My Horizontal Life

My Horizontal Life:  a collection of one-night stands / Chelsea Handler 213 pages

This collection of essays has an obvious theme but I would like to point out that several tell stories of the one-night stand that didn't really happen.  There was the time she passed out, the time her partner was too coked up, and a couple of other misfires.  Don't get me wrong, Chelsea is someone who has had her share of one-night stands.  She is also funny and her friends seem as crazy as she is.  Over all a fun book that you don't have to take too seriously.  I appreciate her success and wish her the best.  If you like sex filled memoirs, this is a good option.  Also try I am not myself these days by Josh Kilmer-Purcell.

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The Family Fang

The Family Fang / Kevin Wilson 309 pgs.

Annie and Buster (Child A & Child B) are adults now but suffering from the effects of growing up with performance artists parents Camille and Caleb.  Their story is told through a series of flashbacks interspersed with present day.  I could not tell through out the story...are their problems because of their parents?  Or are they problems that would exist in spite of their parents?  Probably a little of both but still, their upbringing was far from "average".  In the end, there is a big reveal and the situation becomes a little clearer to me as Annie and Buster seem to be more of a casting choice.  An interesting book about family dynamics and performance art.  If you liked The particular sadness of lemon cake or if you read David Sedaris, I think you will also like this book.

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Beatrice and Virgil

Beatrice and Virgil by Yann Martel  197 pp.

How do a novelist, a taxidermist, a donkey, and a howler monkey come together in a story about the Holocaust? In this odd little book, Henry is a novelist whose second book, a Holocaust story, is deemed unpublishable. Henry receives a letter from another man named Henry who sends him a story by Flaubert and a short but intriguing portion of a play and asks for help. Author-Henry goes to meet the other Henry and learns he is a taxidermist by trade. Beatrice, it turns out is a donkey in Taxidermist-Henry's shop. Virgil is the howler monkey sitting on her back. The donkey and monkey are the main characters in the play that Taxidermist-Henry is writing. The two Henrys end up collaborating on the play which is ultimately a tale of genocide. I had a hard time getting into this story and became determined to finish it since was so short.

The Fingertips of Duncan Dorfman by Meg Wolitzer 293

This reminded me of Louis Sachar's The Cardholder: A Novel about a King, A Queen, and a Joker. A passionate bridge player, he hoped to turn the young reader into a future bridge player. There were elements of mystery and humor. Wolitzer is a voracious Scrabble player. She brings an assortment of young players to the national Youth Scrabble Tournament. This is a two person team competition. Some of the players are not very nice. One has been coerced to play by a father who never got over losing at the Youth Scrabble Tournament. One player may have an other worldly talent -- is he cheating if he uses it? One goes with the hope of remeeting a guy she had taught the game to several years ago. The parents are almost as interesting as the contestants. They have their own baggage. One contestant recently learned that the father, he had been told had died years ago, may actually still be alive. Lots of different threads, along with Scrabble rules and strategies make this a winning tale of competition.

Heir to the Shadows, by Anne Bishop

Heir to the Shadows by Anne Bishop (Black Jewels Trilogy book 2); dark fantasy, horror; 432 pages

Continuing my spree of old comfort reads. This is the continuation of the story started in Daughter of the Blood, which I read back in December. It's a middle book in every sense of the word: there's not a lot of new information introduced here, and nothing is really concluded, but it's still a fun read, and contains some of my favorite scenes in the series, so it's more tolerable than most middle books for me.

The Beginner's Guide to Living by Lia Hills 221 pages

Purely by chance I sometimes read books written about the same theme. Just last week, I read the moving young chapter book A Monster Calls about a young boy worrying about the imminent death of his cancer-ridden mother. This is about an older boy (17), who is struggling to find acceptance after his mother's sudden accidental death. In the "monster" book, the boy and his mother lived by themselves; in this book he has a brother and a father, but a very special tie with his mother. He tries to find answers by studying philosophers teachings. He meets a beautiful girl at his mother's wake. He feels guilty at having these feelings of lust/love. By the end of the book he is able to communicate with his father, brother and girl friend. A bit sophisticated, a lot of subtle nuances make for thoughtful reading.

