Ed King by David Guterson

Posted on February 3, 2012 by Dani Stone

In his latest novel, Ed King, David Guterson tackles a classic Greek legend, Oedipus Rex, and gives it a modern spin. Now, if you don’t read Greek tragedies on a regular basis and if all those episodes of Survivor and American Idol have taken up brain space where your college lit classes used to reside, let me refresh your memory.

The story of ill-fated Oedipus has been told time and again by famous writers and poets since 5^th Century BC including Sophocles, Euripides and Homer. Poor Oedipus was given away by his parents, adopted by a family who kept the adoption secret and through a series of events, unwittingly murders his birth father, marries his birth mother and rules a Kingdom before finally learning the truth and, well, that’s where the authors seem to differ in their storytelling. Guterson puts his own twist on the ending, as well.

Guterson, whose previous books include, East Of The Mountain, The Other, Our Lady Of The Forest and the bestselling novel, Snow Falling On Cedars, did not take this project lightly. This is not a novella. At 300+ pages, Ed King is told in great detail with dark humor to lighten the mood of his disturbing subject matter. He even addresses his audience directly at one point, warning us the “incest” scene is about to begin by saying, “Okay. Now we approach the part of the story a reader can’t be blamed for having skipped forward to. . . the part where a mother has sex with her son. Who could blame you for being interested in this potential hot part.” I might’ve chosen, “cringe-worthy” instead of, “hot part.”

Guterson is a skilled writer who gives Oedipus a new name and plunks him down in the 1960s but remains true to the legend, inserting details of the original story like little treasures for the reader to find. You’d think knowing all the major plot points ahead of time would make the book less intriguing. Wrong. For the reader, half the fun is figuring out how he’ll get there. For me, it was a bit like watching a “slasher” movie. You know the pretty girl with the large chest and minimal dialogue who volunteers to go in to the woods alone at night is going to be killed, you just don’t know how.

Fans of Greek mythology will be delighted by this technologically-advanced Oedipus and the new set of challenges the story faces by telling it in the modern age.

BEAUTY QUEENS by Libba Bray – reviewed by Leslie Langtry

Posted on February 2, 2012 by Leslie Thompson

You’ve seen LOST, you’ve read LORD OF THE FLIES, and you maybe even remember GILLIGAN’S ISLAND (a show I’ve only seen in syndication of course)…but what happens when it’s a plane load of teen beauty queens that crashes on an uncharted tropical island? Will Miss Texas be able to motivate the girls into a sequin and spandex-encased survival team? Will the crash make it more difficult for Miss Nebraska to win Miss Congeniality? Will they ever be able to dislodge the airline tray embedded in Miss New Mexico’s forehead?

Miss Texas – one Taylor Rene Krystal Hawkins – armed with her signature pink lip gloss and channeling G. Gordon Liddy, takes charge from the start. Once organized into two teams: The Sparkle Ponies stay on the beach to help the wounded, while The Lost Girls head into the jungle to look for missing shoes, teeth-bleaching trays and the back half of the airplane.

Throw in a shadowy corporation of sinister characters determined to make sure the girls never go anywhere, some reality show pirate teen boys, and military grade c-4 and you have a book you will never, ever want to put down.

I love funny books. I will be reviewing a lot of them, because, quite frankly, the good ones are hard to find. It was the book’s cover that drew me in. The blonde hair, banner and bandolier of lipsticks spoke to me somehow. There are days when I wish I was armed with an array of power Chanel lipsticks, an intimidating pair of PRADA kitten heels, she-really-means-business Dior mascara and a killer IT bag. Oh the things I could do…

I must admit that I was a little worried at first when I started this book – howling with guilty pleasure at the characterizations of these Miss Teen Dream beauty queens. I was afraid that the girls would be vapid and shallow throughout (BTW, I would’ve finished it no matter what). I needn’t have worried (thus avoiding deep frown lines, thankfully). Ms. Bray does an excellent job of showing the growth of these characters as they follow a dark and delightful story arc. Seeing these girls grow (gasp) hair on their legs, build huts and set up booby traps was more inspirational and fun than having a three-martini luncheon with Tina Fey, Michelle Obama and Lady GaGa.

This is a black comedy and a brilliant satire – which means that some people won’t like it. (Personally, I don’t know who, but there’s always someone.) People die or are dead. Bad guys want to kill nice, teen girls. Not very nice things happen occasionally.

But if you like to laugh out loud while reading and enjoy thinking now and then, you MUST give it a try. I loved BEAUTY QUEENS, and I’m willing to bet my rhinestone, silver-plated tiara that you will too.

Crimes in Southern Indiana: Stories — Frank Bill

Posted on January 31, 2012 by Kim Randall Cox

The people populating the small towns and backwoods of southern Indiana meet with grisly ends throughout Frank Bill’s short stories. Simple shootings just won’t do for these twisted, nasty characters. A blade slices through both of a man’s eyes, a man lassos and hangs his father-in-law at his wife’s behest, silent dogs bite their way from a bulging calf to a vulnerable throat, and then, there are the flames: a barn of dead dogs set afire, homemade bombs exploding and burning the attacker instead of the target, a lit cigarette flicked into a circle of gasoline. Crimes in Southern Indiana: Stories overflows with senseless violence alongside righteous, brutal vengeance.

Men, women and children wind in and out of these stories linked and rooted by place. Families take shape from one story to the next, an often gruesome shape, melding into the fabric of the action or serving as a backdrop, a connection, or an explanation of the deep mysteries of human motivation. The tone is pessimistic and sardonic. “The only time life is easy is childhood, but by the time a person realizes this, it’s too damn late.”

