank’s world seemed plagued by disaster. Ashamed but protective of his obese mother, fearful of his scathing grandmother, and always running from bullies (including his pseudo-evangelical stepfather), he needed a miracle to set him free. At thirteen years old, Buckley witnessed a lightning strike that would change everything. Now an art student in New York City, Becca Burke is a gifted but tortured painter who strives to recapture the intensity of her lightning-strike memories on canvas. On the night of her first gallery opening, a stranger appears and is captivated by her art. Who is this odd young man with whom she shares a mysterious connection? When Buckley and Becca finally meet, neither is prepared for the charge of emotions—or for the perilous event that will bring them even closer to one another, and to the families they’ve been running from for as long as they can remember. Crackling with atmosphere and eccentric characters, The Handbook for Lightning Strike Survivors explores the magic of nature and the power of redemption in a novel as beautiful and unpredictable as lightning itself.
Dear Reader, This book was just trying too hard to be good, and it failed. I hate to say this, but I really wanted to like it (so cliche but true). It had all the makings of a good story, dysfunctional families, teen angst, lightning strike survivors! I mean, how can you go wrong. But wrong... it went. I think the best parts of the book had to be the in between chapters when we hear facts about lightning strikes and those who survive them. Funny thing is, these facts are from a fictional book that was written by one of the characters in this book, and the book SHARES the same title. Groan... I know. I'd like to tell you what this is about but I think the publishers description above basically tells you EVERYTHING that happens, which isn't much. I'd like to say that I could connect to the characters, but I didn't. Maybe this will be better for someone else but this was not for me. Try it if you like, but don't tell me I didn't warn you. Happy Reading, AmberBug

