Book Review: Acceptable Loss by Anne Perry (Whitney Finalist)

Title: Acceptable Loss
Author: Anne Perry
Enjoyment Rating: 7/10
Referral: Whitney Finalist
Source: Library Copy
Books I've read this year: 37

I'd heard great things about Anne Perry's Victorian-era William Monk series, although I'd never read any of the books until Acceptable Loss, which is the 17th book in the series. Perry does a great job of seamlessly integrating the relevant events of the previous sixteen books, as well as setting the scene of a dark, dangerous Victorian London, in the opening chapters. While I always felt that I didn't understand the depth of the relationships between the Monks (William, the commander of the river police, and Hester, a nurse) and the Rathbones (Oliver, an attorney, and Margaret, who works with Hester at the home for former prostitutes), it was easy enough to pick up on the story.

The problem for me is that there wasn't all that much of a story. Acceptable Loss feels like a traditional whodunit, where someone (in this instance Mickey Parfitt, who owned a floating child porn boat on the Thames, a man who no one is sorry to see removed from the earth) turns up floating, strangled with a distinctive necktie. That necktie is easily identified as belonging to one man, but the whole time, everyone keeps thinking that someone else, Margaret's father, actually committed the crime. Guess who did it? I don't want to be a spoiler, but let's just say that the book ends with the Rathbone's marriage rocked to the core.

I think that a plot like this one can work well for a dedicated reader to the series, especially since I've gleaned from Acceptable Loss that Perry is interested in the long-term development of her characters, but I found it somewhat unsatisfactory to read in isolation. However, the book is rich in detail and the characters are interesting enough that I'm almost persuaded to pick up the series from here and keep on reading.

See you on the flip side!

This is what 160 pounds of baby clothes, orphanage donations, Diet Mountain Dew, paperwork, books, and wardrobes for two climates looks like.

We're leaving for the airport in 24 hours. I'm sure I won't sleep tonight. 

If my iPad and our VPN cooperate, you'll be able to follow our adventures in China, where the letters will no longer be to Rose, but to Bryce, Isaac, and Maren back home in Utah.

We got new pictures of Rose this morning and it looks like she's making the transition from baby to toddler. It almost broke my heart to see her looking so very big. But in just four days she will be ours.

Wish us luck!

Book Review: Lost in Shangri-La by Mitchell Zuckoff

Title: Lost in Shangri-La: A True Story of Survival, Adventure, and the Most Incredible Rescue Mission of World War II
Author: Mitchell Zuckoff
Enjoyment Rating: 8/10
Referral: I saw this one frequently on "Recommended for You" at Amazon
Source: Audible for iPhone
Books I've read this year: 36

On a Sunday afternoon in May 1945, a plane took off from an American base in New Guinea, headed inland to the famed valley of Shangri-La, a valley that was vast and beautiful and filled with hundreds of thousands of natives that had no contact with the outside world and were thought to be cannibals. The plane crashed, and 21 of the 24 passengers died. John McCollom, Kenneth Decker, and Margaret Hastings survived the crash (although Decker and Hastings were badly injured) and had to be rescued from a place that was essentially inaccessible from the coast, and keep them safe from the natives.

My favorite book of 2010 was probably Laura Hillenbrand's Unbroken, and Lost in Shangri-La is a book in the same vein-- survival in the face of enormous odds. It's nonfiction that's as engrossing and entertaining as fiction. And Zuckoff's stroke of genius as an author was to focus on Margaret Hastings, making her the central character of the book. If this were a book about planes and soldiers and paratroopers and military politics, I doubt it's one I would have picked up, or if I had picked it up, I might not have wanted to finish it, but Zuckoff's book had a lot more appeal to me as a reader by making Margaret the central character. I wanted to see that WAC get out of the jungle. It's far more an adventure book than an exploration of character and psychology (like Unbroken), but it's still a fine read.

