The Desperate Hours, a 1955 film starring Frederick March and Humphrey Bogart, is the story of an all-American suburban family held at gunpoint by escaped convicts. Here is Bogart as a sinister, agitated tough guy, pushing around the clean-shaven, square-jawed father and husband played by Frederick March. Like The Desperate Hours, Joyce Maynard’s Labor Day focuses on a convict finding refuge in a family’s home. But the situations could not be more different, and the novel seems both more comic and more complex in light of this film classic.

In Labor Day, Henry, 13, and his Mom, Adele, live together in a small New Hampshire town after her divorce from Henry’s father. The beautiful, fey Adele loves Henry but has neurotic, hermit-like tendencies and a preference for dancing over housework. Henry works hard to please and placate his anxious mom by taking care of household chores and distracting her with jokes.

Just before Labor Day, Henry notices the disheveled, slightly desperate Frank in Pricemart. When Frank politely asks Henry and his mother for a ride, they somewhat passively comply; step by step he insinuates himself into their lives and gradually settles into their home, where he is hidden from prying neighbors and patrolling police. Meanwhile, Henry, unlike his besotted mom, wonders about the tenuous logic of this set-up.

Maynard allows you to enjoy Frank’s charisma and resourcefulness — wait till you read Frank’s mouth-watering recipe for peach pie! Still, there’s much to worry about between the good vibes. What is the outcome for this vulnerable mother and son? Is Frank actually a Bogie-man in disguise?

Read this coming of age book to find out.

A 2010 Adult Summer Reading Club recommendation

Ginny Leslie – Miller Branch

Last year, Howard County Library had a record number of entry forms for the Adult Summer Reading Club prize drawing, proving that it isn’t just children and teens who love summer reading! Many of those entry forms included wonderful book reviews that were posted in the branches for all to see. This year, we’re going to post some of the best reviews right here on Highly Recommended!

So this summer, if you read a great book for adults from our collection, complete an entry form (which you can get and submit at any of our branches beginning June 1), and write your review on the back — or if you have more to say than will fit on the page, attach a longer review, but try to keep it to 400 words or less. If we need to, we’ll edit them for spelling, style, and grammar and get your permission to post them on Highly Recommended. We’ve compiled a list of recommended summer reads that you might want to start with — many of which have already been reviewed by Howard County Library staff on Highly Recommended.

Remember, you can enter as many times as you want — one entry for each book you read this summer — and the prizes are great! Good luck, have a great summer, and happy reading!

Dan Curry – Savage Branch

High and mighty Olive Kitteridge of Crosby, Maine is the one neighbor you go out of your way to avoid at all costs. You’ll even hide in the cat food aisle of the local Puffin Stop (when you don’t even own and quite detest cats) until the outrageously intrusive Olive — carnivore of the weak, spineless, dumb, and shallow — thunders past to harangue someone else.

In Olive Kitteridge, Elizabeth Strout’s elegant novel of thirteen stories spanning thirty years, retired schoolteacher Olive is at once contentious, vengeful, and wildly emotional. But she is also courageous, funny, an astute savior of broken hearts, and in each tale figures proportionately into the troubled lives around her.

Especially rending is the tale of a former student who has returned to Crosby for the sole purpose of taking his life and extinguishing such a palpable grief that readers will find themselves (thanks to Strout’s amazing craft) helplessly inconsolable — until the bizarre moment that the intuitive Olive blazes onto the scene.

In another, Strout turns playful as Olive’s emotionally stunted middle-age son prepares to marry a crass woman with no soul. When Olive overhears the cosmopolitan bride-to-be mocking Olive’s provincial outfit, she is at first wounded to the core — and then, in fine Olive retaliation, decides to steal one of the bride’s going-away shoes.

In the final story, widowed and at the tail end of midlife, Olive finds herself grudgingly helping a neighbor she cannot abide — an arrogant man wealthy enough to own a third of Maine — but not a Mainer in the least. Now, if it were not for his blazing blue eyes…

Olive Kitteridge is not unlike its rugged, mid-coast Maine setting; interrupted when you least expect it by wind, wave, solitary pitch pines, and wild roses. And readers will recognize that life is like that, too.
 
Aimee Zuccarini – East Columbia Branch

Maybe you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover — but this gorgeously rich cover is wholly appropriate to its tale of two sisters: Diribani the artist, and Tana the gem expert. Toads and Diamonds by Heather Tomlinson retells an old fairy tale about the different gifts bestowed upon two sisters: flowers and frogs. You would think it would be easy to determine which is the better enchantment, wouldn’t you? 

When visiting the local step well to fetch water for a meager dinner, Diribani meets the goddess Naghali who grants her soul’s desire of beauty, and she begins to speak flowers and jewels. When her mother sends her to receive a similar blessing, Tana asks for her family’s safety and begins to speak frogs and snakes. The meeting with the local deity sets both girls’ feet on a road of discovery. Diribani and her fortunate lips are whisked off to the palace where she becomes part of court. Tana, on the other hand, becomes a pilgrim and discovers that her gift is more precious than rubies during plague season.

