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Powell's Staff:
Five Book Friday: In Memoriam
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Every year, the booksellers at Powell’s submit their Top Fives: their five favorite books that were released in 2023. It’s a list that, when put together, shows just how varied and interesting the book tastes of Powell’s booksellers are. I highly recommend digging into the recommendations — we would never lead you astray — but today...
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Brontez Purnell:
Powell’s Q&A: Brontez Purnell, author of ‘Ten Bridges I’ve Burnt’
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Rachael P.:
Starter Pack: Where to Begin with Ursula K. Le Guin
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Customer Comments
Melody Murray has commented on (22) products
The Whole Stupid Way We Are
by
N. Griffin
Melody Murray
, February 04, 2013
Disclaimer first: I am friends with the author of this remarkable book, though I flatter myself that I'm reasonably objective nonetheless. Wow, this book packs an emotional wallop that left me reeling. Despite it being written in present tense (which I loathe, almost always) it drew me in and made me care so much about Skint & Dinah and their lives that I was reluctant to get to the end. The story is almost breathlessly told (perhaps the present tense adds to that feeling) and one is swept along panting. There is one mini-chapter told from the perspective of Dinah's baby brother that is one of the most delightful vignettes I've ever read, but the bulk of the story is fraught with peril, with emotional weight, with subtexts and undercurrents. More than a solid first effort, this is a damn fine book.
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The Punk Ethic
by
Timothy Decker
Melody Murray
, March 30, 2012
I picked this up with anticipation, hope and at least a little trepidation. Decker has made some incredible, unclassifiable picture books and this lightly illustrated novel represents no little departure from the formula I have loved so much. I needn't have worried. In the young protagonist Martin, Decker delivers a real, complex and prickly hero. A kid I want to bring home so he can ignore me while I make him a sandwich and tell him to pick up his room. And then he can ignore me and play his guitar with the amp turned all the way up. Oh, wait, I have one kind of like that already. Never mind. Martin's 17, and he's flailing around a little. He knows some things for sure- maybe more than the average 17-year-old does, but he's lost in more ways than he's found. He stumbles across some pretty wonderful people in the month this book covers, and I think at the end we have seen him grow and change in ways that matter. In ways that may even help him change the world. I adored Holly, and thought that the awkward miscommunications and dancing back and forth was true-to-life. It made me cringe to read, it was so authentic. The illustrations, of course, are brilliant. It's what Decker does best. There's a spareness combined with richness that's hard to articulate, but one can almost step into those pen and inks. Highly recommended.
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Among Others
by
Jo Walton
Melody Murray
, January 23, 2012
Every now and then, there's a book that's written to one like a letter. This book was one of those, addressed to me at the address I had when I was fifteen. I loved it from the second I opened it. I was a little afraid after the first chapter that there was no way it could live up to my hopes, but it did. The protagonist Mor is not a reader, rather she lives for and through and in books while also having an interesting real life. She's got some large and perplexing issues with which to deal while trying to recover from a horrible accident and its aftermath. Her worldview is very much shaped by her reading, and though she's a perspicacious fifteen-year-old, she is still a fifteen-year-old. Her voice rings true, and her reading list is very familiar indeed. I loved the litany of books. I loved meeting old friends, and I adored the quotes and allusions and in-jokes, some of which I missed due to lacunae in my own reading. (F'rinstance, I've never finished anything by Vonnegut but perhaps it's time to give him another chance.) When I saw that Walton had Mor reading Zenna Henderson, I cheered. I loved how much Le Guin and Tiptree and Asimov and Tey and Dodie Smith and of course Heinlein and Zelazny and Silverberg were woven through the text. And McCaffery and Ellison and Sturgeon and Plato and Shakespeare and Renault. It was so lovely to see so many well-thumbed names from my own back pages. I liked the storyline as well, though I never really grokked in fullness the evil mother or her motives. Didn't matter. Not a bit. There's a boarding school, a book club full of SF geeks, Narnia, several Good Librarians, magic, Susan Cooper, Spider Robinson, fairies, ghosts, Dutch Elm disease... aw, t'hell with it, I could go on listing and listing but I think I'll go re-read the book instead. Oh, yes, highly recommended. Especially for SF lovers who adolesced in the late 70s. And those of us who have the deepest relationships with fictional characters.
