Title: Moonlight over Paris Author: Jennifer Robson

Recovering from a broken wartime engagement and a serious illness that left her near death Lady Helena Montagu-Douglass-Parr vows that for once she will live life on her own terms.  Breaking free from the stifling social constraints of the aristocratic society in which she was raised, she travels to France to stay with her free-spirited aunt.  For one year, she will simply be Miss Parr. She will explore the picturesque streets of Paris, meet people who know nothing of her past – and pursue her dream of becoming an artist.

A few years after the Great War's end, the City of Light is a bohemian paradise teeming with actors, painters, writers, and a lively coterie of American expatriates who welcome Helena into their romantic and exciting circle. Among them is Sam Howard, and irascible and infuriatingly honest correspondent for the Chicago Tribune. Dangerously attractive and deeply scarred by the horror and carnage of the war, Sam is unlike any man she has ever encountered. He calls her Ellie, sees her as no one has before, and offers her a glimpse of a future that is both irresistible and impossible.

As Paris rises Phoenix-like from the ashes of the great War, so too, does Helena.  Though she's shed her old self, she's still uncertain of what she will become and where she belongs. But is she strong enough to completely let go of the past and follow her heart, no matter where it leads her?

'"For the first time in her life [Lady Helena] was wonderfully and blissfully alone, and she would savor every single intoxicating second."'

She was on her way to stay with her aunt, in the south of France, for the summer.  When autumn fell the the two ladies would return to Paris where Helena would start her classes at Academie Czerny.

That summer she regains her health playing on the beach and swimming in the Mediterranean Ocean with old friends. It's through them that she meets Sam Howard.

'"Will you look me up when you're back in Paris?" [he asks Helena.]'

'"I will, though it may be a while. I'll need to get settled... "'

He promises to wait.

When autumn arises and they move to Paris Helena has every intention of writing him, but feels nervous.

'What if the man she remembered from that day... was a concoction of her memory... Besides, she was busy enough with her friends at school.'

As good as her friends claim she is Helena feels invisible in the class and decided she simply needs more time to perfect her technique.

'For good or for ill, by the end of the year [her teacher] would know her name.'

She throws herself into her work and her friends; people, who accept her, enjoy her company, and even come to rely on her.  She claims she hasn't forgotten Sam Howard but when she runs into him accidentally he playfully accuses her of just that. He joins her and her friends at a café and the talk turns to art classes. Helena admits she hopes to gain entry into an exclusive oil painting class.

When they're done Sam invites Helena out to dinner the next night.

'His manner was so appealingly open and straightforward...

'"Yes..." [she responds.] "I will."'

She begins to see him more and more, in spite of the fact that his job as journalist makes for odd hours and long absences. Which is just as well for she does gain entrance into the coveted oil painting class and spends most of her free time trying to perfect the difficult technique.

'The paints, so bright and perfect and new, turn dull at the touch of her brush, and the more she worked at them the worse they looked.'

Her friends gave her tips, helped her.  Still, she felt she wasn't good enough.

'Helena's life... Settled into a comfortable and comforting rhythm.'

She continues to see Sam on and off but insists it's just friendship, until the night kisses her. It's her first-ever kiss, passionate, full of sparks, shocking her into thinking of him as more than a friend. But inexplicably the relationship cools.  She begins to believe there is no future for them.

To busy herself she spends her time between painting and attending fashionable parties with both her aunt and her friends.  She runs into Sam occasionally but their interactions are devoid of any hint of passion for months.  She throws herself into her work.  She has only three months to paint a submission to the Salon des Independants.

'[Her work] lacked life... [it was] pretty... even rather interesting but not the slightest bit compelling.'

At the last minute she decides to paint something more personal; a memory of her stop at Gare de Lyon on the Train Bleu when she first arrived in France.

'Everyone... moving, all rushing to board... say their farewells... the longer you looked the more you... see.'

She worries that she doesn't have enough time, that she paints too slowly.

'"Then paint faster," [her friend] ordered.'

In spite of her friends praising her work she feels it's unready for the exposé and submits another piece instead of Train Bleu. Her professor is unimpressed and during the event she finds her painting in the back corner of the darkest hall.  No one is looking at it.  She feels dejected.  Her mood worsens when she overhears an ugly comment from her professor she believes is being said about her.  Claiming the need for fresh air she spends the rest of the and sitting outside.

She proceeds to get quite drunk at the soirée that evening, noticing all to keenly Sam Howard's eyes watching her.  He notices her state and offers to get her home where she embarrasses herself thoroughly by vomiting all over him.

The next morning, waking with quite a headache, she's confused with the feelings she has for Sam.  They're hurling themselves at a piece of disconcerting information she learned about his family.  All of this is wrapped around a deep embarrassment she still feels from the night before.

To her surprise, she finds out from her aunt that Sam Howard is downstairs.

'"Should I ask him to come up?" her aunt asks.'

Elena declines and meets him downstairs instead.  She's quite certain she'll be met with warmth, even passion, but instead finds a quarrel and some devastating news.

