Review: Reconstructing Amelia by Kimberly McCreight

In an odd coincidence or as a sign of a new trend, this is the second book I read in a week that starts out with a teen being expelled from private school. In both cases, the girls were good students, lived in a single-parent household with their hardworking moms, and faced a problem they felt they couldn't share.

That's pretty much where the similarities between Tomorrow There Will Be Apricots (reviewed on Monday) and Reconstructing Amelia by Kimberly McCreight end. The first is a sweet food-filled story of found families and building a support network; the second is much darker.

When Kate, a high-powered lawyer, gets the call telling her she must come to Grace Hall and pick up her daughter because she's been expelled, she is sure there has been some mistake. When she arrives on campus, she learns to her horror that Amelia has jumped off the roof of the building to her death. Just as Kate is trying to rebuild her life in the aftermath of the tragedy, she gets an anonymous text message telling her that Amelia didn't commit suicide.

Reconstructing Amelia is told from multiple viewpoints and via a variety of media: text messages, Facebook, phone calls, and notes as well as first- and third-person narration. The mystery is what exactly happened to Amelia, who always seemed so happy and stable. As Kate investigates her daughter's life, she learns unpleasant things about teenage girls and discovers some surprising things about herself.

Kimberly McCreight's debut novel is well-plotted and carefully builds up the tension. I liked the way we get to know Amelia through her own voice: She, unaware of her fate, tells us about her life with all the innocence and angst of a young teen; we, however, know the eventual outcome but not the events that led up to it, which can make it painful to read her tale. Alternating with Amelia's sections, the novel follows Kate and the police as they try to piece together the facts to understand just how the teen came to her death. The juxtaposition of these two storytelling techniques works very well.

On the other hand, McCreight telegraphed a few of the clues so strongly that at least some of mystery of what happened to Amelia was easy to figure out. There were still a couple of details that were not obvious, but the big reveal factor fell flat for me. I am totally in the minority here, and keep in mind that I wasn't wowed by Gone Girl either.

The good news is that the pacing of Reconstructing Amelia is nicely done, and the varied ways in which McCreight tells the story keeps the reader fully invested. Don't miss this novel, just don't expect it to blow your socks off.

I listened to the unabridged audiobook edition (Harper Audio, 12 hr, 15 min) read by Khristine Hvam. Hvam had the difficult task of portraying teens, adults, boys, and men and a broad range of emotions. She did an amazing job keeping consistent characterizations and making each voice seem believable. Although the novel may not make my top ten list, the audio production is excellent, and I highly recommend it.

Buy Reconstructing Amelia at an Indie or at bookstore near you. This link leads to an affiliate program.
HarperCollins / Harper, 2013
ISBN-13: 9780062225436
Rating: C+ (print) A- (audio)
Source: Review - audio (see review policy)
Copyright © cbl for Beth Fish Reads, all rights reserved (see review policy).

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Wordless Wednesday 233

Ford Truck

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Today's Read: Amity & Sorrow by Peggy Riley

What if you grew up as a special daughter of the leader of a cult? You know and accept the rules and are content on the compound with your mother and her sister wives. But then imagine that your home is shattered and your mother takes you out into the world. Would you adapt or would you hold on to the teachings of your father?

Two sisters sit, side by side, in the backseat of an old car. Amity and Sorrow.

Their hands are hot and close together. A strip of white fabric loops between them, tying them together, wrist to wrist.

Their mother, Amaranth, drives them.The car pushes forward, endlessly forward, but her eyes are always watching in the rearview mirror, scanning the road behind them for cars.

Amity watches through her window, glass dotted by chin, nose, forehead, and calls out all she can see to Sorrow: brown fields and green fields, gas stations and grain elevators. She calls out the empty cross of the power pole. She is watching for the end of the world. Father told them it would come and, surely, it will. They will see its signs, even far from him. Even here.

Sorrow has her head down and her back curled over so she cannot watch. She cups her belly and groans.

—Amity & Sorrow by Peggy Riley (Hachette Book Group / Little, Brown, 2013, p. 3)

Quick Facts

• Setting: mostly Oklahoma; Idaho
• Circumstances: a mother escapes her husband and a polygamous cult, taking her daughters with her
• Characters: Amaranth, Sorrow, Amity; Bradley, a widowed farmer; Zachariah, the cult leader
• Genre: contemporary, coming of age, family
• Themes: power of faith, redemption, hope, belief, family, sisters, cults, parental control

Want to Know More?

In this very short video, author Peggy Riley talks about the inspiration for her novel.

Celebrate Release Day!

Peggy Riley's Amity & Sorrow goes on sale today. As part of the celebration, Riley will be participating in a live Twitter chat today (April 16) at 1:00 PM EDT. Tweet questions to @LittleBrown or @Peggy_Riley and follow along with the hashtags #Amity and #Sorrow.

Buy Amity & Sorrow at an indie or at a bookstore near you. (Link leads to an affiliate program.)
ISBN-13: 9780316220880
Copyright © cbl for Beth Fish Reads, all rights reserved (see review policy).