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Jewelry Design Challenge
by
Linda Kopp
Melody Murray
, September 12, 2011
The premise is a familiar one from beading magazines: give designers a pile of raw materials and turn 'em loose. The executions couldn't be more different, each more creative than the last. A beautifully-photographed window into a lot of incredibly talented jewelry designers' minds. Recommended.
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Fat of the Land Adventures of a 21st Century Forager
by
Cook, Langdon
Melody Murray
, September 09, 2011
I adored the authorial voice here. Cook was an approachable, fun friend who invited me along on his trips- that's how I felt, reading this. I enjoyed all his adventures immensely, and had vicarious fun with him. I want him to write a memoir now, please.
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Sea in Flames
by
Carl Safina
Melody Murray
, May 25, 2011
This was a fascinating read on so many fronts. One of the most interesting things for me as a huge Safina fan, was to watch him write from a state of blinding, towering rage. This book was written in real time, with a few later comments inserted here and there. I think that writing well from a place of blistering anger is incredibly difficult, and watching Safina fulminate wildly at the beginning was both a little disconcerting and a little reassuring- he's just as human as the rest of us, for all he's arguably the greatest nature writer of our times. The story itself is heartbreaking but ultimately not what I thought it would be. The conclusions drawn at the end are fairly magnanimous and even-handed- and the eventual thrust of the book is more about our need for and use of fossil fuels than the chain of tragedies which come about because of that need. The other cost of the tragedy, the loss of livelihood and culture in the Gulf, is highlighted starkly throughout. The interviews with shrimpers and fishers and the supporting community members are very moving. A couple of quotes from near the end of the book: "The best way to respond to the Gulf disaster? Not washing oil off birds, picking up turtles, spraying dispersants, or cleaning beaches. Rather, pulling the subsidies out from under Big Petroleum. Since we pay those subsidies in our income taxes and lose sight of them, it'd be better to put them right in our gasoline and oil taxes and let ourselves be shocked at the pump by the true cost we're paying - and hurry toward better options." "There was another time when people vehemently insisted that changing America's main source of energy would wreck the economy. The cheapest energy that ever powered America was slavery. Energy is always a moral issue." There's a lot to learn here, and some of it will make you furious all over again. Some of it will make you think. Highly recommended.
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Orange Is the New Black One Year in a Womens Prison
by
Piper Kerman
Melody Murray
, February 27, 2011
This memoir of Kerman's year in prison was very interesting. I enjoyed seeing the inside of the system from her perspective. I think the fact that she, along with so many of the people we meet in her book, was imprisoned at all is ludicrous. Kerman was luckier than most, she had access to good lawyers and had a tremendous support system outside - both of which she admits upfront. The last few chapters were the most poignant, I think, as Kerman is forced to confront some of her demons in the flesh. Well-written and absorbing.
