The John Lennon Letters

As a lifetime Beatles fan I was delighted to plunge into The John Lennon Letters. This hefty (400 page) volume  was collected, edited and annotated by Hunter Davies, who knows a thing or two about the Beatles (he penned their authorized biography, back in the day). Davies swept up reams of Lennon-abilia from family, friends, musicians, collectors and archives and organized it more or less chronologically, beginning with Lennon’s early school boy notes and ending with one of the last autographs he signed before he was gunned down in front of the Dakota apartment building in New York in December, 1980.

To characterize this collection as “letters,” though, is something of a misnomer. John Lennon appears never to have missed an opportunity to put pen to paper; he was a scribbler, a doodler, a poet, an author of liner notes, a writer of post cards and a maker of lists, and bits and pieces of everything made their way into this book. Davies provides facsimiles of the original documents and then offers a text version, mostly by way of translation -- Lennon’s handwriting was messy at best and frequently illegible. He was also given to writing in dialect (Scots, German, Shakespearean), and he made up words when it suited him. Davies makes sense of it all, and anchors his material with biographical data to provide context for the documents. 

Part chapbook and part indexed biography, this book is a revealing look at the personal life of a most enigmatic artist, and a great read for Beatles fans. 


--Helene

The Lock Artist

I admit that I got a little too involved with the main character of this book. He needed a mother to tell him that he was making very bad choices!  Needless to say, I enjoyed the book because of the character Michael.

The Miracle Boy, The Young Ghost, The Milford Mute, The Lock Artist or just Mike is the protagonist in Steve Hamilton's book, The Lock Artist. Michael is a very talented and unusual young man. He survived a horrific ordeal as a child which left him unable to speak.  He is a talented artist.  He is also a talented lock artist.  It is the lock artist part, his ability to open any door or safe, which leads him into all kinds of unusual and mostly illegal situations.  Even though he is mute, Michael tells his story to the reader. He is like any seventeen year old.  He just wants to be liked, he wants to belong, he believes in love at first sight, and he sometimes does the wrong thing for the right reason.

The book is written as a memoir from prison, so the reader knows that things did not turn out well for Michael.  What the reader will learn is that the outcome could have been so much worse.  I highly recommend this award winning suspense book.

~Gilby G

Whistling Past the Graveyard

Normally, I'm a reader of memoirs and foodie books and travel writing. It's very rare that a historical fiction novel will grab my interest, but something about the cover of Whistling Past the Graveyard compelled me to pick it up anyhow. I finished the book two days after starting it, and I'm still thinking about (and missing!) its characters. The story takes place in Mississippi and Tennessee during the height of the Civil Rights Movement and centers on an unlikely pair: 9-year old Starla, a short-tempered, tender-hearted white girl, and a fragile but courageous African American woman named Eula.

When Starla's strict grandmother punishes her one time too many, Starla decides to make her way to Nashville to live with her estranged mother Lulu, a famous singer. Just barely out of her hometown, Starla meets Eula and accepts a ride from her. As she climbs into the car, she discovers that Eula isn't alone, as she had appeared to be: instead, Eula has a baby--a white one--in her front seat. Soon, a series of traumatic events forge an incredible bond between Eula and Starla; they demonstrate that, despite what others around them might believe, love and friendship cannot be limited or defined by skin color.

~Queen of Books

Introducing Junior Bender

In these dog days of summer, here is a perfect mystery to read by the pool. Timothy Hallinan has written a light-hearted caper, featuring a funny, smart, heroic criminal. Crashed opens with Junior Bender, a Los Angeles burglar for hire, stealing a Paul Klee painting from a mobster. As he lifts the painting off the wall, he notices a hairline crack in the plaster and discovers a wall safe. Of course, he can't resist opening the safe to take a look inside, even though that wasn't part of the deal. The job starts to go sour when he notices that he's been caught on a security camera. After escaping with his life, a bag of diamonds and the painting, Junior finds himself being blackmailed.

Trey Annunziata, a ruthless crime boss, is trying to go legit, but she just needs to finish one more job, an adult film that will make her millions. Trey wants Junior to keep the star of the film, Thistle Downing, on track. Thistle was once the darling of American television, a child star that grew up in living rooms across the county. However, Thistle has gone off the rails and has spiraled out of control. Junior is supposed to be her minder, but ends up ... well, that would spoil it for you. You'll have to read it for yourself. Just know that Hallinan will take you on a wild ride, with zany characters and plenty of twists and turns. If you like Crashed, there are two more in the series, Little Elvises and The Fame Thief.

~Susannah

Remember your thank you notes

I'm going to endorse the concept of 365 Thank Yous by John Kralik more than the book itself.  It's a quick read and has the potential to change your life as well as those around you.  All you have to do is pull out a writing instrument (pens, remember those items?) and something to write on (as in a note card) and write a thank you note.  This does not need to be the long drawn out anguish of writing a thank you note to grandma after she sent you an awful sweater that was too small.  But just take a moment to write a three line note to thank someone for what they did.  Use a small note card so you won't feel like you have to write a novel and don't get intimidated.  Quickly pop it in the mail or hand deliver it if that's an option.  And yes, it might involve a stamp and the post office.

The Pilot and the Spy

1943. German-occupied France. On the first page of Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein, a young British spy, captured by the Nazis and resisting with all her strength, suddenly submits. "I'm going to give you anything you ask, everything I can remember."

And she does, but she couches these details in the story of herself and her best friend, a pilot who died when their plane went down over France. Maddie and Julie were two young women from radically different backgrounds, with radically different lives and goals, who nevertheless became best friends in the heat of war. It is a friendship that will sustain the spy in her captivity, and ultimately lead her to the darkest choice she will ever have to make.

Girlchild

Narrated through free-form chapters using diary entries, social worker reports, arrest records, letters and even Supreme Court decisions, Girlchild by Tupelo Hassman reads like a cross between The Story Sisters by Alice Hoffman and Dorothy Allison's Bastard out of Carolina. Rory Dawn Hendrix lives in the Calle de las Flores Trailer Park - a ruined development skirting the wrong side of Reno. Her mama has a problem with booze and bad men and, even though she's quit on men, Grandma can't kick Kino. Family history foretells a future littered with unwanted pregnancies and rotten teeth. But Rory, determined to escape her legacy, excels at school - using a battered copy of the Girl Scout Handbook as her moral compass and earning imaginary badges in her scout troop of one.

Girlchild is Hassman's debut novel and, though the story isn't pretty, the writing is beautiful. Scarred yet strong, the women of Rory's family instill in her an optimism and resiliency relayed through her youthful clarity on every page.