Tell the Wolves I'm Home

My heart!!!! From beginning to end I loved this book. Every flawed character was perfection and I never wanted this story to end. Fourteen year old June's best friend in the world is her Uncle Finn. When he dies of AIDS she is heartbroken and no one, not even her sister or her mother, understand what she's going through. They all just want to move on. When Finn's "special friend" reaches out June reluctantly agrees to meet him. Soon they realize how much they both loved the same bond and they slowly start to trust each other. A dazzling coming of age tale told through art, sibling rivalry, medieval music, and more. Truly wonderful and a story I will definitely visit again!

Just Kids

Gorgeously written, the prose is lyrical and evocative in it's own right. Patti Smith's memoir about her early relationship with photographer and artist, Robert Mapplethorpe, during the late sixties and secenties in New York is a treat for anyone. Before reading this book, I didn't know much about Patti Smith and I knew nothing about Mapplethorpe, but afterwards I felt as if I knew them intimately. Patti does a wonderful job plotting the trajectory of their friendship, their time as lovers, and their work as artists. The drugs, the art, the music, the style, the culture, the emotions; all are encased in this tiny little memoir. It's like looking into a time capsule, everything is captured so well. The creative process behind their art, the accompanying photographs, the depth of meaning behind the unsaid and said. A wonderful read, well deserving of the national book award.

Moonlight Over Paris

This is a nice easy beach read. There is virtually no plot, the characters are all likable and the imagery is beautiful; you can zone out and enjoy it but you won't learn a whole lot from it. Moonlight Over Paris is set in 1920's Paris after the first World War and focuses on Helena coming to terms with her life, friends, and art. The book starts with Helena on the brink of death, vowing to change her life if she can pull through the scarlet fever. When she gets better she decides to move to Paris and live with her aunt while attending art school. While there she makes great friends and attracts the eye of a handsome American. The scenery, descriptions of art, and detail to imagery make it a pleasant read even though there isn't much, if any, plot to propel the story forward. Not a bad read, but not great either. This book would also appeal to fans of gentle reads, inspirational fiction (no sex, very PG), and historical fiction.

Things I've Said To My Children

While I'm not a parent, I can still relate to many of the whimsical, hilarious, and absurd things that illustrator, Nathan Ripperger, finds himself telling his kids. I grew up in a household with a million kids and I recall many of the batshit crazy things that my mother would yell at us. Some of them are even featured in this book, "Get that dinosaur out of your mouth!" (A phrase my mother often yelled at me, even through high school, as I had a tendency to chew off the tails of my brother's dinosaurs, just because). Rippergar creates fantastic graphic illustrations to go with each phrase and some are truly a work of art that you might want framed. A cute gift, perfect for parents this Christmas.

I received this book for free from Blogging for Books in return for my honest, unbiased opinion.

Broken Monsters

Wow, I haven't read anything this dark and gritty in a while. From the get go this book locks it jaws on you and won't let go. Even if you want to put it down you can't, it's gripping and haunting and you have to find out what in the world is going on!

The story is told through a variety of narrators; a police detective, her teenaged daughter, an out on his luck writer, the sadistic killer, and a homeless man. All their personal versions of events make the story somehow more horrific as they come to terms with the horrors they are encountering. The story opens with the discovery of a dead child in Detroit, more specifically, half of a dead child, his other half has been replaced with half of a deer.  From their the story gets more twisted, as the cops try to solve the case more "bodies" keep turning up. It seems as if the killer is trying to make his mark by leaving his weird pieces of dead body art around Detroit for people to "admire."

Dark and absorbing, this book will keep you captivated and you may find yourself sleeping with the lights on.

The Walking Dead: Book One

It's been a few years since I read this, so it was good to get a refresher course on the zombies while I'm watching watching the current season of The Walking Dead. Obviously it's a great comic and an amazing show. I don't mind that there are a lot of changes from the original comic, it's coming into it's own. It's gritty, terrifying, and horribly insightful to human nature. The black and white illustrations really show how bleak the situation is (amazing art by the way). A must read for zombie fans and fans of the AMC show.

Those Nazis.....

I was intrigued from the get-go about an art curator/ scholar working for the Third Reich so I was more than willing to pick up The Detour by Andromeda Romano-Lax. Ernst, a young man in his twenties, has been given an important assignment in Italy. He is sent to bring back "The Discuss Thrower" an important statue that the Fuhrer wants to own because of it's beautiful homage to physical perfection. A seemingly simple task turns out to be nearly impossible as the two Italians who have been assigned to help him with transport keep making side trips and it is soon clear that people are after the statue. It would fetch a high price on the black market and Italians are already angry at their government for selling such a priceless work of art to Germany.

The plot is richly crafted and you begin to sympathize with poor Ernst on if he will ever get his assignment complete. He may not want to be there in the first place but he wants to see the job through. Plus he is very intrigued by the perfection that the statue represents being very self-conscious about a small physical imperfection of his own. The journey through the Italian countryside forces Ernst to think through some things that have been hidden in the darkest corners of his mind and compels him to come to terms with himself.

The characters are beautifully captured and the plot leaves you wanting more. An excellent read that combines historical fact with the beautiful imagination of Andromeda Romano-Lax.

I received this book for free from Goodreads Giveaways in return for my honest, unbiased opinion.