The Thirteenth Princess by Diane Zahler

The Thirteenth Princess by Diane Zahler

Do you remember the fairytale where the king hired a prince to find out why his daughters shoes were danced through every night even though they were not allowed to leave their room? That was my favorite fairytale.

I wonder how the modern remake will stand up?

Fly, Little Bird, Fly! by Donna Nordmark Aviles

Fly, Little Bird, Fly! by Donna Nordmark Aviles

There is so much US history that is not taught in schools. I think this would have been an interesting subject to study, especially when you realize how these children grew up to shape the American Midwest.

On Butterfly Faith by Katrina L. Wampler

On Butterfly Faith by Katrina L. Wampler

Doesn't it seem that when you are sad all the books and movies you find to entertain you are sad as well? I don't know if I can read another book that makes me cry. But its on my list now.

Cell by Steven King

Cell by Steven King

2006 Pocket Star Books

I have never been a fan of science fiction. I have my favorites - Octavia E. Butler of course - but ordinarily I avoid science fiction. What bothers me most about science fiction novels are that they are usually based on characters and situations that can never occur in real life. I like being grounded in real life at all times, situated in real situations with real people, people I can connect with. However, I must admit, begrudgingly, that I liked Cell. I really enjoyed this book.

The book cover reads,

" Graphic artist Clay Riddell was in the heart of Boston on that brilliant autumn afternoon when hell was unleashed before his eyes. Without warning, carnage and chaos reigned. Ordinary people fell victim to the basest most animalistic destruction.

And the apocalypse began with the ring of a cell phone..."

Don't five sentence captions drive you crazy? This book is the story of a technological war, when cell phones erase all that is good and caring in man and leaves them with the survival instincts of a mountain lion: kill or be killed. The empathy and gentleness that defines man has been replaced with a murderous instinct. The few survivors now face a war, how do they survive each day when they are surrounded by murderous zombies? And how do they save the ones they love?

The novel continues with the zombie-like humans slowly regaining their senses and developing extraordinary abilities. They begin to gather as one and working towards one goal, with a definite leader. It is up to Clay and a ragtag group of "normies" that he has collected on his journey to protect the rest of the remaining "normies" wandering around the U.S. from the organizing zombies. And to find a cure.

Unlike most Stephen King novels this one isn't scary so much as it is disturbing and eye-opening. There are a number of wonderfully bloody and macabre scenes in this book. Yet they don't lead to nightmares.

This book begs the question; are we such slaves to technology that man could easily be so corrupted by it? It almost makes me want to have technology free days, putting away my Blackberry, my laptop and my desktop.

You Suck: A Love Story by Christopher Moore

You Suck: A Love Story by Christopher Moore
2007 HarperCollins

My brother knows good books. Usually. Whenever he hands me a book and says "You'll like it" he' s usually right. When he handed me You Suck he also gave me a word of caution. His exact words were "Read this like its a movie." I should have followed his advice the first time I read the book.

The first time through You Suck was annoying. It was like reading the script for Reaper and Twilight and having no clue whats going on. It was an okay read the first time around, vampires running from vampire hunters with a super annoying girl Friday. Then I re-read the book with my brothers instructions. What a difference!

You Suck is an enjoyable book. Its funny without being too slapstick. The characters remind you of all the people you went to college with. C. Thomas Flood, the male lead, reminds you of a favorite, well-meaning but not too bright cousin who comes to visit. Abby Normal is Tommy's very willing minion with more mouth than common sense. In fact, Abby is my favorite character in the book. Tommy is okay but he is so pathetic and needy its almost sad. There's also Jody Stroud, Tommy's vampire girlfriend who changed him over to the fanged side, a blue (literally) prostitute, a really fat cat and his drunk homeless owner and The Animals. The Animals are the guys who were at the frat house who drank too much and took 12 years to graduate, but had a good time on the way to the podium.

The book cover summary reads:

You bitch, you killed me. You suck!"

Being dead sucks. Make that being undead sucks.

Literally. Just ask Thomas C. Flood. Waking up after a fantastic night unlike anything he's ever experienced, he discovers that his girlfriend, Jody—the woman of his dreams—is a vampire. And surprise! Now he's one, too.

