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.

Her by Harriet Lane

A very well-written, psychological thriller in which a game of cat and mouse is run by a sociopath and a woman who is clueless. From the very first sentence in we find Nina, who is an Artist/Painter, stalking unsuspecting Emma, who is a pregnant mother with a toddler by her side. We're not really sure how they know each other, but we start getting an idea that Nina is up to something, and not something good. The chapters alternate back and forth from one perspective to the other, showing us both sides of the events that happen, which makes for very entertaining reading. This book was hard to put down! If you like mind-game thrillers, then this book is for you! Read On!

All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven

Did you love The Fault in Our Stars and If I Stay? Then you will probably want to read Jennifer Niven’s All the Bright Places, which tackles another trendy topic – teen suicide. My junior year in high school, the president of student council killed himself at Valentine’s Day, so as a reader I am both attracted to and repelled by teen suicide books.

The book started slowly for me, as it seemed overly similar to other realistic fiction YA books like those I mentioned.  Freaky, weird, unpopular boy and pretty, popular girl with an issue. I had a bit of a hard time buying the initial “meet cute” (or not so cute) set up. He goes up on the school’s bell tower to think about dying, something he thinks about a lot. She doesn’t know why she goes up, she just finds herself there, numb from the death of her older sister in a car crash months before. He talks her down, but everyone in their high school of 2000 students thinks it’s the other way around. That she courageously and heroically saw him up there and persuaded him not to kill himself.

So Theodore Finch and Violet Markey slowly become friends, then boyfriend and girlfriend. Their U.S. Geography teacher asks them to work in pairs on a project, reporting on two or three “wonders of Indiana.” Finch manipulates Violet into agreeing to be his partner on the project, and much of their relationship is spent visiting strange and quirky curiosities in Indiana.

The giddiness of attraction between teenagers is well done, as is the aftermath of a tragedy that takes place late in the book. Some of the metaphors are labored – like the story of a cardinal who kept flying into the glass doors of Finch’s home until it killed him – but there is some nice imagery. The depiction of the parents and the other students is uneven. For example, Finch’s father is a caricature, but Violet’s mother has some depth.

The book is narrated in turn by Finch and Violet.  I found Finch much better developed than Violet, and liked his voice much better. Still, they are both flawed but appealing. The dialog between Finch and Violet is very smart and literate, but not over the top for the most part. Their internal narratives ring true most of the time.

“Like most people in the Midwest, Embryo doesn’t believe in humor, especially when it pertains to sensitive subjects,” thinks Finch (p. 19 of the advance reader copy), which isn’t true but is something a teenager might believe.

There is much in this book that teenagers will relate to. “One year later, I grew out of my clothes because, it turns out, growing fourteen inches in a summer is easy. It’s growing out of a label that’s hard, ” thinks Finch after being stuck with the label Theodore Freak. (p. 108)

“I reach for Violet because I’m not too steady on my feet and it’s a long way down if I fall. She wraps her arm around me like it’s second nature, and I lean into her and she leans into me until we make up one leaning person.” (p. 148) Who doesn’t wish for a relationship like that?

I predict this book will be very popular. I recommend it for lovers of realistic contemporary fiction that deals with issues and for readers who enjoy fiction set in Indiana. I read an advance reader copy provided by netgalley.com. The book will be available in the young adult fiction section of the Galesburg Public Library soon.

Claire by Ellie Macdonald

Series: The Governess Club #1
Genres: Historical Romance, Adult

Release Date: September 3rd, 2013
Publisher: Avon Impulse
Source: eBook from Library

Add on Goodreads

Claire Bannister just wants to be a good teacher so that she and the other ladies of the Governess Club can make enough money to leave their jobs and start their own school in the country. But when the new sinfully handsome and utterly distracting tutor arrives, Claire finds herself caught up in a whirlwind romance that could change the course of her future.

Jacob Knightly has a secret. He is actually the notorious Earl of Rimmel. He's just posing as a tutor to escape his reputation in the city. He never expected to fall in love with the kind and beautiful governess. She is the first person to love him for himself and not his title.