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The Invention of Wings

The Invention of Wings Sue Monk Kidd 4.5/5	Published January 2014 First Sentence "There was a time in Africa the people could fly."
Publisher's Description: Writing at the height of her narrative and imaginative gifts, Sue Monk Kidd presents a masterpiece of hope, daring, the quest for freedom, and the desire to have a voice in the world. Hetty "Handful” Grimke, an urban slave in early nineteenth century Charleston, yearns for life beyond the suffocating walls that enclose her within the wealthy Grimke household. The Grimke’s daughter, Sarah, has known from an early age she is meant to do something large in the world, but she is hemmed in by the limits imposed on women. Kidd’s sweeping novel is set in motion on Sarah’s eleventh birthday, when she is given ownership of ten year old Handful, who is to be her handmaid.We follow their remarkable journeys over the next thirty-five years, as both strive for a life of their own, dramatically shaping each other’s destinies and forming a complex relationship marked by guilt, defiance, estrangement and the uneasy ways of love. As the stories build to a riveting climax, Handful will endure loss and sorrow, finding courage and a sense of self in the process. Sarah will experience crushed hopes, betrayal, unrequited love, and ostracism before leaving Charleston to find her place alongside her fearless younger sister, Angelina, as one of the early pioneers in the abolition and women’s rights movements. Inspired by the historical figure of Sarah Grimke, Kidd goes beyond the record to flesh out the rich interior lives of all of her characters, both real and invented, including Handful’s cunning mother, Charlotte, who courts danger in her search for something better. This exquisitely written novel is a triumph of storytelling that looks with unswerving eyes at a devastating wound in American history, through women whose struggles for liberation, empowerment, and expression will leave no reader unmoved.
Dear Reader, Sue Monk Kidd really knows how to tell a beautiful and tragic story filled historical elements. The Invention of Wings is about so many things, mostly slavery and the abolition movement. The main characters are Sarah Grimke, who is born from a well-off family with many slaves, and Handful, the slave given to Sarah on her eleventh birthday. Sarah is a little different from her siblings because she has aspirations of becoming a Lawyer like her father and also has a distaste for owning slaves. When she is given a slave for her birthday, Handful, you start to notice how different she really is when she tries to free her slave but then is forced to hand her back when freeing her fails. The book goes back and forth between Sarah and Handful, giving the reader a view into both eyes. Sarah ends up going North to join the Quakers because of their abolitionist views of slavery. Handful gets left behind with Sarah's tough mother and her sister, Angelina, who also ends up siding with her sister and the abolition movement. Kidd really knows how to bring you back in time and gives you a glimpse into how it must feel to be a slave or to have lived with slaves. For example, she has this line that compares the sound of whipping sails on a ship to a slave being beaten, "The Sails would go off like whips cracking and all us would listen to see was it some slave getting flogged in a neighbor-yard or was it ships making ready to leave. You found out when the screams started up or not." How terrible is that, but eye opening. Sometimes you need to read terrible things, especially when they hold the key to changing things in the future. We can't run away from the past, we must embrace it so we learn how to keep it from happening again. I'm sure this is a quote from somewhere that I've regurgitated, but it tells the truth. Another part of the book I thought Kidd nailed was the idea that God and religion wanted people to own slaves. This brings up quite a large argument of how many people construe the bible to mean what they want. If something isn't clear and can have more than one meaning, should we take it to our hearts so quickly? I don't want to get into anything too much, because I have my own opinions on this but I thought it was important to bring up. We also get to see into the life of a slave because Kidd writes Handful's part with such thoughtfulness. Little but big details, like when Handful looks at the books left in Sarah's room and has this reaction, "I sat at her desk and turned one page after another, staring at what looked like bits and pieces of black lace laid cross the paper." How fantastic is that detail! I'm sure that's exactly what words on paper looks to some who's illiterate. I even like how words on paper look beautiful, even without the connotation, very mysterious and tempting to uncover the secrets hidden within. It's small details like this that make Sue Monk Kidd a great writer, and one to seek out. You might be thinking, this is another book on slavery and abolition... but this one is unique because Kidd did her research. She has taken two sisters from history, they actually existed, and plopped them into this beautifully written book. Sarah and Angelina were actual abolitionists who not only sparked the movement with pamphlets and talks, but also sparked the debate for equality among the sexes. What courage these two women had! What amazing people this Author picked to include in her story. I'll conclude this review with a picture of the Grimke girls and some of their famous quotes. Happy Reading, AmberBug P.S. - The one on the left is Sarah, the one on the right is Angelina.

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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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The 2014 Audiobook Challenge

Shelf Notes has decided to take the 2014 Audiobook Challenge hosted by 

The Book Nympho.

Check out the contest information below:

