Moving story, in the vein of Angela's Ashes
599228
Sommer tells a very moving and realistic story about his experiences as a Jewish child and young man during the era of Hitler.  His descriptions of the people he met along the way come alive as he tells the story, and the events leap off the page.  His perspective is different from others I've read in that he comes from Hungary and most of his trials are outside of the camps, so the action and setting changes constantly.  Like Frank McCourt in Angela's Ashes, he tends to paint himself the hero or the pitiable one in the story, and that loses him a star.  Definitely worth the read.
821720
Maxwell's telling of this family's journey through sadness and pain is emotionally moving and gratifying.  I found myself drawn into, not only the story, but also into the lives of its characters. Perhaps the recent experience of death in my family contributed to that, but I fully credit the skill of the author with the emotion that was generated in me.
4491229
With a main character named Esther Comely-Cox, you know the story is going to be intriguing. Esther's journey through life has been challenging to say the least. Naming the majority of their children after the characters from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was just the tip of the iceberg of parental cruelty for Cheryl and Dean Comely. Esther may have escaped that horror, but being blamed for the disappearance (or possible suicide) of her beloved twin sister, Aster, has left her with scars that may never heal. Estranged from her family, Esther travels from city to city, chasing a small sense of normalcy and comfort. It appears she has found an inkling of hope in the form of Kingston Cole, the charming doctor who treats her after a rather humiliating car accident. (A Ho Ho in the face is not a good look for anyone.) Cue a series of heartbreaking events which Esther fights her way through with valiant effort. The range of emotions I felt while reading this book was remarkable! Laughter through tears is a difficult emotion to evoke, but Ms. Biel achieves this feat beautifully. Esther's story will pull you in, puzzle, shock and enrage you, and leave you with comfort in the end. I recommend you have a box of tissues and a good supply of chocolate handy while reading this inspiring story.
2358743
It was bad enough when fifteen-year-old Liz Scattergood's grandmother, Bunny, died.  It's even worse now that her mother seems to have gone crazy.  For weeks her mom wouldn't get out of bed, wouldn't eat dinner with Liz and her father, wouldn't even brush her hair.  Although Liz understands that her mother and Bunny had a special bond, were more like sisters, in fact, than mother and daughter, Liz doesn't understand the extreme depression.  That was almost preferable, though, to what happens when her mother snaps out of her funk and finally leaves the darkened comfort of her bedroom.  Because now she's found religion--or, in this case, Spiritualism, where the congregation and leaders believe they can communicate with the spirits of the dead.

After her mom's first visit to Singing Creek, the Spiritualist Church, she comes home acting alive for the first time in weeks.  Liz is curious enough to agree to accompany her the following Saturday, but Liz's dad is none too pleased with the developments.  For him, religion is filled with hypocrites and fools, and the crazies that attend Singing Creek are the worst of the lot--they hold out hope to those who have lost someone they love, convincing them that they can really "talk" to the dearly departed's spirit.

For Liz, these new arguments of her parent's is shaking up her once comfortable life.  Added to that is the new family who has moved in across the street.  There's Courtney, [...]and a total joy, and fifteen-year-old Nathan, who always seems so angry.  Their mother, Lily, is dying of leukemia and has come home to spend her final days with her mother, dubbed by Liz as Mrs. Crabby.  As Liz enters into a tenuous friendship with Nathan bordering on a first love, and takes Courtney under her wing, she's confused by her father's anger, her mother's obsession with communicating with her dead mother, and the fact that life in Tobias isn't as calm and easy as she'd always believed it to be.

Ms. Wittlinger has penned a beautiful story in BLIND FAITH.  This is the story of hope and faith, of love and loss, of life and death.  As Liz fights to understand why she doesn't have the same type of bond with her mom that her mother had with Bunny, as Nathan and Courtney learn to live without their mother, and as everyone involved learns how important it is to always have hope, these two families will be forever entwined.  A very heartfelt, tender story, you won't go wrong reading BLIND FAITH.
4601811
As someone who has experienced some of this story as my own, it was hard to read Jessie's story and yet, I couldn't stop reading. I was sad when I had to put it down to go to an appointment. I finished this book in two days and it touched my heart deeply. There is beauty for ashes in this story. It's definitely worth the read.
4500974
Anne Tyler's slim new novel delves into the many aspects of grief and how it can sometimes make us a little crazy.  Aaron was left cripple by a childhood illness and spent his childhood being controlled by an overprotective sister.  When he meets Dorothy, an independent and strong doctor, he believe he has found the perfect match.  Their marriage proves to be perfectly pleasant and unremarkable until the day a tree lands on their house and kills Dorothy. Aaron is left reeling by the loss of his wife until she starts "appearing" to him.  These appearances lead him through the various stages of grief and into some surprising self-revelation.

