Jackfish, The Vanishing Village is a new novel by Sarah Felix Burns, published by Inanna Publications of Canada. The story is a mix of real historical events and places, combined with a fictionized storyline of a woman which reads like a memoir, moving back and forth between the past and the present day. Jackfish, The Vanishing Village is a deeply moving and haunting book that will stay in your thoughts long after you put it down. It is not an easy read, but it is one will help you understand the lives of others, and be grateful for your own life.

Jackfish, The Vanishing Village is divided into 4 parts, each section dealing with the emotional growth of Clemance, our narrator and main character. Clemance is trying to cope with a multitude of emotional baggage that all comes to a head when she is taken off her anti-depressant due to an unexpected pregnancy at 42. The book is dedicated to all those who "battle the demons of guilt, shame, addiction, and mental illness", all of which are present in Clemance. Sarah Burns’ writing deftly brings us inside the mind of a woman trying to cope with her present life and her past life, as the demons of her past haunt her daily.

The town of Jackfish, Ontario is was a real town, one that was kept alive through the fishing and logging industries; it was abandoned when trains started using diesel, and no longer needed to stop in Jackfish for coal. Sarah Burns has adapted Jackfish to fit her story, just as she has utilized other real people, places, and events to create a book that feels incredibly real. The rawness of emotion in Jackfish, The Vanishing Village also pulls the reader into the story, Clemance’s story tugs at you.

I had to put down Jackfish, The Vanishing Village a few times during the time I was reading it. Though I am a fast reader, it took several days to read this book; I needed to intersperse it with other, lighter fare. Clemance, her husband Bernie, her friends, and her family are drawn so clearly they jump to life, and the story follows these intense characters. Just as this is not a light read, it is not an easy read, either. Clemance’s life was not an easy one prior to her marriage and pregnancy, and the medication-free pregnancy is triggering memories of those hard times.

Switching back and forth between the present and the past is not easy for authors, nor for the reader. However, in Jackfish, The Vanishing Village, Sarah Burns has written segues that help us understand why Clemance’s mind drifts to the past from the present. The flashback style works so well because we can see inside Clemance’s mind and understand what she is thinking. There are many mysteries locked within Clemance’s brain, though, and we uncover them slowly as she is ready to deal with them. We, the readers, also grow to really like Clemance, and her earlier actions are easier to accept when we have developed a relationship with her.

Jackfish, The Vanishing Village is an amazingly intricate and intense book, one that truly feels real. If you are a memoir buff, and are considering reading some fiction, this is the right book for you! If you enjoy women’s fiction or literary fiction, you will not be able to put down Jackfish, The Vanishing Village. If you are very sensitive and easily troubled, I would not suggest this book. That said, I am incredibly glad that I read Jackfish, The Vanishing Village, it put my own troubles into a new perspective, and also helped me understand Clemance’s world, and the world of others struggling with abuse, addiction, poverty, and mental illness. Clemance’s life story is one that I will never forget, one that others should read.

I recently reviewed two memoirs, mentioning that they read like novels. Now we have found a novel that felt like a memoir. In The Last Cowgirl: A Novel, Jana Richman has brought her main character, Dickie Sinfield to life through a combination of contemporary narrative and flashbacks to childhood memories. The Last Cowgirl is a book about a woman coming to terms with her childhood on a cattle ranch, and her life in the 30 years since she left it.

When she was 7 years old, Dickie’s father George moved the family from a suburb of Salt Lake City to a ranch in the rural town of Clayton, complete with cows and horses. Dickie tells us at the beginning of the novel:

Since then – nearly forty-six years ago – I’ve blamed anything that needed blaming on what Annie refers to it as Dad’s “Gil Favor complex.”

Dickie’s older brother Heber thrived, loving the change, while older sister Annie and mother Ruth ignored the move, continuing to be fashionable and ladylike. Dickie was stuck in the middle, and ended up torn between the two extremes. While she would say that she hated life in Clayton, she loved riding in the wilderness with her new friend Stumpy and helping their neighbor, Bev, with her garden and ranch. Dickie was a sensitive child who had thrived on orderliness of the green grass, sidewalks, and curbs, and felt out of her element in the relative wilderness of Clayton. Dickie’s character comes across well in this quote about her unsettled feelings during childhood:

It was the last three words that got to me. The three words I’d been hearing my entire life. Dropped off a horse onto her head. She’ll be fine. Dragged by a steer. She’ll be fine. Lost in the mountains. She’ll be fine. Branded. She’ll be fine. Shot at. She’ll be fine. At what point, I wondered, do the actions of grown-ups add up to a child who actually won’t be fine?

