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Roger Boylan examines the life and work of John Cowper Powys in the new issue of The Boston Review, with a nod of praise to the recent biography published by The Overlook Press: "Today, the keeper of the flame is Dr. Morine Krissdóttir, a trained psychologist and Powys scholar (the two go together like bread and butter). She has written a fine biography of this controversial figure: Descents of Memory. A spell weaves its magic in the pages of Powys’s novels, and it hovers yet over Morine Krissdóttir’s splendid biography."

A. N. Wilson takes on the enigmatic John Cowper Powys in essay from The Spectator: "Morine Krissdóttir is a real authority on Powys. She has been studying him throughout a long life, she knows the material well and she has produced a book which no reader of Powys will want to be without." Krissdottir's biography of Powys, Descents of Memory, was released last Fall along with a new edition of Porius.

When I began blogging about children's books, I mostly reviewed picture books and Middle Grade fiction. Over the years, however, I've been increasingly drawn to Young Adult literature as well, a category I did not read as a teenager. Part of what interests me about Young Adult fiction, is a simple question: When is a book meant only for the teens and when is it meant exclusively for adults? What differentiates one market from the other? Well, sometimes, it's hard to tell. Today I'm reviewing two books--one marketed as YA, the other as adult fiction--that cross age boundaries and can be enjoyed by all readers approximately ages 13 and up.

First up is Nancy Crocker's brilliant and heartfelt Billie Standish Was Here. Marketed as Young Adult fiction and meant for readers ages 14 and older, it would be a shame if this book were not read by adults everywhere.

Billie Standish is a self-sufficient only child, born to farmers in Cumberland, Missouri, in 1959. Because she's a girl, Billie's parents ignore her, leaving her to run the household, when they are off working the farm. (The irony being, of course, that Mom works alongside her husband, as much a farmer as he is.) When the novel opens Billie is eleven and is wandering a deserted town. Frightened and intrigued, she asks her neighbor--an elderly woman named Miss Lydia--what's happened. The dam is overwhelmed and a warning has been issued. Most of the town's residents fear flood, but Miss Lydia and Billie's parents have decided to remain put.

Billie benefits, however, by making a new friend in Miss Lydia. Miss Lydia hires Billie for a variety of small tasks, paying her with dinner and a dollar. Billie enjoys the older woman's company and conversation. There's only one downside to this new arrangement--Miss Lydia's vile, loutish son, Curtis. Billie, an intelligent girl, is stunned by Curtis and can't believe how different he is from Miss Lydia:

"I stared at my bedroom ceiling that night thinking about how every single person on earth, no matter who they turned out later, started out as somebody's baby.

Everybody started out as a blessing or a disappointment. A prayer that had been answered or nothing more than another mouth to feed. All by the time they'd drawn their first breath. "

Billie should know. Her mother had desperately wanted a boy, and Mom got Billie.

The unthinkable happens, changing Miss Lydia and Billie's burgeoning friendship. Curtis drags Billie into a truck and rapes her. Almost immediately, there's a town scandal: Miss Lydia has shot her son, thinking he was an intruder. From that moment on, Billie and Miss Lydia are more than friends--they're conspirators. Over the years, their friendship develops and even widens as they admit a third person--Billie's classmate, Harlan--into their midst. Miss Lydia teaches Billie and Harlan about current events, inspires them both to go to college (especially Billie, who she makes her heir), and teaches them love, compassion, and loyalty.

Billie Standish was Here is a testament to unlikely friendships and how much they can change your world. Nancy Crocker's 1960s lower Midwest dialect never falters in the book, never seeming false or folksy. As a result, her characters walk off the pages. This book is a gem--don't miss it. (And, if you don't believe me, check out Jules' rave review over at Seven Impossible Things About Breakfast.)

I'm far too antisocial and impatient to belong to a book group myself, but Billie Standish was Here is the perfect book group selection. There's so much to discuss