Forgotten Hills by Renee Lake

From the publisher: What do you do when you find a centuries-old dead woman in the basement? Come to Forgotten Hills Cemetery and Mortuary and find out! When Thana and her sisters reclaim their ancestral home, they have dreams of making it a thriving business. Little do they know they’ll also be dealing with a curse and a ghost and will uncover a family legend. Together they must expose the secrets buried in Forgotten Hills—without killing anyone in the process.

Things I liked:

• An Own Voices title
• Hispanic main character
• Bi and lesbian representation
• Engaging story that was easy to read
• A predictable but satisfactory HEA ending
• Deliciously creepy rather than graphically horrible

Things I didn't like as much:

• Some clichéd language (e.g., “She tasted like booze and cranberry, he tasted like…home.” p. 20 of the ARC)
• Breaking of the fourth wall (e.g, “Thana reached back out to the police and tried to pester Draven again, but both were, excuse the pun, dead ends.” p. 38 of the ARC, and “‘Earth to Thana,’ Lola said, throwing a flower, but let’s be honest, it was really a weed, at her head.” p. 112 of the ARC)
• Although it is pretty polished, there are areas that would benefit from a good editorial review

Setting aside some predictability and implausibility (really, your family has a curse and you don’t make sure to pass on all the relevant info to your descendants?), this was a fun read that was spooky without being too scary.

I read an advance reader copy of Forgotten Hills from Netgalley. It is available through the Galesburg Public Library as an ebook, and a print copy is on its way.

A Ring of Endless Light by Madeleine L'Engle

Series: Austin Family #5
Genres: Magic Realism, Contemporary, Young Adult

Release Date: May 1st, 1980
Publisher: Farrar, Straus, Giroux (BYR)
Source: Library

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After a tumultuous year in New York City, the Austins are spending the summer on the small island where their grandfather lives. He’s very sick, and watching his condition deteriorate as the summer passes is almost more than Vicky can bear. To complicate matters, she finds herself as the center of attention for three very different boys.

Zachary Grey, the troubled and reckless boy Vicky met last summer, wants her all to himself as he grieves the loss of his mother. Leo Rodney has been just a friend for years, but the tragic loss of his father causes him to turn to Vicky for comfort—and romance. And then there’s Adam Eddington. Adam is only asking Vicky to help with his research on dolphins. But Adam—and the dolphins—may just be what Vicky needs to get through this heartbreaking summer.

A Ring of Endless Light is one of my all-time favorite books. I first read it many years ago and when I got the opportunity to re-read it, I was terrified. I worried that even though I had loved this book so many years ago, I wouldn’t feel the same way years later. I was wrong. I feel like I need to bang my head on a wall for ever underestimating this book but there it is. This is one of the best books I’ve ever read and upon re-reading, I can reaffirm that conviction.

I want to keep this short because I have already fangirled enough to last a while but let me just say that this is such an important coming to age novel. Given that it’s set in the 80s, some parts of it may strike some readers as odd but for me, it is still relatable for the 'modern day' reader.

It deals with common issues teenagers have to deal with growing up but it also deals with bigger issues of life and death.

Vicky is a young girl who, during the particular summer this book is set in, is surrounded by death. What she needs, is to find hope amidst all the death and learn to let go and look at the brighter things in life. She needs to rise from her despair and grow as a person but also cross that awkward bridge between teen and adult. It's so great to experience the journey with her because it is so realistic and so relevant but also Vicky is also just a great female lead. I love that she isn’t perfect and sometimes hides from the truth but she is also just fantastic.

This book also comes with an entourage of great family members and great secondary characters (INCLUDING DOLPHINS).

This is a powerful book and one I will continue to recommend 20-30 years from now because it will still be relevant and  will still be important. I  just want to shower the book with all the love because it's so special to me. Definitely a book I’d recommend for ALL readers. So you know, check it out? 