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View from Lazy Point A Natural Year in an Unnatural World
by
Carl Safina
Melody Murray
, February 09, 2011
Heart-wrenching, eye-opening and exquisitely written. Safina has been compared to many of the giants in the natural history world, but he's a better writer than the lot of 'em. In this latest book, he waxes a bit more philosophical than he's done before. His philosophy fits my belief system like a glove, and his conclusions are breathtaking. One trembles to think that we are on the razor's edge, that our window to remediate our planet's distress is closing rapidly- and that if we don't do it, it will be done for us with a heartless finality that will brook no arguments. As we say where I live, "The mountain don't care if you live or die." I love this passage: "So I guess what I'm trying to say is that, though I'm a secular person and a scientist, I believe that our relationship with the living world must be mainly religious. But I don't mean theological. I mean religious in the sense of reverent, revolutionary, spiritual, and inspired. Reverent because the world is unique, thus holy. Revolutionary in making a break with the drift and downdraft of outdated, maladaptive modes of thought. Spiritual in seeking attainment of a higher realm of human being. Inspired in the aspiration to connect crucial truths with wider communities. Religious in precisely this way: connection: with a sense of purpose." And this, which is purely brilliant: "If there is a God, then all things natural are miraculous. If there's no God, then all things natural are miraculous. That's quite a coincidence, and ought to give people holding different beliefs a lot to talk about. People who see the world as God's and people who sense an accident of cosmic chemistry can both perceive the sacred. Let's not be afraid to sat, to explain- and, if necessary, to rage- that we hold the uniqueness of this Earth sacred, that the whole living enterprise is sacred. And that what depletes the living enterprise always proves to be, even in purely practical terms, a mistake." I'm still reeling from Safina's descriptions of hunters who still (still!) kill ducks and toss them into the bushes because they are there for the sport (sport!) of duck hunting and have no interest in duck eating. I'm still encouraged by his reports of some of the species that have come back, once we humans gave them a little space and time. And I'm very, very frightened about what my grandchildren will have and hold. I can't buy everyone a copy of this book, as much as I want to. But I can encourage you, in the strongest possible terms, to read it. And soon. As Safina says in his closing passage, "Time runs short at an accelerating pace."
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Struts & Frets
by
Skovron, Jon
Melody Murray
, January 19, 2011
Oh, this was fun! The authorial voice was completely authentic- so much so that I found myself saying stern motherly things to the protagonist. Out loud. Sammy lives for music, but he's also a regular teenage kid with insecurities, blind spots, family issues and in short, a normal life. I love reading about kids with normal lives, kids who are not Representing A Disorder. Samuel is hilarious to read about from an adult perspective, too- this book works on more than one level, and hits on all cylinders. This is a lovely coming-of-age book with a satisfyingly complex cast of characters, believable dialogue, and a solid plot. My favorite part is the dialogue about sex between Sammy and his loving but occasionally clueless mom. I can't resist sharing a bit of it: "But the stuff she said didn't exactly make me feel any more ready, especially conversations that went something like this: MOM: You know, Sam, when you do decide to start having sex, which shouldn't be anytime soon because you're much too young-- ME: Oh, God, Mom. Can't we just watch the movie? MOM: No, I just want to clarify that the scene you have just witnessed has very little to do with a realistic and healthy sexual union. ME: I get it. It's just a movie. I don't plan on hunting down killer cyborgs, either. Now, can we--" And it goes on, and just gets funnier, from there.
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Betsy & the Great World Betsys Wedding
by
Maud Hart Lovelace
Melody Murray
, January 18, 2011
BETSY AND THE GREAT WORLD: When I was reading and re-reading this series every season as a kid, this is the book I flew through. I skimmed the tedious descriptions of pre-WWI Europe with a yawn, pined for Tacy and Tib and rolled my eyes at everything but Marco, Mrs. Main-Whittaker, and of course the glorious, perfect last chapter. This book began to change for me when I was in my mid-twenties, and it's become one of my favorites in the series. The rich and beautiful descriptions of a Europe forever vanished make me wistful, and so grateful that Maud chose to do so little foreshadowing. I still love Marco, though he wasn't right for Betsy. I'm more fascinated with Mrs. Main-Whittaker now that I know she was modeled on Rose Wilder Lane, and I simply adore this book start to finish. Betsy's Europe is idyllic in a lot of ways, even when she's homesick and lost. It annoys me that she's constantly being bailed out by gentlemen, too- but that's true to Betsy, and I have to honor that. But most of all... Best.Last.Chapter.Ever. Ever. No, I mean it. Ever. BETSY'S WEDDING: I meant to luxuriate in this, the last book of the Betsy-Tacy series. But I was drawn in as deeply as ever. Joe topples mountains and swims seas for Betsy's love, and Betsy is still making lists and trying to be a better person. I hope it's not a spoiler to say that Betsy gets married in this book, titled as it is. Her struggles as a young wife are endearing, especially that poor meat pie she tries so hard to make. She's still a little diffident for my taste, too dependent on the men in her lif...moreI meant to luxuriate in this, the last book of the Betsy-Tacy series. But I was drawn in as deeply as ever. Joe topples mountains and swims seas for Betsy's love, and Betsy is still making lists and trying to be a better person. I hope it's not a spoiler to say that Betsy gets married in this book, titled as it is. Her struggles as a young wife are endearing, especially that poor meat pie she tries so hard to make. She's still a little diffident for my taste, too dependent on the men in her life, even given the times- compare and contrast the earlier Jo March- but she's who she is and I love her in spite of her girlishness. The crowd dances through this book, and the sentimental, happy ending strikes just the right tone for the end of the series.