'"I'm leaving Paris," he said.  "I sail home to New York at the end of next week... Come with me... to America... make a new start."'

She wants to, badly, and fears she will regret it, but refuses coldly both caught up with the emotion and the undeniable truth about his family.

With the strength of her aunts, her friends, and by coming to terms with both her past and her possible future, Helena realizes what she must do both with her art career and with Sam.

Does she have the courage?

Moonlight over Paris is a delightful, fun read on a quiet, rainy afternoon.  It's undeniably romantic, but that romance is not just from the lovers, but from the scene set by the author of Paris itself and the uncertain paths of the artists.

It's a book of new friends; ones you'll carry with you long after the book ends.

Title: Shutter Island Author: Dennis Lehane

The year is 1954.  U.S. Marshal Teddy Daniels and his new partner, Chuck Aule, have come to Shutter Island, home of the Ashecliffe Hospital for the Criminally Insane, to investigate the disappearance of a patient.  Multiple murderess Rachel Solando is loose somewhere on this barren island, despite having been kept in a locked, guarded cell under constant surveillance.  As a killer hurricane bears relentlessly down on them, a strange case takes on even darker, more sinister shades - with hints of radical experimentation, horrifying surgeries, and lethal countermoves made in the cause of a covert shadow war.  No one is going to escape Shutter Island unscathed, because nothing at Ashecliffe Hospital is remotely what it seems.  

The story of Teddy Daniels is told to us by an ageing doctor who once worked there over 20 years ago.  He knew Teddy, remembered his time there.

Teddy's story starts with him face hanging over a toilet, seasick, on a ferry to the Island.  He meets Chuck, his assigned partner, for the first time and they hit it off right away.  The two Marshals are met at the landing dock by the deputy warden and some orderlies.  They're given a quick tour and are briefed on the situation.

They meet Dr. Cawley who shares extra information with them about the missing patient.


'"Rachel Solando... drowned her three children in the lake behind her house... Then she brought them back into the house and arranged them around the kitchen table and ate a meal there before a neighbour dropped by.'"

They go on to question anyone who had seen or had contact with Rachel the day she disappeared; doctors, orderlies, staff, even other patients.  Teddy asks questions trying to find holes, or weaknesses in the stories they hear.  Teddy quickly become suspicious, suspecting it's an inside job.

'"A woman disappears from a locked room... escapes onto a tiny island and no one can find her?  [We] have to at least consider that she had help."'

Dr. Cawley is reluctant to let the Marshals look at the personnel files of the staff, especially the doctors.  He persuades the Marshals to focus on finding Rachel.  Dr. Cawley shows them a note she's written and left behind.

'THE LAW OF 4

I AM 47

THEY WERE 80

+YOU ARE 3

WE ARE 4

BUT

WHO IS 67?'

The men try to guess, but any idea they initially have sounds impossible.

'"We could be the three," Teddy said.  "The three of us right now, standing in this room."

"[How'd] she... predict that?"'

Dr. Cawley explains that Rachel, as a schizophrenic, concocts wild fantasies, impossible, truly brilliant games.

'"Her delusions... are conceived on a very delicate but intricate architecture.  To sustain the structure, she employs an elaborate narrative thread to her life that is completely fictitious."'

What he means is the note could mean anything.

They search the grounds, try to come up with ideas, but the disappearance always comes down to two points; the fact that she vanished out of a locked room, and that she was barefoot.  No theory works.  It's an island.  A heavily guarded island.

That night a fierce storm threatens the island.  A hurricane blows in and pelts everything with bullet-like rain.  The Marshals are assigned a bunk with some of the workers.  A game of cards is started, poker, for coins, or cigarettes.  Chuck proves himself to be an excellent player and wins most hands.  

That night Teddy can't sleep, plagued by nightmares of his dead wife.  He gets up in the morning convinced he's cracked Rachel's secret code.  He and Chuck take the note to Dr. Cawley.  Teddy begins to explain his idea, adding up numbers, assigning each number the corresponding letter of the alphabet. 

'"It's not the 'law of four.' it's the law of 13.'

He goes on to explain his theory to the others.

"What are you?" - Chuck asks.  "... Einstein?"

With her code broken Teddy believes it's only a matter of time before they find her.  However, there is one number, 67, that they can't figure out.  Teddy believes it's a 67th patient, one that isn't in the books.  He even goes so far as to make a guess to who that extra patient is, and reveals why he's so eager to find him.

'"Andrew Laeddis... killed my wife," he admits to Chuck.'

The man was never convicted due to lack of evidence, and Teddy has no proof, but he's convinced all the same.  

They continue their investigation for Rachel, but are met with mystery and more questions than answers at every turn.  As they explore the Island and question the inhabitants, they come to discover many unsettling truths about what goes on.  Teddy confronts Dr. Cawley about the discrepancies and the questions he's uncovered.  When, quite nonchalantly, Cawley reveals that Rachel had been found, that very afternoon.

'"You can rest now, Marshals, your quest is over."'

