In My Mailbox (October 9th-15th 2011)

Hosted by The Story Siren

An awesome batch of books this week as ones I had been waiting on for over a month finally arrived... twice. I am really excited by all of these but especially the Taylor, the Winterson and the Levithan. The Atlantic Coast is gorgeous and I know reading it is going to have me lusting hardcore over Nova Scotia. Be still my heart, only seven more months!

{For Review}

The Shattering by Karen Healey (x3) (Little Brown, For Younger Readers)
Daughter of Smoke & Bone by Laini Taylor (x2) (Little Brown, For Younger Readers)
Shut Out by Kody Keplinger (x2) (Little Brown, For Younger Readers)
Reckless by Cornelia Funke (x2) (Little Brown, For Younger Readers)
Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? by Jeanette Winterson (Random House Canada)
Every You, Every Me by David Levithan (Random House Canada)
The Atlantic Coast: A Natural History by Harry Thurston (D&M Publishers)

What was in your mailbox this week?

Vital Signs by Tessa McWatt

Vital Signs by Tessa McWatt

Release Date: July 26th, 2011
Pages: 176
Format: Hardcover
Publisher: Random House Canada
Source: Publisher
Buy It: Book Depository

Anna, Mike's beautiful and self-possessed wife, begins to mangle her sentences as a result of a brain aneurysm that could kill her at any moment. In his panic to show his wife that she has been his entire universe, will Mike finally confess all the ways in which he rebelled against her power over him, the way he betrayed her?

Vital Signs is a short novel but Tessa McWatt manages to say a lot, in a quiet and thought-provoking way. What is happening to Anna is terrifying, but the book makes the reader think, is it really so bad for Anna or it is worse for her husband? These sort of questions and the consequences of diseases that impact the mind on marriage reminded me of Still Alice by Lisa Genova in the moving way that the novel tackles them. In a way, Mike often seems more concerned about himself even while caring for his wife- he worries about his own guilt as opposed to what telling Anna the truth may do to her. Not that he shouldn't be honest, but as the book shows, not everything is always what it seems, including a happy marriage.

The relationships between Mike and Anna and their children was also interesting and I think that part also reminded me of Still Alice because McWatt shows how three different personalities may react to the same circumstances. I found the story of the middle daughter, Charlotte, who is strong and stubborn but very concerned with appearance particularly touching. Mike himself is not a likable individual but his story is an emotional one. Although I read the book nearly two months ago, I stand by my first notes after finishing when I made an odd comparison of Vital Signs as being what happens when Genova's Still Alice meets Hisham Matar's Anatomy of a Disappearance because of the quiet, serious, and thoughtful way it tackles relationships and brain illness.

My only complaint about Vital Signs is the pictograms included throughout. I (sorta) understand what their purpose is but I didn't particularly appreciate them and found their occurrence fairly random and prone to disrupting the flow of the book. Maybe they would have had more impact for a more visual person but I found them distracting.

Vital Signs is a powerful story with profound character depth, and although it is the first book I have read by McWatt her subtle, intelligent, and thoughtful writing has gotten my attention and I will certainly be reading more by this talented Canadian author in the future.

I redesigned my blog...

...all by myself!

Very proud of the way things have turned out and although it has been many hours of work I am thinking I am pretty much done for now. I even have a cute icon for my mailbox posts and for once a button I actually like! So please, take my button:

<center><a href="http://inthenextroom.blogspot.com/"><img border="0" src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v132/zoedm/finalblogbutton.png"/></a></center>

Plus, now that I have my own button I am thinking swapping with other bloggers is a good idea, so let me know if that interests you.

I decided to combine some of my other loves besides reading into the layout, purple which is one of my two favourite colours (along with red, but I thought it made for a more cheerful blog) and flowers, as I am currently doing my masters in plant genetics so although I don't actually work with these specific flowers (pansies, incase you are curious), I do work with flowering plants.

Here's a sneak peek at my new design, but of course you should stop by the blog if you're reading this from a feed and check it out firsthand.

What do you think of In The Next Room's new look?

