THE AIR WE BREATHE (CHRISTA PARRISH)

 

 

Story Description: 

 

Baker Publishing Group|November 1, 2012|Trade Paperback|ISBN: 978-0-7642-0555-2 

 

New from the Winner of ECPA’s Fiction Book of the Year. 

 

Seventeen-year-old Molly Fisk does not go outside.  She’s ruled by anxiety and only feels safe in the tiny tourist-town museum she and her mother run and call home.  Yearning to live free but unable to overcome deep wounds from her past, she stays hidden away.  Then the chance arrival of a woman Molly knew six years ago changes everything. 

 

Six years ago, newly single Claire Rodriguez was an empty shell.  Only in the unique friendship she strikes up with a young girl – a silent girl who’ll only talk to Claire – does she see the possibility of healing.  But one day the girl and her mother vanish, their house abandoned.  What happened that drove them away?  And how can Claire now offer Molly the same chance at finding at new life? 

 

My Review: 

 

The Air We Breathe had me hooked from the very beginning!  The character development in this novel is phenomenal.  The author’s descriptions of the personalities of each character is flawless.  I felt like I knew each person intimately as if I’d been a close friend for years. 

 

Young Molly Fisk enters a bank with her father.  Just as they are about to leave, bank robbers appear on the scene and Molly witnesses her father being shot and killed and is then kidnapped for two weeks before she manages to escape.  This sends her into a world of “muteness” where she won’t talk to anyone.  Molly and her mother, Susan, move away and change their names.  Molly lives a secluded life, never even so much as stepping outside.  It takes years for Molly to unravel what she experienced that day in the bank.  To some, her fears and turmoil may seem irrational, but for Molly they are glaringly real.  I could empathize and really ‘feel’ Molly’s pain, I felt so sorry for her. 

 

Molly and her Mom end up in a small town where they live and run a wax museum.  One day Molly runs into Claire, a woman who she knew six years ago and needs healing of her own.  Soon Molly’s life begins to change.  The unique and close friendship that Claire and Molly share is precious because in Molly’s muted world the ONLY person she will ‘speak’ to is, Claire.  Then one day, Molly and her Mom are gone and the house is empty.  Claire doesn’t know what to think, doesn’t know where they went, and wonders how she is going to continue to help Molly recover if she can’t find her.  Where is she? 

 

Christa Parrish has written a beautiful novel full of heartache and pain and healing and redemption.  For sure, The Air We Breathe is a highly recommendable book.  I’m going to be searching out more of this author’s work. 

 

"Book has been provided courtesy of Baker Publishing Group and Graf-Martin Communications, Inc.
Available at your favourite bookseller from Bethany House, a division of Baker Publishing Group".

 



THE YEAR OF FINDING MEMORY: A MEMOIR (JUDY FONG BATES)

 

 

Story Description: 

 

Random House|March 29, 2011|Trade Paperback|ISBN: 978-0-307-35653-6 

 

In the tradition of The Concubine’s Children and Paper Shadows, a probing memoir from the author of the acclaimed novel Midnight at the Dragon Café. 

 

An elegant and surprising book about a Chinese family’s difficult arrival in Canada, and a daughter’s search to understand remarkable and terrible truths about her parents past lives. 

 

Growing up in her father’s hand laundry in small town Ontario, Judy Fong Bates listened to stories of her parents past lives in China, a place far removed from their everyday life of poverty and misery.  But in spite of the allure of these stories, Fong Bates longed to be a Canadian girl.  Fifty years later she finally followed her curiosity back to her ancestral home in China for a reunion that spiralled into a series of unanticipated discoveries.  Opening with a shock as moving as the one that powers ‘The Glass Castle’, The Year of Finding Memory explores a particular, yet universal, world of family secrets, love, loss, courage and shame. This is a memoir of a daughter’s emotional journey, and her painful acceptance of conflicting truths.  In telling the story of her parents, Fong Bates is telling the story of how she came to know them, of finding memory. 

