Fiction

House, Silas. A Parchment of Leaves. In 1917 rural Kentucky, a young Cherokee woman named Vine, rumored to cast spells on unsuspecting men, falls in love with local Irishman Saul Sullivan, whom she eventually marries. This second novel by Appalachian writer House (Clay's Quilt) tells the story of Vine and Saul's tender relationship and the prejudice they face and eventually overcome. While Vine was not raised according to Cherokee customs, she is still aware of being seen as an outsider when she leaves her Cherokee community to be with her husband. People are drawn to her gentle and generous personality, however, and soon she forms enduring friendships with her hard-working mother-in-law, Esme, and feisty and independent midwife Serena. When World War I erupts and Saul temporarily takes a better-paying job far from home, Vine finds herself trying to ward off the unwanted advances of Saul's restless younger brother, Aaron, who declares his own love for Vine. A deep respect for the natural world and the enduring spirit of the human heart are what make this book worth reading and remembering.

House, Silas. The Coal Tattoo. Set in the 1960s, the novel functions as a prequel of sorts to House's award-winning book Clay's Quilt, offering two sisters who are as different as night and day. Anneth—who will become Clay's mother—is a wild-blooded manic depressive determined to suck joy from life, while her older sister Easter, a deeply religious Pentecostal woman with the gift of foresight, has "decided to walk through life like a whisper." House paints both characters lovingly and unsentimentally, charting how each remains devoted to the other through tragedy and a battle to hold on to the one constant that unites them in a turbulent world: their land. As they fight to protect their mountain from the mining company that wants to clear the earth and strip it bare, the sisters make sacrifices for one another that will grip the reader. House has a gift for understanding the cadences of mountain folk religion and the way that music sustains people's spirits. The titular image of the coal tattoo—a bluish tinge that seeps under a miner's skin and leaves a permanent stain—is a perfect metaphor for the novel's depiction of the indelible imprint the land leaves on the human soul.

House, Silas. Clay’s Quilt. A deep love for home suffuses this heartfelt, well-crafted debut novel set in the Kentucky hills. Clay Sizemore, a young coal miner from a big family and a small town, never doubts that he will live out his life in the place where he was born. His mother, Anneth, was killed when he was only four, and he never knew his father, but he is surrounded by the people he loves: his big-hearted, God-fearing Aunt Easter; Dreama, the beautiful cousin he loves like a sister; and Cake, his party boy best friend. Clay and Cake work hard, and play hard at the local honky-tonk, but both want more from life than work, drink and empty sex. For Clay, the future is Alma, a passionate young fiddler separated from her abusive husband and estranged from her gospel-singing parents. But the past concerns him, too: given a box of his beloved mother's possessions, he pieces together her troubled history, while his great-uncle pieces a quilt from her clothing. Violence is inescapable in a place where even Clay carries a pretty pearl-handled pistol, and his mother's violent end foreshadows a death that threatens Clay and Alma's happiness together. The Kentucky landscape is suffused with nostalgia, snow making one character yearn for the past, lonesome autumn unlocking memory's vaults. Deftly written, replete with wisdom and remarkably light on sentimentality, this lovely novel makes plain the value of family and the preciousness of familiar ground.

Nasaw, Jonathan. The Girls He Adored. The homage to Thomas Harris's The Silence of the Lambs is perhaps a bit too heavy-handed, but readers should get their blood money's worth out of this twisted tale of a serial killer with a taste for strawberry blondes. "The system of identities known collectively as Ulysses Christopher Maxwell Jr." contains: a mnemonics expert, a petulant child, an extremely seductive young man, a demonic killer and a frighteningly smart front man named Max. It was Max who was finally arrested in California's Monterey County, sitting next to the recently disemboweled body of a young woman, during a routine traffic stop. Dr. Irene Cogan, an expert in what is now called DID (Dissociate Identity Disorder) because "multiple personality disorder" got a bad name, finds Max a real challenge and just a bit of a turn-on. For veteran FBI agent E.L. Pender, two years away from mandatory retirement and once voted the worst-dressed agent in the bureau, Max might mean the end of a one-man crusade to convince the world that all those strawberry blondes who mysteriously disappeared over the last 10 years were the victims of a serial killer Pender calls Casey, after the old song "And the Band Played On." When Max uses his Lecter-like skills to break out of jail and kidnap Dr. Cogan, Pender trails them to a horrific farm called Scorned Ridge in Oregon. Thanks largely to Nasaw's sharp writing, familiarity breeds not contempt but interest in how it all comes out.

