Reviewlettes of Yesteryear!

There is some part of me that can't let a decent book go completely unreviewed, even if it's already been going unreviewed for quite some time.  Instead I let the half decent books accumulate dust on my desk while they glower at me in a completely guilt-causing way.  Every time I finally decide I'm going to just bypass the books that I waited too long to review, and send them on their way to new happy homes, that tiny voice in the back of my head pipes up, "Maybe just some reviewlettes!  You can do it, Megan!"  So I'm going to try, and if it doesn't work, I'll pass them on into the world.  Well, I'll pass them on either way, but if it works I'll much less guilty about it.

The Hollow Ground by Natalie S. Harnett - The Hollow Ground is an excellent debut from author Natale Harnett.  I was first attracted to this book because it's supposedly loosely based on the towns of Centralia and Carbondale, two Pennsylvania towns not so far from my own, that were stricken by coal mine fires.  One managed to extinguish its fire, the other one continues to burn.  The two towns in the book, Centrereach and Barrendale, are about as thinly disguised versions of the real towns as you might imagine given their names.  The bleak settings of these two communities on fire serves to accentuate young Brigid's story, as she moves away from the dangers of Centrereach only to find another coal fire steadily advancing upon her grandparents' house in Barrendale.  The towns, the families who are broken and sickened by lives in the mines, and the superstitions of Brigid's Irish family which believes itself under a curse from a priest are all realistically and atmospherically rendered.  Brigid is a sympathetic character, just a kid, upon whose shoulders is falling the responsibility to keep her family together and the one who holds the secret that could tear it apart.  I'll definitely be looking forward to whatever Harnett comes up with next.   (Review copy provided by the publicist.)

The Girl Who Came Home by Hazel Gaynor - The Girl Who Came Home is a member of a genre of sort of over-popularized historical fiction that I stumble upon once in a while, that features a dual narrative that explores history and present day, all while putting off a vibe that is not quite off-putting, but is occasionally over-saccharine and contrived.  Gaynor's tale of Maggie Murphy leaving her Irish home for a better life on the Titanic, intertwined with the story of her great-grandaughter struggling to put her life back together after the death of her father is a good story and a very readable one, but I often found myself wishing that it would dig deeper beneath the surface of its lovelorn Irish girls and its simply solved modern storyline.  Don't get me wrong, I actually did quite enjoy The Girl Who Came Home.  It had lovable characters, (obviously) an action packed storyline, and captured very well that treacherous last night on the Titanic when too many friends and family had to be left behind in the crush of tragedy.  For me, it had strong parallels to Titanic the movie, which I happen to be a big fan of.  It's a good story told well, but instead of feeling like serious reading, it felt more like a guilty pleasure for someone, like me, who apparently has over-lofty expectations of historical fiction.  However, it was a pleasure, on the whole, so I, at the end of the day, duly quit whining and recommend this book for readers of "lighter" historical fiction.  (Review copy provided by the publisher.)

Bright and Distant Shores by Dominic Smith - Okay, these are running too long, but one more, real quick.  Bright and Distant Shores definitely falls into the category of heavier historical fiction.  Smith's writing is beautiful and does such a fantastic job of fleshing out late 19th century Chicago and the wilds of the South Pacific, that his characters actually play a distant second fiddle.  I was completely captivated by Smith's poetic, all-encompassing writing and scene setting that I barely remember the plot - only that it involved the unlikely romance of an independent and wealthy woman and the barely-scraping-by son of a building demolisher as well as a sister and brother who are transplanted from the South Pacific to make a new life for themselves, only starting by playing savages for a rich man's spectacle.  There's a lot going on in this book about adventure, exploration, wealth, and love.  It's all almost too much to digest, but there's no denying that the picture it paints of a decade where so much is changing is as compelling as it is genuine. (I got this one from a long ago Atria Galley Alley.)

There they are - I did it!  My desk and my self are both breathing sighs of relief!  Do you have any books that you waited too long to review dogging you?

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