 

My Review: 

 

This was a beautifully written memoir full of many happy times but also full of many sad and hurtful times.  Emotions are stripped bare at some of the shocking revelations Fong Bates discovers about her parents after travelling back to China, her parents ancestral home. 

 

She met many relatives whom she hadn’t seen in fifty years and others whom she had never met, all eager to tell her their recollections of her parents.   Judy was often overwhelmed with the amount of information she was given as when her parents were alive she didn’t feel she really “knew” them. 

 

Michael, Judy’s husband was a great tower of strength for her during her two trips back to China.  The first trip was overwhelmed with visits to her father’s birthplace, her mother’s home, cousins, uncles, aunts, brothers, and sisters making it difficult for Judy to see and search out the things she really needed to see. 

 

A year later, Judy and Michael returned once again to China, this time with a much less busy schedule allowing her to take her time to pick and choose those places most important for to see. 

 

The emotions the author endured were hard at times but happy at others and I feel that she did “find memory” which is what she was searching for.  I believe Judy is much more comfortable in knowing who she is now by knowing where she came from.   I would highly recommend this beautiful memoir to anyone.

 

 





THE RUSSIAN CONCUBINE (KATE FURNIVALL)

 

 

Story Description: 

 

Berkley Trade|August 7, 2007|Trade Paperback|ISBN: 978-0-425-21558-6 

 

A sweeping novel set in war-torn 1928 China, with a star-crossed love story at its center.  In a city full of thieves and Communists, danger and death, spirited young Lydia Ivanova has lived a hard life.  Always looking over her shoulder, the sixteen-year-old must steal to feed herself and her mother, Valentina, who numbered among the Russian elite until Bolsheviks murdered most of them, including her husband.  As exiles, Lydia and Valentina have learned to survive in a foreign land. 

 

Often, Lydia steals away to meet with the handsome young freedom fighter Chang An Lo.  But they face danger.  Chiang Kai Shek’s troops are headed toward Junchow to kill Reds like Chang, who has in his possession the jewels of a tsarina, meant as a gift for the despot’s wife.  The young pair’s all-consuming love can only bring shame and peril upon them, from both sides. Those in power will do anything to quell it.  But Lydia and Chang are powerless to end it. 

 

My Review: 

 

I thoroughly enjoyed this novel although I found the beginning few chapters a bit slow. I’m glad I stuck with it as it turned out to be an amazing historical story! 

Set in Junchow, China in 1928, sixteen-year-old Russian, Lydia Ivanova and her mother, Valentina are mired in poverty.  Lydia is forced to steal and sell what she gets to pay the rent and feed herself and her mother. 

 

The author did a fantastic job of detailing the sights, sounds, and smells that you felt as though you were right there in Junchow.  The other great aspect of this novel was the depiction of the cultural clashes between the British, Chinese, and Russians. 

 

I felt so sad for, Lydia who met, Chan An Lo, a freedom fighter and Communist whom she fell deeply in love with but could never truly have him or marry him.  Lydia’s mother, Valentina was a useless, lazy woman who layed around all day smoking cigarettes and drinking vodka while her daughter starved. 

 

I loved this book and would highly recommend it for anyone but it would make a great bookclub read.

 



Y (MARJORIE CELONA)

 

 

Story Description: 

 

Hamish Hamilton Canada|August 28, 2012|Hardcover|ISBN: 978-0-670-06637-7 

 

Y.  That perfect letter.  The wishbone, fork in the road, empty wine grass.  The question we ask over and over.  Why?  My life begins at the Y.  So begins the story of Shannon, a newborn baby dumped at the doors of the YMCA, swaddled in a dirty grey sweatshirt with nothing but a Swiss Army knife.  She is found moments later by a man who catches a mere glimpse of her troubled mother as she disappears from view.  All three lives are forever changed by the single decision.  Bounced between foster homes, Shannon endures neglect and abuse but then finds stability and love in the home of Miranda, a kind single mother who refuses to let anything ever go to waste.  But as Shannon grows, so do the questions inside her.  Where is she from?  Who is her true family?  Why would they abandon her on the day she was born.  The answers lie in the heartbreaking tale of Yula, Shannon’s mother, a girl herself and one with a desperate fate.  Yula spends her days caring for her bitter widowed father and her spirited toddler Eugene until the day she meets Harrison, a man who will protect her but also a man with a dark past and stories yet to be revealed.  Soon they are expecting a daughter but as Yula goes into labour, she and Harrison are caught in a tragic series of events that will destroy their family and test their limits of compassion and sacrifice.  Eventually the two stories converge to shape an unforgettable story of family, identity and inheritance.  Written with rare beauty, wisdom, and intimacy, Y is a novel that asks “why?” even as it reveals that the answer isn’t always clear and that it may not always matter. 

