She Reads Book Club Book Review: The Silence of Bonaventure Arrow by Rita Leganski

The March pick for the She Reads Book Club is a southern tale steeped in a mixture of voodoo magic, Catholicism, and full-flavored roux. Wonderful and strange, Rita Leganski's debut novel The Silence of Bonaventure Arrow is sure to delight, sadden, and touch the soul every reader.

Set in the mid-twentieth century in a fictional town in Lousiana, Leganski's novel tells the story of Bonaventure Arrow. An exceptional young man with an auditory gift, Bonaventure is born into a world of sorrow. When tragedy strikes his family weeks before his birth, Bonaventure takes on the weight of the mourning, guilt, and longing his family members feel. Bonaventure is different from other children; he cannot speak, but he hears the sounds that come from blades of grass, rocks, and bird feathers.

To say too much more about the plot would ruin the book. Leganski breaks all kinds of "rules" for writing fiction, but prevails nonetheless. The Silence of Bonaventure Arrow was a novel I wanted to devour in one sitting, yet spread out over several days so that it would last. From her chapter titles to her writing style, Leganski wrote a novel that is perfect in every way.

Breaking the "show, don't tell" rule was a leap of faith, but one that paid off in the end. While much of the novel is "told" to the reader rather than "shown" in descriptive writing, Leganski creates the perfect voice for this brave novel -- a third-person narrator that the reader depends upon. Through this objective, omniscient eye, the characters come to life in all their wonderfully-flawed glory. Some remain lovable still, and some the object of further scorn, but this daring narrative distance allows their true colors to shine.

The Silence of Bonaventure Arrow broke my heart into a million pieces more than once, yet it also somehow filled my soul with hope in the end. Bonaventure's innocence and the goodness that shines through him will cause in readers a renewed sense of faith in humankind. The novel is about many things, but at its core it is the story of one brave young man and the people who love him.

Leganski has written a novel that is far from anything else -- it is a magical tale that begs to be told. For more thoughts on this beautiful book, visit the She Reads Book Club March Selection page, where bloggers from all over the web have linked their reviews. To join in the book club discussion, click here. If you'd like to read the first chapter, HarperCollins has a preview of the book here.

The She Reads pick for April is Patti Callahan Henry's new novel And Then I Found You. I am super-excited about this one, as I LOVED Henry's last novel Coming Up For Air. Look for my thoughts on the new book in the next few weeks!

Reading in the Classroom: The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

I told myself at the beginning of this year that I would be reading more of my middle school students' books: young adult, graphic novels, middle grades novels. My post-baby reading habits have slowed to almost-nil, save the reading I do on my iPhone via the Kindle app. Ebooks are my primary form of reading material for the moment, reading that is snuck in during midnight feedings and naps. However, I have recently been utilizing some previously unused reading time: the five or ten minutes each class period when my students are reading their independent books. For a few minutes after I take attendance and check in with my students about their reading, I have been stealing some time for myself.

My thought process is two-fold. A) I am modeling silent, sustained reading for them. B) I make sure that the books I am reading in front of them are books that they would be interested in reading, ones that I might recommend to them during our weekly book commercials. I recently read The Fault in Our Stars entirely at school during snatched minutes here and there. I think it's excellent for my students to see me engrossed in a book and to hear me say, "Five more minutes! I have to finish this chapter!"

The Fault in Our Stars was a phenomenal book, which is something you can read almost anywhere on the internet. I'm not going to make this a lengthy review because, again, that's something you can read many, many places on the world wide web. Instead, I'm going to discuss why it was important for me to read this book in my classroom.

John Green tells the story of Hazel Lancaster, a teenager with a complete understanding of the life cycle. You see, she has an incurable cancer. A pharmaceutical trial turned out really well for her; she happened upon a drug which does exactly what she needs it to do -- prolong her life. Thus, her incurable cancer has been transformed from an imminent-death disease to a probably-death-at-some-point-in-the-future-but-not-now disease. Despite this life-lengthening miracle, Hazel still has plenty on her plate. She must cart around an oxygen tank, for starters. And from time to time she lands herself in ICU, anyway.

