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There are very few books that give me real, wake-up-in-a-cold-sweat nightmares. This is one of them.

I’ve stopped giving a synopsis of books in these “reviews” because *everyone* does that; instead, I am just going to say that the first scene with the blind guy locked in the execution chamber totally did me in. I dreamed about his experience two nights in row. Then I got to the *second* time the blind guy (and our heroine) are locked in the same place, then pursued by a very creepy guy. Cue third sleepless night.

Rayne does a masterful job of telling three stories concurrently – in 1917, 1938-1960, and present day. It’s a rare author who can pull this off, but she does it really well, and brought all three stories together in one satisfying conclusion.

Death Chamber joins Peter Straub’s Ghost Story as scariest books ever.

“Once you’ve held a book and really loved it, you forever remember the feel of it, its specific weight, the way it sits in your hand.” The Book of Speculation by Erika Swyler

There are only a few books I’ve encountered in my reading life that have left that kind of mark on me, and I am always surprised when a new one gets added to that category. The Book of Speculation is one of those unexpected gifts.

I didn’t go looking for it. I was browsing in B&N, killing time between some meetings a few days before my much anticipated July vacation, when I happened upon TBOS on the New Releases rack. I recognized the title as one I’d added to my GoodReads a couple weeks ago, and it looked promising. I liked the feel of it in my hand and I loved the way the text looked as I flipped through the pages, so I bought it and tossed it in my vacation book bag.

Days later, unpacked and at ease on the shore of a Northern NY lake, I opened TBOS and lost myself completely in this lovely story of a librarian, a bookseller, and a mysterious book that served to blend past and present, fairy tale and tragedy.

Simon Watson is a reference and archival librarian living in an ancient house perched precariously on the north shore of Long Island. Simon receives a mysterious book from an unknown bookseller just as he is let go from his position at the library. The bookseller has sent him the book because it has in it the name of one of Simon’s great-great grandmothers. The book piques his interest, as it recounts the movements of a traveling show which apparently included the women of his family, all of whom died by drowning on July 24, including his mother. Simon becomes obsessed with the idea that his sister, now also a performer in a traveling show, will suffer the same fate as July 24 comes closer. Using his library connections and his own research skills, he pieces together a lovely, tragic, and ultimately frightening story of love and loss that reconnects the family first established in that 18th century traveling show.

Swyler skillfully blends the past and present in a way that doesn’t jar the reader, but floats you gently along two parallel currents that eventually meet in a fury of a storm. There are plenty of unexpected events that surprise, delight, and sometimes frighten, keeping the readers attention throughout. Swyler’s use of water as a metaphor knitted into the fabric of the story successfully binds the past and present, and her details around circus and show life are wonderfully colorful.

I savored each sentence of TBOS, pacing my reading to draw it out over a few days because I loved it so. This is a book I will come back to again, without a doubt, and is one of those books I will remember long after this reading. In that way, The Book of Speculation joins Jane Eyre, The Historian, Peace Like a River, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, and a handful of others on my “Read and Read Again” shelf.

Highly recommended.

“While Sarah’s family had lost nearly everything at Harper’s Ferry, the good would rise as unstoppably as a river after the storm.” This one sentence aptly describes the tone of this lovely little piece of historical fiction from Sarah McCoy. The stories of two women, Sarah Brown and Eden Anderson, are told through alternating chapters where we experience the frustration, heartbreak, and joy of their lives. McCoy connects Sarah and Eden in two specific ways – they both experience transformative love in the same house, although more than a century apart, and both experience the utter heartbreak of not being able to bear children.

Sarah Brown is the daughter of abolitionist John Brown who was executed after his history-making raid on Harper’s Ferry just prior to the Civil War. We first meet Sarah as she is recovering from a near-death experience with dysentery which leaves her barren. She is determined that her life, that *she* will not be defined by her inability to procreate, and so she begins using her artistic ability to draw maps for slaves on the Underground Railroad. Immediately after her father’s failed raid in Harper’s Ferry, Sarah, her mother, and her sister Annie travel to New Charlestown to stay with the Hill family while her father prepares for his execution. While there, Sarah begins to care for Freddy Hill, son of their host. Their budding romance grows through a lively correspondence and occasional meetings, until Sarah finds herself in the position of having to refuse Freddy’s marriage proposal. Sarah leaves the Hill home and returns to her studies in Saratoga, until she is called again to Freddy’s side as he hovers near death after being shot in the War. Ultimately, Sarah joins her family and moves West to California, where she lives out her days, without Freddy but caring for two free-born twins sent to her for safety.