Teddy isn't ready to call it quits until he's found Laeddis.  He knows he needs to access the restricted C Ward.  Convincing Chuck to help him, the two disguise themselves as workers to gain access to the ward.  Because the storm knocked out the power, the wards entire patient population got lose.  In the chaos, Teddy loses Chuck and tries to find Laeddis.  Instead he finds riddles, but has yet to make any startling realizations.  Frustrated, and confident the doctors in the facility are deliberately hiding something from him, he narrows his attention to the seemingly innocuous lighthouse they claim is a sewage facility.  To get there the Marshals have to climb down a sheer cliff.  Chuck refuses to follow him down.  

'"Try not to break your neck," are the last words Teddy hears from his partner.

Halfway down Teddy realizes the journey is as dangerous as Chuck supposed.  Teddy manages to climb back up, but when he does Chuck is no where to be seen.  Looking down, Teddy is convinced Chuck fell.  Hurrying back to the compound Teddy tries to report the emergency.  After some apparent confusion Cawley insists, "you don't have a partner, Marshal.  You came here alone."

With that Teddy knows for sure there is a conspiracy keeping him on the island.  with some pushing Teddy yearns to lean the truth, but can he accept what he discovers?

Title: Flowers for Algernon Author Daniel Keyes

Charlie Gordon is about to embark upon an unprecedented journey.  Born with an unusually low IQ he has been chosen as the perfect subject for an experimental surgery that researchers hope will increase his intelligence - a procedure that has already been highly successful when tested on a lab mouse named Algernon.  
As the treatment takes effect, Charlie's intelligence expands until it surpasses that of the doctors who engineered his metamorphosis.  The experiment appears to be a scientific breakthrough of paramount importance, until Algernon suddenly deteriorates.  Will the same happen to Charlie?

'"Dr. Strauss says I shoud rite down what I think and remembir and evrey thing that happens to me from now on."'

We follow Charlie through his transformation through a series of journal entries.  The first passages are written using very simple language and is fraught with spelling and grammatical errors signifying Charlie's limited mind; a window into his handicap.  This is paramount to the story as it's the very reason he was chosen for the experiment in the first place.  After many tests they tell him about a surgery meant to increase his intelligence.  Charlie likes that idea because '[he] wantid to be smart.'  He's disappointed after the surgery because he assumed he would immediately wake up and be smarter.  But he has to work for it.  His only friend and teacher at the home for mentally challenged adults, Miss Kinnian, Alice, tells him 'it woud stick with [him] and not be like befor when it dint stick so good.'

The testing continues and Charlie get increasingly frustrated as Algernon, the mouse whose own achievements spurred Charlie's surgery, keeps winning all the tests and games they play.

'I hate that mouse.  He always beets me.'

However, this changes less than a month later.  Charlie's progress reports are seen to improve in errors and in thought complexity.  Winning against Algernon proves to Charlie that he is, indeed, getting smarter.  That the surgery was a success.  He is excited and rushes to tell Alice, whom he's been spending more and more time with.  She helps him learn and encourages him to work hard.

Not two months after the operation he begins to notice that Alice is a woman, a female.  He's never looked at her that way, never looked at any woman that way.  He wants to go on a date with her but she is reluctant.  She never suspected her tutelage would turn into romance.  She agrees to go on a date, but Charlie is unfamiliar with his new feelings for her as a woman.  He tries to become more intimate with her and she rejects him; his first.  It hurts him and confuses him, so he insists.  His need for her, his need for a normal human relationship, increases with his IQ.

'[She's] the first woman [he's] every been really aware of in [that] way...'

'"See other women," she advises.  "Give yourself more time."'

As the weeks wear on he finds himself out growing the people he'd once thought of as friends which includes his budding romance with Alice.  In fact, his intelligence improves so radically he even begins to surpass his doctors.

'Strauss again brought up [Charlie's] need to speak and write simply and directly so that people will understand [him]... that language is sometimes a barrier instead of a pathway.  Ironic to find [himself] on the other side of the intellectual fence.'

The operation continues to improve his IQ which causes him to think about the world differently.  His mind clears and he can look back to sort through hazy, childhood memories.  The doctor's are so impressed with his progress they announce they're taking him and Algernon to an international convention.  Charlie is excited to meet and mingle with the smartest minds in the world.  His frustration for his own doctor's limits is eager to be assuaged among these supposed giants of men.  Everyday people and mundane conversation no longer hold any interest for him.  He becomes impatient when others can't follow his ideas.  He feels resentment towards the doctors, once thinking them so smart, now knowing more than them, more than anyone could possibly learn in a lifetime.  In less than half a year Charlie has gone on to do his own research regarding the experiment in the many different languages he's been able to learn and understand fluently.  He confronts his doctors' with information regarding his mental retardation and newly acquired intelligence which only reveals a deep lacking in their understanding.

'To hear [them] admit that [they] were ignorant of whole areas in their own fields was terrifying,' Charlie writes.

He also has to face the fact that he is their experiment, their most prized research and he doesn't like them staking their reputations and glory on him.

During the lecture about the his success as said experiment he discovers the doctors video recorded his early testing. 

