Questions Are The Best Teachers

The Lesson by Cadwell Turnbull

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Thought-provoking, which I believe is the point. There are actually a lot of lessons learned, even if the lesson being taught remains in question. It's actually a pretty amazing thing to pull off, a book that keeps talking once the covers are closed, a book that lives inside a person. The themes go much deeper than colonialism if you want them to: a book itself is an invasion by an alien consciousness, no matter that we invite them in. The characters live. This is definitely one of those crossover books like The Sparrow. I thought I was going to end up being depressed, but instead I'm left with the comfort of the ocean. I don't know that I'd want to read a sequel, but I'd definitely like to read more from this author.



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Loving, Loss, and Living On

The Way through the Woods: Of Mushrooms and Mourning by Long Litt Woon
My rating: 4 of 5 stars


A sweetly meandering memoir of loss and living. Litt Woon met her husband in Norway, where she had come from Malaysia to study anthropology. They got married, she stayed in Norway, and they had a lovely marriage as anthropologist and architect until one day with no warning her husband Eiolf fell dead as soon as he walked into work.
This is not a memoir about grief, however—it’s a memoir about moving through grief, that metaphorical forest where we get lost between life and death. Long went through the trauma of losing a spouse, dealing with details, joining a grief group, wondering how to go on. One day she decided to do on her own something Eoilf and she had talked about, checking out the course, “Mushrooms for Beginners.” Norway is huge on forest foraging, and expert volunteers check mushroom harvests for edibility for foragers right outside the forest.
She didn’t realize she was finding her way back to life until she was already on the path, her appetite awakened with novelty and sensation after months in the grey lands of grieving.
What is most fascinating to me is seeing the world of grief and the world of mushrooms through a different cultural lens: Long is Malaysian by birth culture, embedded in Norwegian culture, not at all American. Whether due to culture, personality, or training as an anthropologist, Long has an ability to give us detached and caring insight into her journey of losing the love of her life and then discovering the passion of an avocation.
You don’t have to be grieving or a mushroom geek to enjoy the book—people interested in nature, science, and other cultures will find points of interest. And of course we have all experienced loss in some way, to be able to connect with the story. There will definitely be too many mushroom details for some folks—I give you permission to skim; the other parts of the book and pleasure of reading how much joy Eiolf left behind is inspiring.


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Sweet and satisfying as a slice of pie

Midnight at the Blackbird Cafe by Heather Webber

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


 What a treasure for readers who love books about magical food. (Yes, it's a genre!) Heather Webber brings us a tale of broken hearts and broken families, magical birds and pies, and the healing power of love. In the town of Wicklow, Alabama, blackbirds sing at midnight in the backyard of the Blackbird Café. They are a part of Anna Kate’s heritage, but she doesn’t know that much about it—she’s had only snatches of time with her grandma, and never in Wicklow. Anna Kate’s mom left when she was pregnant with Anna Kate, and never set foot in the town again. She died, and now so has Anna Kate’s grandma; Anna Kate has to run her family heritage, the Blackbird Café, through the summer. Her grandma hoped that time would be enough to reveal all.
And it is. Family secrets and scandals, birding groups, lost souls, and small town kindnesses all have their turn in the spotlight. And of course there’s a love story or two. Will definitely appeal to fans of Sarah Addison Allen with its stubborn charm.
There aren’t blackbirds in the pie, just blackberries, by the way. The Blackbird Café gets its name from those European blackbirds that sing at midnight in the backyard. Even though European blackbirds aren’t nocturnal, or native to the Americas. I’ll leave you to discover their special magic and meaning.
Webber delivers a story that’s as sweet and satisfying as pie, with room for magical sequels.






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What a Plant Knows

What a Plant Knows: A Field Guide to the Senses by Daniel Chamovitz
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Elegantly expressed overview of current plant research, comparing plant senses and human senses. Debunks some of the ideas expressed in The Secret Life of Plants, at least as they were popularized in the media, and yet in the end saying plants are aware. Disappointingly short, only 141 pages plus 30 pages of notes, index, and acknowledgements. Highly recommended for people who love to read science. Good discussion of epinegenetics, also. Saw it reviewed in Science News, asked the library to order, and will be getting it back so the 10 other people in line can read it.
It was so good I bought the book. Scientists who write well are even more rare than writers who write well about science...but if they're writing, they're not doing the science...but if they're not explaining the science...anyway. Richard Feynman, Loren Eiseley, Michio Kaku: that kind of five stars writing.


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Wow. Just Wow. New Author!!