For some couples, the whole biting-and-blood thing would have been a deal breaker. But Tommy and Jody are in love, and they vow to work through their issues. Like how much Jody should teach Tommy about his new superpowers (and how much he needs to learn on his own). Plus there's Tommy's cute new minion, sixteen-year-old goth girl Abby Normal. (Well, someone has to run errands during daylight hours!)

Making the relationship work, however, is the least of Jody and Tommy's problems. Word has it that the vampire who nibbled on Jody wasn't supposed to be recruiting any new members into the club. Even worse, Tommy's erstwhile turkey-bowling pals are out to get him, at the urging of a blue-dyed Las Vegas call girl named (duh) Blue.

And that really sucks.

And like all book covers it gives you just enough info to encourage minor interest but with none of the fun stuff like:

And the cop was all, "Can I see your student ID?"

And I was like, FUCK, because I didn't know which college would be most likely to have a sorority, so I went with my Berkley student ID, because Berkeley is a well known bastion of hippie behavior and higher learning in which a sorority girl would probably have to blow like a hundred football players just to keep her GPA up. And cops like football.

Ok. What?
That's what I'm talking about. You can't read that paragraph in your head like a normal sentence. You have to imagine 16 year old Goth wannabe Abby standing in front of the cops trying to get back to protecting her master (a one week old vampire) and his lover. How can you not love that?

You Suck is the continuation of a series of "Love Stories" with vampires doing the proverbial dance of love. This is the first Moore book that I have read, and to be honest, unless my brother puts another one on my dresser I most likely wont read another one. But I did enjoy this book and would recommend it if you need a little cheering up or a light read at the beach.

The Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum

The Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum


There are so many books that I never read as a kid (and to be honest I never wanted to). But I promised myself this year I would tackle all the books I should have read - that I lied and said I read and watched the movie instead. First on the list: THE WIZARD OF OZ!

The Women by T.C. Boyle

The Women by T.C. Boyle

The Women from jamieson on Vimeo.

Putting this in my maybe pile.

Social Security by Robert Karpie

Social Security by Robert Karpie

Havent you ever wondered what would happen if old people led a rebellion?

The Tear Collector by Patrick Jones

The Tear Collector by Patrick Jones



I'm almost done with the whole "supernatural going against the herd" thing. But I'll give it one last shot.

The Legend Of The Golden Monkey by Renee Hand

The Legend Of The Golden Monkey by Renee Hand






Sounds fun!

Atmospheric Disturbances by Rivka Galchen

Atmospheric Disturbances by Rivka Galchen

2008 Farrar, Strauss and Giroux

Let's be honest. Sometimes the book trailer is much better than the book. A lot better. This is one of those times. Its disappointing. The book trailer, look a good movie trailer,leads you to believe in the book, to believe in the promise of the book. It makes you look forward to sitting in your favorite chair with your cup of tea and devouring page after page. But that isn't what happens. Instead, you force yourself to finish each sentence, promising yourself that you are closer and closer to the end. ATMOSPHERIC DISTURBANCES was a disappointment that completely failed to fall anywhere near where the trailer took the viewer.

To be fair to myself I did not go into this book blind. I had the book trailer, which was beautiful and reputable book reviews. The book jacket reads:

When Dr. Leo Liebenstein’s wife disappears, she leaves behind a single, confounding clue: a woman who looks, talks, and behaves exactly like her—or almost exactly like her—and even audaciously claims to be her. While everyone else is fooled by this imposter, Leo knows better than to trust his senses in matters of the heart. Certain that the original Rema is alive and in hiding, Leo embarks on a quixotic journey to reclaim his lost love.

With the help of his psychiatric patient Harvey—who believes himself to be a secret agent who can control the weather—Leo attempts to unravel the mystery of the spousal switch. His investigation leads him to the enigmatic guidance of the meteorologist Dr. Tzvi Gal-Chen, the secret workings of the Royal Academy of Meteorology in their cosmic conflict with the 49 Quantum Fathers, and the unwelcome conviction that somehow he—or maybe his wife, or maybe even Harvey—lies at the center of all these unfathomables. From the streets of New
York to the southernmost reaches of Patagonia, Leo’s erratic quest becomes a test of how far he is willing to take his struggle against the seemingly uncontestable truth he knows in his heart to be false.