The Running Dream by Wendelin Van Draanen 336 pages

This title just won the teen Schneider Family Book Award for a book that embody an artistic expression of the disability experience. I've read several of her Sammy Keyes young mystery series, but this is totally different. Jessica, is one of the fastest cross-country runners until the fateful day of her school bus accident. One teammate lost her life; Jessica lost her leg. Van Draanen follows Jessica from the moment she learns that her leg was removed, through the grief process and concludes with her successful rehabilitation. Fortunately, Jessica has a great best friend and loyal teammates. They start a campaign to earn money to pay for a racing prosthetic limb. The author has obviously done her homework and weaves into the novel the advance technology that makes running possible for determined athletes. She also goes a step further in embracing disabled teens. When Jessica returns to school, she is assigned to sit at a "special" table with Rosa, a brilliant math whiz who happens to have cerebral palsy. It is only a last ditch effort to keep from failing math, that she reluctantly asks Rosa for help. Rosa may have trouble speaking clearly, but she effortlessly makes math clear for Jessica and other classmates. Perhaps, Jessica does seem to heal and solve her problems awfully easily; but this remains a rather inspirational story.

Started early, took my dog

Started early, took my dog / Kate Atkinson 371 pgs.

The fourth and currently last in the series featuring Jackson Brodie.  I started out a bit wary because my favorite character Louise, would not be included in this book.  Alas, I should not have worried...although I missed her, this book had many new lovable characters.

Jackson is doing a bit of PI work again after his "fake" wife Tessa ran off with all his money at the end of his last book.  This time he is working for a woman who was adopted at a young age and has questions about her biological parents.  She waited until her adoptive parents died and so there are a lot of blanks to fill in.  All the information she seems to have about herself isn't correct.  Another Jackson seems to be on the trail as well, but he is Brian Jackson.  As usual, you think you might know how this is going to turn out but you don't really know until very close to the end.

The dog will hopefully be a recurring sidekick.  Jackson saves him early on from an abusive owner and the dog clearly takes that debt seriously and will continue to return the favor.

If you like mysteries, give this series a try.  If you like interesting characters, give this series a try. If you like well written books, give this series a try.

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The Sixty-Eight Rooms

The Sixty-Eight Rooms by Marianne Malone  288 pp.

In the Chicago Art Institute there is a collection of 68 amazingly detailed historical miniature rooms made in the 1930s by Mrs. Julia Ward Thorne. The Thorne Rooms are the basis of this story. Ruthie and Jack visit the Thorne Rooms while on a field trip with their sixth grade class. While there, Jack finds a mysterious key which allows the children to shrink down to the size where they fit in the rooms. The pair find a way to hide in the museum and spend the night exploring the different rooms. They discover that there is more to the rooms than just the details. They are able to travel back in time to the periods that the rooms were modeled after. The premise of this story is terrific. I read this book hoping to select it for my 4th-6th grade book club. However, I was disappointed in the book. Too much time was spent on the logistics of planning the museum expedition and not enough on the actual adventures in the rooms. It was a wonderful premise that didn't live up to its potential.

Just like someone without mental illness

Just Like Someone Without Mental Illness Only More So by Mark Vonnegut, M.D.  203 pp.

Mark Vonnegut is the son of author Kurt Vonnegut. He was raised in a family with a long history of mental illness. In addition, when he was a child, his parents took in his four orphaned cousins and raised them along with their own three children. Fortunately for the Vonneguts, they had recently purchased a 16 room on Cape Cod and had plenty of room, if not money to accommodate a family of 9. During much of his growing up, his mother suffered from mental illness. It wasn't until Mark was in his 20s and living on a British Columbia commune that he was first hospitalized for schizophrenia. After subsequent hospitalizations and authoring a book about his experiences and treatment, The Eden Express, Vonnegut was accepted to Harvard Medical School, where he completed his studies to become a pediatrician. He was diagnosed as bipolar and suffered one more breakdown which hospitalized him 20 years later. He chronicles his life, illnesses, marriage, medical career, divorce, marriage, fatherhood, and the death of his famous father in an honest and matter-of-fact way.