BOOKISH ART: The Story Coaster

From IncidentalComics.com

Introducing... Die for You by Lisa Unger

Introducing books through the first chapter or so...

A light snow falls, slowly coating the deep-red rooftops of Prague. I look up into a chill gunmetal sky as the gray stones beneath me are already disappearing under a blanket of white. There's a frigid hush over the square. Shops are closed, chairs perched upside down on cafe' tables. In the distance I hear church bells. A strong wind sighs and moans, picks up some stray papers and dances them past me. The morning would be beautiful in its blustery quiet if it weren't in so much pain-- if I weren't so cold.

The side of my body that rests against the ground is stiff and numb. With difficulty, sore muscles protesting, I struggle to sit. I use the back of a park bench to pull myself to my feet. With the harsh wind pulling at my cuffs and collar, I wonder, How long have I been lying on the freezing stone, in the middle of this empty square? How did I get here? The last thing I remember is a question I asked of a young girl with tattoos on her face. I remember her eyes-- very young, damaged, afraid.

-- Die for You by Lisa Under

REVIEW: The Aviator's Wife by Melanie Benjamin

Synopsis

For much of her life, Anne Morrow, the shy daughter of the U.S. ambassador to Mexico, has stood in the shadows of those around her, including her millionaire father and vibrant older sister, who often steals the spotlight. Then Anne, a college senior with hidden literary aspirations, travels to Mexico City to spend Christmas with her family. There she meets Colonel Charles Lindbergh, fresh off his celebrated 1927 solo flight across the Atlantic. Enthralled by Charles’s assurance and fame, Anne is certain the celebrated aviator has scarcely noticed her. But she is wrong.

Charles sees in Anne a kindred spirit, a fellow adventurer, and her world will be changed forever. The two marry in a headline-making wedding. Hounded by adoring crowds and hunted by an insatiable press, Charles shields himself and his new bride from prying eyes, leaving Anne to feel her life falling back into the shadows. In the years that follow, despite her own major achievements—she becomes the first licensed female glider pilot in the United States—Anne is viewed merely as the aviator’s wife. The fairy-tale life she once longed for will bring heartbreak and hardships, ultimately pushing her to reconcile her need for love and her desire for independence, and to embrace, at last, life’s infinite possibilities for change and happiness.

Drawing on the rich history of the twentieth century—from the late twenties to the mid-sixties—and featuring cameos from such notable characters as Joseph Kennedy and Amelia Earhart, The Aviator’s Wife is a vividly imagined novel of a complicated marriage—revealing both its dizzying highs and its devastating lows. With stunning power and grace, Melanie Benjamin provides new insight into what made this remarkable relationship endure.

Hardcover, 416 pages
Published January 15th 2013 by Delacorte Press (first published January 1st 2013)
ISBN 0345528670 (ISBN13: 9780345528674)


About the Author

Melanie Benjamin is the author of the national bestseller, ALICE I HAVE BEEN, THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MRS. TOM THUMB, as well as the forthcoming THE AVIATOR'S WIFE, a novel about Anne Morrow Lindbergh. She lives in the Chicago area with her husband and two sons. She's currently at work on her next historical novel.

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My Thoughts

He is flying.

This is the fictional account of aviator Charles Lindbergh and his wife Anne Morrow. Anne was the shy sister-- socially awkward and quiet-- when she meet Charles Lindbergh at a family party. In the story, she is shocked to discover that Lindbergh is interested in her, rather than her sister Elizabeth (the sickly yet pretty one that was socially in demand). After a rather sedate courtship, Lindbergh and Anne were married in May 1929.

Soon she is Lindbergh's partner, learning everything she can about flying and soon sharing the workload on the worldwide flights together. Yet this was the 30s, and Anne was simply seen as the wife of Charles Lindbergh, despite her personal accomplishments.

I had just become the first American woman to fly a glider. (p. 94)

I was asked by female reporters how I intended to set up housekeeping in a plane, even as my fingers nervously tapped out practice messages in the Morse code I had been studying for weeks-- Engine failure. Send help. Location unknown. Not once was I queried about my technical skills, even though I was to be the radio operator on this trip. (p. 136)

In 1930, their first son Charles Jr. was born.

Some in Congress suggested his birth be declared a national holiday. (p. 118)

Seriously? Members of Congress were talking about making the baby's birth a national holiday? C'mon!

And, of course, that little baby was quite famously kidnapped for ransom at 20 months of age. Probably the most famous kidnapping in history. (His body was found months later about 4 miles from his home. It is speculated that the kidnapper dropped him when the ladder broke as he carried Charles Jr. down, and the infant died.)

Did you know that Colonel H. Norman Schwarzkopf, who headed up the investigation on the kidnapping of Charles Lindbergh Jr., was the father of Stormin' Norman Schwarzkopf of Desert Storm fame?