But when Jacob's true identity is revealed, Claire realizes she has risked her reputation and her heart on a man she doesn't truly know. Will Jacob be able to convince her that the Wild Earl has been tamed and that she is the true countess of his heart?

This book, or more appropriately, this novella, didn’t have much going for it. It seemed very generic in terms of a historical romance but it wasn't enjoyable. I spent more time cringing than smiling at the silly antics of our characters.

Claire seems to have the basis for a strong female lead. She rarely wallows in self-pity, is confident and she doesn't let her circumstances bring her down too much. Yet at the same time she lets her employers walk over her and she doesn’t really ever stand for what she believes in. In fact, I am not even sure what she believes in. She seems to parrot Louisa’s ideas but that’s really about it.

But Claire wasn’t really my main problem with the book. Jacob was. I didn’t find Jacob swoon-worthy. He got jealous for no reason and thinks Claire is his to lay a claim on. He accuses her of purposefully avoiding dancing with him and the way he handled his jealousy was worrisome. He really needed to take a chill-pill. He never really seems to take into account that she isn’t a possession but a real human being. He says she is magic but it’s more about what she does for him than who she is or what he could in turn do for her.

Throw into that that their romance makes no sense what so ever. It comes out of nowhere. One day they don’t get along and Claire tells him he needs to stop acting like a spoiled brat and suddenly Jacob has an awakening and changes overnight (or over the course of a week) and then they are in love etc etc. How? When? Why? I get that this is a novella but I’ve read novellas where the romance is done well. Just because it’s a short story doesn’t excuse the need for development.

We know right off the bat that Jacob is hiding a secret and when the secret is revealed to Claire, she seems to react in a predictable way but that bothered me too because she over did it and chose not to listen to any of his explanations. I guess over the course of the book, I became more and more critical since there weren’t as many positive points to compensate for the little things that bothered me.

This novella also lacks a strong base.We get a very vague background story for Jacob and almost nothing for Claire. So they both are more like plot devices being used to produce a historical romance of (not so) epic proportions. 

The plot is non-existent. I get that this is historical romance, I read a lot of historical romance myself, but I find the conflict in this book lacking mostly because this novella is so centred on the romance that all the other (so called) conflicts take a back seat. 

This novella isn't a nightmare or anything, it's a nice quick read if you just want some good brain candy but don't go into this novella hoping to find your new favorite historical romance.

Unbecoming by Rebecca Scherm

This well-written debut novel will take you into the world of a pathological liar. From the very first sentence we know that "Julie" has a problem with telling the truth. Her real name isn't even Julie, and every word that comes out of her mouth is a lie. Having had been a liar her entire life, she finds deceiving people to be quite easy. "Julie" has fled her small town of Garland, Tennessee and is now hiding out in Paris. Her only contact with her old life is from a hometown website where she searches for news on two boys that are soon to be released from prison. We don't yet know what they did, but one thing is for sure: We know that "Julie" had something to do with it. If you like psychologically-themed novels, this one will keep you turning the pages! Read On!

Murder at Mullings by Dorothy Cannell

I have mixed feelings about Murder at Mullings. I liked the concept (“In its 300-year history, there has never once been a scandal at Mullings, ancestral home of the decent but dull Stodmarsh family. Until 1932, that is….”). But the book moved so slowly for me. I had a very hard time sticking with it. It was very wordy, and with so little character development I had difficulty keeping everyone straight. The first 10 pages of the book could easily have been a novel in themselves, as they cover 21 years in the life of housekeeper Florence Norris.

I don’t mind a slow-moving plot when character development is the focus, but this is the first book I can recall where plot was sacrificed for setting and manners. This book felt more like a long-winded proposal for a television series than a novel. Even the way the characters were described seemed like guidance for the person casting the series (for example, Inspector LeCrane: “He was tall, with a narrow face dominated by a long, beaky nose, which would have done the suggested species of bird proud. Ned put him in his mid- to –late-forties. No visible gray in his dark hair.” (p. 212)). I found the first 150 pages of this 247 page book to be set-up for the final 100 pages.

