Lisa Anne Walker

The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler (eAudiobook). I had seen several of the old film noir movies--some the best know were originally written by Chandler and starred Humphrey Bogart. This one had Bogart and Bacall. The movies are so over the top acting, almost corny, so I was curious about the books. The books are even better. The movies back then couldn't really portray the main ideas and actions in this short novel. It centers on the work of Marlowe, a private detective hired by a very rich old man with two very very wild young daughters. The daughters have a habit of getting into deep trouble such as gambling debts, relationships with grifters, porn (this was before porn magazines such as playboy, so the porn racket involved revolving pornographic books, like a library), and more. Marlowe starts with one job but soon finds he is actually looking into a different crime. The best part of the book besides the well plotted and paced story is the language. The metaphors are fun, more suited for Marlowe's time and life style. The dialogue is about as corny as it is in the films. I say corny, but this doesn't mean bad, just perfect for this particular genre. The novel is a good, fast read. After reading, watch the movie!

Lisa Anne Walker

Being Dead by Jim Crace. The novel centers on the murder of a couple. But instead of using the murder as the focal point, the author uses the decomposition of the bodies. Celice and Joseph are a middle aged couple who return to the dunes where they had met years and years ago. They had been grad students studying the flora and fauna around the beach. Years later, they return in the hopes of reliving the moments they fell in love. However, the dunes are isolated and they have a look of having some money. A drifter takes advantage of the situation. He kills them there on the isolated dune, robs them, then disappears from the novel. He is not important. The book shifts between the couple's first meeting, their return, their decomposition, and their daughter's strange renewal at being left an adult orphan. The best part of the novel is the decomposition. Crace details the stages that the bodies would go through as they lay on the beach unfound for five days. It may seem morbid, but the writing actually makes it peaceful and natural, and times poetic. There are dry spots in the book. I personally didn't care for the inclusion of the daughter in the story. And sometimes the author rehashes areas/times. But all in all the novel is well written, interesting, and, in a peculiar way, comforting.

Lisa Anne Walker

Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage by Alfred Lansing (eAudiobook). (This is the book I happened to read, but there are a couple other books that are also very good accountings of this true story.) The story, non-fiction, is about Ernest Shackleton who in 1914 attempted a navigation of the South Pole, the Antarctic continent. He had made an attempt several years before but had fallen short of his goal. So he raised the money, ship, and crew to try again. Unfortunately, this second attempt turned out horrendously. The boat got trapped in the ice earlier than they anticipated. The crew expected that this may happen, so they were prepared to winter in the ship: a very dull wait for spring. But then the ice cracked the ship. And then everything that could go wrong did and things they never expected began. This account by Lansing is particularly interesting because he was able to interview a few survivors and he did extensive research. This is not a novel, but it is written in such a way that it is hard to put down. It is an incredible tale of survival, but more importantly it is a story of a man determined to save his men from despair and death against the seemingly impossible elements.

Lisa Anne Walker

Beloved by Toni Morrison (eAudiobook). This novel was made into a movie several years back in which Oprah played the main character, Setha. The movie was pretty good, but the book, as usual, is much much better. However, word of advice, it is not an easy book to read. The narrative is not straightforward, but instead skips back and forth in time: Setha's time as a slave on a cruel plantation and her time later after Beloved's death. To help readers, one of the main ideas is that Setha must learn to live in her present not her past. So each time we hear of the past, this is a way to help Setha move on. The story is about Setha. She killed one of her four children, Beloved, when she believed the plantation owner was coming to bring her and the kids back into slavery after her escape. Sixteen years or so later, another slave from that plantation visits. His visit brings all of her memories to life (including Beloved now as a young woman). This is a powerful book about memory and forgiveness. The writing is astoundingly beautiful. I highly recommend trying Morrison's Bluest Eye first if you would like to get used to her writing style before jumping into this novel, which I personally believe is her best after Sula.

Christina Combs

The Gathering by K. Armstrong. The author had me intrigued in the first chapter and I had to figure the story out. An adopted girl wants to know more about her heritage but the answers aren't exactly what she was hoping for. Halfway through I had a feeling this was part of a series since the story was moving very slow. Sure enough, I flipped back to the title page to find "Book 1". Not sure I will pursue the following books but I enjoyed this read.