Book Review: The Lost Gate by Orson Scott Card (Whitney Finalist)

Title: The Lost Gate (Mither Mages, #1)
Author: Orson Scott Card
Enjoyment Rating: 6/10
Referral: Whitney Finalist
Source: Library Copy
Books I've read this year: 35

I need to start out my reviews of the Whitney Speculative Finalists with my customary disclaimer: I don't do adult speculative. Last year, buried under a heavy class load and teaching schedule, I bowed out of reading the category. The year before, I had saved three of the speculative books until the last week, and spent an utterly miserable week trying to learn the ropes of three separate alternate versions of our world. The weird thing is, I don't dislike youth speculative, which generally has a closer connection to our world. As I read these speculative books, I ask you two things, first, recognize that I come in with this bias, and second, take my reviews with a grain of salt because I'm certainly not an expert in this category.

That said, I have read a few of Orson Scott Card's books. I even taught Ender's Game in an Intro to Literature class at a community college about ten years ago. I really, really like Lost Boys, which I read as a teenager and was one of the first truly creepy books I'd ever read. I've read the Sarah and Rebekah books for book club.  I read a couple of the Alvin Maker books too before I got bored and gave up. And that's part of the problem of reading OSC for me-- I always feel like I'm committing myself to 2,000 pages of reading when I start the first page.

In The Lost Gate, the world looks like modern-day rural Virginia, if modern-day rural Virginia were populated by a family of mages-- basically like wizards or people with magical powers. Once the rulers of western Europe, the family now has only a shadow of their former power, in part because they've lost the ability to make gates to the past, which would restore their powers. And then Danny comes along. For years, his relatives think he has no power at all, but then it turns out that he's the greatest mage the family has seen in more than a thousand years-- he has the power to gate from place to place and possibly also in time and space. So, of course, they want to kill him, and he goes on the run.

There's nothing at all wrong with this book-- Card knows how to write, and the plot works, he gives an appropriate amount of detail. But change the mages to battle room instructors or frontiersmen and you basically have Ender's Game or Seventh Son. If I didn't know the plots of Card's other books, this might not bug me, but I do, and it does. I also really, really dislike a book that doesn't have a satisfying ending in and of itself but merely sets up the action of the next book. I know that's an accepted convention in speculative fiction, but it does tinge my enjoyment of the novel.

A Letter to Rose-- March 6

Dear Rose-

Well, this is it! The last letter I'll write before we meet. I got teared up a little bit writing that.

Next week at this time, you will officially be our daughter. A whole year of paperwork and dreaming is coming to an end. I can hardly believe that we'll walk into the Civil Affairs Office in Nanjing next Monday and Ms. Tang, the orphanage director, will hand you over to us. Even though I have the physical evidence-- the crib, the suitcases packed to bursting in the closet, the to-do list a million miles long on the desk beside me, even the Travel Notice with your picture and our names written side by side, I don't think it's going to feel real until it happens.

It's going to happen!

I don't know what else to say-- my heart is too full. I've been putting off writing this letter, putting off what I knew would be an inevitable flood of emotion, because I feel like I just need to put my head down and grind out these last few days-- the last three runs, the thesis junk, the articles and book reviews, the science project, the grocery shopping, and the packing. If I allow myself to think about, to really, really think about what is going to happen in three days when we get on the plane and in six days when you become ours, it becomes impossible to think about anything else. Even though we've only had adoption on our horizon for a year, and we've only known about you for five months, I think I've spent my entire life preparing for what will happen this week.

I love you so much, Rose. I know I haven't even met you yet, but this process has helped me see that it really is possible to love, with all your heart, someone you don't even know yet. I loved your brothers and sisters before they were born, and I always figured that I felt close to them because they were growing inside me, but I know it's more than that now-- I really do think that I love you because I know you without having met you, because you will always and forever be part of our family.

I guess that's it. I have to get back to packing. But the next time we talk, it will be in person.

Wo ai ni.

