Monthly Archives: May 2013

Review | The Clock of Life, Nancy Klann-Moren

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Jason Lee Rainey has big shoes to fill. His father was a civil rights activist who marched with Martin Luther King, Jr. and later died serving in the Vietnam war. Growing up in Hadlee, Mississippi in the 1980s, Jason Lee struggles to overcome his community’s attitudes about race and the scorn he faces as a white boy whose best friend is black.

Nancy Klann-Moren’s The Clock of Life is a striking coming of age story about wanting to change the world and coming to terms with the sheer enormity of the world’s problems. While the novel can get a bit heavy handed with symbolism — the portentous tone of the title, for example, or Jason Lee’s PTSD-suffering war vet uncle coping by carving See/Hear/Speak No Evil monkeys, Klann-Moren refrains from tipping over into sentimentality.

Jason Lee is a compelling character, though I wish his best friend Samson was explored in more detail. Still, Klann-Moren makes the right choice in not making too big a deal of their friendship. While others in their community may think it wrong that a white boy and a black boy are friends, and express that view openly, Jason Lee and Samson at least act like the rightness of their friendship shouldn’t even be in question. Their relationship at least is colour blind, and it is only when other characters comment on it, or threaten to beat them up that we realize the courage it takes for these boys to be friends.

Jason Lee’s uncle is another compelling character. His memories of the Vietnam war, and his fear and anger at certain members of the community serve as a constant reminder that one can’t simply label the past as history and move on. Rather, some things are still very much a problem at the present. Klann-Moren offers us glimpses into history through news clippings and historical documents, thus integrating them really well with the present day story of Jason Lee.

Minor note that while the writing is strong, there are several typos in the book, just enough to irk me enough to mention it. [Note: The author has just informed me that a later edition of the book – after she sent me this copy – has corrected the typos.] Many of the characters are interesting, with Jason Lee and his uncle being the most explored, however I wish the villains had been less stock characters and better fleshed out.

Overall, however, Clock of Life is a compelling narrative. Klann-Moren takes on themes like racism and PTSD, and to her credit, doesn’t flinch at the violence and horror of those topics.

A note as well, that the author has just informed me that Clock of Life is a Finalist in the 2013 Next Generation Indie Book Awards. Well deserved, in my view.

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Thank you to the author for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

 

Author Encounter and Giveaway | Edward Rutherfurd and Danielle Trussoni

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Due to a work schedule that, over the past few months, has included evenings and weekends, I haven’t had a chance to attend many of the wonderful events that publishers treat book lovers to in Toronto. This Random House event was the first I’ve attended in a long time, and what an evening it was!

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Random House of Canada certainly knows how to treat their guests. They served perogies, crepes, cheese and crackers, prosecco …and, my personal favourite, blue martinis!

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And books, of course. Lovely, lovely books!

IMG_1358Edward Rutherfurd is an absolutely charming man. He’s on Twitter, but admits he doesn’t tweet much — his publishers supply most of his content. Referring to his novels, which usually tip the scales at almost 1000 pages each, he quipped, “When you write as I do, Twitter, as you can imagine, is a challenge.” He does however check his Facebook page regularly, and responds personally as much as he can to the people who post there.

He told us quite a few fun facts as well, for example, the Mona Lisa was stolen in the early 20th century, and Pablo Picasso was accused of the theft. I don’t know if that’s included anywhere in his novel, but I at least want to find out more about it. During the book signing, he asked each of us bloggers for our card or blog URL. “I need to educate myself about these things,” he said. I told him that my sister loved Russka, and he admitted it was a very difficult book to write. In fact, at one point, his editor came to his house, sat on his couch and told him she wouldn’t leave until he finished the book!

IMG_1357Danielle Trussoni spoke as well, and talked to us a bit about her book. She didn’t set out to write about angels, she said. Rather, she was doing research for a different book when she came across some fascinating information that eventually led to her writing Angelology, and then Angelopolis. She isn’t particularly religious, but she did grow up in Catholic school, so has been aware of a certain degree of angel mythology since then.

You can follow her on Twitter, @daniellemybella, “my bella” being her father’s name for her when she was a child.

GIVEAWAY! 

