LitPicks Book Reviews—January 2013

Theme—Family matters What makes a family, and why do families matter? This month we consider three books with different ideas of what—and especially who—constitutes family.

The Death of Bees
Lisa O'Donnell, 2012
320 pp.

Book Review by Molly Lundquist
January, 2013
Celebtated in Britain and now garnering stunning reviews in the U.S., The Death of Bees is a short read that packs a big wallop. But while the story is powerful and characters lovable, do take note: it might be a bit much for some. Grim...or grimly comic...or comically grim, The Death of Bees is not for everyone.

The novel, situtated in Glasgow, Scotland, is told through alternating voices: two sisters and their neighbor, Lennie. The girls, 12 and 15, are on their own, their parents "missing." Yet readers know from the get-go exactly where they are. And so do the girls.

Arcadia
Lauren Groff, 2012
320 pp.

Book Review by Molly Lundquist
January, 2013
Utopian visions have captured our literary imagination through the millenia—from the Biblical Eden and Plato's Republic up through Thomas More's Utopia (which actually coined the word for us), and Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Blithedale Romance.

Lauren Groff's Arcadia is the latest in that long line and can stand easily among its celebrated forebears. The novel has landed on many a "Best Books" list for 2012—and deservedly so.

Little Women
Louisa May Alcott, 1868 and 1869
~500 pp. (varies by publisher)

Book Review by Molly Lundquist
January, 2013
Louisa May published her beloved classic 145 years ago, and while at times dated—its homiletic style and emphasis on female duty—Little Women still has much to say about the modern condition.

There's nothing—at all—old-fashioned about the concept of virtue: generosity and compassion, forgiveness, self-restraint, wisdom, and living with intention. These are the values that Marmee teaches her four daughters and which they come to see as the path to a good life. It's easy to overlook their importance in the 21st century.