The Professor's Daughter by Emily Raboteau

First sentence:

"My big brother Bernard took great pains to learn how to talk Black."

Description:

"'My father is black and my mother is white and my brother is a vegetable.' When Emma Boudreaux's older brother, Bernie, winds up in a coma after a freak accident, it's as if she loses a part of herself. All their lives, he has served as her compass, her stronger, better half: Bernie was brilliant when Emma was smart, charismatic when she was awkward, and confident when she was shy. Only Bernie was able to navigate-if not always diplomatically-the terrain of their biracial identity. Now, as the chronic rash that's flared up throughout her life returns with a vengeance, Emma is sleepwalking through her first year at college, left alone to grow into herself.

The key to Emma's self-discovery lies in her father's past. Esteemed Princeton professor Bernard Boudreaux is emotionally absent and secretive about his family history. Little does Emma know just how haunted that history is, how tortured the path from the Deep South town to his present Ivy League success has been. Though her father and brother are bound by the past, Emma might just escape.

In exhilarating, magical prose, The Professor's Daughter traces the borderlands of race and family, the contested territory that gives birth to rage, confusion, madness, and invisibility. This striking debut marks the arrival of an astonishingly original voice that surges with energy and purpose." -- from the back cover

My thoughts:

This was a very good book about finding one's identity despite others' wish to define it themselves. I liked how Raboteau showed the world from both Emma's and her father's point of view.

Date read: 1/30/2010
Book #: 7
Rating: 3*/5 = good
Genre: Fiction

ISBN-10: 0805075062
ISBN-13: 9780805075069
Publisher: Henry Holt & Co.
Year: 2005
# of pages: 276
Binding: Trade Paperback (ARC)
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Final Target by Iris Johansen

First sentence:

"Wind Dancer."

Description:

"A YOUNG GIRL IN JEOPARDY…
TWO WOMEN DETERMINED TO SAVE HER…
THE MAN WHO COULD BETRAY THEM ALL...

Melissa Riley arrives at her sister's isolated Virginia country home to find herself plunged into a deadly drama. There the renowned Dr. Jessica Riley is attempting to draw the daughter of the President of the United States out of a severe catatonic trauma. The last thing young Cassie Andreas saw was an organized team ruthlessly murder her nanny and the Secret Service agents sworn to protect her. But to free Cassie, Melissa and Jessica must trust a mysterious, charismatic man.

Michael Travis made his fortune in the international underworld. He risked everything to save Cassie during that terrible night of bloodshed. And he has entered into a secret bargain with the President. But is his show of concern all a treacherous charade? Melissa and Jessica have no choice but to accept Travis as their ally--and to follow a dangerous plan that will lead them into the world of a killer who'll destroy anyone standing between him and the... FINAL TARGET" -- from the back cover

My thoughts:

This book was a good thriller, but could have been better. I liked the character interaction, especially between Cassie and Melissa in the "tunnel" and between Travis and both Melissa and Jessica Riley. I didn't like that it took the author a long time to explain what Travis was involved in and why various people were after him.

Date read: 1/26/2010
Book #: 6
Challenges: TBR Challenge 2010, Winter Words Challenge, A-Z Challenge 2010
Rating: 3*/5 = good
Genre: Thriller

ISBN-10: 0553582135
ISBN-13: 9780553582130
Publisher: Bantam Books
Year: 2001
# of pages: 387
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
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The Other by Thomas Tryon

First sentence:

"How old do you think Miss DeGroot really is?"

Description:

"Entranced and terrified, the reader of The Other is swept up in the life of a Connecticut country town in the thirties, and in the fearful mysteries that slowly darken and overwhelm it." -- from the publisher

My thoughts:

I've seen reviews that describe this book as a quiet horror and they were right. Throughout I had a sense that something was not quite right, but didn't know what it was. Tryon's description of the area and the characters brings the reader into a very insular world where not everything is as it seems.