'[he] had never known that [his] early performances and tests... were filmed.  There [he] was... confused and open-mouthed as [he] tried to run the maze... Each time [he failed, his] expression changed to an absurd wide-eyed stare, then that foolish smile again.'

Each time it happened the audience roared with laughter.  Race after race it was repeated and each time they found it funnier and funnier than before.  Charlie sits there, on the stage, watching these brilliant minds from around the globe laughing so freely at his expense and gets the urge to suddenly release the precious Algernon from his cage.  Without realizing it, he flips the lock and lets his comrade loose.  Pandemonium erupts in the lecture hall as everyone scrambles to catch the intelligent rodent.  Charlie uses it to make his own escape, Algernon tucked safely in his pocket. 

Away from the laboratory Charlie uses the chance to try to contact his family.  He can recognize them but has to remind himself that they wouldn't possibly recognize him after 15 years. 

He begins to see the paradox within him; the smarts, but really no life experience, no practice making and keeping relationships.  He reaches out anyway.  Bittersweet memories of home are closely examined without the haze of his retardation influencing every recalled image.  He cannot stay away.  He fears he may never get another chance.  Navigating these unfamiliar areas of human interaction is difficult as Charlie tries to reclaim something he hadn't known he'd lacked; love.

Keenly aware of this imbalance inside him he can't help but continue to challenge the doctors.  He knows something they don't but they don't like to listen, and he can't express himself properly without anger and frustration.  Charlie is both too smart for his own good, but utterly lacking at the same time.  He admits they've taken care of him.  He has his own place, a small salary, but he is all too aware of what else they've neglected.

'"Everything but treat me as a human being.  You've boasted... that I was nothing before the experiment... Because if I was nothing, then you were responsible for creating me, and that makes you my lord and master.  You resent the fact that I don't show my gratitude every hour of the day... I am grateful.  But what you did for me - wonderful as it is - doesn't give you the right to treat me like an experimental animal.  I'm an individual now, and so was Charlie before he ever walked into that lab... suddenly we discover that I was always a person... and that challenges your belief that someone with an IQ of less than 100 doesn't deserve consideration."'

After that it isn't long before Charlie is done with the experiment.  He sees what's happening to Algernon and doesn't want to end up the same way. 

'"No more tests.  I don't want to take any more tests... Not just for today.  I'm not coming back here any more... I've done enough.  I want to be left alone now."'

They try to persuade him to stay, to see it through.  After all, their PhD's are riding on it.  But through it all Charlie's learned one very important thing; the preciousness of time and the comfort of others.

This book takes the reader through the hard-to-understand levels of academia with ease and peels back these intellectual layers to expose the raw, human truth behind scientific breakthroughs, proving we all have the need for human connection.

Click here to purchase Flowers for Algernon.

Title: The Unfinished Child Author: Theresa Shea

When Marie MacPherson, a mother of two, finds herself unexpectedly pregnant at thirty-nine, she feels guilty. Her best friend, Elizabeth, has never been able to conceive, despite years of fertility treatments. Marie's dilemma is further complicated when she becomes convinced something is wrong with her baby. She then enters the world of genetic testing and is entirely unprepared for the decision that lies ahead.

Friends for over 30 years, Elizabeth and Marie have faced their share of joys and sorrows and have always managed to remain close, in spite of their differences.  They tell each other everything, sharing their lives with each other, relying on their closeness to help them through tough times.  That is, until Marie gets unexpectedly pregnant with her third child at 39 years old.  her other two daughters, aged 10 & 12 adore their 'aunt' Elizabeth, almost more than they adore their own mother.  In spite of the two women's desire to raise their children together, Elizabeth has never been able to conceive a child even after trying for years, naturally at first, then through several rounds of invitro.  Marie knows her friend longs for a baby of her own and is afraid to reveal her surprise pregnancy.  She tries to tell herself that she's afraid the baby will have something wrong with it and doesn't want to reveal the secret too early.  Really she's worried how Elizabeth will react.  She knows the pain it will inevitably cause.  However, not being able to talk about it with her best friend weighs on her heart.  She tries more than once to start the conversation that would lead to her confession, but every time decides it not the right time.  She ends up waiting too long and one afternoon Elizabeth guesses the truth.  Marie, relieved she didn't have to say the words, nevertheless apologizes because she feels guilty to be having yet another baby while her friend has never had one.

"I think I'm a little old for an unplanned pregnancy, don't you?" she says after her initial apology.

Marie knows the news has hurt her friend, even though Elizabeth tries to hide it.  She admits to herself that their friendship has changed with the birth of her other two children.  She hopes it can withstand the third one.

Trying to be happy for her best friend Elizabeth can't help the tears from falling as she leaves the happy family.  She's bitter, angry, and overcome by all her years of trying, of hormones and needles and doctors and implanted embryo's that continually fail to make her body their home.  She knows it's not right to blame her husband, but feels a deep need to change, escape.

"All [she] ever wanted was to be a mother, and... when [they] finally decided to stop the treatments [she] had to let go of that dream... [She's] not living the life [she] thought [she'd]be at this stage in [her]life..."  Elizabeth makes a plan to implement the changes she thinks are necessary.  She takes time away from her husband, from Marie, from Marie's daughters and growing fetus.

