Women Who Eat Reading List

Left Neglected by Lisa Genova
A fictional account of a mental handicap caused by a trauma sustained during a car accident.
Novelist gives it 4 stars.
Left Neglected

Piano Shop on the Left Bank by Thad Carhart
Locals gather in a piano repair shop to discuss music, love and life.
NoveList gives it four stars.
Piano Shop on the Left Bank

Tulipomania: the story of the world's most covet flower and the extraordinary passions it aroused
by Mike Dash
Non-fiction account of the plant's history and its journey from East to West.
NoveList gives it 3 stars.
Tulipomania: the story of the world's most coveted flower and the extraordinary passions it aroused 

Hotel on Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford
This book is about what happens when Japanese artifacts are found during the renovation of a Seattle hotel.
Historical fiction, character driven. Good Reads gives it 4 stars.


Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China by Jung Chang
Three generations of Chinese women experience the modern world.
Non-fiction. Novelist gives it 5 stars.


  Ghost Map: The Story of London's Most Terrifying Epidemic and How it Changed Science, Cities and the Modern World by Steven Johnson
A history of the 1854 cholera outbreak in London.
Non-fiction. both Novelist and GoodReads give it 4 stars. Suggested by Susannah.


Good Evening Mrs.Craven: The Wartime Stories of Mollie Panter-Downes by Mollie Panter-Downes.
English short stories printed in in the New Yorker between 1939 and 1944.
GoodReads gives it 4 stars. Suggested by Ellie.

Some Kind of Fairy Tale

Annotation for Adult Fiction: Psychological fiction, urban fantasy

Adapted from Saricks, Joyce G. and Nancy Brown. Readers Advisory Service in the Public Library 2nd.  Chicago: ALA, 1997.

Author: Graham Joyce

Title: Some Kind of Fairy Tale

Publication Date: 2012    Number of Pages: 310   Part of a Series: No

Subject Headings:

• Urban fantasy
• Missing persons
• Fairy tales
• English small towns
• Memory
• Ancient woods

Geographical Setting/Time Period: Suburban/small town Great Britain, current time

Main Character(s):

• Tara - a sixteen year old girl who goes missing for 20 years and then returns home.
• Richie - Tara's boyfriend at the time of the disappearance. He is a musician who never seemed to make it in the search for fame and fortune.
• Peter - Tara's brother and friends with Richie. They haven't spoken since Tara went missing

Plot Summary: A conflicted teenager acting on impulse loses herself in a local forest. Although a search is made, the girl has disappeared. Twenty years pass before she turns up on her parents' doorstep. No one believes her tale of abduction or description of the place that she has been.

Characterization: The story is melancholic and reflective.

Storyline: Character-driven and leisurely paced with lots of description and character development

Writing style: The author is engaging and readable.

Brief quote: "Oh yes, the bluebells were out in May. Do you remember how they were? Their perfume stole the sense right out of your head." p.38

Prizes or Awards: Library Journal Top 10, 2012

Similar Works: Songs for the Missing by Stewart O'Nan. This is another story about a teenager who goes missing and the people who search for her.

Reviewer’s Name: Nancy Rimassa

The Passage

Adapted from Saricks, Joyce G. and Nancy Brown. Readers= Advisory Service in the Public Library 2nd.  Chicago: ALA, 1997.

Author:  Justin Cronin
Title:  The Passage  
Publication Date: 2010

Number of Pages: 766
Part of a Series: the first in a triology
Subject Heading(s): Science fiction, literary fantasy
Geographical Setting/ Time Period: western United States, the near future and following 100 years

Main Character(s): 

• Amy - a six year old abandoned child who is deliberately infected with an experimental virus by the US military
• Peter - a survivor of the collapse of American civilization
• Alicia - a survivor of the collapse but by temperament and training, an advocate of the military establishment
• The 12 - survivors of the experiment who are the instigators of the collapse

Plot Summary: This is another apocolyptic novel of the American future. Poor choices are made in regard to gene manipulations and experimentation. Containment fails and chaos ensues. A savior emerges 100 years later with a cure for the horrifying virus.

Appeal: The storyline is character-driven and often bleak. The reader may feel the exhaustion and depression that the characters exhibit. The author is able to generate suspense with his compelling style.

Prizes or Awards: The book received starred reviews in Publishers Weekly and Library Journal. It made it to Library Journals Top 10 List for 2010.

Similar Works: Similar works include Stephen King's Cell and Dan Simmo' Carrion Comfort.