Nasaw, Jonathan. Twenty-Seven Bones. The recently retired FBI Agent E.L. Pender heads for a tropical isle, though-the fictional St. Luke in the U.S. Virgin Islands-when old pal Julian Coffee, the chief of police, invites him to help hunt down a sadistic killer whose signature is severing the right hand of his many victims. The identity of the killer, or in this case killers, is no secret to the reader: kinky anthropologist spouses Phil and Emily Epps are shown early on murdering St. Luke resident Andy Arena after a "sadomasochistic tango." The Epps believe that sucking in a dying person's last breath will make them all-powerful, a ritual learned on one of their field expeditions. Drawn into the Epps's cabal is narcissistic Lewis Apgard, scion of one of the island's founding families. Lewis needs to have his wife, Hokey, killed so he can move forward with a land scheme that will net him big money, and fortunately for him, the Epps are glad to help him out. Meanwhile, Pender, "bald and homely as a boiled potato," finds love with a beautiful local lady who has a serious law enforcement problem in her past. Nasaw is such a clever writer that it's hard not to root for all his quirky characters, including the Epps, though we're constantly reminded that the deadly duo is bad, bad, bad. Even so, Nasaw is able to whip up plenty of suspense as Apgard and the Epps take Pender prisoner, grab a child hostage and make one last bid for freedom.

Haddon, Mark. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. Christopher Boone, the autistic 15-year-old narrator of this revelatory novel, relaxes by groaning and doing math problems in his head, eats red-but not yellow or brown-foods and screams when he is touched. Strange as he may seem, other people are far more of a conundrum to him, for he lacks the intuitive "theory of mind" by which most of us sense what's going on in other people's heads. When his neighbor's poodle is killed and Christopher is falsely accused of the crime, he decides that he will take a page from Sherlock Holmes (one of his favorite characters) and track down the killer. As the mystery leads him to the secrets of his parents' broken marriage and then into an odyssey to find his place in the world, he must fall back on deductive logic to navigate the emotional complexities of a social world that remains a closed book to him. In the hands of first-time novelist Haddon, Christopher is a fascinating case study and, above all, a sympathetic boy: not closed off, as the stereotype would have it, but too open-overwhelmed by sensations, bereft of the filters through which normal people screen their surroundings. Christopher can only make sense of the chaos of stimuli by imposing arbitrary patterns ("4 yellow cars in a row made it a Black Day, which is a day when I don't speak to anyone and sit on my own reading books and don't eat my lunch and Take No Risks"). His literal-minded observations make for a kind of poetic sensibility and a poignant evocation of character. Though Christopher insists, "This will not be a funny book. I cannot tell jokes because I do not understand them," the novel brims with touching, ironic humor. The result is an eye-opening work in a unique and compelling literary voice.

Gunn, Robin Jones. Sisterchicks in Sombreros: a Sisterchick novel.    Melanie and Joanne have inherited beachfront property in Mexico from Uncle Harlin.  Aunt Winnie gives them tickets to cruise to Ensenada so that they can check on the property, sign the papers and return home.  Simple.  What is planned to be a fun, quick trip turns out to be unexpected and chaotic.  Also,  enjoyable and life changing.  This was a story filled with one happening after another for these sisters who have discovered their friendship again.  They not only have an exciting trip, they learn from strangers, each other and God.   Now I want to read the other Sister-chick books that I have missed!

Henry, Sue. Serpent's Trail: A Maxie and Stretch Mystery. This is the first in the new series featuring Maxie McNabb and her mini dachshund, Stretch.  In this story,  Maxie has been called to Colorado to see her ill friend, Sarah so she and Stretch travel from Alaska in their Winnebago to see her.   But Sarah dies much sooner than expected and Maxie is heartbroken that she did not arrive in time to spend time with her friend.  Then Maxie is informed that she is executor of the will and strange things start happening.  Sarah had made decisions and plans for her own 'going home.'  But there were unanswered questions and threatening situations for Maxie to deal with.  Too bad that someone didn't like how Sarah decided to share her wealth.

Morris, Gilbert. House of Winslow series. This  series begins with The Honorable Imposter, the story of Gilbert Winslow which picks up in England.  Gilbert worked for Lord North to thwart the plans of the Separatists.  But Gilbert changes his mind and joins the group which first goes to Holland and then on the Mayflower to America.  This and the following books in the series follow the events and people as this country is settled and grows.  Some of the later events in the series which I have read so far (I'm currently reading #7) the Salem witch trials, the Great Awakening, the American Revolution, and the Boston tea party.  Historical figures are mentioned such as John Bunyan, George Whitfield, Cotton Mather, Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, General Braddock and Reverend Charles Grandison Finney.  Also, as the country moved west people encountered Indians and mountain men and new ways of survival and living.   The descendants of Gilbert Winslow play an important part in these and other stories which give an overview of the history of this land and people.

Michaels, Fern. Pretty Woman. Pocket Books, 2005. Rosie Gardener and Vickie Winters were best friends, closer than sisters, Partners in a successful mail order business, Nature’s Decorations.  Despite owning her own business, Rosie lived for the approval of her husband, Kent Bliss.  He spends her money lavishly, sleeps in a separate bed, and takes every opportunity to inform Rosie how unattractive and overweight she is—until she kicks him out without a cent on the night of their third anniversary.  Kent is not happy.  He is even less so when he suspects that Rosie has purchased a winning lottery ticket worth $302 million.  As she fight to keep Kent’s hands off her windfall and resolves to become the pretty woman he never saw in her.  Rosie is cheered on by her personal trainer, Jack Silver, housekeeper Luna Mae, and Vickie.

June 8, 2005