Department of Temporal Adjustment

Reviewed for Review the Book
Published by Sun Break Publishing

Now, this is an author with a great imagination and fun, too. The kind of person who would be a great friend. Certainly, I'm basing this on her book, but no one could write that way without having a great sense of humor and fantasy.  I refer, of course, to Veronica R. Tabares, the author of Department of Temporal Adjustment. With this title, I just had to read the book and I was not disappointed. Vanessa's life both in her reality and in her mental wanderings is hilarious in places, completely serious in others, and involves constant conversations with herself, a trait most mothers with small children pick up very quickly. I found myself identifying with Vanessa on all kinds of levels.

Vanessa is a very happily married mother of three little girls and a prince of a husband. She is working toward her degree in Archaeology. Between her hours and her husband's hours working on his degree, they are still able to have one or the other home with the girls.

The fun begins when the family sees a group of people dressed in clothing of other eras, but seemingly unaware of their surroundings. Though that is odd in itself, Vanessa begins to see these same people most evenings, sometimes in town, sometimes on campus. Considering she works alone at night in the basement at the university on her archaeology projects, her mind takes her through all kinds of possibilities, building from maybe '...an acting group', right up to '...a bunch of terrorists'.  I said the author had a rich imagination!  Once she sees this impossible group emerge from the janitor's closet, she is dumbfounded, but also fearful.

This story is like deja vu in reverse. She suffers confusing memory losses, and though some things trigger a slight memory that wafts away on the wind, other memories at home seem to be normal activities that are forgotten, fortunately for short periods. Again and again she is told she has "been here before" but has absolutely no memory of it. Put it down to Vanessa's inquisitiveness, she goes where she shouldn't, and just what is that humming sound she hears every night she works late? What goes on in that closet? How can so many people get in there? This book reads as though it is all told from the mind. It's a mystery to be solved, a story of family love, a living potential, fantasy, and a secret that must be kept at all costs. A very enjoyable and quick read.

The Thin Place by Kathryn Davis

Random thoughts, think, think, don't emerge from your mind, just concentrate. Haven't most of us done this when we were trying to avoid some other thought or action? This is the feeling I got when I first started reading this mystical, entertaining, yet odd book. I was uncertain where it was going, or perhaps especially, where it was coming from. That said, there is a story here, three young girls on the threshold of leaving childhood, a unique small town population, a church, beavers, a dog, and an unexpected mystic healer are enfolded in this book, not to mention mystery, drama, death and life. The main theme is probably that of how people relate to each others and to themselves.

In between the segments of the story of the girls are bits and pieces of small-town or rural lives and how such lives are intermingled with each other as well as the forests and animals. I really got into it fairly quickly and found myself wrapped up in life in the thin space. The author works on a different plane than the average writer, and this is what makes the story interesting and totally unexpected. A difficult book to review because it is so different. Somehow for that reason, I feel I may not have done justice to Kathryn Davis; I keep feeling compelled to read it again, I think I will get a lot more out of it in reading it again. The book has many layers, and a twist at the end. As of my first reading, I give it 4 stars.