Tomlinson set this YA fantasy novel in an alternate India, akin to the time of the Mughal Empire. The native sisters worship the twelve local gods and goddesses, including Naghali who has a snake as her symbol. In their land, frogs are considered lucky and snakes are welcome additions in households to keep down the rat population. The tropical setting is perfect for retelling this old, if lesser known, fairy tale. The chapters alternate between the girls, both of whom are highly sympathetic, which is a welcome change from the usual Good Sister and Wicked Sister. These loving siblings help each other discover a new, more mature understanding of all their gifts (magically bestowed and not).

Kristen Blount – Administration Office

Fourteen-year-old Lindiwe Bishop is sitting on her family’s veranda reading Sue Barton: Senior Nurse, when she hears a loud commotion next door. There is a fire, and her white neighbor, Mrs. McKenzie, is fatally burned. Lindiwe and her parents live in the middle class neighborhood of Bayview in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe where the McKenzies are one of the few remaining white families.

When the constable arrives at the Bishop household to question her father, Lindiwe does not offer any knowledge of hearing anything out of the ordinary. The sixteen-year-old stepson of Mrs. McKenzie is implicated in her murder. A year later, the charges are dropped, and seventeen-year-old Ian McKenzie returns home. When Lindiwe and Ian meet, there is an instant attraction, although Lindiwe’s mother has warned her to stay away from him. Lindiwe is totally mesmerized by her charming, unpredictable, and troubled neighbor, Ian.

Who is really responsible for the fire and death of Mrs. McKenzie? What is the secret harbored by Lindiwe? The Boy Next Door by Irene Sabatini combines mystery along with a fascinating study of social life during the 1980s in war torn, post-independent Zimbabwe. Sabatini is to be commended for her fully developed characters. 

Elaine Johnson – Central Library

Simple, sheer delight. Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones provides the almost perfect fairy tale for readers of all ages. Wynne Jones’ graceful prose provides an easy transition into a world of magic of all sorts from mundane to the frighteningly bizarre.

Sophie is a young girl who works as a milliner in her stepmother’s shop. She seems content with her ordinary life — until she meets the handsome young wizard Howl, after which her life is never the same. She has a nasty encounter with the Witch of the Wastes that leaves her a young woman in an old woman’s body, flees town, becomes Howl’s housekeeper in his mobile castle, meets a strange scarecrow, corrals Howl’s apprentice, befriends the talking fire Calcifer, and her escapades have only just begun. At the end of her courageous quest, she discovers her true self and helps others do the same.

Howl apparently has two goals in life: 1) To be admired by as many people as possible, and 2) To stop a war. One is obviously a more worthy goal, but it’s amusing to see how the two intertwine. Howl is frightfully self-absorbed, and one of the most interesting characters in decades. He’s a vain and extremely talented wizard who wants to save the world. The book revolves around the mystery of Howl’s heart, and whether Sophie can save it.

Too often adapted screenplays don’t respect their literary origins. How often do you just know that the book is going to be better than the movie? Hayao Miyazaki’s animated feature not only respects the novel, but celebrates its playfulness and serious underlying themes. This is a beautiful and faithful rendition of the novel (even if the book is still better). It also relies on some great voice talent, including Lauren Bacall and Billy Crystal. So read the book, then watch the movie. This is a story I love in any format.

Kristen Blount – Administration Office

Did you ever wish Dostoevsky had written Crime and Punishment with Raskolnikov dressed as Batman? Have you ever thought that Waiting for Godot could be improved with Beavis and Butthead? Have you ever awoken, dripping with fear, from a nightmare in which Garfield plays a rather convincing Mephistopheles?

Then R. Sikoryak’s Masterpiece Comics might be just right for you! As the cover suggests, this over-sized, hardbound title is "where classics and cartoons collide!" Sikoryak takes the best of literature, from Shakespeare, to Brontë, to Hawthorne, and rewrites the classics as newspaper and pulp comics. So, Wuthering Heights becomes "The Crypt of Brontë," like Tales from the Crypt, and the Book of Genesis becomes "Blonde Eve," like Blondie.

This book could have been a remarkable failure, but Sikoryak is such a talented adapter and artist that both the literary sources and the comics’ artists are respected in their imitation. The perfectly mimicked visuals guide the condensed stories along, synthesizing "high art" with "low art." Moreover, the satirical contrast between the "funny paper" characters and their imitating roles as great figures of literature provides plenty of laughs for fans of either medium.

But aside from all the potential analysis you could glean from Masterpiece Comics, it’s mostly a funny little book. It’s short enough to read in an afternoon and colorful enough to give to any teen as a primer for future literary ventures. Who knows? You may even find yourself thinking about Charlie Brown and Peanuts as a Kafkaesque adventure in existential crises.