Reviewer’s Name: Nancy Rimassa

The Passage

Sufficient Grace

Author: Darnell Arnoult 

Publication Date: 2006

Number of Pages: 299

Part of a Series: No

 
Subject Heading(s):
Aging
Mental health -                                                                                                    Sufficient Grace
Artists - Fiction
Family fiction
Female self-expression
Interracial relationships
Missing persons
Southern stories about loss
Schizophrenics
family
Widows
Southern states
Women (any adjective you can think of)
Geographical Setting/Time Period: North Carolina and Virginia/Recent past
Main Character(s):  
Gracie Hollaman, a woman of middle age who begins to hear voices, discovers a talent for drawing and leaves her husband of 30+ years.
Ed Hollaman, a man who cannot boil an egg left to fend for himself discovers how to cook when he grows bored with TV dinners
Mama Toot Riley, an elderly woman of color and matriarch in her Virginia farmhouse
Mattie Riley, a grieving widow, amazing cook and reluctant step-grandmother, she is Toot’s daughter-in-law
Plot Summary: Gracie leaves home, commanded by the voice of God. She wrecks her car and is later found, asleep on a grave. Her finders interpret her presence as a sign from the Lord and move her to their home. A search for the missing woman is unsuccessful until Gracie is recognized. Her therapy and subsequent care provide the rest of the story.
Appeal:                     
Pacing is relaxed but interest is kept high by switching to different character viewpoints
Characterization is typical for this genre. Lots of women, each with a story, and a couple of men to add conflict, make the reading move along. Individual personalities tangle around each other, weaving a family of caring. In the end all the problems are resolved. The issue of women as caregivers who want to create rather than respond is the core issue.
The frame alternates between the urban home of Ed and Gracie and the rural farmhouse and community of Toot and Mattie. Although the story is told in third person, the reader is privy to a great deal of interior dialogue.
Brief quote: “It’s not enough to paint Jesus and all these Bible characters on fenders and hoods and steering wheels,” Sammy says. “She’s painting fairies all over them, too. I think she’s crazy as a bat.” (103)
Prizes or Awards: Starred review, Publishers’ Weekly
Similar Works: Black Mountain Breakdown by Lee Smith. Story of a southern woman who struggles to find a role that fits her best, returns to scene of childhood comfort (Novelist)
Reviewer’s Name: Nancy Rimassa



Adapted from Saricks, Joyce G. and Nancy Brown. Readers= Advisory Service in the Public Library 2^nd.  Chicago: ALA, 1997.

 

 

The Night Circus - Adult Fiction

Author: Erin Morgenstern. This is a debut novel.

Publication Date: 2011 Number of Pages: 387  Part of a Series: No.

Subject Heading(s):

 Fantasy fiction

Magic

Magicians

Competition

Circus

Games

Circus performers

Good and evil 

Geographical Setting/Time Period: London and Boston in the 19th century although the rest of the world is involved in the circus's travels. 

Main Character(s):

Celia Brown: one of the game-players. She is six years old when the story begins. Her father is her trainer.

Marco: the second game-player. He is rescued from a London orphanage and trained in the ways of the game by his benefactor.

Secondary but important characters:

Prospero: a magician, father of Celia.

Alexander: also a magician, benefactor and trainer of Marco.

Widget and Poppet: twins born on opening night of the circus

Bailey Alden Clarke: a dreamer and contemporary of Widget and Poppet. He loves the circus and Poppet as well.

Chandresh Lefevre: an organizer of lavish events, inordinately lucky with returns on his dollar.

Plot Summary:

Two ancient magicians wager on the skills of two young people whom they train especially for the game. The venue for the challenge is a circus. Romance, intrigue and details describing the circus acts push the story through the time of telling. The players grow weary of the game and must struggle for a solution. 

Appeal:

The tone of the book is romantic but not maudlin. There is mystery and delight in the lush descriptions of both the characters and the settings. 

Brief quote:

Twelve of the fire performers quietly enter the courtyard with small platforms that they set up along the perimeter like numbers on a clock. Precisely one minute before the hour, they each ascend their respective platforms and pull from their backs shimmering black bows and arrows. At thirty seconds before midnight, they light the tips their arrows with small dancing yellow flames. Those in the crowd who had not noticed them previously now watch in wonder. At ten seconds before the hour, they raise their bows and aim the flaming arrows at the waiting well of curling iron. As the clock begins to chime near the gates, the first archer lets his arrow fly, soaring over the crowd and hitting its mark in a shower of sparks. (p. 93) 

Prizes or Awards:

Starred reviews in Booklist, Library Journal, Publishers' Weekly and Kirkus. Novelist gives it a blue ribbon which I assume means First Prize! 

