Book Diary

The Spy Who Jumped Off the Screen

2012-01-30T07:16:00.004-05:00

The Spy Who Jumped Off the Screen by Thomas Caplan, Viking Adult, January 2012

...a mediocre thriller at best

Spoilers Galore
A Hollywood actor who used to be a Spec Ops soldier, a beautiful English jewelry designer, an international disarmament specialist and finally a billionaire with a luxurious yacht that doubles as a small city are the characters in this spy thriller. The theft of nuclear bombs from the former Soviet Union is the plot driver. The action moves from the Black Sea, to London, Rome, Tangiers and Gibraltar. All the ingredients of a good thriller are present. Ty Hunter the actor is given a secret mission by the US President to infiltrate the closed circle of friends around Ian Santal the billionaire suspected of smuggling the nukes out of Russia. Hunter falls in love with Ian’s god daughter, the beautiful Isabella. Isabella unfortunately is engaged to Ian’s business partner Philip Frost. Hunter immediately suspects that Frost is the driving force in getting the nukes into Arab hands. The hunt is on for the proof and the nukes as the characters bounce around the Mediterranean from Tangiers to Spain and then Gibraltar. In the end as expected Hunter finds the nukes, gets the girl and has the villain get away to live again in a sequel.

Let me say first off that I did read this book almost straight through to the end. While it is far from the worst thriller I’ve read there were quite a few shortcomings to this story. The plot moves along very slowly with almost no action for pages on end. The descriptions of the technical details of the nuclear bombs (arming, disarming, moving, shielding, etc.) went on way too long. The character development was fairly thin, the villains actually got better back stories more fully described that the good guys. The dialogue is wooden and cliché filled.

I was surprised to see the glowing introduction written by Bill Clinton (a famous reader of thrillers) until I read he was a college friend of the author. My opinion, different from Bill’s, is this is a mediocre thriller at best. Read something by Daniel Silva, Alex Berenson or Paul Haig for a good thriller.

I read a copy of this novel provided by the publisher.

How It All Began

2012-01-26T08:51:00.001-05:00

How It All Began by Penelope Lively, Viking Adult January 2012

...the serendipitous nature of the story is really its allure; the author does a great job of stringing together events into an impressive story that is very enjoyable

This story begins with an elderly woman, Charlotte being mugged in London. Following this a cascading series of events that are triggered by the mugging form the basis of the story. A marriage is threatened, an affair discovered, an elderly peer attempts to regain his youthful vigor and importance, an interior designer finds an unlikely business partner, a newly arrived immigrant finds acceptance and love in an unexpected way. Each of these story lines is developed and interspersed through to the end of the story. The author really examines the effect of chance on a number of unconnected lives. I hate to summarize this story with any more detail as the story is the charm of this novel.

The novel is very well written, the dialogue is rich and true. The characters are genuine and for the most part likeable. The serendipitous nature of the story is really its allure; the author does a great job of stringing together events into an impressive story that is very enjoyable. I loved the ending – nothing ambiguous about the fate of these characters, I’ve recently finished a couple of novels with murky endings, so this ending was much appreciated. This is my first Penelope Lively novel, I had never heard of her but clearly she is a well recognized gem of a writer – several Booker short lists and a Booker prize. Lucky me a new author!!

I read a copy of this novel provided by the publisher.

Pearl Harbor Christmas

2012-01-24T09:12:00.002-05:00

Pearl Harbor Christmas: A World at War, December 1941 by Stanley Weintraub, Da Capo Press, November 2011

...the author took on too many story lines and did not develop them enough to interest the reader

This story is a chronicle of events in the two to three weeksleading up to Christmas after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. The author writes of Churchill’s visit to the White House where he meets extensively with Roosevelt and plans war strategy. It also touches on people and events in the Philippines where Mac Arthur is evacuating to Corregidor and where American soldiers and other military personnel (sans MacArthur) will make a doomed last stand. Some of the other story lines touch on events in Singapore, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Port Moseby, Wake Island, Russia and the UK. This is a short book, 228 pages and in my opinion touches lightly and inadequately on most of these story lines.

