Thursday, Mar. 27 — I often start things off with a comment about the weather, but after this late-March week I'd rather change the subject. How about the NCAA basketball tournament? Nope, just looked at my bracket in shambles. How about books? Here's what we're reading:
ABOVE
Isla Morley
I'm going to take my best shot at it, but this is going to be a difficult book to review. There are just too many opportunities to offer spoilers with even the barest description of the plot. So allow me to walk on eggshells for a bit:
At 15, Blythe Hallowell is abducted by her school's librarian and imprisoned in an abandoned missile silo in rural Kansas. Her captor is a survivalist who has convinced himself that he's saving her from an impending global apocalypse. The author's description of Blythe's forced acceptance of her new underground world is effectively frightening and creepy. Reading what she goes through is as claustrophobic for the reader as it is for the main character. The ludicrous, clumsy attempts by her captor to convince her to see her new life as a good thing are frustrating, even infuriating. The title of the book is both a description of Blythe's dream of once again living above ground and in the sunlight, and an ominous hint that what she'd find by re-emerging wouldn't be the familiar (and familial) Kansas small-town life she left behind. A gripping and emotional book with many unexpected twists. kobo eBook
THE STORIED LIFE OF A.J. FIKRY
Gabrielle Zevin
This book is the hands-down winner when it comes to the most-read book by booksellers so far this year. Why? Because it's a truly surprising and moving novel about a bookstore owner, his family life and his customers.
SOUS CHEF: 24 HOURS ON THE LINE
Michael Gibney
Having once worked as a line cook in a busy restaurant or two, Mr. Gibney's hour-by-hour description of what that life is like was marvelously familiar and entertaining. I could empathize every step of the way with the pressure, the intensity, the heat and the barely controlled pandemonium of a restaurant's "backstage".
A question I was left with, though, is whether or not someone who has never been in that line of work would find the book as fascinating. Do folks who go out to enjoy a meal in a favorite restaurant really want to know what happens between the placing of the order and the arrival of the food, no matter how expertly it's described? Would a book this accurate and unflinching be too much like a favorite magic trick explained? I'd be curious to know what you think.
kobo eBook
The publishers are ramping up the release schedules lately. Tis the season. I'd love to hear about what you're reading and enjoying these days. What have I missed?
Until next week,
Neil
NeilNeil Rajala is Currently Director of Community & Business Services for Schuler Books, Neil's decade with the company has included the wearing of many different hats - and lots and lots of reading.
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