Review: Shotgun Lovesongs by Nickolas Butler

Sometimes there's a book that just resonates with you. Sometimes you come across a book that you just want to tell everyone to read. I love it when that happens. I love it even more when it happens with a book that I never suspected would make me want to accost perfect strangers in bookstores and libraries and grocery stores. Okay, not grocery stores since it's not carried there. And I love it when it makes me want to interrupt perfect strangers I've been eavesdropping on when they start discussing their book club or books in general. Because this pusher kind of person is not me at all. So I love it when a book makes me a whole different person. Nickolas Butler's gorgeous, melancholy novel Shotgun Lovesongs, a paean to male friendship, small towns, and the Midwest is just such a book.

Set in the small farming community of Little Wing, WI and narrated by four friends and one of their wives, this is very much a novel of place. The four men have been friends for a long time but ten or so years into their adult lives their friendships have changed, shifted, and they have to figure out what they are to each other now, whether they want to hold onto their closeness or let it drift away just as the boom times have drifted away from the town. Hank is a farmer, the friend who stayed behind, never leaving Little Wing. He married his high school sweetheart, Beth, and they are raising a family on the farm that is in Hank's blood. Ronnie left town to ride on the rodeo circuit but alcoholism drove him home again and then a traumatic brain injury planted him firmly back in the community he tried so hard to escape. Kip went off to Chicago to make a fortune as a broker. Despite his success, he still feels a pull to Little Wing, coming back to get married and to buy up, renovate, and repurpose the old mill in town. And there's Lee who used his heart's connection to the land and the people to write an album that propelled him into rock star fame and marriage to a famous actress but who still comes home to escape into a private normalcy and to heal when his public life threatens to tear him down.

Each of the four men and Hank's wife Beth narrate the novel so that the ties and friendships are open to the reader in all their complexity, offering various perspectives on each man, how he fits into the group, the tensions between them, and the unfussy, understated caring of their deep love for each other as well. From the uncomplicated friendships of boyhood, the group has changed, grown, and matured into very different men.  The changing dynamic between them causes them all to wonder what is worth holding onto and what it is time to put away as a childish thing. There are no explosions or fireworks here, just a slow and steady, direct, and personal tale of community, the family we create, and the pull of our past juxtaposed with dreams for the future. There are misunderstandings, betrayals, and fears but they are all a part of the reimagining of the men's relationship to each other and as a whole group. Butler pits the desire to leave this battered but serviceable people and place with the deep call to stay or to come back and has it play out in the true and authentic lives of these very real seeming characters.

The story is beautifully written with a heavy Midwestern sensibility, down to earth and of the earth. But it is not provincial, instead being a thoughtful and intimate piece of commonplace to which we can all relate. It is a bittersweet story, one of maturing, a belonging to place, and rooted in small but perfect details. It is a stunning and wonderful novel, real and true and emotional.

Thanks to the publisher for sending me a copy of this book for review.

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

This meme is hosted by Sheila at Book Journey.

Books I completed this past week are:

When the Cypress Whispers by Yvette Manessis Corporon
The Idea of Him by Holly Peterson

Bookmarks are still living in the middle of:

Quiet by Susan Cain
Wash by Margaret Wrinkle
Where Somebody Waits by Margaret Kaufman
A Rather Charming Invitation by C.A. Belmond

Reviews posted this week:

The Perfect Score Project by Debbie Stier
When the Cypress Whispers by Yvette Manessis Corporon
The Idea of Him by Holly Peterson

Books still needing to have reviews written (as opposed to the ones that are simply awaiting posting):

Shotgun Lovesongs by Nickolas Butler
The Girl Most Likely To by Susan Donovan
The Light Between Oceans by M. L. Stedman
Falling For You by Julie Ortolon
Bread and Butter by Michelle Wildgen
Encounters With Animals by Gerald Durrell

Monday Mailbox

Completely spoiled with the bounty in my mailbox this week, I have been about as gleeful as it's possible to be, skipping out to the mailbox daily. This week's mailbox arrivals:

The Glass Kitchen by Linda Francis Lee came from Staci atSt. Martin's Press.

