Eight Hundred Grapes: a novel by Laura Dave

I laughed out loud as I read about the escapades and calamities faced by Georgia Ford in Eight Hundred Grapes: a novel by Laura Dave. This work is pure entertainment and made me think of other titles such as One Plus One by JoJo Moyes or The Rosie Project books by Graeme Simsion.  I enjoyed author Dave’s style of writing – short, crisp sentences and definitely tongue in cheek with plenty of opportunity for the reader to suspend belief.

Rather than outline the story and spoil the fun, I’d encourage you to look for Eight Hundred Grapes if you like reading about: vineyards, secrets, marriage, romance, and complicated family relationships. It is a very quick read – perfect for a summer day! Enjoy!  

This title – along with several others I will be reviewing this month -- is on the list of recommendations for June 2015 from Library Reads.

We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves

Karen Joy Fowler writes a unique story not just about relationships and family dynamics, but about a chimp named Fern who was a daughter, a sister, and a science experiment.

      While the book did not grab me at the beginning, and I had a hard time getting through the first half of the book, I was intrigued. So, I continued. Once Rosemary’s brother, Lowell, finds her for a brief visit, the story becomes more dynamic with an added level of complexity and mystery. This is also when Rosemary, the narrator, shares more of her story growing up with Fern – their escapades, their love, their separation.

     The change in time period was difficult to keep straight. The gaps in time between parts of the story left me wondering about the context of the segment I was reading.  Rosemary starts with the middle of the story, and then I was never really sure where she (nor I) was in her story. In a few instances, Rosemary’s version of the past is different from her parents or her brother.  She comments on why these differences exist. This, then, made me wonder about her entire story – were only her childhood memories affected by time, and did her memories during college also change due to time? Rosemary never did re-visit this topic.

     When Rosemary and Lowell lose Fern, they simply cannot accept the decision, and hold resentment and guilt for years.  Their lives revolve around their love, loss, and hope for change.  Lowell is an activist for change immediately within the realm of animal (Chimp) research; Rosemary exposes the realities of human-chimp relations, which are not easy to navigate; Fowler is an activist for awareness of animal research to the masses through her writing.  The last quarter of the book jumps ahead in time, and, what I think, is the most compelling part of the story. Life isn’t perfect, but it’s better, and each human has the power to make an impact and make that change.       

American Presidents and Politicians on Memorial Day

Somehow it seems fitting to be looking at two new books that discuss American values and history on this Memorial Day holiday. Both are fairly scholarly in tone and while they focus on past events, their authors’ intent is to instruct, inform and to draw lessons for today.

The Jefferson Rule by David Sehat, an Associate Professor of History at Georgia State University, spans American history and argues that rather than exploiting and blithely quoting the Founders, our contemporary politicians should be engaging in more meaningful evaluation of policy. In an accessible way, he describes the partisanship of the Founders -- actually not a very coherent group and certainly not infallible.  Sehat deplores over-reliance on their writings and cites examples from the Civil War, New Deal, Reagan Revolution and Obama presidency. At one point, Sehat quotes Tony Judt: “The historian’s task is to tell what is almost always an uncomfortable story and [to] explain why the discomfort is part of the truth we need to live well…”

Published by Simon & Schuster, The Jefferson Rule received starred reviews from Library Journal and Kirkus Reviews and has a short video intro here. Although some students may not yet have enough background to fully appreciate Sehat’s many historical references, this title is worth considering as a required summer read for AP US History.

JFK and LBJ: The Last Two Great Presidents is written by Godfrey Hodgson, a British journalist who spent years as a White House correspondent and has authored numerous books about American politics. In this publication from Yale University Press, Hodgson argues that JFK’s reputation has been inflated and that Johnson’s reputation has been downplayed and as I read, I immediately thought of applying a similar argument to the contrast in how Americans tend to view Jefferson and Hamilton.  Although biased in his view, Hodgson nevertheless provides many details and close to 30 pages of footnotes while juxtaposing the strong personalities and many accomplishments of these two twentieth-century Presidents.  

Both of these titles encourage us to actively engage with history, looking through additional perspectives and reflecting this Memorial Day on the proverb: He who tells the story rules the world.

Uprooted by Naomi Novik

Do you like Fantasy? Spells and Magic? Nature? Adventure? Battles? Strong female characters? Grimm fairy tales and stories of Baba Yaga? If so, Uprooted by Naomi Novik is a book you should look for and read since it has all of those aspects. Beginning a bit like “Beauty and the Beast,” the Dragon, Sarkan, comes to the valley and selects a 17 year-old girl to live for 10 years in his tower. Best friends Kasia and Agnieszka nervously await his decision. One is indeed chosen and soon discovers magical abilities and the need to apply them to save the friends and family in her much beloved village. Filled with dark forests and bringing to mind medieval superstitions, Uprooted is less about hope than about sheer perseverance, naïve goodness and almost constant action.

Well-written and full of imagination, Uprooted by Naomi Novik is an exciting read. Sad in parts, this novel oozes with the feeling of being weighted down by an overwhelming malignant presence; an evil Wood that even the magic of wizards and witches cannot easily control or defeat. At times, it seems long and maybe could have been split into two books since the print version is 448 pages.  However, I know that stories like this fantasy tend to run long and still be eagerly devoured by their readers.  Enjoy!  Uprooted will make a great summer read. 

Starred reviews from Library Journal and Publishers Weekly who called Uprooted "a must-read for fantasy fans for years to come."