[Link to Rafflecopter giveaway at the bottom of the post]

Random House of Canada generously offered us bloggers a chance to grab another copy of both authors’ books to get signed and offer as a giveaway on our blog. So good news to all my Canadian readers: you can enter below for a chance to win either Edward Rutherfurd’s Paris or Danielle Trussoni’s Angelopolis! (Giveaway open only to Canadians, I’m afraid, as shipping overseas, particularly for the 800+ page hardcover Paris, will be rather costly.)

Full disclosure: I haven’t read either book, nor have I read any of either author’s other works. I did consider including the giveaway with my review, but given my current reading pile, Paris may be out in paperback by then. And I want to share these books with you now! So for information on the books, check out the descriptions on the Random House of Canada website:

Angelopolis by Danielle Trussoni

Paris by Edward Rutherfurd

Edward Rutherfurd also gave a teaser description about Paris: A woman falls in love with a Frenchman, except circumstances force them apart, so she settles for an Englishman (“always a poor second,” he quipped). Then years later, she returns to Paris and sees the Frenchman again at a party, except while she has aged, he has not, and of course, it turns out, that’s the Frenchman’s son, who happens to be a friend of Hemingway. (“Sorry,” he said. “You know I have to put things like that in.”) She falls in love with this young man, but her daughter does as well.

My impression? Paris may seem like a hefty 800+ page tome, but it sounds like a really fun soap opera read… and I mean that in a good way. Somewhat like Downton Abbey but intergenerational, and in Paris!

Click here to enter! (Canada only)

Review | Icons, Margaret Stohl

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11861715Beautiful Creatures co-author Margaret Stohl begins a new YA dystopia/fantasy series with Icons. Aliens have taken over the world, and a select group of teens have supernatural powers, though it’s unclear where the powers came from, or what the purpose of these powers are (presumably to defeat the aliens and taken back human freedom?).

As the first book in any series, the primary task of Icons is to establish its world and introduce readers to the characters. As such, it does start off a bit slow, though I enjoyed the introductory scenes of Dol and her best friend Ro in the countryside. The introductory chapters in particular have much too many parallels to The Hunger Games. Apart from the obvious — dystopian world — there’s the female protagonist Dol with hot, brooding, angsty male best friend Ro who wants to overthrow the system, they’re each the only one who really understands the other, they both enjoy spending time in the outdoors. Then, we later meet Lucas, instantly recognizable to any avid YA reader as the other point in this love triangle, who is a blond ray of light and love, connecting to Dol in a very different, much more hopeful way than Ro’s anger does, and who has a natural ability to charm people. Katniss, Gale and Peeta, anyone? Dol however does suffer in comparison to Katniss, being a much less kick ass, much more emo heroine.

That being said, it’s hard to fault Dol for being emo. The superpowers in this series are closely linked to emotions, and to anyone who has studied a bit of Spanish, Dol’s full name Doloria gives a pretty strong hint what emotion she embodies. Stohl tries to broaden Dol’s range a bit by also gifting her with a heightened sense of empathy, but really, being born with the innate capacity for sorrow must really suck. There isn’t any subtlety with Stohl’s treatment of the teens and their powers, which is unfortunate given the potential richness of the world she has created. Take for example the character names: Ro’s real name is Furo, which explains why he’s always angry, Lucas’ full name is Lucas Amare (light and love), etc. It’s all just a bit too obvious, and when it comes to predicting how characters will react to any given situation, their names pretty much say it all.

Still, the book is a fun read overall, and the story picks up when Dol and Ro are captured and sent to the embassy. Along with Lucas and a fourth teen Tima, they are monitored and their abilities tested, and while the purpose is unclear, intriguing snippets from rebel documents hint at the symbolic significance of these powers. Stohl drops just enough hints to keep the villains intriguing — the aliens’ human representative, Ambassador Amare (Lucas’ mother, which adds an interesting dimension to both characters) is as much a victim of these aliens rather than a pure villain, and the ending hints at a much more emotionally gripping sequel.

I also love that the protagonist is a person of colour, as well, that the Ambassador, probably the highest position a human can attain in Stohl’s world, is a woman, Lucas’ mother rather than his father. Even better, while these details are mentioned, Stohl doesn’t beat us over the head with them, suggesting a time when it becomes mainstream for books to have people of colour as protagonists and women in top positions of power. Given the wide range of YA books in the market as well as the genre’s popularity, these little touches make a statement, and make Icons stand out in a very good way.

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Thank you to Hachette Book Group Canada for an advance reading copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.