Dickie leaves Clayton right after graduation with a college scholarship for a journalism program, then leads a very orderly life in Salt Lake City as a prominent writer for a Mormon newspaper. She has a house, a yard with a garden, a couple friends, and a neighbor who she has been casually dating for over 10 years. Dickie’s orderly life is reminiscent of her suburban life prior to the move to Clayton. She has also tried to leave behind any emotional messiness; we are left only with hints about a past relationship. Dickie’s liberal beliefs set her apart from most of the people at work and help her keep her distance from others, making her life very compartmentalized. The Last Cowgirl challenges its narrator to let go of her control, and brings the reader along for the wonderful ride, galloping beside her.

Using Dickie’s voice to tell the story, Richman makes The Last Cowgirl very personal. As we read her memories from childhood, we build a strong connection with her. Dickie’s friends, family, and neighbors become like friends to us as we see them from her childhood through her adulthood. Richman writes very detailed descriptions, and while I’ve never been to Utah, I can now picture the landscape around the ranch in great detail; Richman has painted vivid images that have stayed in my mind long after I closed the book. My mind’s eye is stuck on a hidden canyon with wild horses…

I’m glad I took The Last Cowgirl off my shelf on a day when my daughters weren’t home, because nothing could make me put it down! As it was, I ignored my husband, dogs, and computer while I was caught in the world Richman spun around Dickie Sinfield. The Last Cowgirl had me laughing, crying, and reading quotes out loud, completely enraptured by the story. Make sure you’ve got some free time when you pick it up, you won’t be able to put it down.

I strongly recommend reading The Last Cowgirl, not only so you can read about Dickie’s unique childhood escapades, but also to read her journey from keeping everyone at arm’s length to trying to achieve happiness. As you follow your own trail, spend a few hours reading The Last Cowgirl to help bring you some smiles along the way.

This book was received from the publisher for review

The Crazy School, by Cornelia Read is a novel and a mystery centering on the world inside a residential school for troubled teens, one that comes with very troubled staff as well. It isn’t often that my previous careers get pulled into my book reviews. However, my previous job working as a teacher in a residential school for children with emotional and behavioral disorders gave me a touchstone for the world in The Crazy School. There are many differences between The Crazy School and where I was teaching on many levels – it’s private rather than state-funded, it has teenagers rather than youngsters, and the discipline is very different. However, having experienced the world of teaching children with these problems helped pull me into the novel quickly.

Our narrator in The Crazy School is Madeline, a woman who was pulled to the Berkshires (aka Western Massachusetts) for her husband’s work, but then the job disappeared. She starts teaching at the Santangelo Academy – a private school that is used as a “last chance” for teens with emotional disorders and wealthy parents. Madeline is disturbed by the rigid discipline as well as the required therapy for teachers in addition to therapy for students. She is a bit of an outsider – the most recent hire as well as the only one who lives off-campus, in an apartment with her husband.

When you teach troubled children, you often end up with attachments to certain kids, and want to protect them. Madeline has a few students she really likes, and when one of them puts his hand through a window, she ends up wanting to protect him, but stifled by the rigid structure of the school. Madeline begins to question the structure as well as the founder, and finds herself deeply involved in the inner workings of the school and the mysteries that surround it.

In The Crazy School, Cornelia Read has created a large cast of characters, all of whom have life breathed into them. Madeline has so many different sides, she truly feels real. There are mysterious airs around many of the teachers, and given the diagnoses and medications given to the students, do we know what they are really thinking? Madeline has made a few friends she thinks are like-minded within the cadre of teachers, but are they all friends, or are some of them spying on them as they find hiding places to drink caffeine and smoke a cigarette? As we delve into the depths of the mysteries surrounding Santangelo Academy, we are investigating a horrible event involving the students as well as the backgrounds of the staff. There are twists and turns in this novel that left me completely surprised – but as I looked back, I could see the subtle hints that lead to the answers Madeline has found.

