The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

The Graveyard Book will be added to the list of books that has an incredible and enticing first line: "There was a hand in the darkness, and it held a knife." The man Jack has killed a family of three. It was supposed to be four, but the baby has gone wandering and ends up in the nearby graveyard. So begins the story of "Bod" (Nobody) Owens. The 2009 Newbery Award winner is a macabre tale that is sure to become a classic read.

The story follows the adventures of Bod from his adoption by the Owens' through his childhood until he reaches the age of his emancipation. It is a story adopted from Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book and provides adventure, fantasy, and the ability to touch every human emotion. In addition to the Owens, Bod is protected by his guardian, Silas with the lupine Miss Lupescu, Mother Slaughter, Josiah Worthington and the poet Nehemiah Trot, and my favorite, the Roman Caius Pompeius. Although still hunted by the murderer, Bod enjoys protection when he is within the confines of the graveyard. Such a setting provides the background for all sorts of macrabre adventures and ghostly encounters.

Bod's life passes in front of us and we grow to really love this boy who has his share of troubles. One very poignant scene is how he is bullied by his schoolmates when he attempt to attend a school outside the graveyard. He has thirsted for knowledge, but has to give up his dream when classmates make his life there totally miserable. As a little boy he develops a real friendship with a Scarlett, a girl who visits the graveyard with her mother. As the chapters ensue, she disappears for a while, but then reappears as the book reaches its climax. As one might expect Bod meets up again with a man Jack and the all the supernatural entities that Gaiman can muster.

As a reflect on the book, I realize that it was an incredibly written and complex story, full of ghostly haunts and "personages", but also that there was something missing in the first third of the book. It took me a while to really get into it, but by the end I was emotionally hooked and even a bit teary-eyed as the last pages were turned. It is a book that should satisfy all those who are looking for story that is scary and haunting.

13 Little Blue Envelopes by Maureen Johnson

It has been some while since I posted to the blog, although I did read this title a few months ago. Time has been taken up with classes, my Latin class, a flower sale and of course the Burgen und Berge trip to Europe. Suffice it to say in a month reading will once again become a priority in my life.

Ginny is a normal seventeen year old living in New Jersey whose life changes when she receives a letter from her Aunt Peg, a free spirited woman who would often disappear for months at a time only to show up with incredible tales of adventures. In the letter is a an ATM card and instructions for Ginny to get a passport, book a ticket to London and follow all subsequent instructions in the 12 Little Blue Envelopes. She cannot take a mobile phone, laptop, have any electronic contact with her friends, and must fit everything that she does take into a backpack. The book's adventure begins as she journeys to London and is directed to a flat that her aunt once shared with Richard.

As she finished the tasks in one envelope, Ginny is directed to the next. As she does this she travels all over Europe from Scotland to Rome to Amsterdam. Johnson's description of the places she visits is accurate and enticing. As one who loves to travel and experience different cultures and venues, this book proved to be quite intriguing. There are twists, turns, and a mystery all wrapped up in the pages.

Along the way she meets many people. She is adopted by an American family, the Knapps, in Amsterdam. Being awakened in the morning by a cheery "mother" with a schedule of the day's events hit a nerve as I saw a bit of me in her. It began with a visit to the museum at 9 am and ended with bedtime at 10 pm. Everything in the middle of the itinerary was scheduled to the minute.

This was a delightful book and one that would appeal to all who have a penchant for adventure and travel. The ending took me a bit by surprise, but I won't spoil it by sharing here. You'll have to read it and find out for yourself.

What I Saw and How I Lied by Judy Blundell

It is 1947 and Evie Spooner is living a relatively dull life in Queens, NY. Her mother, Beverly has been holding down the home front while her step-dad Joe was fighting in WWII. Beverly is a beautiful blond who tends to be overprotective of Evie and who wants her daughter to stay a child. Joe owns a couple of businesses and seems to be on the road to prosperity when he begins to receive anonymous phone calls that bring on a very angry side to him. On the spur of the moment, after one of these calls, he announces that the family is going on vacation to Palm Beach, FL. Evie is distressed that she will be missing her friends and eventually her school.

