Advice from Baba Yaga by Brenda L Baker

Advice from Baba Yaga by Brenda L Baker

Lissa Jackman still misses advice from Baba, her grandmother, ten years after her death.  She's left Baba's room exactly as it was in the aging family home, Swan House.  She wears Baba's clothes and is searching for any bit of advice she can from Baba to keep her life on track.

But when a dead body is found in the stables, everything changes.  Lissa's struggling tea house is forced to close and there is not much left in the family vault to sell and pay for repairs to the expensive slate roof.  Baba is watching over her, leaving small clues in unexpected places but it takes more than a little detective work on Lissa's part to solve the mystery.

I enjoyed Advice from Baba Yaga.  Some of Baba's clues were too simple and others simply didn't make sense to the story but all added another piece to the puzzle.  But to Lissa's life they made sense because she and Baba had a special connection.  The tales of her childhood with Baba were both tender and entertaining.  I pictured Baba Yaga as a shriveled, old Russian witch.  The real Baba was anything but even though she hid a mysterious past as a spy.

This novel is full of interesting characters, love, espionage and an unsolved  murder.  A perfect mix for a Baba Yaga.

The Orchid Thief by Susan Orlean

The Orchid Thief by Susan Orlean

There was a time when I too was crazy about orchids.  Not quite as crazy as LaRoche but enough that I was familiar with the people and places he ran up against in his dealings.  During the time The Orchid Thief takes place, I lived in Delray Beach, home of the American Orchid Society.  I had a backyard with colorful orchids hanging from every available tree branch.  I loved my orchids but I didn't love them enough to go traipsing through a remote swamp teaming with mosquitos, snakes and alligators in search of a rare ghost orchid.

The Orchid Thief tells the true story of obsession with these rare and beautiful plants.  The book tells many interesting tales of the Everglades and South Florida.  The Seminole Indians also played a large role in the development of the area.  LaRoche, the orchid thief, was just another nut, one of many that live in sunny Florida and creates the centerpiece of the story.

I had read The Orchid Thief once before, several years ago, and remember enjoying it.  But this time it seemed sluggish to me.  Susan Orlean is a journalist and the book is written in a journalistic style which is much more dry and to the point than a work of pure fiction.  Or maybe since I moved north to Melbourne out of the fray that is South Florida, the characters didn't hold as much appeal.  Or I might just be a little bit like LaRoche in that once my obsession is over, I'm done.  

The Girl Who Saved the King of Sweden by Jonas Jonasson

The Girl Who Saved the King of Sweden by Jonas Jonasson

This story starts out in the toilets of Soweto and propels us around the globe only to land hanging out with the King of Sweden on a potato farm.  This book is a hysterical farce where everything can go is certain to go wrong.  It is pure fun from start to finish.

Nombeko is a poor girl in the ghettos of South Africa who has a head for figures.  Her mind is always calculating where and what to do next. And she has patience, plenty of it, to wait for her next golden opportunity.

Alternately we are in Sweden immersed in the lives of twin brothers, Holger One and Holger Two.  Their father has a grand plot to destroy the King of Sweden.  Part of his plan involved registering the birth of only one of his sons so the other would not exist.  The flaw in that however was that Holger One was quite stupid and Holger Two, brilliantly smart.

As you can imagine, Nombeko gets involved with an atomic bomb in South Africa that also doesn't exist and lands with the bomb in tow in the Holgers back yard in Sweden.  One unbelievable event leads to another and another and another.

The Girl Who Saved the King of Sweden is just plain fun.  You never know what awaits on the next page and and no matter what you are anticipating, you will most certainly be surprised.   

The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers

The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers

I've discovered lately that I'm drawn to reading modern classics, like John Steinbeck, Thomas Wolfe and Carson McCullers.  Their prose is rich and smooth, engaging as well as captivating.  The Heart is a Lonely Hunter revolves around a diverse array of characters whose lives intersect while interacting with John Singer, a deaf man.  He allows them to bare their souls without offering any criticism or comment.

Mick Kelly is a 12 year girl experiencing all those adolescent changes.  Mr. Singer rents a room in her family's home.  Dr. Copeland is a black physician who is so driven to improve his race at the expense of driving away his own family.  Jake Blount is intent on spreading his communist mindset in order to save the world.  Biff Brannon owns the cafe where the others appear at different times for a drink, or a meal or in Mick Kelly's case, a cold coke.

The Heart is a Lonely Hunter is about the diversity in our country that still exists for us even in our current society.  The story is set in the South in the 1940's but it makes it apparent that our differences in skin color, economic standing, age or disability still often separate us.  I'm still thinking about this story, trying to sort it out in my mind.  These characters are rich and vibrant, and I'm still trying to understand what drives them.  More than a half a century later, our struggles still exist and we are still searching for answers.  For me, The Heart is a Lonely Hunter is classic novel that is relevant in modern times.  The book has the ability to make me think, maybe reading it should be a must if we are to come together again as neighbors, friends and fellow Americans.