I found The Crazy School to be a truly unique book. I really enjoyed it, and I highly recommend it. It’s a mystery, and yet it is not a traditional mystery. It’s a novel about a boarding school, but it’s a very unusual boarding school. The characters are well-developed, and yet they still hide secrets from us. If you don’t usually read mysteries, but are attracted to Literary fiction or Women’s Fiction, you should definitely try The Crazy School!

This novel was received from the publisher for review.

Beginner’s Greek, by James Collins reads like an old-world romance brought into the modern world. Parts of it even read like a Greek tragedy, with the Fates intervening in lives before the two main characters can be together. The Chorus of supporting characters play roles that will keep the characters apart, and then bring them together. The need to do the Right Thing in so ingrained in the main character, Peter, that he thinks of everyone else’s happiness before his own. Peter’s deep-seated belief in romance fits with his honorable nature. At its heart, Beginner’s Greek is a novel about true love that runs deep, despite the twists of fate.

We first meet Peter Russell when he is on the plane flying from New York to LA. He has the heart of a true romantic, and is convinced that his true love will sit next to him on the plane. He has a feeling that this flight will be of great importance to his life. We wait with him, as traveler after traveler passes his row. When Holly sits with him, his observations and descriptions of her remind me of charming old world gentlemen, though he’s in his mid-twenties.

Peter and Holly bond over the book she is reading, and the magical “click” happens between them, connecting them into the magnetic pull of love at first sight. Of course, the Fates must intervene and work their magic, so Peter loses the piece of paper with Holly’s number on it. Unfortunately, she didn’t give him her last name, and therefore he has no way of contacting her. He tries everything he can think of to track down the number, and then he needs to return to his life in New York without having contacted her.

We skip ahead a few years, and find that Peter and Holly have been pulled together again, but there are always circumstances and honor keeping them from being involved. Peter is a kind, gentle soul, and isn’t capable of the devious machinations required to gain what he most desires, though there is a reasonably easy way of doing so. Peter’s depth of character and sense of honor make the reader wish that there were Peters out there for all of us! We also want to stand with Peter, and struggle with him – what choices would we make if we were in his place?

James Collins creates wonderfully flawed characters, and the imperfections give them life. Almost all the characters have areas in which they are deeply flawed, and other areas which are admirable. As time passes, we find that the machinations of the supporting characters leads to their (inevitable?) downfall or their turn toward honorable behavior. One scene in particular reminds me of myths in which Zeus is angry with a mortal – vengeance is wrought from above!

I cannot say enough good things about Beginner’s Greek. It’s got a feel that just warms your heart. Even when things aren’t going well for the main characters, James Collins writes such beautiful descriptions of their lives, their romantic thoughts, and Peter’s chivalrous behavior that you have the belief that the author and characters will do the Right Thing, and everything will end well.

If you enjoy the feel of black and white movies, old world romance, deus ex machina, or simply that true goodness is rewarded in the end, you will love Beginner’s Greek. If you like literary fiction, you will also love this novel – this is omniscient narrator done well! I highly recommend Beginner’s Greek to everyone – I wish I could give it to all the readers on my shopping list!
(as of 12/20/2007, this book is available for pre-order, and will be released in January, 2008)

This book was received from the publisher for review

I received Channeling Mark Twain: A Novel, by Carol Muske-Dukes from the lovely Felicia over at Writers Revealed for a podcast, but she has switched from podcasts to written interviews for now.

The idea behind Channeling Mark Twain fascinates me – the story of a young woman, fresh out of graduate school in the 1970s, trying to help the female inmates of Riker’s Island off Manhattan. She starts by bringing money collected for bail, then works in the After-Care (trying to help released prisoners get jobs), and she starts to teach a Poetry class. This is a somewhat autobiographical novel about life in the 70s, pimps, prisoners, and corrections officers.

Little did I know that Channeling Mark Twain would challenge me on so many levels. On the most basic level, it’s a novel that would be best described as “Literary Fiction”, and yet I was completely enraptured by the storyline. I’ve had trouble with this genre before, but I couldn’t get the story of Holly and the prisoners in her poetry group out of my head. Holly’s innocence when she begins her poetry class changes as she spends time with the prisoners, the literary community, and the protest community. As a good liberal, I have felt (as Holly did, and as Muske-Dukes did) that the protesters are right and the institution is wrong. Holly takes us with her through the world of protesters, inmates, and wardens, and shows us how the lines can blur.