Beasts of Extraordinary Circumstance by Ruth Emmie Lang
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Beasts of Extraordinary Circumstances

Wow. It's a fable, it's magical realism, it's deep and dark and sad and funny. It's also kind of awkward, in the beginning. This may be because the critical mind is trying to fit the narrative into a box. Then, at some point, the critical mind says, "There must be more, many more books from this author." And then, one realizes, this is never going to fit into a box, this is a living narrative. It starts with a birth, and ends in new life. There's trauma and happiness along the way, all along the way of Weylin's life. Somehow, there's a thread of good humor woven throughout the musical tapestry of this novel, and one is left with a sense of the goodwill that binds all the earth's creatures together, a sense of hope in the mystery that dissolves the wall between wilderness and civilization that is not at all the sense of taming. At its heart, this is a story about what happens when magic (or love) comes into our lives, and we make the choice to believe...or not. There must be more, many more books from this author. It's a mystery, a ghost story, a love story, a fable, a jar full of magic light. Wow.
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the e-galley for review, the book is on my Christmas wishlist!!


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Fantastic Fforde

A French Affair: A perfect feel good summer romance by Katie Fforde
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

At last Katie Fforde is reappearing to an American audience! Katie is one of Britain's rom-com queens, for she manages to get just the right touches of setting, character, and story to tug your heartstrings and make you smile. The challenge of writing (and reading!) romance is that it's basically the same story every single time, even if it's our favorite. One of the pleasures of reading Fforde is that she gives us different settings in each book, so we're always exploring something, whether it's barges or wool factories or old country houses.
She takes us backstage to the antiques world in A French Affair. The old country house in this story has been turned into one of those antiques shops where lots of dealers use tiny spaces for storefronts. Gina and Sally have inherited a stall from their eccentric aunt. Tall, handsome and grumpy Matthew owns the building. Trouble and attraction and good humor ensue, along with true love, of course.
A French Affair was originally published in Britain in 2013 and is sitting on my home bookshelf, so it is not due to the free electronic version I received from the publisher and Netgalley that I encourage you to buy and read it and keep it on your bookshelf, too. Katie Fforde's books, all of them, are go-to books for comfort reading anytime--and some are even better than this one. If you want to read and close the pages with a smile on your face, Katie Fforde is your girl!


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Short Takes

One of the Best

All the Winters After by Seré Prince Halverson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

What a rare pleasure and treasure! A novel that succeeds as a thriller, as literature, as travel guide and as love story: love of place as well as love of family and romance. Kache's mom and dad and brother all died in the same plane crash and survivor's guilt drove him from his native Alaska for 20 years. Now his aunt has called him to face the past.
She told him no one had checked on his family's remote, isolated home in all that time, but when he gets close, he sees smoke coming from the chimney. Nadia has been living there in hiding for the last ten years, no contact with the outside world. Kache's return brings both redemption and danger to the family he's got left, and the family he hopes to build.
Halverson manages to pull off great characters in youth, midlife, and old age. Though diverse in most ways, they all ring true. I enjoyed the story as a thriller: what or who is Nadia hiding from? What the heck is Kache hiding from? And Kache's remaining family are a big part of the story, too: his aunt and failing grandmother. There's gentle humor amid the elements of reconciliation and grief; there's coming to terms with changed perceptions, through maturing or compassion. Every family has its unspoken griefs and resentments...and unspoken forgivenesses, sometimes, too. It's also a true pleasure to have the state of Alaska, the landscape and attitudes, be a character intrinsic to the story. Alaska rings as authentic as in the Kate Shugak novels by Dana Stabenow, but Halverson sings her own tune beautifully. ~Em Maxwell


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Bone Season hype from Riffle SciFi-and a giveaway

From Erica Bauman, Riffle Sci-fi editor:
Have you fallen under the spell of The Bone Season? It is the year 2059. Several major world cities are under the control of a security force called Scion. Paige Mahoney works in the criminal underworld of Scion London, part of a secret cell known as the Seven Seals. The work she does is unusual: scouting for information by breaking into others’ minds. Paige is a dreamwalker, a rare kind of clairvoyant, and in this world, the clairvoyants commit treason simply by breathing. But when Paige is captured and arrested, she encounters a power more sinister even than Scion. The clairvoyant prison is a separate city—Oxford, erased from the map two centuries ago and now controlled by a powerful, otherworldly race. These creatures, the Rephaim, value the clairvoyants highly—as soldiers in their army. Paige is assigned to a Rephaite keeper, Warden, who will be in charge of her care and training. He is her master. Her natural enemy. But if she wants to regain her freedom, Paige will have to learn something of his mind and his own mysterious motives.
Here's the link to the giveaway: http://rifflescifi.tumblr.com/bookgiveaways