Queens of All the Earth by Hannah Sternberg

ISBN:   97816108801900
Grade:   C+
Release Date:   June 15, 2011

Thanks NetGalley for my advanced read of this book!

Queens of All the Earth is the debut novel from Hannah Sternburg that takes its title from a gorgeous E.E. Cummings poem.  This is a story about a Cornell freshman named Olivia who has a complete mental breakdown upon starting college and finds herself in a catatonic state for some time.  Once Olivia starts to come around, her older sister Miranda thinks that a vacation is in order to help ease Olivia back into reality.  The two sisters take off on a European vacation to Spain to see Barcelona.  Once they arrive Miranda realizes that there has been a mistake with their reservation at a hostel and a hodgepodge of characters enter the story like a Baptist minister and his lost soul son.  This book is a pretty portrait of Barcelona scenery and gives a good look into what one might experience traveling abroad and especially staying in a hostel.  Queens of All the Earth is a coming of age story with a touch of mental illness thrown in and set in the lovely background of Barcelona.

I wanted to love this book from the NetGalley description and the GoodReads description but ended up just liking the story.  My issue was that I wanted more of an ending and felt that the one we are given was a bit too brief.  I wanted more closure between certain characters.  What I did really love about the story is the prose and the descriptions of various places in Barcelona that made me feel as if I were seeing these sights myself.  The book is rather short, clocking in at under 200 pages and likely will be finished in one sitting.  Once this book is released in June I will definitely give this a second read to see if the second time around is better.  Hannah Sternberg is an author that I will most definitely read again as I enjoy her style of writing.  Overall this book is escapism at its finest and perfect for those who want to go to Spain via a novel for a few hours.  

A Widow's Story: A Memoir by Joyce Carol Oates

ISBN:   9780062015532
Grade:  B-

Thank you to NetGalley for my advance read of this book!

The much anticipated memoir by Joyce Carol Oates is an unflinchingly honest look into her life as a widow and the writer many of us have come to love.  True to her short stories and fiction, A Widow’s Story has the same profound descriptive and sometimes harsh style of writing that she’s known for whether you love it or hate it.  If you’ve read anything JCO you probably have an idea of what she’s really like and reading her memoir will likely confirm those thoughts.  A Widow’s Story is the story of JCO in the months after her husband Raymond Smith’s untimely passing due to pneumonia and a story about the man behind the author. She and Ray had spent nearly 50 years together and both are well known names in the literary world.  The pair had started the Ontario Review which has helped further the careers of quite a few authors, not to mention all the JCO books and her teaching at Princeton.  What follows is a handbook of sorts pertaining to all the tedious “death duties” following the passing of one’s spouse and gives us an intimate look into her email correspondence.

The memoir starts off with JCO receiving a note on her windshield stating “learn to park you stuppid bitch” which feels so ironic that the person who left that note has no clue of the recipient’s identity.  The note was left in response to a haphazard parking job after taking Ray to the ER for respiratory symptoms.  Ray is diagnosed with pneumonia with E Coli in the lungs, a diagnosis that carries a 70% mortality rate.  Ray appears to be on the mend until a secondary infection on unknown origin takes over the other lung and ultimately kills Ray.  This takes JCO from our beloved author to being a regular person.  She deals with things in the hospital like a CNA from hell and the revolving door of medical personnel and goes home to a pair of cats.  She also reads, although not in bed and not titles that the every day reader would read like Ulysses.  Returning home after Ray’s passing, the house goes into an immediate shift with her two cats Cherie and Reynard (stars themselves in two children’s books) blaming her for Ray not being home when it really is the hospital’s fault for Ray catching the secondary infection.  This begins the journey through widowhood and trying desperately to pick up the pieces.

Normally I love JCO and have been an avid fan since discovering her in high school, but this book didn’t wow me like some of her fiction.  The book itself is well written and has its share of touching moments yet there was a certain coldness that didn’t endear the book to me.  From reading her fiction I had an idea in my mind of what JCO is like which included being peculiar and highly articulate and those were confirmed traits. The coldness was unexpected to me and for some reason I thought her to be a warmer person who just so happens to write about utterly horrific events in her fiction.  There are toucning moments in the memoir including JCO wondering what Ray’s last thoughts and words were as he died alone surrounded by strangers.  The second part that had me tearing up was the dream with her young parents and not wanting them to know that Ray was in the hospital.  The passing of her cat Reynard had me in tears as he like Ray died alone yet will be forever remembered in his book Where Is Little Reynard. Finally the last message Ray left for JCO saying love to her and his kitties.

This as a whole is a lovely look into the life of Raymond Smith that is new to many of us, a portrait of Ray as an avid gardener, the man who brought home two little motherless kittens from the pound and the man who never read any JCO fiction. This is also proof that the prolific powerhouse of literary fiction is human and grieves like any regular person would grieve. The 400+ pages make for a dense read but well worth it for the devoted JCO fan.

Sing You Home by Jodi Picoult

ISBN:   1439102724

Release date:   March 1, 2011

Grade:   B+

Thank you to the fantastic folks at Atria Books and Simon & Schuster for my ARC of Sing You Home! 

Going into this book I had my expectations set mighty low since the last Picoult book I read was My Sister's Keeper and I thought that was an abomination.  Sing You Home is different, it was quite readable and enjoyable and I didn't throw it across the room after finishing.