Because of her illness, Hazel completed high school rather early and now attends some classes at the local community college. All of this spells disaster for her social life. Her old friends have continued living high school drama, and college students are largely uninterested in this sixteen-year-old in their midst. Her parents, doting and devoted, push her to attend a cancer kids support group, which Hazel grudgingly does. One night her world shifts from terribly boring to infinitely interesting when gorgeous former basketball star Augustus Waters walks into the group's feelings-sharing circle in a church basement.

The Fault in Our Stars was beautifully written and one of the most engaging novels I can remember reading. My students delighted in watching me read it, as I laughed out loud, shared lines and paragraphs with them, and postponed finishing it until I was in private because I knew there would be no way for me to extricate myself from the novel without tears. My students could hardly wait for me to finish so they could fight over who would check it out next from our school library.

I finally felt, with my reading of The Fault in Our Stars, that I could at last show my students what it means to fall head over heels in love with a book -- with the characters, with their predicaments, with the plot ups and downs. They heard it in my discussions with them, but more importantly they saw it on my face and in my body language as I read. No, not read -- pored over the pages, experienced emotions with the characters, traveled to Denmark with them. Visited Anne Frank's house and read her words in the space she inhabited during her hiding (yes, there is more to the book than a kids cancer group).

John Green's The Fault in Our Stars is exactly the kind of novel I want to share with my classes: at once interesting, smart, funny, and sad. I recommend it for fairly mature students in upper middle school and above, although given my feelings about it, I believe adults can enjoy it every bit as much as younger readers. Green has written several other novels that I will be reading soon, and my fingers are crossed as I look for my next book and hope it is every bit as good a title to share with my emerging readers.

SHE READS BOOK CLUB Book Review: Calling Me Home by Julie Kibler

I was honored to become part of the She Reads Blog Network last fall, and this is the title chosen for their February Book Club. Most bloggers link up towards the beginning of the month; I'm just a little bit late this month, as I'm just now getting back into the swing of blogging about anything at all! You can read more reviews of Calling Me Home by clicking here. You can join the book club discussion over at She Reads after you've read the book yourself!

A bit about the book (from the author's website): Sixteen-year-old Isabelle McAllister longs to escape the confines of her northern Kentucky hometown, but after her family's housekeeper's son rescues her from a Newport drunk, the boundaries seem smaller than ever.

Falling for a black boy in late 1930s Kentucky isn't just illegal, it's dangerous. Signs at the city limits warn Negroes, “Don’t let the sun set on you here.” Despite repeated warnings, Isabelle and Robert disregard the racial divide, starting a chain of events that threatens jobs, lives, and generations to come.

Decades later, black hairstylist Dorrie Curtis agrees to drive her elderly white client cross-country to a funeral. Over the years, Miss Isabelle has become more than just a customer, but the timing couldn't be worse. First, Dorrie's seeing a man she's afraid she could fall for, but one thing is more obvious than ever: Trust is not her strong suit. Second, she knows her teenager's in big trouble; he just hasn’t told her yet.

When a phone call from home confirms Dorrie's fears, Miss Isabelle's tale of forbidden love illuminates Dorrie’s dilemma, merging the past and present in a journey with unexpected detours and a bittersweet destination.

How I felt about the book (and why you should read it): Julie Kibler's Calling Me Home could have been just another tale of race relations in the south. I am going to fully admit that when I read the description, I thought, 'Great. Driving Miss Daisy, The Help, and To Kill a Mockingbird, all rolled up into one and redone for the upteenth time.' I couldn't have been more wrong.

First of all, the two main characters grab you and don't let go. Dorrie and Isabelle are two of the most engaging characters I've been introduced to in a long time. They aren't perfect, but neither are people in real life. Although we know Miss Isabelle during two different periods in her life (young adulthood and as an elderly woman), and Dorrie only as an adult, Dorrie is every bit as dynamic in only the present day.

Another aspect of Calling Me Home that I enjoyed was the way Kibler told her story. Varying between present day and flashbacks, we are introduced both to Dorrie and Miss Isabelle as they take a road trip north and to Isabelle as a young woman in the 1930s. Ostensibly a story Isabelle tells Dorrie as they drive, the 1930s story line becomes every bit as important -- perhaps more so -- as the present day plot. Kibler strikes the perfect balance between the two stories, building suspense by switching time periods, on more than one occasion. The technique certainly worked on me, as I raced to finish the book and find out how both stories concluded.

