The Early Word: New Books For The Week Of January 13, 2008
Published January 13, 2008
This week’s new releases feature a couple of supernatural stories sure to scare up some sales, and though I’m not talking about the new Tom Cruise biography, one is a nonfiction title. Jennifer Finney Boylan’s I'm Looking Through You: Growing Up Haunted is a memoir about growing up in a spook-filled Pennsylvania mansion known as the "Coffin House." But it’s more than just about bumps in the night. Jenny herself — born James — lived in a "haunted body," and both her mysterious father and her impulsive sister would soon become strangers to Jenny as well. As much as Boylan explores the spirits of the family home with a team of ghostbusters, she re-examines her identity as formed within that house and traces connections with loved ones as they were then and as they’ve now become.
Connections — new connections — form the core of Stephen King’s latest novel, Duma Key, too, after Minnesota construction multimillionaire Edgar Freemantle loses his right arm in a critical work accident, uses some easily-come-by rage on his wife, gets a divorce and gets a new life. His "geographic cure" entails a severe about-face to Duma Key, a scenic slice of eerily undeveloped Florida coast — where Edgar takes up a life of solitude, taking up painting as his considerable artistic talent booms. A visit from Ilse, the daughter he dotes on, brings him out of his seclusion, however, as does a camaraderie with a kindred spirit named Wireman. Moreover, though, is Edgar’s rapport with Elizabeth Eastlake, an elderly woman with roots deep in Duma Key — she owns all of the land and the few houses, too — whose tragic and mysterious past are only hinted at. But soon the ghosts of Elizabeth's childhood return, and the harm of which they are capable becomes all too clear and all too terrifying.
FICTION:
Capitol Conspiracy by William Bernhardt
Beautiful Children by Charles Bock
Killer Year: A Criminal Anthology by Lee Child (Editor), Laura Lippman (Afterword)
Sword Song by Bernard Cornwell
The Secret Between Us by Barbara Delinsky
Duma Key by Stephen King
David Golder, The Ball, Snow in Autumn, The Courilof Affair by Irene Nemirovsky, Sandra Smith (Translator), Claire Messud (Introduction)
Standard of Honor by Jack Whyte
Beverly Hills Dead by Stuart Woods
NONFICTION:
I'm Looking Through You: Growing up Haunted by Jennifer Finney Boylan
Extraordinary Circumstances: The Journey of a Corporate Whistleblower by Cynthia Cooper
Real Change: From the World that Fails to the World that Works by Newt Gingrich, Vince Haley, Rick Tyler
Tom Cruise: An Unauthorized Biography by Andrew Morton
Symphonic Aspirations: German Music and Politics, 1900-1945 by Karen Painter
Bush Tragedy by Jacob Weisberg
- The Early Word: New Books For The Week Of January 13, 2008
- Published: January 13, 2008
- Type: News
- Section: Books
- Filed Under: Books: Literature and Fiction, Books: News, Books: Nonfiction
- Part of a feature: The Early Word: Non-Fiction
- Writer: Gordon Hauptfleisch
- Gordon Hauptfleisch's BC Writer page
- Gordon Hauptfleisch's personal site
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