Review: Dirty Little Angels

Dirty Little Angels
by Chris Tusa (2009)

Livingstone Press, Alabama

I received this ebook from Chris Tusa on Librarything’s Member Giveaway.

Dirty Little Angels is the story of 16-year-old Hailey and her dysfunctional family among New Orleans’ abandoned buildings. Hailey and her brother Cyrus follow the ideas of Moses, a failed preacher; but soon they find themselves trapped in a world of drugs, fear, danger and people with “septic water running through (their) veins”.

The author’s intention in writing the book is to describe the underground world, that sometimes rises to the surface in the worst way, such as newspaper’s chronicle section.
The genre of this book fits in the dark side of our everyday’s life, “as if all the stars had fallen out of the sky.”

The story starts very slow and seems never to take off, so while reading the book you just ask yourself: how many cigarettes do they smoke in this book? answer: “I dunno.”
Something changes when Hailey talks with a terminally ill man and desires to change her life; this changes also the book’s plot: a spark of hope, although the fate of these people is like “dirty angels” (too heavy for flying).
If you accept this low flying enjoy this book, otherwise …

Review: Saving Cicadas by Nicole Seitz

Saving Cicadas
by Nicole Seitz

Thomas Nelson Publisher

Saving Cicadas is a novel about babies: born, adopted, or unborn.
A single mother, Priscilla Lynn Macy, is having another child unexpectedly, escape seems the best solution. But before starting a new life Priscilla needs “a step back in time”: she backs to her family home, where “everybody seems to have found pieces of themselves here”, also with the help of several ghosts who will surprise you.

The narrative of the book is structured with two different points of view (eight-and-a-half year-old Janie and Grandma Mona), this narrative structure does not allow you to know what’s happening and you have to guess until the end.

This novel entertains you and may teach we are not alone: there is always someone whispering to you, because we are not “just like wind rocking … rockers”.

I recommend this book for teenagers who don’t (or don’t want) understand grownups, and grownups who are planning a new life.

Publisher has provided me with a complimentary copy of this book.

Review: Regression by Kathy Bell

Regression is the debut novel of Kathy Bell (Canadian author) and published by Northern Sanctum Press.

This book is appropriate for who loves catastrophic subject, genetics; in a nutshell is a book about how could we save the world?

Adya Jordan (the girl-woman who lived twice, or three times: in the last pages as Dawn Ingram) with the help of a big company (Three Eleven) found out she is the woman who will rescue the mankind from extinction.
Every three chapters the story takes a break and catches up with the journal of Nicholas Weaver, the last survivor of the human race.

The prose is readable and you can either read the whole book, or read it skipping the Adya’s journey in the Island Three Eleven headquarters from page 81 to page 179 (very boring), or read the Nicholas Weaver’s journal only.

Regression looks more like a movie plot than a book (I would suggest the actress Gong Li as Adya): minor characters are just outlined and the connection between the several parts of the book are not linear but abrupt. Maybe in a movie these inconsistencies can be exceeded.

The background of Adya is not original: Adya means Mother Earth, associated with fertility, aura; this conception has been idolized in many societies through the centuries.

From the description I expected a book like The Road by Cormac McCarthy but my first impression was: finally I’ve learned how to grill a steak! (Adya teaches you, see page 141), and nothing else.
I liked just the Weaver’s journal where I found the McCarthy’s soul.

I recommend this book in this reading/watching sequence: first: Regression; second: The Year of the Flood by M. Atwood; third: I am Legend (the movie); fourth: The Road by C. McCarthy and the last but not the least Blade Runner (the movie).

“In any case, time is not a thing that passes, said Pilar: it’s a sea on which you float” (The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood).

Review: Saturday by Ian McEwan

Saturday by Ian McEwan

Herzog by Saul Bellow and Saturday in the Village by Giacomo Leopardi and The Dead (The Dubliners) by James Joyce.

Perhaps McEwan has written better books… I promise than to read also the others and will know to say.

The citation of Bellow beginning of the book is coherent with the same story: he is obvious the influence of the style of 'Herzog' , but who has already read this book will not find in Saturday the same coherence between character and narrative style.

The better thing: the life that comes lead outside always is observed through a glass (window or television that is), like for reflect a distance desire. For this it is easy to associate the Saturday in the Village by Leopardi: at least for a day we forget the History.

To observe and to reflect of the passed day near to a window: John Huston and The Dead by Joyce or simply the book of Joyce, the snow covers of white the landscape as the sleep of Perowne finally reaches in order to close the day: ' This Time there' ll be not trouble falling toward oblivion'.

Indiebound

Review: A Flower Blooms on Charlotte Street (The Adventures of Ociee Nash)

Up to now I have read to the first book of the series The Adventures of Ociee Nash: A Flower Blooms on Charlotte Street. Minimalism style, prevails the attention to the daily and the dialogue; anti-Dickens (there are orphaned but, in this book, happy children); is not an historical novel (History is somewhere, but outside this book). It is not described how to make the cake but only the ingredients of the cake are given: 'Peaches, butter, crusty sugar'. Something of sweet (peaches and sugar) and something of bitter (butter): a good cake that is worth as prize (is given the gypsy who finds the locket). A book for children and, above all, adults: far away from the crowd, for to return behind in the time when it was necessary a tag ('A tag on my dress told who I was and where I was going').

the proof

the proof