Book Review: The Devil Amongst the Lawyers

I am a big, big fan of Sharyn McCrumb's ballad novels, which take place in the hills in Upper East TN and southwest Virginia. She Walks These Hills, my introduction to McCrumb novels, is absolutely magical. I love it and so many of the other books, which all have a current mystery set against a historic event. Southern legends, mountain stories, etc. Great books.

But this one. Oh dear. I can truly say that Devil Amongst the Lawyers is dreadful. If this had been my first Sharyn McCrumb book, I would never pick up another one. It's kind of like a handbook on what writers should not do: jump around; include a dozen flat, main characters; use every possible stereotype to describe your characters; make your dialogue stilted; throw in bits of information that you know about topics unrelated to the story; have the story itself be an abysmal mess; and make your reader want to actually rip the book apart.

Here is what I have to say. Please do not read this book. Ever. Instead, please read McCrumb's other fantastic ballad novels: She Walks These Hills, If Ever I Return, Pretty Peggy-O, The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter, The Rosewood Casket, The Ballad of Frankie Silver, The Songcatcher, and Ghostriders.

Book Review: Whiter Than Snow

I was eagerly looking forward to Sandra Dallas's newest release, Whiter Than Snow. Like Prayers for Sale, Whiter Than Snow takes place in a small mining community in Colorado. At the beginning of the book, there is an avalanche, and we know that several children are trapped in it on their way home from school.

The novel then tells the background stories of various key players in the town, focusing especially on all the families of the trapped children. I'm embarrassed to say that it took me a few chapters to realize this. I read the first vignette and then wondered, midway through the next section, what had happened to those couples in the first chapter. (Sometimes it does pay to read the back of the book.) I enjoyed each character snapshot immensely once I figured out what was going on.

Ultimately, Dallas brings us back to the tragedy. She reveals in the first chapter that two of the children die, and we find out which ones—and how their families cope—at the end. The story was beautifully told, particularly in this last section when the townspeople cross all social lines and let go of past grievances to help each other. Sounds trite, I know—a story that's been told thousands of times in different ways. But still, it's a story that resonates and gives the reader that sense of the goodness in humanity. And we all need stories like that.

This isn't my favorite Dallas book by far; Tallgrass still holds that spot. But it's a quick, enjoyable read with some really good spots.

Other Reviews of Whiter Than Snow
Booking Mama
CaribousMom
Life in the Thumb
Lesa's Book Critiques

The Sunday Salon: August in Review

Books Read in August
(click for reviews)

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
Nectar in a Sieve by Kamala Markandaya
The Double Comfort Safari Club by Alexander McCall-Smith
Whiter Than Snow by Sandra Dallas
The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down by Anne Fadiman
The Help by Kathryn Stockett

Favorite Book of the Month
This was a superb reading month. Truly filled with excellent, enjoyable, thought-provoking books that I highly recommend. But The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down by Anne Fadiman takes the prize for the best book of the month.


Currently Reading
Sharyn McCrumb's newest, The Devil Amongst the Lawyers: A Ballad Novel


To Be Read in September
Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel
Breath, Eyes, Memory by Edwidge Danticat
Blue Like Jazz by Donald Miller
Confederates in the Attic
The Land Remembers


Books Added to My Ever-Growing TBR List
Ape House by Sara Gruen
Blue Like Jazz by Donald Miller
Mennonite in a Little Black Dress by Rhoda Janzen
Murder in the Name of Honor by Rana Husseini (Reviewed at Reading Through Life)
When We Were Orphans and The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
Room by Emma Donoghue


Reading to the Kids
The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis (multiple re-read)

Book Review: Never Let Me Go

Never Let Me Go is my introduction to Kazuo Ishiguro, and I have to say it was a fantastic introduction. I had no expectations and really had no idea what the book was about based on the jacket summary. And I'm not really going to tell you what it's about because the book relies heavily on the element of mystery.

The mystery is in the private boarding school, Hailsham, and its students. It all starts off in a familiar way: the narrator, Kathy, is reminiscing about her years in Hailsham, focusing in on a particular bullying incident and a special friendship. But the reader quickly understands that this is not an ordinary boarding school.

You know what? That's all I'm going to say. I like to be surprised by books. Ishiguro's prose is really perfect, so if you already know more about this book than I did, you'll love it just for his writing. But if you don't know, don't read any more reviews. Just go read the book. And after you read the book, you can look forward to the movie coming out soon. The trailer is here, but there are spoilers.