About woman who cooks through inspiration and a family in need of healing through her food, this sounds like it could add ten pounds to my already generous figure.

A Farm Dies Once a Year by Arlo Crawford came from Emily atHenry Holt.

A memoir about the rhythms of life on a farm, this look at one year reliant on the natural world sounds beautiful.

Where Somebody Waits by Margaret Kaufman came from Paul Dry Books.

I can't wait to see where this slim novel centered on an irrepressible, larger than life Southern woman who loves both her husband and her high school sweetheart takes me.

Palmerino by Melissa Pritchard came fromBellevue Literary Press.

I generally enjoy fictionalizations of authors and artists so I am looking forward to this tale about supernatural writer Violet Paget (pen name Vernon Lee) who inhabits the mind of her modern day biographer.

The Accidental Book Club by Jennifer Scott came from Diana atNAL Accent.

I have loved my many book clubs over the years so any book about book clubs generally piques my interest and this one about a group that came together by accident but formed a family definitely appeals to me.

The Sea House by Elisabeth Gifford came from St. Martin's Press.

I am a complete sucker for books with water or water related words like "sea" in the title so this one easily fits the bill. Add in that it is a double stranded narrative and both plot threads hint at selkies (mermaids) and I was sure to be attracted to it.

The Innocent Sleep by Karen Perry came from Staci atHenry Holt.

A couple leaves their sleeping child and then the unimaginable happens, an earthquake and the house he was sleeping in is destroyed. Although this is a horrific premise, I am drawn to the mystery of whether the boy's father really does see a glimpse of him on a far away street years later.

If you'd like to see the marvelous goodies in other people's mailboxes, make sure to visit Mailbox Monday and have fun seeing how we are all doing our part to keep the USPS and delivery services viable.

Sunday Salon: Book Club edition

Over the years, I have been in a whole lot of book clubs. When you move around the country as much as we have, you get to sample all sorts of different versions. One that has stayed consistent in my life is my summer book club. As it is now spring again (at least it is here, my sincere condolences if you are still fighting cold and snow where you are), my thoughts have turned to picking books for that group again. And that led me down the path of what makes for a good book club book.

The summer book club started more than a decade ago when my mother read a book (This One and Magic Life) and was desperate to discuss it with someone, anyone. But she couldn't find anyone who had read it. I told her to start a book club, invite her friends, and make that the first selection. She preferred to have me do the legwork and lead the discussion so it quickly became my book club. I still choose all the books for it these many years later even though I periodically offer to cede Supreme High Choosing Power to others. We've had a long run with some great choices, some good choices, and some hideous choices. I have solicited other reading friends for their suggestions; I read book blogs and industry e-mails; I track buzz books; I search out little known offerings. And after lengthy consideration (some years) or a brief glance at my options (busier years), I make my choices for the three summer months we small but inclusive group of women converge on a beautiful island chain in Upper Peninsula Michigan.

Even though we've had some bombs, I think we've had more good than bad because I have held fast to my own concept of what sorts of books we'll read and what makes for a good book club book. For the purposes of the summer group, I typically try to choose books that are out in paperback as the library by us is quite small and finding multiple copies of a book there could be difficult, especially given my desire for less well known books. I like to find books that are not getting a huge marketing push or massive amounts of buzz (enough to carry over into prominent bookstore placement where all of the members will have already seen and possibly bought them), although the one time I ignored this stricture (The Book Thief) because I felt like I needed a push to read it myself, it was a huge success. I look for undiscovered gems that are well written and literary enough to provoke a discussion. No beach reads here (well, not that we tackle as a group). I am less worried about whether people will like the book than if I think there's enough meat to it to keep a discussion rolling. When one early potential member suggested that she really loved Danielle Steel, it took all of my generally non-existent diplomatic skills to gently tell her that Danielle Steel, while perhaps very satisfying for her to read, wouldn't exactly be highly discussable. Although not one of my usual "rules" about our choices, I do keep an eye out for books set in or close to the area in which we are reading because it's fun to read something we recognize intimately. This can and has backfired horribly (The Lake, the River, and the Other Lake) but I still consider it anyway because I am a glutton for punishment.