Atmospheric Disturbances is at once a moving love story, a dark comedy, a psychological thriller, and a deeply disturbing portrait of a fracturing mind. With tremendous compassion and dazzling literary sophistication, Rivka Galchen investigates the moment of crisis when you suddenly realize that the reality you insist upon is no longer one you can accept, and the person you love has become merely the
person you live with. This highly inventive debut explores the mysterious nature of human relationships, and how we spend our lives trying to weather the storms of our own making.

Doesn't that sound exciting and new? I thought so. and this book was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year, a Salon.com Top Ten Book of the Year, a Plain Dealer (Cleveland) Best Book of the Year and a Slate Best Book of the Year.

How?

I don't know. This book is completely unimpressive.

I cant narrow down one thing I dislike most about ATMOSPHERIC DISTURBANCES. I don't know if it is the characters. The neurotic, almost psychotic husband was not a good choice for a narrator. The wife or simulcrum seems like a caricature of a woman. She behaves in ways that seem comical rather than loving and concerned. There is the dead/ not dead mentor who adds little to the story other than to add to the confusion. AND the Royal Academy of Meteorology. I don't know what to say about them. Were they necessary? Not to me.

The absolute worst part of the book were the meteorological papers that the narrator (Leo) and Harvey (Leo's psych patient) use to get messages from Dr. Gal-Chen. They were weighty, lengthy and added nothing to the furtherment of the story. I understand that they were supposed to demonstrate the mental lengths that Leo was willing to go to to find his wife and demonstrate the deterioration of his mind but they seemed out of place in the action that the novel tried to portray.

What I really did enjoy about ATMOSPHERIC DISTURBANCES was the love story. Galchen has beautiful language and portrays Leo and Rema's love realistically and with the proper amount of emotion. Leo running from the 'imposter' wife is sad but beautiful at the same time. He loves his wife so much he is willing to travel around the world to find her but has lost so much of the love he had for her that he doesn't realize when she is standing before him. This book captured well what happens when love fades or changes and the lovers do not change with it.

I would not recommend this book to anyone. There was nothing about it i enjoyed. However, based on the reviews that I found plenty of others did so enjoy it at your own peril.

31 Hours by Masha Hamilton

31 Hours by Masha Hamilton

Cleopatra's Daughter by Michelle Moran

Cleopatra's Daughter by Michelle Moran

2009 Crown Publishers

Historical Romances can go one of two ways for me.I had a burnout moment for a while (OD'd on Phillippa Gregory) but I felt that I was ready for a comeback. I was right and CLEOPATRA'S DAUGHTER was a good 'welcome back'.

Almost everyone knows the story of Cleopatra and Marc Antony. One of the greatest love stories of all time, killed herself so that she wouldn't have to live without him, yadda, yadda, yadda. I dont think too many people stop to ask themselves what happened afterward. I never did. I never even knew Cleopatra had children. But she did. And they had their own interesting and complicated lives.

I really enjoyed this book. It was a delightful mixture of history, love story and real life situations without being lecture-hallish (i love when I get to make up my own words) or long winded. The author was able to create scenes that sometimes allowed the reader to forget they weren't reading contemporary literature and really just enjoy the characters. And Moran managed to avoid the part of historical romance that I dread, when the writer gets caught up in authentic language. Sometimes that can be so distracting. But the language in CLEOPATRA'S DAUGHTER was not overly Latin, Greek or anything else.

By the way, the authors website (michellemoran.com) is amazing. There is this really great interactive map that shows Rome in the Selene's day.

From the book jacket:

The marriage of Marc Antony and Cleopatra is one of the greatest love stories of all time, a tale of unbridled passion with earth-shaking political consequences. Feared and hunted by the powers in Rome, the lovers choose to die by their own hands as the triumphant armies of Antony’s vengeful rival, Octavian, sweep into Egypt. Their three orphaned children are taken in chains to Rome, but only two—the ten-year-old twins Selene and Alexander—survive the journey. Delivered to the household of Octavian’s sister, the siblings cling to each other and to the hope that they will return one day to their rightful place on the throne of Egypt. As they come of age, they are buffeted by the personal ambitions of Octavian’s family and court, by the ever-present threat of slave rebellion, and by the longings and desires deep within their own hearts.