Christina Combs

The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan (eAudiobook, eBook). Wow! I was hooked on page 2! A very exciting read involving a post-apocalyptic village surrounded by zombie-like creatures. The story is filled with a sense of doom but also hope. I put myself in the main characters shoes & how I would handle this small village and found myself crying and rejoicing with her. She is desperate to find more than this village and forest but has no idea how to achieve this. Definitely a book I will read again and an amazing story to keep you intrigued!

Christina Combs

Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare. If you are unfamiliar with the Mortal Instruments series by Cassandra Clare, it is a must read and this book, Clockwork Angel, is the start of a series of prequels. The author suggests reading them in the order released (City of bones, City of ashes, City of glass, Clockwork angel, City of fallen angels)but I feel that the stories are well-written and complete without mixing the 2 series so far. For those that are fans of the Mortal Instruments series this was a great read giving us a bigger glimpse into the shadowhunter world and meeting some characters from the past. The main character is a downworlder of some type and the dynamics between Tessa and the shadowhunters is different than what we've seen with Clary & Jace in the other series, but Clare keeps us hooked with a similar relationship blossoming. I will warn you that this is very much a stepping stone book, meaning it feels like it is valuable information to get you to the next book but the plot doesn't move very far. I can't wait for the next book this fall and the following Mortal Instruments in spring of 2012!

Lisa Anne Walker

Sabriel by Garth Nix (eBook). This is the first book in a trilogy called: Abhorsen Trilogy. This is aimed at teen readers, but like many books on the teen list, this is a great read for adults. The writing is good, fast paced, and always interesting--no long dull passages. The story is about a teen girl in her last year of boarding school. She is on one side of a special country. The side with her school is much like our modern world about 80 years ago. The other side, where she is from and her father still lives, is a dark world of magic. To keep her safe, her father sent her to the other side, through a special wall that divides the two realms. He is a necromancer, and Sabriel is also. But when her father dies, she is pushed into the position much sooner than either had planned. Both have the ability to go into the world of the dead that is divided into 9 gates. They also have special bells whose individual ringings are like weapons. This fantasy is full of interesting characters and happenings. Nix incorporated many new fantasy ideas as well as made good use of overlapping ideas from other fantasy novels. It has the typical bad guy-good guy theme, but does a great job of making it awesome. The main character is a girl, but this is a book anyone male/female young/older will enjoy.

Lisa Anne Walker

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman (eBook). Normally I don't read Gaiman's work because it often includes racy and violent elements. But I tried this book on a recommendation from a friend, and I really liked it. It is most often on the reading lists for younger readers, but it is a great fun read for adults too. It is the story of a boy who grows up in a graveyard. His parents are murdered by a shadowy figure known only as the Jack-of-all-trades. We don't know at first why he has killed the family, but we soon find out that the baby was his target. Unfortunately for him, that baby crawled away during the mayhem. Jack cannot enter the graveyard, so he must wait for his chance. In the meantime, the baby grows. His family is now made up of the ghosts that inhabit the graveyard. They have named him Nobody, Bod for short. They teach him to become ghostlike and other ghost tricks. And a caretaker of the graveyard, Silas, remains ever diligent in protecting the boy. The story is a combination of horror and funny. The boy is always in danger from Jack. But the characters who raised Bod are often eccentric. They range in times from recent dead to long dead ghosts.

Lisa Anne Walker

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak (eAudiobook, eBook). This book is most often recommended to teen readers, but I believe it is a book that adults should read as well. The writing is fluid and uncomplicated, but not simple. It is the story about Liesel, the child of socialists who is taken in by a German couple living in the heart of Germany during Hitler's reign. Her brother died on the way and she doesn't know what has happened to her parents. She often has nightmares. The couple is good to Liesel, especially her foster father who is quiet but understands the pain she feels. He teaches her to read and she comes to love books. But as a poor family, they cannot afford to buy her books, so she finds ways to steal them. Death narrates the story, so while we watch Liesel grow, we are always reminded of the war raging, the Hitler Youth, the hunt for Jews, and the desolation war brings. We see how Liesel lives through all this trying to understand it though she is just a child. The book is not an apology for Germans from that era, but a chance to see into the life of those who were not Nazis and did not care for the Nazi policies, but who had no power to stop it.