Love,

Mommy

Book: Death of a Disco Dancer by David Clark

Title: Death of a Disco Dancer
Author: David Clark
Enjoyment Rating: 9/10
Referral: I've heard lots of buzz about this book and was curious to see if the book lived up to the hype (it does!)
Source: Kindle for iPad
Books I've read this year: 34

In the hierarchy of fiction, at the very bottom is the badly written book that is hard to read. We've all read books like this-- they're boring or the characters don't work or the plot just makes no sense at all and the writing is choppy or overly descriptive or poorly edited. Those are bad, bad books. Then there are the books that are badly written or edited, but the story is entertaining enough for a reader to keep going, although if that reader is me, she might hide the book inside of something more literary or refrain from bringing it out in a public place. I'd say a fair majority of mass market fiction falls into this category (think your Dan Browns and John Grishams or Stephenie Meyers). Then there are the boring "literary" books-- the raw vegetables, the bran cereals of literature. They're the books you're assigned to read in school-- the ones where you know the author is trying to impress you with his or her brilliance and you know you should read them and think that you must be dumb for not enjoying them very much. And then, at the very top of the literary hierarchy, there are the entertaining works of literary fiction. I read enough books that I feel confident in saying that this category is the one most authors strive for, but very few attain. In Death of a Disco Dancer, David Clark's first novel, he shoots right to the top of the hierarchy.

The main narrative of Death of a Disco Dancer tells the story of Todd Whitman, an eleven-year-old Mormon kid living in Mesa, Arizona, whose grandmother, suffering from dementia recently moved in with his family. In the daytime, Todd's life is like most eleven-year-old kids on the cusp of graduating from Primary and going to junior high-- he's consumed by his first crush, and by the social scene of keeping up with two older siblings. At night, when everyone else is asleep, Granny likes to visit Todd's bedroom, where she proclaims her love for the Dancer (John Travolta from Saturday Night Fever), teaches him how to dance, and relives her past.

The secondary narrative takes place in the present time and shows Whitman, now an adult, working through the waning days of his own mother's life, which provides a nice, subtle reinforcement of how patterns cycle in families, and also puts the events of 1981 into relief as Whitman looks back at them from a distance of 30 years.

Clark is able to do something that few authors have achieved so far-- his book is a book about Mormons but not necessarily for a Mormon audience. He talks about Mormon elements in a familiar way, but while the book is about subjects that are central to the Mormon experience (eternal families, repentance, secrets, coming of age) they're presented in a universal way. Todd feels older than eleven to me, at least based on what I see going on with my own eleven-year-old. I would have found his thoughts and concerns more believable as a ninth grader than as a seventh grader, unless Clark acknowledges early on that Todd is an unusually precocious eleven-year-old (or else a 40-something looking back on his experiences at eleven). There are some anachronistic elements, Elmo didn't exist in 1981, for example, but overall the book feels tight and well-edited. It's rich and complex and totally compelling. I read the 300+ page book in less than a day, and not because I had to, but because I wanted more. I hope Clark gives us more.

Wanna know where we'll be when we're gone?

Friday, March 9th Leave Salt Lake City at 2pm, arrive San Francisco 3pm. Take BART and a Cable Car to Fisherman's Wharf for dinner and Ghirardelli Square for dessert.

Saturday, March 10th Leave San Francisco just after midnight to fly to Hong Kong. This day is entirely lost to flying, since we don't arrive in Hong Kong until Sunday morning (a 14-hour flight, plus a 16-hour time change).

Sunday, March 11th Arrive in Nanjing at 1pm. Get settled at the Holiday Inn. Possibly venture forth as far as Wal-Mart before we crash in a heap.

Monday, March 12th Meet and take custody of Rose Huijue at the Civil Affairs Office

Tuesday, March 13th Return to the Civil Affairs Office for adoption paperwork. Apply for Rose's Chinese passport with the Public Security Bureau.  