On another level, after taking multiple poetry appreciation classes in high school and college, I thought I hated poetry. Nope, it turns out that I hate analyzing poetry! The poetry itself is pretty darn cool! I’ve reviewed some children’s books of poetry, and been amazed at how much I enjoyed it. I felt the same way about the poetry in Channeling Mark Twain – it touches me, and guides my emotions. Some poems make me laugh, some shock me, and some sadden me. The poetry channels the voices of prisoners – those who rarely have a voice, and then the ensuing poem challenges the reader’s perspective.

The title Channeling Mark Twain, refers to a woman named Polly Lyle Clement in the detention center who is psychic, and believes she is the illegitimate great-grandchild of Mark Twain. Her insights and stories make a huge impact of Holly’s life at a time when Holly is really growing into herself, and Polly is needing to be heard.

Just like a good book can transport you, I now understand that good poetry can as well. I was thrilled to see the poetry that is up at the beginning of each chapter (usually from one of the prisoners). There are also poems mixed in with the prose as Holly writes poems through the chapters or when sh reads a poem. The view of poetry as being a part of life is intertwined with the other themes of the novel. I highly recommend picking up Channeling Mark Twain, and letting it transport you through prose and poetry.

Addendum: Please check out my interview with Carol, conducted via email with Writers Revealed – she has some fascinating answers!

Be sure to check out an interview with Carol Muske-Dukes on Fresh Air, as well as Carol Muske-Dukes website.

The Land of Mango Sunsets: A Novel is a beautiful book by Dorothea Benton Frank. Miriam is a Manhattan society woman who has fallen out of favor since her ex-husband left her to marry his mistress and raise their children. At first, Miriam is most concerned about proper behavior and the importance of moving up within the society of wealthy volunteer women. She is somewhat estranged from her children & grandchildren, and has her parrot Harry and her gay third floor tenant Kevin for friends. However, she is so caught up in what she believes she should be doing that she doesn’t see her loneliness.

Things begin to change for Miriam after renting her second floor to a new tenant and taking a trip a visit to her childhood home – an island off the coast of South Carolina. Her mother is there focusing on organic foods, gardening, and living green. Miriam is put off by this “hippie living”, especially when her mother and a friend share a joint during a walk on the beach. After she returns to Manhattan, she begins her metamorphosis – from “prissy” Miriam to a more relaxed “Mellie”. As these changes progress internally, Mellie opens herself up to her family, working past the pain from the divorce years ago.

This story pulls you into Miriam/Mellie’s life, and holds on to you until you are finished reading. If you have been in pain or closed off from the world in any way, her story will inspire you. I was lucky enough recently to see a butterfly emerge from its chrysalis. Just as the butterfly takes time to dry its wings and strengthen them, the characters in The Land of Mango Sunsets emerge from their cocoons, and huddle together before spreading their wings. It’s a beautiful story that I doubt you’ll be able to put down!

The Lace Reader is a novel by Brunonia Barry. Towner Whitney is much younger woman than Miriam, but she is also called back to her childhood home, this time by the disappearance of her great-aunt and mother figure, Eva. The novel starts with a passage from “The Lace Reader’s Guide” – a guide to the reading of fortunes in lace. The quotes continue throughout the book, along with the narrator’s memories of her Aunt reading lace, and reading lace herself. The Lace Reader website does a great job of explaining the world in which Barry has set the story – Salem, MA and the surrounding towns in the 1990s with some poetic license thrown in (the island home, Yellow Dog Island, is not a real island off of Salem, though the Miseries, Children’s Island, and so many other landmarks are).

I’ve got to believe that Barry lives or lived in the area. There is one scene where Towner’s brother Beezer and his friends showing his fiancée Anya the statue of Salem founding father Roger Conant near the Salem Common. At a certain angle, it looks like he is, um, pleasuring himself. Driving past that statue for years as a teenager myself, I thought my friends and I were the first ones to notice it! There are so many little truisms in the story about the area, it calls to me as someone who has grown up on the North Shore, and then moved back.

