The Sign of Seven Trilogy by Nora Roberts

As my newest pregnancy hits full swing, I find that I have to keep my reading/media on the light-hearted side of things.  Anything too heavy gets the hormones going, and nobody wants to cry over a book...at least not very often!

The Premise:  On the even of their shared 10th birthday, best friends Caleb, Fox and Gage embark on a glorious adventure: little debbie snack cakes, warm cans of coke, bike rides and camping - alone - in the forbidden Hawkins Hallow wood at the mysterious Pagan Stone.  As midnight and their birthday approaches, the boys use Caleb's boy scout knife to swear themselves as blood brothers.  They speak an oath and combine blood...and unleash a dark madness that was trapped under the Pagan Stone.

Now every seven years for seven days the demon the boys unwittingly unleashed on their birthday reigns terror upon the town and people of Hawkin's Hallow.  Buildings are burned, people murdered and only Caleb, Fox and Gage seem to remember that it even happened.

As their 31st birthday approaches, Caleb, Fox and Gage know in their guts that this Seven is their last chance to save their town from the Demon...if they can just figure out how.

Blood Brothers:  In the months before the Seven hits Hawkins Hallow, Caleb Hawkins feels the signs starting earlier and stronger than ever.  Animals are acting strangely, the woods behind his house seem to bleed, and a sense of wrong invades his dreams.  Which is why he agrees to an interview with paranormal writer Quinn Black.

Quinn comes to town with an open mind and isn't disappointed in what she finds.  Inexplicably, Quinn can see the signs as well, although she's not local to the town.  As Quinn digs into research and settles into Hawkins Hallow for the next few months, she learns that she's connected to what happens in the town.  And to the oh so handsome Caleb.

The Hollow:  Fox O'Dell is town hippie-turned-lawyer and a solid presence in Hawkins Hallow.  His ties to his family and friends keep him in town even when darkness descends for a week every seven years.  As the next Seven looms, Fox digs in to fight what he knows is the last battle between the darkness and the light.  What he doesn't expect is for the darkness to hit harder, stronger, and earlier than ever.

But hope isn't lost.  With the help of his best friends Cal and Gage, and sophisticated newcomer Layla Darnell, Fox starts to see that the future may not be all darkness and loss.  In fact, with Layla's help, he sees that the future is worth fighting for indeed.

The Pagan Stone:  Gage Turner doesn't feel tied to his home town of Hawkins Hallow, or to the father that beat him from the time he was a small boy.  But he does feel tied to his best friends Caleb and Fox.  So every seven years he returns home from wherever his wanders have taken him to help his friends fight to keep Hawkin's Hallow safe from the demon that terrorizes the town.  This Seven feels different from the last.  Not only is the demon coming on stronger than ever, his friends have help, in the form of Caleb's Quinn, Fox's Layla and their friend, researcher Cybil Kinski.

As the group of people come together to learn all they can to fight the demon, Gage feels himself pulled to Cybil.  But can he trust in love when he may only have weeks to live?

My Thoughts:  I'm torn about this series.  I absolutely love the premise: three childhood best friends are fated to unleash a demon when they are just boys.  For a week every seven years, the demon reigns terror over the town, causing its inhabitants to do unspeakable things, of which they will not remember when the Seven is over.  The three boys, Cal, Fox and Gage, aren't without weapons--they heal fast and can't be infected--but are totally outclasses by the demon.  As the final Seven approaches, three women come to town and end up saving the day.  Their fresh take and ruthless research help the men find the tools to face the demon with a chance of not only surviving but riding the town of evil for good.  This is right up my alley.  This is genius.  I shouldn't have been able to put this series down.  But I could and did frequently.  I think what this series lacks (for me...others will not agree) is the lack of balance between story, romance and characters.  I loved the story, thought the romance was OK, and didn't like some of the characters.  Usually a Nora trilogy sucks me under, and this one just didn't.

Rating:  This was good for a one time read, but I won't pick it up again.

Reviewed By:  Tami

Also Read by Author:  I've read almost all of Roberts' catalog, which you can find at her website.  You can check my other reviews on Robert's books by searching for Nora Roberts in the quick search on the right hand side of the page, or by clicking individual links here:  Shadow Spell   |   Dark Witch   |   Thankless in Death   |   Concealed in Death  |  The Collector  |  Blood Magick  |  Blue Dahilia  |  The Liar  |  Dance Upon the Air  |  The Obsession

"Ender in Exile" by Orson Scott Card

This book is part of the Ender's Game series and as I have read the first five books plus the parallel Ender's Shadow series, I figured it would be worth my time. I listened to this as an audiobook on my phone.