When the family arrives in Florida, the place seems like a ghost town. Most of the hotels are boarded up and they are lucky to find accommodation at the Le Mirage. Here they meet and are befriended by the Graysons, a wealthy couple from NYC. It is also here that Peter Coleridge makes his presence known. To Evie, he is an incredibly good looking man who shows romantic interest in Evie. To Joe, he is an acquaintance from the war who has secrets that increase Joe's anxiety. Evie is smitten and finds ways to be with Peter even if she knows the consequences will cause her to grow up very quickly.

Joe and the Graysons develop a business scheme that will make all wealthy. But Peter may have some knowledge to foil the plans. As the plot develops the reader feels that he or she may not be aware of all that is going on in the lives of the Spooners or their acquaintances. Where does Beverly go for such long spells, what does the bell-boy Wally know about Peter and Evie, and why do the Graysons suddenly leave the hotel? In the end after a violent hurricane strikes the area and a horrible tragedy ensues, Evie must come to a realization as to what she really wants in life.

What I Saw and How I Lied was the winner of the National Book Award in the Young Adult category. It was truly deserving. The novel is a period piece of the late 1940s and also a most intriguing mystery. It is a page turner with the characters being alive and energized by ulterior motives. It is dark and foreboding, but in the end Blundell resolves those mysteries that change her characters.

Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates

Revolutionary Road is another book upon which an acclaimed movie has been based this year. It is beautifully written, tho honest and disturbing. It chronicles the suburban life of Frank and April Wheeler in the 1950s. They are supposedly living the American dream, but they perceive their life is seriously lacking meaning. Frank is an account sales manager, April, a housewife and mother. His job is to bring home the bacon and wear the pants in the family and hers is to run the household. But neither is satisfied and so they decide to leave their Connecticut home and take up residence in France. She will work while he reflects on his life and tries to decide what he wants to be. This all seems well and good until circumstances arise that cause them to take pause and rethink the decision.

Throughout the book the tension is taut and emotional. Frank and April engage in frequent and violent arguments. Their battle stems from who is in control and how much control can be exerted. It is a brutally honest snapshot of life in the 50s. Yates' mastery of dialogue brings this book to life. His portrayal of Frank and April is a well-developed character study. The minor characters - Milly and Shep Campbell, John, Howard, and Mrs. Givings - add to the insight into Frank and April and provide a more intimate revelation of the interrelationships.

The ending, shocking as it were, had to happen. And life goes on, witnessed by the willingness of the Campbells to put their friendship out their minds and Howard turning his hearing aid off. A definite contemporary masterpiece.

The Reader by Bernhard Schlink

Christmas vacation, some airport and flying time was enough to finish The Reader. I am driven to try to read a novel before seeing a movie and knowing that Kate Winslet would probably be nominated for her work in the adaptation of Schlink's work, this novel was next on my "to read" list. It was a fast read, but one that posed many ethical and moral issues.

Set in a post-Holocaust Germany, Michael Berg, a 15 year-old, gets ill on his way home from school. Hanna Schmitz, a middle-aged streetcar attendant, helps him. Determined to thank her, Michael returns to her home and is seduced by her. The next months see both Hanna and Michael consumed with the trysts that ensue. Michael reads classic literature to her, they take a long bicycle trip, and are passionate about each other. Then one day Hanna vanishes without notice to anyone. Michael grieves for her and blames himself for her disappearance.

Part 2 opens with Hanna being tried as a war criminal. Michael is attending law school and happens to be observing the trial. He faces a moral and ethical dilemma as to whether to help her and possibly free her while at the same time revealing information about her past that she surely would not want made public.

In the last part of the book, Michael and Hanna meet again. She is in jail and he sends her books on tape. He has kept her secret and their secret. To say anymore would give much too much away about the book's end. Suffice it to say that The Reader will engage the reader as it portrays Germany in the 1950's and the way that it must reconcile the horrendous atrocities of the Holocaust with the role its citizens played during and after the Nazi regime.