One of those twins and her doll becomes the thread between the past and present in New Charlestown, between Sarah and Eden.

Eden Anderson is a successful businesswoman married to the love of her life who is nonetheless broken by her inability to conceive. We first meet Eden and her husband Jack as they struggle to acclimate to a new home in the small town of New Charlestown. Jack is away on business most of week, while Eden rarely leaves her bed, paralyzed by years of fertility treatments, hormone injections, and failed pregnancies. Eden slowly comes back to life as first a puppy then a neighbor child come into her life and reintroduce her to the joy of living. Eden, fascinated by a porcelain doll head she discovers in a root cellar in her kitchen, begins the process of getting her house on the National Register of Historic Places. She enlists the aid of locals whose families have lived in the area for generations and ultimately discovers a very real connection of the past to the present which helps her begin to heal.

When authors attempt to tell to separate stories at once with the goal of twining both together throughout and at the end, the effort can be awkward and clunky. It takes a skillful author to make the multiple transitions needed through the narrative. McCoy does a good job of that by keeping the chapters short so the reader remains connected to the past while reading the present and vice versa. There were a few moments that did not ring true and didn’t really add anything to the story, but this was an ARC and some of that clunkiness may be tidied up when the final version is published. Nonetheless, this is a good read, and will appeal to readers who like a blend of history, mystery and romance in their reading.

Lately, I’ve been in a bit of a reading slump. You know how it is – you start a book, drift away from it, start something else, drift away…and so on. Nothing has gripped my attention lately, so I have re-read a few old favorites along with some odd little fluff, and some ARCs from Netgalley and Edleweiss. Here’s my round-up:

• Book of Life by Deborah Harkness – This was the hotly anticipated conclusion to the All Souls trilogy. Unfortunately, it didn’t deliver. The storyline was bloated and felt extremely rushed, like Harkness and her publisher were so pressured to deliver the manuscript that they skipped the editing process. I found the main character, Diana, really irritating this time around, and the love triangle introduced at the end was ridiculous and unnecessary. Someone suggested I should go back and read all three books consecutively to see if that makes The Book of Life hold together. I may make that a summer reading project because I really did enjoy the first two installments in this series.
• Call the Nurse by Mary MacLeod – This was a delightful, autobiographical treatment of the author’s time spent as a nurse on a remote Scottish island. The characters were not extremely well-developed, but were colorful and highly entertaining. After I finished this, I had an overwhelming desire to visit those Scottish islands. Google images is a wonderful thing for satisfying that kind of curiosity. Just saying….
• The Secret of Greystone Hall by Elizabeth Wide, Cauldstane by Linda Gillard, and Secrets in Stone by Rebecca Engel were throwbacks to my early teen obsession with gothic mystery/romances. None of them were great literature, but all of them were fun.
• Blood Faerie by India Drummond, Lord James Harrington by Lynn Florkiewicz, Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel, Faerie Tale by Raymond Feist, The Bookman’s Tale by Charlie Lovett,and Snow White Red-Handed by Maia Chance were all books I started and couldn’t finish. I know, I know – Station Eleven??? The book on everyone’s “Best of 2014?” Yep. I thought it was predictable and boring, but I am not a fan of dystopian, end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it stories anyway. Be truthful – how many of you who did read it and loved it didn’t see the big twist coming at the end?
• Books that I have finished and need to write reviews: The Night Gardener by Jonathan Auxier, Monogram Murders by Sophie Hannah & Agatha Christie, The Supernatural Enhancements by Edgar Cantero, Vertigo 42 by Martha Grimes, Goodnight June by Sarah Jio, Stoker’s Manuscript by Royce Prouty, All the Lovely Bad Ones by Mary Downing Hahn, Winter at the Door by Sarah Graves (an excellent new mystery series set in Maine), House of Echoes by Brendan Duffy, Age of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walker, and As Chimney Sweepers Come to Dust by Allen Bradley.

