31 July 2008

31. Miracles on Maple Hill


Miracles on Maple Hill, by Virginia Sorensen, was selected as the Newbery Award winner in 1957. While some of the older Newbery winners seem to be outdated in today’s world, this book is filled with relevant historical and emotional topics.

As I read the book, I was struck by the imagery and sense of place which was strongly developed by Sorensen. I have never been to visit the northern United States, but I feel like I have been there – visited four times in a year and caught a glimpse of each season.

The story revolves around a family. The father has returned from the war (which is unnamed) and is having difficulty returning to the civilian life. How appropriate is that in the lives of children today? The mother and two children are concerned about the father and wish that he would return to his old self. To help with this process, the family visits the grandmother’s old place in rural Pennsylvania – a place called Maple Hill, where miracles happen!

The story is told from the perspective of the daughter, Marly, who immediately falls in love with the mountain and the wonder of the rural life. The father stays on fulltime at Maple Hill, while the family visits every weekend. The strength of the novel is the descriptions of the flora and fauna in the area and especially the gathering and processing of the maple syrup.

Other reviewers have talked at length about this spirit of the place, and I invite you to read them here!

TITLE: Miracles on Maple Hill
AUTHOR: Virginia Sorensen
COPYRIGHT: 1956
PAGES: 180
TYPE: fiction, Newbery Award Wimmer
RECOMMEND: I loved this book.


LibrarysCat

30. A Time for Dancing


A Time for Dancing, by Davida Wills Hurwin, was selected as an ALA Best Book for Young Adults and I couldn’t agree more with the ALA decision. Ballet is center stage for high school friends Julie and Samantha. They met in ballet class and have been best friends ever since. Until everything changes – changes due to cancer.

The book is written with a style that complements the content – every other chapter is told from the perspective of one of the two friends. In the beginning, it seems to be the “normal” high school story – who likes who? Who broke up with whom? What is going on this weekend? However, very quickly Jules finds out that she has an aggressive cancer. And even though she and Sam have leaned on each other for years, Jules finds that this is something she must fight alone. The chemo has devastating effects – tired, nauseous, no hair, etc. She seeks an alternate treatment, which caused me a little bit of concern at first, but the author made sure that this was only a temporary pause in approved treatment. I am a two time cancer survivor and do not regret one day of chemo – of course, I realize that my situation was much different. And of course, as the author points out, dealing with cancer is very personal and solitary.

The book touches on religion and spirituality and has many moving scenes between the girls as well as between the individual girls and their families. This would be a good book to use with high schoolers for a discussion of a number of topics. There is also a film version of the book – view information here!

TITLE: A Time for Dancing
AUTHOR: Davida Wills Hurwin
COPYRIGHT: 1995
PAGES: 257
TYPE: fiction, young adult
RECOMMEND: In the end, I really liked this book.
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29 July 2008

Huge and wonderful contest

WOW! And I almost missed it. And you will too unless you hurry. I have been at Bookshipper's blog for the last hour - the reviews are that good.

And so is this contest - but it ends on July 31st. So hurry over to the visit Bookshipper, sign up for the contest and then stay a while and read a few reviews.

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Tuesday Things


Today’s question: Cataloging sources. What cataloging sources do you use most? Any particular reason? Any idiosyncratic choices, or foreign sources, or sources you like better than others? Are you able to find most things through LT’s almost 700 sources?

I had to think about this one for a minute. I almost always go with the default, which is Amazon. Not usually disappointed. But of course, there is a reason for this. I have been too busy (lazy?) to enter all of the books that I have here at the house. I have quite a few esoteric works about Eastern Europe and I wonder if I will have to go to LOC (or original cataloging) to input those books, should I ever get up the energy. One question I have is whether any of you have the barcode scanner they are always talking about?? That might make life a little easier, not sure! If anyone uses one, please tell me how it works for you.

Have a good reading week!

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27 July 2008

Wordle

Click the image to enlarge!

Absolutely too much fun! The possibilities are endless at Wordle.

