Author Archives: Christie

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About Christie

Book lover. Tea Drinker. Teacher. Writer. Mother. Canadian.

Body of a Girl by Leah Stewart

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I read Leah Stewart’s novel The Myth of You and Me a couple years back and I had a lot of problems with it. I had a lot of problems with Body of a Girl, too.

Olivia Dale is a crime reporter for a Memphis newspaper. She’s not a rookie, but she’s young and it shows despite her best attempts to hide her reactions to the horrible things she’s called upon to write about. When the novel opens, she’s at a crime scene. Timing allows her to be closer to the body of a girl than she would normally be allowed.

“I’ve learned to stomach the photographs they show me,” Dale says, “but now I know it’s nothing like being so close you could lean down and touch that dead, dead skin” (2).

Perhaps because the dead girl is similar in age and appearance or perhaps she’s just the final straw in Dale’s precariously constructed life-  either way,  she  becomes obsessed with finding out everything there is to know about the dead girl. Not only does she throw  her personal safety out the window, she chucks out her common sense as well. As the book chugs along I felt less and less sympathetic and more and more annoyed with her.

I think Body of a Girl attempts to answer some of the questions we all ask: what makes us the same, what makes us different? How close to the edge can we walk without toppling over? Can we ever really know someone? The problem with Dale is that, despite her profession, she’s a piss-poor judge of character and doesn’t seem to have a compass of any sort. Her journey, ultimately, seems self-destructive, rather than a real attempt to understand the human condition. Dale just seems reckless and stupid by the novel’s rather sappy ending.

Standing Still by Kelly Simmons

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I loved pretty much everything about Kelly Simmons’  novel Standing Still. It’s always a relief to read something you can be excited about after a couple of mediocre books. Standing Still is just a terrific book: part page-turner (there’s an intriguing mystery at this book’s core) and part meditation on marriage and family and the lives women leave behind in order to have those things.

Claire Cooper, mother of three young daughters, spends a lot of time alone because her husband, Sam, travels for business. One night someone breaks into her house and Claire finds him about to make off with one of her daughters. “Take me,” she tells the man. “Take me instead.”

The man does take Claire and over the week of her captivity the reader has access to   Claire’s thoughts about her children and husband, as well as to her growing relationship with her captor, a relationship that proves to be far more profound and moving than you might expect. Their relationship becomes one of intimacy and, dare I say it, friendship and I know there is probably some psychological explanation for what happens between kidnap victims and their abductors, but I don’t think that explanation would actually suffice in this case. Claire is carrying a lot of emotional baggage and for the first time in her life she is forced to confront some of it. It is her time with this unlikely ‘therapist’ that makes healing possible.

On top of all this human drama, Simmons is a beautiful writer. Claire is a fully realized character, fragile and brave. Her unnamed captor is equally interesting –  a scene towards the novel’s conclusion where Claire makes the observation that, sleeping next to him will be the last time she’ll ever feel this safe (232) is both ironic and heartbreaking.

I also really loved that Claire is a woman who is trying to reconcile motherhood and marriage with the fact that she was, once, a very successful career woman. I loved her wild past, her ability to fall in love with a man based on a single characteristic, her yearning for that simple pleasure once again.

This was a book I couldn’t wait to get to at the end of the day…and one I was sorry to finish even as I was racing to the end.

Love: A User’s Guide by Clare Naylor

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It’s been a long time since I’ve read a book this bad. And when I say bad I mean stinky bad- filled with clunky writing, unrealistic characters, stupid plot. So I’m lying a bit when I count it as a book I’ve actually read- mostly I skimmed.

Amy works for Vogue in London. She’s beautiful and smart and funny and quirky and perfect and fashionable and and and. Orlando Rock is a movie star. He’s gorgeous and perfect and kind and hot and not even remotely stuck on himself.

Amy and Orlando meet on a beach (shortly after Amy has her first sexual encounter of the lesbian kind with someone who happens to be a dear friend of Orlando’s). He’s smitten. So is she.