Now, I just have to sit down and write the reviews!

When my sister and I were kids, she wrote this hilarious story called Mr. Jaws, which was constructed on a type of MadLibs concept, but using song titles. I remember laughing until it hurt as I read it, then feeling totally jealous of her talent for crafting such hilarity.

I had the same feeling as I read the much anticipated Hyperbole and a Half by Allie Brosh. I had already enjoyed some of the material included in the book on Brosh’s website, but Simple Dog and Helper Dog travel well from interweb to book. Of course, God of Cake will always be one of the funniest things I have read. E.V.E.R.

Brosh has an uncanny talent for nailing feelings and emotions using what appear to be childishly crude drawings. She conveys disappointment, rage, and happiness with just a few well placed lines. The accompanying text tells stories that we can all relate to on some level.

The most powerful piece in the book, however, is Brosh’s description of her battle with depression. We are given a glimpse into the very real, very confusing, and wholly debilitating experience of suddenly finding yourself in the middle of a severe depression. Anyone who has grappled with depression can relate to what Brosh endured, and I am sure that pieces of her artwork and text are printed out and taped up on walls all over the world. My favorites are “Not today! I’ve got legs, motherfucker!” and “I wish to rent all these movies and purchase all of these Skittles!” Those two acts of defiance can rally me on my worst days.

I have to wonder if the tremendous attention Brosh has experienced through her website and now the publication of her book has contributed to her owns struggles. Suddenly discovering that there are legions of fans out there who totally get her work has got to be startling. She has been missed on the web, but has returned triumphantly with a new story about the power of a dinosaur costume, another true gem of childhood.

Hyperbole and a Half is an awesome book and everyone should buy it. It has alot of heart. 🙂

Where the hell does the time go? I have been reading, reading, reading, and haven’t been able to find the time to write reviews. Just so you know I’m not slacking off on 100 Years. 100 Books, or my other reading, here’s a list of my recent reads awating a longer discussion:

• An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser (1925)
• The Benson Murder Case by S.S. VanDine (1926)
• Whose Body by Dorothy L. Sayers (1923)
• All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich maria Remarque (1929)
• Topper Takes a Trip by Thorne Smith (1932)
• Theodosia and the Last Pharoah by R.L. LeFevers
• The Jefferson Key by Steve Berry

Reading now and Loving It: The Peach Keeper by Sarah Addison Allen

The Homemaker by Dorothy Canfield Fisher tells the story of Evangeline and Lester Knapp, a couple raising three children in the 1920’s. Evangeline, a compulsive housekeeper who feels mightily unappreciated by her family, suddenly finds herself in the rare position of having to earn a living outside the home when Lester suffers a severe accident that leaves him paralyzed. Their roles reversed, both Evangeline and Lester find themselves much happier and productive.

The story opens with Evangeline frantically scrubbing grease spots out of her wooden floor – grease spots left there when one of the children carelessly dripped grease off a dinner plate. In the middle of her scrubbing, she realizes she hasn’t seen nor heard her youngest son for hours. Her fear quickly escalates as she searches for and cannot find him. As the story cuts to the boy, we are treated to a look inside the mind of a two year old who mightily resents his mother’s interference in his life. The reader quickly becomes aware of the fear and near hatred this boy has for his mother, who is very Spartan in her treatment of the children. Shortly after the boy is found, the rest of the family returns home and Canfield Fisher quickly establishes the walking-on-eggshells existence the family suffers through around Evangeline. The chapter ends with a wrenching scene of Evangeline breaking down as she sees a new line of grease spots dripped off the dinner plates, once again marring her perfectly clean floor. We know immediately that this woman can barely contain herself, although she does and life goes on.

