Review: Saving Max

I didn't realize when I selected this book that it was more of a legal thriller than straight literary fiction. As such, it was much more violent than I was anticipating. That said, this book offers a compelling story, one I stayed up half the night reading because I had to find out what would happen at the end.

Max Parkman finds himself accused of murdering a fellow patient at the psychiatric hospital where he is being treated. Max is autistic, and appears to have violent tendencies. His mother, Danielle, is convinced that her son is innocent, and wages a full-scale effort to prove his innocence. Danielle's legal battle is a desperate one, and she is committed to saving her son at all costs. The costs will be high. Unable to keep up with work at her Manhattan law firm, Danielle falls off the track to partner. More seriously, her unorthodox efforts to prove Max's innocence land Danielle in jail and out on bail.

This is a fast-paced and suspenseful book. Over the course of the book I warmed to Max's character, but I was never able to warm to Danielle. I found Danielle to be quite disturbing. As an officer of the court, Danielle is more than willing to flout the law and the conditions of her bail. Even more troubling to me was the fact that she was willing to pin the crime on any sacrificial lamb in her path. Danielle quite candidly admits that she is willing to place the blame on a known innocent if it will lead to her son's exoneration.

Several weeks after having finished this book I'm still left with an unsettled feeling. I'll likely be thinking about this one for quite some time.

Antoinette van Heugten, Saving Max (Mira, 2010) ISBN: 9780778329633

Review: This Life is in Your Hands

This is Coleman's memoir of growing up on a homesteading farm in rural Maine in the 1970s. Coleman's parents moved to the backwoods of Maine to experiment with organic farming and self-sufficient living. The early years were idyllic, but things deteriorated.

Coleman's parents had been warned that homesteading with children was nearly impossible. The stress of managing Coleman and her two sisters, combined with postpartum depression, threw her mother into a tailspin of despair. The vitamin deficiencies in the family's self-produced diet affected moods and energy.

As the Colemans' efforts gained notoriety a series of apprentices shifted through the homestead, and Coleman's parents' marriage deteriorated. The final straw was the accidental death of Coleman's sister Heidi. Much of the book tells the story of the slow deterioration of the Coleman family.

This books offers a fascinating look inside the homesteading movement, and inside a family. The Colemans lived at the center of the Maine homesteading community. Their farm was adjacent to that of Helen and Scott Nearing, and the Nearings play a significant role in the book. Melissa's childhood was tragic in many ways- a little girl, desperate for friends and parental attention, her needs were generally secondary to a larger ideology. The farm was an all-consuming project, and its residual side-effects left little affective or attentive surplus for Melissa. My one complaint about the book is that it could be shorter; there were times I found it repetitive. This does serve to suggest the constant demands of the homestead, but I still think it could have been trimmed. This is a memoir well-worth reading.

Melissa Coleman, This Life is in Your Hands (Harper, 2011) ISBN: 0061958328

Review: Ask Me Why I Hurt

Christiansen's memoir of creating a mobile healthcare service for homeless teenagers is both inspiring and heartbreaking. Dr. Christiansen gave up his hospital appointment to transform an old RV into a mobile clinic. He discovers that there is tremendous demand for his services, and that America's homeless teenagers face multiple and complicated problems.

What is particularly striking is just how tragic the stories of Christiansen's patients are. The majority are homeless because they have run away from abuse. Most have weathered horrible situations. One of his patients lives in a hole in the desert. These children don't just need medical care, they also need attention, compassion, and a competent adult to pay attention to them.

This book highlights the difficulties of providing care to this population. It is nearly impossible to get these children enrolled to receive benefits, as such things require identification and parental help. Likewise, it is prohibitively expensive for Christiansen to stock drugs, but it is generally impossible for homeless teenagers to fill prescriptions, especially regular prescriptions for chronic conditions. The problems that are regularly recognized in the American medical system are magnified for Christiansen.

This book is also something of a personal memoir, as Christiansen is trying to start a family at the same time that he is beginning his work with the mobile clinic. I found the personal memoir to be much less engaging than the professional. Ultimately I left this book inspired by what Christiansen has managed to do, and terribly depressed by the extent of the problems.