What followes is a completely ridiculous courtship followed by even more ridiculous plot machinations aka tabloids which drive a temporary wedge between our lovers. Every once and a while the author speaks  about the characters as if she’s some sort of benevolent angel watching over their love affair.

“…we have to make allowances for love and hope that the lesson they learn won’t be too painful.” (170)

Yeah okay- what about the pain you’re causing your readers, Ms. Naylor?

This book was so bad, I had to make a new tag category: really bad books.

A bookish weekend…

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Every May, our local Public Library has a huge book sale. Last year I scored big time…hauling off bags of books for $5. (This year it was “an armload of books for $1″. ) Sadly, I didn’t fare as well this year- just not the same selection or something. I came away with three books: Perpetual Ending by Kirsten den Hartog, Vinegar Hill by A. Manette Ansay, In the Night Room by Peter Straub

Not satisfied with that, I stopped by Bean Books once more. I knew I could get a decent cup of King Cole tea (which I did) and I scored a hard cover copy of Clive Barker’s latest novel Mister B. Gone, for the bargain price of $8.95! (I’d come across this book during my Indigo days and it looked intriguing. I do enjoy a decent horror novel every once and awhile.)

My book accumulation this week was rounded off by purchasing The Book of Negroes by Lawrence Hill. This book is this month’s book club pick. I also received, as a gift A Reliable Wife by Robert Goolrick- which is Indigo’s book club pick.

I may not have stated this, but I decided back in January (with 200 waiting-to-be-read books eyeing me haughtily from their shelf) that I wasn’t going to buy any books this year except for the two a month I’d need for book club. I can’t do it.

Hi. My name is Christie and I’m a book-a-holic.

(Originally published May 3, 2009)

Blogging…

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I’ve been blogging for a few years now…but not about books. This is a new enterprise for me and although I feel that, for the most part, I am doing it for myself…I don’t mind. I love talking about and thinking about and writing about books.

Apparently other people do, too. There are hundreds of fantastic blogs and book-related sites out there. Every once and awhile I think I’d like to talk about them here.

Just today I stumbled upon LitLovers. This is a fantastic blog which is attached to an equally fantastic site, which just happens to be a wonderful resource for book clubs. It’s truly a one-stop book club resource which includes reading guides, menus and even free LitCourses, if you’re so inclined. If you’re thinking about starting a book club or are looking for a way to inject new life into an existing club, LitLovers is a great place to start.

(Originally published May 5, 2009)

Purging

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I very rarely get rid of books. Some I keep because I re-read them. Some I keep because I really love them, even though I might never read them again. mostly, though, I just like the way books look – the aesthetic of them on a shelf or stacked beside my bed.

The school where I teach is having a book swap at the end of the month and so I thought I could pass on a few titles. After much deliberation I am going to give away:

Beautiful Lies by Lisa Unger – Although I enjoyed this book, it’s not something I’d re-read because once the mystery is solved, it’s pointless to re-read.

Rise and Shine by Anna Quindlen – I like Quindlen, but didn’t like this book at all.

Love in the Time of Cholera – Gabriel Garcia Marquez – I know, I know. People who love this book love it a lot. I didn’t like it one bit.

The Memory Keeper’s Daughter by Kim Edwards – Another much hyped book that did nothing for me.

The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho – Another book that was, imho, over-praised. Good riddance.

The Slow Moon by Elizabeth Cox – I’d really been looking forward to reading this book and it was a huge disappointment,

A Cold Dark Place by Greg Olsen – A stupid book.

Love: A User’s Guide by Clare Naylor – I really didn’t like this book at all.

Kill Me First by Kate Morgenroth – Another in the one-read thriller/mystery category.

Sleep No More by Greg Iles – Stoo-pid.

The King of Lies by John Hart – Another in the one-read thriller/mystery category.

The Innocent by Harlan Coben – Another in the one-read thriller/mystery category.

