House Arrest by Ellen Meeropol

Posted by Teddyrose@1 on May 12, 2011
Posted in Books Read in 2011 | 3 Comments

Emily Klein is a home care nurse. For the most part, she really likes her job, going to visit people in their homes to care for them. However, her new assignment is different. She wants to get out of it but her boss won’t budge. So now she has a new patient, Pippa Glenning, she is a pregnant cult member under house arrest for the death of her daughter during a Solstice Ceremony.

“The morning after last year’s solstice, the family had searched for the toddlers in the blowing, drifting snow. All day they hunted and the next and the next, taking turns staying with the twins.” Pippa- Page 27

There are two cult members in jail for the death, awaiting trail and Pippa is left with trying to keep the household going without them. She was a 16 years old runaway when one of the cult members, Francie, found her and brought her home to the cult. It was the first time she ever felt acceptance.

Pippa and Emily grow to trust each other and even have a kind of friendship. However, what Pippa asks her to do to cause her to lose her job. As the pregnant woman of the cult this year, she is expected to dance for Isis at the Solstice Ceremony. She needs to find a way to leave home to do this and want Emily to help her.

Emily has other issues going on in her life as well. Her father was arrested and put in prison while she was a child. Her mother eventually commits suicide and leaves Emily with her aunt. She has been running away from this her entire adult life. It all comes to a head when her grandfather dies and she is expected to go home to face her extended family including her aunt.

She also lives with her cousin with a daughter with Spina Bifida, Zoe. Emily is always home by the time Zoe gets home from school to care for her. She loves Zoe like she’s her own daughter.

Will Emily risk her career and even face possible arrest to help Pippa beat the house arrest to attend the Solstice Ceremony? I highly recommend you read this book to find out.

This is a book chalk full of well developed and quirky characters. The plot and subplot are well thought out and richly developed. House Arrest is a compelling book that kept me reading until the last page. I truly did not want this book to end. This is Ms Meeropol’s first novel, I can’t wait to see what she comes up with next!

4.5/5

I won a advance readers copy of this book from Rose City Reader.

Did you review House Arrest? I would love to read your thoughts on it! Please leave a link in the comments and I will post it here.

May 11

11

Deadly: How to Catch an Invisible Killer by Julie Chibbaro

Posted by Teddyrose@1 on May 11, 2011
Posted in Books Read in 2011 • Historical Fiction | 4 Comments

It is 1906, New York City and 16 year old Prudence Galewski takes a job as an assistant to the Head Epidemiologist, Mr. Soper. Prudence has always been interested in science and feels very fortunate to land a job in the field. It is practically unheard of for a woman to get such a job. In fact, some of the men in the lab give her a hard time.

Soon after starting her and Mr. Soper start investigating a new outbreak of Typhoid. They visit the different families who have the dreaded disease and write down all of the different foods they have eaten and take samples from their septic systems. Soon Prudence finds a food that links all of the families, peach ice cream. It turns out that they all have a cook who has worked for all of them, who made the peach ice cream for them.

It was recently discovered by a scientist that disease could be carried by a healthy person. The person doesn’t get sick but can pass the illness on to others.

“The challenge ahead of us is to find this elusive cook and test her for the typhoid germ by examining her body fluids.”

The cook, Mary Mallon has moved around a lot but Prudence and Mr. Soper finally tracks her down. She refuses to get tested, she can’t understand how she could make people sick when she, herself is not sick.

Mary Mallon was a real person who was to become known as Typhoid Mary. Julie Chibbaro takes a piece of history and runs with it. She developed her main character Prudence well and we see her learn and grow. As I read the story I kept thinking to myself, “you go girl, show people that not all women should be chained to a house with no other aspirations.”

Deadly is geared for young adults. It deals with issues of disease, feminism, and family. It also explores ethical issues. I think it would make for great discussion for a young adult book club. Though there is science in the book, it is well explained in fairly simple terms. I highly recommend it!

5/5

Julie Chibbaro held a giveaway of this book herself and I was fortunate enough to be one of the winners.

Did you review this book? Please leave a link in the comments so I can post it here.

May 11

5

Wither by Lauren DeStefano

Posted by Teddyrose@1 on May 5, 2011
Posted in Books Read in 2011 • Dystopian | 8 Comments

This is the first book in a new young adult series by first time author, Lauren De Stefano. De Stefano paints a post-apocalyptic story where, thanks to genetic engineering , males only live to be 25 years old and females only live to be 20 years old. When the children hit that age, they come down with an incurable virus.

Girls are a top commodity for the rich and powerful. They pay top dollar for truck loads of girls to be kidnapped. The ones that are deemed good for child bearing are married off into polygamous marriages to the sons of the rich, to keep the population going. The others are sent to brothels or just simply killed.

Rhine is living alone with her brother after their parents died. They took turns staying awake at night watching out for burglars and kidnappers. One day, when her brother is at work, Rhine goes to answer an advertisement for a job. However, it was a scam to kidnap a truckload of girls. She is picked to be one of three brides for Linden, the son of a wealthy doctor in Florida.

Linden falls in love with Rhine because she reminds him so much of his first wife who dies soon after Rhine is brought to live with him. She quickly earns his trust and becomes “first wife”, which gives her extra privileges. The entire time however, she is trying to plan her escape. She dreams of being reunited with her brother.

This is a dark story. Linden is pretty clueless as to what is really going on in his household. His father has a laboratory in the basement where he keeps dark secrets and performs experiments, trying to come up with a cure for the virus. Linden has no idea that the women he married were kidnapped. He thinks they somehow chose to be married off.

Wither is an engaging and fast reading story. This story has been described as romantic but I saw very little of that. Yes, Linden had sex with his wives and he romanced Rhine but it was all one sided. I don’t call that romance.

This would make a great book club book as there are a lot of issues to discuss. Teenage pregnancy, polygamy, poverty would all make for good discussion, perhaps with an adult present, for guidance. I really liked this story. The end leaves the reader hanging and I would like to read the next book, in what I believe is to be a trilogy.

I am trying out a new rating system, please tell me what you think. I shamelessly took this idea from Caribousmom.

Quality of Writing: 4/5

Character development: 4/5

Plot: 4/5

Overall: 4/5

Thanks to Simon and Schuster Galley Grab for this eBook.

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