A Visit from the Goon Squad

by Jennifer Egan. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, c. 2010, 274 pages. ISBN 978-0-307-59283-5

The chapters of the Goon Squad are made up of intertwining stories and characters that snake through the lives of Bennie Salazar, former punk rocker and aging music producer, and his assistant Sasha, a mucked up young woman with kleptomania impulses. Stories are told at different times in the characters lives and the book spans decades even to a dystopian future as Egan delves into a touch of science fiction.

This is a captivating book and Egan's voice is both prophetic and subversive. If you ever wonder what happened to the life you imagined for yourself in your youth, only to realize that you grew up, A Visit from the Goon Squad is a book to read.

Let the Right One In

by John Ajvide Lindqvist, translated by Ebba Segerberg. New York: Thomas Dunne Books, c. 2007. 472 pages. ISBN 9780312355296

{First published in Sweden under the title Låt den rätte komma in by Ordfront and first published in the United States under the title Let Me In.}

Oskar at twelve years old is overweight and the main target for cruel bullies at school. Lonely, he finds comfort in the sweets he shoplifts and his scrapbook of articles on murderers and serial killers. Soon Oskar has articles to add about a local boy murdered, a murder described as "ritualistic." Around the same time, new neighbors move in, a young girl and her father. Oskar finds himself intrigued by the girl, Eli, and they begin to meet, but only at night.

The story takes place in a Swedish suburb and over several weeks in 1981. This book is violent and disturbing and I highly recommend it. If you want to read about vampires that actually do the things that make vampires scary, read this. It is also a sad and moving mystery. The film adaptation is also worth viewing even if you do not want to read the book.

The Year the Gypsies Came

Title: The Year the Gypsies Came
Author: Linzi Glass
Publication date: 2006
Number of pages: 254
Genre: Young Adult historical fiction
Geographical setting: Johannesburg, South Africa
Time period: 1960s
Series: N/A

Plot Summary: Twelve year old Emily craves affection from her constantly quarreling parents. She is tomboy with few friends, only her kind older sister and their Zulu servant, Buza who tells her stories of wisdom and magic. When a mysterious family of wanderers comes to stay, Emily finds a kindred soul in one of the houseguests as she learns of the pain and struggles of those all around her in apartheid South Africa.

Subject Headings: apartheid, South Africa, 1960s, abuse, Zulu, rape

Appeal: Buza the servant as the true caregiver of Emily; the realization by Emily of her privilege and the South Africa of apartheid, racism and police brutality; class and race relationships of the time period; author was born and Johannesburg and many of the Zulu stories and folklore told by Buza are from her childhood memories; Afrikaans and Zulu glossary; Nelson Mandela’s speech in court recounted.; abuse led to the brain damage of a child.

If you like The Year the Gypsies Came, you might enjoy these nonfiction books: Alexandra Fuller’s Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight: An African Childhood, Peter Godwin’s Mukiwa: A White Boy in Africa.

Nineteen Minutes

Title: Nineteen Minutes
Author: Jodi Picoult
Publication date: 2007
Number of Pages: 455
Genre: Adult fiction (with Young Adult appeal)
Geographical Setting: small town New Hampshire
Time Period: late 2000s
Series: N/A

Plot: In nineteen minutes, the quiet town of Sterling, New Hampshire is changed forever. The often bullied Peter Houghton opens fire on his high school. Alex Cormier is the judge assigned to the trial while her own daughter, Josie, is a surviving witness.

Subject Headings: school shooting, school violence, abuse, mother-daughter relationship, justice system, crime victim, post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), bullies

Appeal: examination into minds and experiences of many sides to school violence and school shootings: victims, the shooter, lawyers, law enforcement, parents of victims, parents of shooter; recurring characters from author’s previous novels; discussions of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD); character suffers abusive relationship with boyfriend; cliques of high school students and acts of hazing/bullying; main female character is a successful judge, the struggles with her career and relationship with her teenage daughter; parent’s loss of a child; series of flashbacks reveal the events leading to the shooting; book has been challenged in school libraries because of sexual references, violence including bullying, suicide and profanity.

If you liked Nineteen Minutes, you might enjoy: Dorothy Allison’s Cavedweller, Alice Hoffman’s Local Girls, Sue Miller’s Family Pictures

The Secret Life of Bees

Title: The Secret Life of Bees

Author: Sue Monk Kidd

Publication Date: 2002

Number of Pages: 302

Genre: Fiction with Young Adult appeal

Geographical Setting: South Carolina

Time Period: 1964

Series: N/A

Plot: Fourteen year old Lily flees her isolated home on a peach farm with her nanny Rosaleen. They are fleeing the police because Rosaleen defended her right to register to vote. But Lily is also fleeing from her abusive father and trying to escape the memory of the accidental shooting of her mother by her hands. Amongst her mother’s few remaining possessions is a picture of a Black Madonna with “Tiburon, SC” written on it. Lily follows her hope that she will find out more about her mother in this town. There Lily and Rosaleen find the Black Madonna—a honey farm run by three middle-aged black sisters and they stay to help harvest the honey crop.

Subject Headings: African American, Civil Rights, racism, abuse, 1960s South, beekeeping, depression

Appeal: in the tradition of Southern Gothic, strong African American female characters, glimpses in to the era of Civil Rights in the South, successful film adaptation in 2008, female friendship, escape from abusive parent, an era that did not recognize depression as a treatable illness

If you liked The Secret Life of Bees, you might enjoy: Nancy Kincaid’s As Hot as It Was You Ought to Thank Me, Monica Wood’s Any Bitter Thing, Dori Sander’s Clover, Jennifer Chiaverini’s Quilter’s Apprentice