Book Review-Hundred Year House

I enjoy listening to audio books while I'm doing other things.  Sometimes I search for a specific book, but I often just peruse the offerings on our Overdrive site.  This time I found an interesting book called The Hundred Year House. The book opens in 1999 at the estate of the Devohrs, Laurelfield, just outside of Chicago.  The Devohrs are from Canada, and built this house 100 years ago.  Zee is a Marxist literary scholar working at a local college, her husband, Doug, is currently out of work, trying to write a biography of the poet Edwin Parfitt so he can get a job in academia.  They are living in the carriage house on the estate.  Zee's mother, Gracie is very opinionated.  Her husband Bruce, Zee's stepfather, is sure Y2K will be the end of civilitation as we know it.  Things were going along as well as could be expected until Bruce's son and daughter-in-law move into the carriage house, which puts additional strain on Zee and Doug's marriage.  Violet Devohrs, long dead by suicide, is thought to haunt the house. Laurelfield was once an artist colony, one at which Edwin Parfitt stayed, so Doug wants to see the archives for his research.  Grace refuses, so Doug sneaks up.  He finds out more than he bargained for. We flash back to the late 50's, to when Grace and her first husband moved to the house.  This section answers some of the questions raised in the first, but brings up new questions. The third part of the book takes place in the late 1920's where we meet some of the artists living at Laurelfield. The final part describes the original Devohrs' building of the house. The story is told backwards, which makes for an interesting reading experience.  I had to go back to the first part and reread parts to be sure I had everything straight at the end.  It was a very interesting book, with satisfying plot twists and moments of suspense.

The Hundred-Year House By Makkai, Rebecca 2014-07 - Viking 9780525426684 Check Our Catalog The acclaimed author of "The Borrower "returns with a dazzlingly original, mordantly witty novel about the secrets of an old-money family and their turn-of-the-century estate, Laurelfield. Rebecca Makkai is a writer to watch, as sneakily ambitious as she is unpretentious." Richard Russo Meet the Devohrs: Zee, a Marxist literary scholar who detests her parents …More

Other books by the same author.

The Borrower By Makkai, Rebecca 2011-09 - Thorndike Press 9781410440815 Check Our Catalog In this delightful, funny, and moving first novel, a librarian and a young boy obsessed with reading take to the road. The odd pair embarks on a crazy road trip from Missouri to Vermont, with ferrets, an inconvenient boyfriend, and an upsetting family history thrown in their path. …More

Complimentary Reads

Weathering By Wood, Lucy 2016-01 - Bloomsbury USA 9781632863577 Check Our Catalog Pearl doesn't know how she's ended up in the river--the same messy, cacophonous river in the same rain-soaked valley she'd been stuck in for years. But here her spirit swirls and stays . . . Ada, Pearl's daughter, doesn't know how she's ended up back in the house she left thirteen years ago--with no heating apart from a fire she can't light, no way of getting around apart from an old car she's …More

Bellweather Rhapsody By Racculia, Kate 2014-05 - Houghton Mifflin 9780544129917 Check Our Catalog Awards: Alex Awards (2015) A high school music festival goes awry when a young prodigy disappears from a hotel room that was the site of a famous murder/suicide fifteen years earlier, in a whip-smart novel sparkling with the dark and giddy pop culture pleasures of "The Shining," Agatha Christie, and "Glee." …More

Staff Picks

We like to read, and we like to share what we read! This is a list of recent favorites. STAFF PICKS

Brotherhood in Death By Robb, J. D. 2016-02 - Berkley Books 9780399170898 Check Our Catalog The new novel featuring homicide detective Eve Dallas from the #1 "New York Times" bestselling author of "Devoted in Death." "Sometimes brotherhood can be another word for conspiracy. . . ." Dennis Mira just had two unpleasant surprises. First he learned that his cousin Edward was secretly meeting with a real estate agent about their late grandfather's magnificent West …More

Blood Meridian: Or the Evening Redness in the West By McCarthy, Cormac 1992-05 - Vintage Books USA 9780679728757 Check Our Catalog An epic novel of the violence and depravity that attended America's westward expansion, Blood Meridianbrilliantly subverts the conventions of the Western novel and the mythology of the "wild west." Based on historical events that took place on the Texas-Mexico border in the 1850s, it traces the fortunes of the Kid, a fourteen-year-old Tennesseean who stumbles into the nightmarish world where …More

I Am Not Sick I Don't Need Help!: How to Help Someone with Mental Illness Accept Treatment By Amador, Xavier F. 2011-12 - Vida Press 9780967718934 Check Our Catalog Awards: ForeWord Book of the Year Award (2012), IndieFab awards (2012) …More