The Accidental Tourist by Anne Tyler

The Accidental Tourist by Anne Tyler

Macon is the author of a series of travel guides specifically for business travelers so they can make their limited time in a city as comfortable as possible.  After the senseless murder of his 12 year old son, Ethan, while away at summer camp, Macon finds his marriage and his life falling apart.  When his wife moves out of the house, Macon is left with Ethan's untrained dog, Edward, as his only company and when Edward's usual kennel refuses to board him because of his bad behavior, Macon ends up at the Meow Bow. There he meets Muriel, the quirky dog trainer, who attempts to get him back into reality.

Anne Tyler is the master of character development.  As a writer myself, I've read other novels she's written just to study the characters.  Macon and his siblings eat potatoes at each meal.  All lack a sense of direction and usually become lost while running their regular errands.  And then their mother shows up in her flowing caftan and armful of bangle bracelets.  The family is a study in contrasts.

It's these kinds of things that I love about this book.  The story is funny and often comical which serves to help the characters overcome the tragic loss of Ethan.  But they never really can, the loss is too deep.  Every author finds a way to either tie up the loose ends or leave the ending more open ended much like real life.  I have to say however that I hated the ending.  But in defense of a book that I mostly enjoyed, I have hated the ending of every Anne Tyler book I have read.

Like every book I read, I try to keep an open mind.  Many of my friends loved the ending.  The Accidental Tourist is full of interesting people, places and things.  Find inside these pages a trip that appeals to you and leave the rest to critics like me.  

I Know This Much is True by Wally Lamb

I Know This Much is True by Wally Lamb

A couple months ago my book club read Wishin' and Hopin' by Wally Lamb.  A few of the members raved about his other books, although they found them quite different from his Christmas story.  Based on this recommendation, I selected I Know This Much is True and dowloaded it to my Kindle without a second thought.

I read on my iPhone during my lunch hour and started this book with great anticipation.  The first chapter is quite gruesome but sets the tone for all that is to come.  If you can get yourself through the beginning, I'm pretty sure you can get through the rest.  I kept reading.  And reading.  The percent read that my kindle happily tracks for me, barely moved.  Day after day I watched my barely existent progress.  When I'd had enough I finally checked the statistics of the book.  It has a whopping 982 pages!  I will be sucking down the battery on my phone for the next ten years reading the story on a 4 1/2 by 3 inch screen.  But I persisted.

Thomas and Dominic are twins, one born on December 31st and the other born on January 1st. They are even born in different decades, one in 1959 and the other in 1960.  Their mother, Connie is not married but thank goodness her strict Italian father died before he discovered she was pregnant.  The boys are never told who their biological father is and both have an very contentious relationship with Ray, their step father, who adopts them as toddlers.

The brothers are angry.  The tone of their story is filled with anger because everyone here has issues.  Thomas is mentally ill and finds himself living in a variety of mental institutions.  Dominic, the supposedly sane twin, is Thomas' self appointed protector.  Dominic's life is a train wreck and he blames Thomas for all that is wrong with him.

There is so much going on here, that Mr. Lamb needed those 982 pages.  The story blew up slowly until is became a big abscess and it finally burst, letting the infection run freely out.  The story ended all tied up in a neat little bow.  I couldn't stop reading this book but I wasn't always engaged in this book.  I Know This Much is True requires a commitment of time and energy.  The treatment of mental illness in this country is spread out for the reader to live and experience.  The story is worth reading but beware.  It's exhausting.  

Illumination Night by Alice Hoffman

Illumination Night by Alice Hoffman

Andre and Vonnie are struggling to make ends meet while raising their young son, Simon.  Little do they know however,  how much their lives will change when their elderly neighbor, Elizabeth decides she can fly and falls from her roof.  This event sets in motion the arrival of Jody, Elizabeth's granddaughter, who is banished to the small town by her mother, to take care of grandma.  Jody is a teenager with plenty of oats to sow, and quickly sets her eyes on Andre, well just because she thinks she can do whatever she feels like.

As the chaos heats up between Andre and Jody, Vonnie is stricken with severe panic attacks.  She can't leave the house and spends hours a day driving her truck up and down the muddy driveway desperately trying to break through her imaginary bubble.  Adorable little Simon, is trapped between the comings and goings of all of the adults.

Alice Hoffman does a great job of developing a diverse cast of characters and weaving their actions together.  I enjoyed this book for the most part.  The one thing that bugged me however, is why the title was Illumination Night.  The lighting of lanterns played a very small part in the story.  And I didn't feel that any of the characters found "illumination" by the end.  Only Jody moved on, every one else simply moved back into a pre existing comfort zone.

Illumination Night is not my favorite Alice Hoffman novel but it's high on the list and worth the time  I invested in it.