The Ghost Orchid by Carol Goodman

I came to Bosco for the quiet. That's what it's famous for. The silence reigns each day between the hours of nine and five by order of a hundred-year-old decree made by a woman who lies dead beneath the rosebushes--a silence guarded by four hundred acres of wind sifting through white pines with a sound like a mother saying hush.
--opening lines of The Ghost Orchid by Carol Goodman

This is the second novel by Carol Goodman that I've read; the first that I read was her debut novel, The Lake Of Dead Languages. Both novels are good, and I have decided that I'm going to read more Carol Goodman once I get through the four or five books I already have lined up after this one.

The Ghost Orchid is part ghost story, part mystery, part historical novel, and, on a very subtle level, part romance. The story is narrated by Ellis Brooks, a first time novelist, who has come to Bosco, a residential writer's retreat in New York state, to write her first novel. Brooks' novel is based on events that happened at Bosco in 1892 involving the estate's mistress and her family and various guests who came to stay on the estate during one tragic summer. As it happens those very events are the events that are influencing current events and guests on the estate in the present time period. To divulge anything further about the plot of the novel is to give away some important plot points... and part of the draw of the novel is the mystery surrounding the characters and who they are and how they are each connected to each other and to Bosco itself.

The deeply engrossing story alternates between 1892, which is narrated in third person, not by Brooks and the present, which is narrated by Brooks. Often the story of the events of 1892 merges with the story that Brooks struggles to write throughout the novel. This device of alternating time periods every other chapter is frustrating after awhile because just as something happens and you're sucked into the events that are swirling around everyone, the chapter is over. And the next one returns to the other time period. This novel definitely becomes a page turner once it finds its legs because after you reach a certain point in the story, it becomes increasingly harder to put it down until you know the outcome.

One thing I noticed with Goodman that I seem to remember noticing with her other book is what can best be described as her dauntingly impressive vocabulary. Every once in a while she trots out a word, for example, "obstreperous," that I've never heard of before. It makes me wonder, are these words that she just knows, or does she have a really, really good thesaurus?

The Ghost Orchid by Carol Goodman is available upon request from Annville Free Library, Lebanon Community Library, and Palmyra Public Library.

An Unfortunate Prelude To A Fortunate Review

Before I start the official review, I just really need to get something off my chest. Sometimes I really hate computers and the mysterious things called "cookies" that most websites need enabled in order for you to be able to log in. I don't know what happened with the computer at the circulation desk here at the library, but tonight I could not log in to this account no matter what I tried... blogger says "User Account Doesn't Exist," and I have to move everything over to a google account (which I thought was moot because I did that with the original registration process when this blog was created) at which point I will have access to new and improved features! Whoa.

But I can't sign in to the google account because the dear computer won't eat cookies even though I have told it that it is allowed to do so. Then I try to log in to blogger on the computer back in the office and, lo and behold, I can log in! AND there is NO mention of "migrating" anything over to a google account. Miracle of miracles. Everybody better cross their fingers that the circulation computer rights itself overnight because I don't want to be indefinitely banished to the office to blog. Needless to say I am extremely frustrated at the end of this ordeal. Never fear, though, blogging has cheered my spirits!

The Poets' Grimm: 20th Century Poems From Grimm Fairy Tales edited by Jeanne Marie Beaumont and Claudia Carlson

This is a collection of poems by various contemporary poets (some well known, some not so much) based on the fairy tales collected by the brothers Grimm in the early 1800's in Germany. The fairy tales the poems are based upon range from well known tales, such as those of Snow White and Cinderella to lesser known tales, such as "The White Snake" or "The Girl Without Hands." Some poems offer a meditation on the tale itself or a look at the tale from an entirely new and unexpected perspective.

This is probably one of my favorite poetry collections and holds a special place in my heart because not only do I love poetry, but I also love fairy tales. In fact, in college I did two independent studies that focused on the fairy tale genre and a thesis case study of the tale of Snow White. I collected 30-50 versions of the tale, including Greek and Armenian versions. There is even supposed to be an Appalachian version of Snow White, though I've been unable to find a copy of it to read myself. I could go on and on...and on about Snow White or fairy tales, but I'll stop here.

This is a must read for anyone who loves poetry and fairy tales. Unfortunately, this book is not available in county. If you would like to read it, you will have to inquire at the circulation desk about requesting it through ILL. You won't regret doing so, believe me!

--Reviewed by Ms. Angie

Let's Talk About Your Favorite Book!