I found some of the dialogue to be unrealistic. For example:

"It's just so strange, to think of you like that," Ansy continued, laughing merrily. "I mean-- look at you! You're, well-- you're Mother. Father's the pilot, the hero. You take care of us, and the house, but to think of you up in the air, in your own little airplane!" (p. 283) 

That was supposed to be the 10-year-old daughter Anne speaking to her mother Anne Morrow Lindbergh. Sorry, but that does not sound like any 10-year-old I know. But who knows. Not having kids, maybe I'm wrong. Maybe that's what 10-year-olds commonly sound like.

A little personal note: Anne fled to Captiva Island, which is a local island here in town, after her husband won the Pulitzer for his auto-biography and failed to thank her for her help in writing the book, and instead thanked the Wright Brothers.

The author outlined her goal in a note at the end of the book:

...I wanted to make Anne the heroine of her own story, finally-- as in memory (both her written accounts and the public's perception), she is far too often overshadowed by the dominant personality that is Charles Lindbergh. (p. 336)

I think this book succeeded on that point. You find yourself frustrated with the lack of acknowledgement of her accomplishments, since she did some pretty amazing things.
 
My final word: The book isn't poorly written, isn't horribly boring or filled with drivel. It simply wasn't very exciting, nor did I find it very interesting. I didn't find myself hanging on the book's every word, wondering what would happen next. In fact, it was so forgettable that I didn't think I had finished it, since I couldn't remember anything about the ending. So I picked it up to finish it, and found I recognized everything I was reading, and realized I'd finished this book a month or so ago, and totally forgot it. I thought Lindbergh was really unlikable. I just don't get the public's love affair with him. He was sympathetic to Hitler, and yet they loved him. He could do no wrong. This is one of those books that I would have been happy to have never read, even though I like Melanie Benjamin's writing well enough.

...hatred doesn't require a common language to be understood. (p. 246)

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My Rating: 

  

REVIEW and GIVEAWAY: The Never List by Koethi Zan

Synopsis

The most relentless, deeply disturbing thriller writer since Jeffery Deaver and Gillian Flynn

For years, best friends Sarah and Jennifer kept what they called the “Never List”: a list of actions to be avoided, for safety’s sake, at all costs. But one night, against their best instincts, they accept a cab ride with grave, everlasting consequences. For the next three years, they are held captive with two other girls in a dungeon-like cellar by a connoisseur of sadism.

Ten years later, at thirty-one, Sarah is still struggling to resume a normal life, living as a virtual recluse under a new name, unable to come to grips with the fact that Jennifer didn’t make it out of that cellar. Now, her abductor is up for parole and Sarah can no longer ignore the twisted letters he sends from jail.

Finally, Sarah decides to confront her phobias and the other survivors—who hold their own deep grudges against her. When she goes on a cross-country chase that takes her into the perverse world of BDSM, secret cults, and the arcane study of torture, she begins unraveling a mystery more horrifying than even she could have imagined.

A shocking, blazingly fast read, Koethi Zan’s debut is a must for fans of Karin Slaughter, Laura Lippman, and S.J. Watson.

Hardcover, 320 pages
Expected publication: July 16th 2013 by Pamela Dorman Books 
ISBN  0670026514 (ISBN13: 9780670026517)


About the Author
from Goodreads

When Koethi Zan was born in the sleepy farming town of Opp, Alabama, the “City of Opportunity,” her mother was Valedictorian of the local public high school and her father the star of its football team. Her parents named her after the homecoming queen of Lurleen B. Wallace Junior College, perhaps hopeful that some of that glory would rub off on her.

But Koethi would never be a homecoming queen. In fact, she spent most of her youth in her room, reading, listening to Morrissey, and avoiding everything connected to high school football—not an easy task in those parts.

After graduation, Koethi put herself through Birmingham-Southern College with scholarships and a small “cow fund” courtesy of Molly, the Charolais heifer she’d received as her third birthday present. She used the money wisely, travelling to New Orleans on the weekends to hit the club scene, almost always in silver-sequined costume, surrounded by transvestites, Goth kids and her gay male entourage. Perhaps, in some roundabout way, she had fulfilled her homecoming queen destiny after all.

Then, in what may have been a misguided fit of pique, Koethi threw away her all-black daywear and her thrift-store evening gowns, and went to Yale Law School, with some vague idea of becoming a film producer. Afterwards, however, she unexpectedly found herself twenty-eight stories up in the Manhattan offices of Davis Polk & Wardwell, a prestigious white shoe law firm that represented mostly investment banks. She regularly pulled all-nighters working on secured financings and revolving credit facilities. She tended to wear demure black pantsuits, with her hair up. 

It didn’t take her long to realize corporate life wasn’t for her, and Koethi spent the next fifteen years practicing entertainment law both in private practice (at Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton & Garrison and, later, Schreck Rose & Dapello) and in-house business and legal affairs positions (for the film producer, Ed Pressman, and, most recently, at MTV), with a slight detour along the way to study cinema at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. 

