Book Review: The Vineyard We Knew by Kevin Parham

 

The Vineyard We Knew: A Recollection of Summers on Martha's Vineyard

by Kevin Parham

I was thoroughly engrossed by this recollection of childhood by Kevin Parham. In many ways, it reminded me of vacations in the country on my grandmother's farm, but in some appreciable ways it did not. 

Most definitively, a major difference for me was in how Kevin's grandmother turned to the belt to mete out punishment and ensure compliance in any order she gave the children. In part, this is a product of the time period and how children were raised then, but it is taken to extremes. Perhaps because she was a working woman and had so many children to keep track of and perhaps because that was how it was done in that time and place. Parham says that his grandmother was of the firm belief that to spare the rod was to spoil the child. 

That is only a fraction of the story though, Parham offers a wonderful portrait of a place that I have only heard about and pictured as a resort for well-to-do people. But he shows us that there is a whole other side to the Vineyard, more like what I remember growing up in Upstate New York - berry picking and swimming, and just surviving HOT summer days. 

As we strolled through the mist, I felt the heaviness of the humid air pressing down on my lungs each time I took a breath.

He also offers a bit of a window on the times through which he was growing up, the Civil Rights movement and political moments of import in the sixties, providing his perspective as a child and some insights gained through age. He describes how the life there seemed slightly detached from what was going on in the rest of America, and yet there was clear segregation between people there too.

The author's writing style is wonderfully descriptive as he picks a typical event and paints a scene that brings it to life through dialogue and setting. 

...cottontail rabbits hopped in the grass and nibbled on select varieties of vegetation, while green garter snakes slithered over the ground along the bank in a stealthy fashion, searching for small insects to consume.

Outings to the beach, diving for coins, riding around on his bike, and fishing for crabs are all clearly described in wonderful detail. An abandoned small house or shack nearby caught Kevin's imagination, just as an abandoned house on the next hill from my grandmother's provided fodder for my imagination. There are also numerous black and white photographs of the island and the family interspersed throughout the book. 

If you enjoy memoirs, I can heartily recommend this one.

Book Review: Bridal Boot Camp by Meg Cabot

 

Bridal Boot Camp:

Novella in Little Bridge Island Series

by Meg Cabot

 

I’ve been a long-time fan of Meg Cabot, from the Heather Wells Mystery Series to the Queen of Babble Series. They were fun, fast-paced, and flirty.

This was like that, there was a good premise and set-up, but it was so incredibly rushed, as if she were trying to pack all the elements that people like about her writing into a tiny package.

Then it jumped right into a sex scene that had none of the import or depth of one in a longer novel. It had no heat, just mechanics.

To be perfectly honest, give this one a pass and go for one of the novels.  There are two in the Little Bridge Island Series, and several in each of the other series I mentioned above.

I really wouldn’t waste your time with this one when there are so many better and fuller books by Meg Cabot to read.

Book Review: The Hotel at the End of Time by Michael James

 

The Hotel at the End of Time: Book 1 of The Hotel

by Michael James

This book reminds me a bit of one of my current favorite shows, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., with their inhuman characters, who are humans that have gone through something called terrigenesis and therefore have powers. In this story, people who have gone through some kind of transformation can either store energy or draw it from the other person they are linked up with. Unfortunately, being able to do this makes them targets for Arthur. He uses them like human batteries to power a place called the Hotel.

“Life, since the Hotel, came in heartbeats.”

People who are taken to the Hotel to be used in this way, have their memories wiped. They can remember nothing of their life before. They are beaten and kept in line by Trick and The Wyatts. Wyatts are multiple instances of the same person. Trick is middle management, an enforcer for Arthur, and the Wyatts are the goons, the hitmen.

Somehow, a pair have escaped from the Hotel, Vain and Roman.

