BOOKS: Annual Christmas List

Yes, boys and girls it is once again time for Auntie Santa to help you with your Christmas gift giving and to get a hint or two in for Auntie Santa herself. Starting with the young, especially the young in heart-- I find that some of the best books published are in this group:

THE BOOK THIEF by Markus Zusak is still on my favorite- of- all -time list. No matter for what the age, this book is brilliant.

I really enjoyed THE HUNGER GAMES series by Susanne Collins. These books have actually been out for some time, but if not already read, a good choice for the futuristic fan.

Our granddaughter has asked for LOOKING FOR ALASKA by John Green. She has never led me wrong and from the reviews, this does sound good. Maybe she will loan me her copy.

I personally am excited that Justin Cronin’s follow-up to THE PASSAGE is out, and on the best- seller lists. The title is THE TWELVE and I am going to be checking under the tree for this one with my name on the tag.

Again for the reader who enjoys something different consider WORLD WAR Z by Max Brooks. Max is the son of Mel Brooks, so you know to expect something unusual. It has been around for some time, but I see that The New York Times has it on one of their list. It is definitely different!

For history buffs the selection is always rich. My husband read Bill O’Reilly’s KILLING LINCOLN and enjoyed it. He had been warned that the author may have taken some liberties with the facts.

Laura Hillenbrand’s UNBROKEN is the true story of a prisoner of war during the Second World War. I really got caught up in this one.

From the earliest days of our country comes UNWISE PASSIONS by Alan Pell Crawford. Taking his facts from letters and diaries, this book gave me a new understanding of some of our founding fathers. This was a fascinating read even for those of us who are more interested in characters than history.

Two “just good reads” were David E. Hinton’s KINGS OF COLORADO and Emma Donoghue’s ROOM. I loved both of these although they are very different. Either would be appreciated by the readers on your list.

A specialized book on my list would be I HAD BRAIN SURGERY, WHAT'S YOUR EXCUSE? by Suzy Becker. This would be a good “up-lifter” for the reader going through any type of health problem. It is funny-- odd, but funny.

Remember the classics still work; after all, they ARE classics. With all of the publicity for the movie LES MISERABLES, and the local high school doing their production of it, it might be a good idea to go back to read the original by Victor Hugo. It has lasted over time for a reason.

The choices are so plentiful, but I am taking too much space. So, that leaves me with just enough time to mention four of my favorite authors and a bit of advice; try them. Greg Iles. I am waiting for him to recover from his accident and get done with his Penn Cage series.

Sharon Sala. Her books are sometimes OK and sometimes terrific. The terrific are worth waiting for.

Margaret Coel. If modern day Native American mysteries are of interest, give her a try. I cannot understand why she is not on every reading list.

Judy Coopey. Her third book will be out in January, but REDFIELD FARM and WATERPROOF are good choices.

My sincere wish for all of us is that we spend Christmas Day with a new book that we can NOT put down long enough to open the rest of our gifts.

THEATER: Les Miserables

When I heard that Bald Eagle Area Drama Club was doing LES MISERABLES I winced. Don’t get me wrong; I have loved the story since I was forced to read it in my high school French class. I even had doubts when the book was turned into a musical. Now, a group of high school students were going to attempt it. Wow.

Wow is right. I am so glad that I made the trip to Wingate to see those high school students.  First of all the adaption by Tim Kelly from Victor Hugo’s rather long novel is just perfect for an evening of theatre.

Secondly, director Lindsey Allison and technical director Eric Brinser showed great understanding of the show and were able to pass that to the cast and crew. Having Victor Hugo, played by Benjamin Leskovansky, explain the passing of time was a big help for audience members who may have forgotten points of the original plot. The show appeared to be very simple, an easy one to do. It only takes a look at the list of cast, crew, parents, school officials, etc. to give an idea of what an undertaking this was. I wish there were room to mention everyone.

To me the most effective scene was Clifford Smolko’s soliloquy. So many times Inspector Javert is seen as a villain. Clifford portrayed him as being conflicted between his sense of duty and dealing with the goodness of Jean Valjean. That is the way it should be.

Speaking of the personality of Jean Valjean, Richard Spicer is well cast as the man who is basically good and trying to live down his past. Richard also had his chance to show great passion. His speech in the court room was very convincing.

As an actor, the chance to play Thenardier or his wife Madam must be a treat. He is my favorite character in the play; he is so very shady….no, beyond “shady”. Cody Mandell and Nicole Bonsell were almost slimy at times. These are the true villains and Cody and Nicole had fun with the parts.