Wednesday, March 14th Sightseeing in Nanjing

Thursday, March 15th Visit the Xuzhou SWI

Friday, March 16th Ed's flight leaves for home at 8:25am. Shelah, Annie, and Rose pick up Rose's passport and travel to Guangzhou in the afternoon. Guide will meet us at the airport and escort us to the Garden Hotel.

Saturday, March 17th Rose's visa medical examination at the brand-new examination center.

Sunday, March 18th See the pandas and other animals at the Guangzhou Safari Park.

Monday, March 19th Rose's visa interview and oath ceremony at the American Consulate at 8:30 am. Visit Shamian Island afterwards.

Tuesday, March 20th Sightseeing in the morning; pick up Rose’s visa in the afternoon. 

Wednesday, March 21st Depart Guangzhou at 9:50 for flights to Hong Kong, San Francisco, and Salt 

Lake City. Arrive home at 3:50pm after 24 hours of flying.

Book Review: Captive Heart by Michele Paige Holmes (Whitney Finalist)

Title: Captive Heart
Author: Michele Paige Holmes
Enjoyment Rating: 7/10
Referral: Whitney Finalist
Source: Library Copy
Books I've read this year: 33

Emmalyne is running away from her stuffy Boston upbringing and her even stuffier fiance, headed west on a train to take her first teaching job, when robbers board the train and force several women off, presumably to turn them into prostitutes for the brothels of the upper plains states. However, once Emmalyne is off the train, her captor, Thayne, turns out to have a lot more honor than she initially gave him credit for. The book recounts their journey back to his home in the Black Hills, and, yes, how they fell in love on that journey, despite all odds.

Other than the fact that Thayne is infuriatingly close-lipped about his motives and his past, and Emmalyne is more accident-prone than anyone in real life, the book was a fun adventure. I can't help but compare it with Borrowed Light, since both feature city-girl heroines who fall in love with a rugged country man with a past, and while I enjoyed Borrowed Light more, I do give Holmes props for careful research and an ability to really create a sense of place in Captive Heart.

Book Review: Tuesdays at the Castle by Jessica Day George (Whitney Finalist)

Title: Tuesdays at the Castle
Author: Jessica Day George
Enjoyment Rating: 8/10
Referral: Whitney Finalist
Source: Library Copy
Books I've read this year: 32

Ranking my favorites in the Youth Speculative category is going to be hard. Really hard. I've read four of the five books in the category already, and I like ALL of them. I know that choosing between good books is much better than the alternative, and I'm really pleased to see such a strong, competitive category, but man, this is going to be hard.

When I brought home Tuesdays at the Castle, two of my kids immediately commented on it. Annie, my ten-year-old, looked excited and said, "Mom, that's the book that we donated to the library for my birthday" (our elementary schools have a program where you can pay to have a book donated in your child's name for their birthday, and the school chooses something they think the child would like). She said that there was a waiting list for the book, and I told her that I'd read it quickly so she could read it before I returned it to the library. Then Isaac, my seven-year-old, grabbed the book off the counter and said, "There are a bunch of second-graders at school who are reading this." That, of course, made Annie (a fifth-grader) want to have nothing to do with it anymore.

But I'm going to make her read it anyway, because it's just so cute.

Tuesdays at the Castle is the story of Celie, an eleven-year-old princess living in an enchanted castle. At times, the castle will grow rooms or do other kinds of magical things to improve the lives of the royal family, and it seems to have a soft spot for Celie. When her parents go on a journey to a neighboring kingdom and end up missing and her fourteen-year-old brother takes the throne, a whole slew of lords and princes from the surrounding lands descend on the castle to form a council, or a puppet monarchy, at least until he's old enough to run the kingdom by himself (not that they plan to let him live that long). So Celie, Bram, and their older sister, Lilah, along with lots of help from the castle, come up with a plan to oust them and find their parents.