The fateful tale of Selene and Alexander is brought brilliantly to life in Cleopatra’s Daughter. Recounted in Selene’s youthful and engaging voice, it introduces a compelling cast of historical characters:

Octavia: the emperor Octavian’s kind and compassionate sister, abandoned by Marc Antony for Cleopatra
Livia: Octavian’s bitter and jealous wife
Marcellus: Octavian’s handsome, flirtatious nephew and heir-apparent
Tiberius: Livia’s sardonic son and Marcellus’s great rival for power
Juba: Octavian’s ever-watchful aide, whose honored position at court has far-reaching effects on the lives of the young Egyptian royals

Selene’s narrative is animated by the concerns of a young girl in any time and place —the possibility of finding love, the pull of friendship and family, and the pursuit of her unique interests and talents. While coping with the loss of both her family and her ancestral kingdom, Selene must find a path around the dangers of a foreign land. Her accounts of life in Rome are filled with historical details that vividly capture both the glories and horrors of the time. She dines with the empire’s most illustrious poets and politicians, witnesses the creation of the Pantheon, and navigates the colorful, crowded marketplaces of the city where Roman-style justice is meted out with merciless authority.

Based on meticulous research, Cleopatra’s Daughter is a fascinating portrait of Imperial Rome and of the people and events of this glorious and tumultuous period in human history. Emerging from the shadows of history, Selene, a young woman of irresistible charm and preternatural intelligence, will capture your heart.

Oh. My. Gods. : Goddess Bootcamp Tera Lynn Childs

Oh. My. Gods. : Goddess Bootcamp by Tera Lynn Childs

Lately, there seem to be an abundancy of young adult books with mythology themes. Maybe, I am just paying more attntion. But I'm not complaining. I love ancient Greek lore and I wish it was taught more in schools.

We are the ship : the story of Negro League baseball by Kadir Nelson

We are the Ship : the Story of Negro League Baseball
by Kadir Nelson

I got this trailer from a teaching website. (Can you tell?) An important and little discussed period in American history.

Emily the Strange: Seeing is Believing by Rob Reger

Emily the Strange: Seeing is Believing by Rob Reger

2006 Cosmic Debris

?

That's my review.

I didn't get EMILY THE STRANGE. I did some research. I still don't get it. There's a girl named Emily who sees the world in a very unique way. That's it. It's a graphic novel.

From the book trailer for EMILY THE STRANGE: THE LOST DAYS I expected something more. What exactly? I don't know. The book wasn't bad. It wasn't good. It didn't teach me anything or make me laugh. The illustrations were amazing. That's it.

Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters by Jane Austin and Ben H. Winters

Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters by Jane Austen and Ben H. Winters
2009 Quirk Productions Inc.

Apparently I missed a new genre in the last couple of years when I didn't read anything new. There's a new book in town in case you missed it: pairing a classic book with zombies and other monsters. Some titles I missed Mr. Darcy, Vampyre, Vampire Darcy's Desire, The War of the Worlds Plus Blood, Guts and Zombies, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and Zombie Jim, etc. I could go on and on but I wont. The point is; I am mad I missed these books. Based on SENSE AND SENSIBILITY AND SEA MONSTERS I would have enjoyed this entire genre and unfortunately, now I just don't have the time to fit them all in .

On August 31st I put the book trailer for SENSE AND SENSIBILITY AND SEA MONSTERS on this site. In regards to the other book trailers and book reviews that I have posted this is by far the most entertaining trailer that accurately captures the book. This book is Sense and Sensibility as read ad nauseum in high school and college lit classes but it is also the story of the Dashwood sisters and their love lives amid man-eating sea creatures. It takes a book that haunted me throughout college's and made the Dashwoods pleasurable again. I didn't think this could be done. All the original SENSE AND SENSIBILITY characters are there; Margaret, Elinor, Col. Brandon, Marianne, Edward Ferrars, etc. etc. However, there is a twist (and a pretty good one). Man is at war with all sea creatures. This is not FINDING NEMO.

Due to man's war with the sea creatures there is a sea witch that figures prominently in the story, poor Colonel Brandon suffers from an affliction that makes him even more undesirable than his age, and there are a great number of murderous octopus. (I LOVE WHEN THINGS GET DEAD! )

The problem with a lot of these Darcy revisited books is that the language is all wrong or the characters are too modern for their time. Mr. Winters does not seem to suffer from that problem. The Misses Dashwood are properly 19th century marraige market brides but with the edge that one would expect from those fighting for each day. Margaret is made much more interesting with her own storyline, which makes her seem like something more than a pre-teen brat. Marianne is still hopelessly romantic and foolish but it seems much more realistic when paired with the threat of immediate death via angry whale of cross-eyed puffer fish. The following is a sample of the properly Victorian language with a modern twist.

