Marcus is having a hard time both at home and in school.  Since the death of his sister, his father has moved out of the house and his mother is having a hard time just keeping it together.  Marcus has begun to fight at school and is headed down a road that will get him kicked out of school and his house and one that will be difficult to travel back from.

While at the park, he is challenged to a game of chess from C.M., a nickname that stands for Chess Man, Check Mate and Chess Master.  It is through their games together that Marcus begins to learn how to keep his own emotions in check and to always be looking at least three moves ahead – both on the chess board and in real life.

The dust jacket says, “Inspired by inner-city school chess enrichment programs, Chess Rumble explores the ways this strategic game empowers young people with the skills they need to anticipate and calculate their moves through life.”  This is a statement that I would completley agree with.  I do also agree with Ms. Yingling’s statement that the size and format (including page stock) of the book borders too closely of a picture book.  I just can’t see a teenage boy feeling cool touting this book around, if you know what I mean.

Chess Rumble is also told in verse, a format which I always enjoy. Overall, I liked Chess Rumble and found it well worth the read.  I just wonder if the same could be said of its intended audience.

Book trailer:

Links of interest:  G. Neri website, follow on Twitter, more book blogger reviews,
Genre:  Middle Grade Fiction, approx age 9-12.
Publisher:  Lee and Low Books.  November 8, 2007
Hardcover, 64 pages.  ISBN  1584302798
Chess Rumble is available from your favorite independent bookstore, Powell’s, and Amazon.

My boys and I have been excited ALL summer (photo on the left is my baby about 2 1/2 years ago) because Christy, the elephant at Hogle Zoo, which we frequent about two times a month, was expecting a baby elephant.  In August her due date had finally approached.  I had talked with somebody at the zoo and was thrilled when he told me that if all goes well, the new baby elephant would be on display immediately following the birth.  Wow!

When Hogle Zoo twittered about the new arrival, I was ecstatic and asked again when the elephant would be on display.  I literally was ready to drop everything to see this elephant.  I was so bummed when this was the reply: @mawbooks Baby elephant and her mom are not on exhibit yet. Should be six to eight weeks and we’ll keep folks posted on the big debut! Dang it!  I’d waited all summer.  But the wait is finally over!  Our newest arrival will be on display a week from today.  I’ve already put in on the calender and told my friend I want to be there when they open.   And we have a new giraffe too.  It will be an exciting day.

Why am I talking about elephants?  ‘Tis funny because Tilbury House Publishers were on the look out for reviewers for two of their elephant books and they happened to catch me Twittering about well – elephants.  It’s like they read my mind, because I was thinking that reviewing some picture books about elephants would be a perfect tie-in to our own arrival here! I’ve reviewed other Tilbury titles and have enjoyed them. So I’m really excited to share two of their elephant titles with you.  But first, I have to share the baby with you!

(Photos attributed and copyrighted to the Hogle Zoo)

Isn’t she a cutie?!  I can’t wait to go visit my first baby elephant on Friday.  If any of my local readers are  planning on going bright and early in the morning, do let me know.

Let’s talk about elephant books!

Both Tarra and Carol have unusual lives and it’s in this photo essay entitled  Travels with Tarra by Carol Buckley that Carol shares with us her unusual relationship with Tarra, who happens to be an elephant.  Imagine sitting at home doing homework when you look up and see a baby elephant walking down the sidewalk.  For Carol that’s exactly what happened and it was love at first sight.

Tarra belonged to a tire store owner who bought her from an elephant broker (who literally snatched Tarra from her herd in Burman and shipped to the U.S.).  Tarra served as a mascot for this tire shop and the owner hoped that she would bring in more money.

Carol visited the tire shop so often that she soon became her caretaker and even took the elephant home with her night.  Tarra was still very much a baby and needed the physical and emotional contact that every baby needs.  For Tarra that need was accomplished through Carol and they became the best of friends.

Carol purchased Tarra and for twenty years the two of them traveled the world in shows, circuses and even making an appearance in the movie Annie.  Tarra loved to perform and was generally a very happy elephant.  But she would also get tired of the same tricks and Carol had to be inventive on how to keep her entertained.  There were a few times that she was kept in a zoo but ultimately Carol knew that Tarra was happiest with lots of room to run around.  She purchased 800 acres and founded The Elephant Sanctuary.  It’s not a zoo or a theme park in the sense that it’s not open to the public, but rather, I thought of it as more as a retirement home for elephants.  A place where they could live with other elephants and roam and play openly.

