Book review: Tell the wolves I’m home

I finished reading on May 27^th 2014. It took me about 12 days.

First, it is beautiful, poetic and incredible to read a story and narrated by 14-year-old, June Elbus.

Love, in all its shades, myriads can puzzle and throw one-off balance… the feelings of perfection, reality that seems flawed and the resulting distortion…the process of discovering all of them and to acknowledge the scars of disappointments and mistakes – is all quite painful.

Curiosity driven self-discovery is the most painful as it is self-inflicted.

The setting –  1980’s when AIDS was making its head out, June, the protagonist is facing the death of her mother’s brother Finn of AIDS. 80s was not the time when people spoke openly about homosexuality. There are a lot of cryptic talks, ignorance and fear. June, oblivious is totally in love (romantically) with in her maternal uncle, shares special alone-time discovering art with him and couldn’t understand her own feelings for him. Everyone around her understands how attached she feels for him. Including her uncle Finn.

Finn dies and his lover Toby, who is hated and fear as he killed Finn giving him AIDS gets in touch with June, sends her the presents that are from Finn. They meet, talk and curiosity drives June to know more.

There is discovery of illicit love, guilt, angst, resentment, envy, rivalry, sadness and ignorance and delicate longing, love, care, affection, gentleness, sympathy and empathy is what I feel for the 14-year-old.

It is hard to be a 14-year-old. Everything is exaggerated even without tragedy.

June’s Sister Greta, her mother, father, Finn – the love of her life, Toby and Ben all play their parts.

The father character – it was so sad, he was insignificant in his own eyes.

The mother character – is broken, from her absentee parents, from her broken relationship with her brother – she is jealous, homophobic, repressed and busy.

Greta, 16-year-old sister – seen by June with tinted glasses, broken, who is desperate for attention from family who are all feeling insignificant and are superfluous, ignorant and selfish — gets my sympathy.

Ben, a neat element for June.

Finn, the great artist and his love is the like that of God. Flawless. All for humanity and the humane. (The story is not about him, so there and maybe that’s what gives a fairy tale effect)

Toby character is creepy. The fact of absentee parenting was stark, it made me squirm – the 14-year-old going through grief and angst, who was obviously in love with her uncle Finn, alone and depressed, is stalked by this character, travels to NY city all by herself to meet him, smokes and spends time with a stranger (creepy). Although explanations come and no harm done, the setting is all realistic, it discomforts.

I wondered who’s taking care of who and all of them needed care that they needed and no one was capable or competent. But they all move along.

There were no tears for me. I found it a bit painful, to read the angst of the 14-year-old. I was a helpless reader. In the end, there is hope the dysfunctional becomes functional.

The realist fiction reads like a fairy tale.

I will put it in Young Adult category.

Two memories came – Tom Hanks are Andrew Beckett in Philadelphia (as a reference) and Marilyn Manson’s Sweet dreams are made of this –

“Some of them want to use you
Some of them want to get used by you
Some of them want to abuse you
Some of them want to be abused”

Author: Carol Rifka Brunt grew up in the suburbs of New York City and lives with her family in the southwest of England. Her first novel, Tell the Wolves I’m Home, was named a best book of the year by Wall Street Journal, O Magazine, Kirkus, BookPage and Amazon, was a Barnes and Noble Discover pick, Target club pick, Costco Pennie’s pick, an ALA Alex Award winner and has sold in 16 countries.

Book Review: Lick

I wanted to read this genre. This book had 23,024 ratings with 2,496 reviews averaging 4.21 stars – and Australian author.

I chose this book to read.

Hmmm…so I give myself 2 stars.

The language is lame, not just simple and made the reading mind-numbing.  The story was ok – good.

21-year-old, good-plain-girl, country music loving Bambi Ev who likes to plan her life and organize things goes to Vegas to celebrate her birthday with her friend Lauren and wakes up sick to find out she’s married and doesn’t remember a thing! The story – is telling how the marriage happened and what happens next.

THE guitarist of the rock-band Stage-Dive David. He’s supposed to be a god of something, blue-eyed beautiful, tattooed, talented, rich, famous and this man falls in love and stays in love with Evelyn.

Characters are all bland – plastic. The author has a formula to fit in basic love-making and she explains how-to. Oh boy, how uninspiring that is!

I am not a fan of modern-day fairy tales.

Oh. My. God.

Author: Kylie Scott is a long-time fan of love stories, rock n roll, and B-grade horror films. Based in Queensland, Australia

Book Review: Stormy Weather

The story is about honeymooning couple Max and Bonnie in Disney Land, enter hurricane struck Dade County Florida for adventure and what happens to them.

The story under umbrella of hurricane Andrew is dark, frightening and gloomy – colorful elements come together and weave through insurance scams, street fights – looting, hunt for food and shelter, corruption,  bureaucracy, ravaged landscape.

Memorable elements make the mark.

Element 1.  Max – From the ambitious Ad man of NY city to a pavilion dog in the marshes of Florida wild, to the disappointed husband back to being a Manhattan Ad man comes a full circle. Superb!

Element 2. Edie, bold and a crook’s ambition is to seduce a Kennedy and get rich – off of a passionate romance by blackmailing gets into an insurance fraud and redeemed at the end of the story. Wonderful!