As an entertainment lawyer, Koethi attended glamorous premieres and openings, international film festivals and celebrity-filled parties. She dealt with gritty production issues as varied as suicide threats, drug overdoses and sex-tape allegations. She warred with Hollywood agents and befriended reality stars.

Then, while Senior Vice President & Deputy General Counsel at MTV, she decided to fulfill a lifelong dream on the side, and in the early mornings she wrote a crime novel, The Never List.
Now, coming full circle in a way, Koethi, her husband, Stephen Metcalf, and their two daughters, live in an old farmhouse in a rural community in upstate New York. Her husband occasionally watches a football game on television. But her daughters have never even heard of homecoming queens.

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My Thoughts

There were four of us down there for the first thirty-two months and eleven days of our captivity. And then, very suddenly and without warning, there were three. Even though the fourth person hadn't made any noise at all in several months, the room got very quiet when she was gone. For a long time after that, we sat in silence, in the dark, wondering which of us would be next in the box.

This is the story of three women, held captive and tortured for years by a sadist, and now 10 years free and still attempting to deal with the results of their ordeal. One of the women is on a quest to find out what happened to her friend Jennifer, the fourth girl who died during their captivity.

Of course, first I must state the obvious and point out the crazy coincidence that this book was released right around the time that the three girls were rescued in Cleveland after ten years of captivity.

The story was intriguing. And at times the writing could be quite engaging. However one thing that really bugged me was the dialogue between the girls. It felt unauthentic, stiff and formal. Usually I am a dialogue reader-- it's what I prefer. Not this time. I came to dread the dialogue, as everything else in the story was so much better written. For example, just after the girls met, one of the girls says to the other, "I'm very sorry you've had to join us. You look like a nice kid. It's a shame. the other girl-- you know her?-- has saved one of us from something we were very afraid of, and so, I must admit, for that we are very glad." (page 26)

Sorry. I just can't picture this formal and stilted way of speaking coming from a girl who has been isolated and chained in a basement, tortured over a period of time. What a weird way for her to greet the new girl on the scene!  "I'm very sorry you've had to join us"?

And then there's this cringe-worthy passage.

"...One john is easier than hundreds of johns. Simple math. With one john, I don't care how psycho he is, you can figure him out a little bit. Understand how he works. Plan ahead. Manipulate. Not a lot. But enough to make it hurt a little less. When you've got new johns all the time, who the hell knows." (page 213)

Now I say this as someone who has tried her hand at writing, and realized just how difficult it is to write well. This dialogue looks like something I would have written, and I cringe a bit when I read my own dialogue. So I am wielding the same criticism against this author that I wield against myself!

There were also a few strangely worded passages, such as one moment when the term "violent outbreak" was used, which sounded very awkward, rather than the use of the common phrase "violent outburst".

At times the story was bogged down by "tedious techie drivel".

"With this particular app," she explained, "you can share your GPS location with others in real time. Jim downloaded the app, and we connected. Then he could track me as I followed the van."

I nodded my head appreciatively. Naturally, Christine had the latest, most advanced technology. (page 221)

And there were times the story was just plain ridiculous, such as when this girl just decides to leave after having been rescued.

"You're leaving? Don't they need to take your statement? To make sure they have all the evidence they can get?"

..."Nah, they've got plenty of stories to go on..." (page 224)

Uh, yeah. You are a central figure in a major crime, and the FBI is going to let you just walk out, because there are plenty of other victims and witnesses to talk to. They can get by without you...NOT!

And again at another point when the girls get out of protective custody with no trouble at all. As if you can be in protective custody with the FBI, and then can just call up someone and say, "Uh, we decided we don't want to be protected any longer. We're leaving." And whoever is on the other line just says, "Okay. We'll call our guy back to the office. Take care, and good luck! We'll contact you when we need your testimony for the criminal case!", and doesn't even contact the head detective on the case to get his input or to alert him.

My final word:  This story had its moments. It wasn't generally gratuitously violent or gory. (Considering the context, I feared I may be walking into something like the movie "Hostel", and was happy to see it was not.) Some of the writing was pretty good, and the story kept me guessing, wondering what would come next. There was a nice twist at the end that made the story ultimately satisfying. But I struggled with the dialogue and some of the characters, and some things were just plain ridiculous. I recommend this book, but not without reservations.

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Cover: B-
Writing Style: B
Characters: B-
Storyline/Plot: B-
Interest/Uniqueness: B+

My Rating:

GIVEAWAY: The publicist has generously offered a copy of The Never List to one of my readers. To enter, just complete the form below. Sorry, but this giveaway is open to US residents only.

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Disclosure:

I received a copy of this book to review through Netgalley, in exchange for my honest opinion. I was not financially compensated in any way, and the opinions expressed are my own and based on my observations while reading this novel.

ARTICLE SHARING: Teach.com shares their Young Adult Summer Reading List flow chart

It's that time of year again-- summer break! And teach.com is once again offering up a Young Adult Summer Reading List flow chart. Great for young adults and adults alike, this list will help guide you to your next YA read. Check it out!


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