BOOK REVIEWS Courtesy of Beaverdale Books
‘The Scrapbook: A Novel of Friendship and Love’
By Peggy B. Baker
Llumina Press
Pub Date: 03/01/2007
$13.95
187 pp.
Emma and Natasha have known each other since the day they were born. They were literally born in the same hospital to two mothers who were also friends. As their friendship grows, they each live their separate lives until Emma becomes sick. Their lives are thrown together through the tragedy of cancer and through a family secret that could tear them apart forever. Only when they realize the truth does it really test their friendship almost beyond its limits.
Through this tear-jerking journey of their friendship, you can also sense the hope that lies in each of us to overcome adversity and become stronger because of it.
This is a wonderful story of how a scrapbook can bring together the loss and peace of a loved one who has gone. A box of tissues is good to have close as you delve into the lives of these two friends, the memories they share and the secrets they don’t share. It will cause you to see the importance of your own friendships, because life’s twists and turns can change things in a moment. This book also helps you realize the importance of keeping memories alive through scrapbooking.
You will be on the edge of your seat as you read through the pages about the lives of these two friends, their families and the memories they create throughout their lives. CV —Michelle Pritchard
Get ready to be swept away by this sinister, comical tale filled with delicious characters and an outlandish plot. “The Somnambulist” is impossible to put down, mixing humor and cynicism with macabre drama reminiscent of “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” or “Frankenstein.”
The story opens in a seedy part of London during the 19th century. The narrator describes the very unusual death of a degenerate actor. Enter Mr. Edward Moon, a magician who has an unnatural ability to solve bizarre crimes. His assistant is a hulking, bald mute, known as “The Somnambulist.” Together they must not only solve this murder but also uncover and disarm the deeper coup threatening the entire city of London.
Joining Mr. Moon and The Somnambulist in this quest are Mr. Cribb, a man who travels backward through time; the Prefects, assassins who dress as English schoolboys and exchange witty banter; and the late poet Mr. Samuel Coleridge. The narrator himself is one of the cheekiest characters.
Jonathan Barnes is a wordsmith, sprinkling words like pertinacity, vertiginous and waggishness throughout the book as if they are commonplace occurrences in conversation. Don’t worry, you won’t need a dictionary; the prose is carefully crafted, so meaning can be easily gathered through the context. In fact, this book makes you feel cleverer just for having read it. — Review by Laura Flaugher
