Book Review: Keepsake by Kristina Riggle

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly meme hosted by MizB; choose sentences at random from your current read. Identify the author and title for readers.

Title: Keepsake: A Novel by Kristina Riggle
Published June 26, 2012; William Morrow Paperbacks
Genre: contemporary fiction, women's fiction
Source: publisher

" Jesus, Ron. I would never hurt Jack. You know how much he means to me. You also know how hard it is for me to keep up the house, especially since I had to start working full-time after you left me." My voice was breaking up like melting ice. (ch. 5)

About the book: Two sisters, Mary and Trish, tell the story about their lives as they discover secrets of their mother through keepsakes they find in Trish's over cluttered house. Trish is about to lose her young son Jack because of the state of her house, and her teen son Dee has already moved out, unable to live in a house full of paper, packages, boxes, and other unimaginable clutter. Trish's house has become a hoarder's dream and a normal person's nightmare.

In the clean up that follows involving, in various degrees, Dee, Mary and Trish, their father, and even Trish's estranged husband Ron and her psychiatrist Seth, the women discover items that belonged to their mother, items that tell a story they were unaware of and that explain a lot about their childhood and the mental state of their mother, now deceased. It also leads to the sisters' secrets being revealed that help explain Trish's compulsive buying and hoarding.

 My comments: Reading the novel made me think of some of the unnecessary extras in my house, including some of my books! That's how persuasive it was. It was well written and tackles a problem that we read about a lot in the news - compulsive buying and keeping, though in Trish's case it was extreme.

This book is on its way to another reader, a giveaway through BookCrossing.

Book Tour: Following Atticus by Tom Ryan

Title: Following Atticus: Forty-eight High Peaks, One Little Dog, and an Extraordinary Friendship
Author: Tom Ryan
William Morrow Paperbacks; Aug. 7. 2012
Genre: memoir, travel

I was once asked if Atticus was the perfect dog. "He's perfect for me," I said. (from the Acknowledgements).

About: A little dog named Atticus M. Finch helps Tom Ryan on an extended journey of self discovery and healing by accompanying him on long and isolated nature treks up and down the mountains of New Hampshire.

Comments: The writing is excellent and pulls the reader into the heart of the writer and into the center of his journeys with Atticus, who often leads the way on the treks. In the middle of the book, I thought that Tom and Atticus would stop climbing, retire, and take it easy, having already climbed so many 4,000-foot mountains in all kinds of weather. But they continued on, during one winter making the rounds of mountains twice and raising money for an animal medical center. I read on and realized that Atticus pined for the mountains as much as Tom did and that their outings are a big part of what keeps them both contented.

Recommendations: This book is a good one for all dog lovers and trekkers. Those who normally avoid dog books because they fear an unhappy ending when the dog dies need have no fear. Atticus and Tom are both still active and mountain trekking.

The author: In 2007 former newspaper publisher and editor Tom Ryan moved to New Hampshire with miniature schnauzer Atticus M. Finch. Tom and Atticus have climbed more than 450 four-thousand-foot peaks over the last five years. After raising thousands of dollars for Angell Animal Medical Center in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts, the pair was inducted into the Massachusetts Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Hall of Fame. Tom currently writes The Adventures of Tom & Atticus column in the Northcountry News and Mountainside Guide, and the blog The Adventures of Tom & Atticus. Tom and Atticus live in the White Mountains of New Hampshire.

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For more reviews of Following Atticus, see the Book Tour Schedule.
Thanks to TLC Book Tours and the publisher for a review copy of this book.

Sunday Salon: September Cozy Mysteries

Welcome to the Sunday Salon! Here are some light cozy reads for September, which is just around the corner.


Foul Play at the Fair
by Shelley Freydont

Treacherous Toys
by Joyce and Jim Lavene

Last Wool and Testament
by Molly MacRae


This month is full of book tours; the next one is next week, when I'll  review Following Atticus by Tom Ryan, a memoir about a climber and his little companion, a miniature schnauzer named Atticus M. Finch.  The following week, I'll review The Orphan Master's Son. I don't know much about this novel but from what I've read so far, it will be interesting.