Element 3. Snapper (Lester Maddox Preston) – a lowlife, greed and cunningness defines that horrid character redeems the reader. Satisfying!

Element 4: Skink, Clinton Tyree – a one-eyed sane crazy man ex-governor does adventurous petrifying things along with road kill cuisine and tries to teach manners and respect to the spoilt with a good amount of gore, violence and macabre with good friends in place to get going. Intriguing!

Element 5: Avila corrupt building inspector, who does voodoo and sacrifices – lets me raise one eyebrow with curiosity!

Other elements…

Bonnie, is more like a Bambi in and out of the woods. Married to Max, falling for Augustine and in the end, inspired by Skink – to go crazy. *huh* Antonio Torres, slimy mobile home seller – he attracts wrath like a moth to the fire.  D’oh! Lives throughout the book. Augustine Herrera, independent free-spirited spooky skull juggling loner, son of a drug-dealing-prisoner who inherits Wildlife Park with a huge settlement from an Air crash accident with failed love life – falls for Bonnie. Meh! Fred Dove, Insurance claim agent so vulnerable! Ira Jackson, a mob, who takes revenge and becomes cat food, Jim Tile and Brenda Rourke, cops, long-term loves. Gar Whitmark roars, threatens and disappears and I felt sorry for Levon Stichler, the old man who loses his wife ashes in the hurricane and wants revenge – and gets humiliated with two prostitutes, and Keith Higstrom a failing hunting enthusiast, who tries to kill a buffalo – why was he there? And I am sure there are minor elements I am missing to mention here.

Absorbing read, like a sponge I filled myself with the book. The story has a good pace and it is interesting. Funny? No. I almost smiled or chuckled inside but not a ha-ha funny genre. The visuals descriptions of the ravaged county and the main elements stays.

4 stars as I am not *highly* recommending, you got to like for what it is – racy summer read with darkness looming.

Author:  Carl Hiaasen an American journalist, columnist, and novelist. He started writing at age six when his father got him a typewriter.

Book Review: Cuckold

After several failed attempts to go beyond page 20 over the years, curiosity got the better of me and I finished this historical fiction.

The Princess and the Saintess has only one thing to focus on – love for her Krishna, I guess there isn’t a story, only poems – poetry, her bhakti – devotion.

The story, is in first person of Maharaj Kumar Bhoj Raj – who is in love with his wife, who is never his wife and he shines his love and light on Princess of Merta – green-eyed beauty, naïve, playful, loving, courageous, creative, grounded, gambling, obedient, respectful, and intelligent and all these personal quirks.

Meera, the saintess drowns the Princess Meera.

It is the style of the language that brings Kiran Nagarkar in place of Maharaj Kumar Bhojraj.

Maharaj Kumar seems to be rambling in the beginning and at times, but Kiran Nagarkar holds his hand out, as a reader I take his hand and he takes me into the depths of his mind, his vivid imagination, history and exhaustive descriptions – he takes charge making his fiction plausible and palpable.

Kiran Nagarkar lets me create my bubble with sensual colors, rich traditions, and dynamic personalities and makes. The insights are enlightening and when you get the perspective it is stunning. It is a beautiful experience. As the story ends, it lingers and I am loving it.

The story goes through myriad and shades of infidelities. The intricacies of mind and relationships of Maharaj Kumar Bhojraj that goes through life – love, friendships, personal struggle, insecurities, scandals, brutality, threat, war, conspiracy, diplomacy, strategy, eroticism, loyalty and emotions in vivid high-definition – and in the end love humbles and awes me.

If not for Meera, the saintess – who would have known Maharaj Kumar Bhojraj and the Rajputs?

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The unrequited love hangs low like a full moon over a lake by the lights of a city. Beautiful.

Author: Kiran Nagarkar is an Indian novelist, playwright, film and drama critic and screenwriter. He was awarded the 2001 Sahitya Akademi Award in English by the Sahitya Akademi, India’s National Academy of Letters for his book Cuckold.

Book Review: Making faces

The story had an interesting start and went on in a predictable path and ended the way it should end – they all lived happily ever after. The book is clean, filled with tenderness, and is thoughtful, filled with thoughts covering the spectrum of love.

The story is real, raw and real.

Bailey is an inspiring character with Duchenne muscular dystrophy, who gives a perspective –

“If Bailey had been born without MD, he wouldn’t be Bailey. The Bailey who is smart and sensitive, and seems to understand so many things we don’t. You might have looked right past Bailey if he’d grown up healthy, wrestling on his dad’s team, acting like every other guy you’ve ever known. A big part of the reason Bailey is so special is because life has sculpted him into something amazing . . . maybe not on the outside, but on the inside. On the inside, Bailey looks like Michelangelo’s David. And when I look at him, and when you look at him, that’s what we see.”

I was mildly put me off was the reference to the ‘Lord’ and am at the stage in life, where life has imparted its lesson and this book didn’t have to.

This should come under – chick-lit, romance, young adult. It is the kind of book I would recommend to my or friends pre-teen daughter and girls of all ages.

After I finished, I felt like an adolescent hopeful happy girl who got it all figured out.

Four stars – well written book that captivates.

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Author: Amy Harmon has been a motivational speaker, a grade school teacher, a junior high teacher, a home school mom, and a member of the Grammy Award winning Saints Unified Voices Choir