Recent New Releases

Anything But Typical by Nora Raleigh Baskin

This is a charming and disarming book written in the voice of a 12-year old autistic boy. Jason writes wonderful stories on a website called Storyboard because that is the one place that he can make himself be understood. The rest of the time,especially since he's been mainstreamed into the public school system, he can't make himself heard or understood by the "neurotypical" folks, even his own family. A young girl also on Storyboard writes back to him with emails getting away from stories and more just friendly chatter. This is a new and treasured thing for Jason--a friend who sees him as talented and interesting instead of "different". But when a chance comes along for Jason and his correspondent to meet, his world is thrown into panic as he struggles with who he is and who he'd like to be. This is truly a wonderful book, designed for ages 10-14, but I was enthralled with it and I'm a rather high multiple of those ages.

Reunion by Therese Fowler

Therese Fowler's sophomore book shows that she just keeps getting better and better. Reunion tells the story of Blue Reynolds, a nationally popular talk show host with a past that she's hidden for years--a short time in her heartbroken youth that led her to partying, doing drugs and ultimately giving a baby up for adoption. She discretely begins to search for that child 20 years later, ironically at the same time her career leads her to the same man who broke her heart back then. Past and present collide in many ways for Blue, making this a very interesting read indeed with a satisfying but teasing ending. Fowler is very good a creating multi-dimensional characters that stay with you long after the last page is turned.


A Homemade Life by Molly Wizenberg

Molly Wizenberg is a food writer with a monthly column in Bon Appetit and a popular blog called Orangette ( http://orangette.blogspot.com/ ), as well as being a contributor in several other publications as well as NPR and PBS. "A Homemade Life: Stories and Recipes From My Kitchen Table" is her first book, made up mostly of past entries on Orangette. It's a biography told in recipes--amazingly accessible recipes that made my mouth water and my feet itch to get into the kitchen and start experimenting myself. This book (and the blog, on which I am now hooked) is extremely personable and personal--she talks about food solidly in the context that is has in her life. Her father's french toast, a recipe for Tarte Tatin in which the memory of a young heartbreak in Paris is a silent but important ingredient, Dutch Baby pancakes made for her by one of her friend Rebecca's husbands (Rebecca says everyone needs two husbands: for her one is straight-- John, the cook-- and one is gay-- Jimmy, the baker-- and all three have successfully lived together for years). This book reads very much like a chat at the table over coffee with your best friend--one who is a fanatic about food and has been known to experiment with recipes for years before finally being satisfied. I read the advanced copy, so I don't know about the finished book illustrations, though there is a note that they willbe in black and white, which is disappointing after seeing the stunning photography used in the blog. That will not, however, keep me from recommending this fabulous book to every foodie (or wannabe foodie) in my sphere of influence.


The Lost Quilter by Jennifer Chiaverini

The winds of March are bringing in an eagerly awaited treat--the next book in Jennifer Chiaverini's extremely popular Elm Creek Quilts series. The Lost Quilter once again visits slave times, continuing the story of Joanna begun in The Runaway Quilt (2003) . Even if you haven't read the first book, this one will grip you from beginning to end with her plight as a captured run-away slave who eventually helps fight the Civil War by spying in Charleston just before it burns. This story, for all of it's horror and brutal truths about life as a slave, is incredibly uplifting and inspiring.

Chiaverini has done it again!



Handle With Care by Jodi Picoult
I haven't read anything by Picoult in a few years, and I had forgotten how brilliant she is at blending multiple voices throughout a hefty, impressively researched novel. This book grabbed me hard and didn't let me go (sleep was lost, bus stops missed, etc). The personal, ethical, moral and social issues contained in this book will keep bookclubs talking for weeks.

The story, in a nutshell, is a mother of a precocious but severely disabled child decides, in order to get the cash necessary to keep up with her medical bills and special needs, to sue her obstetrician for "wrongful birth". This means that she must swear under oath that she should have been given all the facts about her daughter's illness in time to have an abortion. The same child that she adores, who is old enough and smart enough to understand what her mother is saying, but not why she is saying it.. Add to that the fact that her best friend is the doctor she is suing. In a small town. As you can see, the scenario is fraught with dramas and dilemmas even without side stories about her lawyer and her other daughter running throughout. There is a twist, at the very end, that will knock the breath out of you (I'm still stunned by so bold a plot turn myself).

One thing I disliked about the book is the recipes running throughout it--Charlotte, the main character, was a pastry chef before Willow's problems forced her into being a stay home mom, so they aren't completely out of place, but I felt like they did more to disrupt the flow of the book than add dimension to it. Still, I give it 5 stars with no hesitation.