I loved Tyler's unusual take on grief.  Unexpected death can change our relationship with a lost loved one in more ways than one.  It might make us romanticize their lives or cause us to focus on the most mudane of details.  I think the process of Aaron's grief is both fascinating and moving.  It often goes in unexpected directions as we follow his progress in dealing with his loss while finding a way to live in the world again.  I only found myself wanting a bit more to the story. The whole tale is so brief!

BOTTOM LINE:  Recommended.  An unusual take on grief and loss from a very talented writer.
2991536
When Joe wakes up he is in his room and his family is leaving their home for good.  They say good bye to their home and they say goodbye to him. Joe is dead. Although he is awake, he quickly realizes the memory of his death is vague and the memory and how he died is unclear.  Soon another family comes to live in Joes old house.  And Joe (dead and a ghost) and his brother (alive and struggling with his brothers death) meet Erin.  Erin is fighting with her own haunting past and is trying start over in a new school.  As the relationships grow closer, Joe, his brother, and Erin must come to terms with life, death and forgiveness.
Just when you think you know how this story is going to end, the author throws a surprising twist.  Written from the three main characters perspective, there is a rawness that creates a genuine feel to the characters.  Major themes are: loneliness, loss, bullying, and suicide.
2270290
Where does the loneliness we feel take us? How do we recover from terrible loss and redeem guilt? And how do we live the life we've been given? In this beautiful sophomore novel, Elizabeth Strout (AMY AND ISABELLE) carefully constructs ABIDE WITH ME, which explores faith, community, numbing loss, the tremendous power of words used carelessly, and redemption.

It's 1959, and the threat of nuclear destruction is uppermost in the minds of Americans. Against the gray cold backdrop of northern Maine, Reverend Tyler Caskey deals with his own devastation as he grieves the loss of his colorful and lively wife, Lauren. The once vibrant and articulate pastor is now reduced to reading old sermons to his Congregationalist church on Sunday mornings and is barely able to cope with each day. His family is splintered: his youngest daughter, Jeannie, has been parceled out to his unloving mother to raise, and Katherine has become alternately sullen and silent or screaming and acting out in kindergarten.

Caskey's housekeeper, Connie Hatch, tries to keeps order in the 100-year-old farmhouse in the small town of West Annett that serves as parsonage, but her own terrible secrets are a ticking time bomb. Tyler's congregation is becoming impatient with his grief; their gossip is about to involve him in events that will change his perceptions of his life and his abilities, while causing him to face a few secrets of his own. Dealing with problems is something he's not particularly good at. Lauren's final words ring in his ears: "Tyler, you're such a coward, you know."

The colorless town, with its rather colorless meals, is nevertheless richly portrayed, from the gold gingko leaves in the autumn to such lovely phrases as "her earlier visit to his office hung over his shoulders like a cape dampened by rain." Strout adeptly handles the flashbacks that slowly flesh out Tyler and Lauren's courtship and early marriage, and the terrible days leading up to her death. Some very specific sexual details, however, will limit conservative readers' enjoyment of the book.

One of Strout's strengths is her well-developed characters. Their interior lives are much more complex than the simplicity they present to the world, and their secrets darker than anyone would suspect. Strout makes them interesting yet believable. Connie is 46 years old, part Indian, with beautiful green eyes and a birthmark on the side of her nose, "red as raspberry jam." She alternately repels the reader and attracts. Tyler's difficult mother, who criticizes and repeats the same stories over and over again, will be recognizable as a character type most of us have encountered, especially in the church.

Tyler is a curious mixture of strength and vulnerability. "It might have been this quality, as much as any other, that continued to make the minister so popular with his congregation: these moments of sudden bafflement, deep uncertainty. Surfacing from a man who appeared always in control of himself, who shouldered his misfortunes with the gentle air of an abstracted acceptance, these instances of open-faced bewilderment allowed people, particularly women but by no means only women, to view him as surprisingly and suddenly vulnerable..." Tyler lives in fear that he will lose his connection to God, "The Feeling," those moments of transcendence that have been so important to him. It's our bond with Tyler and especially his relationship with his daughter, Katherine, that ensures we won't put the book down until the very last page.

