Tell by Frances Itani

First sentence:

"Zel glances around the room: oak floor, oak desk, wooden cabinet, two windows that look down over city streets three storeys below."

Description:

From internationally bestselling author Frances Itani comes Tell, the breathtaking follow-up to Itani's award-winning debut Deafening, which launched the story of Grania, deaf from the age of five, and her sister, Tress, who helped to create their secret language.

Now it's 1919, only months after the signing of the Treaty of Versailles and the end of the Great War, and the men and women of Desoronto struggle to recover from wounds of the past. Attempting to adjust to the trauma that has overwhelmed her husband and altered their marriage, Tress seeks advice from her Aunt Maggie. But Maggie and her husband, Am, who cares for the town clock tower, have sorrows of their own, heartbreaks that lie unacknowledged between them.

While Am's unease increases, Maggie finds joy in her friendship with Zell, an eccentric widow who runs the local boarding house, and in the choral society started by a musician who has arrived in town from an unspoken part of war-torn Europe. Am seeks out Kenan, and the two offer each other comfort, often sitting together in silence. Meanwhile, Maggie reconnects with the music of her past, rediscovering a part of herself that had long ago been set aside. As the decade draws to a close and the lives of these characters become more entwined, each must decide what to share and what to hide, and how their actions will lead them in the future.

Written with Itani's signature power and grace, Tell is both a deeply moving story about the burdens of the past, and a beautifully rendered reminder of how the secrets we bury to protect ourselves can also be the cause of our undoing. This is a stunning achievement from one of our finest writers." -- from the inside flap

My thoughts:

I enjoyed this sequel to Itani's book Deafening. Taking place after World War 1, the book brings to front the struggles of families dealing with men home from Europe with wounds, physical and mental.

Date read: 8/12/2015
Book #: 19
Rating: 3*/5 = good
Genre: Historical Fiction

ISBN-10: 0802123368
ISBN-13: 9780802123367
Publisher: HarperCollins
Year: 2014
# of pages: 318
Binding: Trade Paperback
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Memory Book by Howard Engel

First sentence:

"The train was putting on speed."

Description:

"Private detective Benny Cooperman becomes his own client in a most puzzling investigation. Benny awakes in the hospital recovering from a serious blow to the head, with a condition called alexia sine agraphia; in layman's terms, he can write but he cannot read. And his memory has been affected too; although he can quote lines from his high-school production of Twelfth Night, he finds himself brushing his teeth with his shaving cream. Even his girlfriend's name, Anna Abraham, eludes him.

But when Benny realizes that he was found unconscious beside a dead woman, he figures he must have been close to solving a case. With Anna working as a field agent, and two cops reluctantly sharing their discoveries, Benny pieces together the events that led to a murder -- and his own injuries." -- from the back cover

My thoughts:

I enjoyed this mystery featuring Benny Cooperman. I picked this book to read after Engel's memoir, The Man Who Forgot How to Read, as the main character also developed the same condition, albeit under different circumstances (head injury (Cooperman) vs stroke (Engel)).  I liked how Engel had Cooperman not just struggle with reading and memory but also try to figure out why he was attacked and who did it. I look forward to reading other books in this series.

Date read: 8/5/2015
Book #: 17
Series: Benny Cooperman, #11
Rating: 3*/5 = good
Genre: Mystery

ISBN-10: 0786717173
ISBN-13: 9780786717170
Publisher: Caroll & Graf
Year: 2006
# of pages: 236
Binding: Trade Paperback
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The Scrapbook of Frankie Pratt by Caroline Preston

First sentence:

"How this story begins. . ."

Description:

"For her graduation from high school in 1920, Frankie Pratt receives a scrapbook and her father's old Corona typewriter. Despite Frankie's dreams of becoming a writer, she must forgo a college scholarship to help her widowed mother. But when a mysterious Captain James seeps her off her feet, her mother finds a way to protect Frankie from the less-than-noble intentions of her unsuitable beau.

