Graveminder by Melissa Marr

Graveminder
by Melissa Marr

“Sleep well, and stay where I put you.” You wouldn’t think you’d need to instruct the dead to stay dead, but apparently in Claysville you not only need an Undertaker with some special skills (and a capital U) but a Graveminder as well.

In a lot of ways, these are typical small town people with bent and broken relationships just trying to get by. Rebekkah and Byron were once a couple but Rebekkah severed that link in her desire to leave Claysville behind. Byron came home first, then Rebekkah returns when her grandmother, Maylene, is killed. But neither of them quite know what they’re returning to or how they will have to rely on each other.

So, who killed Maylene? Was it a vagabond? If so, why was nothing stolen? By the looks of it, it might have been a wild animal. It seems like there’s a few people in town who know more than they’re telling. Byron and Rebekkah have lots of questions, and they aren’t going to like the answers.

Graveminder by Melissa Marr is an enjoyable light read – lightly romantic, lightly creepy and a bit of a mystery. It was intriguing and yet simple. I just didn’t feel like any aspect of it was sufficiently developed. Some of the repetition could have been eliminated to make room for fuller development of characters. A good mystery will give you enough clues and red herrings so that you get to the end and, when you find out whodunit, you think, “Why didn’t I see that all along?!” The bad guys simply didn’t get enough stage time or interaction to be appreciated in this book.

A good read overall but not mindscape altering. A really good book should change the way you look at things a little, grip you and hold you in thrall. This is simply a fun read, which can be just what the doctor ordered for a little R&R.

Picture Book Artists

Picture Book Artists

Instead of looking at the story told by words in a book, today I’d like to share my appreciation for what the illustrator brings to the telling of a tale, particularly in picture books. Picture books aren’t just for tiny tots. They are for the young at heart and anyone who appreciates good art.

Did you realize that most pages in a picture book begin as full size pieces of artwork? They may be simple or ornate. We often refer to them as “the drawings” in a book, but they are more often full pieces of art in a wide variety of media before they are translated into the book format. Check out the unusual watercolors of Daniel Mackie, the oil paintings of Layne Johnson or the intricate collages of Eric Carle.

When I was in school, I learned that the line of the drawing connects to a person’s intellect while the color of the picture connects directly to a person’s emotions. I enjoy a good line drawing, as in the original Paddington Bear illustrations, but two of my preferences in children’s artwork seem to run in almost opposite directions – either dark oil paintings or very light watercolors. I adore the dark colors of Brian Lies’ Bats at the Library. The illustrations of the library are beautiful and the bats humorous, whether they are playing shadow puppets with the overhead projector, using a computer cord as a lasso to pull a big book off the shelf or making photocopies of themselves.

I also love the simple watercolors of Beatrix Potter. Whether it’s naughty Peter Rabbit in his little blue jacket stealing vegetables from Farmer McGregor or Squirrel Nutkin, who lost his beautiful plumy brown tail for his impudence, the little animals always enchant and delight.

Are there any picture books that have stayed in your memory over the years? Was it the words of the story, the images or both? I highly recommend reconnecting with this art form, whether it’s with a little one to read to or on your own.

Folly Beach: A Lowcountry Tale ~ Dorothea Benton Frank

Folly Beach: A Lowcountry Tale
By Dorothea Benton Frank

I must admit that I’m only a little more than halfway through this book but I have been enjoying it and I wanted to share one of my favorite authors, Dorothea Benton Frank. What I love best about her books are their great sense of place, Carolina Lowcountry, and the vivid characters. Folly Beach does not disappoint.

Cate Cooper’s husband has recently committed suicide, leaving her to face the lies that their life was built upon – a house mortgaged to the hilt, incredible debt, a business that is pretty well sunk and a child by another woman. Cate finds out that even her engagement ring diamond is a fake. She decides to go back to the Lowcountry of South Carolina, to Folly’s Beach. Aunt Daisy, who practically raised her, is in need of a little help herself.

A couple things did bother me with this book. Early on, the narrator recalls, “We were gathered in the most inclement conditions February in New Jersey could offer to bury Addison, my husband of too many years.”

No, you weren’t, because the most severe conditions available in February would be a blizzard and you definitely wouldn’t be in a cemetery burying someone under those circumstances. You might not be on any other day in February. The ground is usually rather frozen and the deceased is often kept in storage until the ground can be dug for burial.

Perhaps we could put this down to the character’s tendency to dramatize but I don’t feel like that’s established on page 7 or that it is ever that severe again. I’d say it’s a matter of someone writing about a setting they aren’t very familiar with. Disconcerting but the premise was interesting, so I kept going and thankfully she moves South to familiar territory very soon.