In choosing, I also find that I have to worry about my own prejudices and leanings. Last summer when I chose yet another book set in India (Dancing to the Flute) because I do so love books set in India, the collective thought, which the members didn't hesitate to share with me, was "Not another Indian book!" Good thing most everyone liked it well enough and we had a good discussion or they might have tarred and feathered me. This summer I won't be choosing a book set in India.  In my defense, I think I've only really chosen about four Indian-set books over the years even if everyone else feels like I've chosen hundreds.  I do like to choose books I haven't yet read but I don't always hold to that rule and I'm really debating it hard this year as there's one book I feel compelled to put in as many hands as I can (Shotgun Lovesongs). That it's only out in hardback is making me hesitate. So while I haven't yet decided on the books we'll be reading this June, July, and August, I do have my eyes open and am starting to ponder the choices.

My summer book club isn't my only book club currently either. I'm not the Supreme High Chooser for either of the others, a neighborhood group and a group for the Charlotte chapter of the WNBA. Each of these groups chooses books differently than the summer group (of course) and differently from each other. The neighborhood group likes to make sure we hit different kinds of books throughout the year so a common question heard when we get to the selection part of our evenings is "What sort of book haven't we read in a while?" This makes sure we don't read one type of book over and over again (think Indian-set books).  We read non-fiction, fiction, mystery, sci-fi, YA, classics, and more. We only choose about two months in advance for this group, leaving the possibility open for catching newer, buzzy books as the year goes on. The WNBA group reads books based entirely on the previous year's Great Group Reads so we have a smaller, self-selected, already vetted list from which to choose. We vote on these books in October (reading group month and when the new list is released every year), plotting out our entire year in advance. At this point, I do know what both of these groups are reading next. The neighborhood group is reading The Night Circus followed by Where'd You Go, Bernadette? the next two months. The WNBA group still has A Constellation of Vital Phenomena, The Other Typist, Life After Life (the Kate Atkinson novel), Ordinary Grace, and The House Girl left on the schedule for our year.

What sorts of criteria do you have for choosing book club books? Does it differ from choosing books just for pleasure? And finally, have you read anything that fits my criteria and that I should consider in my role as Supreme High Chooser for the summer book club?

I had fully intended to finish up some of the unfinished books hanging around here this weekend since I have no other reading commitments but instead, I jumped into another bunch of books, just dipping my toe in their pages and making the stack of books on my bedside table rather precarious. I started off by visiting a small Greek island with an American woman who'd returned there to visit long neglected family and to get married. Then I watched as a woman in New York faced the reality of her feelings for her husband and stumbled onto his shady dealings. I am still immersed in the world of a slaveholder who uses one of his slaves as a stud for fee, a Eurpoean pre-wedding caper, the world of introverts, and short pieces centered around a tall, kind Southern woman who marries into a Jewish family during WWII. I hope your reading adventures have been as varied and entertaining as mine this past week.

Review: The Idea of Him by Holly Peterson

When Allie Crawford married her charismatic Peter Pan husband, Wade, was she in love with him or was she just in love with the idea of him? The idea that he would provide her with a safe harbor and financial stability? The idea that his impressive gravitational pull would always be there and she would be the only insider in that orbit? After more than a decade of marriage and facing hurdles that she never expected to face, Allie is about to learn more about her husband and herself and to figure out just what she wants out of life.

Allie is fantastic at her job in PR but it's not what she ever imagined or wanted to be doing. She wanted to be writing her own fiction or screenplays, not writing copy to benefit the movers and shakers in the entertainment industry and society. Her husband, Wade, is the editor of a glossy topical magazine called Meter, and he has his finger in many New York City pies. They have two children and live a good life. They may not be as wealthy as Allie's clients or Wade's contacts and advertisers and Allie regrets the amount of time she spends away from her beloved children but they are content. Or at least Allie thinks they are. But there are cracks in the happy façade. Allie and Wade are struggling as a couple. The magazine is losing advertisers and Wade is fighting hard to stay relevant, both personally and professionally, in the recession. But this is a stressor that they could likely weather, until Allie finds Wade coming out of their locked laundry room during a party, followed shortly thereafter by a young and gorgeous blonde woman.  She is incredibly hurt and angered.  And this is not Wade's first indiscretion.