This is the type of book I usually love, a behind the scenes look at people that are at the center of world changing historical events. This book did not meet my expectations, I believe the author took on too many story lines and did not develop them enough to interest the reader. Other than the story line that followed Roosevelt and Churchill none of the other stories was told in enough depth or detail. Instead of well marked scene switches I found myself continually confused as the story venue changed – one paragraph dealing with the defense of Singapore and the next paragraph telling about events in Russia. The promise of a background story of the US in a festive but unsettled holiday mood also wasn’t meet; I found few interesting atmospheric details in the author’s story. The story was told chronologically and it just didn’t work. I think the story line was a good one but not well executed.

I read a copy of this book borrowed from the Free Library of Philadelphia.

The Innocent

2012-01-20T10:32:00.001-05:00

The Innocent by Taylor Stevens, Crown Publishers, December 2011

...all in all this sequel is not as good as the first book in the series.

Taylor Stevens is back with a second novel featuring Vanessa Michael Munroe as the central character. The story centers on the recovery of a child (Hannah) from a cult (The Chosen). The child was kidnapped from her mother five years before and has now been located in a cult location in Argentina. The child is the daughter of Munroe’s long time friend Logan. Working with Logan and other survivors who have left The Chosen, Munroe hatches the plan to free this child from the cult. Along the way it becomes apparent that the Chosen are also engaged in child sex rings. The action move right along as Munroe inserts herself into the cult family and tries to free Hannah. There are a couple of minor plots that are interspersed throughout the book that also add to the suspense of the story.

Munroe is a flawed heroine at best. Her troubled life has produced a psyche that is deeply damaged. In the first book – The Informationist – Munroe had some violent tendencies that were merely worrying, in this story she has completely broken down and commits some horrifically violent acts while sleep walking (yes, I am not kidding). The author continues to liken Munroe to Lisabeth Salander (Dragoon Tattoo) but these stories are just not that good. They lack the sense of place that comes with the Swedish stories. The heroine lacks the vulnerability present in Salander’s character and the violence seems to me over the top and presented to shock rather than advance the story. The plot is well formed and entertaining but I found the characterizations wanting. All in all this sequel is not as good as the first book in the series.

I read a copy of this book provided by the publisher.

A Sea of Troubles

2012-01-16T06:52:00.001-05:00

A Sea of Troubles
by Donna Leon, narrated by David Colacci, 8hrs. 7 mins., August 2011

...the tenth novel in this series is every bit as good as earlier ones.

I have always enjoyed the Donna Leon series with Commissario Guido Brunetti as the protagonist and the city of Venice as the backdrop. This is the tenth novel in the series and it is every bit as good as earlier ones. There are a couple of hallmarks of this series. There is always an environmental theme, there is always a slice of Venetian life, and there are always wonderful passages about Italian food and drink. Leon recognizes the corruption and dishonesty of what is the Italian government and despite it has Brunetti working for justice.
This story is centered on the island of Pellistrina, which is a barrier island between the Venetian lagoon and the Adriatic Sea. A tight knit community of fisherman (the Vongolari) closes ranks when the murders of two local fishermen come under police investigation. Nobody would ever describe this story as a thriller but the mystery rolls along at a relaxed pace as Brunetti attempts to know the community on the island. Signorina Electra, beautiful secretary to his superior, insists on visiting relatives on the island in an attempt to dig up information that will solve the murder. Brunetti though loyal to his wife finds himself obsessed with Electra’s safety causing some stress in his marriage and some loss of focus on the key parts of the murder investigation. As Brunetti oversees the investigation we learn more about the deteriorating conditions that challenge the centuries old fishing industry of Venice. There is always a little despair and cynicism in Brunetti’s response to Italian government corruption and it is in evidence here. Despite the obstacles, the investigation moves forward and Brunetti identifies the killer. As he moves to arrest the killer nature intervenes with a legendary storm and chaos ensues. In these stories the mystery takes a back seat to the people and panorama of Venice, but here the denouement holds much more suspense than is usual.

For the first time, I listened to this story rather than read it. I really enjoyed it. The narrator, David Colacci, with a great Italian accent enriched the experience.

I listened to a copy of this novel borrowed from the Free Library of Philadelphia.

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

2012-01-12T07:33:00.001-05:00

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer, Houghton, Mifflin Harcourt, April 2005

...I am really looking forward to this movie, I bet it is a wildy better than the book!

This is the story of a young boy who has lost his father in the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center. Oskar Schnell is depressed and deeply traumatized by his loss. After his father’s death, Oskar finds a key that his father had hidden in a vase. He sets off on a mission to find out what the key opens. His travels take him to all five of the NYC boroughs and his quest eventually helps him deal with the loss of his father. A backdrop to the story is his paternal grandparents experience in the firebombing of Dresden during WWII. The grandparents’ story is interspersed through Oskar’s adventures.

