plus ca change

We Hope for Better Things by Erin Bartels
Rating: 4.5 stars (out of 5)
Genre: fiction/historical fiction
Review: Reading this book is a little bit like viewing history through a kaleidoscope; as you turn the wheel, the colors shift slightly to make a different picture, but one that is made up of the same elements as the one before.  Bartels writes vividly across three storylines, each taking place in a different time.  The three time periods (1861-75, 1963-7, and modern time) blend and separate as each tell a story about racism and family.

Mary unwittingly and then wholeheartedly opens her home to escaping slaves during the Civil War.  Her granddaughter Nora must face the realities of racism when she falls in love with and marries a black photographer.  Elizabeth, Nora's great-niece, and an aspiring journalist, thinks she's found the story of a lifetime when she's given a camera to return to this aunt she's never met.  The story of each woman echoes the others as they search for the truth of themselves, their family, and its history.

Because there is a generation missing between Mary and Nora, and between Nora and Elizabeth, some of the past remains hidden, and Bartels avoids several opportunities to wrap everything up with a neat bow.  Usually, loose ends at the end of a book make me crazy, but Bartels demonstrates her gifts as a writer by making even this seem like a natural part of the story.

FTC Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher in exchange for this review.

everything and the kitchen sink

The Psychology of Time Travel by Kate Mascarenhas
Rating: 2 stars (out of 5)
Genre: science fiction
Review:  Kate Mascarenhas has found an interesting approach to writing a time travel novel.  As the title indicates, she's exploring what happens to a time traveler's brain and to their personality when they move through time.  In her world, the answer is: nothing good.  Among other mental infirmities that can develop, frequent time travel can cause people to become desensitized to and crass about death.  This can be a major problem, and how to tackle that problem and make time travel psychologically safe is an interesting entre into the genre.

Unfortunately, Mascarenhas has bitten off a bit more than she can chew, in what is clearly a debut novel.  She's wrapped this question in a mystery and layered it with an enormous bureaucracy that governs everything related to time travel, travelers (sometimes the same person) coming from both directions, and a full cast of non-time travelers. The mystery gets sort of forgotton for a while in the middle while we deal with the characters, and by the time we get back to it, I don't really care about the who's or why's of it.  And I couldn't even keep track of the characters, and all their various timely incarnations, let alone care much about any of them.

Still, there are hints of Mascarenhas's strengths as a writer.  Some of the characters are quite well-written, and parts of the action really hum along.  If she chooses to write another book, perhaps she'll be able to mellow out a little and let her talents shine through.

FTC Disclaimer: I recieved this book from the publisher in exchange for this review.

two out of three ain't bad

Here and Now and Then by Mike Chen
Rating: 3.5 stars (out of 5)
Genre: science fiction
Review: Writing a time travel novel is kind of like writing a vampire novel - there are certains rules that must be followed, but other than that, the only thing an author must do is create a world with internal cohesion.  Mike Chen has definitely created a world that holds together.  His time travel agents have strict rules they must follow in order to prevent the timeline from corruption, and even the more technical explanations (of things like the "grandfather paradox") are eminently understandable.

Unfortunately, his characters and their relationships don't get the same attention.  At first, I thought the lack of depth in the future was deliberate, to reflect Kin's initial feelings of disconnect when he returns to his own time, but I didn't begin to feel more connected to those characters as he apparently did.  We're told that his feelings return for his fiancee return, but never really shown it.  On the other hand, the present-day characters felt much more fleshed out, but we don't actually have much interaction with them once Kin returns to the future.

So, it's a plus for world-building, a negative for characters, and there's another plus for the actual action of the story.  Kin's various attempts to reconnect with and then save his daughter shine through with his intensity, and Chen's determination to stay within the rules that he's created add a sense of urgency and truth to his actions.  If you do the math, world-building + action - character development = an eminently readable book, if not one of the best time travel books I've ever read.

FTC Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher in exchange for this review.

what holds us together?