Travels with Tarra did an excellent job conveying how social elephants are.  They need attention and touch.  They truly care and comfort each other.  It also illustrates how many elephants were cared for by ignorant owners (the tire shop owner would literally drive Tarra home in the trailer, turn off the lights and go to bed – leaving her alone for hours in a very small space).  Although, Tarra loved to perform she was always the happiest when she had the opportunity to just run around in open space.

The Elephant Sanctuary has recently received a lot of media coverage and I found Travels with Tarra a good book to introduce me to the sanctuary and its background.  It would make for a good read-a-loud book in the classroom or in your home with your children.

Just for Elephants also by Carol Buckley is the story of two other elephants at the Sanctuary.  Shirley had lived a long life.  She had performed in a circus and after breaking her leg and being unable to perform tricks was sold to a zoo.  After many years with the zoo, it was decided to move Shirley to The Elephant Sanctuary where she could live out the rest of her life roaming freely with other elephants.

When she arrived, she was greeted by another elephant named Jenny who just happened to be a baby elephant in Shirley’s circus many years earlier.  The old adage, “elephants do remember” is only too true and these two elephants instantly remembered each other, stood close together.  They touched each other affectionately and often wrapped their trunks together.  They became inseparable best friends.  I enjoyed learning how the elephants lived in the sanctuary and the importance of friendships to them.

The narration in both Travels with Tarra and Just for Elephants left just a bit to be desired in its simplicity.  In Just for Elephants, I was taken a bit out of the story when the entire book was told from a third person omniscient and then at the end the author inserts herself in the story and switched to first person with the use of I.  I wouldn’t let this override your pleasure of either book, but thought that I would mention it.  Both books are full of large photographs which my children enjoyed very much.

Carol Buckley has a new book entitled Tarra & Bella: The Elephant and Dog Who Became Best Friends which comes out in just under a week and published by Putnam Juvenile.  The Elephant Sanctuary has created the following video about Tarra and her elephant friends and it’s my pleasure to exclusively debut it here on the Maw Books Blog!

.

The Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee is the nation’s largest natural habitat refuge developed solely for endangered African and Asian elephants. It operates on 2,700 acres.  For every 100 copies of their elephant books sold, Tilbury House has pledged to sponsor a much-needed item from the Sanctuary’s wish list. These gifts will include 100 lbs of peanut butter (a favorite treat), a day’s worth of meals for one elephant (including more than 10lbs of fruits & veggies and 100 lbs of hay!), and an elephant-sized piece of land (to support the Sanctuary’s recent expansion.)  This “Trunk Sale” will run through the end of this year December 31st.

Giveaway!

Tilbury Publishers is sponsoring this giveaway of the following titles:

• Copy of Just for Elephants signed by Sanctuary co-founder Carol Buckley
• Copy of Travels With Tarra signed by Carol and stamped by Tarra the Elephant
• Package of Tilbury House Animal Books— The Goat Lady, Thanks to the Animals, and an advance copy of Bear-ly There.

The publisher will draw 3 lucky winners from all of those who comment on any of the participating tour posts from Sept. 1-9, and announce the winners on Sept 10th.  Open to U.S. and Canada.  Other stops on this tour this week are  Reading Rumpus, Sacred Elephants, Read These Books and Use Them!, Shelf Elf,  Bees Knees, Through The Looking Glass, and ending Tuesday the 8th with Bri Meets Books.

To enter this giveaway, simply answer this question:  have you ever seen a baby elephant? As you can tell, I’m a tad excited.  Am I in for a treat?

Links of interest:  The Elephant Sanctuary website is very in-depth and a fantastic resource.  It also includes a curriculum for teachers for an in-depth study of elephants.
Just for Elephants Genre:  Picture Book, non-Fiction.  Approx. ages 9-12
Publisher:  Tilbury House.  November 15, 2006.
Hardcover, 32 pages.  ISBN 0884482839
Just for Elephants is available from your favorite independent bookstore, Powell’s and Amazon.