Through a kaleidoscopic array of vintage postcards, letters, magazine ads, ticket stubs, catalog pages, fabric spreads, menus, and more, we meet and follow Frankie on her journey in search of success and love. Once at Vassar, Frankie crosses paths with intellectuals and writers, among them 'Vincent' (alumna Edna St. Vincent Millay), who encourages Frankie to move to Greenwich Village and pursue her writing. When heartbreak finds her in New York, she sets off for Paris aboard the S.S. Mauritania, where she keeps company with two exiled Russian princes and a 'spinster adventuress' who is paying her way across the Atlantic with her unused trousseau. In Paris, Frankie takes a garret apartment above Shakespeare & Company, the hub of expat life, only to have a certain ne'er-do-well captain from her past reappear. But when a family crisis compels Frankie to return to her small New England hometown, she finds exactly what she had been looking for all along.

Author of the New York Times Notable Book Jackie by Josie, Carolyn Preston pulls from her extraordinary collection of vintage ephemera to create the first-ever scrapbook novel, transporting us back to the vibrant, burgeoning bohemian culture of the 1920s and introducing us to an unforgettable heroine, the spirited, ambitious, and lovely Frankie Pratt." -- from the inside flap.

My thoughts

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I especially loved the use of images of vintage memorabilia to supplement the text such as maps, ticket stubs and advertisements.

Date read: 7/23/2015
Book #: 16
Rating: 4*/5 = great
Genre: Historical Fiction

ISBN-10: 006196690?
ISBN-13: 9780061966903
Publisher: Ecco
Year: 2011
# of pages: 228
Binding: Hardcover
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The Man Who Forgot How to Read by Howard Engel

First sentence:

"My name is Howard Engel."

Description:

"One hot midsummer morning, novelist Howard Engel picked up his newspaper from his front step and discovered he could make no sense of it. The letters had mysteriously jumbled themselves into something that looked like Cyrillic one moment and Korean the next. While he slept, Engel ahd experienced a stroke and now suffered from a rare condition called alexia sine agraphia, meaning that while he could still write, he could no longer read.

Over the next several weeks in hospital and in rehabilitation, Engel discovered that much more was affected than his ability to read. His memory failed him, and even the names of old friends escaped his tongue. At first geography eluded him: he would know that two streets met somewhere in the city, but he couldn't imagine where. Apples and grapefruit now looked the same. When he returned home, he ahd trouble remembering where things went and would routinely find cans of tuna in the dishwasher and jars of pencils in the freezer.

Despite his disabilities, Engel prepared to face his dilemma. He contacted renowned neurologist Dr. Oliver Sacks for advice and visited him in New York City, forging a lasting friendship. He bravely learned to read again. And in the face of tremendous obstacles, he triumphed in writing a new novel.

An absorbing and uplifting story, filled with sly wit and candid insights, The Man Who Forgot How to Read will appeal to anyone fascinated by the mysteries of the mind, on and off the page." -- from the inside flap


My thoughts:

A few years ago, I saw a cartoon from WNYC's Radiolab about Harold Engel, a Canadian mystery novelist, who had a stroke and developed the rare condition alexia sine agraphia. He became unable to read, though he could still write. This was a fascinating book about the Engel's ability to adapt and to find new ways to read.

Date read: 7/23/2015
Book #: 15
Rating: 3*/5 = good
Genre: Memoir

ISBN-10: 031238209X
ISBN-13: 9780312382094
Publisher: St Martin's Press
Year: 2007
# of pages: 147
Binding: Hardcover
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Deafening by Frances Itani

First sentences:

"1902.
'Your name,' Mama says. 'This is the important word. If you can say your name, you can tell the world who you are.'"

Description:

Elegantly written and profoundly moving, Frances Itani's debut novel, Deafening, is a tale of virtuosity and power, set on the eve of the Great War and spanning two continents and the life and loves of a young deaf woman in Canada named Grania O'Neill.