Marie, after a dream, becomes convinced that something is wrong with her baby.  She knows that her advanced age means certain risks, including the baby's risk of having Down Syndrome.  She goes to the doctor where she is informed they can't test for it for another couple months.  She discusses the options with her husband as they decide what to do if the baby tests positive.

"We can't... make any decisions until we know... if we end the pregnancy now would we be deciding not to have another child because we really didn't want one, or because we were afraid it wasn't well?"

"I don't see what difference that would make," her husband, Barry, replies.

Every day closer to that test brings more and more tension to the couple.  Marie feels it's all up to her to decide the fate of their child.  She doesn't dare confide in Elizabeth, even though she desperately needs to.  She knows that no matter what pain she is going through Elizabeth has had her share of it with every failed attempt.  Finally Elizabeth calls her and invites Marie and the girls over for lunch.  Marie feels irrationally jealous, convinced that her girls like their beautiful, care-free, unharried aunt better.  Barry suggests the girls stay home, knowing that his wife misses her friend dearly.  Marie agrees and goes for lunch at her best friend's house alone.

Two weeks before the test Marie's daughters notice their mothers pregnancy.  Marie cringes at the questions they spew at her.  She was hoping to have made a decision about the baby before they found out.  She knows they'd love a new baby in the house, and she knows they'll be sad if the child is unwell.  She doesn't want to disappoint them, and cannot hide her growing frame from them any longer.  She confirms the pregnancy and hopes they won't become too heart broken if the baby doesn't come home.

The day of her test arrives followed shortly by the test results.  The announcement is devastating.

"Are you sure there hasn't been some mistake," Barry asks.  "How accurate is this test anyway?"

"About 98%," the doctor replies.

Barry asks about the procedure, if Marie has to stay overnight.  Marie is told she that if they chose to terminate the pregnancy she'll be induced and will have to go through labour to deliver the unfortunate child.  'There would be no reward for the pain.  Nothing to look forward to after her body emptied itself of its burden.'

She calls Elizabeth and they agree to meet for coffee.  Marie finds herself confessing everything.  Elizabeth suggests she sleep on it, take her time considering her options.  Marie reveals that she doesn't have the time she needs.  She's too far along.  It'll soon be too late to terminate.

Elizbeth feels there is an easy solution to the problem.

'Words rose unbidden to Elizabeth's mouth.  Her lips parted, "I'll take the child...I know it sounds crazy... but if you don't want the baby and you don't want to abort it either, give her to me.  Let me raise her for you."

Marie is stunned and flee's the coffee shop, flees the suggestion, flees her friend.

'This decision was likely going to be the biggest turning point in her life.  She would need to live with herself afterwards, no matter what action she decided to take.'

Both husbands are shocked at what Elizabeth has proposed.  They both agree it's an outrageous request.  Both of them insist it can't or won't happen that way.

Marie asks Barry, "... Are we going for what's easy, or what's right?"

Everything comes down to Marie.  Her options are laid out before her, the question becomes which path is best.  She considers the choices, wonders how she'll feel if she kills the child, wonders how she'll feel if she gives it away.  There is only one clear answer, she knows the child isn't coming home with her.  Will her decision affect her marriage?  Her friendship with Elizabeth?  Marie feels utterly alone as she finally makes her choice.

The Unfinished Child is an eye-opening account of what it means to be a child with Down syndrome.  It's a story of tough decisions, of life lessons and relationships.  It's a tale that shows how each person can be admired and envied for different things, and that the life we think we want doesn't always turn out how we expect it to.  The novel has a depth that goes beyond the two families, that shines a light on human connections and the power of family.  It's a story of friendship surviving the worst.  The Unfinished Child will move into your heart and have you questioning the very things you thought you knew and often take for granted.

Click here to purchase The Unfinished Child.

Title: The Rum Diary Author: Hunter S. Thompson

The Rum Diary is a brilliant, tangled love story of jealousy, treachery and violent alcoholic lust in the Caribbean boomtown that was San Juan, Puerto Rico, in the late 1950's.  Exuberant and man, youthful and energetic, The Rum Diary is an outrageous, drunken romp...

Paul Kemp, a writer from New York,  tries his luck with a small, English newspaper in San Juan, Puerto Rico.  He arrives in front of an old greenish building that looks like a warehouse.  Outside the front door 20 Puerto Rican are attacking a tall American who '...was standing on the steps, swinging a big, wooden sign like a baseball bat.'

Kemp waits for the fight to break up before ducking inside.  Away from the havoc on the street Kemp appreciates the familiarity of the office.  He's welcomed by his new boss and a few co-workers offer to take him out for food and drinks at Al's, their local hangout.

Sala, the photographer, advises Kemp, "the first thing you learn here is to avoid the restaurants... Dysentery, crabs, gout, Hutchinson's Disease, you can get anything here..."

Kemp finds himself being drawn into a type of friendship with some of the men, including Sala and the tall American, a trouble-maker named Yeamon.