Travels with Tarra Genre:  Young Adult, non-fiction photo essay.
Publisher:  Tilbury House.  July 2002.
Hardcover, 40 pages.  ISBN  0884482413
Travels with Tarra is available from your favorite independent bookstore, Powell’s and Amazon.

Tarra & Bella Genre:  Picture book, non-fiction.  Approx ages 4-8.
Publisher:  Putnam Juvenile.  September 8, 2009
Hardcover, 32 pages.  ISBN  0399254439
Tarra & Bella is available from your favorite independent bookstore, Powell’s and Amazon.

And yes, I post this despite the way that it sounds.  That my good review was “bought.”  Certainly not.  But I must admit that if the author makes such a fuss over her book and packages it in such away that I know she knows it’s a special book, then I can’t help but think that this book is special.  And guess what?  It certainly feels that way.

The only thing that eighth grader Nikki Maxwell wants is a cell phone.  It would certainly help her fit in better at her new snooty school (which she’s attending on scholarship because her dad got the bug extermination contract – just picture what it’s like to get picked up from school with a large roach on top of the car) but what she gets instead is a diary.

One stupid diary.

Absolutely no one writes their most intimate feelings and deep, dark secrets in a diary anymore!  Why?!

Because just one or two people knowing all your BIZ could completely ruin your reputation.

You’re supposed to post this kind of juicy stuff online in your BLOG so MILLIONS can read it!!

Only a total dork would be caught WRITING in a DIARY!!!

Yep, this book totally had me from less than eight quick pages in.  But despite swearing to never write in the diary, she does.  Nikki, like many other middle-schoolers, has a lot to worry about.  She’s new.  Invisible.  Desperate to make friends and not embarrass herself in the process.

Nikki loves to draw and fills her diary with really fun illustrations.  The school has a art competition and Nikki really wants to win but that means rivaling the school’s most popular girl Mackenzie who has it out to “get her.”  There was a scene at the end of the book between Nikki and McKenzie that had me laughing out loud.  In fact, there were many laugh out loud moments.  It was funny, cute, and yet touched upon so many worries that young tweens fret about.

I can’t help but compare Dork Diaries to Diary of  a Wimpy Kid (my reviews of Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Rodrick Rules,  The Last Straw), and it’s a comparison that was offered up to me by the author itself.  I loved Diary of a Wimpy Kid.  Dork Diaries is certainly within the same vein.  Not to say that it’s not original.  That’s the beauty of it.  Coming off of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid wave, I didn’t possibly think that Dork Diaries could be original.  But it is.  Very much so.

This book trailer will give you a good idea of how spunky Nikki is:

I highly recommend it tween girls and middle-schoolers (although this thirty-year-old can’t wait for the next book).  A friend of mine just asked me if I had heard of this book and if she should order it for her middle school library.  Yes.  Absolutely yes.  They’ll love it.

Links of interest:  Dork Diaries website and blog.
Genre:  Juvenile Fiction, approx age 9-12.
Publisher:  Aladdin.  June 2, 2009.
Hardcover, 288 pages.  ISBN:  1416980067
Dork Diaries is available from your favorite independent bookstore, Powell’s, and Amazon.

Wife of the Gods is a whodunit murder mystery and in full honesty if the book wasn’t set in Africa without its many African themes and traditions I doubt I would have even given the book a second glance.  But what sets this book apart is its Ghanan African setting as well as its memorable characters.

In a small village of Ketanu, Gladys, a young medical student, is murdered in the forest and Detective Darko Dawson is brought in from the large city (obviously much to the annoyance of the local police) to oversee the investigation.  For Darko, the village of Ketanu brings back vivid memories.  He often visited his aunt with his mother twenty-five years earlier as a boy.  But that all changed when his mother went for a visit and never returned.  The mystery of her disappearance was never solved.  Darko intends to not only investigate the murder to which he has been assigned but also to seek out new clues into his mother’s disappearance.

It’s not easy though.  Darko is a complex character who leaves behind a loving wife and a young son who needs a heart operation.  He also has an anger management problem, although sympathetically it comes out when he sees those less fortunate being abused.  And he can’t help but use his police power to procure marijuana.

