Books 6-10: 2011

6. Revolution
By: Jennifer Donnelly
Genre: Young Adult
Three words: Surprise Time Travel
Oh, this book.
I gushed about it enough that I convinced my book club to choose an earlier Jennifer Donnelly book, Northern Lights, as our first YA book club selection. The novel begins with Andi, a very angry, sad girl living with her crazy mother in NYC and attending one of those elite private schools that so often appear in the YA genre. At first I found the novel difficult to read because Andi was so very broken that her voice- the novel is first person POV- was difficult to endure. Soon I found the novel difficult to put down.

Andi's pain comes from the death of her younger brother, a death for which she feels responsible. When it looks like Andi may not pass her senior year, her distant scientist father swoops in, institutionalizes her mother (about time) and takes Andi to Paris with him for Spring Break, so he can monitor her progress on her senior project. In Paris, Andi's father is set to perform DNA testing on a preserved heart, thought to be that of the Dauphin, eight year old Louis-Charles. The parallels between Andi's dead brother and the Dauphin are hilighted when Andi discovers the lost diary of Alexandrine, an aspiring actress during the French Revolution who became the young Dauphin's companion. The book has romance, music, secret parties in catacombs, fireworks, intrigue, research among rare manuscripts, and surprise time travel. The time travel almost made me hate the book, but then I accepted it and became engrossed all over again.

7. Jane
By: April Lindner
Genre: Young Adult
Three words: Rochester as Rockstar
What if Jane Eyre was a modern day nanny and Rochester was a tortured, brooding Rockstar? Lindner's novel certainly offers a new look at the classic, giving it the same treatment that so many Austen novels have been receiving. Does it work? Sometimes, as Jane bonds with Rochester's daughter in an isolated Connecticut mansion or hears a song he wrote just for her (instead of a ghostly, disembodied voice drifting across the moors). But it requires a large suspension of disbelief as well. If you are at all familiar with Bronte's original novel, these will not be spoilers. But...keeping a schizophrenic locked up in your attic in this day and age because all asylums are evil and disturbing places? Attempting to commit bigamy in a time when you don't actually have to marry a girl to sleep with her? Leaving college to become a nanny because you have no other options (hello? student loans?)? The situation of a Victorian woman-- the lack of choices, the dangers of a tarnished reputation, the utter reliance on a man and/or family-- simply do not translate to a modern tale. Still, I wouldn't turn down a modern day Rochester- with or without the crazy wife.

8. Last Night's Scandal
By: Loretta Chase
Genre: Romance
It's been awhile since I read an actual Romance novel, and I picked up this one at the recommendation of the Smart Bitches, who rarely steer me wrong. It was fluffy and fun and, literally, a joy to read. Romance novels offer few surprises. As my sister says whenever she flips through one: "That's one page closer to getting together. One page closer to getting together." True. But this book actually had me smiling, sometimes laughing outloud, as the two main characters did the will they/won't they (of course they will!) dance. I'm not sure why. They bantered. They resisted. Situations arose that forced them together. Nothing new there. They described each other's looks a lot, and always in the same way, which was a little annoying but did serve a purpose. Normally I read romances in a distracted manner, the way you eat lowfat popcorn in front of the television, shoving one piece after another into your mouth and not really registering any taste. But Chase made me really root for her characters and really become invested in their relationship. This is an element so often missing from romance. I think I will try some more Chase in the future.

9. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
By: Rebecca Skloot
Genre: Nonfiction
This is a book club selection, for my teacher book club at school. Nonfiction is not my bag, though I do want to try and read more of it this year. It's one of the most talked about nonfiction books of the year, and though I have no real basis to judge nonfiction (see above), I can see the appeal. There is so much to debate with this book, which purportedly is about Henrietta Lacks, an African American woman from Baltimore who had her cells taken at Hopkins without permission (a standard practice at the time); these cells became the first immortal cell line, used-- and eventually bought and sold-- by scientists all over the world. It is also the story of Henrietta's family, first ignorant, and then struggling to make sense of their mother's scientific contribution. It is also the story of Rebecca Skloot, young, intrepid, white and priviledged reporter, struggling to find the information she needs to tell Henrietta's story. The question of exploitation is at the heart of her story. Were Henrietta and her family exploited? Are we all exploited, to some degree, by the medical community? Is Skloot's novel itself a tribute or an exploitation? Once people have been exploited, can that ever be made right? Though sometimes I would find my interest drifting, especially in some of the more scientific sections, overall the human interest angle kept my attention. And it made me realize I need to learn facts, not just stories.

10. The Mistress of Nothing
By: Kate Pullinger
Genre: New Literary Fiction
Based on the true story of Lady Duff Gordon and her maid, who set up house in Luxor, Egypt when Duff Gordon's tuberculosis could not withstand the cold, English climate. The maid, Sally, falls in love with their Egyptian dragoon, as one does. Difficulties, based on class, gender, culture (those Victorian pitfalls) and race ensue. Life is not easy for a Victorian lady's maid (which those of us enamored with Downton Abbey already assumed).