"The Historian"

You are indeed lucky! Today my favorite BOTS of last summer is on sale at a Bargain Price of 7.99 from Amazon for the hardcover. Now, some of you won't - because you travel or are tight on space - but I actually like this book in hardcover. It is a weighty book and it is a dark tale.... so having heft in the physical book lends a certain amount of atmosphere to this novel. Not that it needs much. Consider the back cover...

"My Dear and Unfortunate Successor : It is with regret that I imagine you, whoever you are, reading the account I must put down here. The regret is partly for myself - because I will surely be at least in trouble, maybe dead, or perhaps worse, if this is in your hands
. But my regret is also for you, my yet-unknown friend, because only by someone who needs such vile information will this letter someday be read. If you are not my successor in some other sense, you will soon be my heir-and I feel sorrow at bequeathing to another human being my own, perhaps unbelievable, experience of evil. Why I myself inherited it I don't know, but I hope to discover that fact, eventually-perhaps in the course of writing to you or perhaps in the course of further events...."

Set in multiple time lines (something I am drawn to) this novel is of a father, his mentor, and his daughter all seeking answers to the age old fable of Dracula. Now I am NOT a vampire person. I have tried a little of this and a little of that but I never really enjoyed that scene. What I love about this book is not the vampire possibilities but the constant tension they created in the storyline as you move from decades past to countries far away. You are always worrying and always wondering, always fearing for the characters in all three time lines as the pages turn closer to a nexus. For a book that was not particularly fast paced, I was amazed at how much, once begun, I felt I needed to read this book. I admit, I did more than 1 lunch from a drive-thru, sitting in my car, reading this book in the parking lot. The author's voice is lovely and compelling and her research seems quite complete (with the caveat that I have not been to most of the countries involved and certainly not during the time lines involved). Should you be willing to give it a try, compelled perhaps by the back cover text as I was, I doubt you will be disappointed.

"The Sparrow"

The Sparrow

The Sparrow, by Mary Doria Russell, is one of those books that I have loaned out so often I must have 10 copies in various bookshelves across the U.S. I don't even try to get them back. The book is so good it is worth it to me to pay 9.95 and get another copy, knowing that my previous one is being cherished elsewhere.

The Short Round-Up ; The Sparrow has been unfairly characterized as "Jesuits in Space". Accurate and darn limited. Russell has a doctorate in anthropology and was looking for a medium to write a fiction story reflective of the first contact that happened around the world with the Catholic church sent missionaries to explore. So she sets her story (in several time-lines) around the time that First Contact with an alien species happens. While the Earth's Governments talk appropriation and purpose and bureaucracy, the Catholic Church actually gets it done, quietly and privately. They send scientists and theologians to meet God's Other Children.

This is TRUE science fiction..... the kind where a very real moral and ethical problem is explored in a very fantastical setting. It allows the setting to be merely a vehicle for getting the real issues considered. Think Star Trek TOS. Cheesy as sin, but the moral issues were clearly defined because we could ignore the absurdity of sci-fi elements. Russell touches on the morality of science, religion (she herself is a Catholic converted to Judaism and she discusses both religions with grace and dignity), cultural contamination, and more. And truly - this is a VERY compelling read. In fact, it is one of the few books I have reread multiple times.

"And God Created the Au Pair..."

"And God Created the Au Pair"

I am sure everyone has a "Book of the Season" - at least everyone who reads for pleasure. Those have been some of my favorite reads ever. This summer's BOTS was "And God Created the Au Pair". It was simply too funny not to laugh.

Written as emails between two sisters, this book made me happy. I have read a few books in the email format and often they seem a little curt. Certainly we all do that in emails at some point. I try, being very aware that emotion is hard to pull off in an email, to add lots of clues to my tone and mood. So too do these chicks. The result is like re-reading my own Tales of the Toddlers, as written to my best friends Lisa and Nancy or to the grandparents and my sister.

I have hesitated in recommending this book to non-parent friends. It isn't that they won't enjoy it. But really, the full impact is acquired when you read a passage and find yourself nodding "Yep, that might happen." If you are looking for a light, fun read -this is it. If your signifiacnt other is like mine, do read when they aren't around. I usually read in bed and boy, Eric was darn lucky he falls asleep in 20 seconds flat.... only rarely did I wake him up to read him a passage - though there were plenty I thought he'd appreciate.