Redemption and yearning are symbolized by the old hymn lyrics from Abide with Me, which appear throughout the book: "Abide with me; fast falls the eventide...The darkness deepens; Lord with me abide." Tyler comes to find that he isn't given an easy life, but it's a life in which God offers his presence. Readers who enjoyed Gail Godwin's EVENTIDE, Kent Haruf's PLAINSONG or Susan Howatch's Starbridge series should find this novel an absorbing pleasure

  --- Reviewed by Cindy Crosby (phrelanzer@aol.com)
2112257
So moving, really makes you think about the process of dying
4106914
I read this book about a year ago, and it remains one of my absolute favorites.  When I finished it I immediately went back and starting rereading the beginning.  I couldn't leave it!  What impressed me so, was  the feeling of being invited in to relive this man's memories with him.  I  was amazed at the childish innocence with which he wrote the book.  Frank  McCourt tells his story from a child's eyes instead of giving adult  explanations to everything that happened.  I think that this is what makes  Angela's Ashes so poetic!  It really is a beautiful book, and I can't say  enough about it.  If you are looking for a similar book, try A Tree Grows  in Brooklyn by Betty Smith.  There are many parallels which I found  fascinating.
1297851
I loved this book.  It follows Angela Talbot, a normal young woman who works as a personal assistant at a big company, who is murdered on her way home.  When she gets to the afterlife, her guide, John tells her that she is dead and that the first thing she must do is solve her own murder.  It was heartbreaking to watch Angela discover her death and the impact it had on her family.

Angela follows her godfather, Jasper, a homicide detective, as he launches his own investigation into her death.  Soon, Angela has a list of suspects that includes her boyfriend, her brother, her co-worker, and the homeless man she brought coffee to.  While she is investigating, she has to try and stay out of the way of two Hellions, or demons, Alec and Rufus who want to kill her again.

The characters were really well written and developed.  I could really identify with Angela and I can't wait to read more by the same author.
284070
From Ashes to Honor by Loree Lough has excellent characterization, an interesting plot, and a strong, faith-based message.  It was an interesting, enjoyable, easy read. It left me with hope for Austin, Bud, and Flora and an understanding of the struggles faced by Mercy, Griff, and Cora. However, though the characterization was excellent, the plot at times seemed very slightly under-developed by comparison, especially considering the main hero was an EMT, the heroine was attacked, and two other minor characters (Flora and Griff) faced similar crises.

In the introduction, Loree explains that she seeks to illuminate and praise the heroism, faith, and strength of the first responders of September 11, and all first responders since. This, she does, and she does it well through her depiction of Austin, one of the two main characters.  Hero Austin, though challenged by all he has faced, is invincible, strong, and stalwart--honorable and admirable because of the issues he has overcome.  Austin's struggle and strength after September 11th were poignant, heart-warming, touching, and inspiring.  They teach the reader much about what it means to be a Christian and face incredibly painful circumstances beyond our control yet to hold fast to our convictions and faith.  They teach us about real life issues, such as regrets that cannot be righted, grief, doubt, alcoholism, and burdensome obligations.  And Austin's struggle ultimately, with the ending, reminds us that peace and resolution comes only from once source--God.

However, after the tragedy of September 11th, certain elements of this book compound tragedy upon tragedy lacking resolution, especially for Dr. Mercy Samara.  Was it a well-written, good book? Yes.  But was I satisfied with the ending? No.  I was surprised when I realized I was on the last page.  I thumbed backwards to see if I had skimmed over a paragraph and missed some essential resolution.  I thumbed forward to the preview of the next book in the series to see if Lough would pick up where this book ends (it does not seem that she does).  I went back to the introduction to read again what Lough's purpose in writing this book was.  And I immediately began to list out in my head all of the elements of the plot that prevented a resolution that spoke of hope, comfort, and love for Mercy.  There were many, and the plot seemed a bit unfair to Mercy.

Does the book portray real life, regardless of how things end? Yes.  Should ultimately our peace stem from God and our divine romance with Him? Yes.  Shouldn't I be accepting of a hero who chooses God above all else? Yes.  Was the plot Biblical and full of truth in every aspect? Yes.  Yet what would have been a five star read became something a bit less for me.  What was lacking was resolution of Mercy's story and hardships.  Her resolution didn't have to be happy, it didn't have to be what I would have chosen, but she needed to be given relevance and consideration. Because she was a prominent character, I felt like she deserved a more substantial role in the ending. Her feelings toward her mother and even her attackers were never re-visited in the book.

