A book review: Picture the Dead

Yesterday I posted an announcement about the release of a book called Picture the Dead. Today I would like to share my review of the book with you. If you have an interest in the paranormal and/or in the American Civil War, then this is the book for you.

Picture the dead

Adele Griffin

Illustrated by Lisa Brown

Fiction

Ages 14 and up

Sourcebooks, 2010, 978-1-4022-3712-6

   Ever since the death of her parents, Jennie Lovell’s life has been complicated. Living with her uncle and aunt, neither of whom want her, has not been easy, but at least she has always had her brother, Toby, with whom to share her trials and worries. Now Toby is dead, a casualty of the Civil War, and Jennie lives in fear that Will, her cousin and her fiancé, might also be killed.

   One night Jennie is woken up by the arrival of a carriage. Jennie hopes the passenger is Will, but instead it is Will’s brother Quinn, who is grievously ill and wounded. One look from Quinn and Jennie knows that Will is dead. Quinn tells everyone that Will died honorably on the battlefield, and for a time Jennie accepts this. Then strange things start to happen and she begins to wonder if Quinn is telling the truth.

   Jennie, Quinn, and Quinn’s parents have their photograph taken by a photographer who specializes in photos that are supposed to help connect the living with their dead loved ones. When she sees the photo that the photographer took, Jennie knows at once that the so-called angel in the photo is a hoax. However, the wreath of black irises that appears on the photo some time later is not a hoax at all. It is a message from Will, and Jennie has to figure out what he is trying to tell her. What she discovers turns out to be more terrible than she could ever have imagined.

   This extremely powerful and sometimes disturbing book will very likely cause readers to experience a spooky shiver more than once as they read. The author beautifully captures the sadness and fear that filled the hearts of family members and sweethearts as they waited for their loved ones to come home from the American Civil War. All too often, all they got in response to their prayers was a letter on condolence and perhaps, if they were lucky, a few of their loved one’s personal effects. Beautifully merging fact and fiction, Adele Griffin and Lisa Brown give their readers a haunting story that is likely to stay with them for a long time.  

Vampires, Werewolves and teenage love

For those of you who can't resist tales peopled by magical, and often dark, creatures, the Mortal Instruments series is a must. For the June issue of Through the Looking Glass Book Review I reviewed the first book in the series, City of Bones. I have just finished reviewing the second book , City of Ashes. the review will be posted in the July issue of the journal. This second book continues the story of Clary, a teenage girl who discovers that she is a Shadowhunter, a human destined to rid the world of demons. Both her parents are Shadowhunters and to Clary's horror she discovers that her father is the kind of person you would really rather disown. Valentine was not a part of her life until recently and she dearly wishes he wasn't a part of it now. Alas, this is not to be. Valentine is here to stay and he is determined to make everyone's life miserable.

Clary's life is complicated further when she discovers that the boy she rather fancies, Jace, is none other than her long lost brother. The problem is that one can't just switch one's heart into reverse when you make a discovery like this. Desperately Clary tries not to feel anything special for Jace, with very little success.

The characters are amazingly credible considering the fact that so many of them are creatures you would not like to meet after night falls. Vampires, werewolves, and crafty faeries abound and blood and body parts splash the pages frequently.
I am sure that this series is going to do very well and can't wait for the third book to come out.

Summer's Back - Maybe

We have been having the oddest weather here in Ashland Oregon. For a week or so we had such hot days that some people decided that bathing suits were the only attire they could stand wearing. Winter clothes were put away and summer clothes were brought out of storage. Then winter came back with a vengeance and we froze for a week or so. After days of rain and low grey skies it feels as if summer may be back again.

It has been a very busy month because both my husband and my daughter celebrate their birthdays in May. There were special dinners to arrange, a party to plan, and gifts to wrap and hide. Like so many children all over the world my daughter is Webkins mad and she was given several to add to her growing collection. I am rapidly running out of names for the additions to her furry menagerie.

Work has been very interesting this month because I was putting together a feature of book reviews about World War II titles. I had to read as fast as I could because I had so many lengthy titles to get through in just one month, but I managed it. Several of the books were about the war from the perspective of German citizens.

In "The Boy Who Dared" the author tells the story of a young man who did not believe the Nazi propoganda he was being fed. He found other sources of information and decided that it was up to him to share what he learned with his fellow Germans. What makes this book particularly powerful is that the story is based on the true story of a young man who dared to fight back against the Nazis.

"Traitor" is a work of fiction about a young girl who has the courage to hide a Russian prisoner of war. If she gets caught the girl, Anna, and her family will be severly punished. Another book which quite frankly blew me away was "The Dead and the Gone" by Susan Beth Pfeffer. This is the companion book to her first title "Life as We knew it" which also impressed me, and many other people, enormously. In both books the moon, after an asteroid collides with it, is brought into closer proximity to the Earth than before. As a result there are floods, earthquakes, and volcanic eruptions all around the world and life on Earth changes drastically. In the first book a young girl describes what happens after this catastrophic event. In the second book a young man living in New York tries to hold onto his family when chaos threatens to take over his life. I highly recommend these two books for any reader who is over the age of twelve.

Was Leonardo da Vinci as crabby as all that?

I have just reviewed a work of historical fiction about Leonardo da Vinci and it really got me thinking. Was Leonardo as crabby as he was portrayed in the book? The book is told from the point of view of Leonardo's servant, a boy called Giacomo. I thought that Giacomo was a character which the author had made up but it turns out that he really existed. In his notebooks Leonardo complained about the boy many a time and oft but apparently one can tell that the painter was in fact very fond of Giacomo.


After reading about this I became determined to get a copy of the notebooks for myself. I really want to know what Leonardo was like. Reviews of the notebooks mention that one can get a very real sense of the inner Leonardo from his writings. I look forward to finding out if this is true or not.


This weekend was wonderful here in southern Oregon. The sun shone, it was warm, and the sky was an amazing blue. My family and I went and looked at a few houses - we are looking for a home of our own - and then we went to the local Chocolate Festival. The event was held in the lovely Ashland Springs Hotel and I don't think I have ever eaten so much chocolate in one go in my life! Milk chocolate candies infused with Lavena and with a caramel filling. Dark chocolate truffles with a raspberry center. Fresh pears dipped in warm melted chocolate. My seven year-old daughter, not surprisingly, began to feel a little sick after a while. My husband and I took a break from the chocolate at one point to taste some wine. It was perfect. Then we went back for a little more chocolate before we gave up eating, bought some treats, and walked home in the sun.
Ashland is definitely getting more tourist visitors these days. The warmer weather and the opening of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival has brought people here from all over. I cannot imagine what it is going to be like in the summer. We moved here in early September of last year so we have yet to see what Ashland is like in the spring and in the warmer months of May, June, July and August.