As devastated as Allie is by her newfound knowledge, she agrees to talk to Jackie, the blonde woman, and she discovers that Wade's ever present evasions go far past simple infidelity. He's somehow gotten mixed up in something shady that includes Allie's blustery boss, Murray, and one of their clients, Max, a thugish Texas parking garage magnate newly released from prison for tax evasion. But Allie has no idea of the extent of Wade's involvement or what exactly all of this means for her and the kids. At the same time she is grappling with whether or not to believe and cooperate with this young woman, she is questioning the very foundations of her marriage. She is wildly attracted to someone in her screenwriting class and she flirts with an affair while steadfastly telling herself that all she wants is friendship. Her longtime best friend, soul mate, and perhaps the man for whom she should have waited is also suddenly more present in her life than before as well. And so many of her insecurities and desires about the competing men in her life are tied up with the early death of her father in a plane crash that Allie herself survived. Plain and simple, Allie is a mess; she doesn't know what she wants nor if she ever did.

The novel's tension stems from several questions: what will Allie do about her marriage with Wade, what will she discover about his shady dealings with Jackie's help, and how can she finally be true to herself? Allie is a bit of a wishy-washy character so her first person narration can make the reader want to take her by the shoulders and shake some sense and intelligence into her. She makes bad choices and is forever second guessing just about everything and everyone in her life. Wade is a completely reprehensible, narcissistic character and that makes it tough to see how he stays the center of Allie's universe or why others are so drawn to him. Jackie's is cryptic and world-weary, something that is a bit out of character for a twenty something in graduate school, no matter how savvy. And how she stumbled on and was then instantly privy to the sort of information she feeds to Allie teasing, tantalizing piece by tantalizing piece is never even hinted at and feels quite unrealistic. There is no real question as to how the novel is going to end up so the characters would have to carry the plot, which they don't quite pull off here. The narration's time leaps forwards and backwards can be quite choppy and jarring although they do serve to explain why Allie is so willing to let life be dictated to her rather than making her own happy future. And there are just too many aspects being covered here. All of the issues in Allie's life might actually occur in a real person's life but in a fictional world, there's just one too many threads. There are questions of life/work balance here and how a woman can stand on her own two feet but the answers as provided are buried in a frustrating read that felt longer than it was.  I wanted to like this one a lot but I just couldn't love it although others certainly have and do.

For more information about Holly Peterson and the book, check out her website, her Facebook page, or follow her on Twitter. Follow the rest of the blog tour or look at the amazon reviews for others' thoughts and opinions on the book.

Thanks to Trish from TLC Book Tours and the publisher for sending me a copy of the book for review.

Review: When the Cypress Whispers by Yvette Manessis Corporon

When life has handed a person terrible tragedy to get through, sometimes it is easiest to settle for safety rather than risk your heart again. But can the people who know and love you best let you settle or should they push you to open yourself wide again to all the experience, emotion, joy, and yes, even sorrow that is possible? Yvette Manessis Corporon's novel, When the Cypress Whispers, explores this idea through its main character, a woman on the brink of a major life change.

Daphne is the daughter of Greek immigrants who worked hard chasing the American Dream. Daphne herself has been the one to grasp the golden ring of success as a chef and restaurant owner in New York City. But her success hasn't been without tragedy and sacrifice. Her husband was killed in an accident, leaving Daphne with their infant daughter, Evie, who she loves dearly but to whom she has not been able to devote much time, completely invested in her restaurant as she is and must be for their survival. But she's made a success and her life seems to be taking a wonderful upturn. She's engaged to Stephen, a wealthy banker, who will ensure her financial stability and comfort. But even as her life is moving forward, Daphne is pulled to her past and to the wonderful, carefree summers of her girlhood spent on the Greek island of Erikousa with her Yia-yia. And so she is determined to go back to the island, to introduce her daughter to her beloved grandmother, and to marry Stephen in the place that is so dear to her heart.