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Betsy Tacy 09 Betsy & The Great World
by
Maud Hart Lovelace
Melody Murray
, January 18, 2011
When I was reading and re-reading this series every season as a kid, this is the book I flew through. I skimmed the tedious descriptions of pre-WWI Europe with a yawn, pined for Tacy and Tib and rolled my eyes at everything but Marco, Mrs. Main-Whittaker, and of course the glorious, perfect last chapter. This book began to change for me when I was in my mid-twenties, and it's become one of my favorites in the series. The rich and beautiful descriptions of a Europe forever vanished make me wistful, and so grateful that Maud chose to do so little foreshadowing. I still love Marco, though he wasn't right for Betsy. I'm more fascinated with Mrs. Main-Whittaker now that I know she was modeled on Rose Wilder Lane, and I simply adore this book start to finish. Betsy's Europe is idyllic in a lot of ways, even when she's homesick and lost. It annoys me that she's constantly being bailed out by gentlemen, too- but that's true to Betsy, and I have to honor that. But most of all... Best.Last.Chapter.Ever. Ever. No, I mean it. Ever.
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Betsy Was a Junior/Betsy and Joe
by
Maud Hart Lovelace
Melody Murray
, January 18, 2011
BETSY WAS A JUNIOR: This particular book makes me want to reach through the years and shake Betsy so hard her teeth chatter. She's lost nearly all the ground she gained in the first two years of high school, she's flitting from interest to interest, she's just not focused- and yet, and yet... I love her so. Also, in this volume we are introduced to that exciting specimen, the Perfectly Awful Girl- to wit: "'Tony is suspended again,' Alice said. 'What happened?' 'I hate to say it, but I believe he came to school when he'd been drinking. He goes into the saloons sometimes with that fast gang he runs with.' 'He's going around with a perfectly awful girl.'" But there is ultimately redemption: "'I believe that's it,' she thought. 'And the bright side of it is that you never slip down to quite the point you started climbing from. You always gain a little...'" Words to live by, indeed. BETSY AND JOE: Finally, it seems that Betsy and Joe will be together. This can't possibly be a spoiler, can it, given the title of the book? But the course of true love never did... you know. Tony (who I adore) comes into his own as a character in this book. We get a glimpse of the boy hiding behind the lazily efficient coffee-maker, the sleepily joking clown. And I wish I didn't know about the real-life Tony, because my fictional Tony goes on to have a long and gloriously satisfying life. Betsy's maturation continues, and she honors her family, her writing, and her friends- but she's still not able to say the things which need to be said where love and romance are concerned. Miss Bangeter teaches her famous Shakespeare class to the DV seniors- and oh, how I wish I could have audited it. I'm guessing that 90% of what I knew of Shakespeare in my teens came from Lovelace (and also Norma Johnston's Tish books). A lovely end to the high school portion of the series.