There are two murders in the book, set several years apart. An ornamental hermit is thrown at us as a red herring and for a bit of period eccentricity, but the murderer was not difficult to guess. I kept reading because I kept thinking a book I would enjoy was in there someone, and I got it at last in the final 40 pages. I would rate most of the book two stars, and the last 40 pages four stars.

I’ve not seen Downton Abbey, but Murder at Mullings is clearly aimed directly at the fans of that series. If you like slow moving fiction covering a 40-year-span that is more focused on the setting and manners than the plot or characters, you might enjoy this book. This is the first book in a series; the second is due to be published in July 2015.

Murder at Mullings is available in the adult fiction section of the Galesburg Public Library and in the library’s ebook collection.

Murder at Mullings eBook

The Fire Sermon by Francesca Haig

The Fire Sermon by Francesca Haig is a dystopian novel set several hundred years after “the blast,” a nuclear war that ruined the world. “Before the blast, they say there’d been sermons about fire, about the end of the world. The fire itself gave the last sermon; after that there were no more.” (p. 13 of the advance reader copy)

At first, there were few surviving babies. Three or four generations after the blast, twins began to appear. One perfect baby and one imperfect, mutated baby. One Alpha baby and one Omega baby. At first, some tried to kill the imperfect baby only to discover a chilling truth – when one twin died, the other died. Now society is divided into the Alphas and the Omegas. As soon as it is clear which baby is the deformed one, he or she is cast off into an Omega village, to struggle to survive on the worst land with the least resources. The Alphas know they can’t kill their Omega twins, but they make life harsh for them.

Every now and then, an Omega baby’s deformity is manifested as the ability to glimpse the future. The narrator, the unoriginally named Cassandra, is one of these seers, otherwise normal.

Most twins don’t stay together long enough to form a bond, but since it is not clear at first which child is the Omega child when a seer is born, twins with a seer stay together longer. Cass and her twin Zach lived together with their parents until they were 13, when Cass was forced to leave home. Zach has joined the Alpha government, determined to make a name for himself and change society. The book opens with Cass being taken from her home and thrown in a cell. Powerful Alphas often “protect” their twins in some manner, so the Alphas can’t be assassinated through the murder of their twins.

The book starts very slowly. The world building is gradual. The author does not dump all the information on the reader at once. However, once Cass meets up with a mysterious one-armed prisoner who has no memory of his past, escapes, and goes on the run with him, the book really takes off. I was pulled right into the story after that. It was refreshing to have an adult narrator (in her twenties) instead of a teenager for once.

Some of the plot specifics are hard to believe or clichéd. Cass loudly breaks a glass case with a wrench while trying to escape her prison. She and Kip, the amnesiac, come across a party in a barn at an Omega settlement and dance freely in the shadows despite the danger. When Kip reveals something Cass wants to keep secret, she goes on a rampage, throwing breakable objects at the door. There is a love triangle that feels forced (are women authors even allowed to publish stories without love triangles anymore?).

But it’s an engaging story despite these occasional lapses. Although dystopian plots have been done often, this one manages to find some original ideas to include. The book ends with two big surprises, one I anticipated and one I did not.

There are some lovely passages. For example, “There were no written tales or pictures of the blast. What was the point of writing it, or drawing it, when it was etched on every surface? Even now, more than four hundred years after it had destroyed everything, it was still visible in every tumbled cliff, scorched plain, and ash-clogged river. Every face. It had become the only story the earth could tell, so who else would record it?” (p. 13 of the advance reader copy) The Omega children are all sterile; Cass wonders, “Was that the one thing Omegas are spared? Since we can’t have children, at least we’d never have to experience sending a child away.” (p. 25 of the ARC)

I feel the author missed an opportunity to make the reader think about the economic disparities of our own society. Perhaps the sequel will get be a little meatier. I definitely plan to read the sequel, and I recommend The Fire Sermon for those who enjoy dystopian fiction and strong female leads. The book is scheduled to be published in March 2015. I read an advance reader copy from netgalley.com.