Date read: 1/23/2010
Book #: 5
Challenges: TBR Challenge 2010, Celebrate the Author Challenge 2010
Rating: 4*/5 = great
Genre: Horror

Publisher: Fawcett
Year: 1971
# of pages: 288
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
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Contagious by Scott Sigler

First sentence:

"It had to be a joke."

Description:

"From the acclaimed author of Infected comes an epic and exhilarating story of humanity’s secret battle against a horrific enemy.

Across America, a mysterious pathogen transforms ordinary people into raging killers, psychopaths driven by a terrifying, alien agenda. The human race fights back, yet after every battle the disease responds, adapts, using sophisticated strategies and brilliant ruses to fool its pursuers. The only possible explanation: the epidemic is driven not by evolution but by some malevolent intelligence.

Standing against this unimaginable threat is a small group, assembled under the strictest secrecy. Their best weapon is hulking former football star Perry Dawsey, left psychologically shattered by his own struggles with this terrible enemy, who possesses an unexplainable ability to locate the disease’s hosts. Violent and unpredictable, Perry is both the nation’s best hope and a terrifying liability. Hardened CIA veteran Dew Phillips must somehow forge a connection with him if they’re going to stand a chance against this maddeningly adaptable opponent. Alongside them is Margaret Montoya, a brilliant epidemiologist who fights for a cure even as she reels under the weight of endless horrors.

These three and their team have kept humanity in the game, but that’s not good enough anymore, not when the disease turns contagious, triggering a fast countdown to Armageddon. Meanwhile, other enemies join the battle, and a new threat — one that comes from a most unexpected source — may ultimately prove the most dangerous of all.

Catapulting the reader into a world where humanity’s life span is measured in hours and the president’s finger hovers over the nuclear button, rising star Scott Sigler takes us on a breathtaking, hyper-adrenalized ride filled with terror and jaw-dropping action. Contagious is a truly grand work of suspense, science, and horror from a new master." -- from the publisher

My thoughts:

Having listened to Sigler's books Ancestor and Infected as podcasts, I knew to expect a gripping story in Contagious - and I was right. In fact, I could hear Sigler in my mind reading the words and encouraging me to turn one more page and then another page and another. But the book is more than one exciting scene after another. Sigler builds in-depth characters that you care about and root for them to fight the alien invasion. I look forward to the next book in the series.

Date read: 1/17/2010
Book #: 4
Challenge: Speculative Fiction Reading Challenge
Series: Infected, #2
Rating: 4*/5 = great
Genres: Thriller/SF

ISBN-10: 0307406318
ISBN-13: 9780307406316
Publisher: Crown Publishers
Year: 2008
# of pages: 436
Binding: Hardcover
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The Mapmaker's Opera by Béa Gonzalez

First sentence:

"It begins in a once-upon-a-time land, on a remote plain, far from the place we call home."

Description:

"In a town in the heart of La Mancha, home to Don Quijote and his windmills, to long afternoons and silent, silent nights, the Clemente family lived for centuries, their fortunes tied to those of a plant…

So begins the grand buliéra that is The Mapmaker’s Opera. Born in Seville, Spain to a dishonored governess, Diego Clemente finds solace from the turmoil of his early years in the world of books, in particular, John James Audubon’s Birds of America. Presented with the opportunity to assist the renowned American naturalist Edward Nelson in compiling the first guide to the birds on Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula, Diego embarks on a journey that will not only hone his artistic talent but will transform his life.

Arriving on the eve of the Mexican Revolution, Diego finds himself in a world of precarious beauty, where opulent henequen plantations are built on the backs of slave labour, and where the social order is on the brink of imploding. There, Diego falls in love with the young Sofia, a woman who longs to be as free as the birds she also loves.

A mesmerizing tale of star-crossed passions, a pair of mysterious birds, and a young man’s quest to honor both his mentor and his father, The Mapmaker’s Opera is a tour de force of lyrical, magical storytelling" -- from the inside flap

My thoughts:

This was a beautifully told story about birds, love and people on the eve of revolution. I liked the opera theme throughout as characters entered the scene from stage right or left.

