The BookFetish Blog

Don’t let the title fool you. Special Topics in Calamity Physics isn’t a science book. Marisha Pessl’s debut novel, published in 2007, is clever and quirky and I couldn’t stop turning the pages.

Blue Van Meer’s life has been anything but ordinary. Traveling the country with her professor father as he moves from one guest lecturer post to another has provided Blue with a thorough, if rather unconventional, education. However, like any teenager, she longs for roots and friends, and her father agrees to take a position that will allow Blue to attend St. Gallway’s School for the last part of her high school education.

At St. Gallway’s, Blue is suddenly and somewhat reluctantly thrust into a clique called the Bluebloods, spearheaded by eccentric drama teacher Hannah Schneider. But after a drowning and then a hanging, Blue finds herself in the middle of a murder mystery with ramifications far greater- and far more personal- than she ever imagined.

Not only does Special Topics In Calamity Physics tell an interesting story, it is told in an interesting way. Complete with sources referenced in parenthetical documentation, and with supporting illustrations and diagrams, Blue reveals her story almost as if it were an academic paper.

The characters don’t seem quite real- they are like the ultra rich, way too cool kids of movies like Cruel Intentions- a little surreal, a little more adult than my counterparts when I was that age.  Their language is more adult, more academic and not full of teenaged slang. Yet the angst is very real, the chances they take, the games they play.  And at the heart of it all is the enigmatic Hannah Schneider. Hannah has her own motivations for pulling together the Bluebloods and putting Blue in their midst, and as readers, we’re taken along for the ride as Blue figures out why.

As I mentioned, sources are well referenced in the book, and at times this was distracting. I wanted to know a bit more about the source, or else just wanted to skip over it to get to the next part of the story. However, the  more I read, the less bothered I found myself.  The illustrations and other visual aids did enhance the story, even on an ereader as opposed to the paperback.

I wanted the story to reveal itself faster. That’s not to say it was a slow read, just that I was that eager to find out the story and what happened.  There’s a twist at the end, which I guessed just a few pages before it was revealed. However, figuring this out takes away nothing from the story. In fact, Pessl plants just enough clues that I’d be surprised if a number of folks didn’t guess the twist.

I think this book is  a good candidate for book clubs- the characters, the style, the plot all leave plenty of room for discussion.  Checking Amazon, it looks like this is the only book Pessl has published to date. I hope she writes more. I’d love to see a second novel from her.

Talli Roland’s Chick Lit novel explores the question of how much our outlook can influence our life.

Emma Beckett enjoys her precise, safe life and likes her fiance and the predictable life they are planning. She’s grounded firmly in reality and thinks that being too optimistic only leads to heartache and chaos. When she loses her job and fiance in the same week, Emma is thrown and unsure what to do next- except look for more of the same. Then her best friend challenges Emma to spend some time seeing life as though the glass is half full.

Emma’s in for a whirlwind when she decides to take on a Pollyanna attitude, and look for the good in everything.

The Pollyanna Plan has many of the typical elements of a chick lit novel, so fans of the genre will not be disappointed.  But what I liked most about the book is the frisson of excitement I felt when Emma begins to think “what if?..” And when Emma takes one big chance, I felt that same twinge, wondering if I would ever be brave enough to just take the BIG CHANCE if it ever presented itself.

An interesting take that Roland provides in The Pollyanna Plan is the challenge to Emma’s potential new relationship- it’s one that not many of us face, and one that would take a big leap to jump into.  Roland handles it well, and in the way we would all like to be were we faced with the same challenge ourselves.  I think Emma is quite relatable as she tries to navigate a path to her ideal life, dealing with a lot of the trepidation and two-steps-forward-one-step-back many of us may experience.

I really enjoyed reading this one, and look forward to more from Roland.

Broken Pieces made my 2012 favorites list for non-fiction reads.  Rachel is on tour for the book, anad I decided to repost my review as a part of the tour. Generally knows for her humor, snark, and love of Nutella, Rachel may find new fans here with her raw and honest collection of essays about emotional events that shaped her life. Check it out.

One of the most courageous things a person can do is write their truth, and then share it with the world. It might be easier for fiction, although I imagine some piece of the author comes through in a novel.  But in essays, memoirs, and other personal works of non-fiction, the content is only the author’s truth.  I don’t know firsthand, but I imagine this must be terrifying.  You tell your story- in total honesty, the anguish, the anger, the grief- and people love it or hate it or, perhaps worst, are ambivalent about it.

It’s riskier, still, when your previously published books are humorous. Your readers think they know what to expect. They like your snark, they like your martini and Nutella references, and they feel they know you.

Then you blindside those same readers with things you’ve only hinted at before.  An ex-lover who killed himself and your questioning of your own grief. Other tragic and terrible events that have shaped you into the person you are now. Saying depression and anxiety out loud- exposing yourself to the opinion of every reader. Laying bare your soul.

Is that scary?  Maybe. It’s what Rachel Thompson (RachelintheOC) has done with Broken Pieces. Exchanging her trademark snark for brutal truth, Rachel shares with us the more serious events of her life. The stories that perhaps broke her in some ways. Although I prefer to say shaped her into who she is today.

Readers looking only for Rachel’s humor will be disappointed. Broken Pieces isn’t depressing, but it definitely isn’t funny. It is, I think, mournfully hopeful.  She tells her stories without melodrama, without asking for pity, but in a straightforward manner, saying almost, “These are some of the stories that shaped me. Take them or leave them.”