Our pledge will be 

• Stenographer (can listen while multi-tasking) 10-15

Three Bird Summer

Three Bird Summer Sarah St. Antoine 3.5 / 5	To Be Published May 13, 2014 First Sentences "Here's what I know about girls.  They like talking and combing their hair with their fingers, and they move in careful packs, like wolves."
Publisher's Description: For as long as he can remember, Adam and his parents have spent their summers at his grandmother’s rustic cabin on Three Bird Lake. But this year will be different. There will be no rowdy cousins running around tormenting Adam. There will be no Uncle John or Aunt Jean. And there'll be no Dad to fight with Mom. This year, the lake will belong just to Adam. But then Adam meets Alice, the girl next door, who seems to want to become friends. Alice looks just like the aloof, popular girls back home—what could he and she possibly have in common? Turns out, Alice isn't like the girls back home. She's frank, funny, and eager for adventure. And when Adam's grandma starts to leave strange notes in his room—notes that hint at a hidden treasure somewhere at the lake and a love from long ago—Alice is the one person he can rely on to help solve the mysteries of Three Bird Lake.
Dear Reader, This was a Netgalley offering which I selected because I thought it looked like it had promise as a good, relatable YA novel.  And it was!  Ultimately a very cute story about coming of age.  It was a quick, summery sort of read.  I think I would have enjoyed it more were I a pre-teen, but it definitely had its merits, and brought me back to those idyllic, endless summer days of my adolescence. The book's title is very apt: while it ostensibly refers to eponymous Three Bird Lake, where twelve-year-old Adam spends the summer before eighth grade, it also of course speaks of the three females with whom Adam interacts during this life-changing summer.  Used to a cabin filled with relatives and particularly rambunctious teenage boy cousins, this quiet summer is entirely new to Adam.  His parents have recently separated, which means that he is to spend his vacation with only his mother and his grandmother.  The third female doesn't come along right away, but she is perhaps the most life-altering: Alice, who becomes Adam's best friend and begrudged love interest as the season runs its course. At first, I had a difficult time liking the main character, largely because he felt very distant and emotionless.  He lumped all girls his age into one enigmatic group that he would never figure out, and left it at that.  Meanwhile, while he didn't exactly sound lonely, he didn't seem to have many friends to speak of, either.  So I was a little lost from the start.  However, I got the feeling over the book, as the reader became more and more familiar with Adam, that he was in fact a bit autistic.  I think he had to categorize people in order to deal with them, and I could see him begin to discern people from groups as he got to know his new friend, and even his mother and grandmother, better. There were some cute touches in the book; the friendship that develops between Adam and Alice is endearing.  While it's sometimes difficult to understand Alice's point of view, as the book focuses solely on Adam, you can begin to see why their relationship works as well as it does.  It's not just because they were thrown together as the only kids their own age in a remote lake setting. I also enjoyed the way Adam began to know and understand his grandmother throughout the summer.  It seems he begins to see her as a separate and whole person, which is a true milestone of maturation.  At the same time, as he starts to recognize her personality and her frailties, he also learns more about who he is and what he is capable of.  While I thought it a bit weird that the kid couldn't paddle a canoe by himself at first, I think maybe that was more a prejudice of my own than poor writing: I grew up going canoeing with my family, and therefore feel like I always knew how to paddle.  But it was another metaphor for Adam's developing independence and his growth into an adult.  I think there were many things in this book which were well-written.  I enjoyed all of the subtle metaphors and the rather odd but strong personalities.  One of my favorite touches was the carved animals on the mantelpiece in the cabin, which perhaps made me relate to Adam even more: it was also his favorite! I think this is a good YA novel.  It deals with some issues and gives a great example of growing up.  While it was a bit on the light side for me, I can understand that is because I lean much more towards "adult" fiction.  Like I said before -- if I were twelve, I think I really would have gotten something out of this book. Yours, Arianna

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Outliers

Outliers: The Story of Success Malcolm Gladwell 4 / 5	Published 2008 First Sentence "Roseto Valforte lies one hundred miles southeast of Rome in the Apennine foothills of the Italian province of Foggia."
Publisher's Description: The most successful may not be the smartest or hardest working. Shift rather to where they are from. What is their culture, family, generation, and the idiosyncratic experiences of their upbringing? Where and when were they born? From Asian maths students to the British Beatles, stereotypes can be addressed through different eyes.
Dear Reader, Okay, I'll admit it: I have a soft spot for pop science books.  Gladwell reminds me often of another favorite, Oliver Sacks.  Both get me wanting to discuss everything I've read, share tidbits I've gleaned, recount odd phenomena which I've encountered in their works.  I love the accessibility of these authors and those of their ilk, who find ways to engage the general layperson public.  It's been years since I've taken a biology or psychology class; I wouldn't be able to relate to a dense textbook-like book.  But these publications are great ways to get me thinking and questioning the world around me again.  And I love it. This book was particularly surprising to me because I didn't really have any interest in reading it!  I'd enjoyed others of Gladwell's works, but I only picked this one up because it was the required reading for a library instruction class I was to teach, and I wanted to familiarize myself with the material.  I'm glad I did, though: I ended up discussing the book so much with my boyfriend.  I even made him read a chapter that I found particularly interesting; it discussed the different ways people respond to aggression, based upon what region of the United States they are from.  The reasoning behind this finding fascinated me!  I found the same to be true of the chapter which discussed why Korean airline pilots had such a high rate of accidents in the 90s - so many, in fact, that there was a point where Korean Air was close to being shut down for good.  And the introductory chapter, about one of the reasons why some people become sports stars.  -- Really, every chapter in the book had parts which surprised me.  And that takes me back to the reason I really enjoy reading these kinds of books: while every "reveal" shocks me a bit, it then begins to really make sense, and helps to explain human nature just a little bit better, in my mind.  I love it.  (Did I mention that already? Haha.) One thing I love about Gladwell's writing is that if you've ever heard him speak (or audiobooked any of his works), you can really hear him speaking his words as you read along.  Usually I think I have some sort of generic man or woman relating the story to me in my head while I read.  But with Gladwell, it's definitely his voice I hear.  I don't know why, but that does help me get into the pace of his works more. Whether you read or audiobook this one, I definitely recommend it.  At the very least, it gives you plenty of interesting conversation topics for your next dinner party! Yours, Arianna

