Debris (Science Fiction Novel)

Debris by Jo Anderton is a novel that I would love to watch as a movie. It has a strong, but flawed female character. I could easily feel empathy for her. The novel has cool special effects and wonderful world-building. It also has a fast-paced plot. 

Briefly, the story takes place in the future, where people have learned to mentally manipulate pions, the very building blocks of matter. While the novel is clearly science fiction, the premise has a bit of the feel of magic. Tanyana is a skilled architect, who leads a circle of other pion manipulators. In the opening chapter, they are working on a magnificent – very expensive, very high profile– sculpture, when there is a tragic incident. The sculpture is totally destroyed, and Tanyana’s life is devastated. She loses her ability to see, let alone manipulate pions. She is left with grotesque scars. The government is more interested in having Tanyana make restitution, than hearing her side of the story. They tell her the incident is a tragic incident caused by her over estimating her abilities. She believes that she has been the victim of an attack by something she has never seen before. Against her will, Tanyana is surgically fitted with a “suit,” which will allow her to become a collector of debris, the byproduct of pion manipulation. This job is considered one of the lowest in society. The suit first looks like a series of odd, metal rings around various parts of her body. The suit begins deep in Tanyana’s blood stream. It can extend out to form tools or even a shield. It also has odd symbols on it, some of which allow her to be called to emergencies. Tanyana forms a romantic relationship with the technician who designed the suit and implanted it in her. In the rest of the book, Tanyana tries to adjust to her literal and metaphoric falls and to rise up again. She learns how to become a skilled debris collector. She makes new friends and allies. She uncovers the truth behind her “accident” and the strange things that caused it.

For me, Debris was more than just an exciting story. It hints at the yin and yang that work together to form our world. It describes overcoming a fall from societal grace. It talks about the power in “flaws.” Debris is the first book in the planned Veiled Worlds Series, and I am looking forward to reading the next book.

How Starbucks Saved My Life (Non-fiction Book)

Coffee. Mistakes. Second Chances. Famous Writers. Respect.

On one level, How Starbucks Saved My Life by Michael Gates Gill is a feel-good book about a man in his sixties who is down on his luck and is offered a job at a local Starbucks. On another level, the book is a study in contrasts: a driving executive vs. a thoughtful barista, a life of privilege vs. a life of struggle, despotism vs. compassion and respect, opulence vs. simplicity.

Briefly, at the beginning of the book, Michael Gates Gill is a 63 year old man who is down on his luck. He was laid off from his job as a high powered executive ten years earlier and is now unable to support himself as a consultant. He is divorced with four grown children from his first marriage and a son by a woman with whom he had an affair. One day while having coffee, he is half-playfully asked if he would like to apply for a job at a Starbucks. Realizing that this might be one of his last chances, he jumps at the job. The book describes his struggle to master the job. It also describes his earlier life, complete with name dropping of the many famous writers he met over the years. He was a man used to giving orders and now finds himself taking orders from people he might not have treated with respect in his earlier life.

Carl Jung talked about exploring the less developed parts of our personalities in the second half of our lives. This seems to me what Gill describes in How Starbucks Saved My Life. We see a man who is very different from his younger self: more yin, nurturing, content, and sentimental. This is a lovely book that affirms what it is like to be a human being.

Happy Policeman (Science Fiction Novel)

Saying makes things so. What occurs is of no importance. What is important is perception. It is belief, not the act, that creates resonance patterns. You don’t have the right attitude. I try to make happy policemen. I don’t know why you insist on making unhappy ones.

Happy Policeman by Patricia Anthony is quirky and philosophical. This 1994 novel combines elements of science fiction, mystery, New Age thought, and odd small town characters.

Briefly, Dewitt, the policeman of a small Texas community, finds the Mary Kay lady murdered in an unusual way. Everyone is a suspect: the space aliens, who drive UPS trucks and furnish the town with all its needs; his own wife, an Avon Lady and a rival; the ex-husband; the doctor, an alcoholic; the mayor, a notorious pothead; the banker; the fundamentalist minister. The town has been isolated from the rest of the world since Bomb Day—when Reagan dropped the atomic bomb—six years earlier. The town has no idea what is on the other side of the line that the aliens have set up. By the end of the novel, the answer is revealed.  

Happy Policeman was a nice change of pace for me after I had read so many serious novels. Most of the time, I found it fun. At moments, I found it thought provoking: “Am I being ‘a happy policeman or an unhappy policeman?’” Towards the end, it raised questions of morality and justice. This is not your typical science fiction fare, and I was glad of it.

Dragon’s Teeth (Pulitzer Winning Novel)

Nazism. Communism. Socialism. Feudalism. Politics. Art. Music. Spiritualism. Family. Duty. 

In Dragon’s Teeth, Upton Sinclair brings alive the history of Germany during the 1930’s. Through the fictional character of Lanny Budd, the reader experiences the events surrounding the rise of Nazism. This novel won the 1943 Pulitzer Prize for the Novel and is the third book in the Lanny Budd Series. The novel was written well before the end of WWII. 

Briefly, the novel opens with Lanny Budd’s wife Irma, an heiress, giving birth to their first child, Frances. Irma is a socialite and a celebrity. Much to his wife’s consternation, Lanny has a keen interest in Socialism. His half-sister, Marceline, has married into a Jewish family. Lanny has friendships that include Communists, Socalists, Capitalists, and Nazis. The first part of the novel describes various social engagements. In the second half of the novel, a number of Jewish members of the family are taken prisoner by the Nazis. Lanny uses his social connections and risks his life to try to get them out of Germany.

