In the Courtyard of the Kabbalist / Ruchama King Feuerman 259 p.

Isaac has moved to Jerusalem from the Lower East Side in middle age, seeking meaning.  He winds up connecting with a famous rabbi who opens his courtyard on a daily basis to those who seek his wisdom and spiritual advice.  As Isaac helps the Rabbi tend to this frequently ragtag flock, his eczema improves.  At least it does, until he meets Tamar, a flamboyant newly-religious woman seeking a religious man, and Mustafa, a disabled Palestinian custodian with a knack for finding sacred artifacts on the Temple Mount.

It almost sounds like a setup for a sketch comedy.  Instead, it's a genuinely sweet, thoughtful, and believable story of love and faith.  The characters are extraordinarily real, so much so that it's easy to forgive some occasional sentimentality.  The view of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is one-sided but humane.

The Sleeper and the Spindle

The Sleeper and the Spindle by Neil Gaiman and illustrated by Chris Riddell, 66 pages

In this short story, Gaiman offers up his take on Sleeping Beauty (with a bit of Snow White thrown in for good measure). But while you still get the beautiful dozing girl locked high in a tower that's surrounded by thorny rosebushes, it's far from a traditional retelling. I enjoyed Gaiman's twists, as well as the humorous asides that he throws in as narrator. The standout here, however, is Riddell's detailed pen-and-ink illustrations. They're so wonderful that, even though you can easily finish this book in half an hour, it's worth spending much much longer with the book just to scour the details of the illustrations.

Get Carter by Ted Lewis

Get Carter by Ted Lewis, 217 pages.

Ted Lewis originally published this as Jack's Return Home in 1970. The movie, Get Carter, starring Michael Caine was released the following year. Soho Crime has reprinted this book, as well as the other two in the series and has chosen to use the movie name for this novel (Lewis, according to the author info, died in 1982 at the age of 42, so presumably had no say in the title change).
Carter holds a position of some power and respect in a feared London crime organization. As this noirish book opens Carter is heading to his hometown in the north of England. It's an industrial town and it's grim and gritty. Carter is not really a character who believes in sharing unnecessary details with those around him (or with the reader).When he tells someone that he encounters that he works for Gerald and Les he expects to be taken seriously. The people he runs into in this book know what that means. They all inhabit the same bleak, immoral world of dilapidated bars, cheap strip clubs, and cut-rate gambling joints.
Carter's brother, Frank, was a different sort of person. Growing up, Frank and Jack were very close. Frank didn't play by the dirty rules that all the criminals he grew up with and around followed. He tried to live an honest sort of life and ended up hating his brother Jack. When Frank dies, apparently in a drunken car crash, Jack decides to look into it, despite warnings from Les and Gerald

Fans of the late crime fiction and of Richard Stark (Donald Westlake) will like this book, as will fans of Lee Child, at least those who don't mind a complete lack of conscience in a main character.
Check our Catalog

All There Is

All There Is: Love Stories from StoryCorps edited by Dave Isay, 157 pages

This is my second dive into a StoryCorps transcript collection (read about the first one here), and it was again an excellent experience. This volume focuses on stories of romantic love, split into three sections themed on falling in love, losing love, and finding love after giving up on it. They're wonderful stories, told from the heart.

A Man Called Ove

A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman  337 pp.

I liked this book so much. It has a little bit of everything, humor, romance, conflict, drama, tragedy all packed in a very readable package. Ove is a very grumpy man, set in his ways, and dedicated to his principles which put him in conflict with just about everyone. He is determined to kill himself because he's had enough of life and wants to join his beloved late wife Sonja. But every suicide attempt is interrupted, by the hook falling out of the ceiling, a nearly frozen cat, a neighbor falling off a ladder, another neighbor needing radiators bled, and so on. In between these episodes the story of Ove's life is told. Eventually a crisis brings together Ove and his neighbors to right a wrong against the man who was once Ove's friend. The result changes Ove in ways he never imagined. 

The Truth is a Cave in the Black Mountains

The Truth is a Cave in the Black Mountains: A Tale of Travel and Darkness with Pictures of All Kinds by Neil Gaiman with illustrations by Eddie Campbell, 73 pages

With this illustrated novella (can't really call it a graphic novel, I suppose), Gaiman has once again created a beautiful simple tale, this time of two strangers, a man and his guide, traveling to a mystic cave full of cursed gold. As the haunting story unfolds, Gaiman reveals more and more about these mysterious traveling companions. Campbell's paintings offer an excellent companion to the prose. An awesome book.

Dear Committee Members

Dear Committee Members by Julie Schumacher, 180 pages

Jay Fitger is a beleaguered English professor, trapped in a land of constant funding cuts, construction debris (for the nearby economics department, of course, not the poor English department), and letters of recommendation. It's this final constant in Professor Fitger's life that comprises this book: recommendations for committee appointments, writers' retreats, graduate schools, and of course TONS of job applications, none of which seem to be related to a degree in English.

This was an enjoyable book, though Fitger is probably the last person you should ask to write you a letter of recommendation. The salacious elements of his past romances, the bald-faced and snarky way he dismisses those last-minute requests from students, the way he cannot stay on topic for more than a sentence or two... these letters were certainly fun to read, but only because they're not about us.

The Scar Boys

The Scar Boys by Len Vlahos, 256 pages
A 2015 Morris Award nominee

Harbinger Robert Francis Jones (Harry for short) hasn't had the best start in life. Recounting his life in an admission essay to get into college, Harry starts at age eight, when a group of neighborhood boys tied him to a tree as part of a game and then left him when a summer thunderstorm rolled in. While bullying is never good, Harry's situation is made worse when lightning strikes the tree he is tied to, causing a chunk of it to hit him on the head and then setting the tree (and him) on fire. Naturally, he comes out of this with an incredible fear of thunderstorms, anxiety around other kids, and a methadone addiction that he has to be weaned off from at the tender age of nine. You might think he would spend the rest of his childhood alone, as his facial scarring keeps a lot of kids away, but that changes when Johnny McKenna decides to be his friend. And things change even more when Johnny decides they should start a punk rock band. Calling themselves the Scar Boys, Harry focuses on the summer they get really good and decide to go on tour. Drawing from his own experience of being in a band, Len Vlahos spins an engaging tale about a boy finding his way through life, despite the cruddy start. Harry is relatable, and just self-deprecating enough to inspire sympathy and not annoyance. It's a great slice-of-life story, one that focuses on one moment in time than it does about a specific conflict (and the song title chapter names are a great touch). Great for fans of underdogs, punk rock, or anyone into an easy story about figuring out who you are and the road to getting there.

(Read as part of YALSA's Morris/Nonfiction Challenge.)

The Glad Hand of God Points Backwards: Poems / Rachel Mennies, 79 p.

Mennies' poems treat her grandparents' Holocaust experiences as well as her own contemporary life in Philadelphia. Fluid and technically pleasing, they are for my taste too emotionally overwrought. I suspect in isolation any single poem might have seemed interesting, but as a collection she is too insistent on the dramatic kick in the teeth effect. My favorite was "Schonewetter & Grunewald, Coatmakers," a fine picture of her grandfather hemming coats for Gentile women. It's highly visual and suggestive without trying to make the lines bear too much weight.

December totals!

Amy 5/1367
Christa 14/4054
Kara 4/934
Karen 8/2430
Kathleen 6/1653
Linda 5/1458
Marilyn 6/1778
Patrick 20/8751

Total:
68 books
22,375 pages
8 bloggers