For the first week or so Kemp divides his time between his hotel and the office or out drinking at Al's.  He's reliable with his assignments, to the delight of his boss, who always complains about the degenerates and thieves and the wine heads who are ruining his paper.  The rumours in the office claim the paper will up and close at any time.  Kemp is comforted by the fact that he has enough money saved to survive or at least buy a plane ticket home should he need one.  In the meantime he dives right into the life of a journalist in the hot Caribbean.

He accepts an invitation to Yeamon's house out near the beach.  It seems that Yeamon has a picturesque life with his girlfriend Chenault and live lobster hunting out past the yard, which is more like a private beach.  Kemp can't help but fantasize about the beautiful, petite Chenault.  He envies Yeamon and wants what he has.  Kemp realizes that if he wants what his friend has he can't keep staying at the hotel.  Luckily, Sala agrees to let him stay at his apartment.

"You don't think I'll get on your nerves?" Kemp asks.

"I'm never there - it's too depressing," his friend replies.

With a place to at change his clothes and sleep a little Kemp feels better, but begins to avoid the place as much as possible.  It's barely a room and a bed.  Instead, Kemp falls in with Sanderson who hosts excellent parties and always seems in the know.  Kemp allows himself to feel optimistic about life in Puerto Rico around Sanderson, who believes whole-heartedly that San Juan is a golden opportunity; an endlessly lucrative paradise. 

The days begin to pass in a routine involving late mornings, a few hours of work followed by the casino then Al's, or the occasional party.  Rum flows freely and is easier to come by than coffee.  When not with Sanderson Kemp spends his time with Sala and Yeamon, even after Yeamon is fired over his refusal to change a story.  Things at the office are tense, even with Yeamon gone as his workload must be redistributed.  The boss tries to get Kemp to take over as Editor and Publisher, but Kemp declines.  He doesn't want to trade more money for more responsibility.  He'd rather join Sala through the endless cocktail parties, schmoozing with San Juan's Kingpins, taking pictures and stealing booze. 

'It was a good feeling to have a stock of rum that would never run out, but after a while [Kemp] could no longer stand even a few minutes at each party, and... had to give it up.'

One drunk afternoon at Yeamon's leads to a drunk evening at the local pub.  Yeamon claims to have an open tab and the three of them eat and drink their fill.  It seems like a fine evening until the manager demands Yeamon square up his bill.  Sala and Kemp both offer to pay, but Yeamon refuses and simply walks out with Sala and Kemp scurrying along behind.  It's not long before two carloads of Puerto Rican's chase them down.  A brawl breaks out as the locals attack the Americans.

'...through the numbness [Kemp] knew they were hurting [him] and [he] was suddenly sure [he] was going to die... [he] was being kicked to death in a Puerto Rican jungle for eleven dollars and fifty cents.'

The police show up only to haul the unruly Americans to jail where they abuse them further and deny them access to a phone.  Kemp recognizes the journalist who works the police beat and screams out for him to help.

"Moberg... Call... a lawyer."

They spend the next six hours in a tiny cell full of Puerto Rican's.  They can't sit down because the floor is foul with human waste.

'[Kemp] felt safe as long as [they] could supply [the locals] with cigarettes, but... wondered what would happen when [they] ran out.'

The men are eventually called into court, which is entirely Spanish.  Yeamon demands a translation of the proceedings and is ignored.  Kemp fears an ugly outcome until Sanderson shows up to rescue the lot of them.  He throws around some impressive names and some fancy words which seem to placate the judge.  Bail is set at $2,300.  Kemp doesn't argue much.  He's too happy being free.

'The fact that [he] spent all night in a cell... made that morning one of the most beautiful [he'd] ever seen.'

The night makes him rethink the way he's living.  He wants a car, and his own apartment '- a place where [he] could relax... and maybe even take a girl once in a while.'

With a new, lucrative assignment from Sanderson he is hopeful to find someplace half decent.  After locating an apartment suite above a garage he begins to feel like maybe he could start calling the place home. 

Yeamon and Chenault invite him to join them at a carnival in St. Thomas.  They promise him a good drunk while there.  The trip happens to coincide with his assignment for Sanderson.  Kemp would already be half way to the island of St. Thomas and after some deliberation decides to accept.  He arrives in St. Thomas to the chaos of steel drums, marching bands and the deafening roar of engines.  He manages to find Yeamon and Chenault.  Yeamon doesn't feel like dancing, and Kemp claims he's only there to drink, but Chenault insists they join the party and is practically carried away by the mob and the music.  With no choice but to follow her the two men weave their way through the crowd.  They spend the night with cheap rum and swiftly melting ice, drifting from bar to party to street mob and back.  They find a quiet beach just before dawn and pass out in the sand.

The next evening they continue their drunken wander from street party to bar before they're pulled away to a private house party where they have to pay $3 each just to get in.  The dark house is crowded and bursting with music.  Kemp and Yeamon lose track of Chenault only to find her in the middle of the dance floor swaying mindlessly with a small, dark man.  She's dropped her skirt and begins to slowly unpop each button on her blouse.  Flinging it into the crowd she's left in nothing but her flimsy panties and modest New York bra.  Yeamon and Kemp try to push through the mass to get to her, but a half-naked blonde beauty dancing half naked in a room full of men sets a riot of bodies seething forward for a better look.