Promise Land by Jessica Lamb-Shapiro

It’s January, the month for making resolutions to improve yourself. What do you think when you hear the term “self-help”? Do you want it? Do you fear it? Do you look down on those who need it? “All of us would probably like to be slimmer, smarter, richer, more popular, more successful,” notes Jessica Lamb-Shapiro in her book Promise Land (p. 207), in which she examines the self-help industry. Her father, Lawrence E. Shapiro, has written self-help books and raised her in an environment of positive thinking.

While working on the book, the author attended conferences, camps, and classes. She walked on coals and forced herself to fly despite her own fear.

Promise Land is humorous and a bit snarky, especially if you are at all skeptical of the self-help industry. If you are a particular fan of some of the books and franchises she mentions, like Rhonda Byrne’s The Secret and the Chicken Soup series, you may not be quite as amused.  For example, she writes, “[t]he concepts in The Secret have been published in books that anyone can buy – and have bought, in the millions – for at least a hundred years. Furthermore, something you don’t know is not necessarily a secret; it’s just something you don’t know. For instance, I don’t know anything about rocket science, but that doesn’t make rocket science a secret.” (p. 123)

The author was considerably less snarky when discussing her own fear of flying and the self-help group she attended. I laughed along with her at some of the situations she covered, but others struck home with me. During an especially difficult time of his life, her father bought a diorama of a hospital room and spent time setting it up and playing with it at home. “I felt better,” he said. “It was a moment of epiphany. That was when I realized that toys could help people.” (p. 69) As a doll collector, I also believe that toys can help people.

The book did bring to my attention information I didn’t know or that hadn’t occurred to me. For example, the author quotes self-help author Martin Seligman, who points out that it is unusual “for people to have electric-outlet phobias or hammer phobias or chain saw phobias, even though those things pose actual dangers.” (p. 146) We are not most afraid of the things that are the most dangerous.

At times the author struck me as a bit lazy. She describes how The Sorcerer’s Apprentice section of the movie Fantasia made her anxious (p. 63). She remembers Mickey cutting a magic chair in half and the chair then multiplying.  In a footnote, she comments that her editor “thinks” it was a broom, not a chair, but neither the author nor the editor bothered to google it and find out? Maybe that’s laziness and maybe it’s self-indulgence, but I didn’t like it.

There is a thread of anxious melancholy running throughout the book. The author’s mother committed suicide when she was a child, at about the same age the author was when writing the book, and although the author has a close relationship with her father, they do not talk about her mother.  Her search for self-help brings her some closure.

Promise Land is a short book – just over 200 pages – and an easy read. If self-reflection and the subject of self-help interests you, I recommend it. It can be found at the Galesburg Public Library at 616.89 LAM.

As You Wish by Cary Elwes

I'm a big fan of the film The Princess Bride, so I eagerly anticipated As You Wish, a book about filming the movie written by Dread Pirate Roberts actor Cary Elwes.

The making of The Princess Bride was clearly one of the highlights of his career and life. If you are looking for dirt, don't look to As You Wish. Elwes is effusive in his praise of his costars and the crew behind the movie. Everyone was beautiful, talented, and perfect for their roles.

The sugary sweetness of the narrative was a little hard to take at times, but I thoroughly enjoyed As You Wish all the same. Elwes spends a lot of time talking about what he and Mandy Patinkin went through to create what Goldman described in The Princess Bride script as the "second-best" swordfighting sequence on film (according to Goldman, the "best" comes later in the movie). The fight and the training were very interesting to read about. The only part of the fight not filmed by the two leads were the somersaults - wow! That had to be a lot of hard work.

I definitely got the impression that Elwes is trying to give his career a shot in the arm by publishing this book. However, his true affection for The Princess Bride and its cast and crew came through.

As soon as I finished the book, I was ready to run off and rewatch The Princess Bride. If you are a fan, that alone is a good reason to read As You Wish. I definitely recommend it for all Princess Bride fans. 

I read an advance reader copy of As You Wish. It will be released on October 14 and will be available in the nonfiction section of the Galesburg Public Library.