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26 July 2008

29. The Things They Carried


When I look at the list of 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die, I often wonder why some books are included. I suppose some books are included because there is a person for every book, right? Well, in the case of The Things They Carried – it is more that there is “A” book for EVERY person. This book provides insights into the Viet Nam conflict that I have never encountered in four decades of reading. As a Baby Boomer who grew up in the shadows of the Kennedy assassination and the Viet Nam conflict, I knew these people. I knew boys who went to Viet Nam. I knew boys who did not return. I knew boys who returned, but never came home. I knew the people in Tim O’Brien’s novel. And it was sad to remember them. Still, it was beautiful to remember them through Tim O’Brien’s memories. It was hard; it was easy. This book was an experience I am grateful for having. Although I suppose it is possible that there are other opinions, I cannot imagine it.

O’Brien repeats the words the things they carried many times in the novel. It is this repetitiveness that helps us understand what the men carried and why. For example:

The things they carried:
Were largely determined by necessity
Was partly a function of rank, partly of field specialty
Varied by mission
Were determined to some extent by superstition
USO stationery and pencils and pens
Themselves with poise, a kind of dignity
All the emotional baggage of men who might die
Shameful memories
And the list continues

While telling the stories of the men who served together in Viet Nam, O’Brien tells us about the value of stories – be they real or imagined:
Stories are for joining the past to the future. Stories are for those late hours in the night when you can’t remember how you got from where you were to where you are. Stories are for eternity, when memory is erased, when there is nothing to remember except the story. (p. 40)

By telling stories, you objectify your own experience. You separate it from yourself. You pin down certain truths. You make up others. You start sometimes with an incident that truly happened, like the night in the shit field, and you carry it forward by inventing incidents that did not in fact occur but that nonetheless help to clarify and explain. (pp. 179-180)

Finally, O’Brien leaves the reader to think about war and the harsh consequences. He reminds us that when a man died, there had to be blame. Who gets the blame? The idiots who made the war. The rain, the river, the mortar rounds, people who were too lazy to read a newspaper, who were bored by the daily body counts, who switched channels at the mention of politics. Blame whole nations, blame God. Blame an old man in Omaha who forgot to vote. Ultimately – the causes were immediate. A moment of carelessness or bad judgment or plain stupidity carried consequences that lasted forever. (pp. 198-199 – words have been edited out by me, but the meaning is not changed).

This book made me think. Do we belong in Iraq? Are we immune to the body counts? Unless they are our own? Did we ever belong in Iraq? If we did, how do we get out? If we didn’t, how do we get out? How do we best honor those who have given their lives? What did they carry?

If I never read another book on the list of 1001, I am thankful for the list because it led me to this book. I love you Uncle Rick and I am sorry for all the things that you are still carrying.

TITLE: The Things They Carried
AUTHOR: Tim O’Brien
COPYRIGHT: 1990
PAGES: 273
TYPE: Fiction
RECOMMEND: Yes, one of the best books I have ever read.

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20 July 2008

28. The Heretic's Daughter


If you love reading historical fiction and have an interest in the Salem Witch Trials, you will likely enjoy The Heretic’s Daughter by Kathleen Kent. This is the author’s first novel and will be released September 3, 2008 by Hachette Book Group.

What makes this book even more enticing to read is that the author is a tenth-generation descendant of Martha Carrier, who is at the center of her novel.

The story begins in the cold Massachusetts winter of 1690 with Martha and Thomas Carrier, as well as their children, moving to Andover to live with their parents. Their economic situation forced them to leave their home. The story is told from the perspective of young Sarah who only sees her grandmother for a brief time before she is sent away to protect her from smallpox. Sarah lives with her aunt and uncle and cousin where she finds the lightheartedness and joy that seems to be missing with her own family. When forced to return to her own home, Sarah’s disgruntlement with her mother grows and the two struggle for some way to connect. Both Martha and Sarah are somewhat stubborn and willful. Between the troubles in the village, troubles with relatives, and the witch trials which were beginning in Salem, the family struggles. When Martha Carrier is accused of being a witch, the family learns the power of their love.

