BOOK REVIEW

BEAR by Marian Engel

WARNING:  SPOILER ALERT  

I really enjoyed the wonderful, “folksy” writing style of Ms. Engel.  She uses precision and ease in her use of reveal as the story unfolds about a spinster who takes a job on an isolated island to account for a large house and contents donated to the historical trust.  

Her back story and the way she grows from there is very well done, but I feel really strongly that Ms. Engel gratuitously describes bestiality with the residential bear when she could have stayed with the original theme and overall feeling of the book by hinting and leaving it to the reader’s imagination rather than describing it in gory and unsavory detail.  It is disturbing and provocative, which perhaps was what she was aiming to do, but again, I suggest she could have left it out and the story would have been better for it.

BOOK REVIEW

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BEFORE I FALL  by Lauren Oliver

WARNING:  SPOILER ALERT

This lengthy novel is an engaging and deeply engrossing story about a high schooler experiencing an other-worldly event that teaches her lessons about courage, loyalty, compassion and selflessness.  I loved Ms. Oliver's expert plotting and development of characters, description and mood-setting.  This is definitely a page-turner. 

The only quarrel I have with the book is the hugely unsatisfying ending. 

Spoiler alert:  Presenting suicide as a lofty conclusion is not just unhealthy, it is misleading. 

Book Review

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SCRATCH:  Writers, Money, and the Art of Making a Living  by Manjula Martin

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this compilation of writers’ personal accounts of how they come by their money.  If you’re new to the publishing game, then it is an eye-opener, and if you’ve been at it a long time, it still carries some surprises, but better yet, innovative ideas for getting one’s ideas into print.  Very nice read.