Kemp and Yeamon struggle to pull her out before the rest of her clothes disappear but are held back by the others.  Before they can break away the man grabs Chenault and drags her through the house.  Kemp and Yeamon are thrown into a cab and sent away without Chenault.  Kemp vows to go to the police, who basically do nothing.  Yeamon hopes she's somehow made her way back to San Juan without them.  Kemp is not so optimistic.

Back home Kemp is happy to be on more familiar territory.  He settles back into some semblance of his old routine in spite of his constant worry about Chenault.  Those worries are slowly replaced by the constant barrage of rumours suggesting the paper's about to close.  Kemp isn't sure what he'll do if that happens, but continues on, business as usual, with long, rum soaked evenings.  It's a type of paradise, albeit a filthy one.

A dark tale of human passion and our lust for self-destruction A Rum Diary is a seedy story of old San Juan; a booze soaked glimpse into the secluded Caribbean Island and the inhabitants there.  This book leaves the reader with the feeling of gritty Caribbean life.

Click here to purchase A Rum Diary.

Title: The Body of Christopher Creed Author: Carol Plum-Ucci

When Christopher Creed, the class freak and whipping boy, suddenly disappears without a trace, first his fellow students, then all the citizens of Steepleton join in to speculate on what could have happened to him.  As fingers begin pointing, the town starts to fall apart and several lives are changed forever.  innovative and intense, The Body of Christopher Creed will grab the reader and hang on until its chilling conclusion.

Torey Adams is a well-liked high-school student in a respectably historic town in South New Jersey.  Both has parents are successful in their careers and some see Torey's life as perfect.  He's got a beautiful girlfriend and enjoys comfortable life until he finds out that his classmate, Chris Creed, is missing.  There's no body yet, but the town can't help but speculate the details.  Did he just walk out of his life?  Commit suicide? 

Torey's group of friends cling to the gossip that he was murdered, possibly by someone from their school.  His friends all make jokes, particularly one outsider named Bo Richardson.  None of them can give the disappearance the respect it deserves.  This bothers Torey.  He reconnects with Ali, a girl he'd been better friends with in the past.  She seems affected by the disappearance and confides a lot of Chris's secrets to Torey.  As Chris's next door neighbour she has a great view of the Creed's house from her bedroom window.  She invited Torey over the next night to spy on the family's weird behaviour.  He agrees, even though he knows it'll look bad if it gets back to his girlfriend.  But Ali assures him that her boyfriend is coming over as well, which will help dispel rumours.  Besides, he feels a distance between him and his friends and thinks some time with Ali might help with his discomfort at how life has been unfolding. 

'What bugged [him] was how quick people were to think that [Chris] had been murdered... It was easier to point the finger at somebody else... Something inside him felt totally ready to be completely nice to the rejects - people like Creed...'

At Ali's he's able to shed the pressure from his friends and indulge in the mystery of the disappearance.  They watch the Creed family from her bedroom window.  Apparently, Mrs. Creed has a habit of meticulously searching Chris's room every night.  Ali speculates that she's looking for Chris's diary.  She thinks Mrs. Creed thinks it has some secret as to her son's whereabouts.

Soon, Ali's boyfriend shows up and Torey is surprised to see it's none other than Bo Richardson.  Torey is surprised to find the older boy kinder and more compassionate than anyone had ever given him credit for.  Sill, Bo remains true to his reputation as trouble-maker by suggesting they break into the Creed's house to steal the diary.  Torey concocts a plan based on a movie he saw once.  He'll phone the Creed residence from a pay phone demanding money in exchange for information regarding their son.  They think this will lure the parents out of the home giving Bo the opportunity to break into the house.  It worked so well in the movie, but has a disastrous chain-effect resulting in Torey, Bo and Ali getting hauled into the police station for questioning.  Bo is determined to take the consequences but Torey feels guilty.  His only relief is the fact that his mom is a lawyer who finds herself almost obligated to help Bo out of the worst of it. 

For all the trouble it caused their plan was successful.  Bo succeeded in procuring the diary from the house.  Ali and Torey become obsessed with the words inside.  Through the scribbled handwriting they discover that Chris had a girlfriend in another town; a girl he worked with.  A girl named Isabella Karzdan.  They read further to find out Chris saw a psychic with this girl.  Torey looks the girl up in the phone book and Ali and him take a trip to visit her.  She's nothing like Chris described in his diary.  This tells Ali and Torey that Chris wrote down a highly imagined life.  Isabella reveals that the psychic is her aunt and asks if they'd like to meet her.  Torey is skeptical, but when she tells him that he'll find the body in the woods under some boulders he can't help but be curious.  He knows the exact spot Isabella's aunt is describing.  Desperate to get to the bottom of the mystery he proceeds to check the area out.  It's then that he makes a most gruesome discovery.