Lisa Anne Walker

The Known World by Edward Jones (eAudiobook). This was a surprise for me. I was unaware that there had been a number of blacks who owned slaves before the Civil War. The novel is about one particular man and his wife who own a smallish plantation and about a dozen slaves. In a style reminiscent of Toni Morrison and William Faulkner, Jones has constructed a very book that combines excellent writing with a compelling story. Most of the story is set a couple decades before the war. Henry, whose own parents had been slaves who bought their freedom and his, are shocked when he buys a slave. He continues to build up his plantation in the style of neighboring white Virginians. But then he dies and his wife is left the farm. Everyone believes she will set the slaves free and sell the farm, but she instead continues. But she also crosses the line Henry had developed between slave and master. The novel follows the minds/lives of several characters, all of which reveal how they feel about slavery and the seeming contradiction in human affairs of an ex-slave owning slaves. Some readers may find the style jumpy or confusing as it switches between characters and times. However, most should find this an extremely worthwhile effort.

Lisa Anne Walker

The Stolen Child by Keith Donohue. This is a beautifully written book. It is about changeling. Children who are unsatisfied somehow in their time and place are targeted by 'goblins.' They are kidnapped and changelings take their places and live their lives. The child in the meantime lives on for years, decades, even centuries until his/her turn to take the place of another dissatisfied child arises. This is the basis for a story that is often lyrical, poetic. The story centers on two Henrys: the real Henry and the changeling, who himself was once a dissatisfied child in the past century Germany, who takes his place. We see how each learns to fit into his new life, one in an ideal American family and the other in the rugged forgotten life living in the forest. The changelings never age physically (they do grow somewhat grotesque so they hide from people), but they age internally. So when they take the place of a child, they are no longer truly children. Both Henrys experience painful feelings of loss of their pasts and of their identities. The writing is gorgeous. I found it hard to put the book down. There are no car crashes or mysteries or serial killings; the writing and the story themselves are mesmerizing.

Lisa Anne Walker

The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield (eAudiobook). This is a mystery. Vida Winter is a famous writer who has stopped writing now that she is old. She chooses a book seller's daughter, Margaret, to tell her life story, something that in her long career no one knows anything about before she became famous. The story begins with a large estate house that held strange secrets. A brother and sister illicitly have twins. And as the product of incest, the twins exhibit very serious problems. In combination with their mental problems, the girls are left nearly alone to grow up with only the guidance of a few house servants. But Vida doesn't intend to tell a straight forward story, so Margaret has to do some poking around in old records, the village, etc to fill in the blanks Vida leaves open. The story is wonderfully written very much in the style of older books of the same genre. The mystery unfolds slowly and carefully. It switches cleanly between the time when Margaret is hearing and investigating the story and in the past when Vida was a child. This switching gives the story a good atmospheric effect that deepens the mystery and in many ways makes its unraveling sadder since nothing can be done now to change the past.

Lisa Anne Walker

We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson. Jackson is a writer that many readers either really like or don't get. This book like many of her works is hard to classify. In some ways it can fit into horror, though the story isn't actually scary. It can be a type of thriller without fast paced action. It can be a mystery, yet often the 'mystery' is revealed early and no solid answers are given. The story involves two sisters living in with their uncle in the family estate. The rest of the family died years ago of arsenic poisoning in which the older sister was accused of but then acquitted. The village hates the young women. They, however, like the secluded life they have established for themselves. But their peace is ruined with the arrival of a cousin. He doesn't like the seeming oddity of their lives.  So he takes it upon himself to start changes, with disastrous effects. The story i told from the younger sister's point of view. Though both sisters like the seclusion, it is this sister who works to keep their lives exactly like she wants. She hates the new cousin and his interference. This is a story about characters, so the action is often slow. We are always looking into the mind of the narrator, who is highly unreliable.