Vain is very impulsive and tends to lie to herself as much as anyone else. It seems like she either had some problems before she went into the Hotel, or it messed her up a bit. She’s not stupid, far from it, but rather hyperactive and has trouble focusing on just one thing. She stole something from Arthur when she escaped, a Padlock, and Arthur wants it back.

Roman is very quiet, methodical, and intelligent. It seems clear to Vain that he went to college.

“No matter how much time he spent with Vain, he’d never understand that twisted brain of hers. There were entire sections of her thought process he couldn’t even begin to unravel.”

Roman and Vain are friends, but it seems clear that they are more attached than that. Roman is more or less a human battery for Vain to draw on in supplying power to The Hotel.

Roman and Vain always seem to be on the run, just trying to survive, hunted by the Wyatts.

Then they become separated, and Vain finds Emma.

Emma is quiet, studious, at least upper middle class, a student. Based on her speech and opinions, I expect her clothes to be well put together.

Vain can tell Emma is like her, though only newly so. Vain attempts to warn her that the Wyatts are after her, to take her to the Hotel, but Emma doesn’t listen. Vain can’t stand to walk away and let Emma be treated the way Vain was.

“Emma sighed at her, but Vain was getting used to that. She suspected Emma has undiagnosed asthma and made a mental note talk to her about it.”

That’s my kind of humor.

“Impulsively, Vain made a promise. ‘He will not get you.’ She left out the part about how they might need to run right at him to stop him. Minor details.”

For a first book in a series, and self-published, I was very impressed. There were only a few punctuation or grammatical errors that I noticed, very minimal, no more than some big name traditionally published books that I’ve read in the past year which I could name, but won’t.

It’s a fast-paced intrigue and the characterization is very strong, each one well differentiated in their dialogue and expressions.

I’m looking forward to more from this author.

Book Review: Black Bottom Saints by Alice Randall

 

Black Bottom Saints

by Alice Randall

A literary historical novel, broken up into chapters based on the everyday “Saints” the narrator, Ziggy Johnson, has known over his years as an important figure himself in the Black Bottom area of Detroit.

“By the end of World War I, Black Bottom was established as a municipality (along with New York’s Harlem and Chicago’s Bronzeville) with a clear claim of being one of the three most economically, politically, and artistically powerful Black communities in America.”

 This novel relates the life of Ziggy Johnson through his interactions with other historic figures, who he refers to as Black Bottom Saints.

“Black Bottom Saints – people who had suffered so much, and so differently, but who had each found a way, or made a way, to experience radical joy.”

One of my favorite chapters is when he shares about Tim Moore, but as a ghost that comes to visit him in his hospital room. Is he hallucinating? Perhaps, but it’s still a very warm recollection of what made that person special to him. He laughs so hard at one point that the nurse threatens to give him a sedative. “When Tim came back later, I told him not to do anything that would make me laugh or cry loud, so we just softly talked over the old days.”

My mind boggles slightly at the concept of writing a book from the perspective of someone who actually existed. It has been done time and again, but as a writer, I can only imagine how difficult it must be to inhabit a person’s mind, to worry about getting it right, sounding authentic. Luckily, the gentleman in question, “Ziggy” Johnson, was a writer himself and so there was already a good record of articles from the newspaper, and even articles specifically about a number of these people.

The author relates the story in the style of a first -person reminiscence, making the story feel like sitting and listening to an old man talk about the most colorful and special people he knew in his life. It’s engrossing, though sometimes confusing at first because of the particular language she uses, I had to look up a few terms.

She really does cover a lot of territory in this book, facets of life, bringing important truths into succinct clarity.

"The war don't end when the last gun is shot," George Stanley said. "That's the end of a battle. The war ends when you stop waking up shaking in the middle of the night. Too many men, Colored Girl, win the boots on the ground war then lose the war in they head when they're back safe in their bed."

The author does a tremendous job of bringing these characters to life. I found myself filled with emotion at the hardships they had gone through and cheering for their successes. I highly recommend this book.