While this isn't necessarily a tale of happily-ever-after, it mirrors real life and will  nevertheless leave readers satisfied in the end. Calling Me Home is a book I would recommend to anyone seeking a good story, those who like stories about race relations in our country, and those interested in relationships. Because at its heart, the novel is just that -- a story about human relationships in all the various forms they take: mother-child, friendship, romantic love, and even the sometimes instantly-deep relationship strangers form when they meet during happenstance and show kindness to one another.

About the author: Calling Me Home is Julie Kibler's debut novel. She grew up in Kentucky (among other places) and moved to Texas to attend college. I always think novels ring more true when the author writes what he or she knows. Case in point, this novel and its setting. The inspiration for the story came from Kibler's own family. She learned that her grandmother experienced a similar situation to the one Isabelle faces, and that inspired her to create a fictional version. She is currently at work on her next novel. You can learn more on her website, where you will find links to connect with Kibler on your favorite social media site.

A Return to Blogging: Life, Babies, & the She Reads Book Club

Casual iPhone shot of Ava, 4 months

It's been almost five months since my last post, and boy has life been busy! I birthed a baby, cared for her for more than four months (so far), celebrated major holidays, spent time with my family who was visiting from Africa, returned to work, interviewed for and accepted a position with Tennessee's Department of Education (in addition to my regular teaching job), and so much more.

The most important of the above list of life accomplishments and moments is, of course, the birth of my daughter. Ava Lauren is a whopping almost-16 pounds and more than 26 inches at four and a half months old. She eats well, to put it mildly. She is a joy and a night-disturbance; even in those half-awake, bleary-eyed moments in the middle of the night, she is the greatest thing that has ever happened to me. Her little hands touching my face, as she has begun doing in the last week or so, is quite simply the sweetest gesture that exists.

What I have not been doing very much of is reading or watching television/ movies. When you're a first-time mommy, all those things you've indulged in for so long fall to the wayside. My ten-minute shower each morning feels like a day at the spa. I had heard of those movies that won Oscars last night, but I hadn't seen so much as a trailer for any of them!

I have, however,  managed to finish a handful of books in the last few months, and I am excited about sharing them with you. The books I've read for the She Reads Book Club will be up first, followed by some child rearing/parenting-related titles, as well as some classroom books. I may not be reviewing books every single day, but I'm excited to get back into the fray on some level, discussing books and sharing what I've been reading.

Two weeks ago...

We met our tiny, beautiful bundle of joy. 

Posts may come again at some point in the future, but for now I am enjoying every single moment with our little one (even the sleep deprived ones)!

Ava Lauren Carden was born on October 10, 2012, at 3:27pm. She weighed 7lbs 8 oz and was 20 1/2 inches long.

We are in love!

Book Review: The Cutting Season by Attica Locke

Two years ago, I called Attica Locke's debut novel one of the best novels I'd read in 2010. Black Water Rising was a phenomenal freshman effort. I don't re-read books, but I may have to revisit it, especially after reading Locke's second book this fall.

A bit about the book: Attica Locke's The Cutting Season takes on a wholly different set of issues and topics than Black Water Rising did two years ago. While Locke's first novel took readers to Houston in the early 1980s, The Cutting Season focuses on both the present day and the Civil War era in Louisiana.

Caren Gray is the manager and curator at Louisiana plantation Bella Vie, where daily pre-Civil War reenactments and tours are available. The mansion is also leased out for parties, weddings, and the like, all of which Caren presides over. She and her nine-year-old daughter Morgan live on the premises, much to the chagrin of Morgan's father Eric. An employee of Obama's White House, Eric would prefer that both Caren and Morgan leave the south behind and move to Washington, D.C.

Louisiana, however, is one place Caren can't bring herself to leave. Raised on Bella Vie, where her mother was the cook for decades, it is the one place Caren feels at home -- and the last place she saw her mother before her death. The Clancy family, her mother's former employers, still own the plantation, although Caren now works for one of the sons.

While Caren's background provides plenty of fodder for plot development, Locke throws a wrench into the storyline from the beginning, when the body of a young field worker is found on the grounds of Bella Vie. The murder mystery becomes intertwined with Caren's life at the plantation, bringing up another murder that was never fully investigated more than 100 years ago -- of a freed slave who just so happens to be one of Caren's ancestors.