The other minor problem I had was that the story is told in alternating chapters. One chapter is told from Cate’s perspective and the next is told from the imagined perspective of a play Cate writes about Dorothy Heyward. (Cate ends up staying in the house where Dorothy and Dubose Heyward once lived on Folly Beach in South Carolina and becomes very interested in them.) I enjoyed the two lines of story equally but found it a bit distracting, or perhaps annoying would be more accurate, to flip back and forth. It might not have bothered me so much if my reading wasn’t already disjointed by the pockets of time I have to read. I only get to read two chapters at a time and so I never get to read much of each story line in one sitting.

These are minor details though and haven't kept me from reading and enjoying Folly Beach. I also did a little checking on the Porgy House, where so much of the action takes place that it almost becomes another character. I came across an article from the Charleston Post and Courier which describes the Porgy House and shows photographs after it was purchased and restored in the late 90's. (Porgy House Available for Tours on Folly Beach) I do love it when history comes to life.

I can’t say that I’ve enjoyed each of Dorothea Benton Frank’s books equally, or that this is even my favorite, but the characters are always engaging and the setting is usually vividly depicted in her Lowcountry books. I’d highly recommend her first, Sullivan’s Island, but all of the books are stand alones. They are addicting, dramatic and highly entertaining – the best of Chick Lit. Not quite a soap opera, more like a girlfriend telling you ALL about her life.

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Future

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Future
By Michael J. Fox

Michael J. Fox will long be remembered as Alex Keaton in the 80’s sitcom, Family Ties, and the star of the science fiction movie Back to the Future. Others may remember him from the later sitcom Spin City or the fact that he developed Parkinson’s Disease and became a leading advocate for finding a cure. But I was pleasantly surprised to find that he is a supremely articulate and literate individual as well.

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Future is a very short book, only 100 pages, succinct but thoughtful. It is geared towards high school graduates, embarking on a college education, but sums up some important points we could all stand to be reminded about.

Fox has several honorary degrees, “which puts me on equal academic footing with the Scarecrow from The Wizard of Oz.” A high school dropout with a purpose, he finally took his GED when his son was ready to enter kindergarten.

“Just to reassure you, I’m not one of those swaggering jerks who, having achieved success after dropping out of school, promotes the fiction that a higher education is a complete waste of time. All the same, I sometimes employ my lack of academic standing as a subtle goad to those who would make character judgments based solely on one’s alma mater or post-graduate degree.” Nevertheless, he is an avid reader and learner.

Self deprecating in every respect, he pulls lessons from the school of hard knocks in economics, literature, physics, political science and geography. He also extols the virtues of finding mentors along the way.

Speaking of what his time on Family Ties and the Executive Producer, Gary Goldberg, taught him he says, “Show up to work on time, learn my lines, respect the writers, strive with every performance, every scene, every line, to improve on what I had done before: these were the standards that Gary expected me to meet. It was an ethic that I understood. It was basically my father’s.”

This could be applied to basically any work we do in life. With everything we do, strive to improve on what we have done before. His mentor taught him an equally important but perhaps more esoteric concept as well. “To this day, the word that comes to mind when I think of Gary is “gratitude.” None of us is entitled to anything. We get what we get, not because we want it or we deserve it or because it’s unfair if we don’t get it, but because we earn it, we respect it, and only if we share it do we keep it.” Profoundly simple.

At age thirty, he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease and told he would only be able to work for about ten more years. It certainly made him sit up and take notice of the fact that others go through such direction altering life changes too. “Life is good, and there’s no reason to think it won’t be – right up until the moment when everything explodes into a fireball of tiny, unrecognizable fragments, or it all goes skidding sideways, through the guardrail, over the embankment, and down the mountain. This will happen (and probably more than once).”

Fox took some detours but came to some conclusions that changed how he addressed the issue of his Parkinson’s. “The reality is that things change; the question is, how will I perceive that change, and am I willing to change along with it?”

He offers some life lessons in simple form. “Life is not linear. There will be detours along the way. For the curious, new clues will await at every turn and may keep pointing toward the chosen destination. Or maybe you’ll stumble upon information that will inspire you to change course altogether, delivering you to a future you never could have imagined.”

Unfortunately, those most in need of the truths he offers won’t recognize them until it hits them between the eyes. So, he offers one simple statement to sum it all up. Stay aware and, “Live to learn.”

I have heard friends sneer at books by celebrities but I have always believed everyone has a story to tell. You can't discount good advice simply because it comes from someone you believe to have the advantages in life. They have to deal with difficulties too. I wish the book had been longer but at least I know there is other writing he has done which I can look forward to.