It is a shame that the character Fatine is not on stage longer. Lexi Holderman was so good and needed more time to develop this fantastic person. Her death scene was well played, not overly dramatic, just very touching. Another actress who is worth mentioning is Abbey Crago as Eponine. Again, I wish Abby would have had time to develop her character. It was still possible to get to know this complicated person through Abbey’s acting and Ms. Allison’s directing.

I enjoyed the show immensely and it made me even more excited to see the upcoming movie. The sad thing for me was knowing that some of my favorite actors up on the Bald Eagle stage are seniors and only will be seen in one more show. Incidentally, that will be Fiddler on the Roof; you won’t want to miss this one.

BOOK REVIEW: Expecting Adam

Sometimes a book comes along that makes me a little nervous to tell you about it; I am afraid that I will not do it justice. EXPECTING ADAM by Martha Beck is one of those books. As the cover says, it is a “true story of birth, rebirth, and everyday magic”.

My first contact with Martha Beck was a book titled The Joy Diet. It was an upbeat, humorous guide on how to add joy to your life. As I read it, the author’s life became slowly revealed showing that she was a person who had experienced so many things that should have made joy a foreign emotion. She knows that being happy is a deliberate decision that we make.  Probably the major event in her life was giving birth to her son Adam. But, let us start at the beginning of EXPECTING ADAM.

Martha and her husband John were graduate students at Harvard. With two degrees apiece under their belts, they were on their way to successful careers. Although already the parents of a daughter, Martha was on the professional track demanded by her school and fellow classmates.

The new pregnancy brought with it constant battles with nausea, dehydration, and censure from the Harvard community. The criticism became more intense when the unborn baby is diagnosed with Downs Syndrome and it is clear that she is not going to terminate the pregnancy.

This story covers so many issues that it is hard to know where to begin. I was particularly amazed by how critical her fellow female colleagues were. Showing signs of illness was showing signs of weakness and as one woman told her, “gave woman a bad name”. The stress to get ahead on campus did not allow for any type of personal life. Almost from the moment that she thought she was pregnant, Martha started having “spiritual” experiences. She said that she could not explain some of the things that happened, but it was as if Adam brought his own guardian angels with him from the very beginning.

This is a tender, honest, funny, wonderful book. If you are the type to scoff at visions or guardian angels, you will still be captured by the warmth and love contained in Adam’s story. If you have been blessed with a special needs child, this book should be required reading.

BOOK REVIEW: The Devil's Punchbowl

THE DEVIL'S PUNCHBOWL is the most disturbing Greg Iles book that I have read. A Greg Iles book is going to deal with unsavory characters and situations. We know that; he is not for the faint of heart or squeamish. This time the subject matter pushed some personal buttons.

After the death of his wife, and thinking to give his young daughter the support of her grandparents, Penn Cage had returned to his home town, Natchez, Mississippi. He had been elected mayor on the promise to bring fresh money to the small city and to improve the school system.

Penn reluctantly agrees that one way to bring jobs and money in is to allow riverboat casinos to set up at the bottom of the town. When his old high school friend Tim asks to meet him in the local cemetery, Penn is pulled into the evil that has come to his town. Tim shows Penn graphic pictures of the dog fights that are drawing the big money gamblers to the Magnolia Queen Casino. Shortly after their meeting Tim is found murdered and when threats are made to Penn’s family, the depraved new world collides with Penn’s world.

Although I feel that I should warn you of the violence, it was always done as part of the horror of the situations. (Trust me; you will not be able to forgive the people involved in dog fighting after reading this book.)

There are so many things that I like about Greg Iles and this novel is no exception. First of all, he is never a formula writer. Each book is fresh and inventive. I also love his use of language. On one page his description is Southern poetry; the next page will be in words that only a man from the gutters would use. Both rang true to me.

If I have a problem with THE DEVIL'S PUNCHBOWL it is that it ends with a doozy of a cliff hanger. In searching for the title of the next book in line, I found that Iles has been in a very bad automobile accident and, as far as I can find, the sequel has not come out yet. He is worth waiting for, but I hope that he hurries up!

BOOK REVIEW: Calling Invisible Women

Ladies, have you ever felt invisible? Have you ever felt that your loved ones would not notice if you were present, as long as the food appeared on the table and the laundry was done? Or… better question…..What would you DO if you were truly invisible?