 

My Review:

 

Y is a compelling look at one young girl’s fight to find the birthmother who abandoned her on the front step of the YMCA on the day she was born.  Wrapped in a dirty grey sweatshirt with a Swiss Army knife tucked in as something to remember her by. 

 

The story of Shannon is somewhat sad as she is, like a lot of adopted children, shunted from foster home to foster home and suffers abuse at the hands of some of her caregivers until she finds a real family in Miranda, a single Mom and her own daughter Lydia-Rose.  Although Lydia-Rose has a difficult time adjusting to having Shannon in their home and is sometimes means to her and treats her with disdain, as they grow they eventually find their place beside each other as sisters should. 

 

As Shannon gets older her need to know who her family really is becomes more and more important to her.  Who is her mother? Does she look like her.  What about her father?  What about the man who found her on the steps that day?  She eventually tracks down, Vaughn, the man who saw her birthmother, Yula, place her on the steps all those years ago.  She befriends Vaughn and they spend quite a bit of time together doing various things and discussing the day she was left and Shannon’s desire to find her family.  Vaughn tells her that she must be honest with Miranda, the woman has raised her.  Together, Vaughn, Shannon, and Lydia-Rose set out on a journey that will change all their lives. 

 

Meanwhile, Yula has been dedicating her life to her bitter widowed father and caring for her young toddler son, Eugene.  Then she meets Harrison, a man who will love her but also a man with a very checkered past and he is responsible for a devastating tragedy in Yula’s life that can never be undone. 

 

Although we discover some of the answers we wanted to know by the end of the book, I would have liked a couple more chapters to explain a few others things, but I suppose those are left up to our imaginations.  I read this book in two afternoons as I just couldn’t put it down.  Well done!

 



SHADOW CREEK (JOY FIELDING)

 

 

Story Description: 

 

Doubleday Canada|December 4, 2012|Trade Paperback|ISBN:978-0-385-67736-3 

 

There’s something deadly lurking in the shadows at Shadow Creek… 

 

Due to a last-minute change in plans, a group of unlikely traveling companions find themselves on a camping trip in the Adirondacks.  They include the soon-to-be divorced Valerie; her oddball friends, Melissa and James; her moody teenage daughter, Brianne; and Val’s estranged husband’s fiancee, Jennifer.  Val is dealing with unresolved feelings toward her ex and grappling with jealousy and resentment toward his younger, prettier new flame, a woman with some serious issues of her own.  Brianne is sixteen and openly rebellious, caught up in a web of secrets and lies. 

 

What Val and her companions don’t know is that a pair of crazed killers is wreaking havoc in the very same woods. When an elderly couple is found slaughtered and Brianne goes missing, Val finds herself in a nightmare much worse than anything she could have anticipated.  She was half-expecting it to be the trip from hell, but what she never could have predicted was that this impromptu little excursion would become an all-out struggle for survival. 

 

My Review: 

 

Shadow Creek is a gripping, sit at the edge of your seat read.  I found myself holding the book tighter and tighter in my hands with each passing page. 

 

Val’s sixteen-year-old daughter, Brianne ,is  an overly  typical rebellious teenager who is caught up in a web of secrets and lies.  She was supposed to be spending the weekend in the Adirondacks with her Dad, Evan and his new girlfriend, Jennifer.  Val and Evan were only days away from completing their divorce.  Jennifer pulled up in front of Val’s house expecting Evan to already be there picking up his daughter, Brianne but he was nowhere to be seen.  He phoned and said he was held up at the office.  After waiting around for hours, Val decided she would drive her daughter, Jennifer, and Val’s friends up to the Adirondacks herself.  Val and her friends were supposed to be spending a nice weekend away themselves in Manhattan but thought they could just drop off the other two and then return to enjoy their own weekend. 