What have you planned, book-wise?

Book Feature/YA Fantasy: Last Kiss in Venice

Title: Last Kiss in Venice (Legend of the White Snake #1)
Author: Martin Chu Shui
EBook, 189 pages; July 11, 2012
Genre: fantasy, YA, martial arts

"In the misty valley of the Er Mei Mountain, after the young and handsome scholar had rescued Caitlin from the eagle’s talons and started talking to her as if she was a human girl, she wondered how it was possible that she understood his words. Perhaps she just had natural ability to understand human words, or maybe instead of understanding the words, she received the messages by observing the scholar’s emotion and body language. No matter how she was able to do it, the result was the same: Caitlin, then the three-foot-long white snake, knew exactly what the scholar was talking about." (from Last Kiss in Venice)

Book description: “Last Kiss in Venice” is a reinterpretation of one of China’s most famous love stories, ‘Legend of the White Snake’. It combines eastern and western culture to tell a story of love and hate, loyalty and betrayal, revenge and justice. It is a supernatural love epic that combines magic and sword fighting in a timeless legend.

Beside a bridge over a canal in Venice, Charlie is spellbound by a girl he has just met, by Caitlin’s absolute beauty and also by what seems like a mythical bond between them. As they admit their love for each other in Paris, then move to settle down in Australia together, it looks like the start of Happily Ever After. But neither of them realizes that this is just the start of a heart-wrenching journey.

After a lifetime of searching, Caitlin finally finds her true love, settles down in the beautiful rolling countryside of outback Australia, and starts to raise a family, but her enemy is never far away. She loves Charlie deeply but can never reveal her secret; he must never know who she really is, and that is her downfall. Information in the hands of her enemy brings her life crashing down around her. To save all she has worked for, she must fight for the right to survive.(based on goodreads)

Martin Chu Shui of Australia has written two other martial arts fantasy novels, Dragon's Pupils: The Sword Guest, and Dragon's Pupils: The Peak. This is his third YA novel.

Book Review: Across the Mekong River by Elaine Russell

Title: Across the Mekong River: A Novel
Author: Elaine Russell
Paperback, August 6. 2012; CreateSpace
Genre: historical fiction

We lived in the mountains of Xieng Khouang Province, in the middle of northern Laos. A beautiful place of gentle streams and green forests. On a clear day from the peak above our village I could see the broad Plain of Jars with its ancient stone jars, some as tall as two men. Lao villages and flooded rice paddies dotted the valley. Beyond were the houses and Buddhist temple of Xieng Khouang town. We built our Hmong villages on the steep hillsides, working our fields and tending our animals. Only our land mattered. (ch. 2)

Book description:  Nou Lee and her Hmong family escaped in 1978 from Laos in Southeast Asia after the Communist takeover there. The story follows the Lees from a refugee camp in Thailand to a new life in Minnesota and eventually California. Family members struggle to survive in a strange foreign land, haunted by the scars of war and loss of family.

Across the Mekong River paints a vivid picture of the Hmong immigrant experience, exploring family love, sacrifice, and the resiliency of the human spirit to overcome tragic circumstances. (publisher's description).

Comments: Across the Mekong River is a striking narrative that follows a Hmong family escaping from their home in war torn Laos, to refugee camps in Thailand, and then to the United States as sponsored refugees. It follows the family's fortune in the U.S., where the young daughter Nou grows up American and defies her parent's wish to live a traditional life and to agree to an arranged marriage to another from the Hmong tribe.

The book tackles the history of the Hmong refugee experience in the United States, which they helped during the war in Laos. The novel also candidly discusses the problems of adjustment to a new language and culture and to the younger generation growing up more Western than the older generation knew how to handle.