Holy Ghost Girl by Donna Johnson

Holy Ghost Girl by Donna Johnson is a memoir so unbelievable, that if it wasn't non-fiction I don't know if I would have believed it was true. Johnson was only three years old when her mother joined brother David Terrell and his Evangelical tent revivalist movement, a group that tours from city to city preaching in large tents similar to a circus. The circus comparison is apt considering a lot of went on under and surrounding the tent was just as hectic- healings and secret children and cults- and Johnson's family was all part of its inner circle of faith and deception.

Holy Ghost Girl takes place over the sixties and seventies, and Johnson does a pretty good job of telling the story considering she was a kid for most of it. As extravagant and insane as the life of David Terrell is (he's still preaching these days), what I found most interesting was what life was like for Johnson herself. Her own story is the one she is most qualified to tell, and at times I felt she got bogged down by events she couldn't remember or wasn't there for. I appreciate filling in the gaps, but at the same time it left holes where I wanted to know more- mainly how her experiences and very unusual childhood impacted her life later on, a topic that was skimmed over at times. Johnson's writing is clear and easy to read but I often felt an emotional detachment from the story, despite being interested in the premise.

Ultimately, Holy Ghost Girl provides a riveting look into a culture that will be completely unfamiliar to most, and although it wasn't a perfect fit for me as a reader, it certainly has a lot to offer on a controversial and unique topic.     

Release Date: October 13th 2011
Pages: 288
Buy the Book
Source:

This review was a part of TLC Book Tours. Click here to read what other tour hosts thought. For the purpose of this review I was provided with a copy of the book which did not require a positive review. The opinions expressed in this post are completely my own.

Lost Voices by Sarah Porter

Release Date: July 4th, 2011

Pages: 304

Format: Hardcover and Audiobook

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Narrator: Julia Whelan

Source: Publisher and Personal Shelf

Buy It: Book Depository

When Luce is assaulted on the cliffs near an Alaskan village, she expects to die when she tumbles into the icy water below. Instead, she transforms into a mermaid. Luce is thrilled with her new life—until she discovers the catch.

Lost Voices is actually the first novel to get me interested in the mermaid trend that has been happening YA literature, I picked it up before I even read (and loved) Forgive My Fins and Fins Are Forever by Tera Lynn Childs, but suffice it to say that if Lost Voices had disappointed me it's unlikely I would have gone 'swimming' for more mermaid tales right afterwards. As it was I picked up Ripple by Mandy Hubbard the same day I finished devouring Lost Voices and these fish-tailed beings are certainly on my radar now.

What I loved so much about Lost Voices was its darkness, in that way Hubbard's novel resembles it far more closely than Childs' cheerful story, these are not Disney mermaids Porter writes about. Instead, Luce joins a group of sirens, each of whom died terribly and at a young age. So, although Lost Voices is intended for a YA audience, the violence and other abuse such as an attempted rape mean it is definitely more suitable for the older age range. Why did I love this awful darkness? Because it makes Luce and the other mermaids rich and complex creatures, the result of a unique mythology, their stories may be sad but by bringing them together Porter gives them a kind of shared happy ending. 

The setting of Lost Voices is also extremely unusual, Porter really brings the cold Alaskan sea to life and gives the reader a strong visual idea of the area where Luce and the other mermaids live. One of Porter's strengths is definitely description, and in particular the portions of the novel where the girls sing. When I realized the storyline was heavily centered around music, I was nervous for tacky rhyming poetry, but the songs the mermaids sing are without words and yet Porter's language truly brings them to life.

I listened to Lost Voices on audiobook, and this format makes it very obvious when a portion of a novel drags but I never got distracted while listening to the book. I thought the narrator, Julia Whelan, did a fantastic job- although I wasn't totally convinced by her Russian accent- and I really hope she reads the upcoming books. Although it has been nearly two months between finishing the book and writing this review, Lost Voices is a novel that has grown, not diminished in strength, leaving me eager for the second book in the trilogy, Waking Storms, which is due to be released July 2012. Fortunately, although the novel ends with a clear opening for a second book, it still provides resolution of enough of the story that I wasn't left dissatisfied. As a sidenote, I'm also excited to see that the cover of the second book features a mermaid with short hair like Luce has as it fits the story much better.

With her debut novel, Porter took me into a dark and twisted world, cold and deep as the ocean, but through it all there was a sharp and piercing song, leaving me with a chill and a memory I will not soon forget, it is a book which speaks the unheard words of Lost Voices.