Summary: At the end of Ender's Game we get something of a denouement in which humans colonize the old bugger worlds and a few satisfying details wrap up the story. In this new volume, the last couple chapters of Ender's Game are expanded greatly. We get to see Ender dealing with his new status as the most honored and most feared human in existence, loved and spurned by the masses. We get to see what life is like on the second wave of colony ships as they rush to their new homes and trail blaze a new political path as people begin to live light years away from each other. This is the first time civilians have had to deal with the realities of relativistic speeds compounded with the technology of cryogenic freezing makes for some interesting problems with ages and seniority.

We also get a glimpse into the world of Peter and Bean who are the stars of Ender's Shadow. If you loved that parallel series, there is some material in this book you might be interested in.

What I Liked: Ender gains some insights as to how he really won the war against the buggers and does a lot of reflection. This book is the denouement readers needed after the intensity of the first book.

What I Didn't Like: Honestly, this book was boring. I listened to it as an audiobook which means I did not have to do anything to keep up a good pace. There is very little action, even non-violent action. What builds the tension is finding out what doesn't happen.

Rating: Not the best of the series, but if you have already read most of them, it answers a lot of questions.

Also Read by this Author: Ender's Game, Speaker For the Dead, Xenocide, Children of the Mind, Ender's Shadow, Shadow of the Hegemon, Shadow Puppets, Shadow of the Giant, Shadow's in Flight, The Memory of Earth, The Call of Earth, The Ships of Earth, Earthfall.

Reviewed by: Nick

"Factory Girls" by Leslie Chang

I heard this book mentioned in a discussion about the modern economy and then saw it on the library shelves.

Summary: Leslie Chang is an American journalist who spent several years conducting interviews in China. The main focus of this book is on the rise of factories and the migrant workers who fill them. She interviews several workers and a few of them maintain contact over the years even as they change cities and industries. Chang goes into detail regarding their working conditions and their social lives. She tours the various places of their lives, including taking a trip back to the farm from which one of the migrants was born. She highlights the ups and downs, including how most migrants seem to see factory work as an opportunity to rise economically. They are constantly improving skills and jumping from job to job, hoping to make it big. Chang also talks about the control that the factories have over workers, including deciding where they sleep, how many hours they work and even if they are allowed to collect their last paycheck.

Chang also takes the time to explore her own past and contrast it with the workers. Chang's great-grandfather was regionally powerful before the communist revolution. He was a government official and lived in a large compound, and controlling a large amount of land. Her grandfather was an important mining engineer during the Japanese invasion and eventually assassinated during the cultural revolution. Her family moved to the United States and Chang sees similarities in her personal migrant story and the girls who work the factories.


What I Liked: This is a good long perspective on the changes in China without feeling like a defense of any particular argument. She reports what she finds and lets the reader draw their own conclusions. This is the most comprehensive book I have read on China and I found it enlightening.

What I Didn't Like: Even though she compares the two themes of the factories and her family, it still felt like maybe they should have been two different books.

Rating: Recommended.

Also Read by this Author: None.

Reviewed by: Nick

"The Wordy Shipmates" by Sarah Vowell

We picked this audiobook based on the fact that I like authors who contribute to public radio programs and Tami has a copy of this book in softcover, but has not gotten around to reading it.  

Summary: This book is a non-fiction account of the colonies in and around the land that became Massachusetts. Sarah Vowell spent years reading primary sources from the era and visiting sites important to the history. The source she explicitly refers to the most is the personal diary of John Winthrop, who played a central role in the founding and managing of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Vowell discusses the lives of the colonists before they ever left England, and what it was like to sail across the Atlantic. She quotes often from the men and women, directly from their written words. She discusses the early years of the colony, including the life of the Charter, the religious disagreements and the banishments doled out for those who were deemed a danger to the colony. The native Americans also play a big role in this book, for their continuous relations with the Europeans. At times they were allies and at times they were at war. Vowell explores the reasons for both, with a personal interest since she can trace her descendants to both sides of the ocean, pre-Columbus.

What I Liked: Vowell let a lot of the historical figures speak in their own words a lot, using a lot of direct quotes from letters, diaries and texts written at the time. I learned a lot about the colony, as I never really studied this particular group in school and felt no compulsion to investigate before this book.

What I Didn't Like: This audiobook has multiple voice actors, including Vowell herself. Each character has a unique actor for when they are quoted. It was fine when they recited a paragraph or more, but Vowell often would quote a single word of phrase and it was really disorienting to hear two voices interrupt each other while working to finish a sentence. I wish that they had handled it differently. Of course, you wont notice that if read the book.

I also found the material was presented in a form that reminded me of a history lecture. Tami did not finish the book, and I doubt I would have been able to finish without the audiobook setting the pace for me.

Rating: Skip it, unless you are a fan of Sarah Vowell.

Also Read by this Author: None.