Darko clashes with the local culture which is still held by the strong belief in witchcraft and age-old traditions, such as virgin girls being offered up to fetish priests as trokosi, or Wives of the Gods.  His investigation is slowed by such beliefs and even the local police are apprehensive to question certain individuals in fear of angering the Gods.

Darko uncovers a myriad of suspects, characters who are all memorable in their own right: Gladys herself, who was an AIDS worker and gave many a motive for her death; Samuel, a young man with a simple crush; Timothy who worked with Gladys in AIDS education;  Isaac Kutu, the local herbalist and healer; Togbe Adzima, the fetish priest and his several wives; Elizabeth, Gladys’s aunt and believed by many to be a witch; and even his own Auntie Osewa who has a background which she’d rather keep secret.

There was one thing that hindered my full enjoyment of the novel and that was that I couldn’t recall characters after they were previously introduced.  There were a couple of times that I thought I was reading about a new character and then had to stop and see if I already knew who they were, which I realized I did.  Rechecking previous passages of the book always takes me out of the story a bit.  Fault of the reader and not the author?  Maybe?  Fault of the author and not the reader?  Maybe?  To tell you the truth, I’m not really sure.

Wife of the Gods is recommended for those who like a good mystery and intriguing characters.  Not only is there a mysterious murder to solve but several ideas to think upon including that of new culture vs. new, African culture, traditional and advanced medicine, family relations, and more.  And man, Quartey has convinced me that I’d love to visit Ghana for the food alone.  So many wonderful descriptions of the food!

If there are to be more books about Inspector Darko Dawson then I will be sure to check them out.  A series worth following.

Book trailer for Wife of the Gods:

When you read mysteries how often do you guess who the murderer is correctly?  I don’t often read whodunit genre books but I must admit that Kwei Quartey kept me on my toes although I rightly suspected the murderer (but don’t until about 3/4 of the way through the book).

Links of interest: TLC Book Tour stops, Wife of the Gods website, Wife of the Gods excerpt, reading group discussion questions, more book bloggers book reviews, and a thoughtful interview with Kwei Quartey at Jen’s Book Thoughts.
Genre:  Literary Fiction, Mystery
Publisher:  Random House.  July 14, 2009
Hardcover, 336 pages.  ISBN:  1400067596
Wife of the Gods is available from your favorite independent bookstore, Powell’s, and Amazon.

Do not let this unassuming cover fool you.  14 Cows for America by Carmen Agra Deedy in collaboration with Wilson Kimeli Naiyomah and illustrated by Thomas Gonzalez is a purely stunning picture book.  When I finished reading the author’s note at the end, I had tears rolling down my cheeks.  It’s a book that I think everybody needs to pick up and read both for it’s truly heartening, beautiful story and for it’s spectacular illustrations.

I usually don’t start off my book reviews with the book trailer but in this case I am because I want you to first see the amazing spreads of this book.

In June of 2002, Kimeli Naiyomah returns home to his native Kenya and the Maasai tribe after studying abroad in New York City.  Kimeli was there on September 11, 2001 and watched the devastation upon his host country.  When he returns home,

A child asks if he has brought any stories.
Kimeli nods.

He has brought with him one story.
It has burned a hole in his heart.

And so he tells of buildings so tall that they can touch the sky, fires so hot they can melt iron and smoke, dust so thick they can block out the sun.  A story that this village in Kenya had not yet heard.

The story ends.
More than three thousand souls are lost.
A great silence falls over the Maasai.

Kimeli waits.
He knows his people.

They are fierce when provoked
but easily moved to kindness
when they hear of suffering
or injustice.

At least, an elder speaks.
He is shaken, but above all, he is sad.
“What can we do for these poor people?

As a child, Kimeli’s greatest ambition was to own a cow for his mother which is an animal that is the heart and soul of the Maasai tribe.  He knows that to heal the pain in someone’s heart, you must give something that is close to your own heart.  Now that he has earned enough for a cow, he asks the elders to bless a cow,  “to make it special so the gift may take away some of the sadness from American hearts.”

The tribe is not content with just a gift of one cow and so they sacrifice from their own herd and give America a total of 14 cows which is presented in a beautiful, sacred ceremony.  In the afterward Kimeli says, “We felt we had taken some of America’s pain into our Maasai hearts.”