Date read: 1/17/2010
Book #: 3
Challenges: A-Z Challenge 2010, What's in a Name? 3 Challenge, Winter Words Reading Challenge
Rating: 4*/5 = great
Genre: Fiction

ISBN-10: 0002005425
ISBN-13: 9780002005425
Publisher: HarperCollins
Year: 2005
# of pages: 277
Binding: Trade Paperback
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Matilda at the Speed of Light edited by Damien Broderick

First sentence:

"When he was ten, Shannon inherited a flawed Toby dough-beast from his uncle and raised a quarter-jack upon it."

Description:

"'Waltzing Matilda' has always been an Australian catch-cry. Now Matilda is no longer waltzing. She's rushing into tomorrow, and so are we, breaking all the boundaries of Australian time and space and voyaging fast into a hall-of-mirrors future where even the past can be reexamined . . .to make the present itself scarcely credible! Indeed the landscapes of Matilda at the Speed of Light are familiar only until we enter them. Once we are inside, the 'science of fiction' turns into the 'fiction of science', and time and space never stand still.

So a traditional Aussie bush yarn, transformed with nostalgia for the twentieth century, tells of a life after the gene wars; a delightful feminist romp ends up where no man dares to tread any longer; an eerie high adventure describes Dreamtime-like mythical spirits and uncanny powers; a time-travel fable leads to a sepia-toned excursion into the life and times of Oscar Wilde;and a chance discovery gives rise to an outrageous reworking of Australia's political history. . .all this imbued with characteristic Antipodean tang and irony, often light-hearted, sometime venomous.

Certainly Matilda is waltzing no longer. Matilda is rushing into tomorrow, and we with her, at the speed of light. -- from the back cover

My thoughts:

I liked this collection of Australian science fiction stories. I especially liked David Lake's "Creator" (with an interesting look at how worlds are created) and George Turner's "Not in Front of the Children" (a world in which death is definitely not talked about in certain social circles).

Date read: 1/7/2010
Book #: 2
Rating: 3*/5 = good
Genre: SF

ISBN-10: 0207157340
ISBN-13: 9780207157349
Publisher: Angus & Robertson Publishers
Year: 1988
# of pages: 263
Binding: Trade Paperback
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The Alchemist's Daughter by Katharine McMahon

First sentence:

"In one of my earliest memories, I walk behind my father to the furnace shed."

Description:

"There are long-held secrets at the manor house in Buckinghamshire, England, where Emilie Selden has been raised in near isolation by her father. A student of Isaac Newton, John Selden believes he can turn his daughter into a brilliant natural philosopher and alchemist. Secluded in their ancient house, with only two servants for company, he fills Emilie with knowledge and records her progress obsessively.

In the spring of 1725, father and daughter begin their most daring alchemical experiment to date--they will attempt to breathe life into dead matter. But their work is interrupted by the arrival of two strangers: one a researcher, the other a dazzling young merchant. During the course of a sultry August, while her father is away, Emilie experiences the passion of first love. Listening to her heart rather than her head, she makes a choice.

Banished to London and plunged headlong into a society that is both glamorous and ruthless, Emilie discovers that for all her extraordinary education she has no insight into the workings of the human heart. When she tries to return to the world of books and study, she instead unravels a shocking secret that sets her on her true journey to enlightenment.

The Alchemist’s Daughter is a gripping, evocative tale. Set against the backdrop of eighteenth-century London society, it is an unforgettable story of one woman’s journey through a world of mystery, passion, and obsession." -- from the inside flap

My thoughts:

This was a great book to read at the end of one decade and the beginning of another. I liked how gradually Emilie learns how her isolation has left her ignorant of not only the city life in London but how others perceive her.

Date read: 1/2/2010
Book #: 1
Rating: 4*/5 = great
Genre: Historical Fiction

ISBN-10: 0307238512
ISBN-13: 0780307238511
Publisher: Crown
Year: 2006
# of pages: 338
Binding: Hardcover
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