I have no idea how to review Ruby by Cynthia Bond.
Ephram Jennings is the adult son of a deceased backwoods preacher and has been in love with Ruby for as long as he can remember. Ruby Bell has recently returned home to Liberty, Texas. She lived a horrific life being sexually trafficked and abused since childhood.
Upon returning from New York City, sharply dressed and epically groomed, Ruby begins a long descent into madness as her past begins to quite literally haunt her. Voodoo runs deep within Liberty, even permeating the faith of the Christians in town. Now living in filth and wandering the streets in tatters, Ruby is openly shamed and once again, used by the men in her hometown. Ephram begins his long, slow courtship of Ruby; the only man who treated this woman with respect, kindness and expecting nothing in return.
Ruby is the debut novel by Bond, a writing consultant and therapeutic writing teacher. This novel is many things: a love story, a survival story, a horrific story, maybe even a ghost story. Bond is a fantastic writer and brings the reader immediately in, lock stock and barrel. The scenes between Ephram and Ruby feel beautiful and full of hope and sharply contrast with the main characters backstories as well as the evil they face together as adults.
Argo: How the CIA and Hollywood pulled off the most audacious rescue in History by Tony Mendez is his first-hand account of the rescue of six Americans during the Iran hostage crisis. As the lead operative on the project, Tony recounts how he hatched the plan, carried out preparation and executed the plan so that everyone would be brought home safely. This spy story is set apart from others because this rescue was successful in part because Hollywood was used to make the mission a success.
Inferno is the fourth book in the Robert Langdon series by Dan Brown. The first two books in the series were made into successful movies starring Tom Hanks. In this book, Robert Langdon is once again called on for his vast knowledge of symbols and iconography so that he might once again follow the clues and solve a dark mystery. Never knowing whom to trust, Langdon relies heavily on what he knows about specifically Dante and his masterpiece, Inferno, in order to hurry and beat a mastermind at his own game. While the first two books (Angels and Demons and The Da Vinci Code) in the series take place in Europe, the third book, The Lost Symbol, occurs mainly in Washington D.C. and New England. The third book was supposed to be made into a movie also but was supposedly passed over because its story resembled too closely that of National Treasure. In this book, Inferno, Langdon spends all of his time once again in Europe. Just like in his other books, there are many twists and turns and Langdon’s quest take him to a number of different famous and historic locations in Italy and a few other countries in Europe. Whereas The Da Vinci Code fed on our interest in conspiracies, this book addresses our ever growing population problem and our fears about epidemics becoming more widespread as our world has become more and more globally connected. The movie for this book is set to come out in the fall of 2016 and will once again star Tom Hanks as Robert Langdon.
Donald Miller has always been unlike any Christian author I have read before. He rocked my world in Blue Like Jazz. He inspired me to get off my rear end and start living my life in A Million Miles in a Thousand Years. I’ve always been a big fan of Miller being an open and authentic writer plus an avid student of life. His latest book, Scary Close was released this month and it’s unlike anything he’s written before.
Many of us struggle to find our identity in our work. We struggle with the gap between what really interests us ““ where our passions lie, and how we earn a paycheck. In many instances, we work to pay the bills so that we can pursue our true interest. Others know their current career path is not their passion, but cannot pinpoint where their true passion lies. Are we living to work or working to live? Are we spending our work hours doing something that fulfills us? Are working at a career that is exactly what we were created to do, or have we pushed our dreams aside to face the reality of a 9 to 5?
Elizabeth Is Missing is Emma Healey’s first novel about an older woman suffering from dementia. The story is from Maud’s point of view and gives the audience an idea of what life might be like to have one’s mind slowly deteriorate due to dementia. To help illustrate the point even more, Maud spends most of her time obsessing about the disappearance of her friend, Elizabeth. She finds it extremely difficult to follow the clues when she can’t remember what the clues are or even what they mean when she finds them.
Mimi Baird embarks on a journey to learn why her father, Dr. Perry Baird quite literally disappeared from his daughter’s life in the mid-1940s. Dr. Baird was, by all accounts, a brilliant doctor and an up-and-coming researcher whose groundbreaking study into manic depression was abruptly halted due to his own suffering with the disease. Dr. Baird had been removed from his family while Mimi and her younger sister were quite young; the girls were not given a complete explanation as to what happened to their father for several decades. While Mimi attempted to readjust to a life without her father and the mystery surrounding him, Dr. Baird was institutionalized multiple times due to his uncontrollable manic depression. During his many hospitalizations, Dr. Baird kept a written account of his personal experiences with his disease, the treatments he endured which are now considered barbaric, and mourned the loss of every aspect of his life.