The Care and Feeding of Ravenously Hungry Girls by Anissa Gray
Rating: 3.5 stars (out of 5)
Genre: fiction
Review: Often, when I get to the end of a book, I'm left wanting to know what happens to the characters after the last page.  Much less frequently, do I feel the need to know about what happened before the first page.  But that was how I felt with this book.  What happened to get this family into this predicament?  Some of it was ancient history, some more recent, some became very clear, but a lot stayed very hazy in my mind.  I get that the details of the past may not have been the point, but I think a little more history would have helped me to understand the characters actions and reactions and why certain things have meaning.  It is clear that Gray's characters are all very much alive in her mind, but I had trouble getting them to come alive for me.

FTC Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher in exchange for this review.

when the ice melts

Laurentian Divide by Sarah Stonich
Genre: fiction
Rating: 4.5 stars (out of 5)
Review: Every story needs a hook, and for Laurentian Divide it's the question of what happened to Rauri Paar, the odd man who winters alone on his island.  His appearance heralds the true return of spring to the residents of Hatchet Inlet.  But the answer to that question is not nearly as interesting as the stories of the people who are asking it.  There's: the widower who's about to marry the woman nearly 20 years his junior (they're deeply in love); his son, the veterinarian who's also a recovering alcoholic; and his fiancee, who's dealing with a mother with major dementia and reeling from the loss of her neice, who was killed in a drunk driving accident.  These are the people who tell the story, of their past and their present, that color the book in shades of ice blue and the green of new buds.

Unlike other books small-town books, I never got a sense of the town itself, although the larger scenery of Minnesota on the Canadian border comes through vividly (it may have helped that I was there not long ago).  As for what happened to Rauri Paar, the answer is appropriately anticlimactic, serving to satisfy the the curiosity of both reader and town, without overshadowing the characters the reader has come to identify with.  The revelation also allows the book to come to a graceful, natural ending.  I was pleased to learn that this is the second book in a planned trilogy, although it can be read alone; I'll almost certainly pick up the first one, and I'll be looking for the third when it comes out.

FTC Disclosure: I received this book from the publisher in exchange for this review.

the magic of Oz

Finding Dorothy by Elizabeth Letts
Genre: historical fiction
Rating: 5 stars (out of 5)
Review: When The Wizard of Oz was being made into a movie, L. Frank Baum's widow Maud took it upon herself to make sure that the movie honored her late husband's vision in the book - that the "heart" of Oz was present in the movie.  I think most of us who have grown up watching the movie would agree that her efforts were successful.  In writing about Maud Baum, Elizabeth Letts allows us to find the magic of Oz anew.

In writing about Frank and Maud's life together, Letts let's us see the magic that they, particularly Frank saw in their every day life, and shows us the many inspirations that came together to become Oz. In her Author's Note, Letts explains that many of the origins of Oz are well-documented, and her skill as a writer brings those scenes alive and allows her readers to experience the magic that Frank felt.

This backstory is told as Maud finagles her way onto the set of The Wizard of Oz at MGM studios.  She's particularly concerned with the character of Dorothy, and her time with Judy Garland reassures her that the singer can bring the right blend of innocence and longing to the part.  She must also confront the rampant sexism on the movie set, as Judy and other actresses are subject to sexual harassment.  Here Letts allows Maud to recall her early life as the daughter of a prominent sufragette and her lifelong committment to women's equality, of which Frank was an ardent supporter.  Feminism, suffrage, and Maud's inherent practicality married to Frank's sense of wonder all went into making Oz the magical place that it is in books, on stage and screen, and in our hearts.  In bringing that alive, Letts has given fans of Oz a great gift.

FTC Disclaimer: This book was given to me by the publisher in exchange for this review.

a metaphor for... something

The Water Cure by Sophie Mackintosh
Rating: 3 stars (out of 5)
Genre: fiction
Review: This story is a metaphor for... something.  The inherent violence we all harbor inside us?  The idea that relations between men and women can never be peaceful?  I honestly don't know.  The writing is lovely, lyrical and haunting but too veiled for me.  Are men really a threat to women in the outside world, or is the sickness a metaphor?  Or is it just that Grace, Lia, and Sky's parents are incredibly manipulative and abusive (physicallyand psychologically)?  Although some things become clear(er) by the end of the book, much is left in obscurity.

FTC Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher in exchange for this review.