 

After the long drive to their destination everyone was tired and irritable.  Val decided they’d eat dinner, stay overnight and return to Manhattan in the morning.  Then Evan called again and said he wouldn’t be able to make it at all that day and would be there the following day for sure.  Val didn’t want to leave Brianne alone with Evan’s girlfriend, Jennifer so it looked like she and her friends would be staying too. After Brianne disappeared and was dragged back with a 21-year-old man to the lodge by two park rangers who found them naked and having sex in a public area, Val completely freaked out.  First of all, she didn’t know Brianne had a boyfriend, yet alone that he was 5 years her senior.  Then Val discovers that Jennifer knew about the boyfriend and had neglected to tell her sending Val into an angry deluge of words against the woman.  SHE was Brianne’s mother and should have been made aware of the situation and was completely put off by Jennifer’s lack of concern that Brianne had “snuck away” AND had this boyfriend.  The lodge manager was not happy with the behaviour of the whole group and told them they’d have to leave the lodge and stay outside in the campground instead.  Great, this day was turning out to be a disaster but little did they know that this was only the beginning. 

 

Once in the campground and tents set up, they needed to work out the sleeping arrangements. Since Val’s friend, James was gay, it was decided that Brianne would bunk in his tent so he could keep an eye on Brianne so she didn’t sneak away again to meet her older boyfriend and to fend off any wild animals should she need to use the porta-potties in the middle of the night. 

 

Val ended up running into a man she went to high school with who also camping with his teenaged son, Hayden.   Brianne immediately struck up a conversation with him hoping to befriend him so he’d let her use his cell phone to contact her boyfriend since her mother had confiscated her phone so she couldn’t.  Sure enough, Hayden did have a cell phone.  She made arrangements to meet-up with him at midnight at the park’s gate to be together for a few hours while her mother and the others slept.  Hayden, overhearing the conversation was worried about Brianne wandering off through the thick bush at night alone when there were known bears and other wild animals around so he followed her that night.  Once meeting up with her boyfriend she discovered Hayden had followed her and he and the boyfriend got into a fight.  The boyfriend beat Hayden up and they left him unconscious lying in a ditch. 

 

Later that night the man Val met from high school discovered his son was gone and alerted the others.  Val checked James’s tent and discovered  Brianne was also gone leaving her sleeping bag stuffed with clothing to make it look as though she was safely tucked inside.  Shortly thereafter, Hayden came stumbling back into camp with cuts and bruises on his face and told his Dad and the others what had happened.  Of course the man was furious with Val’s daughter and Val was barely able to contain herself from the anger she felt at Brianne over all this trouble she was causing.  Hadn’t she already created enough trouble for one weekend? 

 

Val and her friends immediately launch a search for Brianne but due to the heavy brush and the darkness couldn’t make much headway.  At first light they made their way to the Ranger’s station to report Brianne missing.  They already knew that one man, a newlywed was missing after a fight with his new bride whom the Rangers had been unable to find, and little did they know that two crazed killers were loose killing people in the very park they were in.  Val just couldn’t sit still at the campsite and wait for the Rangers to do their work so she and her friends set out to conduct a search of their own.  When they stumble upon a man’s severed arm, covered in blood lying on the ground they realize the situation is much, much worse than they had first thought. 

 

Where is Brianne?  Did a bear get her?  Did the crazed killers get her?  Will Val ever see her only child again? 

 

Shadow Creek is a definite page-turner that will keep you up late into the night as you won’t be able to put it down.  Joy Fielding has really outdone herself this time and having read all of Joy’s previous novels, I’d have to say this is by far my favourite.