Bill paints his law enforcement with the same dark pigment used for his criminals. Even the good guys exhibit flaws, bad behavior, and judgment tainted by personal interest or annihilated by tragedy. Ordinary people fall victim to their vices. Innocence is shattered for no conceivable reason. Children commit violence, are raped and killed. Lives ruined in an instant. Everyone is fair game. It is the rare man who emerges on the other side and no one gets away clean.

The transgressions accumulate like crappie on a fish stringer, so fast that you lose count. In Trespassing Between Heaven and Hell, the breach lays not so heavily in the act as in the cover-up, but once events are set into motion, sin piles upon convenient sin, complicated by the relationship of brothers and the wrecked psyche of a man incapable of leaving war wounds behind him. Already broken people shatter beyond repair.

The aftermath of war figures into The Old Mechanic as well. Perhaps the most compelling story in the collection, the narrative is told from the point of view of an adolescent boy meeting his grandfather for the first time. The boy grew up hearing savage accounts of the man’s behavior. Despite his mother’s misgivings and his own searing fear, the boy goes off alone with the man. The simple words than run through the boy’s head while he accompanies his grandfather to a gun show, to dinner and finally to the old man’s home, elucidate a mixture of repulsion and curiosity, clearly illuminating the irresistible pull of blood and history. In the end, pervasive guilt wracks the grandfather’s existence with hope of only the merest hint of redemption.

The Penance of Scoot McCutcheon is a love story. It’s the accounting of an ordinary home and a happy marriage, told by a doting husband. A young wife described in tender, intimate detail. But it is a love story of the dead and the dying, told in retrospect and tinged with regret. It is the least violent tale here, the crime secondary to an emotionally devastating centerpiece. Haunted by his own actions, a man in perpetual disguise runs from himself for years before surrendering to reckon for his sin, making peace with his own conscience but unable to shake his staggering guilt.

This story collection is an astonishing debut. Bill peppers his writing with generous description, some perfectly rendered, some slightly distracting. Hair and eyes “stained like a walnut”, “flesh giftwrapping bone”, or “Frail would describe her as muscular,” evoke just the right image. Even the few less successful passages bring a definite vision into the mind. Inducing and conveying raw emotion seems almost effortless for Bill, particularly in the case of men in love with their women. The stories race along, visceral, strong, and stunning, transporting the reader into a dirty, dangerous world of drugs, alcohol, incessant violence, and the terminal pastimes of decaying rural life. These people of southern Indiana inhabit an unrelenting hell made up partially of circumstance but primarily crafted from their own design.

Originally published on Kim’s blog

How to Save a Life

Posted on January 25, 2012 by Sonia Gensler

As you may have noticed, I’m a huge fan of historicals, gothic mysteries, and — from time to time — sci fi and fantasy. Sometimes, however, I just crave a good contemporary YA novel. And when I do, you better believe I go straight to Sara Zarr. It’s such a gift to find an author whose books MUST be read, regardless of the subject matter. Zarr’s latest, How to Save a Life, may well be her best so far.

After the sudden death of her father, Jill MacSweeny withdraws from her friends, her boyfriend, and even her newly widowed mother. Her mother’s plan to bring a pregnant young woman into their house in order to adopt the baby seems both inappropriate and doomed to fail. Jill’s subsequent resentment prompts her to finally reach out to others. However, her efforts to reconnect with her boyfriend fail to bring comfort, and her manipulation of an attractive co-worker into investigating the birth mother leaves her confused.

The birth mother, Mandy Kalinowski, is an unusual young woman. Jill dismisses her as a simpleton. A reader initially might conclude that she’s a sociopath. Mandy certainly has kept secrets and manipulated people. But as we become privy to her past and the circumstances leading up to her pregnancy — and as we see how she responds to Mrs. MacSweeny’s trust and Jill’s scorn — we grow to care deeply for Mandy. The question is, will Jill learn to do the same before it’s too late?

I love the character arcs in this book, and the little plot twists and poignant moments that I didn’t see coming (though this was slightly inconvenient for reading on a plane — good thing I had plenty of tissues). Zarr’s prose is gorgeously warm and authentic, and it manages to be so wise without ever seeming heavy-handed or full of itself. (You know what I mean, right?)

I so admire Sara Zarr as a writer and as a person (check out her blog for nuggets of wisdom and reassurance). If you haven’t read any of her books yet, get thee to a library or bookstore this instant!

Goals!: How to Get Everything You Want — Faster Than You Ever Thought Possible by Brian Tracy

Posted on January 23, 2012 by Jamie Livingston

It’s less than a month into the new year, and I’ve decided to set my goals for the year. I never do it on New Year’s Day, because then it’s a resolution. I’m the girl who has so many goals whirling around in her head that she can’t figure out where to start, so she just doesn’t. Well, not anymore!

Goals! How to Get Everything You Want taught me how to prioritize my goals, and just what to expect. The important part of goal setting, is to learn to break the larger goals into smaller pieces. And for the first time in my life, I have a clear path and a concrete set of goals.

I also used to keep my goals private, not wanting anyone to poo-poo them, but this year I sat down with my husband and explained to him what my number one goal was, and how I planned to achieve it. His response, “Let me know if I can do anything to help.” Now that was not what I expected. Maybe I should have shared my goals years ago? Hahaha.

So I’m on my way, and by this time next year, I will have achieved a huge goal that I’ve finally put on paper. What about you? How do you set and achieve your goals? Need help defining and achieving? Try this book from Brian Tracy! For the wicked low Kindle price, you can’t go wrong.