The Private Patient by P.D. James

It has been a while since the blog has been updated. Unfortunately, the demands of preparing for the trip, Latin class, learning the Promethean board, and the general busy life, have usurped reading time. I was very conflicted about the new James book. Do I spend an undue amount and order it from the U.K or do I behave in a fiscally responsible way and wait for the U.S. release. I did manage to wait and promised myself that it would be my Thanksgiving read. And it was. P.D. James is the ultimate English mystery writer, IMHO. The Private Patient was worth the wait.

Set in the English countryside, the book details the last days of Rhoda Gradwyn, an investigative reporter, who goes to Cheverell Manor, a private clinic, to undergo plastic surgery. Commander Adam Dalgliesh is called to investigate with his team. The suspects are assembled in one place and include the manor staff, the surgeon and medical team, a close acquaintance of Rhoda's and another patient. Each has something to hide and we are left to figure out the real motive. Woven into the story is a subplot of a lynching that took place 350 years ago and the mysterious haunted stones that stand behind the manor house. With the help of assistant Kate Miskin, Dalgliesh deconstructs the alibis and motives to reach the solution.

James writes with such a command of the English language that one is tempted to read the novel out loud just to hear the sheer beauty of the way the words are woven together. Her plots are craftily woven and always have the requisite number of twists and turns to keep the reader on the edge of the seat. The Private Patient didn't disappoint and although a number of series story lines are seemingly wrapped up in the book, I remain hopeful that James will have another offering in the future. There are not many who can put together language, plot, and characters like she can.

The Road by Cormac McCarthy

Cormac McCarthy has been hailed as one accomplished writers of our era. The Road certainly is testimony to that statement. It is haunting, lyrical, depressing and full of love. It is an apocalyptic time in the future after an "event" has left the United States covered in gray ash. A man and his son with only a few blankets, a lighter, and a shopping cart are trying to get to what seems like the sea and the southern U.S. The narrative is without chapters and has only minimal punctuation as the two journey. It becomes cyclical as over and over again they find a dilapidated shelter, a bit food, some other lost people. But through it all Papa and the boy continue on because that is what they should do. They are the ones that carry the fire, the fire that gives them the impetus to live and to journey on.

The father is the protector and he will do what is necessary to keep his son alive. He carries a gun with two bullets in case it might be necessary to end the suffering. The son is incredibly morally grounded. He can't comprehend the idea that the when the pair meet a young boy on the road they don't stop to help the child. And so it goes as they travel on. With every step the father becomes sicker and sicker, coughing up blood, but so determined to live for his son. The ending is inevitable and we feel saddened for the boy who must go on.

This book could be used in so many instances on the Advanced Placement Exam. The language and style are the epitome of modern prose. I am anxious to see the film adaptation
starring Viggo Mortensen that will open this November. From the credits it seems that the mother may have more of a role than the brief glimpses that we get in the book of her shortened life.

Definitely another book that will stay with the reader as we ponder our place in this world and its future.

The Wednesday Wars by Gary Schmidt

We are magically transported back to the 1960s in Gary Schmidt's Newbery Honor book, The Wednesday Wars. It is September of 1967 and Holling Hoodhood is starting the 7th grade. He is the only Presbyterian in a class of Catholic and Jewish students and consequently has no place to go when the rest of his class leaves on Wednesdays to go to religious education classes. It is then that he decides that his teacher, Mrs. Baker, hates him. She first has him doing very meaningless chores like cleaning blackboards and erasers. (How many remember cleaning erasers against a brick wall?) But when that doesn't work out as she plans, she decides that he will begin reading Shakespeare. Total proof that she hates him.

Schmidt craftily weaves the Shakespearean plays into Holling's life both in and out of school. He becomes totally involved in the plays and realizes that the Bard speaks to junior high boys as well as English teachers. Holling even joins a community group and plays Ariel in the local theatre production. Needless to say he suffers some repercussions from this decision. 1967-1968 were tumultuous years with the Viet Nam War, the assassinations of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Bobby Kennedy, atomic bomb drills, and the peace movements. They were also the years of Ralph Houck's Yankees and we meet so many of the memorable players of those years like Mel Stottlemyre, Mickey Mantle and Joe Pepitone. There are numerous other subplots involving Holling's father's architectural firm, his sister's running away from home, classmates, and Mrs. Baker's husband who is a soldier in Viet Nam. We get much of the news from the venerable Walter Cronkite.