I'm a little late with this link, but we have posted a new video on our YouTube channel. It asks for comments and video responses to get a discussion going about our favorite books! It stars our fearless leader here at the library, Ms. Sheila! You can view the video at our channel at http://www.youtube.com/matthewslibrary. We already have a couple comments and a few video responses. We'd love to hear from you, too!

So exciting!

Bones To Ashes by Kathy Reichs

I've been a longtime reader and fan of Kathy Reichs' Temperance Brennan series, and so I'm now submitting a review of the latest installment for the series called Bones To Ashes, which was released a couple months ago. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the series, it follows a forensic anthropologist named Temperance Brennan. She splits her time between North Carolina where she teaches on the faculty of the state university and consults with medical examiners when they need a forensic anthropologist and Montreal, Quebec, Canada where she is on the staff of the province's medical-legal lab (she works for the office of the medical examiner). A forensic anthropologist works on murder cases in which there isn't much left of the victim... for example, if all that's left is bones or the victim was burned beyond recognition, Brennan is called in to examine the bones to determine cause of death and in some cases to determine identity as well.

In Bones To Ashes a series of cases involving missing girls in Montreal seems to connect to an event in Brennan's childhood in which her girlhood friend suddenly disappears one summer. The book also introduces a sad development in the tenuous romance Brennan has been enjoying with a colleage, Detective Ryan. Ultimately it is not resolved by the final page of the book, and so I look forward to the next book in the series mostly to see what happens between these two.

This book is a fairly quick read and a definite must read for Brennan series fans. Fans of Patricia Cornwell's Scarpetta series and Tess Gerritsen's Isles/Rizzoli series will also enjoy this series, specifically for the unique perspective of a forensic anthropologist narrator as oppossed to a medical examiner narrator (Scarpetta) or medical examiner/police detective main characters (Isles/Rizzoli).

If you're new to the Brennan series, I recommend starting at the beginning with Deja Dead; this is followed by (in order), Death Du Jour, Deadly Decisions, Fatal Voyage, Grave Secrets, Bare Bones, Monday Mourning, Cross Bones, Break No Bones, and, the most recent installment, Bones To Ashes. You can visit Kathy Reichs' website, http://www.kathyreichs.com/, to learn more about the author, the series, or the field of forensic anthropology.

On another note, fans of the Brennan series who are also TV watchers will enjoy the series Bones that airs on the Fox channel locally on Tuesday nights. It is loosely based on the Brennan series and Reichs serves as a consulting producer for the show. If you enjoy watching crime procedurals with witty writing, you will enjoy the show. I highly recommend you tune in sometime.

Bones To Ashes is located upstairs in adult fiction at Fic/Rei; it is currently shelved in the New Arrivals section. It is also available upon request from Annville Free Library, Lebanon Community Library, Myerstown Community Library, and Palmyra Public Library. All the books in the Brennan series are available in county either here at the Matthews Library or upon request from Annville, Lebanon, Myerstown and Palmyra.

--Reviewed by Ms. Angie

The Myth Of You And Me by Leah Stewart

The Myth Of You And Me tells the story of the fractured friendship between two women. The aftermath of its destruction for one of the women is felt for years as it deeply influences her life choices and relationships with others. By the closing pages of the book you hope the issues that dissolved the friendship can be resolved so that the two women can repair their relationship, and the narrator (who is one of the women) can move past the event that dissolved her friendship with the woman who was her best friend for so many years.

Ultimately the most compelling element about the book are the characters; you feel their betrayal, and you hope they can find the strength in themselves to move on. This is a must read for anyone who enjoys reading about the travails of friendship and the painful fallout when a friendship is suddenly, seemingly irreparably broken.
This book is available upon request from Annville Free Library, Lebanon Community Library and Palmyra Public Library.

The Global Etiquette Guide To Europe by Dean Foster

This book claims to contain "everything you need to know for business and travel success." It is divided into sections organized by culture (for example, Latin culture) that are further divided into chapters organized by country (for example, Italy and Spain are Latin cultures that each have their own chapters). Each chapter is organized the same way and shares that country's customs, manners (etiquette!) necessary for a successful business trip to that country; it offers insights into how and why a specific country's people behave in a certain way. Each chapter opens with brief descriptions of the country's history and culture as a people before getting into other details, like government and demography or its educational system.

While it is interesting to read about the differences and similarities in customs, peoples, and their respective behaviors and histories, chapter after chapter of the same organizational structure--right down to repetition of phrases word for word!--gets monotonous and boring after the first three or four chapters. Many times the accompanying explanations and descriptions of a country's history or background lacked sufficient detail. That's probably the point and why they're brief, but I still felt like I wanted to look up a more detailed discussion of a country's culture and its customs after the each chapter.