The book is valuable for its historical detail of the Hmong population, their war experiences, and their long journey to settle in other countries after the Pathet Lao Communist takeover in Laos in the 1970s. I was impressed that the author interviewed many Laotians here and in Laos about their experiences and helped to add this book to their records, though in fiction, of the intensity and quality of their struggles.

Visit the author's website at http://www.elainerussell.info
Across the Mekong River,was a finalist in the Carolina Wren Press 2010 Doris Bakwin Award for adult novels; the Maui Writer’s Conference 2003 Rupert Hughes Prose Writing Competition; and the Focus on Writers 2001 Friends of the Sacramento Library Awards.

Thanks to the author for a review copy of this book.

Book Review: And When She Was Good by Laura Lippman

Title: And When She Was Good: A Novel by Laura Lippman
Hardcover; August 14, 2012; William Morrow
Genre: mystery, suspense
Book source: publisher/TLC Book Tours

About the book: Helen drops out of school as a teenager and leaves home to avoid an abusive father, eventually becoming a well-to-do madam and changing her name to Heloise. She feels she must keep her young son innocent of his jailed father's existence and the real nature of her work. When people from her past threaten her and her son's future,  Helen does what she has to do to save them both.

Comments: I thought about the title of the book, "And When She Was Good," and about the first verse of Longfellow's poem and considered the author's possible intent:

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. (American poet, 1807-1882)

There was a little girl, who had a little curl
Right in the middle of her forehead,
And when she was good, she was very, very good,
But when she was bad she was horrid. (from destinyland.org)  

On the surface, Helen seems to be the victim of an abusive father and weak mother, the victim of a boyfriend, Billy, with whom she ran off, only to have to work on the streets to support his drug habit. She also becomes a victim of Val, who leads her into a life of prostitution.

But is Helen so innocent and blameless really? She manages to get rid of her abusers and her competitors on the streets and in her business, without ever seeming to lift a finger to deliberately hurt anyone. Things just seem to happen and work in her favor, even after she becomes a madam and raises her young son Scott in the traditional way, hiding her real source of income and profession from him and others relating to Scott.

I thought this was a nuanced psychological study as well as a good mystery novel, very well written to reveal the subtleties of Helen/Heloise's personality in her fight for survival and respectability. I would definitely recommend it for general readers as well as thriller/mystery lovers.

Laura Lippman wrote seven books while working as a reporter at the Baltimore Sun. She now is a full time fiction writer, author of two New York Times bestsellers, What the Dead Know and Another Thing to Fall. She has won the Edgar, Quill, Anthony, Nero Wolfe, Agatha, Gumshoe, Barry, and Macavity awards.

Laura's Website / Facebook

For a list of other reviews and tour stops visit "And When She Was Good" blog tour at TLC Book Tours. 

Book Feature: The Boy Who Stole the Leopard's Spots by Tamar Myers

Title: The Boy Who Stole the Leopard's Spots: A Mystery
Author: Tamar Myers
Genre: historical mystery
William Morrow Paperbacks; May 8, 2012
Source: publisher

Opening sentences: 
"It was much cooler in the canyon that lay in front of, and below, the village. Over centuries the crystal clear spring had carved itself a bed two hundred meters lower than the surrounding savannah. Erosion had widened this space enough to accommodate a forest with trees large enough to require buttress roots, their crowns soaring up to neck-craning heights. It was a place of magic, awe, and, of course, much superstition.... One night the chief stayed in the canyon to kill a leopard that had ben terrorizing his village. This is the story of what happened, and how it came to be that a boy could steal a leopard's spots, and what that would mean for that boy when he grew into a man." ( from the Prologue) 

About the book:

American missionary Amanda, police chief Captain Pierre Jardin, and the local witch doctor and his wife, Cripple, all become embroiled in the mystery as evil omens and strange happenings in the village of Belle Vue in the Belgian Congo suggest more lives will be lost before a killer is unmasked. (from the book description)