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The Other Typist - review by Arianna

The Other Typist Suzanne Rindell 4 / 5	Published 2013 First Sentence "They said the typewriter would unsex us."
Publisher's Description: New York City, 1924: the height of Prohibition and the whole city swims in bathtub gin. Rose Baker is an orphaned young woman working for her bread as a typist in a police precinct on the lower East Side. Every day Rose transcribes the confessions of the gangsters and murderers that pass through the precinct. While she may disapprove of the details, she prides herself on typing up the goriest of crimes without batting an eyelid. But when the captivating Odalie begins work at the precinct Rose finds herself falling under the new typist's spell. As do her bosses, the buttoned up Lieutenant Detective and the fatherly Sergeant. As the two girls' friendship blossoms and they flit between the sparkling underworld of speakeasies by night, and their work at the precinct by day, it is not long before Rose's fascination for her new colleague turns to obsession. But just who is the real Odalie, and how far will Rose go to find out?
Dear Reader, Wow.  What a fun book!  It took me a little while to get into, but once I started really catching the pace of the story, it was really great reading.  The story revolves around Rose, a fairly reserved and conservative woman who works in a police precinct as a typist in 1929.  While she has no trouble stomaching some of the awful things she hears at work, she is still very proper and believes in the moral right.  So her world is shaken when her new coworker Odalie joins the ranks at the precinct.  Odalie is everything that Rose is not: adventurous, easygoing, unbridled in her passion.  Something in her draws Rose in, and the story unfolds as the friendship between the two develops. The great thing about the book is all the twists and turns that it takes.  While I really enjoyed the period writing (clothing, speakeasies, and attitudes discussed, among many other things), what was the most intriguing was seeing the story between the two girls develop.  As they grew closer, back-stories revealed themselves, and really drew the reader in.  Rose writes the book as a memoir of sorts, reflecting on the time in her past life when she was so charmed by Odalie that she would do anything for her - even things which would otherwise be against her own, much more reserved nature. While it's been years since the sort of thing has happened to me, I also really identified with the idea of having a friend you idolize, who makes you want to be more adventurous, more like her.  I recall having friends like that in high school, who I wanted to be just like.  But I was never bold or pretty enough, in my own eyes.  I could really understand why Rose latched onto Odalie to such an extent, although of course I am glad to say that, ultimately, my obsession or devotion would not have gone quite as far as Rose's (I hope). This book reminded me quite a bit of the musical Chicago, actually - a brassy, brazen woman who epitomizes the flapper ideal of the era, taking a mouse under her wing and transforming her into a much bolder woman, herself.  I'm sure it helps that the time periods of both pieces pretty much coincided. I would definitely recommend this book.  Really just a fun read for all the mind games it plays, if nothing else! Yours, Arianna P.S. Check out what Amber had to say about this book!

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