Randy Christiansen, M.D., Ask Me Why I Hurt (Broadway, 2011) ISBN: 0307718999

Review: Salting Roses

Consummate small-town southern girl Gracie Calloway celebrates her 25th birthday by discovering that she is the heir to a New England fortune. Her abrupt and controlling grandmother is adamant that Gracie must take her place as the family heiress. Despite the advantages of her New England family's wealth, Gracie is loathe to acquiesce. All Gracie wants is to continue her life as she had known it, but New England grandma is unwilling to allow that. The situation becomes a contest of wills between two powerful women, Gracie and her grandmother. That contest convinces Gracie that perhaps she has more connection with her New England family than she had previously thought.

This was generally an engaging read, though I sometimes found it difficult to get my head around Gracie's southern family.

Lorelle Marinello, Salting Roses (William Morrow, 2010) ISBN: 0061443743

Review: Spider's Web

This is a novelization of one of Christie's plays. Clarissa Halisham-Brown, a diplomat's wife, finds a body in her parlor while waiting for her husband to return home with an important diplomatic guest. Her efforts to hide the murder and save her husband's career become increasingly more complicated. The body is the focal point of Clarissa's efforts, and her attempts to hide it are increasingly more difficult to execute. As the story progresses, Clarissa traps herself in a web of lies.

It is fully evident that this story was originally a play. All of the action takes place in one room, requiring only one set. There is no change of scenery, and only limited characters. It is less satisfying than Christie's novels. Those new to Christie's work should start with her novels. This is for the Christie fan.

Agatha Christie, Spider's Web (St. Martin's Minotaur, 2001) ISBN:

Review: The Frugalista Files

In 2008 journalist Natalie McNeal decided to try and get control of her debt and her financial life. McNeal set up a blog to chronicle her journey. This book is the product of that blog. The book is essentially a compendium of blog posts. In terms of content, the book is fairly similar to other books in this genre. The content likely will not surprise most readers; McNeal learns to make do with the clothes in her closet and cook meals at home. Potential lay-offs at the paper where McNeal works provides a somewhat interesting twist, and she must decide whether to take a buy-out, or keep her current job. As a newspaper journalist the threat of cuts is always looming.

McNeal is a good writer, and she has an accessible, conversational style. I'm not convinced, though, that blogs translate well to books. There's not much in the book that goes above and beyond the blog. I also found that this was a book best read a few pages each day; it's not the sort that can be read in several-hour stretches. I'd prefer to see McNeal write an independent book apart from a blog, as she is a technically good writer. She seems like the sort of woman I'd like to meet for a drink. That's great for a blog, but with the book it seems that McNeal has sold herself short.

Natalie McNeal, The Frugalista Files (Harlequin, 2010) ISBN: 0373892292

Review: Minding Ben

Grace Caton's dream is to leave Trinidad and move to New York City. When she arrives in the city she finds herself along and forced to compete with other West Indian women for poorly paid, exploitative nanny jobs for Manhattan's wealthy. For most of the book Grace works for Sol and Miriam Bruckner, babysitting for their son, Ben. The Bruckners overwork and underpay Grace, lording the promise of a visa sponsorship over her head to keep her in their employ and justify their poor treatment.

This book reminded me very much of The Nanny Diaries, both books looking at the strange world of New York nannies, and the abuse they take from their employers. Brown's work adds immigration issues into the tale, and Grace's hope for a visa leads her to consider options she might otherwise avoid, such as marrying a completely unsuitable American man, and continuing to work for the miserable Bruckners. Grace realizes quickly that everyone is willing to take advantage of her.

Throughout the book I had a hard time understanding why Grace wanted to stay in New York, given how badly she was treated there. The Bruckners were a like a train wreck, their behavior was so bad that it was almost painful to read about, but at the same time, it's hard to look away. The luxurious apartments of Manhattan's wealthy are a different kind of sweatshop, taking advantage of vulnerable workers and subjecting them to irrational whims and poor treatment.

Victoria Brown, Minding Ben (Voice, 2011) ISBN: 9781401341510