God of the Woods by Liz Moore

 

Reviewed by Jeanne

For decades, campers have come to Camp Emerson, located on the Van Laar Preserve.  They’re children of well-to-do parents, sent to build “life-long friendships” (connections that may be useful later on), and to learn self-sufficiency and survival skills. The wealthy and influential Van Laar family lives nearby in a large house named “Self Reliance,” but the running of the camp is handled by employees, mostly people from town who depend on the jobs at the camp each summer.

The summer of 1975 starts out like any other, except this year Barbara, daughter of Peter and Alice Van Laar, is attending.  Barbara is not like the other campers, what with her almost indecently short shorts, black army boots, dyed black hair, and something like a dog collar around her neck.  The other kids are both shocked and fascinated. Confident and calm, Barbara seems to fit easily into camp life.

And then she disappears.

Alarms are raised, and search parties set out. It’s almost déjà vu for some: a few years earlier, another child went missing.

He was Barbara’s older brother.

He was never found.

The reviews on this book were almost polar opposites:  people either loved it or hated it with equal passion.  I moved from one camp to the other.  The first two thirds of the book was, I admit, a trudge for me.  The author uses multiple viewpoints—another camper, a counselor, townspeople, Alice Van Laar, a police officer—and also bounces these views around in time. It wasn’t especially confusing, but it was frustrating because there wasn’t really a chance become emotionally involved with the characters due to the narrative switching characters and times so frequently. Alice Van Laar is used more often than most, but the time changes back and forth, giving views of Alice as a naïve young woman, a mother, and a deeply unhappy wife. It’s like pieces of a mosaic; the reader only gets the big picture near the end, when all the pieces come together.  This is a master class in the art of showing, not just telling. 

When it was done, I felt the payoff was worth it.  I still have questions, and I still wonder about what happened to some characters, but that for me is the mark of a good book.  I can certainly see why it was a very popular book club book, because there is a lot to unpack and discuss—one of those books that as soon as you finish it, you want to find someone else who has read it so you can talk about it.  It turned out to be a book I enjoyed very much and one I will remember and recommend—but with a warning that the first part is a bit of a chore.

More Found Reviews

When library staff prepares to re-shelve books, we always flip through them to look for forgotten items, damage, etc. so that the next person won’t have a surprise. Sometimes we find comments.  Here are some of the ones we’ve enjoyed:

An Irish Country Doctor by Patrick Taylor apparently pleased a couple of readers, since one wrote “Good” and in a different handwriting, “Couldn’t put it down.”

 

I have to say I love dueling reviews.  Plaster Sinners by Colin Watson was deemed “Very very dull” by one reader, perhaps evoking this response:  “This is a work of deductive genius.  Very enjoyable & well done.”

Bluebird Winter by Linda Howard drew two “Good” notations, a “Good (heart),” a “Very good,” and “Every woman’s dream!  Just plain wonderful book!”

James Patterson’s sophomore title Season of the Machete earned a one word review:  “Lousy.”

Still Glides the Stream by D.E. Stevenson came out in 1957, but this tale of a Scotsman who sets out to find the truth about a friend’s death drew a lot of comments on the review page.

“A delightful romantic story.”

“A sweet, simple, nostalgic story.”

“Very good—I really enjoyed it.”

“Great—I hated to see it end!”

“A little ‘tame,’ but I agree with the above.”

“Very good—I really enjoyed it for the second time around twenty years later.”

“D.E. Stevenson is my all-time favorite author, bar none.  I have read all her books many times & enjoy them every time.  I just found one from 1923, Peter West, which was overly descriptive, probably her first, but she certainly learned the right amount of adjectives as she aged.  I think she wrote the best family values—ever!”

 

Sherryl Wood’s Sweet Tea at Sunrise in large print had a couple of “Good” and “Very good” reviews, followed by, “Can’t believe it took 469 pages for two people to get into bed together!”

Christmas in My Heart: A Second Treasury edited by Joe Wheeler had “Very good book 2015” written in it.  Just beneath it, in the same handwriting was “Very good book 2016.” It’s very good to know that the reviewer’s opinion hadn’t changed in a year!

 

Jill Marie Landis’ Magnolia Creek won rave reviews from three readers.  The story is set during the American Civil War and chronicles the story of Sara Collier who marries her sweetheart Dru just before he rides off to fight.  Our readers judged it as “Great,” “SUPER GOOD,” and “A wonderful heartwarming book!  Among the best I have read!” 

Murder for Treasure by David Williams earned two reviews.  One was the pithy “Boring!” while the second was a bit more descriptive:   “Not top grade English but readable if you’re hard up for a weekend read.”

Nevermore: Serling, Liberty's Blueprint, Invisible Code, Finfarran, Road from Coorain, Mary Shelly, Lord of the Mountain, Robert Browning, Stuart Woods, Geraldine Brooks, Dumpty

Reported by Laura

Nevermore was a fun time this week with a wide variety of books !

          The first book reviewed was The Twilight Man by Koren Shadmi. This graphic novel is a biography of Rod Serling, who is probably most remembered for The Twilight Zone and Night Gallery series. The reviewer found it to be a wonderful and very informative book. I will definitely be adding it to my reading list!

          Our next book was also a nonfiction offering, Liberty’s Blueprint: How Madison and Hamilton Wrote the Federalist Papers, Defined the Constitution, and Made Democracy Safe for the World by Michael Meyerson. The subtitle pretty much explains it all. The reviewer enjoyed the book and shared one of the quotes from James Madison, “If people were angels, we wouldn’t need this constitution.”