The best part of the book starts when the actual trial begins. The amount of available research for this half of the book lends an authenticity to the story, which seems bogged down with heavy metaphors and over-detailed snippets in the first half of the book. Even so, the telling of the family story prior to the witch hunts may be necessary to understand the final chapters. Perhaps more succinct descriptions without as many metaphors would serve to strengthen the first few chapters.

Many of the details found in the story are confirmed at a number of websites, including this one. Or from this biography. It was the adherence to this historical occurrence that made the book a good read. After I got to the trial, I could not put the book down, equally sad and horrified. Because of these emotions, I would encourage interested readers to give this book a chance. I am grateful to Hachette Book Group for providing me with the opportunity to read and review this interesting and entertaining book by new author Kathleen Kent.


TITLE: The Heretic's Daughter
AUTHOR: Kathleen Kent
COPYRIGHT: ARC copy, to be published in September 2008
PAGES: 332
TYPE: Historical fiction
RECOMMEND: After the first half, I really enjoyed this book. The strength of the writing improved as the content moved to the trials.


LibrarysCat

15 July 2008

Tuesday Thingers

Today's topic: Book-swapping. Do you do it? What site(s) do you use? How did you find out about them? What do you think of them? Do you use LT's book-swapping column feature for information on what to swap? Do you participate in any of the LT communities that discuss bookswapping, like the Bookmooch group for example?

I have never joined in any of the bookswapping groups. I am not sure why because Lord knows I have tons of books that I have read and probably will never read again. But I do visit and trade at the Book Worm - a locally owned used book seller! The owner is wonderful.

14 July 2008

27. A Gathering of Days



A Gathering of Days: A New England Girl's Journal, 1830-32 by Joan W. Blos won the Newbery Medal in 1980. As you might guess, the book is written in the form of a diary which was kept by thirteen year old Catherine Hall who tells about her life in rural New Hampshire in the early 19th century.



I liked the opening of the book which was a letter from Catherine to her great-granddaughter who was turning fourteen. She writes, "Once I might have wished for that: never to grow old. But now I know that to stay young always is also not to change. And that is what life's all about - changes going on every minute, and you never know when something begins where it's going to take you. So one thing I want to say about life is don't be scared and don't hang back, and most of all, don't waste it."

The beauty of this small book is in the descriptions, both of the physical places and the emotions of the young girl who loses her mother and her best friend to fevers. Until her father remarries, she must take care of her younger sister. Young children (we have it with a recommended reading level of grades 4-8) might appreciate Catherine's emotions as her new "mother" moves in with them and brings many changes to their home!

In addition to winning the Newbery Medal, this book also won the American Book Award (Children's Fiction) in 1980.

TITLE: A Gathering of Days
AUTHOR: Joan W. Blos
COPYRIGHT: 1979
PAGES: 144
TYPE: Fiction
RECOMMEND: I really liked this book and would recommend it to children who are interested in New England history or how young people lived in the past.

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26. Ruby Holler

Ruby Holler, by Sharon Creech, is ultimately a story about love and family. The story centers around thirteen year old twins, Dallas and Florida. They grew up at the Boxton Creek Home for Children as they were orphaned shortly after they were born. Unfortunately, Boxton Creek Home for Children is not a nice place to grow up as the owners are only interested in one thing - their profits. Because Dallas and Florida have been there so long, they know all of the rules and break most of them. The owners refer to the twins as the "trouble twins." Although they have been to a number of foster homes, they always gget sent back to the Home. Their luck changes when Tiller and Sairy, a much older couple with grown children, asks the Home if they can have the twins stay with them in Ruby Holler as they need some help preparing for a trip. Suspicious, the twins do not understand why they are NOT always in trouble. Their lives turn into a wonderful adventure in Ruby Holler and they solve a mystery that puts an end to the Boxton Creek Home for Children. They learn that parenting does not have to be cruel and that family is forever.

Ruby Holler won the Carnegie Award for Children's Literature in 2002.