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Heaven to Betsy & Betsy in Spite of Herself
by
Maud Hart Lovelace
Melody Murray
, January 18, 2011
HEAVEN TO BETSY: Is it monotonous to start all my BT reviews with "I love this book"? Well, too bad, I LOVE this book. It's extremely well-written, but that's not why I love it. I don't think I even noticed it was made of words till I was out of my own teens. Betsy is a freshman at Deep Valley High School, and in this eventful year she goes through some very traumatic times with less than the poise and ease she thinks she ought. Her first love is not smooth. Her first essay contest is sabotaged... by her own inattention. She has to decide if she wants to stay with the church of her childhood or change to the church which speaks to her heart. She learns a great deal about being true to herself, though, as we will see in the next few books, not nearly enough. BETSY IN SPITE OF HERSELF: Betsy is a sophomore here, and though she learned some important lessons her freshman year, she is certainly not finished tripping herself up. She gets an opportunity, about half-way through the book, to spend Christmas in Milwaukee with Tib. She chooses to use this time to re-invent herself, but we as readers are privileged to be immersed in the uniquely German holiday customs of the early part of the last century. It's a brilliant bit of writing, and never fails to transport me utterly. Again,...moreBetsy is a sophomore here, and though she learned some important lessons her freshman year, she is certainly not finished tripping herself up. She gets an opportunity, about half-way through the book, to spend Christmas in Milwaukee with Tib. She chooses to use this time to re-invent herself, but we as readers are privileged to be immersed in the uniquely German holiday customs of the early part of the last century. It's a brilliant bit of writing, and never fails to transport me utterly. Again, I never noticed until I was grown what an incredible writer Lovelace is. She captures adolescence so perfectly!
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Betsy Tacy 04 Betsy & Tacy Go Downtown
by
Maud Hart Lovelace
Melody Murray
, January 18, 2011
This is my favorite of the pre-high-school Betsy-Tacy books. Among the BT cognoscenti, whole weeks have been devoted to debating which books in the series are the best. This does sometimes devolve into name-calling and braid-tugging, but generally Down Town ranks near the top. The girls are 12 and they don't quite fit anywhere- not with Julia and Katie who are being walked home from school by boys, and not with Margaret and Freddie who are rioting through the streets shouting. They want to be one or the other but they can't quite decide which. Their parents are becoming more interesting, with backstories of their own- but at the same time less central to the lives of the girls. Betsy is developing some of that tender empathy which will both help her and break her heart in future books. Tacy is settling into her role as champion and cheerleader and Tib... is just like Tib, forever and ever, amen. The lost uncle plotline makes me weep as hard as the Ladies Home Journal story in teeny-tiny writing makes me laugh.
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Betsy & Tacy 03 Betsy & Tacy Go Over The Big Hill
by
Maud Hart Lovelace
Melody Murray
, January 18, 2011
This story finds Betsy, Tacy and Tib at ten years old. Their world is getting wider, and they are learning new things. This is the first time that the Lebanese settlement of Little Syria is mentioned in the series, and it's nicely done. Cultural differences are examined in a way that pre-teens will understand, and more importantly, care about. Relationships with elder siblings are handled with what appears to this only child to be truth and, well, beauty. Another lovely chapter in the Betsy-Tacy story.
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Betsy Tacy 02 Betsy Tacy & Tib
by
Maud Hart Lovelace
Melody Murray
, January 18, 2011
Re-reading this book hardly counts as reading, since I know it like the back of my hand. The entire series is so well-written and just plain fun that revisiting it is a treat. Lovelace's essential voice is unchanged throughout the series, yet she writes in a tone designed to engage readers of the characters' ages especially. My favorite part of this book is where Tib's family's "hired girl" Matilda catches them at mischief: '"The dining room looks all right now," Betsy added. "Doesn't it, Matilda?" Matilda looked at the tidy dining room. She swept it with a stony glance. "I hear," she said meaningly, "that Mrs. Ray's kitchen looked nice too after you kept house for her one day." And she stalked back into the kitchen.'
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Betsy Tacy 01
by
Maud Hart Lovelace
Melody Murray
, January 18, 2011
I have loved this book so long I can't remember when first I read it. I certainly didn't have two numbers in my age. I've re-read it countless times, and every time I've read it as an adult, I marvel at Lovelace's skill. Told from the perspective of a five-year-old girl, it rings true on every possible level. Read from the perspective of a forty-five-year-old woman, it's poignant and heartbreaking and nostalgic and delightful. This is my first re-read since I made the journey back to Mankato (the real-life Deep Valley) and it's pretty wonderful to read about the houses in which I have stood, tears in my eyes. I cannot recommend this book, and the books which follow it, enough.