Elinor's office was a painful one. She was going to remove what she believed to be her sisters chief consolation, to give such particulars of Edward as she feared would ruin him forever in her good opinion, and to make Marianne, by a seeming resemblance in their situations, which to her fancy would seem strong, feel all her disappointment over again. But unwelcome as such a task must be, like the scraping of barnacles off a long-neglected hull, it was necessary to be done.

What beautiful and authentic language.

I wholeheartedly endorse this book. I wish I had more time to devote to reading more in this emerging genre and will try to cover more titles as they come across my desk. If any of you read any good new monster literature please send me the title so I can pick it up.

Other Reviews:
Entertainment Weekly - Lisa Schwarzbaum
Lisa Schwarzbaum is a film critic for EW
Had Jane Austen observed waterborne horrors like giant octopi and monstrous jellyfish — not to mention the Devonshire Fang-Beast — there's no doubt she would have written prettily about them. As it is, the land-based 19th-century lady stuck to what she knew when writing Sense and Sensibility, leaving Brooklyn-based 21st-century wordsmith Ben H. Winters to provide the fish-tailed portion of Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters.
And here we have a whale of a problem. It may be a truth universally acknowledged that a publisher in possession of a hit with the hipster mash-up Pride and Prejudice and Zombies must be in want of a follow-up, pronto. But that doesn't mean the great Jane's novels can be grafted to any high-low premise, or her wry elegance improved by naughty-rude adjustments. Can it be that in the rush to turn a charming book novelty into a renewable resource, the whole Austen-and-monsters series has already jumped the shark? The second project strays much further from the original text than the first did. It's made goofier by the intrusion of a Jules Verne-inspired plot detour during which the Dashwood sisters descend to Sub-Marine Station Beta on the ocean floor. For no real payoff, courteous Colonel Brandon is now a gentleman with squishy tentacles dangling from his face. And suave Willoughby is now accompanied by a defecating pet orangutan.
There are plenty of menaces — androids, bugs, people who text while driving — still available for book packagers to mingle with other Austen masterpieces, but I'll second Mr. Bennet in Pride and Prejudice when he says, ''You have delighted us long enough.''

Year of Wonders: A Novel of the Plague Year by Geraldine Brooks

Year of Wonders: A Novel of the Plague by Geraldine Brooks
2001 Penguin Books

I have been watching a lot of reality TV lately; some good, a lot bad. I have found myself drawn to the tales of everyday heroism. Mothers who, in times of crisis, find themselves able to lift trucks off their trapped child or people who perform at-home surgery on family members when the doctor is unavailable. I have found myself wondering could I be such a hero? Its nice to think that if my child was trapped in a burning building I would find the power to kick down the door and rescue him. But would I do the same for my next door neighbor, who is like a second mother to me? What about the neighbor down the street that I am on waving status with?
The YEAR OF WONDERS is the story of a true heroine, who put aside her personal reticence to comfort her neighbors during an outbreak of the plague. Based on a true account of a town that secluded itself from its neighbors when the plague arrives YEAR OF WONDERS details the activities of said town over the course of a year as it deals with the consequences of its voluntary seclusion and the plague.There is more death than I expected, some graphic, most not. There is a surprising amount of romance and 20th century ideals.
I enjoyed this book immensely. In fact, I put it on the "Do NOT Lend" shelf of my personal library. The main character/ narrator Anna Frith is a refreshing heroine. She is not too brash or too subservient. She adapts, as we all do, to the circumstances she is in. Anna develops throughout the story and in the end, is quite a different creature than at the beginning of the book. I appreciated how all of the characters are flawed but within reason. Too many times over the course of the past year I have read bad characters how are bad for no reason or syrupy sweet characters who continue to be naive and trusting though the world shows them different. The characters in YEAR OF WONDERS are real people. Their emotions and reactions change with the situation and the environments and within reason. There was plenty of room in this novel for the author to let the characters become caricatures of real people but she manages to stay within the boundary of real life.
I recommend this book wholeheartedly.

