Book Picks for February 2010

One Amazing Thing
by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
Nine strangers are in line at an Indian visa office in America when an earthquake traps them there together. As they hope for rescue in the aftermath, the diverse group of strangers must band together for survival. They take turns telling the stories of "one amazing thing" that's happened in their lives, and their reasons for visiting India, even as their resources run low and the future looks uncertain. Divakaruni brings the focused tension of a locked-room mystery to this drama created by people crammed in a small space with only their personal conflicts and the pasts that haunt them.
—Kimberly



The Power of Half: One Family's Decision to Stop Taking and Start Giving Back
by Kevin Salwen and Hannah Salwen
Just when you think that one person can't make a difference, you run into someone who won't accept that. The Salwen family of Atlanta are four of those someones. Told by father Kevin and daughter Hannah, this is the story of how their family decided to downsize their lives to share their bounty. While it is true that most of us are not willing or able to make the grand gesture that the Salwens made (selling their Ansley Park mansion to give away half the proceeds), their message that we can all find some way in which we can use the yardstick of half to the benefit of our community is not easily dismissed. Half your TV time, half your movie money, half your clothes—what could you do with some of those resources? Very thought provoking.

—Laura



The Postmistress
by Sarah Blake
In a universe turned upside down by World War II, Frankie Bard is living her dream as a radio journalist, sharing a mike with the legendary Edward R. Murrow. Friends and strangers have come to depend on hearing her descriptions from the heart of war-stunned London. Amongst the listeners who have come to know this disembodied voice are the postmistress, the doctor's wife, a displaced person, and a self-ordained U-boat watcher, all residents of a small town on Cape Cod. But Frankie is hearing voices, too—ones telling of unspeakable horrors in Europe. She finally feels compelled to go to Germany and France to try to gather those stories herself. Like much of the human story, this one turns on communication—withheld, ignored, denied, repressed. It's truly amazing through how many different lenses we can look at WWII—not to mention the human experience.
—Laura



The Lineup: The World's Greatest Crime Writers Tell the Inside Story of Their Greatest Detectives
edited by Otto Penzler
What an intriguing collection! Brief bios of 22 of the most popular current mystery/thriller writers are followed by essays by the authors on the development of their characters. My favorites were Michael Connelly on Harry Bosch, John Harvey on Charlie Resnick, and Ian Rankin on Rebus. Connelly's vision began with a tunnel near the house in which he lived when he was 10 years old. Who knew?
—Laura



The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms
by N K Jemisin
After her mother's suspicious death, Yeine Darr is summoned to the imperial city of Sky, which keeps the rest of the world subservient through the power of its enslaved gods. There, by the same family that disowned Yeine's mother for marrying a man outside her own race and caste,Yeine is named an heir to the throne of Sky—an honor tantamount to a death sentence at the hands of her ambitious royal relatives. Caught in the machinations between murderous cousins and rebellious gods, Yeine fights for the political power to save her own life and uncover the bloody secrets of her family's past. In this wholly original start of a new trilogy, Jemisin explores the realities of race, class, and gender in ways rarely explored by genre fiction.
—Kimberly



The Information Officer
by Mark Mills
During WWII, the tiny island of Malta is the most bombed patch of earth on the planet. But was is not what is killing young dance hostesses who work the bars and music halls in the disreputable quarter known as The Gut. It is up to information officer Max Chadwick to solve the crimes, handling them gently since he knows they were committed by a British officer.

—Teresa

For Children

Baby & Kindergarten

Princess Pigtoria and the Pea
by Pamela Duncan Edwards
This retelling of "The Princess and the Pea" features a perky porker in a predicament, but with plenty of pluck. A positively perfect package of plosives that will put your performing abilities to the test. Clever, funny, and surely popular with pipsqueaks.
—Laura



The Wonder Book
by Amy Krouse Rosenthal
Another very funny, clever book. This one is a collection of poems, short stories, palindromes, and odds & ends. One of the poems is based on the old jump rope rhyme about Miss Mary Mack—dressed in yellow, red, unbathed, performing amazing feats. If you've got a listener that is fascinated by verbal gymnastics, this is a sure-fire hit.
—Laura

Elementary

Happy Happy Clover #4
by Sayuri Tatsuyama
Clover the Bunny and her animal friends get in more trouble exploring Crescent Forest in the fourth volume of this popular manga series for younger fans of Japanese comics. By all rights these fluffy creatures should be too cute to bear, but the clean artwork, slapstick humor, and tough, big-hearted Clover herself make a winning combination.
—Kimberly

Teen

Heist Society
by Ally Carter
Resourceful teenager Katarina Bishop is estranged from her father and paternal family, an old clan of master thieves and flamboyant scam artists. Hoping to escape her family's criminal past, Kat enrolls in boarding school and tries to build an ordinary life of classes and friends. But when a powerful mobster's art collection is stolen, Kat's father gets the blame and attention from the police and the mobster's murderous henchmen. To save her father's life, Kat agrees to run one last con: find the real thief and steal the artwork back. But she isn't sure she's a good enough criminal to pull this off—or whether she really wants the law-abiding life she's worked so hard to create.
—Kimberly

Book Group tonight @ 7pm: "Lark & Termite"

The Blue Elephant Book Group meets on the second Wednesday of every month. Tonight, the group will be reading Lark & Termite by Jayne Anne Phillips. Come join the discussion in the store at 7:00 pm!

Lark & Termite
by Jayne Anne Phillips

A rich, wonderfully alive novel from one of our most admired and best-loved writers, her first book in nine years.

Lark and Termite is set during the 1950s in West Virginia and Korea. It is a story of the power of loss and love, the echoing ramifications of war, family secrets, dreams and ghosts, and the unseen, almost magical bonds that unite and sustain us.

At its center, two children: Lark, on the verge of adulthood, and her brother, Termite, a child unable to walk and talk but filled with radiance. Around them, their mother, Lola, a haunting but absent presence; their aunt Nonie, a matronly, vibrant woman in her fifties, who raises them; and Termite’s father, Corporal Robert Leavitt, who finds himself caught up in the chaotic early months of the Korean War.

Told with deep feeling, the novel invites us to enter into the hearts and thoughts of the leading characters, even into Termite's intricate, shuttered consciousness. We are with Leavitt, trapped by friendly fire alongside the Korean children he tries to rescue. We see Lark's dreams for Termite and her own future, and how, with the aid of a childhood love and a spectral social worker, she makes them happen. We learn of Lola's love for her soldier husband and her children, and unravel the mystery of her relationship with Nonie. We discover the lasting connections between past and future on the night the town experiences an overwhelming flood, and we follow Lark and Termite as their lives are changed forever.