From the author's website:
About six years ago I received a letter from my aunt in which she related a story about my father when he was young. She ended the story with "and that was when we lived in the holler." Holler? I hadn't known about the holler and was intrigued by the notion of my father and his many siblings and parents living in this place. I began to imagine the place, and as I did so, I knew it would be a great setting for a story, but it was several years before I began to see who the characters might be who would live in this holler. I think that the older couple, Tiller and Sairy, evolved because I was thinking of my grandparents living in a holler, and this couple resembles my grandparents in some ways. The children, Dallas and Florida, probably came to life because I'd been thinking of my father as a mischievous child (that was evident in the original story my aunt told) and his equally-mischievous siblings. After I'd begun the story, I saw a real photo of my grandparents' house in the holler. The house was but a tiny shack, rather decrepit looking, and the holler wasn't as enchanting as the one I imagined. I'm glad I didn't see the photo before I began the story!

TITLE: Ruby Holler
AUTHOR: Sharon Creech
COPYRIGHT: 2002
PAGES: 310
TYPE: Fiction
RECOMMEND: While I liked this book, I did not love it. Still I think it might offer some interesting lessons for young children
LibrarysCat

08 July 2008

Contest alert!


In the Shadow of Mt. TBR has a great contest on her blog. Check it out!

Tuesday Thingers


Tuesday Thingers
Since we're past the Fourth of July and the summer season has officially started, what are your plans for the summer? Vacations, trips? Trips that involve reading? Reading plans? If you're going somewhere, do you do any reading to prepare? Do you read local literature as part of your trip? Have you thought about using the LT Local feature to help plan your book-buying?

First, I am not sure what it has been like where you guys live, but it has been summer for quite some time here in Northwest Florida. I mean, it has been HOT! As for vacations or plans for the summer, I am going to go to Andover, Greece, Miami, the Hamptons, and a few other choice places. Fortunately (or unfortunately depending on your point of view) I do not have to spend any money at all - because these places are all in books - FREE books that I am so happy to read and review. I guess another good thing about not going anywhere is that I better be getting busy reading, because I need to be reviewing these as well. I have started two of them, but I am so busy grading at this point in the semester that I don't have a lot of free time. As for the why no vacation - we only have two staff members in my small library and it is really hard for either of us to take off for a whole week. In fact, the university is closed the week of Christmas until January 2nd and we get to be off without taking leave, so my boss asked that our small library be closed from the last day of the semester. So we are off for about three weeks. It is so wonderful that it is almost worth no summer vacation.

LibrarysCat

03 July 2008

25: Lincoln: A Photobiography

The 1988 Newbery winner Lincoln: A Photobiography by Russell Freedman is an excellent and informative book about the life of our 16th president. What makes this book amazing is not only the pictures, but the writings of Lincoln which are provided and the small details of his life which perhaps are not as well known.

One amusing detail of his writing is from his home-made arithmetic book. In his own writing, Lincoln says:

"Abraham Lincoln
his hand and pen
he will be good but
god knows when"
(p. 13)

Freedman provides many stories about Lincoln's childhood and family. The details of the day Lincoln was killed are very touching. The war was over and Lincoln and his wife, Mary, were trying to come to terms with the death of their second child. During a carriage ride early in the day, Lincoln told Mary, "We must both be more cheerful in the future. Between the war and the loss of our darling Willie, we have been very miserable." (p. 121)

TITLE: Lincoln: A Photobiography
AUTHOR: Russell Freedman
COPYRIGHT: 1987
PAGES: 150
TYPE: non-fiction
RECOMMEND: Recommend for grades 4-8
LibrarysCat

01 July 2008

Tuesday Thingers

Here is the Top 100 Most Popular Books on LibraryThing. Bold what you own, italicize what you've read. Star what you liked. Star multiple times what you loved!

I hope all the American participants have a great Fourth of July weekend!

