The Lantern by Deborah Lawrenson

The Lantern by Deborah Lawrenson

When she and her boyfriend, Dom, move into a crumbling Provencal house, Eve never expects to be drawn into the hamlet's mystery. Charmed by Dom in Switzerland, Eve quickly moves in with him.

Eve never questions her boyfriend's past or why he left his ex-wife Rachel. A mystery woman, Sabine, seems to have some of the answers but Dom wants to force Eve and Sabine apart.

Strange events, flickering lights, strange scents, stones thrown against a window pane and a falling light fixture cause Eve alarm; plus, there is a growing distance between her and Dom.

Under a floorboard, she finds a child's book of Provencal tales and the history of the house's former owners, the Lincels, begisn to unfold. Eve is fascinated by the Lincel's story--Pierre's cruelty and Marthe's determination to become a perfume maker despite her blindness. After creating a famous scent, Lavande du Nuit, Marthe disappears under mysterious circumstances.

The author who spends much of her time in Provence drew inspiration for this book from the fact that the company, L'Occitane en Provence, formed a foundation in 1997 to introduce visually impaired children to perfume creation.

If you like mysteries and books set in Provence, you will love The Lantern. For a similar work, try the equally fascinating, Ghosts of Kerfol by Deborah Noyes.

The River Wife by Joni Agee

The River Wife by Joni Agee.

The River Wife is a panoramic story--from the 1812 New Madrid quake to the 1930s. Central to the story is the enigmatic, Jacques DuCharme, a one-armed river pirate whose wealth and wild ways become legendary.

Lonely and pregnant, Hedie Ducharmes Rails finds a journal that belongs to Annie Lark, who is married to Jacques Ducharme, a descendant of Jacques DuCharme. Though Hedie does not to hear a sad story, Annie's story quickly becomes a part of her own. According to Hedie, "Annie's voice kept speaking in my head as if it had become my own."

Hedie reads how Jacques rescued Annie, by removing the beam that crushed her legs in the New Madrid quake. They become man and wife but Jacques never allows Annie to become a true wife. He calls her a "queen" but wants her to stay outside of his economic pursuits. He conceals how he makes money--how he operates Jacques Landing, the inn he built along the Mississippi.

What is sad is that Annie Lark never finds the respect and equality she craves from her husband, Jacques. She turns to Audubon because he respects Annie's art work and scientific pursuits. Turning to Audubon, however, leads to tragedy. Annie and Jacques become estranged which indirectly leads to Annie's death.

Omah's story dominates the second part of the book. A free
African-American woman, Omah becomes Jacques' partner in his illicit business. Since she is on a more equal footing with him, she is, in a way, Jacques' true wife.

Omah participates in Jacques' river piracy and accumulates a share of his wealth. The wealth gives her status that she would not have otherwise. When Jacques marries Laura, Omah insists that she is not be called Laura's girl or servant.

Though she participates in his piracy, Omah's bravery and loyalty is admirable. She accompanies Laura to Hot Springs, AK where trouble brews anew. Laura's disloyalty contrasts sharply with Omah's steadfastness. Still, its hard to believe that Jacques lets Laura--the mother of his only child--succumb to the cruel fate that befalls her.

The last part of the novel focuses upon Little Maddie Ducharme who was just a baby when her mother died. Her story is also tinged with sadness. Like her contemporary counterpart, Hedie Ducharme Railes, Maddie is consumed with saving Jacques' Landing. Though her husband wants to return to Montana, she insists on staying and raising her child on her father's land.

The novel can be seen an ancestor tale with the ghosts of the past visiting succeeding generations. Annie Lark's ghost visits Maddie DuCharme in one crucial scene.  Her journal gets into the hands of Hedie DuCharme Rails who, like Maddie, also sets her sights on finding Jacques' ill-gotten wealth.

The River Wife is a fast-paced read filled with adventure, heartache, tragedy, and beauty. If you like family dramas and historical novels, you will enjoy this book.

Agee's most recent novel is The Bones of Paradise. 

Agee is a professor at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln,
http://www.unl.edu/english/jonis-agee

Swamplandia by Karen Russell

Swamplandia by Karen Russell

The Bigtrees have grown up in the Southwest tip of Florida--in the Ten Thousand Islands--where they have run a unique theme park, Swamplandia. With the exception of Ossie, all of the family members are alligator wrestlers. The star attraction is Ava's mother who dives in a pool of seths, their pet name for alligators.

Their successful business collapses when their star dies of cancer, leaving the business in debt.

Poor Ava Bigtree has been abandoned by her mother; her father; her brother; and her sister, who eloped with a ghost.

No wonder she befriends the Bird Man and jumps at the chance to find Ossie in the Underworld, which coincidently is in the Florida swamplands.

Ava mostly rescues herself by running away from a dangerous situation and the alligator infested swamp. The second rescue in which Kiwi Bigtree, navigating a plane for the first time, rescues Osceola strains credulity. The reunion of the Bigtrees, however, at the Bowl-a-Bed hotel is too good to miss.

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn.

Like a literary archaeological expedition, this sparkling crime novel opens up numerous layers of reality. Nick is the ultimate all-American boy and Amy is the coolest girl around. Reading their accounts gives you that view but then each of them offers their own contrasting view. As it turns out, Amy's diaries were not truthful and Nick's persona is an act. Amy has a few dark secrets and the all-American boy is not as perfect as he seems. Nick looks and act suspicious but did he kill Amy and was she pregnant?

