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THE WINTER BEES

Name: THE WINTER BEES
Author: Jill Kalz
ISBN: 978-1-7322082-0-9

by Jill Kalz ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 13, 2018

Simple and unpretentious in its portrayal of small-town life.

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Short stories explore the lives and relationships of residents of a small Minnesota town.

In 10 linked stories, seemingly simple daily interactions reach their tipping points for a wide array of characters. Stories about Ana the bartender bookend the collection, opening with her efforts to connect with patrons of her saloon despite their inconsistent presence (“Last Call”) and ending with her injured and alone in her apartment, recalling the slow loss of her brother to depression after his return from World War II and how she came to spend over 60 years working at her family’s bar (“Ana’s End”). Quiet struggles and solitude continue as themes for other characters, such as Luther, a retired teacher who, despite his budding relationship with a town librarian, is unable to move on from the long-ago death of his first love (“A Yin-Yang Year”); Shirley, the bookshop owner who lashes out at a customer in a moment of grief for her husband (“The Humming Bee”); and Eleanor, who tries to gracefully endure her sister’s funeral as mourners recall how Greta became known as “The Pee Lady” because of her public incontinence (“The Siebenbrunner Nose”). With her direct prose, author Kalz, in her first book for adults, has created a muted kaleidoscope of rural life, though the connections between stories are at times thin or slow to develop. The dialogue is sometimes hindered by wording that feels overly caricatured (“ 'Hot dog,' she said, 'it’s too cold even for the snowmen!' ”), which makes moments of reflection stand out even more: “By the time Luther came home from Marjorie’s, the rooms turned cold and close. He found himself breathing in shallow, quiet breaths, as though there wasn’t enough air left in the apartment by sundown, as though taking a deep breath might suck the walls in even farther.” Still, Kalz captures the tenacity, devotion to labor, and will to endure associated with the rural Midwest.

Simple and unpretentious in its portrayal of small-town life.

Pub Date: Nov. 13, 2018

ISBN: 978-1-7322082-0-9

Page Count: 187

Publisher: Minneopa Valley Press

Review Posted Online: Aug. 20, 2018

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2018

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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BETWEEN SISTERS

by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 1, 2003

Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles...

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Sisters in and out of love.

Meghann Dontess is a high-powered matrimonial lawyer in Seattle who prefers sex with strangers to emotional intimacy: a strategy bound to backfire sooner or later, warns her tough-talking shrink. It’s advice Meghann decides to ignore, along with the memories of her difficult childhood, neglectful mother, and younger sister. Though she managed to reunite Claire with Sam Cavenaugh (her father but not Meghann’s) when her mother abandoned both girls long ago, Meghann still feels guilty that her sister’s life doesn’t measure up, at least on her terms. Never married, Claire ekes out a living running a country campground with her dad and is raising her six-year-old daughter on her own. When she falls in love for the first time with an up-and-coming country musician, Meghann is appalled: Bobby Austin is a three-time loser at marriage—how on earth can Claire be so blind? Bobby’s blunt explanation doesn’t exactly satisfy the concerned big sister, who busies herself planning Claire’s dream wedding anyway. And, to relieve the stress, she beds various guys she picks up in bars, including Dr. Joe Wyatt, a neurosurgeon turned homeless drifter after the demise of his beloved wife Diane (whom he euthanized). When Claire’s awful headache turns out to be a kind of brain tumor known among neurologists as a “terminator,” Joe rallies. Turns out that Claire had befriended his wife on her deathbed, and now in turn he must try to save her. Is it too late? Will Meghann find true love at last?

Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles (Distant Shores, 2002, etc.). Kudos for skipping the snifflefest this time around.

Pub Date: May 1, 2003

ISBN: 0-345-45073-6

Page Count: 400

Publisher: Ballantine

Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2003

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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THE ALCHEMIST

by Paulo Coelho & translated by Margaret Jull Costa ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 1, 1993

Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.

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Coelho is a Brazilian writer with four books to his credit. Following Diary of a Magus (1992—not reviewed) came this book, published in Brazil in 1988: it's an interdenominational, transcendental, inspirational fable—in other words, a bag of wind.

The story is about a youth empowered to follow his dream. Santiago is an Andalusian shepherd boy who learns through a dream of a treasure in the Egyptian pyramids. An old man, the king of Salem, the first of various spiritual guides, tells the boy that he has discovered his destiny: "to realize one's destiny is a person's only real obligation." So Santiago sells his sheep, sails to Tangier, is tricked out of his money, regains it through hard work, crosses the desert with a caravan, stops at an oasis long enough to fall in love, escapes from warring tribesmen by performing a miracle, reaches the pyramids, and eventually gets both the gold and the girl. Along the way he meets an Englishman who describes the Soul of the World; the desert woman Fatima, who teaches him the Language of the World; and an alchemist who says, "Listen to your heart" A message clings like ivy to every encounter; everyone, but everyone, has to put in their two cents' worth, from the crystal merchant to the camel driver ("concentrate always on the present, you'll be a happy man"). The absence of characterization and overall blandness suggest authorship by a committee of self-improvement pundits—a far cry from Saint- Exupery's The Little Prince: that flagship of the genre was a genuine charmer because it clearly derived from a quirky, individual sensibility.

Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.