Book Club Choice: Day for Night by Frederick Reiken

This month my Skype book club is reading Day for Night by Frederick Reiken. We will be discussing it on June 6! I haven't yet started it, but doesn't the description look great?

If you look hard enough into the history of anything, you will discover things that seem to be connected but are not. So claims a character in Frederick Reiken's wonderful, surprising novel, which seems in fact to be determined to prove just the opposite. How else to explain the threads that link a middle-aged woman on vacation in Florida with a rock and roll singer visiting her comatose brother in Utah, where he's been transported after a motorcycle injury in Israel, where he works with a man whose long-lost mother, in a retirement community in New Jersey, recognizes him in a televised report about an Israeli-Palestinian skirmish? And that's not the half of it.

In Day for Night, critically acclaimed writer Frederick Reiken spins an unlikely and yet utterly convincing story about people lost and found. They are all refugees from their own lives or history's cruelties, and yet they wind up linked to each other in compelling and unpredictable ways that will keep you guessing until the very end.

I'm hoping this will keep me entertained on the train ride home from New York (today!)

Day for Night at an Indie

Day for Night at Powell's
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Published by Reagan Arthur Books, April 2010
ISBN-13: 9780316077569/span>

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Review: The Other Side of Dawn by John Marsden

Early last week, I listened to the last entry in John Marsden's Tomorrow series, The Other Side of Dawn. I can't tell you how sorry I am that the series is over. The good news is there is a follow-up trilogy called the Ellie Chronicles, which I plan to start listening to soon.

The Other Side of Dawn ties together some loose ends and brings the seven-book series to an end in a very satisfactory way. Marsden was able to keep the drama and action going, complete with the right amount of heartache, suspense, and happiness. I can say, without creating a spoiler, that the ending is fitting and realistic; there is no simple "and they lived happily ever after." If you've read my earlier reviews or started the series, you won't be surprised that Marsden tells it like it is.

I highly recommend this series, which is almost dystopian, but perhaps better described as alternate history. The audiobooks are read by Suzi Dougherty, who -- as I've said before -- is fabulous as Ellie.

If you click on the "authors" tab just under my banner photo, you will find links to fuller reviews of the other books in the Tomorrow series.

The Other Side of Dawn at an Indie

The Other Side of Dawn at Powell's
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Published by Scholastic Paperbacks, 2007 [originally published 2002]
ISBN-13: 9780439858052
Audio by Bolinda Publishing
Challenges: Young Adult, Audiobook, Buy and Read, 100+
YTD: 44
Source: Bought (see review policy)
Rating: B+

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Guest Post: Marg's Must-Read Australian Author

As many of you know, I am currently in New York attending BookExpo America (BEA), which is the major book publishing conference of the year. While I'm listening to panels and getting the scoop on the future of the business, I am struck by just how many fabulous authors and books there are. Marg from The Adventures of an Intrepid Reader generously offered to share her thoughts about an Australian author we should all add to our reading list.

Marg Speaks Out on an Australian Author

As everyone was getting ready for BEA, I saw a lot of posts and comments on Twitter about which authors people would line up for. Looking at the lists, it looked like there were a few clashes of author times, and so decisions would have to be made about which authors were “must meet” as opposed to “’would like to meet”, which made me ponder this question: If I could only line up to see one Australian author ever again, who would it be?

I know that there are plenty of fantastic Aussie authors out there – straight off the top of my head there was Markus Zusak (author of the amazing The Book Thief amongst other books), Garth Nix who writes really good YA fantasy, Jules Watson author of really good historical fiction with a Celtic setting, Geraldine Brooks who won the Pulitzer a couple of years ago, and the list goes on.

To be honest though there wasn’t a lot of thought required. Instantly my thoughts turned to Shaun Tan.