Similar Works:

Nights at the Circus by Angela Carter. A cast of eccentric characters, unconventional stories and the circus as a setting ties these two titles together. Nights at the Circus is not quite as dark in tone as The Night Circus but does have a similar feel. (Novelist) 

Reviewer’s Name: Nancy Rimassa 

Adapted from Saricks, Joyce G. and Nancy Brown. Readers= Advisory Service in the Public Library 2^nd.  Chicago: ALA, 1997.

Song Yet Sung - Historical Fiction

Author: James McBride  
Publication Date: 2008    

Number of Pages: 368

Geographical Setting/Time Period: 19^th Century Chesapeake Bay Region (1861-1865)

Main Character(s):

Liz Spocott (Strong and beautiful runaway who sees the future);

Patty Cannon (Heartless, wicked mass slave trader);

Denwood Long (A troubled sympathetic slave hunter);

Woolman (A kind feral black man);

Amber (generous and helpful slave who knows “the code”);

Kathleen Sullivan (Kind widow who treats her slaves like family)

Plot Summary:

Liz is an injured runaway slave who can see the future in her dreams; she helps 14 other runaways escape from Patty Cannon’s attic. Patty and her posse are in constant pursuit of the runaways. “The code” protects those who know it in finding assistance in their attempts to make it to the freedom line. When two young boys, one black one white, vanish the town scrambles to find them and everyone begins to realize who can be trusted, regardless of skin color.

Appeal:

This is a slow paced novel where the characters quest for freedom is intricately described. McBride uses authentic dialect between the characters to tell the story of the runaway slaves. The search for truth and freedom add to the sense of anticipation throughout the book with an overlying bleak tone. The dual perspective that McBride offers of the Underground Railroad and “the code” with references to Harriet Tubman and the future of Martin Luther King will appeal to readers.

Brief quote: “Them dreams you got, he said, the children that’s fat and running round, Killing each other. The colored men who dress up as boys, they ain’t no different from the folks around here. Some is up to the job of being decent, and some ain’t.”(160).

Prizes or Awards: None.

Similar Works:

The Color of Water: a Blackman’s tribute to his white mother by James McBride (similar details regarding African American Men; mother and son relationships; and ethnic identity)–Reader’s Advisory Online

Someone Knows my Name by Lawrence Hill (Similar themes regarding slaves and African American women)–NovelistPlus

Reviewer’sName:LenoreSt.John

AdaptedfromSaricks,JoyceG.andNancyBrown.Readers=AdvisoryServiceinthePublicLibrary2^nd.Chicago:ALA,1997.

The Paris Wife - Historical Fiction

Author: Paula McLain   Publication Date: 2011   Number of Pages: 318

Geographical Setting/Time Period: 1920-25, the jazz age in Paris

Main Characters:

Hadley Hemingway - the first wife of Ernest Hemingway. She is deeply in love with Ernest, supportive of his vision to be a great writer. but dependent on him to give her life purpose.

Ernest Hemingway - a charming, moody, selfish young man. He is driven by demons to write. His community of friends allow a patron supported lifestyle that seems unrealistic by today's standards.

Plot Summary: Friends of friends, two young people meet in Chicago and fall in love. They marry and move to Paris, pursuing the young man's dream to become a writer. The young woman, a musician of some talent, allows her skill to remain only a peripheral part her life, choosing to support her husband in his efforts. Their circle of friends supports a lifestyle that seems unrealistic by today's standards. The young man is a philanderer and eventually is forced to choose fidelity or divorce

Appeal: Character driven, the tone of the book is romantic. Based on historical fact, there is an inevitability to the narrative. There is a small sense of world-building as the culture of the Paris group in the 1920s is hinted at.

Brief quote: "I closed my eyes and let meyself fall, barreling down over the hard bumps. I'd had so much to drink I couldn't feel a thing -- nothing but a thrilling sense of wildness and freedom. It was a kind of euphoria, really, and fear was a key part of it." (p. 21)

Prizes or Awards: Starred reviews in Kirkus and Library Journal

Similar Works: Loving Frank by Nancy Horan,

Reviewer’s Name: Nancy Rimassa

Adapted from Saricks, Joyce G. and Nancy Brown. Reader’ Advisory Service in the Public Library 2nd. Chicago: ALA, 1997.