Khaleel Gheba – Miller Branch

Gilda Joyce is my kind of girl. Some might describe her as "quirky," but that’s too easy. I like to think that Gilda is more of a combination of Olivia and Harriet the Spy. Gilda loves her typewriter, which was given to her by her late father. She also loves dressing up in outrageous outfits, and trying to communicate with "the spirits" — an activity she took up after her father died. Gilda somehow manages to talk her way into (and sometimes out of) the strangest situations. She invites herself into the home of a distant relative in San Francisco, simply because she told people she would be going to San Francisco over the summer. It turns out this relative has a mystery he needs solving! Well, Gilda thinks it needs to be solved. This can’t be a coincidence! (Or maybe it could.)

Something I love about Gilda is the way she thinks. She’s a dramatic optimist, something the world needs more of. This book is light, but not fluffy; funny, not absurd; and sweet, not saccharine. Gilda also appears in several fantastic sequels by author Jennifer Allison, including Gilda Joyce: The Ladies of the Lake, Gilda Joyce: The Ghost Sonata, and the latest in the series, Gilda Joyce: The Dead Drop, which features Gilda traveling to D.C.’s own International Spy Museum. Pick these books up when you want a fun series to get you through the lull of your favorite author taking three years to come out with a new book.

Jennifer Smith – Glenwood Branch

“A soul could be captured through a shadow. It was in the Ojibwe language. Waabaamoojicchaagwaan — the word for mirror can also refer to shadow and to the soul: your soul is visible and can be seen. Gil had placed his foot on Irene’s shadow when he painted her. And though she tried to pull away, it was impossible to tug that skein of darkness from under his heel.”

The title of Louise Erdrich’s Shadow Tag comes from a game in the Native American traditions in which participants win by stepping on the shadows of other players. The shadow is seen as standing in for one’s soul.

Even though I think it is dark and somewhat depressing, what kept me reading this author’s new novel is the spare prose that pulls you in. Irene America discovers that her husband, Gil, has been reading her diary, so she decides to manipulate him by keeping the real “blue” diary in a safe place while leaving the fictional “red” one where he will find it. The story alternates between the two diaries along with some third-person narration, making it a haunting read.

Gil is an artist who achieves substantial success painting portraits of Irene, some of them deeply disturbing. Irene resumes her doctoral thesis on a 19th-century Native American painter whose subjects have died soon after being painted. The two have been married for approximately 15 years, and realize that something is missing from their relationship. They have three children: Florian, Riel, and Stoney, who look forward to the few times that their parents are getting along. Irene is dealing with her alcoholism, while Gil realizes that his fear of losing Irene may force him to create the defining work of his career. The complex relationships in this dysfunctional family can possibly serve as a warning to some, and those looking for an uplifting read will not find it here. The ending, as well as the whole story, is quite bleak, but the writing will keep you reading until the very end.

Michele Happel – Miller Branch

Betty Feathers (formerly known as Elisabeth Macintosh, and born in Tientsin, China) is a survivor of the Japanese internment camps in Shanghai. She is also a passionate gardener and church flower arranger — the classic tweed-and-pearl British wife of a bygone era. Jane Gardam’s The Man in the Wooden Hat is the engaging story of her 50-year marriage to Edward Feathers and of the mysterious strand of "guilty pearls," as she calls it. Barely an hour after receiving Edward’s written proposal of marriage in Hongkong, she meets Terry Veneering, a married man and Edward’s arch enemy in court. They have a brief affair, with consequences reverberating throughout their lives.

Edward’s side of the story came out in Gardam’s earlier novel Old Filth. The impeccable barrister evolves into the much respected judge Sir Edward Feathers QC, known to friends and foes alike as Filth: Failed In London Try Hongkong. He tried Hongkong and flourished. Edward was brought up by an amah in Borneo and was sent "home" to England when he could hardly speak a word of English. Betty and Edward endured the harshness of their childhood in resolute silence. "She doesn’t speak about it," as Edward would tell their friends about Betty’s time in the internment camp and "one doesn’t intrude." Betty and Edward are "Raj orphans," born in distant colonial outposts — remnants of the once and powerful Empire.

The Man in the Wooden Hat and Old Filth intertwine and enrich each other into a well-worn tapestry of the Feathers’ childhood memories and the effects of time (and will) on their marriage. Both books were written with wit, candor and old world elegance. Gardam is a master of observation, giving the reader such a sense of place with the sultry and humid tropics of Borneo to the dampness and coldness of Wales. She slowly chips away at the polished and very stiff upper lip of her characters, revealing their passions, fears, secrets, and betrayals. Jane Gardam, now 78 years old, twice winner of the Whitbread prize, has not lost her distinct charm and unique voice in captivating her readers. She writes with kindness and intelligence, the passion and durability of romance within marriage and without.

A 2010 Adult Summer Reading Club recommendation

Cristina J. Lozare – Central Library