Amanda England

Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children (eBook) is the first in a series by Ransom Riggs. My only complaint is that this books is fairly new, and the second likely won’t be out for another year! Jacob is a teenage boy, who for years, has been entertained by stories from his grandfather. His grandfather grew up in an orphanage during World War II and tells Jacob stories of the other children who lived there; children who could levitate, squeeze into bottles, and just plain disappear. Even though there are photographs, Jacob is certain they are pure fantasy, the stuff of dreams and even nightmares. Then, Jacob’s grandfather dies unexpectedly and turns Jacob’s world upside down. His grandfather’s last words lead Jacob to the mysterious island, home of the orphanage. But when he arrives, he learns the orphanage was destroyed in the war, along with its occupants and the mysterious headmistress “The Bird.” In searching the ruins, Jacob discovers the truth in his grandfather’s stories, the lives of the other children, and a lot about himself. The best part of this book is the use of vintage photographs, which the author uses to describe various characters. Many of the photographs are eerie, which makes this a book to read during daylight hours.

Lisa Anne Walker

Ten Seconds From the Sun by Russell Celyn. Jones Mark Swain has a dreadful secret to hide. He committed a murder when he was twelve. In England, if the state feels a minor offender, even a murderer, is rehabilitated by the time they get to twenty-one, then they are set free. But to avoid vigilantes and to try to start anew, he changes his name and is given a new identity to assume. Mark chooses to start over completely by not revealing his past to his wife and eventual children. But the past can't stay buried forever. It eventually catches up with him. The novel is how Mark deals with this new threat to his fragile security. It is a credit to the extremely good writing of the author that the reader sympathizes with Mark. No matter how you feel about murder and how the perpetrator should be punished, it is fascinating to find yourself hoping that Mark's secret stays secret. It is an interesting glimpse into the mind of someone who feels he made a huge mistake and won't forget it, but he wants to be good now. He spends his life grateful for the opportunity he is given, but also wary of losing it and how to hold on to it at all costs if necessary.

Amanda England

Minding Frankie by Maeve Binchy (eAudiobook, eBook) is a heart-warming book that centers around the life of a little girl and the huge range of people who help care for her, showing that it really does take a village to raise a child. The leading character, Noel, is contacted early on by a former girlfriend, who is dying. Her wish is for Noel to raise their daughter, Frankie, whom she is carrying. Noel steps up to the job of being a new, single father by making numerous changes in his life, but also knows he will not be able to raise this child on his own. In comes a cast of unforgettable characters who all play an important role in Frankie’s young life. Her grandparents, who are busy trying to raise money to erect a statue in the community’s namesake’s honor; a visiting cousin from America who’s take-charge attitude opens doors for all who meet her; a young doctor and his wife who are raising their son, who happens to share a birthday with young Frankie; a set of twins whose dreams of going to America are cut short when their beloved adopted grandfather becomes critically ill; and last but not least, a nosey social worker determined to find something, anything, to remove Frankie from her father’s care. While each character has their own story, Binchy manages to weave it all back around to the main character. Binchy fans will be pleased to know that she brings back characters from past books, such as “Heart and Soul,” “Scarlet Feather” and “Quentins.” However, do not feel like you must have read these previous books to understand what is going. This book is one you can pick up and read without needing to read the others…although the others are all very good and I do highly recommend them!

Amanda England

Plain Truth by Jodi Picoult is a page turner that will keep you guessing until the very absolute end. It is a story of faith, family and the search for justice. Katie is a young, unwed Amish girl who gives birth to a baby in secret, and the baby is later found dead on her family’s farm. All fingers point to Katie, who does not remember anything about giving birth to the child. It doesn’t help matters that Katie was also witness to a death much earlier on the farm. The family, we learn is no stranger to heartache, but continue living life knowing that it was all “God’s will.” Attorney Ellie plans to have a relaxing vacation on her aunt’s farm, far away from her complicated, busy life in the city, but then comes face to face with Katie’s case, and shocking herself, takes on Katie as her client as well as “babysitter” until the trial. While living with the family, Ellie not only learns the secrets of her client, but about the strength of the Amish faith, a mother’s love, the forgiveness of others and finds a love that she has been looking for all along. This is a good book if you are looking for a mystery that deals with law, ethics and faith.