Icefields by Thomas Wharton

Jeff Rennicke and I have this deal: first he tells me what to read and then I tell him what to read, then we repeat the process. The deal keeps us from getting too bogged down in our own reading ruts: I like stories, he likes word imagery. Icefields has both.

The story of Icefields takes place between 1898 and 1925 on or near the Arcturus Glacier in the northern Canadian Rockies, near Jasper. In 1898 Dr. Edward Bryne, while crossing the glacier, falls into a crevasse. While hanging upside down, Bryne sees what he thinks is a winged human figure trapped in the ice. Bryne is rescued but the accident changes his life forever: he becomes obsessed with the glacier and spends all of his time both running from and seeking the figure in the ice.

There is more to the story than the plot. The figure in the ice is part of a series of seemingly mystic events and dreamscapes that take place throughout the book: ice sublimating into air; orchids blooming in rock; books falling to their death of shattered words; listeners that become part of the stories they hear; dead men in barber shops; and living corpses returning from war. The figure in the ice is the key, the rest are just clues to its meaning. Was the figure real? Was it a spirit or angel caught in the ice? Is it the reflection of a book with shattered words? Or is it the essence of a life unfolding, captured in the pregnant ice, waiting to be born when it sublimates at the terminus?

Living Dead Girl by Elizabeth Scott

This is one of those books that relates a grim reality of modern life that no one willingly wants to explore. Here we have the experience of “Alice,” an abducted child who has been kept and sexually abused by her captor for over five years. The brutal emotional reality of the situation is captured so absolutely by Scott’s sparse prose that it will leave you nauseous every time you remember the book. This is one of those books you don’t know if you want to read and you aren’t sure if you were glad you read it once done; but you will never forget it.

Books with a similiar feel: We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver, Boy Toy by Barry Lyga, and When Jeff Comes Home by Catherine Atkins.

What I Saw and How I Lied by Judy Blundell

Evie Spooner is interested in everything that stereotypical teenage girls are supposed to be interested in: boys, makeup, and clothes. Evie's life, however, includes a stepfather just back from WWII and a war buddy he wants to avoid. When the war buddy, Peter, follows her family to Florida, Evie knows something isn't right, but she can't figure it out and despite herself, she falls for Peter in a big way. Unfortunately, war crimes, American anti-Semitism, parental deceit, and a tragic accident/murder force Evie to face realities she never knew existed.

This was a great book. I read it while Chad was taking his EMT-B national practical test and despite all the distractions (victims everywhere! head trauma! backboards!), I couldn’t put it down. It won the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature and begs to be made into a movie.