Once Lester is injured, Evangeline goes to work and proves herself to be a canny and successful business woman. Lester, on the other hand, finds that he loves being home with the children and keeping house as best he can. We see the family grow from being completely dysfunctional to being as close to normal as they ever will be, yet their role reversal is looked upon as a trial and chore by outsiders. Both Lester and Evangeline recognize, although not to each other, that life is better with Evangeline working outside the home and if they have to go back to a conventional lifestyle, lives could be in danger.

I don’t want to give away too much of this story, but will say read this. Although written in 1924, this could have been published in the 1950s, 1960s or 1970s, when women were taking so much flack for working outside the home. This would make an excellent book discussion selection, especially for groups with older men and women who lived through the times when this type of living arrangement was taboo.

4 out of 5 catalog cards.

Man, it’s been awhile since I wrote here. Life has been crazy, and what little free time I have I spend reading and *not* writing about it! There has been one change in my reading life recently…

I will freely admit that I am Kindleholic. I bought a Kindle for the office so all my colleagues could try it out, but guess what? I became addicted! It has been a struggle to pry my hot little hands off of it to send it out to other librarians. I told Cos I definitely want my own for Christmas this year. It has made my reading experiences so much easier, although my credit card is suffering! However, my baby is out and about in MCLS-land until September, so I’m stocking up on library books to tide me over until it comes back.

So let me see if I can catch you all up on the good and the bad of print that has crossed my eyes in the last few months….

When I first got the Kindle, I went on a Barbara Michaels binge. Michaels on one of my all-time favorite gothic-romance authors, and I thought I’d use the Kindle to revisit some of her older titles. I bought Be Buried in the Rain and Walker in Shadows and spent a delicious weekend immersed in dank old mansions hiding dark and deadly secrets.

Then I moved on to more recent mysteries with The Orchid Shroud and Deadly Slipper by Michelle Wan, which put me smack in the middle of the Dordogne region of France with a spunky Canadian interior designer, a brooding landscape architect/orchid collector, and a whole slew of spicy French characters, including the half-baked bastard son of the local aristocrat. Great fun!

From there, I revisited Laurie King’s Justice Hall for a brief visit with Sherlock Holmes, Mary Russell, and their “brothers” Mahmoud and Ali, who are actualy English lords in disguise. More good fun!

On to new and tantalizing stories, including Solstice Wood by Patricia McKillip, by far my favorite fantasy author. Every time I read her stories about fairyland, I start looking for hollowed out oak trees to step into looking for passage to the other world. Of course, after seeing Hellboy II last night, I now *know* where the passage to fairyland is…

Then there was The Book of Air and Shadows by Michael Gruber, which was neither airy or shadowy enough for me. Didn’t finish it.

In quick succession, there were Ghostwalk by Rebecca Stott, Map of Bones by James Rollins, A Flaw in the Blood by Stephanie Barron, and Mistress of the Art of Death by Ariana Franklin. Ghostwalk reminded me of the Bad Quarto by Jill Paton Walsh for some reason, although it was set in Cambridge and revolved around the ghost of Isaac Newton. If you have any interest in Newton’s dabbling in alchemy, you’ll find this story fascinating, even though it’s fiction.

Map of Bones was another thriller in the Davinci Code vein, this time involving the bones of the Three Magi. Exciting, if predictable. A Flaw in the Blood speculates on a whole other reason Prince Albert died when he did, and paints an unusual and deadly picture of Queen Victoria. Mistress of the Art of Death was a rollicking good read. Picture Temperance Brennan in the 12th century and you’ve got Vesuvia Adelia Rachel Ortese Aguilar, doctor to the dead. Very, very good.

Now that I have had to let go of the Kindle, I’m delving into some real books. I’m currently reading The Bloody Tower by Carola Dunn, a sweet little Agatha Christie era mystery that is reminding me a lot of Mary Roberts Rinehart. I am also eagerly awaiting

• A hold on the new Rick Riordan Percy Jackson book
• The new Joseph Delaney entry into the Last Apprentice series
• The second in Henry Neff’s Tapestry series – The Second Siege – which is due out in September
• 21 Nights by Prince, also due out in September

I’m no longer receiving the shipments of ARCs and other new kids books at work — they are going directly to the Children’s Center — so I know I’m missing out on some spectacular new books. Anyone care to recommend some?

Happy Reading!