At the age of Five, Grania -- the daughter of hardworking Irish hoteliers in smalltown Ontario-- emerges from a bout of scarlet fever profoundly deaf and is suddenly sealed off from the world that was just beginning to open for her. Her guilt-plagued mother cannot accept her daughter's deafness. Grania's saving grace is her grandmother Mamo, who tries to teach Grania to read and speak again. Grania's older sister, Tress, is a beloved ally as well -- obliging when Grania begs her to shout words into her ear canals and forging a rope to keep the sisters connected from their separate beds at night when Grania fears the terrible vulnerability that darkness brings. When it becomes clear that she can no longer thrive in the world of the hearing, her family sends her to live at the Ontario School for the Deaf in Belleville, where, protected from the often-unforgiving hearing world outside, she learns sign language and speech.

After graduation Grania stays on to work the school, and it is there that she meets Jim Lloyd, a hearing man. In wonderment the two begin to create a new emotional vocabulary that encompasses both sound and silence. But just two weeks after their wedding, Jim must leave home to serve as a stretcher bearer on the blood-soaked battlefields of Flanders. During this long war of attrition, Jim and Grania's letters back and forth -- both real and imagined -- attempt to sustain their young love in a world as brutal as it is beautiful.

Frances Itani's depiction of a world where sound exists only in the margins is a singular feat in literary fiction, a place difficult to leave and even harder to forget. A magnificent tale of love and war, Deafening is finally an ode to language -- how it can console, imprison, and liberate, and how it alone can bridge vast chasms of geography and experience." -- from the inside flap

My thoughts:

This is a very moving and thought-provoking book about deafness and the importance of listening in many different ways during the years up to and including the first World War. I know I really like a book when I wish I could meet the characters in real life, and I would love to meet Grania and Lloyd.


Book #: 14
Date read: 7/6/2015
Rating: 4*/5 = great
Genre: Historical Fiction

ISBN-10: 0871139022
ISBN-13:
Publisher: Atlantic Monthly Press
Year: 2003
# of pages: 378
Binding: Hardcover
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Ghost Train to New Orleans by Mur Lafferty

First sentence:

"Zoë Norris would have rather had a root canal than conduct this interview for a new writer."

Description:

"Zoë Norris writes travel guides for the undead. And she's good at it too -- her newfound ability to talk to cities seems to help. After the success of The Shambling Guide to New York City, Zoe and her team are sent to New Orleans to write the sequel.

Work isn't all that brings Zoë to the Big Easy. The only person who can save her boyfriend from zombism is rumored to live in the city's swamps, but Zoë's out of her element in the wilderness. With her supernatural colleagues waiting to see her fail, and rumors of a new threat hunting citytalkers, can Zoë stay alive along enough to finish her next book?" -- from the back cover

My thoughts:

I enjoyed this sequel to The Shambling Guide to New York City. I especially liked the Ghost Train with the ghost train robbers on horses galloping along beside it!

Date read:  7/1/2015
Book #: 13
Series: Shambling Guide, #2
Rating: 3*/5 = good
Genre: Urban Fantasy

ISBN-10: 0316221147
ISBN-13: 9780316221146
Publisher: Orbit
Year: 2014
# of pages: 320
Binding: Trade Paperback
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The Shambling Guide to New York City by Mur Lafferty

First sentence:

"The bookstore was sandwiched between a dry cleaner's and a shifty-looking accounting office."

Description:

"Because of the disaster that was her last job, Zoe is searching for a fresh start as a travel book editor in the tourist-centric New York City. After stumbling across a seemingly perfect position though, Zoe is blocked at every turn because of the one thing she can't take off her resume --- human.

Not to be put off by anything -- especially not her blood drinking boss or death goddess coworker -- Zoe delves deep into the monster world. But her job turns deadly when the careful balance between human and monsters starts to crumble -- with Zoe right in the middle." -- from the back cover

My thoughts:

I enjoyed this travel guide to the hidden areas of New York City that monsters need to know about. After reading it, I don't think about places like the Statue of Liberty or the subway quite the same way!. I look forward to reading the next book, Ghost Train to New Orleans.

Date read: 6/24/2015
Book #: 13
Series: Shambling Guides, #1
Rating: 4*/5 = great
Genre: Urban Fantasy

ISBN-10: 0316221171
ISBN-13: 9780316221177
Publisher: Orbit
Year: 2013
# of pages: 339
Binding: Trade Papeback
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