Sing You Home is a story about infertility, gay parenting rights and religion.  We meet Zoe Baxter a music therapist and her landscaper husband Max who want more than anything to have a child.  Both Zoe and Max have infertility issues unfortunately all to common like PCOS and have to deal with miscarriage after miscarriage after IVF cycles.  This seemingly endless struggle takes its toll on their marriage as most couples dealing with infertility can attest to both financially and emotionally.  After their last stillbirth Max has reached his breaking point and divorces Zoe who then finds solace in a woman named Vanessa, while Max finds it in booze and later church.  Zoe and Vanessa start off as friends and then Zoe realizes that she cannot live completely without Vanessa and they evolve into a lesbian couple.  When Max, now heavily into religion as a member of a very conservative church, is approached by Zoe to give his permission for her to use their frozen embryos a battle for custody begins and we get to meet some rather unsavory characters.  We get to see the hypocritical side of some religious zealots who cannot point their fingers at other sinners fast enough while sweeping their own sins under the rug. 

Maybe it's because this subject is so near and dear to my heart, or maybe it's something else but this story touched me deeply.  I felt for Zoe and have been there myself wanting something so badly that others get to experience effortlessly.  Her emotions were spot on and in particular her hoping Sirens at the bottom of the sea take her little boy home to sing him home, just melted my heart.  Picoult must have done some excellent research to nail these emotions down as Zoe felt like a fully developed character as did Vanessa and Max.  She showed the ugly side of IVF - the expenses financially and emotionally from having all sorts of hormone injections that insurance almost never covers.  The uber conservative church grated on every nerve as I have some people close to me who happen to be gay and it disgusts me every time I hear some religious loudmouth spouting off hate towards gays.

Most importantly, Picoult got the ending right if not perfect. I will not spoil it for those who have not yet read it, but what the ending does not do is pull any fast punches that leave the reader groaning and wondering why Picoult thought that twist to be necessary.  The ending had me cheering and I closed the book with a smile on my face and a satisfied feeling.  Literary fiction this is not, but Sing You Home is a marvelous effort by Picoult that has me thinking I might read more of her titles.

This book comes with a cd of songs written by Picoult which tie in to each section of the story, or at least the advance edition includes the cd.  This should be a hit with Picoult's army of fans and it would make a good selection for bookclubs.  I highly recommend Sing You Home and cannot wait to hear what the rest of you think of this book.     
                

Elephant Talk: The Surprising Science of Elephant Communication by Ann Downer

ISBN:  9780761357667
Publication Date:   March 1, 2011

Grade:   A

Recommended to all fans of Dumbo and those who enjoy nonfiction and science.

Thanks to the good folks at Net Galley and Lerner Publishing for the advance read of Elephant Talk.  While Net Galley has this tagged as a YA nonfiction book, this definitely has adult appeal.  Elephant Talk is packed full of gorgeous photographs and equally packed full of information.  This book would have come in super handy during my high school speech class and freshman college biology class.  The cover grabbed my attention as soon as I saw it and of course I cannot pass up a book about animals, wild or domesticated.  How well this book would look on an e-reader, I don't know as it is books like this that make reading a traditional bound book so much fun.   

What I loved besides the stunning pictures of some of the cutest wild animals was the amount of information that was included in the book, and that the writing was not dumbed down for a younger audience.  There was info that was new to me like the genetic differences between elephants previously thought to be the same species.  We learn about African elephants both the Savannah and Forest Elephant species and their differences not only genetically but also in the color of their tusks.  In my ignorance I had just assumed that those elephants with pink tusks had rubbed on something, not that their tusks turn pink because of the minerals in the mud that they consume.  The feminist in me loved learning that elephant herds are led by females while the herbalist in me thoroughly enjoyed the info about using certain plants as natural antacids.  We also learn that social animals live longer and have larger brains than other more reclusive animals.  What was very briefly touched upon that I wish had gone into more depth was the grieving process of elephants.  I had seen this on the Animal Planet or National Geographic channel previously and found it quite touching.  When a member of the herd dies, the other members will stand by in a vigil of sorts and pay their respects by touching the recently deceased.  This book mentions elephants touching the bones of fallen ones, related or not.

Trunks are discussed in some depth pertaining to their enormous musculature, more than humans have in our entire bodies.  Elephant handshakes , trunk wrestling and trunk spanking were discussed.  New to me was the fact that baby elephants sometimes suck their trunks much like human babies suck their thumbs.  Information that was really detailed was that of infrasonic sounds which could have been its own book.  Prior to reading this book, I did not know that elephants used this type of sound to communicate with each other.  What is most importantly discussed is how humans are directly responsible for the decrease in elephant population from habitat destruction to poaching.  

Overall this book was fabulous and taught me quite a few new things about those fascinating pachyderms known as elephants from the history and evolution to their genetic differences and social norms.  There were sections I wish were more elaborate and others that could be their own books, but the photography more than makes up for any flaw.   At the end of the book, lots of wonderful links are provided for more info on what we can do to help the elephant population and links for further research.  There is a sentence early on that says elephants are built to learn and we are just scratching the surface of the ways in which they communicate.  Here's hoping for many more books like this to come.  What is abundantly clear is that elephants are highly intelligent animals.     

Author blog:   http://anndowner.blogspot.com/        also   http://anndowner.wordpress.com/


Buy the book   https://www.lernerbooks.com/products/t/11278/9780761357667/elephant-talk