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Letter Home
by
Timothy Decker
Melody Murray
, January 18, 2011
Stunning book, one I picked up at the library for no particular reason. I'd never heard of it, I mean, and saw the cover and was intrigued. The text of the book is the text of a letter home from WWI, written by a medic to his young son. In simple prose, the letter unwinds with the accompaniment of spare black and white drawings which are both powerful and unsettling. DH was chatting with his favorite librarian, so I went and sat in a corner and opened the book and fell in. Headfirst. By the end, my face was wet and my world was different. This is a quiet book that reverberates down through the day, and I predict it will be with me for a long, long time. I made my son read it tonight at dinner. After he read it he was speechless for a minute (if you can imagine!), and then he asked if he could take it in to school for his teacher to read. My true love read it and was nearly as moved as I was. I was teary-eyed just watching them read it. I even emailed the author to tell him how great this book is. Don't be fooled by finding this in the Picture Books section of your library. Unreservedly recommended, in fact, emphatically pushed.
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Mink River
by
Brian Doyle
Melody Murray
, January 12, 2011
Extraordinary. I was tumbled under the wild rushing prose, tumbled and cartwheeled and somersaulted through this book full of wondrous and outrageous people, this book full of words sinuous as snakes that would out of nowhere take off and soar like very myth itself. Doyle's foray into fiction is not that far a leap from his past nonfiction- he's such a keen observer of humanity that his fictional people (even his fictional talking, thinking crow) are more real than some of the people I actually know. His sheer delight is alive in the words and it makes each and every page shimmer. There's something quintessentially Northwest about this book, there's the faint scent of Robbins, a sprinkle of Kesey, more than a smattering of the First Nations mythmakers, a spritz of Holbrook, a seasoning of Carver- but it's all infused with the mysterious aching Irishness of Doyle and the love he has for language and humanity and this land upon which I live. I don't mean to say it's at all derivative, because it is not. Not a bit. But it partakes deeply and fully of Place, and as such it rings echoes of those other great books that have come before. I cannot recommend this book highly enough.
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Love Is the Higher Law
by
David Levithan
Melody Murray
, January 12, 2011
A deceptively thin novel which packs a huge wallop. A must-read for New Yorkers. A must-read for, well, anyone who remembers 9/11. And anyone who doesn't because they were too little. One of the things I've liked about Levithan's previous books is his sense of goodness- of the rightness that lies under everything. He's kind of like L'Engle in that way. It's harder to tease out in this book, but it's ultimately a hopeful book, no matter that I wept throughout the whole thing.
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Lips Touch Three Times
by
Taylor, Laini
Melody Murray
, January 12, 2011
*blinks curiously, wondering how she could possibly be back in this quotidian setting after the intensity of the world she was just in* Yeah, it's one of those books. I read more than half of it at Powell's yesterday, having become oblivious to any other book after picking it up. Then I read half the night, and slept tangled in dreams that left shivery footprints which evaporated when I opened my eyes to see where the blood was. I finished it this morning while my coffee cooled on the nightstand, unheeded. And I'm not all the way back yet because I'm sure that somewhere behind me, somewhere very near there's something not quite safe. And I like it. Lovely prose, bewitching fairy-tales, beautiful illustrations. One for the permanent collection.
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Wild Things
by
Clay Carmichael
Melody Murray
, January 12, 2011
Extraordinary. I had to let it simmer overnight before I could come up with anything resembling a coherent review. This is a wonderful book, and I loved it enough that I wish I hadn't read it so I could read it again for the first time. The characters are agreeably prickly, including the feral old cat who is deeply suspicious of people. The passages narrated by the cat are maybe just a little hokey, but I loved 'em anyway. In my opinion, the descriptions of what it's like to be an artist are dead on. The plot is taut, the coincidences and climaxes not so far out as to be surreal, the characters' growth is believable and heartwarming. And did I mention the cat? And the passing but suitably loving mention of favorite characters from classic kid-lit? I want to read it again, right away. I can't remember how long it's been since I had that reaction to a middle-grade book.
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