Reviewed by: Nick

"Chalice" by Robin McKinley

Robin McKinley writes young adult novels that don't feel like they're aimed at teens.  While her characters are smart and witty, they have a maturity about them that is hard to find in contemporary books for the under 18 crowd.

 

Summary:  Bee keeper Marisol is Chalice and therefore is responsible for the well being of her people and demense until a new Master can arrive to set the land and magic back to rights.  The new Master will need to rely heavily on Marisol as Chalice so he can attune himself to the land and coach it to respond as it should.  There's only one problem...the new Master is a third level fire priest and nobody knows if he is fit to live among humans, much less save the demense from self destruction.

What I Liked:

• Chalice has a clever plot.  McKinley has created a whole new world with a rich and well thought out history.
• The characters are excellently developed.  Even the most minor character has a back story that adds to the richness of the plot.  The main characters are likable, brave yet have enough human vulnerability that the reader can relate to them with ease.
• This is a fresh take on magic.  The normal fantasy plot lines are included in the tale, but there are enough twists and unique ideas to keep even the most avid fantasy reader interested.

What Drove Me Nuts:

• The end of the story felt thrown together, almost as if the author had to keep the book under a certain page limit and therefore ended things much too quickly.
• I thought Marisol was uncharacteristically negative towards the end of the story.
• The climax of the story wasn't that climactic.  Perhaps I was expecting just a little more.

Rating:  This young adult book can hold its own against any mainstream bestseller written for adults.  I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Also Read By This Author:  "Shadows", "Sunshine", "The Hero and the Crown" and "The Blue Sword"

Reviewed By:  Tami

"People of the Book" by Geraldine Brooks

"People of the Book" has been on my to read list for years....I've even checked it out from the library a time or two, but never got around to reading it.  When I spotted a copy at a charity book sale for a dollar, I bought it on impulse.  And there it sat on the top of my ever-growing to read stack for five months before I picked it up.  From the first page "People of the Book" had me hooked.  Take my advice...pick this book up and read it now!

Summary:  Book Historian Hannah is called upon to restore and stabilize a rare Jewish Haggadah found and saved by a librarian in Kosovo amid the armed conflict in the city.  As Hannah begins her work, she extracts bits and pieces of foreign material from the books old binding - a white hair, an insect wing and a sample from a wine stain.  These bits and pieces lead Hannah on a search for the history of the people that have handled the book through some of histories most tumultuous times.

What I Liked:  First of all, I want to come straight off and say that I loved this book.  It appealed to both my amateur history buff and my reality TV loving sides.

"People of the Book" starts with Hannah's story as she flies into Bosnia to start her work preserving the book.  We the readers get just enough information about Hannah to be curious what happens to her next when we turn the page to chapter two and find ourselves face to face with the story of Lola.  About one page into Lola's story and I didn't want to stop reading.

That's the magic of this book: each chapter switches between Hannah's quest to find out more about the book, and the story of the book itself.  Often tragic but always compelling, "People of the Book" will pull at your heartstrings while keeping you guessing on what will happen next.

What Drove Me Nuts:  It was too short.  I wanted more!

Rating:  Absolutely read this book.  Then tell me what you thought!

Also Read By:  "Year of Wonders"

Reviewed By:  Tami

Image of the book from amazon.com

"Harry, A History" by Melissa Anelli

Summary:  "Harry, A History" is a retelling of the Harry Potter phenomenon of the late 90's/early 2000's as told by one of the most well known super fans of the time:  Melissa from The Leaky Cauldron.  The book is broken into chapters centered around a Harry Potter trend:  Wizard Rock, Potter Conventions, Fan Fiction, Book Bans, Release Parties and everything in between.  Each trend is outlined and interwoven with the author's own experiences with the trend.

What I Liked:  I enjoyed "Harry, A History" because it reminded me of my own love of Harry and the gang.  I got caught up in the author's excitement and was reminded of my own joy at each new release and my subsequent sorry when the series ended.

I also really enjoyed the inside look at the lengths true super fans went to in order to express their love of all things Harry.  Wizard rock?  "Shipping"?  I had no idea that people took fandom so far and it was fascinating to get a glimpse at the mania.  I'm actually glad I didn't know of all the HP outlets at the time, because I would have been one of the 20 somethings wearing a "Save Ginny" t-shirt.

What Drove Me Nuts:  Each chapter was written with what felt like its own beginning, middle and end.  Since the book was marketed as a history, I expected the chapters to follow a stronger chronological order.  The historian in me cringed at the timeline skipping.

I also wish the author had spent a little more time on her experiences running The Leaky Cauldron.  While she provided excellent insight into the various avenues of superfandom, the adult in me was also curious about the business aspect of the time, too.

Rating:  If you loved the Harry Potter series, check this book out.  I guarantee it will rekindle great memories and your appreciation for the boy who lived.

Also Read by This Author:  N/A

Reviewed By:  Tami