          The Invisible Code by Christopher Fowler was a very good, funny detective story. It covers the exploits of two very different detectives working for the Peculiar Crimes Unit. One is very logical, while the other uses supernatural ideas to solve crimes. This particular case leads them into the world of madness, codes, and the secret of London’s strangest relic.

          The Library at the Edge of the World by Felicity Hayes-McCoy is the first in the Finfarran Series. After a nasty divorce, Hanna Casey finds herself back where she started, living with her overbearing mother and licking her wounds. She restores a cottage left to her by her great aunt and takes a job as the local librarian. All goes relatively well until the threat of library closure jeopardizes her livelihood and she finds herself leading the community in a fight to save it. Our reviewer reported that the book was very good and she enjoyed it.

          Our next reviewer found The Road From Coorain by Julie Ker Conway to be a beautifully written book about Australia. This memoir tells of Ms. Conway’s beginnings growing up in the outback on a sheepherder’s ranch, the drowning death of her beloved father, the subsequent withdrawal of her mother into depression, and the resulting move to suburban Sydney. In later life, she becomes the first female president of Smith College, as well as a feminist and famous writer (this is her first memoir).

          The next offering was a YA novel, Hideous Love: The Story of the Girl Who Wrote Frankenstein. It was written like a journal by Mary Shelley and feels like a biography that details what life was like before and after the publication of Frankenstein. The reviewer was impressed with the extensive research that went into this novel.

          Lord of the Mountain is a juvenile book that feels more like a YA rendering. It is an especially relevant book for our area as it follows a young man who lives in Bristol, TN and is endeavoring to disobey his father by attending the Bristol Sessions. The reviewer had not finished the book, but was enjoying it immensely thus far.

          Poetry was up next. Originally having read Elizabeth Barrett Browning and being left cold, the reviewer decided to try Robert Browning. He read some, but not all of the book, and still found it lacked something. Some of the poems seemed tacky and he found a lot of the poetry to include double entendres. He felt the Italy poem read almost like a tour guide.

          In Contraband by Stuart Woods, Stone Barrington is enjoying some time off while cruising Key West on a yacht with his friend, the police commissioner. While they are enjoying the view, a plane crashes into the water. Thrown into investigating a smuggling operation; the evidence keeps disappearing. Metal cases contained in the plane disappear and then the plane itself. This was considered a good, easy read.

          People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks, a Pulitzer Prize winning author, was a lovely novel and comes highly recommended. Based on a true story, it tells of Hannah, an Australian rare-book expert, who is hired to restore the famed Sarajevo Haggadah. As she works, she finds tiny artifacts in the bindings of the book and uses those to unlock the mystery of the book’s owners throughout history.

          Also by Geraldine Brooks, The Secret Chord was reviewed this week. This book covers the history of the Biblical story of David and Goliath. The author found it to be a lot about who killed whom, and although it was well-written, she didn’t enjoy it.

          Dumpty is a small book filled with political cartoons and satirical verse about President Trump and others in his administration. It is written by the actor, John Lithgow. Our reviewer found it highly amusing.

Destroyer Angel by Nevada Barr

Reviewed by Kristin

Nevada Barr jumps right into the action in her newest book,  Destroyer Angel.  Anna Pigeon is on a camping and canoeing trip in the Iron Range area of northern Minnesota with two women and their teenage daughters.  One of the women, Heath, is a paraplegic and the other, Leah, is a designer of adaptive outdoor equipment. The trip will serve as a test for some of Leah’s designs. Returning from a solo canoe trip on the Fox River one evening, Anna hears a group of men taking the other women and girls captive.  Anna stays hidden and follows the group, hoping to help the campers escape.

With such an abrupt jump into the action, I didn’t feel that I knew the camping party characters at all.  Eventually they are revealed during their adventure, but it took me a little time to understand who was who, and why they were acting in whatever manner was characteristic of each of them.  Anna is such a familiar character because Barr has written seventeen previous adventures.  (Read a review of The Rope, a prequel to the series, here.)

Heath is Elizabeth’s adoptive mother, and a paraplegic.  She was very active before her accident, and continues to be physically active and good natured about her limitations.  She and the fifteen year old Elizabeth have a very good relationship.  The other woman is Leah, a brilliant and wealthy designer of outdoor equipment.  While she easily becomes lost in her work, she is often distant from Katie, her thirteen year old daughter.

When a group of four men come into the camp and force the mothers and daughters to come with them, the scared captives must work together to keep everyone safe and alive.  Leah converts the prototype, lightweight wheelchair into a unicycle chair so that they can maneuver Heath over the rough territory.  The men, or “thugs” as they are referred to in Anna’s mind, are not cut out for back country hiking.  While the “dude” seems to be the leader, (and yes, he is actually called “dude” by his compatriots) there is definitely someone else calling the shots.  The women do all they can to take whatever advantages their outdoor knowledge affords them.  The men are not at all prepared for the rigors of walking several miles in the woods.  However, they are the ones with the knives and guns.  As Anna follows the men and their captives, she does all she can to save her companions.

The tension filled action continues; it kept me on edge and urgently reading to find out what the group’s fate would be.  Eventually most of the characters emerge from the woods bloody and battered, but alive.  (I said most, but won’t tell you which ones.)  While most Anna Pigeon books do show humans who are challenged by nature and other humans, this is definitely one of the darker volumes as Anna must look into her own soul while she attempts to stop the thugs by any means possible.