What readers will like about this book is that Rachel’s story is, at least in part, a piece of every person’s story. We’ve all grieved.  We’ve all survived something that could have destroyed us- maybe not the same experiences as Rachel, but something that forced us to grow up, changed our path, made us recognize hard truths.  It’s the shared ramifications of some events that is universal, that readers can identify with regardless of their own path.

Applaud an author for taking a different path, for telling her deeply personal story.

I confess, it was the trailer for the film that got me interested in The Silver Linings Playbook. I like Jennifer Lawrence and I think Bradley Cooper is very good looking, and they’re in a movie together? Let’s check this out. But after doing a bit of research, I discovered that like many Oscar nominated films, The Silver Linings Playbook is an adaptation of a novel. So I decided to read the book before seeing the movie.

This was a book that I wanted to LOVE. That I wanted to stay up really late reading and gush about to all of my friends, and say “you really, REALLY have to read this book.” And although I enjoyed it, I don’t feel my anticipated level of adoration.  Don’t get me wrong.  I still enthusiastically recommend reading the book, but I just don’t have a crush on it the way I have some prior reads.  I’m struggling to put my finger on precisely why, so instead of telling you what didn’t work for me, I’ll start by telling you what did. Sometimes, as I do that, I’m better able to articulate all my feelings.

What worked. For starters, we know from the beginning we are dealing with mental illness. The story opens with Pat Peoples’ mother taking him home from a mental institution. Pat thinks he’s on his way to an end of “apart time”. You see, in Pat’s worldview, life is a movie and it ends with a silver lining. He’s been in the conflict portion of his movie, and now it’s time for his happy ending- in his mind, that is a reunion with his wife, Nikki.  The whole story is told from Pat’s perspective. At times, Pat comes across as a normal man in his mid-thirties. At other times, his stilted, almost childlike language and delivery serve as a stark reminder that he is suffering significant mental issues.  But Pat’s fragile state, his longing to be “kind rather than right” and reconcile with his wife, and his tenuous relationship with his family and friends do make for compelling reading.

This is a man who has lost a significant amount of his past, who is looking for his happy ending and will do whatever it takes to get it.  Pat’s not the only complex character; Tiffany has her own share of issues and is in any number of ways as lost as Pat. Pat’s family and friends walk a fine line, trying to have their normal life while knowing that normal for Pat is somewhat different- they want to see him happy and whole, but they also want to protect him. In some instances, they also fear him (although they would be hard-pressed to admit that).

What is poignant about the book is that Pat learns a lesson many of us do: that the happy ending we get isn’t always the one we want. The thing is, we have to be willing to embrace that other happy endings may exist.

So what didn’t work?  I’m still struggling with that.  I think part of it was pacing.  I think part of it was that when we finally find out why Pat was in the institution to begin with, it felt a little anti-climactic.  That may be an ignorance of mental illness and  its many triggers and ramifications on my part.  But that the trigger forced Pat into the reaction that it did and caused so much angst and drama, well, I just thought it was going to be something MORE (which could also be a result of my ability to tend toward the dramatic).  But when the worst thing you say about a book is that you enthusiastically recommend it, well, that’s still pretty high praise.

I do recommend The Sliver Linings Playbook. I can’t wait to see the movie, and not just because Bradley Cooper is good-looking. I want to see if bringing Pat to life, so to speak, fills in some of the gaps that I felt in reading the book.  But read it.  It’s good. It’s some heavy subject matter, yes, but it’s hopeful and poignant.

I received a copy of Grace Grows from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. For questions about my review policy, click here

Shelle Sumners’ debut novel, Grace Grows is all about what happens when we’ve planned and life gets in the way. Grace Barnum’s life is plodding along. If not exactly happy, she’s more or less content. She edits textbooks, even though she sometimes worries that the content is more detrimental than helpful to students. She’s engaged to a solid, dependable man called Steven, and planning her wedding. If not exactly picture perfect, it’s enough for Grace. Then enter Tyler Wilkie. Although when Grace meets him, Tyler’s a dog walker, he’s on the cusp of making it big in the music industry, and he makes a big impact on Grace. What ensues is the story of what happens when we forget perfect planning and learn to live.

It took me a little bit to get into Grace Grows. At first I was exasperated with Grace’s overbearing correction of  Tyler’s grammar, for example. But the more I got to know Grace and Tyler, the more I enjoyed the story. Grace is a more complex character than I initially anticipated.  Tyler was a little harder to buy- does a guy so good-looking, caring, and on the cusp of major fame but still believably humble really exist? If so, send him my way…..- but still a likable character with whom I found myself empathizing the more I read.  I feel like Grace shortchanged and underestimated him more than once and it cost them both… but where’s a romantic story without something conspiring to keep our heroine and hero apart?

The included song lyrics add dimension to the story, revealing feelings in a more raw and honest manner than simple dialog could have done.  As a bonus, Shelle has at her website a soundtrack for the book, which is a cool enhancement to the reading experience.  I also especially loved the quoted selections from Kahlil Gibran’s The Prophet – which by the way is now in my reading queue. Without spoiling too much, one of the things I appreciate most about the book is the reminder that sometimes what is perfect for us on paper, doesn’t work in real life; and sometimes, what seems an awful match in reality is just what we’re destined for.  Fans of chick lit and light romance will enjoy Grace Grows and I look forward to reading more from Shelle Sumners.