Nick and Amy, who both believe they are New York sophisticates, play complicated mind games and there's nothing more fascinating than a novel that pull off that well. Amy gives her spouse a scavenger hunt each year on their anniversary which always leads to quarrels and hurt feelings. Nick believes that on his 5th anniversary Amy has outdone herself, created an elaborate scavenger hunt, gone into hiding and framed him for her murder. The more he finds out about Amy's past lovers, the made-up testimonies, and broken friendships, the more he believes she is a sociopath who has framed him.

Other novels that use mind games:
The Bellwether Revivials by Benjamin Wood

Jonah Lehrer's Downfall and the Boy Who Cried Wolf



How We Decide by Jonah Lehrer

 In folklore, a boy cries "Wolf" and loses all credibility. No one believes him the next time he cries "Wolf"  which leads inexorably to him be eaten up.

The boy who cried wolf is a fitting analogy for Jonah Lehrer, author of Proust was a Neuroscientist, How We Decide, and Imagine.

Best-selling author and wunderkind journalist has been called out for self-plagiarizing: that is duplicating material and submitting it to two competing news agencies. Five of Lehrer's New Yorker posts now come with editorial notes regretting "duplication" of material published earlier. Unfortunately for Lehrer, the postings are not a re-spin or an update but an almost verbatim duplication of earlier material.

Lehrer's book Imagine is even more problematic as it contains undocumented quotations and, as it turns out, completely fabricated quotations ascribed to the singer Bob Dylan.

Publisher, Harcourt-Mifflin, has pulled Imagine largely because of the fabricated Dylan quotations.

In How We Decide, an earlier work, Lehrer quotes quarterback, Tom Brady; Plato; Thomas Jefferson; Sigmund Freud; Francisco Goya; MIT professor, Marvin Minsky; neurologist, Antonio Damasio; David Hume; Days of Our Lives director, Herb Stein; NYU neuroscientist, Joseph LeDoux; American philosopher, William James, and many others.

Naturally, any reader would now want to know if any of these quotations were fabricated. Lehrer's publisher Harcourt-Mifflin is reportedly reviewing all of  his books.
As it turns out, Lehrer has fabricated more than just the Dylan quotations. Kevin Breen in The Skeptical Libertarian exposes yet another falsehood.

In Imagine Lehrer describes Teller of the magic duo, Penn and Teller, as ready to quit magic in the early eighties. He quotes Teller as saying, "I was ready to go back home and become a high-school Latin teacher."

Breen of The Skeptical Libertarian tracks Teller down in Las Vegas who purports he never gave Lehrer the quote abou being ready to give up.

The false Teller quote is actually worst than the fabricated Dylan quotations. The Dylan quotations, while false, are not completely out of character with the man.

If you create something that is utterly false (a Wolf), inevitably you will lose credibility. It remains to be seen whether Lehrer's reputation or personal brand will survive but the odds are against him--as they should be.

Review of Night Strangers by Chris Bohjalian

Night Strangers by Chris Bohjalian

All Chip Linton wants when he moves to Bethel, New Hampshire is a little peace and quiet for his family. He has already survived the unthinkable, a plane crash. Since he was the pilot, he blames himself for not being able to pull off a "Miracle on the Hudson" type maneuver.

Tragically, Linton is not able to pull off the same type of miracle and 39 of the flight's passengers die. In therapy for post-traumatic stress disorder, Chip vows never to fly again.

Emily, Chip's wife, decides the family needs to move away from Philadelphia but she has a difficult time adjusting to the Victorian house. She's grateful for the anonymity; she was tired of fielding questions about the crash.

On the other hand, she finds the house's history creepy. The former inhabitant's twelve-year-old son is rumored to have killed himself in the house. The house's internal structure is strange: each of the three floors is a little narrower than the preceding one, the wallpaper is hideous, and the basement has a bolted door that seemingly leads nowhere.

In addition, why are there so many greenhouses in Bethel? Every house, including the one Chip and Emily have just bought, seem to have one. Why does everyone in the town seem overly interested in the Linton twins.
Bohjalian's narrative most freely back and forth among all the characters but it is actually the twins' impressions which stand out. Despite their father's fragility and nightmares, the twins are face even greater dangers.

This is marvelous, well-researched novel by one of America's best writers. Chris Bohjalian writes that he spoke to countless pilots to get the details right.

The epilogue, however, made me sad. While I didn't expect Chip to become an all-American hero  that Sully Sullenberger was, I thought he could at least save his family from the herbalists. The ending is disturbing, albeit thought-provoking.

If you're reading this for a book club, you may want to discuss what you would do differently if you were Chip or Emily Linton.

Other books by Chris Bohjalian:
Before You Know Kindness
Buffalo Soldier
Double Bind
Idyll Banter
Law of Similars
Midwives
Secrets of Eden
Skeletons at the Feast
Sandcastle Girls
Trans-Sister Radio
Water Witches

Age of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walker

Karen Thompson Walker imagines a new kind of ecological disaster in Age of Miracles. Instead of earthquakes, a group of Californians--and the rest of the world--are noticing that days are getting longer. The earth is slowing resulting in famine, gravity sickness, disruption of the magnetic fields, and radiation poisoning.

Amidst the disaster, Walker portrays the ordinary travails and triumphs of a twelve-year-old girl, Julia. Julia has noticed that the calamity has also affected relationships with her friends and family. Once popular, she is now the odd girl out who desperately wants to be noticed by the cool boy on the bus, Seth Moreno.

As the days and nights grow longer, everything is thrown into chaos. The children have later and later school start times. Some go off the clock and live in "real time" communities.

This novel definitely made me appreciate the smaller things in life. At one point, Julia and Seth collect the last few blades of grass in the neighborhood. Sunlight, birds, fresh fruit are small "miracles" that are only noticed when they disappear.

This startling debut that raises many questions will interest both adults and teenagers.