The Shrunken Head By Oliver, Lauren Author Chester, H. C. Illustrator Lacombe, Benjamin 2015-09 - HarperCollins 9780062270818 Check Our Catalog The book is about, among other things: the strongest boy in the world, a talking cockatoo, a faulty mind reader, a beautiful bearded lady and a nervous magician, an old museum, and a shrunken head. Blessed with extraordinary abilities, orphans Philippa, Sam, and Thomas have grown up happily in Dumfrey's Dime Museum of Freaks, Oddities, and Wonders. But when a fourth child, Max, a …More

The Dragon of Trelian By Knudsen, Michelle 2009-04 - Candlewick Press (MA) 9780763634551 Check Our Catalog Awards: Dorothy Canfield Fisher Children's Book Award (2011) A feisty princess befriends a mage's apprentice and find she's uncannily linked to a dragon, in this suspenseful new middle-grade fantasy by the "New York Times"-bestselling author of "Library Lion." …More

The Jobless Future By Aronowitz, Stanley Author Difazio, William 2010-09 - University of Minnesota Press 9780816674510 Check Our Catalog Charting a major change in the nature of paid work in the United States. …More

The Vital Question: Energy, Evolution, and the Origins of Complex Life By Lane, Nick 2015-07 - W. W. Norton & Company 9780393088816 Check Our Catalog The Earth teems with life: in its oceans, forests, skies and cities. Yet there's a black hole at the heart of biology. We do not know why complex life is the way it is, or, for that matter, how life first began. In The Vital Question, award-winning author and biochemist Nick Lane radically reframes evolutionary history, putting forward a solution to conundrums that have puzzled generations of …More

Cutting for Stone By Verghese, Abraham 2009-02 - Knopf Publishing Group 9780375414497 Check Our Catalog Awards: Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award (2010), Indies Choice Book Awards (2010) A stunning debut novel from the author of "My Own Country": an enthralling family saga of Africa and America, fathers and sons, doctors and patients, exile and home. …More

The Hundred-Year House By Makkai, Rebecca 2014-07 - Viking 9780525426684 Check Our Catalog The acclaimed author of "The Borrower "returns with a dazzlingly original, mordantly witty novel about the secrets of an old-money family and their turn-of-the-century estate, Laurelfield. Rebecca Makkai is a writer to watch, as sneakily ambitious as she is unpretentious." Richard Russo Meet the Devohrs: Zee, a Marxist literary scholar who detests her parents …More

What to read while waiting for...

Brotherhood in Death By Robb, J. D. 2016-02 - Berkley Books 9780399170898 Check Our Catalog The new novel featuring homicide detective Eve Dallas from the #1 "New York Times" bestselling author of "Devoted in Death." "Sometimes brotherhood can be another word for conspiracy. . . ." Dennis Mira just had two unpleasant surprises. First he learned that his cousin Edward was secretly meeting with a real estate agent about their late grandfather's magnificent West …More

Are you patiently (or not so patiently) waiting for that best seller?  Here are some suggestions.

Friction By Brown, Sandra 2015-08 - Grand Central Publishing 9781455581160 Check Our Catalog From #1 "New York Times" bestselling author Sandra Brown comes a gripping story of family ties and forbidden attraction. Crawford Hunt wants his daughter back. Following the death of his wife four years ago, Crawford, a Texas Ranger, fell into a downward spiral that left him relegated to deskwork and with his five-year-old daughter Georgia in the custody of her grandparents. But …More

Fast Track By Garwood, Julie 2015-07 - Signet Book 9780451469472 Check Our Catalog A woman's search to uncover the truth about her mother ignites danger and passion in the latest novel from #1 "New York Times" bestselling author Julie Garwood. Daddy's girl Cordelia Kane is devastated when her father has a serious heart attack, and the emotion is only intensified by the confusion she feels when he reveals the shocking truth about her late mother. Desperate …More

Nemesis: An FBI Thriller By Coulter, Catherine 2015-07 - G.P. Putnam's Sons 9780399171277 Check Our Catalog The next high-octane thriller in the FBI series featuring Dillon Savich and Lacey Sherlock from # 1 "New York Times" bestselling author Catherine Coulter. When Special Agent Lacey Sherlock foils a terrorist attack at JFK airport, she thinks her job is done and turns the reins over to the New York FBI. But stopping the grenade-carrying crazy was only the beginning. Another plot unfolds …More

Upcoming Events at HPL

Investor Ed 1:00 pm, Friday, February 12 The Road to Financial Independence Why are some people more successful investors than others? Luck? Probably not. Do they know a “secret?” Definitely not - because there are no real secrets to investing. But there are rules you can follow to work toward your goals. Join us for our Rules of the Road presentation. You'll learn: • The most common investing mistakes and how to avoid them • Investing strategies to help reach your long-term goals • What you can do now to prepare for retirement  Please call Jennifer at 231-777-3102 or email farrah.starr@edwardjones.com by Friday, February 5 to reserve a seat.