I don’t know when I’ve read a book that I’ve had such mixed feeling about. Oskar’s story is very well told. I was moved near to tears at how real his pain and loss is expressed in this story. His voice rings strong, true and heartfelt. The dialogue was perfect for a precocious nine year old, at times witty, at times clever, at times deeply sad. His expression for his grief – “I felt heavy in my boots” – was for me just perfect. His flights of fantasy in creating “Inventions” seem spot on for a bright young boy. It would have been easy to make Oskar’s story descend into cheap sentimentalism but the author doesn’t, he tells it in a way that is sensitive and realistic.

Now for the parts of the book that almost caused me to toss the book across the room. The grandparents story was told in an almost incomprehensible manner – was there no editor involved in this process? The grandparents have lives that have been greatly diminished by their experience in Dresden. Their marriage was a compromise for both of them. Their methods of dealing with their losses and trying to build a life are strange. Even though I found their story unusual I really objected to the way the author told it. Some of the pages contained a single word, some pages were filled with words that did not make sense and some pages were unreadable because the typeset was intentionally blurred. I’ve never read a graphic novel but if this is an example of one you can keep them. I think what I enjoy about reading is the picture the author creates in my mind by using words and the richness and depth of the experience that words bring to the story. None of this was present for me in the grandparents’ story.

I rarely think this but I am really looking forward to this movie,I am sure it will be well edited and I bet it is a wildly better than the book!

I read a copy of this book borrowed from The Free Library of Philadelphia.

11/22/63

2012-01-06T07:47:00.000-05:00

11/22/63:A Novel by Stephen King, Scribner, November 2011

It is part historical fiction, part sci fi, and part love story...rewarding and enjoyable

Nothing appeals to me quite as strongly as a good time travel story and this is a good one! The protagonist is Jake Epply a high school teacher who becomes a time traveler. He always returns to the same date in Maine in 1958. Each trip provides a complete reset, that is any actions Epply took that changed the past in a prior trip are erased. Initially Epply works to prevent some local tragedies in Maine but eventually he decides that preventing the assassination of John Kennedy in Dallas in 1963 will lessen the world’s problems. He sets out to prevent Oswald from killing Kennedy. I really don’t want to reveal too much of the plot here because the suspense is key to enjoyment here.

Let me spend a few words on why I thought this was such a good story. The period detail that the author brings to this story is great, he gets the 1950s early 60s just right, down to the music, the clothes, and the simplicity of the life style. The details of the Kennedy assassination are spot on. The characters are very well drawn and you end up caring about all of the major characters. For me the love story between Epply and Sadie was brilliant, I enjoyed it as well as any other part of the story. I thought the plot was superb, there were enough twists and turns to keep you interested and while the story was a sci fi, I found it believable or at least not outrageous. The decisions that the Jake Epply made were very human not contrived in any way. Lastly, I loved the ending which was clever and heartening.

So if you haven’t read much Stephen King, and I haven’t because I am not a horror genre fan, you should consider this novel. It is part historical fiction, part sci fi, and part love story. It is a big book (800+ pages) but one I found rewarding and enjoyable.

I read a copy of this novel I bought.

Mysteries x 3

2011-12-20T06:29:00.000-05:00

Time is short and the holiday chores are piling up so I’ve decided to write short reviews for three books I’ve finished in the last week or so. All are mysteries and have many things in common. This is my go to genre so I read a lot of these stories and I can be fairly critical but I liked each of these books. They have plots that are complex and interesting, characters that are well defined and endings that worked for me. The first two have recurring characters – Kinsey Millhone in V is for Vengeance and Harry Bosch in The Drop. I like the familiarity of these series; I feel like I know these detectives and enjoy the minor characters that recur in the narrative as well. These detectives are always righteous and after the bad guys even if they bend the rules a bit – they are easy to like. The third book – Headhunters – has an unsympathetic and unethical hero that somehow you end up rooting for possibly because the villain in this story is so wacko!