Summary:
This gripping historical novel is based on the true story of Eyam, the "Plague Village," tucked in the rugged mountain spine of England. In 1666, when an infected bolt of cloth carries plague from London to the isolated settlement of shepherds and lead miners, a housemaid named Anna Frith emerges as an unlikely heroine and healer. Through Anna’s eyes the reader follows the story of the plague year, as her fellow villagers make an extraordinary choice: convinced by a visionary young minister they elect to quarantine themselves within the village boundaries to arrest the spread of the disease. As the death toll rises and people turn from prayers and herbal cures to sorcery and murderous witch-hunting, Anna must confront the deaths of family, the disintegration of her community, and the lure of illicit love.

Other Reviews:

From Publishers Weekly
Discriminating readers who view the term historical novel with disdain will find that this debut by praised journalist Brooks (Foreign Correspondence) is to conventional work in the genre as a diamond is to a rhinestone. With an intensely observant eye, a rigorous regard for period detail, and assured, elegant prose, Brooks re-creates a year in the life of a remote British village decimated by the bubonic plague. Inspired by the actual town commemorated as Plague Village because of the events that transpired there in 1665-1666, Brooks tells her harrowing story from the perspective of 18-year-old Anna Frith, a widow with two young sons. Anna works as a maid for vicar Michael Mompellion and his gentle, selfless wife, Elinor, who has taught her to read. When bubonic plague arrives in the community, the vicar announces it as a scourge sent by God; obeying his command, the villagers voluntarily seal themselves off from the rest of the world. The vicar behaves nobly as he succors his dwindling flock, and his wife, aided by Anna, uses herbs to alleviate their pain. As deaths mount, however, grief and superstition evoke mob violence against "witches," and cults of self-flagellation and devil worship. With the facility of a prose artist, Brooks unflinchingly describes barbaric 17th-century customs and depicts the fabric of life in a poor rural area. If Anna's existential questions about the role of religion and ethical behavior in a world governed by nature seem a bit too sophisticated for her time, Brooks keeps readers glued through starkly dramatic episodes and a haunting story of flawed, despairing human beings. This poignant and powerful account carries the pulsing beat of a sensitive imagination and the challenge of moral complexity. (Aug. 6)Forecast: Brooks should be a natural on talk shows as she tells of discovering the town of Eyam, in Derbyshire, in 1990, and her research to unearth its remarkable history. With astute marketing, Viking will have a winner here. BOMC, Literary Guild and QPB featured alternates; 8-city author tour; rights sold in England, France, Germany, Israel, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain and Sweden.

Tempt Me At Twilight by Lisa Kleypas

Tempt Me At Twilight by Lisa Kleypas

This looks fun!

Grace Hammer by Sara Stockbridge

Grace Hammer by Sara Stockbridge

2009 W.W. Norton & Company

Usually I know in the first thirty pages if a book is worth reading. I always finish a book that I have started even if it physically pains me. That said, GRACE HAMMER and I got off to a rough start. The prose is more lyrical than readable, the story goes in circles and throws in background information at the most distracting times. However, the characters are interesting, the pace is fast and the final resolutions are not easy to figure out. In the end I liked this book when I dreaded having to finish what I had started.

GRACE HAMMER is the story of Grace Hammer, her four children and their lives in the underbelly of London. Grace is a professional thief and is training her three sons to be thieves as well. However, the victim of a theft she committed long before she had a family has shown up in her part of London bent on revenge.
One of the things that grew on me as the book progressed is the authors style. She has a way of talking in circles and describing things so that they are not easily recognizable. Her writing is riddle-like and in the first chapters, discouraging. I had to read the first three chapters twice to make sure that I was keeping the characters and the burgeoning plot straight. There were far too many minor characters that popped in and out of the story at will. This book would have been better served by keeping the minor characters low (just a suggestion).
The best thing about the book is how true the characters stayed to themselves. There was no bogus change of heart moment where all the prostitutes found nice housemaid jobs or Grace gave up hers. The bad guys were the bad guys, most of the rest of the characters were just trying to live their lives. Also, I really appreciated that this is not a 'feel good' book. The situations are what they were. Life is bleak and hardscrabble, with people self-medicating just to make it to the next day. There are prostitutes, drug addicts, loan sharks and murderers but there are also good-hearted people, caring foster parents and kind neighbors.
I would recommend this book with reservations. It is not the type of book to read if you want your characters to live fairytale lives, that just isn't going to happen. Also, this book does have a slow start so there will be moments of perseverance. Otherwise, GRACE HAMMER was an enjoyable read.