4th Annual Bling Thing 5:00 pm, Friday, February 12 Pre-sale party with wine and chocolates.  $10 donation requested. Bling Thing is a sale of donated costume, vintage and precious jewelry, as well as, purses, scarves and other things with "bling" run by the Friends of Hackley Library.  All proceeds go to the library.

4th Annual Bling Thing 10:00 am, Saturday, February 13 Bling Thing is a sale of donated costume, vintage and precious jewelry, as well as, purses, scarves and other things with "bling" run by the Friends of Hackley Library.  All proceeds go to the library.

Genealogy/Family History Workshop 10:30 am, Saturday, February 13 Presented by the Muskegon County Genealogy Society. For anyone who is excited about researching their family history. You must pre-register; limited to 6 individuals for each workshop. 10:30am to 12:30pm in the Local History & Genealogy Department at the Torrent House. Please call 722-7276 ext. 240 to register.

Genealogy/Family History Workshop 2:00 pm, Saturday, February 13 Presented by the Muskegon County Genealogy Society. For anyone who is excited about researching their family history. You must pre-register; limited to 6 individuals for each workshop. 10:30am to 12:30pm in the Local History & Genealogy Department at the Torrent House. Please call 722-7276 ext. 240 to register.

MINECRAFT 2:00 PM, SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 13 Build your world and survive the terrain along with 19 other players. Minecraft is the new survivor game of the times.  Registration is required starting February 1. Call 231-722-7272, ext. 230.

HACKLEY PUBLIC LIBRARY IS CLOSED FOR PRESIDENTS DAY      MONDAY, FEBRUARY 15

Finances for Lunch sponsored by PNC Bank 12:00 pm, Wednesday, February 17 Bring your lunch and learn about finances with employees from PNC Bank. This month's topic is “Bank on it.” Sponsored by PNC Bank

Trouble with Tablets 1:30 pm, Wednesday, February 17 Having trouble with your tablet? Bring it to HPL on Wednesdays at 1:30 to get tech help.  Walk ins welcome.

Computer Class-Publisher 10:30 am, Saturday, February 20 De'ondra Pentecost will teach computer classes on Saturdays from 10:30 am to 12:00 pm. Registration is required. Call HPL at 231-722-7276 to register. This weeks' topic--Publisher. Learn how to make posters and signsBrought to you through the generosity of the Friends of Hackley Library.

Soul Food Dessert Contest 2:00 pm, Saturday, February 20 Get your recipes out and find your best soul food dessert. Compete for the best in the city. Bring enough for attendees, plus the judge, to taste. Sign up by February 12th. We'll have prizes for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place as well as a People's Choice award. The judge will be from the Culinary Institute of Michigan Brought to the community through a generous bequest from Bess Commodore. WUVS 103.7 the Beat is the media sponsor.

JUNIOR SOUL FOOD DESSERT CONTEST 2:00 PM, SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 20 Know your grandmother's secret velvet cake recipe? Use it to win prizes. Join HPL in celebrating Black History Month by entering our multi-age Sour Food Dessert Contest. Catagories will be open for young age groups as well as old.

Open Mic Poetry Reading 6:00 pm, Monday, February 22 Read your own or your favorite Black History/Black Experience/African American poetry. Clayton Hardiman will emcee the program. Brought to the community through a generous bequest from Bess Commodore. WUVS 103.7 the Beat is the media sponsor.

STORYTIME TOYBOX 6:30 PM, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 22 Listen to a story, sing songs, play with toys, and craft a project. These activities will help your preschooler become a strong reader and motivated student. Hackley Library makes learning fun! Call to register:  231-722-7276, ext. 230

Quilt Show 6:30 pm, Tuesday, February 23 Bring your own or your family heirlooms and show them off at HPL. Tables will be available for displaying the quilts. Participants will have an opportunity to talk about their quilts.

Trouble with Tablets 1:30 pm, Wednesday, February 24 Having trouble with your tablet? Bring it to HPL on Wednesdays at 1:30 to get tech help.  Walk ins welcome.

Tech Wednesday-Dropbox 3:00 pm, Wednesday, February 24 Bring your laptop or tablet and follow along while we explain tech topics in an informal setting. This week we'll look at Dropbox, a cloud based service for storing and sharing files. Brought to you through the generosity of the Friends of Hackley Library.

Computer Class-Powerpoint

10:30 am, Saturday, February 27

De'ondra Pentecost will teach computer classes this fall on Saturdays from 10:30 am to 12:00 pm. Registration is required. Call HPL at 231-722-7276 to register. This weeks' topic--Powerpoint. Learn how to create a slide show. Brought to you through the generosity of the Friends of Hackley Library.