With the start of a new
year, resolve to read a new book for pleasure, for information, for a new slant
on history, for a look at how those outside of the Tri-Cities might
fictionalize the atomic energy industry, for thoughtful insight about life and
afterlife. The following are a few you
might enjoy.
An
Atomic Romance
by Bobbie Ann Mason, c.2005, Random House,
Who would have thought it? Someone’s written a novel about love and nuclear power.
It’s even called An Atomic Romance. Surely this is a got-to-read
book for Mid-Columbia romantics, and scientists, too, maybe. After all,
novelist Bobbie Ann Mason goes so far as to cite materials she researched
before mixing love with swirling protons and neutrons.
The drama is built around a motorcycle-riding, middle-aged
atomic plant worker called Reed, who must defend his job to
his love interest. She is a scientist who aspires to save the world from
diseases such as Ebola and anthrax. Needless, to say, she has grave
doubts about nuclear weapons and research.
And, there is intrigue developed using the Department
of Energy, radioactivity in the land around his hometown, and all the secrecy
that abounds. For Reed, working at the atomic plant, enjoying the good pay and
enduring the dangers was really a proud family tradition, stretching over three
generations.
Because of the uncertainties at the plant and the worries of the woman he
loves, Reed asks for his own exposure records. They aren’t encouraging. Once he
was even exposed to plutonium. He also learns that plutonium has been
discovered nearby in the body of a deer.
By using minor characters to express various views on the government’s atomic
research facilities, the author strives to be fair, yet sound a few
alarms. The writer-in-residence at the
--Reviewed
by
Sons
of Liberty
by Marie Jakober, c.2005, A Forge Book,
It seems almost perverse to enjoy a good war novel. Nevertheless, Sons of
Liberty is a very good novel about the early Civil War in bitterly divided
The title, Sons of Liberty, refers to a group
of secessionists in
Know, however, that the writing is crisp and the
historical background fascinating. In her afterword,
Jakober explains that Confederate apologists portray
A fascinating fact about the author: Jakober, winner
of the Michael Shaara Award for Excellence in Civil
War Fiction for Only Call Us Faithful, lives in
--Reviewed
by
A Certain Slant of Light by Laura Whitcomb, c.2005, Houghton Mifflin Co., Boston, MA, 282 pages.
In Whitcomb’s debut young adult novel, protagonist,
Helen, is no longer Quick (living) but Light (a
ghost.) Since her tragic demise more
than 130 years ago, she’s moved from host to host, staying bound to each until
their deaths. Pain and darkness await if Helen strays too far from her haunting. Her current host is a high school English
teacher named Mr. Brown. During the day,
Helen is content to move about his classroom listening to her favorite poetry,
whispering encouragement in his ear as he works on his unpublished book. She spends her evenings trying not to intrude
on his relationship with his wife, content to exist in limbo until the day she
realizes Billy, one of Mr. Brown’s students, is watching her.
At first Helen is alarmed when Billy speaks to her,
angry that he has invaded her privacy and solitude. She soon learns that his real name is James,
another ghost like herself, and he’s merely “borrowed” the body of young Billy
Blake, a troubled boy with a history of drug abuse.
Soon Helen and James fall in love
and begin to plot how they can be together in physical form. Helen longs to experience the sensations of
touch and taste. James helps her find a
likely body to borrow in Jenny, a fifteen-year-old girl from a dysfunctional
family with strict religious boundaries.
When Helen slips into Jenny’s empty shell, she trades one kind of prison
for another. Her every move, every phone
call is now monitored by her “parents” and she misses her former host, Mr.
Brown. Worst of all, Billy is forbidden
to have contact with Jenny, forcing the lovers to risk discovery in order to be
together. The real Billy and Jenny have
abandoned hope and let their souls wander from their hollow existences.
In an amazing denouement, Laura
Whitcomb completes the circle of Helen and James’cross-over
and redemption and uses the misery of Billy and Jenny’s lives to offer hope to
the lonely, despondent teens. The subtle
links between past and present, including the reason for James’ and Helen’s
meeting, are neatly arranged by the end of Whitcomb’s intriguing novel. This book is recommended for older teens in
grades 10 through 12 through adults.
--Reviewed
by