How and why do you purge?
(Originally published May 18, 2009)

The Book of Negroes by Lawrence Hill

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Everyone has been talking about Lawrence Hill’s novel The Book of Negroes for the past few months. When I worked at Indigo, it flew off the shelf; everyone wanted to read it. It’s one of those books – topical, controversial, well-written, award-winning  and with a central character that it is impossible not to admire. And I did  admire her, but  I didn’t love this book. I finished The Book of Negroes a few days ago and I’ve been trying to figure out what it was exactly that failed to inspire me to talk about it in absolutely glowing terms.

I am a child of the 70s. By that I mean, I was a teenager when Roots hit the small screen. Every night for however many nights that mini-series was on the tube, my family and I would gather around the TV, mesmerized and horrified by Kunta Kinte’s story. I haven’t seen it since, so I have no idea whether or not it holds up, but that story devastated me and made me ashamed, for the first time in my life, to be white. The Book of Negroes failed to reach me on some level.  Does that mean in the years since I’ve seen Roots I’ve just gradually become desensitized? God, I hope not.

Aminata Diallo, born in Bayo, West Africa, in 1745, is captured by slave traders when she is just eleven. We have barely settled into the rhythm of her life as a ‘free-born Muslim’ adored by her parents, before they are killed and she is captured. What follows is her life story. No question, it makes for fascinating, accessible and easy reading. But there was something missing for me, some emotional centre.

Aminita reaches America  after a long, brutal journey across the ocean. She is sold and quickly learns a new language and a new way of life. It is impossible not to admire her: she’s smart and resilient and tough. She has to be as she endures one tragedy after another.

And perhaps this is where I feel let down by the book: despite knowing Aminita’s story, I never felt like I knew her. In telling the story of her life, she relays the facts, all but stripping the emotion from them. The slightly unbelievable denouement, therefore, had little impact on me.

Should you read this book? Absolutely. Is it worthy of all the praise?  Yes, of course it is, because we should always be reminded that the struggle for equality is ongoing, that people still suffer because of their race or religious beliefs. Let’s face it, the world hasn’t really come all that far since Aminita’s day.

There’s a part of me that feels slightly guilty that I didn’t love it.  But I am glad I read it.

Heartsick by Chelsea Cain

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What prevents Chelsea Cain’s debut novel, Heartsick, from being a run-of-the-mill psycho killer story?  I mean, truthfully, it has all the ingredients: troubled, lead detective; smart-cookie reporter with a past, crazy killer who targets high school girls, red herrings.

Heartsick opens with a flashback. Detective Archie Sheridan has been tracking the ‘Beauty Killer’ for ten years and he has finally caught her; or rather, she’s caught him. Held captive in her basement, Gretchen Lowell spends ten days torturing Archie in a variety of inventive and gruesome  ways. Strangely enough, Archie and Gretchen form a bond and it is that relationship which separates Heartsick from other novels in the genre.

Instead of killing Archie at the end of ten torturous days, Gretchen saves him by bringing him back to life and then calling 911. Then she does something even more remarkable- she turns herself in. She agrees to spill the beans about all the murders she’s committed over the years, but she’ll only talk to Archie. Their twisted relationship permeates all other aspects of his life, including his relationship with his wife, Debbie, and their two children. It’s also the most interesting thing about the book.

Archie is called back into service to lead a task force tracking a new serial killer. That part of the story treads familiar ground and is really only a framework for Cain to explore Gretchen and Archie’s co-dependancy. Archie is a complicated character; he loves his wife and children despite the fact that he no longer lives with them, he’s addicted to a variety of pain killers and sedatives, he’s as smart as hell. Gretchen is beautiful and cunning and one of the most evil characters you’re ever likely to meet. If you pick up Heartsick, do it because watching Gretchen and Archie navigate their twisted boundaries makes for riveting reading.

A Reliable Wife by Robert Goolrick

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Everyone,  it seems, is raving about Robert Goolrick’s novel A Reliable Wife. Sadly, I am not going to be one of those people. I don’t mean to imply that I didn’t enjoy the book; I actually liked the book quite a lot (once I got past the first dry chapter). Still, there were elements of the book that just didn’t work for me.