1. Harry Potter and the sorcerer's stone by J.K. Rowling (32,484)
2. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Book 6) by J.K. Rowling (29,939)
3. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Book 5) by J.K. Rowling (28,728)
4. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Book 2) by J.K. Rowling (27,926)
5. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Book 3) by J.K. Rowling (27,643)
6. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Book 4) by J.K. Rowling (27,641)
7. The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown (23,266) **
8. The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien (21,325) ****
9. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Book 7) by J.K. Rowling (20,485)
10. 1984 by George Orwell (19,735) ****
11. Pride and Prejudice (Bantam Classics) by Jane Austen (19,583) *****
12. The catcher in the rye by J.D. Salinger (19,082)
13. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee (17,586) **
14. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald (16,210)
15. The lord of the rings by J.R.R. Tolkien (15,483)
16. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini (14,566) ****
17. Jane Eyre (Penguin Classics) by Charlotte Bronte (14,449)
18. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon (13,946) ***
19. Life of Pi by Yann Martel (13,272)
20. Animal Farm by George Orwell (13,091) *
21. Angels & demons by Dan Brown (13,089)
22. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley (13,005) ***
23. Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte (12,777)
24. One Hundred Years of Solitude (Oprah's Book Club) by Gabriel Garcia Marquez (12,634) **
25. The Fellowship of the Ring (The Lord of the Rings, Part 1) by J.R.R. Tolkien (12,276)
26. Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden (12,147) *
27. The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger (11,976) **
28. The Two Towers (The Lord of the Rings, Part 2) by J.R.R. Tolkien (11,512)
29. The Odyssey by Homer (11,483)
30. Catch-22 by Joseph Heller (11,392) ***
31. Slaughterhouse-five by Kurt Vonnegut (11,360)
32. Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky (11,257)
33. The return of the king : being the third part of The lord of the rings by J.R.R. Tolkien (11,082)
34. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury (10,979)
35. American Gods: A Novel by Neil Gaiman (10,823)
36. The chronicles of Narnia by C. S. Lewis (10,603)
37. The hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy by Douglas Adams (10,537)
38. Lord of the Flies by William Golding (10,435)
39. The lovely bones : a novel by Alice Sebold (10,125) ***
40. Ender's Game (Ender, Book 1) by Orson Scott Card (10,092)
41. The Golden Compass (His Dark Materials, Book 1) by Philip Pullman (9,827)
42. Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch by Neil Gaiman (9,745)
43. Dune by Frank Herbert (9,671)
44. Emma by Jane Austen (9,610) *****
45. Frankenstein by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (9,598) ***
46. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Bantam Classics) by Mark Twain (9,593)
47. Anna Karenina (Oprah's Book Club) by Leo Tolstoy (9,433)
48. Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke (9,413)
49. Middlesex: A Novel by Jeffrey Eugenides (9,343) ***
50. Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire (9,336)
51. Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov (9,274)
52. The Silmarillion by J.R.R. Tolkien (9,246)
53. The Iliad by Homer (9,153)
54. The Stranger by Albert Camus (9,084)
55. Sense and Sensibility (Penguin Classics) by Jane Austen (9,080) *****
56. Great Expectations (Penguin Classics) by Charles Dickens (9,027) ***
57. The Handmaid's Tale: A Novel by Margaret Atwood (8,960) **
58. On the Road by Jack Kerouac (8,904)
59. Freakonomics [Revised and Expanded]: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything by Steven D. Levitt (8,813)
60. The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint Exupery - (8,764)
61. The lion, the witch and the wardrobe by C. S. Lewis (8,421)
62. A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle (8,417)
63. Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman (8,368)
64. The Grapes of Wrath (Centennial Edition) by John Steinbeck (8,255)
65. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott (8,214) ***
66. The Name of the Rose: including Postscript to the Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco (8,191)
67. The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne (8,169)
68. Moby Dick by Herman Melville (8,129)
69. The complete works by William Shakespeare (8,096)
70. Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies by Jared Diamond (7,843)
71. Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris (7,834)
72. The Poisonwood Bible: A Novel (Perennial Classics) by Barbara Kingsolver (7,829)
73. Hamlet (Folger Shakespeare Library) by William Shakespeare (7,808)
74. Of Mice and Men (Penguin Great Books of the 20th Century) by John Steinbeck (7,807) ****
75. A Tale of Two Cities (Penguin Classics) by Charles Dickens (7,793)
76. The Alchemist (Plus) by Paulo Coelho (7,710)
77. The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath (7,648)
78. The Picture of Dorian Gray (Barnes & Noble Classics Series) (Barnes & Noble Classics) by Oscar Wilde (7,598)
79. The Elements of Style, Fourth Edition by William Strunk (7,569) ***
80. Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez (7,557) ***
81. The Subtle Knife (His Dark Materials, Book 2) by Philip Pullman (7,534)
82. Atonement: A Novel by Ian McEwan (7,530) ***
83. The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky (7,512)
84. The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd (7,436)
85. Dracula by Bram Stoker (7,238) ****
86. Heart of Darkness (Dover Thrift Editions) by Joseph Conrad (7,153)
87. A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess (7,055)
88. Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra (7,052)
89. The amber spyglass by Philip Pullman (7,043)
90. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (Penguin Classics) by James Joyce (6,933)
91. The Unbearable Lightness of Being: A Novel (Perennial Classics) by Milan Kundera (6,901) ****
92. Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse (6,899)
93. Neuromancer by William Gibson (6,890)
94. The Canterbury Tales (Penguin Classics) by Geoffrey Chaucer (6,868)
95. Persuasion (Penguin Classics) by Jane Austen (6,862)
96. Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman (6,841)
97. The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova (6,794)
98. Angela's Ashes: A Memoir by Frank McCourt (6,715) *
99. A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers (6,708)
100. The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli (6,697)

