The Lace Reader Friday, Jun 18 2010

Barry, Brunonia.  The Lace Reader.  New York:  Harper Collins, 2008.   ISBN: 9780061661556.  $39.95.  Read by Alyssa Bresnahan.

(Image Credit: Cape May County Library)

There are some who have a gift for being able to read people and there are those who can see the future in crafted pieces of Ipswitch lace.  Towner Whitney comes from a long line of readers, and although reading lace can be taught, there are still those that go beyond simply learning.  Some are just born with the gift of foresight.

Towner left Salem, Massachusetts 15 years ago, when she was 18, and  has vowed to never return to her hometown ever again.  Yet, when she receives a phone call from her younger brother regarding her beloved Aunt Eva, and the fact that the eighty-five year-old woman has disappeared, Towner runs back to find out what has happened.  Back in Salem, Towner is whisked back to the town that thinks she and her family are crazy.  She also has to encounter her own mother, who has never been a really been there.  That was Aunt Eva’s role.

As Towner tries to find her aunt, she also learns that there are more sinister forces circling  her family than she realized.  As the past becomes entangled in the present, Towner will begin to rely on the natural gift she has tried for so long to ignore.

Barry has created a unique story that eloquently portrays a New England family against the background of Salem, Massachusetts.  She weaves fiction in to Salem’s famous past, while also illustrating modern life along New England’s coast.  Alyssa Bresnahan’s voice gives depth and character to The Lace Reader.  She is able to relay the thoughts and feelings of the characters well.  Together, Barry and Bresnahan, have created a wonderful, mysterious, and bewitching tale about New England and complicated family dynamics, in combination with the idea that lace readers can predict the future, although they cannot stop the pain, danger, and the happiness that accompanies life.

The Lace Reader has received the following acclaim:

Publishers Weekly Starred Review

New York Times Best Seller

People Magazine People Pick

Time Magazine

The Washington Post

If you like this book, you may also like Diane Setterfield’s, The Thirteenth Tale

Friday Night Knitting Club by Kate Jacobs

The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold

The Third Angel by Alice Hoffman

The Story Sisters by Alice Hoffman

–Melissa the Librarian

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The Serialist Friday, Apr 23 2010

The Serialist. David Gordon. Ashland, Or.: Blackstone Audio, Inc.,  2010. ISBN: 9781441727855.

Narrated by Bronson Pinchot

Harry Bloch is about as pathetic as a writer could possibly be.  His career, if that is what you would call it,    barley allows him to scrape by.  He writes pulp novels; series with over-sexed vampires, or a sci-fi epic that involves a sexbot made only for the captain of a large phallus-shaped spaceship, and finally a knockoff series that sound a lot like the Shaft .  Harry ends up making a bulk of his income when he meets Claire, a privileged and sassy teenager who offers Harry the chance to write papers for high schoolers.  Their relationship becomes close as Claire soon becomes Harry’s manager because he just can’t seem to manage his life.

Harry’s recent endeavor to hop in the vampire bandwagon has gives him his best success thus far.  However, in order to pull off the charade of a authoress, Harry is forced to dress up as his dead mother, since he uses her name as an alias for his latest series.  It is during one of his cover shoots, Harry receives a letter from Darian Clay, aka The Photo Killer,  to ghostwrite his life story.  What Harry doesn’t foresee is that there is no such thing as the perfect opportunity, and that his life is about to become far more entangled with Darien’s than he could have ever imagined.

Bronson Pinchot does an excellent job narrating this fantastically funny, satirical, and often gory tale. He gives each character their own voice, making the story easy to follow and enjoyable.  This is not a listen for those with a sensitive stomach.   Gordon captures the essence of a prolific serial killer by using prose that describe his “craft” and obsession with killing and sex.  Yet, despite the graphic nature of the tale, Harry Bloch is a lovable character who gets entangled in events that are far beyond his control.  For those that enjoy the works of David Sedaris, Harry Bloch is a perfect match.

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The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao Monday, Mar 29 2010

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. Junot Diaz
Westminster, Md. : Books on Tape, 2007.
$100.00  ISBN 9781415941942.

(Image Credit: cape May County Library, Cape May Court House, NJ)

Oscar is an overweight, nerdy, girl-obsessed Dominican teenager growing up in Patterson, New Jersey.  His lonely existence is dominate by writing his own fantasy tales, combined with a desperate longing to find a girlfriend and overall acceptance by those around him. However, Oscar and his family seem to be cursed by the illusive fuku, a curse that has been haunting Oscar’s family for generations.

Jonathan Davis narrates this tale with ease, shifting between English and Spanish.   If you are like me, you will probably wish you knew more Espanol, because there were times when I felt that I was losing subtle pieces of information and the richness of the tale.  (On a personal note, I would have liked to see Diaz reiterate the words of the characters when they spoke in their native tongue, as opposed to carrying on with the story.  Again, I just felt like I was missing out on some important facts.) Yet, the narrator was able to convey the thoughts and feelings of Oscar and his family with effortless simplicity, even when the story turned dark and violent.

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao is a tragic tale of how a family seems to be destined for inescapable failure.  They try to flee from their past and heritage, only to be confronted with time and time again.  Although the tale of Oscar and his family spans over several generations, they all fall victim to the fuku while they desperately search for love and acceptance.

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao has received the following awards.

2008 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.
National Book Critics Circle Award for Best Fiction of 2007.
Mercantile Library Center’s John Sargent Prize for First Novel in 2007.
Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards.

It was nominated for an NAACP Image Award and the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award.
New York Times Notable Book of 2007.
Time magazine’s Book of the Year.
Starred review in Library Journal.

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Her Fearful Symmetry Sunday, Mar 28 2010

Her Fearful Symmetry. Audrey Niffeneggar. New York, NY : Audioworks, Simon & Schuster Audio, 2009.

This story begins with a death. Elspeth Noblin dies from leukemia with her lover, Robert, at her side. In her will Elspeth leaves her London flat and assets to her two American nieces, Julia and Valentina. In order to claim their inheritance, the sisters must live in the flat for one year, and never allow their parents to enter the apartment. Julia and Valentina have never had much ambition to do anything with their lives, and since they do not have anything, or anyone, to lose, they decide to move to London for the year.

As the girls begin to explore the city and the neighboring Highgate Cemetery, they also discover the residents in Elspeth’s building:  Martin, who suffers from obsessive-compulsive-disorder, is a lone prisoner of his flat, since his wife recently left him. Robert, Elspeth’s former lover, lives above the girls. Julia and Valentina are a grim reminder of Robert’s loss, since they bear a striking resemblance to Elspeth. Yet, Julia and Valentina are not initially aware of all the building’s tenants. Elspeth herself is haunting her flat. The deeply attached twins do not realize that their seemingly simple stay in London will alter their lives, and all of those around them, forever. By searching for excitement and escape from their mundane American lives, Julia and Valentina will end up finding and losing far more than they could have ever predicted.

Audrey Niffenegger has also penned The Time Traveler’s Wife, which was recently released as a major motion picture.  

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