If any of these questions have ever crossed your mind, meet Clover, the fifty-something heroine of Jeanne Ray’s CALLING INVISIBLE WOMEN. Clover panics when she makes the discovery one morning that her body can no longer be seen. Although her husband Arthur and their son Nick sit across from her at the breakfast table that morning, neither are aware that Clover has no body.

Wearing long sleeves, slacks, a hat, and sunglasses, Clover ventures out of her house into a world that does not notice her lack of a body. Luckily, she finds that she is not alone with this condition. The Organization of Invisible Women helps the members develop self-confidence and useful survival skills, particularly the freedom of being naked. After all, no one can see them.

Being unseen gives Clover and her new friends an ability to do Super Hero types of actions like stopping bullying on the school bus and stopping a bank hold-up. The women discover that the one thing that they have in common is a combination of drugs that they had taken and that the responsible pharmaceutical company knows of this side effect.

CALLING INVISIBLE WOMEN is a very light read, but it does have serious ideas. The author seemed to have two points that she wanted to make: how easy it is to over- look women of a certain age and how far large pharmaceutical companies will go to make a profit.

One quote saved the book from being silly : “…..before it happened I felt that I had all of the burdens of no one paying attention to me and none of the benefits. Now I can see how many things you can do when no one is watching. It’s a huge freedom when you think about it.”

So, if you ever feel invisible, dance as if no one is watching; it can be liberating according to Jeanne Ray’s CALLING INVISIBLE WOMEN.

THEATER REVIEW: The Importance of Being Earnest

The high school theatre season has started and I could not be happier. If I have as much fun at the other schools as I did this past Friday at Bellefonte High School's fall play, it will be a good year.

The Bellefonte Area High School Drama Club stretched their Thespian muscles with Oscar Wilde’s THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST proving that audiences can still relate to Oscar Wilde and that our high school students have talent.

The two charming bachelors who confuse the plot by proposing to their respective girlfriends under the pseudonym of “Earnest” were played by freshman Stephen Giacobe and senior Sean Connelly. Both actors captured the period of the play well. I initially had some trouble with Stephen’s British accent, but before the end of the first act it was no longer a problem.

The girlfriends were delightfully played by seniors Elizabeth Catchmark and Julia Laufer. These two young actresses have great stage presence and clear diction. Since so much of Wilde’s humor depends on the audience catching the clever lines I really appreciated the work that went in to the dialogue. They are also to be commended on handling hoop skirts so skillfully.

Senior Chelsea McGhee played the only “earnest” person in the play, the pompous Lady Bracknell, with dignity and a touch of true snobbery. When she and the governess Miss Prism, senior Marichka Lucas, explain what has happened, it almost makes sense. Again, the work that went into making the lines clear to the audience was appreciated.

Zachary Spaw and Kyle Naylor “ butlered” perfectly. They were the very model of Victorian correctness. Sean Gipson had the fun part of the Reverend Canon Chasuble. These three actors proved that there are no small parts in theatre. Each young man took his part and made it his own.

Extra credit goes to the technical crew for capturing the period so well. Costumes, sets, and even the women’s hair styles were well done. Artistic Director Shaun McMurtrie put together a very enjoyable evening. It will be fun to see what this group will do with South Pacific in April.

BOOK REVIEW: Moment of Truth

As I said last week, I have discovered Lisa Scottoline. I just finished MOMENT OF TRUTH and am a little ambiguous about my feelings.

Wealthy Honor Newlin has been murdered. Her husband Jack finds her body in their apartment, rearranges the death scene, calls 911, and confesses to the crime. Jack knows that their daughter Paige was to have met her parents for dinner that night, so he is sure that Paige is guilty of killing her mother. Jack hires the inexperienced attorney, Mary DiNunzio. Mary may not be a veteran criminal lawyer, but she finds Jack’s story unbelievable and starts investigating Paige. Sixteen-year old Paige is a very successful model whose career has been managed by her mother. For all of those years Paige has put up with her mother’s abuse and now she has to tell her mother of her pregnancy. What follows, of course, is a plot full of twists, chase scenes, and several more murders.

This book was a disappointment to me. I know that just because an author makes it to a best seller list does not guarantee that I will like him or her, but I expected more. The characters in MOMENT OF TRUTH did not ring true to me; I wanted more depth, more growth. The basic plot was good and Scottoline is able to introduce humor in the spots that need to be lightened, but somehow this book felt rushed, as if the author’s mortgage was due and a deadline was fast approaching. I will read Lisa Scottoline again. Her collection of articles, Why My Third Husband Will Be a Dog made me feel that I know her personally. Keeping that in mind, I will give her another chance.