 



A WINTER DREAM: A NOVEL (RICHARD PAUL EVANS)

 

 

Story Description: 

 

Simon & Schuster|October 30, 2012|Hardcover|ISBN: 978-1-2803-6 

 

The author of the bestselling phenomenon ‘The Christmas Box’ presents a new holiday novel about family, fate and forgiveness.  Joseph Jacobson is the twelfth of thirteen siblings, all of whom are employed by their father’s successful Colorado advertising company.  But underneath the success runs a poisonous undercurrent of jealousy; Joseph is his father’s favourite son and the focus of his brother’s envy and hatred.  When the father seems ready to anoint Joseph as his heir, the brothers make their move, forcing Joseph from the company and his Denver home, severing ties to his parents and ending his relationship with his soon-to-be fiance.  Alone and lonely, Joseph must start a new life.  

 

Joseph joins a Chicago advertising agency where his creativity helps him advance high up in the company. He also finds hope for a lasting love with April, a kind woman with a secret.  However, all secrets hold consequences, and when Joseph learns the truth about April’s past, his world is again turned upside down.  Finally, Joseph must confront his own difficult past in order to make his dreams for the future come true. 

 

A Winter Dream is an ingenious modern retelling of the Old Testament story of Joseph and the Coat of Many Colours by the master of the holiday novel. 

 

My Review: 

 

In A Winter Dream, Evans reimagines the story of Joseph and the Coat of Many Colours from the Old Testament in the Bible. 

 

This modern day retelling involves an advertising firm that is family run.  There are 13 children – 12 brothers and 1 sister who all work at the Denver, Colorado firm.  Israel or Izzy Jacobson is the father who has been married to four different women.  His current wife, Rachel, is the mother of only two of the children – Joseph (JJ) and his younger brother, Ben.  Izzy, as the patriarch of the family is President of their firm.  Izzy has never been secretive of the fact that JJ is his favourite son and all his brothers are extremely jealous of JJ. 

 

A very important client is about to walk away from the firm until JJ pitches him an idea that he loves and signs the contract.  Izzy is so proud of JJ for saving the day that he arranges a family dinner to celebrate JJ’s ingenuity. However, he ends up sharing a dream that JJ had had and told his father about.  The dream involved JJ walking through a forest covered in snow when he stumbles  upon a tree covered with lights and surrounded by 11 other trees.  After a bad storm, the 11 trees all bent toward the lighted tree in the middle.  Izzy himself felt that this dream symbolized JJ as the tree of light with his 11 brothers bowing down to him.  This dream in and of itself did not sit well with JJ’s brothers to begin with.  Then to make matters worse, Izzy presents JJ with his Navy flight jacket from Vietnam and was the most prized and special possession that he owned and was adored and desired by ALL his sons.  Once the jacket had been presented to JJ, the special family dinner was soon over. The brothers were not at all impressed or happy about their father’s gift to JJ. 

 

The morning after the dinner, JJ is called into a meeting with his brothers where they inform him that his younger brother, Ben has embezzled a huge amount of money from the company for his gambling addiction that no one was aware of.  The brothers want to press charges against Ben and have him prosecuted.  JJ is literally dumbfounded that his brothers would want to do this and offers to pay back the money himself out of his own savings.  However, the brothers are not at all receptive to this idea but tell JJ they’d be willing to sweep the whole issues “under the rug”, so to speak, if JJ will make a sacrifice.  They request that JJ quit the family business, move away, and NEVER return to or speak to his parents or siblings again.  JJ realizes they want rid of him and is not only horrified but deeply saddened that his brothers would go these lengths to try and get rid of him.  JJ loves Ben and doesn’t want him prosecuted and sent to jail, and although he knows agreeing to their demands will break his father’s heart, he accepts, packs up his office and leaves.  He was not only leaving his family, his job, him home, but also his girlfriend who didn’t want to give up her job to go with him.  The brothers have already lined up another job with a different advertising firm in Chicago for JJ and he heads off to the windy city.  The apartment they rented for him in Chicago was cheap and run-down. 

 

However, JJ ends up doing very well at his new job while the jealous brothers in Denver bring upon themselves ruination and unhappiness. 