Why you want to read it: One of Locke's talents is creating characters with whom her readers will empathize. She also does an excellent job of giving  those characters both good and bad characteristics, so that it is virtually impossible to categorize them as all good or all bad. Caren Gray is a remarkable main character, teeming with life and dynamic in every way. Readers will both feel for her and, at other times, not understand her actions at all -- much as we do with living, breathing people.

Although Houston in 1981 was a feat all its own, Locke does another phenomenal job setting the scene for this novel. The plantation fairly breathes with a life of its own, as does Louisiana. Locke nails the scenes set in New Orleans, as well as the small town where Bella Vie exists. The reader is transported to a time and place, both in the present day scenes and in the references to the Civil War era.

The bottom line: With these two novels, there is no doubt that Locke is making a name for herself in the literary world. She came out of the gate running with Black Water Rising, and she has written another compelling novel with The Cutting Season. While I would choose Black Water Rising as the stronger of the two novels, The Cutting Season was a delight to read, and only makes me wish for more from Attica Locke's talented pen.

About the author: Attica Locke is from Houston, Texas, but now resides in Los Angeles, California, with her husband and daughter. Much of her career has been spent as a screenwriter for major Hollywood film companies. Her first novel Black Water Rising was shortlisted for the Orange Prize and was nominated for an Edgar award, among other accolades. According to her reply to one of my comments about The Cutting Season on Twitter, she is hard at work on her next novel. For more information about Locke and her books, visit her website.

Book Review: The Harbormaster's Daughter by Heidi Jon Schmidt

A bit about the book: Set in present day New England, Heidi Jon Schmidt's The Harbormaster's Daughter nevertheless invokes an old world feel. Despite the fact that they are living in the twenty-first century, the characters who populate the novel maintain a certain nostalgia for life as it used to be in their little seaside town. Oyster Creek was once a town of fishermen, driven by an industry now mostly abandoned. As new folks move in, taken by the town's charm, the families who've been there for generations struggle to adapt.

Schmidt has written what is mostly literary fiction, but with a bit of mystery thrown in, as well. It is the story of Vita Gray and her early childhood tragedy. Her mother Sabine moved to Oyster Creek more than a decade ago, one of the outsiders taken in by its old world charms. She was a free spirit, unconstrained by the usual norms of society. As a result, she first got Vita; the second thing it got her was murdered.

Sabine's friend LaRee has raised Vita ever since that fateful night. Vita has had only minimal interactions with her father Franco, a long-time Oyster Creek resident whose wife Danielle seems saintly after his indiscretion rocked their world in more ways than one. Vita, now a teenager, is struggling through these difficult years. She lives partially as an insider in Oyster Creek - her father's daughter - and partially as an outsider, ever living in the shadow of her mother's shocking murder. When she finds out some truths about her mother's death, Vita's world is rocked even further.

Why you want to read it: Although there is a murder within the pages of this novel, Schmidt has not written a thriller. The truths Vita learns are already outlined for the reader beforehand. Instead, The Harbormaster's Daughter is a slower-moving story that focuses on human interactions and growth. Vita is, of course, as the heart of the novel. However, Schmidt has also thrown in several characters readers will love, as well. LaRee will make her way into your thoughts, as will Vita's father Franco. Although he is oftentimes a bumbling idiot when it comes to female feelings, deep down he is a man with good intentions.

Another plus for the novel is Schmidt's integration of Shakespeare into the book. Vita's one love is being a part of an outdoor drama group who produces a Shakepeare play each summer. The Tempest is the chosen play for this year, and Vita is fully involved in its production. Although she doesn't get the part she hopes for, any little part she plays is important to Vita. I enjoy links to other pieces of literature within novels, and Schmidt does this very well in The Harbormaster's Daughter.

The bottom line: Schmidt focuses on the things that make us all human in The Harbormaster's Daughter. Although it didn't turn out to be the literary mystery I thought I was going to read, the novel was winning in other ways. The characters, setting, and inclusion of Shakespeare make the novel something special. I did feel as though the action moved rather slowly in the middle; because the reader knows everything there is to know about the murder early on in the novel, the plot is not driven by an overreaching conflict. Instead, it's a slower novel that focuses on people rather than action.

About the author: Heidi Jon Schmidt is the author of four previous novels, one of which was also set in Oyster Creek. It is titled The House on Oyster Creek. Schmidt lives in Provincetown, Massachusetts, and has been writing for several decades. Her early short fiction has been published in The Atlantic and other literary magazines.