Author Nibi Soto releases new fantasy By Sue Rakes
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EGINNING IN chapter one, readers will relate to the characters in “Beyond the Map’s Boundary: A Timely Sort of Adventure,” a new fantasy by Nibi Soto. Who hasn’t fallen asleep on a blanket after a picnic lunch during a summer afternoon? This is where ordinary events end and readers are transported into a world of time travel and glowing-blue footprints, magic, divvys, trekkers, incantations, hidden staircases, romance and adventure. When Kash and Amber Bott awaken to the sound of thunder and the crack of lightning after falling asleep at their picnic, Amber knows she must run for her life or the lightning will kill her. As she and her husband
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HIS IS A NOVEL on old-fashioned themes: mother’s love and, perhaps even deeper, mother’s grief. In the first half of Anna Quindlen’s “Every Last One,” the many characters, some lightly sketched, live ordinary lives in a contemporary atmosphere of mundane concerns: What can stop whole colonies of bees from disappearing? What wages should be paid to illegal Mexican immigrants? No tragedy looms. Almost all are educated, well-off people in a small American city. At least one family is prosperous enough to afford a Christmas gift of two round-trip tickets to Lon-
don for a literary daughter, still in high school. Only in the second half does the disaster artfully emerge, and the dimensions of the grief it evokes. This isn’t a novel of entertainment, though the first half has some wry and amusing comment on American family life with a dog named Ginger. Quindlen — her narrative style could make a page-turner out of a gas bill — won the Pulitzer Prize for commentary, and is the author of other novels and nonfiction books. There are also other kinds of love in this latest story, including a case of puppy love that develops into mindless, murderous rage. There may have been consequences,
About the author ...
ibi Soto grew up along the Wasatch mountains of Utah, in the Great Salt Lake valley. She’s a graduate of Weber State University, Brigham Young University and the Art Center College of Design. She has an undergraduate degree in communication design, a master’s degree in professional leadership and a specialized degree in industrial design. She was inducted into the WSC Athletic Hall of Fame in 1997,
holds the world women’s fast-pitch batting record, and has been a certified athletic trainer, intercollegiate coach, musician, industrial designer, artist, educator, author and professional speaker. Soto is the quintessential Renaissance woman; to her, the biggest thrills in life come from being with her family, acquiring more and more knowledge, discovering new skills and traveling the world. For more information, visit www.nibisoto.com.
Nibi Soto will host a reading and book signing from 1 to 4 p.m. Saturday, April 24, at the Logan Borders. She will be wearing her famous mask and there will be a drawing for signed posters.
ers struggling with the new and interesting words the author uses to tell the story. Soto has traveled the world since she was a young child.
‘Last One’ about mother’s love, grief for her family By The Associated Press
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Kash, who is her Striker, try to find shelter, they know Amber’s only hope is to find a footprint — a glowing blue footprint. When she sees the footprint, someone else also sees it and with a harsh laugh covers it with his foot. It is then too late for Amber; lightning strikes her from behind and with a bright green light she is gone. Author Nibi Soto has written this novel as the first in a series of time-travel adventures. While aimed primarily at a young adult audience, like the Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowling, this series will likely appeal to readers of all ages. The author has thoughtfully added a dictionary of words and terms in the back of the book, which will be helpful to read-
too, from the whim of a sensitive woman who loves her husband — moderately — but falls into a short, meaningless affair. What she recalls from the affair most sharply is the livid brand on her thigh from a gypsum wallboard nail in an unfinished garage. That scar, at least, didn’t last. The second half is devoted almost entirely to the grief of a mother, Mary Beth. She tells the story herself, gradually revealing the disaster. Her mourning is never resolved, but that doesn’t make the story dull. If you pick up “Every Last One” to read a few pages after dinner, you’ll want to read another chapter, and another and another, until you get to bed late, feeling sad for her.
Her fascination with antiquities has led to her interest in time travel. “The novel came into being when I needed something fun in
my life,” she says. Readers will no doubt find this book fun and filled with adventure, causing them to look forward to the next trip!
* This week’s New York Times Bestseller List * HARDCOVER FICTION 1. “Silver Borne” by Patricia Briggs 2. “The Help” by Kathryn Stockett 3. “Caught” by Harlan Coben 4. “Deception” by Jonathan Kellerman 5. “House Rules” by Jodi Picoult HARDCOVER NONFICTION 1. “The Big Short” by Michael Lewis 2. “Chelsea Chelsea Bang Bang” by Chelsea Handler 3. “The Pacific” by Hugh Ambrose 4. “Courage and Consequence” by Karl Rove 5. “Mount Pleasant” by Steve Poizner PAPERBACK NONFICTION 1. “Conservative Victory” by Sean Hannity 2. “Are You There, Vodka? ...” by Chelsea Handler 3. “The Blind Side” by Michael Lewis 4. “Eat, Pray, Love” by Elizabeth Gilbert 5. “My Horizontal Life” by Chelsea Handler HARDCOVER ADVICE 1. “Giada at Home” by Giada De Laurentiis 2. “Women, Food and God” by Geneen Roth 3. “Raquel: Beyond the Cleavage” by Raquel Welch 4. “Jamie’s Food Revolution” by Jamie Oliver 5. “The Kind Diet” by Alicia Silverstone
Keep your reading list updated at www.nytimes.com/pages/books/
Page 13 - The Herald Journal - Cache Magazine - Friday, April 16, 2010
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