14 Cows For America left me with profound compassion and respect for the Maasai people.  I was truly touched.

The text of 14 Cows For America by Carmen Agra Deedy is simply beautiful and at the end of the book there is a note from Kimeli Naiyomah which fleshes out more of the details about his childhood, the 14 cows, and where those cows are now.

The story itself is beautiful enough that it could stand on it’s own regardless of the illustrations that accompany it but it’s truly remarkable that the strongest strength of this book is its stunning illustrations.  My husband called them “haunting, mysterious and alive.”  Thomas Gonzalez has set the tone for the story perfectly.

My two favorite illustrations are first when Kimeli is describing the 9/11 destruction and there is a swirl of color and clouds above him and the other is when the diplomat arrives in a jeep to the Maansai tribe and realizes that it’s no ordinary diplomatic visit but rather . . . turn the page and BAM! in your face full tribal splendor, dance and ceremony movement.  Truly spectacular.  I almost feel as though my meager words are giving the illustrations a disservice.  So if you didn’t watch the above book trailer go back and do so.

Tomorrow I’ll be posting a video of Thomas Gonzalez as he describes the illustration process and offering a copy of 14 Cows for America to you as a giveaway sponsored by Peachtree Publishers.  This book is one that you don’t want to miss so please a make a point of stopping by again.  Edited to add:  giveaway link.

A truly wonderful book that I’m proud to have in my home.

Links of interest: 14 Cows website with further study, teachers guide and more (still under construction), read more book reviews on the 14 Cows for America blog tour, Carmen Agra Deedy website, Thomas Gonzalez website, and more book blog reviews.  Edited to add:  14 Cows for America giveaway and Thomas Gonzalez illustration process.  Come share your thoughts about 9/11.
Genre:  Non-Fiction Picture Book, Africa
Publisher:  Peachtree Publishers, August 1, 2009.
Hardcover, 36 pages.  ISBN 1561454907.
14 Cows for America is available from your favorite independent bookstore, Powell’s, and Amazon.

I’m thrilled to give away a signed copy of The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman (check out my book review), 2009’s Newbery Award winner and all around massively popular book by a massively popular author.  I was able to pick up a copy of the book while at BEA a few weeks ago and rather then keep it for myself, I know many of you who would be thrilled to have it!  So, it’s all yours!

Publisher description:

Nobody Owens, known to his friends as Bod, is a normal boy.

He would be completely normal if he didn’t live in a sprawling graveyard, being raised and educated by ghosts, with a solitary guardian who belongs to neither the world of the living nor of the dead.

There are dangers and adventures in the graveyard for a boy-an ancient Indigo Man beneath the hill, a gateway to a desert leading to an abandoned city of ghouls, the strange and terrible menace of the Sleer.

But if Bod leaves the graveyard, then he will come under attack from the man Jack—who has already killed Bod’s family. . . .

Book trailer:

Giveaway Details:

• This giveaway will be open for two weeks and is open internationally. I will close the contest  at the end of the day, Thursday July 23rd and announce the winners within the week.  Edited to add:  Due to some offline time that I didn’t anticipate I am extending this giveaway until July 31st.
• To enter, leave a comment on this post answering this question: If you lived in a graveyard, which dead person would you want to make sure was buried there, so you could hang out together and why? No answer, no entry.
• Five additional entries for each of the following: If you are not already subscribed and you sign up for updates either through RSS or by email, Twitter this giveaway, Stumble or fav this post, post about the giveaway either in forums (leave a link) or on your blog.
• Ten additional entries if you are already subscribed.  My way of saying thanks if you’ve already been sticking around.

Links of interest:  Maw Books review of The Graveyard Book. Neil Gaiman website, blog and on Twitter.
The Graveyard Book is available from your local independent bookstore, Powell’s, and Amazon.

But I will say this:  I NEED the third book NOW!

I’m almost a bit tempted to tell people that if you haven’t yet read Hunger Games (my book review) then you might as well wait until the third book is published and then read them all together.  Because you won’t want to wait between books.  But if you like to wait, then by all means, don’t deny yourself.

My neighborhood book club read Hunger Games two months ago and when we met last week I brought my copy of Catching Fire.  They were all clamoring so bad that we drew names for the order in which they’d read it.  The first who finished it already, told me very sarcastically “Thanks a lot.“  She’s not to happy about having to wait either.