All in all, however, a good read that lacks a resolute ending.
2204698
I've just finished reading Ron Franscell's Angel Fire. It's good. A story  of two brothers who lost each other in the Vietnam war and are now  struggling to find the frayed ends of their connecting wires. The wires  were snapped into by the terror of the war and the awesome distance between  those you love back home and those you fear, who surround you in the dark.  One brother waits in the quiet netherworld, while the other steadfastly  searches the unlit corners, and gently tries to bind each fray, one by one,  back together.  It seems almost hopeless at times. Still there continues a  faint ray of hope as though lit by the fire of an angel.
This story took  me on a soft-hurt kind of journey, moving restlessly over the memories of a  childhood. The way was not easy. It moved the heart. If you like to really  care when you read, then you'll love this story.
652230
Having read and enjoyed 'I heart you, You haunt me' all I needed to see was Lisa Schroeder's name to know I wanted to read 'Chasing Brooklyn', which is another book written in verse and set in the same location as the former. Ava, the protagonist from 'I heart you, You haunt me' even makes a cameo appearance.

'Chasing Brooklyn' is the story of two grieving teenagers and their path to healing. A year after the death of Lucca, Brooklyn's boyfriend and Nico's brother, his best friend Gabe dies under suspicious circumstances (many speculate that it was suicide). That's when Brooklyn starts having nightmares starring Gabe as the villain and Lucca begins haunting Nico.

I went into this book expecting another heartrending, yet beautiful read, but when compared to 'I heart you, You haunt me', some of the sections in Chasing Brooklyn felt contrived rather than part of the natural grieving process. I also expected more to happen with the haunting of Brooklyn and Nico respectively. In the end, the hauntings were more side thoughts.

Those complaints aside, this was still a beautiful book with an ethereal quality to it. Because of the short, punchy, and often evocative sentences, this was a very quick read. The story development between Brooklyn and Nico, unfolding via alternating chapters from each of their perspectives, was sweet if a bit predictable. Halfway through the book, it was easy to figure out what was going to happen, but sometimes it's not about the destination, but the journey--and so is the case with this book.

I wish I could say I adored this book as much as 'I heart you, You haunt me' but I can't. I did enjoy it, but at times I was pulled out of the story and felt an emotional disconnect from the characters. Still, this was an emotionally moving story. It's mild in sex, drugs, violence, and coarse language. (In fact, I believe only one or two curse words were used within the entire book.) It also stresses the importance of forgiveness and courage to move forward in the most difficult of times. This is a book I would have no problem recommending.
453265
I really enjoyed this book. I was nervous about reading it, because it is about the holocaust from Death's perspective and I wasn't sure I wanted to sign up for a heart-wrenching read. I did shed a few tears, but not many and I came to love the characters. It was sad, but not simply for the sake of being sad. There was also laughter, love, and hope. Death, who is somewhat tired of his job and questioning the value of humanity becomes entwined with a little German girl named Liesel and the story that results is a combination of his perspective and hers. There were times that the writing style threw me off- like when Death tells you what hasn't yet happened but shortly will occur... and the seemingly choppy storyline, but if the reader just sits back, everything will eventually make sense and all the events will be explained. I definitely recommend this book, the storyline is new and the characters are lovably human.
3618131
A touching tragic story, set up the more powerfully by the opening pages.

Memories of a young woman's early childhood time with her father teaching her how to ride her bicycle ("I promise. I'll hold on until you're ready for me to let go.") contrast sharply to events after she extends sympathy toward a family whose father accidentally (tire blowout) killed her younger sister.

The complete refusal by the young woman's family to not forgive or understand the nature of the accident seems beyond unreasonable. Some hint of why might be the only thing this short could have to boost it even better.

Yet, the author's portrayal of the young woman's angst and perseverance in the keeping of her love and memories of how her family used to be with her, before extending love to the other family's grief, is convincing and consistent throughout. And she herself wonders and suffers at that very unreasonableness - without being herself consumed in retaliatory anger to her own family.

This creates, in a very few pages, a profound sense of both tragedy and dignity.

An emotional read that sadly, strikes true.
2037571
When I started reading Imagine Me Gone, I wasn't in the right place for it, emotionally. I found myself bored during Michael's long rants about music and more annoyed with him than empathetic during his relationship struggles. So, I shelved this book for a while. I picked it back up recently, and this time, it hit me straight in the feels and never let go.

I connected with this story on several, very close levels. In short, this book hit extremely closely to home. As I came to know and understand Michael more in the second half of the book, my annoyance with him in the beginning made me feel guilty for not being more understanding initially. As a result, I found myself even more understanding Alec's and Celia's conflicting emotions toward their brother. Their love, guilt, sense of duty, and irritation with him were all written in such realistic way, and readers can't help but be drawn into the family and become emotionally invested in their struggles.

Adam Haslett essentially nailed the intricacies of mental illnesses and the effects they have on the people who suffer from them and the people who love them. Margaret, Alec, and Celia each have their own issues as well, and the subtle way that Haslett wove them through their stories made them all the more powerful. The important messages he included about the need for quality mental health care, the importance of well-regulated medication, and the value of having a support system was poignant and compelling.