The Casual Vacancy / J. K. Rowling.
Flaubert's Parrot / Julian Barnes. /by Barnes, Julian.
The Devil in the White City : Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America / Erik Larson.
First flight around the world : the adventures of the American fliers who won the race / by Tim Grove.
Effortless Bento : 300 box lunch recipes / [translation, Maya Rosewood].
Children's books for Ready Set Kindergarten Program:
Gimme cracked corn & I will share / Kevin O'Malley. /by O'Malley, Kevin, 1961-
Hiro's Library Books:
The villain virus / Michael Buckley ; illustrations by Ethen Beavers. /by Buckley, Michael, 1969-
Attack of the bullies / Michael Buckley ; illustrations by Ethen Beavers.
Tesla's attic / by Neal Shusterman and Eric Elfman.
The five masks of Dr. Screem / R.L. Stine. /by Stine, R. L. Hall of Horrors ;
When the ghost dog howls / by R.L. Stine. /by Stine, R. L.
I totally funniest : a middle school story / James Patterson and Chris Grabenstein ; illustrated by Laura Park. /by Patterson, James, 1947- author.
The Devil in the White City
was suggested to me by Christian the bartender who we see on a weekly
basis at Nick and Toni's cafe across the street from Lucy Moses every
Thursday before group lesson. Happy Hour consists of 2 for 1 glasses of
wine and 1/2 price pizza, along with chitchat and banter from
Christian. As all bartenders should be, he is all knowing about many
subject matters because, as he says "he reads a lot" but like most
guys- he likes only to read non-fiction. So this well researched
account of two different stories concurrently happening over 100 years
ago was recommended to me. The narrative alternates between the architect of the Colombian Exposition- ie the worlds fair which occurred in Chicago 1893 and the gruesome biography of Dr. Henry Holmes who was basically a serial killer. Why these two tales were told in one book was a mystery, but I guess it made for a more interesting time period as well as doubling the page count.
The facts were interesting and the cast of characters and their interactions were amusing to read, but the narrative overall is no Richard Russo or J.K. Rowling. Because this is a work of nonfiction, everything had to be accounted for, including the dialogue and time frame. The author did due diligence creating these intense character, splicing together volumes upon volumes of research and letters but in the end, I was more interested in the research methods rather than the actual narrative as a whole. I kept thinking how much fun and chilling this must have been to unearth and read all the personal letters, even though some of them were one sided.
The Casual Vacancy: When Berry Fairbrother dies at the beginning of this book, he takes all hope and anything pleasant along with him to the grave. We learn of the infighting and bickering, backstabbing and animosity that runs on all levels in this small town of Pagford; from teens against one another, against their parents, the parents against one another and pretty much there are no relationships without conflict and Rowling has created a very bleak town where things only get worse as the book progresses. I found myself trying to root for someone, anyone to have a better position in life, but little by little, all hope is extinguished, and the one character who I thought would come out ok at the end kills herself. The one person who comes out on the better side (though not quite happy) is a surprise.
There are class differences and social tension, as expected when a town is so small that everyone seems to live within a fishbowl. There are convoluted threads of relationships running concurrent between different factions of the town. It reminded me of a book I had when I was little called "Who's Got the Apple" by Jan Loof, where one apple travels through out a little town and each character interacts with it and one another. There is a surprise ending in that one as well, though much more pleasant since it is after all a children's book.
One thing I found myself thinking about and hating myself for is that the the character of Krystal is white...but if this story were to take place in the US, she would undoubtedly be black- I found myself surprised (and ashamed to admit) each time when I realized that she was a white girl.
The quality of Rowling's writing is fabulous no matter how bleak: lines like "Aubry, had never touched money during his office hours, and yet he caused it to move in unimaginable quantities across continents. He managed it and multiplied it and, when the portents were less propitious, he watched magisterially as it vanished." and it ends at the funeral mass with a Rihanna song: "Umbrella"