V is for Vengeance by Sue Grafton, Putnam, November 2011 – We reconnect with Kinsey who is working her way alphabetically through the crime in the fictional town of Santa Teresa in California. Kinsey is a reluctant detective who when she interrupts a shop lifting gang is drawn into a complex mystery that includes gangsters, a dirty cop, a lonely senior citizen mourning the loss of his fiancée, and a society woman flirting with danger. Kinsey continues to be Kinsey – not caring about her appearance, continuing her penchant for junk food, drinking bad wine at Rosie's and partaking in her daily jogging routine. The plot is way too complex to summarize but it is as good as any in this enjoyable series.

The Drop by Michael Connolly, Little Brown & Co. November, 2011 – Harry Bosch, the LAPD homicide detective is back and after the bad guys. In the last couple of books he has had this annoying partner, Stephen Chu and he is again in this story. A prominent city hall lawyer (aka fixer) is found dead on the pavement of a plush Hollywood hotel. Was he thrown from the balcony or is it suicide? The dead man is the son of one of Harry’s old enemies, Irvin Irving. At Irving’s request Harry is assigned the case. Concurrently, Harry is investigating a cold case murder of a young woman raped and killed 20 years ago in Venice Beach. Each of these cases takes multiple twists and turns before they are solved. Harry also continues to be Harry – he still likes jazz, he has a new girlfriend in every book (here it is Dr. Hannah Stone), his daughter is a key part of his life and he is hell bent to find out the truth in each case he works. Highly recommended. I listened to the audio book of this story that was read by Len Cariou. Cariou did a good job on the narration but I could not get his Blue Blood character (Henry Reagan) out of my head. I kept picturing Reagan instead of Bosch.

Headhunters by Jo Nesbǿ, Vintage, September, 2011 – This is a Norwegian story that has been translated into English. It is a little quirky. It is first person narrated by the protagonist Robert Brown. Brown is a half Norwegian, half English employee of a headhunting firm responsible for filling most of the executive positions in Norwegian industry. He has a glamorous wife who is an art dealer. They live beyond their means and we slowly come to realize that Brown has a second career as an art thief. He meets his match in Claus Greve, a Dutch executive who Brown courts for a CEO position in Norway. Brown arranges to steal an expensive piece of art from Greve. Greve is not what he seems and Brown soon has the tables turned finding himself running for his life. This story moves right along, it has plenty of black humor and the prose is spare and descriptive. There is at least one plot twist that the author has that I never saw coming. The body count was a little high for me but the violence is contained to one or two scenes. Somehow the author is able to get your sympathy for Brown and I found myself rooting for him to succeed. This book is a standalone mystery, the author Jo Nesbǿ has a series with a detective (Harry Hole) that I’d try after reading this story.

My Best Books of 2011

2011-12-15T06:15:00.000-05:00

This is far and away my favorite post of the year to write. It gives me the opportunity to look back on some of the great books I read during the past year. I have a tough time selecting the 10 but it is fun to look through the list and remember how much I enjoyed these books. I try to limit my choices to books published in 2011 (or at least in late 2010). These are very much personal choices, I've rejected some of the usual suspects from other lists (The Marriage Plot, The Art of Fielding, The Tiger's Wife) in favor of these - what's the fun of having a blog if you can't make your own choices! Here ya go in alphabetical order:

22 Brittiania Road historical fiction - this WWII survivor story was heartbreaking and at times almost too sad to bear but in the end though it tells of the triumph of human spirit over adversity.

Before I Go to Sleep fiction - A really great psychological thriller, great pacing, great story, had me on the hook until the very end!

Bossy Pants - The Tina Fey story, you have to listen not read this one, her memoir is part comedy, part life advice, part assessment of social mores and all fun.

Buddha in the Attic historical fiction - this story of Japanese mail order brides is a haunting piece of historical fiction told in a unique way.

Catherine the Great biography - This 600 page biography of one of the most powerful rulers of Russia flew by for me. If you want history that reads like fiction read this!

Destiny of the Republic history - In this gripping account of the murder of James Garfield, 20th President of the US, Candice Millard uses the assassination as a means to examine the culture and politics of America in the 1880s. A great read!

Rules of Civility historical fiction - Pre WWII high society NYC has never seemed as alive as in this story. If you want to visit another time, another place that is both romantic and sophiscated read this book.

Faith fiction - The Catholic Church sexual abuse scandal with a different twist, the author gets the characters pitch perfect and gives a different view of this sad story.

The Report historical fiction - a fictionalized account of a true story this is a small gem of a book that raises issues that are very contemporary in a way that is both thought provoking and moving.