A Reliable Wife tells the story of Ralph Pruitt, a wealthy man who lives in Wisconsin. He’s been a widower for the past twenty years and when the story opens he is standing on the platform at the train station waiting for Catherine Land, his soon-to-be-bride. Catherine has answered Truitt’s advertisement in a St. Louis paper for ‘a reliable wife.’ It is 1907.

Not all is as it seems with these two characters, though. Each has hidden agendas and secrets galore and as I read I imagined the fantastic movie this would make. Did it make a fantastic book, though, that’s the question. Well, yes and no.

What did A Reliable Wife do well?

It gave the reader a real glimpse into the hardships and isolation of a mid-western winter. It dealt sympathetically with the novel’s central characters: Catherine and Truitt. Truitt is especially well-drawn. He is a man who selfishly chases  erotic pleasures for much of his young life, returning to the family business only after his father dies. His story unfolds a little at a time, saving one last ’secret’ for the novel’s final pages.

Catherine comes to him the supposed daughter of missionaries, but her story is actually far more sordid.  It gives nothing away to say that she has come to Wisconsin to marry and then murder Truitt by way of arsenic poisoning.

What did A Reliable Wife do less well?

At a certain point in the novel I felt like everything became melodramatic. Sub-plots did nothing to advance the story. Catherine’s sister, Alice, is introduced near the middle of the book and I know it’s meant to juxtapose her life with Catherine’s, but for me it seemed tacked on. We hear tidbits of violent crimes or horrible accidents which have happened in Truitt’s community followed by the author’s statement ”such things happen”, as if this explains all the wrong-doing in the world. Or, perhaps, to say that some things can’t be explained.

Ultimately, A Reliable Wife asks the question: Is it possible to be redeemed? Truitt wants to make up for what he believes is a horrible mark against him as a father. Catherine makes a decision which changes the course of her future. Other characters hold on to their anger and bitterness and suffer a more drastic fate.

There is also the question of suspense. I wouldn’t say that the book was suspenseful in the way modern readers might expect. We know from the book’s jacket that Truitt and Catherine are hiding something and so we start reading with the knowledge that not everything is as it seems. I don’t think the story is propulsive because of any so-called suspense.  A lot of stuff happens and it happens at a relatively quick clip. On a few occasions  (especially towards the end) I actually felt I was being told what was happening rather than watching the story unfold.

One thing that totally surprised me about this book was the amount of sex in it. These are people with very real human appetites and the book does a terrific job with sensual details of all sorts: the sex is not the fade-to-black kind. Truitt’s sexual reawakening, in particular, is impressively realistic.

All this to say that I enjoyed reading the book, but I didn’t feel totally satisfied when I’d finished.

Red Leaves by Thomas H. Cook

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redleavesI’ve gotta say- Thomas Cook hasn’t disappointed me yet. Red Leaves is the fourth novel I’ve read by this terrific mystery writer and it was excellent. Not my favourite so far, but still a great read. Let’s face it, there are only so many mystery stories to tell: murders committed by psychopaths, depraved sex crimes, crimes of passion, greed or power run amok. Cook is the cream of the crop of writers in this genre for a couple of reasons. First of all, the man can turn a phrase. Secondly, his characters are complicated people with messy human lives. Cook does a terrific job, in every book I’ve read, of turning them inside out and exposing their frailties, fears and darkness.

Red Leaves tells the story of the Moore family: Eric (owner of a camera shop), Meredith (teacher at a small community college) and Keith (their teenage son). They live in a small New England town and live, what Eric believes, is a perfect life. That is until eight-year-old Amy Giordano goes missing and the last person to have seen her is Keith, who’d been babysitting her that evening.

As Eric struggles to come to terms with his failed relationship with his son and his growing suspicions that Keith might actually have had something to do with Amy’s disappearance, other cracks in his life start to appear. What follows is a terrific page turner as Eric races to protect Keith and shore up his own life against the damage secrets and lies cause.

I’ve said it before about Cook, he is a wonderful observer of human nature and he writes about the things that we love and fear as well as any other popular writer I’ve ever read. If you haven’t given him a try, I’d encourage you to check him out.