Barry has created a world within The Lace Reader that is a rollercoaster of emotions and self-discovery. Towner returns to her hometown and home island after years hiding from them. She finds herself needing to face the demons that had her in a psychiatric hospital as a teenager, demons she has hid from for so many years. Just as Towner needs to face reality and the past, the town does as well – there are modern-day Calvinists trying to persecute the witches who have found sanctuary in today’s Salem.

As a reader, one wonders about Towner’s opening paragraph in Chapter 3:

My name is Towner Whitney. No, that’s not exactly true. My real first name is Sophya. Never believe me. I lie all the time

I am a crazy woman, … That last part is true.

At first, one discounts this – sure, she had been in a psychiatric hospital as a teenager, but that was years ago. As the story unravels, however, and Towner’s first person narrative is interspersed with Detective Rafferty’s narrative, it becomes more foggy – what is true? We see how Towner’s mother, May, has dealt with her sister’s physical abuse – she runs a sanctuary on Yellow Dog Island for abused women and children. Towner herself has had electric shock therapy to rid herself of visions, leaving large gaps in her short term and long term memories. What is true memory, and what is made up as protection?

Towner’s family is filled with “Lace Readers” – women who can see a person’s future in the lace. Her Great-Aunt Eva had done so professionally to much success, and Towner is also graced with the gift, though she refuses to use it if at all possible – she sees only destruction and death. It is really only in a town such as Salem (with psychics and witches everywhere) that refusing to use such a talent is seen as a character flaw. It is fascinating that even as Towner tries to avoid the lace, we see her world spread out for us like a piece of lace – which threads lead toward the answers the characters and the readers seek, and which ones are tricksters, leading to a dead end. The Lace Reader keeps us following the patterns until the very last words of the last page – “The End”. There is no way to put it down until you have read it all.

Please do yourselves a favor and pick up The Lace Reader and The Land of Mango Sunsets soon. Transport yourself to an island, and find the world there.

This evening at 6pm Eastern time, I am lucky enough to be a participant in the Writer’s Revealed podcast with author Dani Shapiro. We will be discussing her book, Black & White.

Black & White is an intense, beautiful, and haunting book. I could not put it down, and was completely engrossed in the story of Clara, a girl whose mother became famous for nude photographs of Clara. 14 years have passed, and Clara lives far from her mother and sister, in another world on an island in Maine – she disappeared from their lives when she ran away at 18. Her old world as an ambivalent model for her mother in NYC and her new world as a stay-at-home mom in a small town collide when her mother is dying of cancer.

Please tune in to hear the discussion on the podcast! Here is the link to the podcast

This is an amazing book that I highly recommend, especially for anyone who had dealt or is dealing with imperfect mother-daughter relationships.

The Book Thief is a thick (550 pages), dark, intense read. This is a story about a German girl in the late 1930s and early 1940s. The book begins with her on a train with her mother and brother, her mother is planning to leave them in foster care for a reason that is not disclosed. Her younger brother dies on the train, and when they are burying him in the cold, snowy earth, the gravedigger drops a book, and Liesel steals her first book – The Gravedigger’s Handbook. As the book goes on, her brother’s death haunts her, and she has her foster father (Papa) teach her to read the stolen book.

Markus Zusak writes a wonderful book, with amazing character development and a vivid use of imagery – you can picture yourself walking down the dingy streets of the poorer section of town where Liesel lives. Death continues to narrate, coming up with amazing quotes like “sometimes it kills me, the way people die”. He “holds their souls”, and he talks about how overworked he is in Nazi Germany. But he still finds time to go back and watch Liesel, as she has fascinated him.

This book is listed as young adult, but it would really require a very special young adult to get through this book. If a teen has been fascinated by Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl, and Number the Stars by Lois Lowry, then this book might be a good next book.

While this book is fiction, it does have some bases in reality – several real events have been fictionalized as a part of the book. The realistic feel of the book makes it a good companion to The Diary of Anne Frank, as they are both about girls about the same age living in Nazi Germany. Anne is Jewish, Liesel is not, but her family does hid a Jew for a time, and she and her Papa try to help the Jews walking through their town on the way to Dachau.