A Visit From the Goon Squad fiction - These characters walk off the page into your mind if not exactly your heart. The effects of the passage of time on the characters, their values and relationships is the overarching theme in this unconventional but amazing novel.

I need to mention two other books I read last year even though they weren't 2011 books. Matterhorn (2010), a fictional account of the Vietnam war was one of the best war stories I've ever read. Karl Malantes captures it all - the horror, the courage, the cowardice, the camaraderie, the confusion, the exhilaration and the sorrow of war. Even if you don't read war stories read this one. Zeitoun (2009) is a true story of one family's experience during and after Hurricane Katrina. David Eggers hits a home run with this book, I loved it.

The Cat's Table

2011-12-12T07:18:00.000-05:00

The Cat's Table

by Michael Ondaatje, October 2011, Knopf, Inc.

This is a beautifully written book with indelible images that in the end did not fulfill the promise of its opening.

The Cat’s Table is a coming of age novel. In it the narrator, Michael an 11 year old boy tells the story of his solo ship voyage from Ceylon to England in the early 1950s. Michael is seated at the Cat’s table, the table lowest in status and farthest from the captain’s table. He makes two friends, Cassius and Ramadhin, and their ship board adventures make for the most interesting parts of the book. The story is rich with eccentric characters. A musician, Mr. Mazappa, after teaching them obscene lyrics to songs sets them off on their adventures. Mr. Daniels has transformed a lower level of the ship into a botanical garden; a strange Australian girl roller skates the deck of the ship early each morning; a prisoner is kept below deck and only taken out for midnight walks; a thief with Michael’s help invades first class cabins and steals; a group of acrobats and a deaf girl add to the mystery; Miss Lasqueti has a mysterious background and travels with a crate of carrier pigeons, Sir Hector deSilva a wealthy passenger who is quite ill and perhaps has had a spell cast on him.

The author brings each of these characters in and out of the narrative as the voyage slowly takes place and the plot coalesces. Many of the events the boys don’t quite understand at the time but come to understand later in life -“Over the years, confusing fragments, lost corners of stories, have a clearer meaning when seen in a new light, a different place." The first half of this novel which is set on the ship is very strong. There is a great sense of time and place conveyed in the words. The whimsy and wonder that they boys have in their explorations is palpable. As with most of Ondaatje’s writing the metaphors abound, starting with the voyage itself as a symbol of the passage from childhood to adulthood and the Cat’s table as a symbol for the left behind and forgotten. For me, when the story left the voyage and went into future events it lost much of its energy. This is a beautifully written book with images that are indelible, at times I stopped to reread a paragraph so I could savor the scene that was described, and it just seemed to come alive on the page. In the end though I did not think this story fulfilled the promise of the beginning and ended on a weak note.

I read a copy of this book borrowed from The Free Library of Philadelphia

The Kitchen House

2011-12-08T07:24:00.000-05:00

The Kitchen House by Katherine Grissom, narrated by Orlagh Cassidy and Bahni Tupin, Audible Audio, May 2010, 12 hours, 55 minutes

...if you like well researched historical fiction and a yarn with lots of going on you’ll enjoy this one

The Kitchen House is set in colonial Virginia, 1790-1810. It tells the story of a young Irish girl, Lavinia, daughter of indentured servants who died on the voyage from Ireland. She is taken to a rural plantation and left to be raised by the slaves on the plantation. She is given elevated status and works in the kitchen house preparing meals for the white family (the Pikes) who own the plantation. Taken under the wing of Belle, black daughter of Captain Pike, Lavinia becomes part of the black community on the farm, going so far as to call them “her family”.

The story is told in alternating voices of Belle and Lavinia. It is a good historical tale. It shows the cruelty and hardships faced by the slaves, the hopelessness of their lives. It touches on the difficulty of life in general during this time. Infant mortality was the rule rather than the exception and both the slaves and the plantation mistress lose children to accidents and disease. When Captain Pike dies and his wife Miss Martha succumbs to mental illness, Lavinia is taken to Williamsburg to live with Miss Martha’s sister. She yearns to return to the plantation and the people she grew up with. Things take off from there and I’ll not try to recap this busy novel here.
I had somewhat mixed feelings about this story. It is a page turner, you really want to know what happens to these characters but it was a little too much of a soap opera for me. It has all the requisite elements of soap – rape, child abuse, murder, lynchings, polygamy and drug abuse. Many of the characters are stereotypical and not complex– the plantation overseer, the wastrel son, the kindly black mother, the too good to be true neighbor. The author does have a tendency to summarize events rather than show them which is a little disconcerting. Despite this I did enjoy this story.