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Review: Tomorrow There Will Be Apricots by Jessica Soffer

After thirteen-year-old Lorca is expelled from her private New York City school for cutting herself with a razor, her mother decides the girl will be better off in boarding school. Although Lorca is on her own most of the time, she doesn't want to leave her mother, who is a famous Manhattan chef. In an effort to win her mother's approval and not be sent away, Lorca decides to reproduce her mother's all-time favorite meal, masgouf, an Iraqi fish dish.

With the help of an older boy, Lorca tracks down the elderly owner of a now-closed Iraqi restaurant and begins to take cooking lessons from her. The results are unexpected.

Jessica Soffer's Tomorrow There Will Be Apricots is built on a familiar premise: a troubled young girl in need of nurturing and love meets a grieving widow who is trying to come to terms with unresolved issues. Their bond puts them both on the road to healing. The novel is unique in the way in which the story is told through food and its strong emotional triggers.

All the characters in Tomorrow There Will Be Apricots are broken and self-destructive. Lorca is a self-harmer who learns from an accidental burn at age six that pain is something she can really feel. Her mother is distant yet possessive, and her absent father doesn't seem to spend any time thinking about his daughter. No matter how hard Lorca tries, she can never please her mother.

Victoria, an Iraqi immigrant, has never forgiven herself for giving up her newborn for adoption almost forty years earlier. Her fiance, later her husband, had wanted to keep their daughter, but Victoria did not. Over the decades, though, she wondered about what became of her child, and after her husband's death, she regrets that they never talked about their daughter or tried to find her.

Through food and cooking, Lorca and Victoria see in each other all that has been missing from their lives. Tomorrow There Will Be Apricots is about found families, discovering love and hope, and learning self-acceptance. The strong characters and delicious prose make this a memorable read.

For a look at some of the recipes Victoria teaches Lorca, visit Scribd. For an interview with Jessica Soffer, visit BookDragon.

I listened to the unabridged audiobook (Brilliance Audio; 11 hr, 31 min) read by Kathleen Gati and Kate Reinders. My positive review will be published by AudioFile magazine.

Buy Tomorrow There Will Be Apricots at an Indie or at bookstore near you. This link leads to an affiliate program.
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2013
ISBN-13: 9780547759265
Rating: B
Source: Review - audio (see review policy)
Copyright © cbl for Beth Fish Reads, all rights reserved (see review policy).

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Weekend Cooking: Bitter Brew by William Knoedelseder

Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. Please link to your specific post, not your blog's home page. For more information, see the welcome post.

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Who needs soap operas and fiction if we can read the real-life story of a family like the Busches? The tale of the St. Louis beer kings is brimming with multiple marriages, drink and drugs, mishaps and scandals, family feuds, and misspent opportunity all played out in an arena of decadence and opulence.

William Knoedelseder's Bitter Brew is a well-researched and easy-to-read look at the six Busch men who made Budweiser and the other Anheuser-Busch (A-B) products the best-selling and most recognizable beers in America. Although beer is at the heart of the narrative, Knoedelseder concentrates on the people, advertising campaigns, and sideline businesses as well as the political atmosphere under which A-B rose to greatness only to be swallowed up by an international conglomerate 150 years after the family tapped its first keg.

Bitter Brew covers a lot of territory, including A-B's philosophy of beer making. But what fascinated me the most was the intelligence and business savvy of the elder Busches, who bolstered the foundation on which the company's successes would be built. They made it a point to meet their distributors personally, provide beer to their workers, and be generous to their community. They carefully planned for both Prohibition and the repeal, placing A-B so far ahead of the other brewers that they remained in the top spot for decades. [Image from Wikimedia Commons; in the public doman (click to enlarge).]

I was interested to learn about Budweiser's long history with sports, especially the St. Louis Cardinals. In fact, the Busch family owned the baseball team for a number of years and, of course, built the stadium that was named after them. I also liked reading about the stories behind the various advertising campaigns, such as the Clydesdales, Spuds McKenzie, and the frogs. (If you don't remember these ads, you can look them up.)

The peek behind the security guards and into the Busch compound was equally as fascinating. From the parties, planes, and boats to the affairs, divorces, and accidents, the family never seemed to be a rest or at peace. Perhaps this was part of what led to August Busch IV's inability to hold on to the company and why the family was unable to adapt their product to a new generation and the changing tastes of American drinkers. [Image of August Busch Sr. from Wikimedia Commons; in the public domain (click to enlarge).]

William Knoedelseder's Bitter Brew is a fascinating look at, as the subtitle says, the rise and fall of an an American family and an iconic American brand.

I listened to the unabridged audiobook (Harper Audio; 12 hr, 12 min) read by Peter Berkrot, who did an excellent job keeping me invested in the book, despite a few mispronunciations. My only regret is that I didn't have access to the photo insert that was bound with the print book.

Buy Bitter Brew at an Indie or a bookstore near you. This link leads to an affiliate program.
HarperCollins / Harper Business, 2012
ISBN-13: 9780062009265
Rating: B
Source: Review (see review policy)

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