A note – this book is narrated by Death, so it should come as no surprise that the last 30-50 pages require a goodly amount of tissues. If a young adult has issues with Death, this would not be an appropriate book.

However, if a young adult or adult is interested in WWII and Hitler’s Germany, and wants to see the war through a different perspective, this is a well written, amazing book. I highly recommend it, but I would also recommend reading a lighter book before/during/after.

This review is part of a MotherTalk blog tour
It’s amazing how much can change in one day. The events of one day can turn a happy, easygoing child into one with several phobias – we saw that with MG when she was hospitalized for 5 days at 3 1/2. How much can really change as the result of one day? 24 hours can hold a lot of power. I hadn’t really thought about how much difference a day can make until I read Once Upon a Day: A Novel, by Lisa Tucker.

This is an amazing and fascinating book, one which I plan to loan to everyone I know – it is completely engrossing. Ms. Tucker builds characters with such depth, they feel like real people… it felt like the book shouldn’t end, because their stories must continue. This book leaves me wishing I had a book group to discuss it with! So, everybody go read Once Upon a Day and then we can chat!

Ms. Tucker writes the book using a mix of third person and first person. For most books, that would leave me confused and annoyed. Somehow it works here, though. The major character is Dorothea, and her story is told in the first person. The chapters that revolve around her parents and the people she meets are told in the third person. As the story weaves in and out of different lives, the change in narration flows perfectly, and without the jolt of confusion when the narrator changes I get from other books with similar narration styles.

Dorothea is a young woman who was raised with her older brother by her father and paternal grandmother in an estate/home called “The Sanctuary”. The Sanctuary has many, many rules about safety, and they could either be viewed as protective or oppressive. Dorothea knows they moved there when she was 4 and her brother 6, following an event in their prior home in California. They have no media coming into the home, and her father dresses everyone in outfits that would be appropriate in the Fifties. In fact, no media past 1960 is in the home. Dorothea reveres her father, and doesn’t want to think or say or hear anything against him. However, her older brother is more rebellious, and leaves The Sanctuary to find his own way in the world.

When Dorothea’s father gets very sick, she leaves him in the care of their family doctor (who makes house calls! I want that!) to search for her brother. As she searches for him, she meets a man whose life had also changed in one day.

As Dorothea searches with her new friend for her brother, and then for answers about her early life, we are taken back and forth in time to discover what happened on that day to change her life and her family’s life. We see both sides of all the characters – everyone has both a redeeming quality and a flaw as we delve into their lives.

Reading this book was amazing – it really sucks you into it. Once Upon a Day is one of those books you can’t put down – you want to shut yourself into a closet and finish the book, but you don’t want it to end! The characters are so well developed that you really do wonder “what next?” at the end of the book – it’s so clear that the lives of the characters continue.

Once Upon a Day also leaves me wondering about my life, and the life of my family. At what point are parents so overprotective that they are smothering? And what level of distance is OK? Can a horrible wrong ever truly be righted? How much of our lives are changed by the events of one day?

A huge thumbs up from here for Once Upon a Day!

The Birth House: A Novel by Ami McKay is currently on everyone’s “best books” list for 2006. Have you read it yet? If not, you should. Really. Go buy it or reserve it online at your library. I’ll wait.

This is a beautiful book about a young girl/woman as she grows up in Nova Scotia, Canada during WWI. She is apprenticed by the local midwife, and learns from her. This apprenticeship is not exactly a prime assignment – the midwife is thought to be akin to a witch, but there are too many mouths to feed in Dora’s home (the protagonist), and she doesn’t have many marriage prospects, so off she goes.

Dora and her midwife mentor cope with challenges from the community and from a new obstetrician who moves into the area and deems women “hysterical”. I especially loved a passage in which the doctor told a pregnant woman that morning sickness is just women wanting attention from their husbands. Yeesh.

There are so many wonderful stories, unexpected twists and turns, and fabulous passages within the book that there is no way for me to adequately describe it. However, the book does include pregnancy loss, so I would not recommend it to anyone who is currently pregnant.

It was a beautifully told story, with wonderful characters that were really brought to life in the pages of the book. I was so sad when the book finished – I wanted more! I hope you enjoy it just as much. It’s a beautiful read.