For me, Dragon’s Teeth did not get interesting until the second half of the book. The first part of the novel seemed like just another story about rich people, and I had to force myself to read it. Maybe I felt that way because I did not read the first two books in the series. The novel picks up once Lanny tries to rescue his Jewish family members. As far as I’m concerned, the novel would have been better without the first 200 to 300 pages.

At time, I found the politics and historical events interesting and at other times I found them boring. Sinclair describes the economic and social climate that provided a fertile ground for the rise of the Nazis regime. This made me think of some of the events in America and Europe these past few years. Knowing one’s history helps one more easily see the beginning of a potential repeat. Sinclair talks about Hitler being so mad that no one took him seriously. Sinclair says that the atrocities in Germany were so incredible that no one from the rest of the world believed what was happening. Reading the book helped open my eyes.

Daughter of Smoke and Bone (YA Fantasy Novel)

Angels. Demons. Teeth. Chimaera. Sketches. Love. Family. Pain. Wishes. War. 

I suspect that in the not too distant future we will be talking about the actors in Daughter of Smoke and Bone. Right now we need to be satisfied to read this award winning novel by Laini Taylor. In 2011, it won awards for Publisher Weekly’s Best Children’s Book and School Library Journal Best Books of the year. It has also been on various best seller lists. The novel puts a fresh spin on the angel and demon myths.

Briefly, the novel starts out with a somewhat familiar theme. Karou leads a double life. In one world, she is a talented art student at a school in Prague, going through all the familiar emotions of a teenager. But, she also has a “family,” whom she can only visit by way of secret entrances. They are four chimeras, combinations of different species, and live elsewhere. She was raised by Brimstone, who looks vaguely like a demon. He gives her charms that allow her to manifest minor wishes. He often sends Karou on errands, all over her world, to collect different types of teeth. Her odd but familiar life is forever changed when she encounters an angel, who destroys all the entrances that allow her to be with her “family.” Why is she attracted to someone who should be her enemy? Who is she really and where did she come from? What does Brimstone do with the teeth he collects? What is the secret behind the wishes? Who are the real bad guys?

Daughter of Smoke and Bone is an enjoyable story, even for someone who is not a young adult. Taylor does a nice job of world building. The book smoothly takes us from a fairly familiar world to one that is rich in fantasy. The characters are multi-dimensional, having flaws and virtues. I look forward to reading the next book in this trilogy, Daughter of Blood and Starlight.

The Grapes of Wrath (Pulitzer Winning Novel)

Maybe we can start again, in the new rich land – in California, where the fruit grows. We’ll start over.
But you can’t start. Only a baby can start. You and me – why, we’re all that’s been. The anger of the moment, the thousand pictures, that’s us. 

Wow. Novels like Grapes of Wrath, by John Steinbeck, are one of the reasons that I have set out to read the Pulitzer Prize winners. The novel is haunting and beautiful, tugging at the heart strings. It won the 1940 Pulitzer Prize for the Novel and was made into a film the same year.

Briefly, the story is set in the Depression, around the time of the Dust Bowl. Tom Joad returns home from prison after serving four years for killing a man. He meets Casy, who has given up his life as a preacher. Joad finds his family home in Oklahoma has been destroyed by the bank, which has foreclosed on the land and is using tractors to force a few last crops of cotton before the soil loses its life. Inspired by hand bills showing an idyllic scene, the Joad family sell most of their possessions and start off for California. As they make their way by truck, they soon find that thousands of other families are doing the same thing. Once in California, they become migrant workers, despised and feared by the wealthy land owners.

On one level, the novel is depressing as all hell. Steinbeck does an excellent job of conveying the powerlessness of the families. On the other hand, this is a magnificent novel. Steinbeck conveys the strength of the families and the migrant communities. He does a wonderful job comparing the warmth of original farmers and the disassociation of the banks and the wealthy land owners. This is also a timeless novel; I saw parallels between what the people were experiencing then and what many people have experienced in the latest recession. Once again, this is a classic that even adults out of school can appreciate and savor.

The Yearling (Pulitzer Winning Novel)

…Flag had eased a loneliness that harassed him in the very heart of his family.

The Yearling, by Majorie Kinnan Rawlings, is a mega-classic. It was the winner of the 1939 Pulitzer Prize for the Novel. It was made into a 1946 award winning film. It is a novel that generations of children and adults have read and remembered.

Briefly, the novel is set in the Florida backwoods at the end of the 1800’s. Jody’s parents work hard to make a living farming. At the beginning of the novel we see Jody in his full, preteen innocence. Jody asks for “somethin’ to pet and play with,” something to love. After his father kills a doe, Jody adopts the orphaned fawn. They are as close as any boy and dog could be. As the story progresses, we see Jody learning about the harshness of nature and man: illnesses, attacks, floods, deaths. By the end of the novel, Jody has become a young-adult.

Times have changed. Despite being in the Children’s section of my local public library, The Yearling feels like a young adult book to me, especially with its graphic scenes of violence. Even as an adult, I thoroughly enjoyed the book. It was well written and had beautiful descriptions. I would encourage any adult who has not read The Yearling before to pick it up.