 

There is a lot more to the story but I don’t want to give anything else away. 

 

I felt so sorry for JJ and can only imagine the depth of pain and hurt he felt at being turned against by his own brothers.  It was an emotionally charged story in so many ways.  It is amazing what jealously and greed will do to some people. 

 

Evans has an amazing ability in holding the reader’s attention from the first page to the last. He can evoke emotion in you before you even know what hit you. 

 

A Winter Dream is a story of jealousy, greed, relationships, bitterness, healing, and redemption. This story most definitely tugged at my heart strings as I’m sure it will yours.  Kudos to you, Richard, another hit!

 



THE ART FORGER: A NOVEL (B.A. SHAPIRO)

 

 

Story Description: 

 

HarperCollins|October 15, 2012|Trade Paperback|ISBN: 978-1-61620-132-6  

 

On March 18, 1990 thirteen works of art today worth over $500 million were stolen from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston.  It remains the largest unsolved art heist in history, and Claire Roth, a struggling young artist is about to discover that there is more to this crime than meets the eye. 

 

Making a living reproducing famous artworks for a popular online retailer and desperate to improve her situation, Claire is lured into a Faustian bargain with Aiden Markel, a powerful gallery owner.  She agrees to forge a painting, a Degas masterpiece stolen from the Gardner Museum in exchange for a one-woman show in his renowned gallery.  But when that very same long-missing Degas painting is delivered to Claire’s studio, she begins to suspect that it may itself be a forgery. 

 

Her desperate search for the truth leads Claire into a labyrinth of deceit where secrets hidden since the late nineteenth century may be the only evidence that can now save her life. 

 

My Review: 

 

Claire Roth lives in a studio apartment in Boston and works for Reproduction.com.  Her job is to copy the works of old art masters which are sold to well-healed clients.  Claire copies the works of such famous painters as Degas, which is her specialty, Cullion, Sakhai, and others. 

 

The Art Forger is not only entertaining but teaches us about the world of art and for someone like me who knew nothing of the subject when I picked up the book, has really opened my eyes and provided me with a lot of fascinating information that I had no previous knowledge of. 

 

Claire is very good at what she does but is shunned by the art community when she takes the credit for a painting that her art professor and lover won an award for.  So, she eeks out a living by legally copying masterpieces – you literally cannot tell that these are copies as Claire is so talented. 

 

One day, a man named Aiden Markel, who is the owner of a very prominent art gallery approaches Claire and offers her a show in his gallery if she agrees to copy a Degas painting that was stolen in an art heist a long time ago but was never found.  Claire isn’t sure she wants to get involved and neglects to question Aiden how “he” came to have this original in his possession.  Aiden promises Claire that he is going to sell the forgery and then return the original to the museum from where it was originally stolen.  Claire does some research on old methods of testing paintings to see if they are original or fake. Once her testing is complete, Claire doesn’t think the painting she is to copy is the original.  She doesn’t need to be shunned by the art community more than she already has and also doesn’t want to end up in jail. 

 

Claire become blackballed when her famous lover, Isaac Cullion sank into a severe depression and wasn’t able to complete a very prestigious commission for the Museum of Modern Art in New York.  Claire’s love for Isaac propelled her to use his brushes and paint an absolute masterpiece for him and signs his name to it.  The lie is revealed and causes a very messy scene which ends up claiming Isaac’s life and Claire’s so-called reputation. 

 

“After the Bath” is the Degas painting that Claire is to forge which was only one of thirteen paintings stolen from the Gardner Museum.  Claire really suspects what Aiden thinks is the original is also a forgery.  One of the three women in the painting just doesn’t seem right in her pose and the brushstrokes circle in the wrong direction, making this, in Claire’s mind, a “forgery of a forgery.”  

 

This entire story is phenomenal and ingeniously plotted.  I thought I had it figured out but I was dead wrong!  I thought Ms. Shapiro presented a well-rounded tale of this famous art heist and would highly recommend The Art Forger to anyone.  There is mystery, suspense, love, and betrayal all packed into one fast-paced, seamless read.  Well-done!!