It has been said that Noel Streatfeild's genius is in understanding a child's perspective on the world, and this seriously adult novel exhibits that exact magic. Unlike her books for children, however, Saplings (1945) paints a much darker view of the world than in the strive-and-you-shall-succeed Shoes books- this book could, in fact, be (vulgarly) summarized by Philip Larkin's 1971 poem "This Be The Verse":
This be the verse
They fuck you up, your mom and dad
They may not mean to, but they do.
They fill you with the faults they had
And add some extra, just for you.
But they were fucked up in their turn
By fools in old-stylen hats and coats,
Who half the time were soppy-stern
And half at one another's throats.
Man hands on misery to man
It deepens like a coastal shelf.
Get out as early as you can
And don't have any kids yourself.
A look at the disintegration of a middle-class family through WWII, the book contains references to sex, drinking, drug use, infidelity, sex out of marriage- a blistering variety of topics that come as startling to a reader used to the camping-holidays everying-is-jolly tone of her childrens' books, but her voice is in no way diminished, and in fact, the domestic horrors are all the more shocking for the simple, affectless narraration. The 4 children at the heart of the book, the saplings of the title, grow into a world that stunts them, and the ending pages have an almost clumsy ironic weight- maybe a tiny bit heavy handed, but for a writer who had intended to write for adults, and then found herself a star of childrens' literature, maybe the chance to make a point was irrisistable.
This was a wonderful re-telling of the Chester Gillette murder that was also the basis for Dreiser's An American Tragedy. Told form the point of view of Mattie, a teenager working at a summer resort hoping to save enough for either college or marriage, depending on how the summer goes, the essential story of Grace Brown's murder by her lover is at the heart of the novel, but Mattie is also a fully developed character and her ambitions are notable. This was just so good.
Exceptionally stupid chick lit. Girl marries guy, supports him through years of him trying to make it as a musician, and then bitches endlessly once he does.
Annoying book about Freeman Hall's years working as a handbag salesperson at a shop in LA he calls the Big Fancy, but is obviously Nordstrom's. 
YA- Sophie Mercer, 16, has used her witchcraft powers once too often in the outside world, and is sent to Hecate Hall, a reform school for Prodigium- children with supernatural powers. Shenanigans ensue. 
Re-read for book group, vivid and dizzying near-future ecological nightmare, with timely references to evangelical Christianity, deep sea drilling gone wrong, and broken weather.
"Why don't you dance?" is, I think, my favorite from the collection, or maybe "So much water so close to home", but they are all shattering little things. Reading them, I was very much aware that Bonnie Jo Campbell's 2009 National Book Award finalist collection , American Salvage, seems to inhabit the same the raggedy vinyl-sided America as Carver's characters.
Interesting and well written historical fiction about a Bolshoi ballerina who defected to the West in the early '60s. When Nina Revskaya, known in ballet circles as "The Butterfly" decides to auction off her famous jewelry collection, the researcher assigned to get background on each piece uncovers hidden histories thought left behind the Berlin Wall. Made me very much want to go look at amber with inclusions.
Oh so sad! Shopaholic does *not* move smoothly inot a recession economy, and this was pretty terrible. Becky hasn't changed, Luke hasn't changed, Suze and Tarquin are untouched by the recession, and Becky's daughter Minnie is an unholy nightmare of a child. Standard shenanigans ensue.