Going back to Erikousa opens Daphne's eyes to her own connection to the place and people there. She is wrapped in a love and acceptance that makes her bloom again. And Evie, a shy and retiring child, comes out of her shell in the warm embrace of the effusive and exuberant bosom of her extended family. As Daphne and Yia-yia enjoy each other's company once again, Daphne has the chance to listen to her grandmother's stories and her telling of Greek myths. But there is a story that Yia-yia has never shared with Daphne, a story that she only hears from Yianni, a man she's never met before who seems to have a close and loving relationship with her grandmother. Although Yianni initially antagonizes and judges Daphne each time they meet, it is from him that she finally hears the story of her grandmother's amazing act of courage in sheltering a Jewish woman and her daughters during the German occupation of Greece.

And it is in this revelation of her grandmother's prescience about the German soldiers and their movements to and from Erikousa that Daphne finally starts to believe in Yia-yia's assertion that the cypress trees whisper to her in their voices of her ancestors, an enduring private oracle. Daphne cannot hear the voices herself, she doesn't know how to listen for them, and she does not know what her future holds but her yia-yia, knowing what must happen, counsels her, wanting Daphne to choose to live her life with a heart wide open instead of choosing the safe and easy course because she is worried that the grief she has already suffered through the loss of her husband and the murder of her parents will swamp her again.

The family relationships in this novel are touching and lovely. That the whole island of Erikousa wants the best for Daphne and her little Evie highlights the close and deep ties forged in communities that value connection above all else. The insertion of the myths and the supernatural idea of the cypress whispers adds to the exoticism of the tiny Greek island setting. Corporon has drawn some of the secondary characters beautifully. Daphne's cousin Popi is a riot and Thea Nitsa, the portly, cigarette-smoking innkeeper is a hoot as well as a reality check for Daphne. Her fiancé Stephen is not as well fleshed out as these overwhelming women, nor is Yianni and his relationship with Daphne is too fast and unbelievable.

There was a lot of description in the novel, making it clear that Corporon is used to writing for a visual medium. But sometimes that description is too much or slightly overwrought, and it can be very repetitive. It wasn't necessary or realistic for Daphne to continually wonder at her yia-yia's intelligence given that she was uneducated; in fact, it made Daphne seem rather a snob about one of the people she loved most in the world, something that was certainly unintended. But  Daphne's attraction to tradition and the myths was appealing and her newly kindled desire to share her heritage with Evie was touching. The ending felt rushed and unsatisfactory though as there was really no farewell or until we meet again with the island that offered her so much at this crossroads in her life and which was clearly so important to who she was becoming.  Despite a few missteps like this, this novel of tradition and modernity, family and love turned out to be a nice read for a sun drenched day. And if a breeze is blowing gently through the leaves of a tree nearby as you read, even better.

For more information about Yvette Manessis Corporon and the book, check out her website, her Facebook page, or follow her on Twitter. Follow the rest of the blog tour or look at the amazon reviews for others' thoughts and opinions on the book.

Thanks to Trish from TLC Book Tours and the publisher for sending me a copy of the book for review.

Waiting on Wednesday

This meme is hosted by Breaking the Spine and is meant to highlight some great pre-publication books we all can't wait to get our grubby little mitts on.

The Plover by Brian Doyle. The book is being released by Thomas Dunne Books on April 8, 2014.

Amazon says this about the book: A compelling, marvelous novel by Brian Doyle, the acclaimed author of Mink River

Declan O Donnell has left Oregon aboard his boat, the Plover, to escape the life that’s so troubled him on land. He sets course west into the Pacific in search of solitude. Instead, he finds a crew, each in search of something themselves, and what at first seems a lonely sea voyage becomes a rapturous, heartfelt celebration of life’s surprising paths, planned and unplanned.