This book is a gem and well deserving of the Newbery Honor. It is funny, no actually hilarious, and thought-provoking. It is a shame that the cover does not do the inside of the book justice. It is not enticing and that is a definite shame. Read this book and have a thoroughly enjoying experience. For classroom teachers, it begs to be read aloud. Have fun on a trip back in time!

Streams of Babel by Carol Plum-Ucci

It was very frustrating reading this latest novel by Plum-Ucci. It is a real page-turner, but unfortunately, I couldn't devote all my time to reading it. Be prepared to only want to read when you pick up Streams of Babel. Set in New Jersey in 2002, it is the frightening, but all too plausible circumstance of bio- terrorism that is at its center. Cora Holman's mother, Aleese, has suffered a debilitating injury, is addicted to morphine, and has died of an overdose. But did she really? The autopsy indicates it really was a brain aneurysm. How coincidental is it that the mother of one of the paramedics responding to the emergency call is also sick with the flu and exhibits the same symptoms as Cora's mother. Determined to ward off the bug, Mrs. Ederman downs an extraordinary amount of water. It is to no avail and she also succumbs. Results of the autopsy - brain aneurysm. But how much does the water she and Cora's mother drank have to d0 with their deaths?

The novel is told in alternating voices of Cora Holman, Scott and Owen Ederman, Rain Steckman whose father is head of USIC (US Intelligence Coalition), Shazhad Hamdani, a young Pakistani who is v-spying for the USIC, and Tyler Ping, a young Korean who eats pills and hacks computers. Shazhad has intercepted chatter about Red Vinegar and the intent to kill a significant number of people in Colony One. But will he be able to get information to the U.S. officials quickly enough to save the lives of Rain, Cora, and Owen?

The friendship and interaction among the teens is natural and believable. The idea of water supplies being targets for terrorists is more than frightening and credibly portrayed. As the terrorists are exposed the reader has a sense of urgency to finish the book and find that they are aptly punished. But, is that reality? The suspense will hold the reader beyond the final page of the book. A great solid teen-read!

Moscow Rules by Daniel Silva

Last year I discovered Daniel Silva and I spent last summer reading all 7 of his Gabriel Allon novels. I couldn't wait for his new book, Moscow Rules to come out this summer. I wasn't disappointed. Allon is an agent for the Israeli Mossad and is also an incredibly gifted art restorer. Silva tackles world issues through the activities of Allon and has earned his place, in my opinion, next to Robert Ludlum and Frederick Forsythe, two of my favorite authors in the spy and international intrigue genre. Moscow Rules begins with the horrible death of Aleksandre Lubin, a Russian journalist, in France. He has information about a Russian plot to sell arms to terrorists. Allon is called from his honeymoon in Umbria to make contact with a another Russian journalist in Rome to get information about Lubin's death and of the impending terrorist activities. The meeting goes sour and Allon becomes fully involved in the investigation, much to the chagrin of his new wife, also an Israeli agent.

The action moves from Rome to London to Moscow all with lightning speed. On the journey Ari Shamron, Sarah Bancroft, Eli Lavon, and Uzi Navot, characters from previous Silva novels, join the investigation. It is journey that keeps you on the edge of your seat as Allon, the English, American, and French governments attempt to capture ringleader Ivan Kharkhov and intercept the shipment. Adding to the intrigue is the willingness of Kharkhov's wife Elena to cooperate with Allon. As the plan is fabricated and the mission becomes clear, we know that the danger to all involved is life-threatening and we are fascinated as to how Ivan will be thwarted and Elena and intelligence agents will get out alive. Mindful of the "Moscow Rules," the rules of engagement developed by the CIA during the Cold War Period, each of the operatives knows his or her role and must not deviate from it.

There is no shortage of plot twists and turns in this novel as we revel in Silva's magnificent use of language and description. One feels the quiet and comfort of Umbria, the rich life of Saint-Tropez, and the tenseness of clandestine meetings in Washington, London, and Moscow. You just can't get enough. And so the wait commences until the next thriller by Daniel Silva is published.