The Body of Christopher Creed reveals the complex world of both high-school and adulthood and twists in a mystery so compelling you'll want to devour the story just to find the answer to what, exactly, happened to Christopher Creed?

Click here to purchase The Body of Christopher Creed. 

Title: Things Fall Apart Author: Chinua Achebe

Things Fall Apart tells two intertwining stories, both centering on Okonkwo, a "strong man" of an Ibo village in Nigeria.  The first, a powerful fable of the immemorial conflict between the individual and society, traces Okonkwo's fall from grace with the tribal world.  The second, as modern as the first is ancient, concerns the clash of cultures and the destruction of Okonkwo's world with the arrival of aggressive European missionaries.

These perfectly harmonized twin dramas are informed by an awareness capable of encompassing at once the life of nature, human history and the mysterious compulsion of the soul.

Okonkwo 'was tall and huge and his bushy eyebrows and wide nose gave him a very severe look... he had no patience with unsuccessful men.'

Unoka, his father, was an unsuccessful man and growing up under his father's failures pushed Okonkwo to become an independently wealthy and powerful man in his community.  He worked hard and expected his family to follow his lead.  Through his strength of will and determination he quickly became someone respected by the clan.  He was given a boy from another tribe who ended up quite dear to him, not that he could ever admit it.

One day, another older, more respected man came to visit.

"Do not bear a hand in his death," the man warned.

Okonkwo is surprised and quickly learns that for some reason, after three years, the Oracle, a woman of vision and prophesy, has decided the boy should die.  The old man advises Okonkwo to stay home that day.  Unable to show even any weakness Okonkwo feels it's his duty to go to the killing ceremony of the boy who calls him 'father.'  Once there, the boy runs to him in fear, for comfort, but Okonkwo struck him down with his very own machete.

"What you have done will not please the Earth," the old man warned when he learns of Okonkwo's actions.

"The Earth cannot punish me for obeying it's messenger," Okonkwo argued, speaking of the Oracle.

But the death of the boy weighed heavily on his mind and his heart.

It isn't long before he learned that his second wife's only child was dying.  It was suspected by many that the girl was an 'ogbanje, one of the wicked children who, when they died, entered their mother's wombs to be born again.'  His second wife bore ten children, all but one had died before their third birthday.  Finally, Okonkwo called on a medicine man skilled with the ogbanje spirits.  But the girl remained sickly, albeit, alive.  The had even found her token that tied the evil spirit to it's malicious cycle and destroyed it.  Still, the child fell ill.  Okonkwo felt he had no choice but to interfere with the mother as she cared for her sick child.  He told her how to make a potion and together they prayed it would work.  He would never say it out loud, but the girl was secretly his favourite child.

It wasn't long before the priestess to the Oracle came, half possessed with prophesy calling for the sick girl.  Okonkwo and his wife strive to come up with excuses to why she can't come out.  Shrieking with madness the priestess insists and the girl is handed over.  His wife tried to follow the woman who has her child, terrified as to why she'd been summoned.  The family had already lost one child to her whims, they couldn't bear one more.  She follows the priestess all night only to find the woman placing the sleeping child back in her bed at early morning light.

Pleased that his daughter was safe but still mourning the loss of the boy, Okonkwo was not able to continue living his peaceful, prosperous life in the village for much longer. During a burial ceremony for an elder Okonkwo accidentally kills the dead man's youngest son.  It is forbidden to kill a fellow clansman and the offence results in the expulsion of Okonkwo and his family for seven years.  They must seek refuge in his mother's land among his mother's people.  They are warmly welcomed by his mother's people, but the exile has devastated the family.  They live their lives as best they can while Okonkwo strives to recreate his former glory.  He advises his daughters not to marry into this more unfamiliar tribe.

 'With two beautiful, grown up daughters his return [home] would attract considerable attention.'

It's during this time that the missionaries came to the community proclaiming in the name of the one true God and his son, Jesu Kristi.  Okonkwo scoff's at the message, convinced the white missionary is mad.

'But there was one  young lad who had been captivated... Okonkwo's first son... [though] he dared not go too near the missionaries for fear of his father.'

But the lure of the new religion was too strong and the boy chose to forsake his family for the new way.  

Okonkwo was eventually able to move home, though he finds his tribe changed.  The new religion had flourished and had attracted many different faces to the church.

His world, irrevocably changed, left Okonkwo in a state of disbelief.  People were being indoctrinated into thinking their ways, the ways of their fathers, were bad, evil, something to disown.  Okonkwo tries to rally the tribe against the missionaries, but not everyone was as bothered by the changes as he was.  His son chose to go to a new training school for teachers.  This news makes Okonkwo furious.

'Okonkwo was deeply grieved... He mourned for the clan, which he saw breaking up and falling apart.'

The change that descended on him proved too much for him to bear as he clings, desperately, to the old, familiar ways.

Things Fall Apart is a rare glimpse into tribal African life; it's rules and complexities laid glaringly bare.  It shows you a world both before and after the reign of Empires showing what it was like to have your world changed overnight by forces directed at you from across strange seas.

Click here to purchase Things Fall Apart.