I honestly wasn’t sure where Catching Fire was going to take us.  I really, really thought it was going to go a completely different direction and then it didn’t and then I wondered how it would be different from the first book, then it twisted again, then stuff happened, then more stuff happened, and then the last twenty pages just flew by and stuff is still happening and the book ends on this HUGE cliffhanger!  (How’s that for my eloquently stated review?!)

Catching Fire book trailer:

Argh!  We all need a little anticipation in our life right?  Must think positive thoughts and will time to pass faster.

Links of interest: Maw Books review of The Hunger Games.  Suzanne Collins website.
Genre:  Young Adult/Dystopian
Published by Scholastic Press.  September 1, 2009
Hardcover, 400 pages.  ISBN: 0439023491.
Catching Fire is available from local independent bookstores, Powell’s and Amazon.  Seriously? I’d preorder this one.

The reason that I was initially holding off on reading The Hunger Games was because of the brief synopsis:  a girl fights for her life while on a reality TV show.  Yeah, I don’t think so.  Not my type of book.  Reading about reality TV?  Not my thing.  And it’s considered science fiction?  Another strike.  But it simply could not be ignored.

Briefly stated, The Hunger Games takes place in an undetermined time in the future.  America as we know it has been completely destroyed and in its place is the capital and twelve districts.  There used to be thirteen districts and during an uprising, the thirteenth was destroyed.  Each year, as a reminder to its tributes of the power and will of the capital, two tributes, one boy and one girl, are chosen from each districts and forced to participate in The Hunger Games, a televised event in an outdoor arena where only one tribute can bring home honor to his or her district.  To win means killing all of your opponents.  To lose means that you’re dead.

Sixteen-year-old Katniss’s younger sister is chosen as tribute and in a moment of bravery Katniss volunteers to go in her stead.  Her district hasn’t won the game in decades and she knows that she has little chance of winning.  But that’s not going to stop her from using her bow and arrow skill to have her coming out on top.  But things get complicated when the other tribute in her district is Peeta, the bakers son whom she knows from school and once gave her starving family an act of kindness by giving them bread.  Not only must Katniss and Peeta kill and stay alive from the other 23 tributes, they must square off against each other, not easy to do when they have such mixed feelings for each other.

The Hunger Games book trailer:

Really exciting stuff.  Seriously.  Like stay up until three in the morning exciting.  You can’t stop thinking about it.  AND it’s going to be made into a movie!  AND Suzanne Collins is writing the screenplay.  I can not wait for both the movie and the sequel, Catching Fire, which comes out in September.  Reviewers are going to be scrambling for ARC’s for this one.  *cough,I want, I want, I want, cough*

Hunger Games totally lives up to the hype.  It’s fun, it’s different.  Just make sure you have plenty of time to read it because you’ll want to read it in one or two sittings.

Suzanne Collins website.

He takes a bite and the cheese strings like a suspension bridge from his mouth to his hand.  “Want some?”

One bite, please, and then another and another, crust and cheese sausage sauce another and another empty is strong and invincible.  “I already ate.”*

Well, as you can tell Wintergirls is about a girl who’s anorexic, Lia is literally dying to be thin.  The book opens just as she learns that her best friend with whom she has not spoken to for months has just died alone in a hotel room.  And it’s not a relationship between them that was healthy to begin with.  Both encouraged each other’s eating disorders.  After Lia comes out of rehab for the second time, she distances herself.  But the night that Cassie died, she called Lia 33 times from her cell phone.  And Lia ignored it.  Now she wonders if she could have done something to prevent Cassie’s death.

Lia tries to convince herself, her parents, her sister and her counselor that she’s okay with the death.  But she’s really spiralling out of control.  As a result, Lia has gone back to controlling her eating.  Although, I don’t think she was ever “over” it to begin with.  As soon as she hits a magic weight number, then she knows she can hit an even lower one.  She has become a master of disguise even though her eating habits are being watched carefully.  Cassie’s ghost haunts Lia and she must decide what is it she really wants:  to literally starve herself to death or rid herself of Cassie’s ghost for good by rising above her disorder.