I first read The Arrival by Shaun Tan back in November 2007, and I have been recommending him constantly ever since. That book ended up being my favourite read of 2007. The thing that makes that surprising is that The Arrival is a picture book/graphic novel. There are no words whatsoever and yet the story that is told is powerful and moving. In fact, The Arrival is a book where there are only shades of grey, as all of the images were done in pencil. The detail is nonetheless incredible.

The story that is told in The Arrival is one of a recent immigrant to a strange country, alone and unsure and having to find a way to get used to living in this new land. One of my favourite things that I did with this book was to give it to my son, who was then 9 and get him to tell me the story that he saw in this book. Whilst there was some crossover with the story that I saw in the pages, there were also some aspects that he saw that I didn’t. Best of all, nearly three years later I was looking at something about this book, and he remembered reading it to me – it’s become one of our ‘moments’ if you like.

Since then I have read The Red Tree, Tales From Outer Suburbia and The Rabbits and found the imagery that he uses in his books fascinating and unusual. If I could only use one word to describe the imagery it would be incredible.

I really enjoy seeing other people get to know this author’s books, especially The Arrival, but also his other books. If anyone hears of appearances in Melbourne, let me know, because I want to be there!

In closing, I thought I would share a couple of videos with you.

The first is from a production that was done of The Arrival by Red Leap Theatre and seems to have stayed pretty faithful to some of the imagery from the book:

And the second is an animation that has been done of The Red Tree, which I am including as it gives you a really good feel of the kind of imagery that Tan uses.

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Thanks so much, Marg! I loved these videos. Tan's artwork is just amazing and so is his storytelling. And you should know that you were influential in my reading The Rabbits and The Arrival. I loved both and now have Tan's Tales from Outer Suburbia and The Lost Thing waiting here for me to read.

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Today's Read: Island Beneath the Sea by Isabel Allende

MizB at Should Be Reading hosts Teaser Tuesdays. Here's how it works: Grab your current read; let the book fall open to a random page; and share 2 “teaser” sentences from that page. For more teasers, click on through to MizB's blog.

Love, which he had not known before, tossed Etienne Relais about like a tremendous wave, pure energy, salt, and foam. He judged that he could not compete with the girl's other clients, more handsome, powerful, or rich, and so decided at dawn to offer what few white men would be prepared to give: His name. "Marry me," he said between embraces. (p. 21)

—From Island Beneath the Sea by Isabel Allende (Source: Review copy, see review policy; quotation comes from uncorrected proof and may be different in the finished copy.)

Island Beneath the Sea at an Indie

Island Beneath the Sea at Powell's
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Review: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot

In 1951 there was no such thing as a patients' bill of rights or informed consent when undergoing medical procedures or being enrolled in a research program. When Heniretta Lacks sought treatment at Johns Hopkins charity hospital, entering through the doors for "colored" people, she had no idea that that the cancer cells that were taking over her body would still be living sixty years later. In fact, HeLa cells (named after their original host) have been used by almost everyone who has conducted any kind of biological or genetic research in the last half century.

In The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Rebecca Skloot recounts her journey to discover just who Henrietta Lacks was. Skloot interviewed Henrietta's doctors, befriended her family, and conducted basic investigative research. The story takes tangents into medical research and the laws protecting patients. She raises questions about who owns the leftover tissues doctors collect from biopsies, blood tests, and surgery. The answers aren't easy once you take into consideration monetary concerns, privacy issues, and ethical dilemmas.

Skloot skillfully relates technical aspects of HeLa cells and medical research, making that part of the book as interesting as learning about Henrietta Lacks and her children. Although readers don't have trouble becoming absorbed by the story, they are left wondering about Skloot's methods and the ultimate consequences the book will have on Henrietta Lacks's family.

Note: I read The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks for my Skype book club, which discussed the book in early May. Some of the thoughts expressed here were strongly influenced by that discussion.

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks at an Indie

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks at Powell's
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Published by Crown Publishing, 2010
ISBN-13: 9781400052172
Challenges: New Author, Buy and Read, 100+
YTD: 43
Source: Bought (see review policy)
Rating: B

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