When Irene Shen's husband leaves her after thirty years of marriage, she's stunned. When, in the act of fleeing, he's killed in a car accident, she's devastated. His death unanchors not only Irene, but also her three daughters, who drift even farther apart in the wake of the tragedy. Five months later, Irene's desperately lonely. In a frantic effort to reconnect with her family, she plans a two-week tour of China for herself, her trio of girls, her sister, and her mother. Irene hopes that by returning her fractured family to its roots, they can unite in their pain, buoy each other up, and find the inspiration they need to face an uncertain future.
Planning the trip gives Irene something to do, a project with which to fill her empty hours, but the idea of vacationing with family fills the rest of the group with dread. At almost 80, Irene's mother, Lin Yulan, has finally found contentment. She has little desire to return to China at all, especially not with her estranged daughters. Irene's sister, Susan, is settled in Hong Kong. The idea of traveling to China with women she barely knows frightens her. Even if they are her family. Nora, a 28-year-old Wall Street phenom, has her own problems. She's a smashing success at everything but love. As her long-time relationship with a kind Jewish man starts to fade, she has to grapple with the eternal career v. family question. As much as she could use a vacation, she's not sure she wants to spend it with Irene, who's so needy it's pathetic. Kay is already in China. She fled for Beijing after her father's death, vowing to get to know the country up close and personal. What she sees isn't pretty, but her attempts to help cure the city's social problems have been ridiculously inept. Now she's not sure what to do. Sophie, the youngest of Irene's daughters, still lives in New York with her mother. Despite their physical closeness, the two hardly communicate at all. Sophie's hiding a dangerous secret, one she may not be able to keep concealed during two weeks with her nosy, hypercritical family.
Each packing their own secrets, the six women head to China, reluctant except for Irene, who trudges forward with unmitigated hope in the healing power of the trip. As the group hops from vista to vista, more secrets are formed, hoarded and, eventually, revealed. The revelations bring the women closer, even as one larger mystery threatens to tear apart the fragile bonds they've formed. Will the truth be the undoing of an already splintered family or will it be the one thing that will finally bring them together?
A Thread of Sky, a debut novel by New Yorker Deanna Fei, is a beautifully-rendered portrait of a family struggling to keep itself together. With a backdrop as colorful and complex as China, one can't help make comparisons between the Shen Family and the land of its birth. Steeped in history, culture and the gritty realities of every day life, it's an ideal setting for six women to find themselves as each grapples for understanding of herself as an individual, her role in the family, and her place in the world at large. It's not an easy story to read, nor an overly bright one, but A Thread of Sky is a well-crafted, compelling novel about family in all its confusing, contradictory, captivating glory.
(Readalikes: Reminded me a little of The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan)
Grade: B-
If this were a movie, it would be rated: R for strong language, sexual content and some violence
To the FTC, with love: I received a finished copy of A Thread of Sky courtesy of TLC Book Tours, for whom this review was written.

Ever wonder what the nerds at your school do in their spare time? Popular athlete Jackson Jones never does. Even though his hometown of Arlington, Virginia, is "one giant geektropolis ... [with] dweebs, spazzes, goobers, gomers, goofballs, and freak-outs crawling out of every nook and cranny" (2), he pays attention to these lower life forms only when one of them is about to be the unlucky recipient of a wedgie or a Kick Me sign or a spitwad to the face. Why grace them with his attention for any other reason? They're so nerdy they're barely human.

When Jackson's orthodontist puts him in highly magnetic braces (with headgear), Jackson's world turns upside down. Suddenly, his "friends" are calling him Braceface, he's cut from the football team, and his reign as Nathan Hale Elementary School royalty has offcially gone down the toilet. Even the nerds won't hang out with him.

Then, Jackson stumbles on a secret world, one he never dreamed could exist, especially not right under his elementary school. He's shocked to find that the geeks he picked on during his popular period are actually NERDS, a team of talented, highly-trained super spies, whose covert missions help bring justice to criminals wanted by the U.S. government. None of the secret agents are pleased to see Jackson in their hideout. And none of them want him on their team, no matter what his newly-upgraded braces can do. In his previous life, Jackson never would have begged these dweebs for anything, but now he longs to be part of their team. He just has to convince the NERDS to let him into their club. Not an easy task. Still, Jackson's taken on nerds before and won. Surely, this time won't be much different.

Except that it totally is. This time, Jackson's getting his butt kicked by the very kids he used to take such pleasure in tormenting. And it hurts. Badly. Literally and figuratively. As Jackson gets battered in training, thrown out of airplanes, chased by Egyptian tribal fighters, and captured by a psychotic criminal mastermind, he must learn to appreciate and rely on this band of misfits he now calls teammates. His survival depends on it.

I've mentioned before that I volunteer at my kids' elementary school, helping with its homegrown reading program. Well, one day last week, my daughter came home from school, handed me NERDS by Michael Buckley, and said, "The librarian wants you to write a test for this book because everyone is reading it." Before I could even nod, she added, "But can I read it first?" After which, my son said, "Yeah, I need to read it, too, Mom." A week later, I finally got my turn at this very popular book. It didn't take me long to see why kids are eating it up. NERDS really is a fun, zany adventure story. The story moves quickly, makes an excellent point about judging people, and is just plain old entertaining. My kids think it's absolutely hilarious. I have to agree. Hand this one to a reluctant reader and he'll be sold because Buckley makes everything cool - nerds, braces, allergies, eating glue, even reading. It's about time, don't you think?

(Readalikes: Um, I can't think of anything, really, except its sequels, M is for Mama's Boy and Cheerleaders of Doom [coming in September 2011])

Grade: B-

If this were a movie, it would be rated: PG for some bathroom-type humor and a vague reference to seducing exotic women

To the FTC, with love: I borrowed NERDS from my kids' elementary school library and read it as part of my volunteer work with the school's reading program.

Even though Rigg's spent most of his 13 years traipsing through the woods with his father, communing with more animals than humans, he knows he's different than other people. His gift makes him odd, unique, even dangerous. So, he uses his strange ability to see the paths left by all living creatures to help him trap animals, whose pelts he and his father then sell in the marketplaces of nearby towns. It's a life that suits Rigg, even if he does find his father's endless "lessons" irritating.


So, you may have noticed that I'm not the hugest Orson Scott Card fan. I didn't get Ender's Game (nor did I bother finishing it), I liked his Women of Genesis series, but didn't love it, and I found some of his other books disturbing (The Lost Boys, Saints, etc.). Given all that, I never would have picked up Pathfinder if it wasn't a contender for this year's Whitney Awards. That would have been a crying shame, too, because guess what? I thoroughly enjoyed Pathfinder. Yes, really. I know. Surprised me as well. I'm not going to pretend to understand all the science behind it (even after the dummied-down explanation OSC gives in the "Acknowledgments" section) - suffice it to say, my head's still spinning - but I found the storyline compelling, the characters engaging, and the whole idea fascinating. Some of the science-y parts got dull for me, yet, most of the book's 657 pages kept me completely riveted. And the ending only made me hungry for the sequels that will be coming. I never understood OSC's genius before. Now? I might finally be starting to get it ...