Just like in Speak, Laurie Halse Anderson takes a very troubling subject and gives voice and awareness to it, without being preachy.  Wintergirls is a book that I think anybody who is trying to take control of their life, now matter the method, is going to relate to.  I could not put this book down.  It was simply amazing.

I couldn’t help but think of my college roommate of two years who was an anorexic.  It’s not anything that I or the other 4 roommates ever openly talked about with her.  If we did, I don’t remember.  She probably thought we were aware of her past struggles and that she was better.  But she wasn’t.  It’s really not hard to pick up on.  But to watch firsthand how this disease controlled every aspect of her life was really hard.  She tried to appear happy and in love.  She got married.  But the struggle was always there.  And as a roommate, I was clueless on how I could help.  Even if I were to go back, I still don’t know what I would do differently.  Perhaps love her even more.  And remember it’s not about the food.  It’s not really about the weight.  It’s about the control.

Edited to add the Wintergirls book trailer:

Laurie Halse Anderson on writing Wintergirls:

Wintergirls will be released on March 19th and you’ll want to read it as soon as it comes out.  AND Laurie Halse Anderson is on book tour and guess who gets to go hear her do a reading from Wintergirls?  Me!  I’m so excited!  I’ve only recently discovered Anderson this past year but quickly became a fan after reading Speak (my book review) and Chains (my book review).  I am hoping to read Twisted and Fever 1793 prior to meeting her.  Just because I feel like I should.  If you are local to the Salt Lake City area, Anderson will be signing at the Kings English Bookshop on Thursday, March 26th at 7 pm.  Of course, I’ll be taking photos and writing up a post afterwards so make sure you’re subscribed to receive updates so you don’t miss it.

*Quoted from an Advanced Readers Copy.  May be different in final version.

As a  young college student and aspiring writer Julian Wainwright has high hopes for his life.  He begins what he assures himself is to be the beginning of his career by enrolling in Professor Chesterfield’s exclusive fiction writing class.  It’s there that he meets his best friend and also aspiring writer Carter Heinz, who hails from the west coast and is dubious of those from the wealthier class.  Together Julian and Carter meet Mia and Pilar and each gets married.   Carter and Pilar out of a mutual regard for each other and Julian and Mia spurred on by a family tragedy.

Matrimony is a look into their marriages, more particularly Julian and Mia’s, as they move through the next fifteen years and experience graduate school, writers block, career moves, life, love, happiness, contentment, envy, loss and betrayal.   I can’t help but quote the dust jacket which says,

Starting at the height of the Reagan era and ending in the new millennium, Matrimony is a stunning novel of love and friendship, money and ambition, desire and tensions of faith.  It is a richly detailed portrait of what it means to share a life with someone – to do it when you’re young – and to try to do it afresh on the brink of middle age.

Although the main story is about Julian and Mia, Joshua Henkin offers us many other stories quietly told in the background.  Stories of both Julian’s and Mia’s parents, Professor Chesterfield, Carter and Pilar, Carter and Julian, and Mia and Derek – an old friend of Mia’s.

Matrimony is the type of book that could mean a lot of different things to a lot of different people.  I suspect that it’s either the type of book that you could get bored with easily or the type of book that sweeps you away into the characters, depending upon the type of reader you are.  Me?  Well, I read the entire book in just a few sittings in under two days.  I became invested in Julian and Mia’s characters.  I really felt like they were real people across the country from me, living out their lives, and I got to look in and observe.  Joshua Henkin is a gifted writer.  The writing is quiet and introspective and the language beautiful and moving.  I look forward to his future publications.

If you’d like to learn more about Matrimony and Joshua Henkin check out the following two videos where Joshua discusses his book and does a reading as well:

Stay tuned!  Joshua Henkin has a wonderful author interview for us tomorrow.  And if you’ve been following Henkin at all, you know how giving he is with his interviews.  They truly are wonderful and insightful.  Plus, a recipe that sounds delicious!  In the meantime, visit Joshua Henkin’s website or invite him to your next book club meeting.

Last but not least, would you like to read this book?  Joshua Henkin is giving away a signed copy just for you!  No mailing restrictions.  Open to anyone.  Simply leave a comment below answering the simple question:  why would you like to read Matrimony?  I’ll announce the winner here in the comments on Monday, February 23rd.  Have you already read Matrimony?  Feel free to share your thoughts about it as well.