24. The White Mary


I am pretty certain that I will never have the opportunity to visit Papua New Guinea, but thanks to author Kira Salak, I feel like I have had a grand tour of this beautiful island. The author’s own travels in this country shine through in her writing and lend an authenticity that is sometimes missing in contemporary fiction. My next purchase will be her non-fiction account of traversing the country, Four Corners: A Journey into the Heart of Papua New Guinea.

The White Mary centers on journalist Marika Vecera, who has found fame in her field by traveling to the most dangerous locations to report on the inhumanities of war and cultural genocide. She owes much of her fame to Robert Lewis, an older journalist who inspired her from a young age. While this simple story forms the background for the novel, the author leads us, through two story lines, to a state of love and redemption.

Marika has had a difficult life as she and her mother fled Czechoslovakia after her father was executed as a dissident. She has seen terrible acts of violence and endangered her own life to further her career. Early in the story, Marika meets Seb, a psychologist who falls in love with her. Their relationship grows but Marika is unaccustomed to being cared for and cannot return his love. After a miserable argument with Seb, Marika sets out to look for Robert Lewis who is presumed dead by his own hand, but has been sighted in a remote village in Papua New Guinea. The second half of the novel focuses on this quest and the vivid descriptions engage the reader fully. I could not put the book down until I knew the answer – What if Lewis isn’t dead? Marika is joined by Tobo, a witch doctor, who serves as her guide, and together they make a slow journey through the thick jungles and over the high mountains to the village, where Lewis was supposedly spotted by a missionary. They encounter a number of tribal communities and Salak brings the cultural differences, even among the different tribes, to the forefront of the story. You will need to read the book to see if Marika finds Lewis, but I think it is safe to say that she found her will to live, to love, and to embrace happiness even in the face of global sadness.

I absolutely loved this book. I enjoyed the methods employed by Salak to introduce us to Marika. Her story unfolds slowly as she considers her life, the choices she has made, and the horrors she has witnessed during her quest. Tobo also lends a fascinating voice, explaining tribal culture to both Marika and the reader. To add depth to the novel, many of the tribal members also have strong voices in the novel. Whether you consider this cultural anthropology, a mystery, or just a wonderful novel, I think this book will delight you. I sincerely hope that the author is working on her next story, although this one might be difficult to top.

Thanks to Henry Holt & Company for the opportunity to read and review this brilliant

TITLE: The White Mary
AUTHOR: Kira Salak
COPYRIGHT: 2008
PAGES: 351
TYPE: Fiction
RECOMMEND: Strongly recommend to everyone

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