Other Reviews (without spoilers)
Semicolon
Shane Richmond
Blue Archipelago
S. Krishna's Books

Book Review: Nectar in a Sieve

Hope, and fear. Twin forces that tugged at us first ... in one direction, and then another, and which was the stronger no one could say. Of the latter, we never spoke, but it was always with us. Fear, constant companion of the peasant.
(Nectar in a Sieve, Chapter 14)

I picked up Kamala Markandaya's Nectar in a Sieve at my favorite used bookstore because I'd seen the title as one of Glencoe's free literature guides. I thought I might use it someday in the future when teaching World Literature.

Set in a rural village in India, this book (first published in 1954) follows the life of Rukmani, a peasant woman, and her family. Rukmani marries Nathan, a farmer she'd never met, at age 12 and begins a life of constant struggle mixed with periods of pure joy. She has a surprisingly good marriage, which is unusual in most of the novels I've read/taught for World Lit. Her husband doesn't abuse her, ignore her, or disrespect her.

In some ways this book reminds me of Pearl Buck's The Good Earth. There is the continuous struggle of peasants to survive, the hopelessness of life in poverty. But there is more joy in Nectar in a Sieve—more hopefulness. My World Lit kids always complained that the books were so depressing, full of poverty and oppression. Of course we discussed the fact that this is how much of the world is, etc., and that they were all privileged—and rich— beyond comprehension to millions of people.

I loved this little book. It's the kind of book that I couldn't wait to get to every night. Markandaya's writing is beautiful, and the story of Rukmani was fascinating and engrossing. Highly recommended.

Other Reviews of Nectar in a Sieve
Reckless Reader
Life Wordsmith
Semicolon
Reading for My Sanity
Tattooed Books

The Sunday Salon: Transported by Reading

I'm losing myself in books this weekend out of necessity. We took our oldest to college yesterday, and I find that I can only cope by transporting myself out my real life and into a fictional one. :)

Most of last week, as he packed up to go, I was with a peasant family in India as I read Kamala Markandala's Nectar in a Sieve. Yesterday, while driving to and from the college (or rather, while riding in the car as Dr. H. drove), I read Alexander McCall-Smith's newest installment in the No. 1 Ladies Detective series, The Double Comfort Safari Club. In Botswana with the kindly Mma Ramotswe was just the right place to be when I felt the tears coming.

Today is a bright and beautiful day, but I'm planning to pretend that it's raining out so that I can justify a day spent reading and napping. I just started Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro last night. I honestly can't remember a single thing I read, so I'll have to start over today.

I also got three books in the mail from these amazing friends of ours who visited a few weeks ago: Blue Like Jazz, Confederates in the Attic, and The Land Remembers. All of these books were part of conversations at various points in their visit, and I'm eager to dig into those as soon as I finish Never Let Me Go.

And now I'm off to lose myself in reading.

Book Review: The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down

This book by Anne Fadiman has been on my TBR list for a couple of years, so when I saw it on my son's required reading list for college, I knew I'd have to snag it first. Fortunately, I finished it before he leaves tomorrow!

"The spirit catches you and you fall down" is how Lia Lee's mother describes an epileptic seizure—and Lia has many of them. Lia is the 13th child born to Hmong immigrants Foua and Nao Kao Lee and the first born in the United States. Her first seizure comes at age 3 months, when an older sister slams a door. (Her parents will remain convinced that this caused Lia's soul to flee and the mother continued to blame the older sister.) Lia's next seven years are documented here as a perplexing, frustrating, defeating mixture of cultural and language barriers, spiritual vs. medical, parent vs. doctor.

Along with the primary story of Lia's medical condition and the cultural clash, Fadiman provides a sturdy backdrop of the Hmong experience both historically and in the context of the U.S. today. The struggles that permeate Lia's story make sense when we have even a rudimentary understanding of the culture, spiritual beliefs, and ethical code of the Hmong.

Fadiman is an amazing writer. She manages to treat every person involved in this story with grace and respect. I came away from this with a huge respect for the doctors involved in this case, not because they did a great job (they didn't) but because (for the most part), they were willing and eager to learn from their mistakes. And one can't help but be in awe of the Lee family for many reasons, including the outcome of the book. But at the same time we wonder what might have happened if they had administered Lia's medicine correctly—or if she had never been treated at all.

I highly recommend this book. It's a fascinating and enlightening look into the immigrant experience in America today and the clash of two wildly different cultures.

Other Reviews:
Book Addiction: "This book utterly and completely fascinated me."
Sophisticated Dorkiness: "Anyone with even a passing interest in cultural differences, literary journalism, or stories that truly tug at your heart while still making you think should read this."
Book Nut: "what this book is, more than either of those things, is a testament to what happens when good intentions go bad because of cultural differences."
Tulip Girl: "thought-provoking and emotionally rewarding."
Dogear Diary: "Fadiman has written a fantastic book about the clash between two cultures met in the arena of medicine."