Ultimately, this book is an interesting read, and if you are making a trip to another country, it is a good starting place for research. It is available upon request from Lebanon Community Library.

--Reviewed by Ms. Angie

Question For Blog Readers

So the previous review for 20th Century Ghosts made me think about something. I've thought a lot about what I read and why I read what I read and what I don't read and why I don't read what I don't read. Now I want to know. What do you read? Why do you read what you read? What don't you read? Why don't you read what you don't read? How do you choose the books you read? You can respond by posting a comment directly to the blog by clicking on 'post comment' below or you can jot your thoughts down in a few sentences on a piece of paper and hand it to the person at the circulation desk the next time you visit the Matthews Library. Who knows, maybe what you write will end up here on the blog. For that reason, you may sign your name to your comments when you hand them in at the desk, but you don't have to because you can also do it anonymously if you wish.

I can't wait to read what you have to say, and I look forward to hearing from you! Don't be shy. We're all friendly here at the library, and we love books as much as you do.

--Written by Ms. Angie

20th Century Ghosts by Joe Hill

20th Century Ghosts is really a misleading title. With a title like that the reader expects more supernatural, less science fiction/fantasy, more ghosts, less...weird inflatable people? This collection of short stories written by Joe Hill (also the author of a novel, Heart Shaped Box) run the gamut from horror, science fiction, fantasy to ghost story.

Normally I do not read science fiction/fantasy. Normally I do not read short story collections either, and when I do, it doesn't last long. I read a short story here, skip a few that bore me, read another, and then decide the book isn't worth my time, so I ditch it and move onto the next thing--another novel.

Over the years, actually throughout my college years through one assignment or another, I've been forced to analyze what I read and why I read what I read, and this has recently lead me to think a lot about why I don't read what I don't read. The list of what I don't read or at least the things that I never seem to finish reading when I start them include non-fiction (I've decided this is most likely because with non-fiction, you pretty much already know how it will end, and depending upon the subject, it will end badly) and short stories or short story collections. I'm still trying to figure out why I can never finish short story collections.

This was one collection that I actually read the whole way through--every story--and I don't know why when I didn't really enjoy it. I guess I thought I would eventually get to the story that would make the whole book worth reading for me except I never really got to that story. In the end I've come to the conclusion that the reason I didn't really like this collection of short stories is because I didn't really get the 'point' of most of the stories. Maybe I read them too quickly and I should have instead read them slowly while reflecting upon their meaning. Maybe I felt cheated because a proper explanation or resolution of events and/or characters in most of the stories was not provided. Maybe this is why I do not read science fiction and fantasy. Ultimately, if you are a huge fan of science fiction/horror/fantasy, you will enjoy these stories. Otherwise, you might not enjoy this book.

This book is available upon request from Annville Free Library.

--Reviewed by Ms. Angie

Next (2007)

The movie is called Next because the main character, Cris Johnson a.k.a. Frank Cadillac, played by Nicolas Cage can see exactly two minutes into his future. Johnson is sought by an FBI agent named Callie Ferris, played by Julianne Moore, who wants him to help her track down a stolen nuclear bomb using his unique gift for "precognition." He does not want to do this and spends a good part of the movie dodging the FBI team tracking him. Then he meets a young woman (a woman young enough to be his daughter and this bothers me) named Elizabeth Cooper, played by Jessica Biel, and it's love or romance or whatever. The important thing--the thing that draws Johnson to Cooper--is that when they're together, he can see much further into his future than two minutes, and he wants to know why. In the end, Johnson must help the FBI to save the woman he loves. Johnson chooses a course of action that will presumably protect Cooper from all contact with the bad guys who are also onto to Johnson's gift and do not want him to use it to thwart their plans for the nuclear bomb and world destruction.

This movie... I'm not sure what to say about it. Wait. Yes, I do. Cage's wig or weave or whatever he was wearing on his head bothered me throughout the entire film. And every time I saw Cage and Biel together, I thought "she is way too young for him." Couldn't they have found a more age appropriate actress to play Johnson's love interest? Or maybe a younger actor to play Johnson? In the end none of this matters because they cut off the movie right in the middle of the movie. This is what really (really) bothers me about the movie: the ending. In many cases, the ending can make or break a book, a show, a movie for me. How a book ends can haunt me for days, weeks, months, years. It is how I remember a book--the impact of a story and the author's writing and the impact of an ending and how the characters survived or didn't survive. This movie's ending irritated me and when something irritates you, it's never a good thing.

This DVD is available upon request from Annville Free Library and Lebanon Community Library.

--Reviewed by Ms. Angie