The book is well-written and fun, and reads really fast. George did a great job of making Celie's world feel believable, without spending too much time on the world-building aspects of the story. But I also think that Annie had a point-- this is the one book in the bunch that is for a middle-grade (or even younger) audience, while the other finalists are all firmly YA. As a middle grade novel, I think it's a success, but the fact that it is middle grade also means that it's shorter, with bigger type and a simpler storyline. I think it's does a great job doing what it sets out to do, but I'm not sure how well it will stack up against its more complicated competitors.

Book Review: The Evolution of Thomas Hall by Kieth Merrill (Whitney Finalist)

Title: The Evolution of Thomas Hall
Author: Kieth Merrill
Enjoyment Rating: 7/10
Referral: Whitney Finalist
Source: Library Copy
Books I've read this year: 31

Thomas Hall is a jerk. He's a hotshot painter who never visits his aging father, refuses to get into serious romantic relationships, fires his manager on a weekly basis, and needs huge commissions to keep up with his tastes for fast boats and even faster cars. He's also a serious talent, who seems to have sold out to the Man-- banking on huge mural projects painting showgirls on the walls of hotels in Las Vegas.

Hall ends up working simultaneously on two very different projects-- one an ode to Charles Darwin in the science museum in San Francisco, and one portraying Jesus performing acts of healing at a children's hospital across town. Hall initially feels more drawn to the science museum project-- he is an agnostic, after all, but museum politics interfere with the job and Thomas finds himself working for a guy who is an even bigger jerk than he is, a guy who won't stop at blackmail to get what he wants. Thomas feels unequal to the Jesus job-- he knows all about religious art, and he knows enough to know that he doesn't know Jesus enough to do his work credit, which is what the rich benefactor requires. But through the influence of his family, his manager, the kids at the hospital, and one very special hospital employee, he opens his heart.

In a lot of ways, The Evolution of Thomas Hall reminds me of the writing of The DaVinci Code, with a lot less fighting and hiding, and if Robert Langdon opened himself up for conversion. Both books real with the intersections between religion and art. Merrill's background as a filmmaker is evident-- this is a book that could be a film. It also reminds me of The DaVinci Code in the way that it's written-- it would be quick-paced if it weren't for all the details. However, there's a level of complexity to the plot and the narrative that's absent in the other General category finalists, as well as attention to detail in the editing process. This feels more professional than the other books I've read, if that makes sense.

A few more things-- The Evolution of Thomas Hall is not a Mormon book, despite being published by Shadown Mountain, a Deseret Book imprint. While many of the characters are religious, none is overtly LDS. The same is true of both The Walk: Miles to Go, and I presume it might be true of The Wedding Letters since last year's Jason Wright book was like this. As someone who writes Mormon characters and wants to make them accessible to a wider audience, I'm interested in reading works that sort of do the opposite-- Mormon authors who use non-Mormon characters for the purpose of inspiration.

The Goodreads summary of The Evolution of Thomas Hall says "he finds himself torn between illustrating a mural on the origins of man for a natural history museum--a tribute to Darwin--and illustrating the miracles of Jesus for a display inside a children's hospital called the Healing Place. A self-proclaimed agnostic, Thomas must dig deep within himself to believe beyond his doubts as he wrestles with that elusive something called faith. Then he meets a young, critically ill girl named Christina. Her haunting past and undeviating faith will test the very soul of Thomas and that of every reader." When I read that I sighed a great big sigh. I didn't want to read a book about the showdown between science and religion. I prefer to believe that my belief in both can comfortably co-exist. But I didn't find the portrayal to be as black and white as I expected (it is true, however, that the only truly bad guy in the book is the Darwinist). 


Finally, on page 419 (yes, this is a brick of a book), Thomas Hall says, "Words and pictures are very different things and art must speak for itself. For once in my life I sincerely hope what this art is about speaks louder than the art itself." I believe that Merrill feels that same way about The Evolution of Thomas Hall, and I think that it shows, both in the attention to detail the book has received and in the over message of inspiration he hopes to achieve.