So in summary if you like well researched historical fiction and a yarn with lots of going on you’ll enjoy this one, if you are looking for a more complex telling of plantation life and slave/master relationships there are other choices - March by Geraldine Brooks or The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman by Earnest Gaines come to mind.

I listened to the audio edition of this story. Orlagh Cassidy read the Lavinia role and she was excellent. The very talented Bahni Turpin read Belle and she was also excellent. For me, I think listening to the story was better than reading it. The voices gave a dimension to these characters that I don’t think would have been there for me on the page.

The Likeness

2011-12-02T07:34:00.000-05:00

The Likeness

by Tana French, Viking Adult, July 2008

...great characters and sense of place, weak plot!

The Likeness is the second Tana French mystery set within the Murder Squad in Dublin. I had previously read the first (Into the Woods) and the third (A Faithful Place). Each story is only loosely connected to the other and can be read in any order. French’s characters are the antithesis of hard boiled detectives. We come to intimately know her detectives. Her writing style is emotional and she has the ability to craft a real psychological thriller. In The Likeness, the narrator and main character is Cassie Maddox, a Dublin detective who has worked undercover in the past. When a girl (Lexie) is murdered who looks identical to Maddox, the police decide to withhold news of the murder and recruit Maddox to take the murdered girl’s place. In the undercover role Maddox works herself successfully into the house where four house mates live. The author is able to make this strange group of doctoral students alive and likeable. The emotional tension in the story increases as Maddox steps further into the life of Lexie and her housemates as she investigates the murder.

There were things I loved about this story – French’s ability to create realistic, likeable people and places, the authentic feel you get about the relationships among the characters, and the really wonderful prose that this author can produce. But this story hit my tipping point for improbable events. You are asked to believe six impossible things before breakfast – that friends as close as this group were would not detect an imposter, that Maddox would withhold important information relevant to the case from her supervisor, that an iterant traveler such as Lexie could waltz into a doctoral program and be successful. Ok maybe that’s only three things but for me they were very distracting.

In summary – great characters and sense of place, weak plot!

I read a copy of this book borrowed from The Free Library of Philadelphia.

Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight

2011-11-21T07:54:00.001-05:00

Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight: An African Childhood by Alexandra Fuller, narrated by Lisette Lecat, Audible Books, 9hrs, 57 mins. December, 2003. Her choice not to re-write her family history, to be so honest and truthful, makes this unsentimental story one worth reading.

This is the story of a white, poor farming family in colonial Africa as independence comes to the native populations in the 1970-80s. It is one strange story, told from the view of a young girl as she grows up in Rhodesia, Malawi and finally Zambia. The author, Alexandra Fuller, gives a searingly honest accounting of her family history. Her parents clearly racist (“...if only one country could have remained under white rule things would have been so much better.”) are dysfunctional in many ways. Her mother, later diagnosed as bipolar, is a barely functioning alcoholic; her father, while humorous and certainly the more present parent is also alcoholic. Their neglect is hard to read about and even harder to understand.

What does come through loud and strong in this story is the difficulty of the life they lead. Malaria, mosquitoes, too many leopards to count, the death of three of the authors siblings are all recounted in a matter of fact way that speaks to the everyday hardships that are faced in Central Africa. To illustrate how different the author’s childhood was think on this one - at the age of nine years old she was taught how to clean, load and shoot an Uzi machine gun during the colonial war in Rhodesia.

One wonders why this family would continue in this harsh land and I think the author gives some clues to this in the story. She clearly considers Africa her home, her descriptions of the land its flora and fauna are vivid and captivating.

I had very mixed feelings about this book, I think in many cases you won’t like what you are reading. The author’s honesty delivers an unflattering portrait of a very dysfunctional family, but the author’s love for her family, her gentle acceptance of her parent’s alcoholism and neglect are oddly affecting. Her matter-of-fact recounting of the horrors of the colonial wars seen through a child’s eyes is memorable. Her choice not to re-write her family history, to be so honest and truthful, makes this unsentimental story one worth reading.

I listened to this story as an audio book and thought the reader, Lisette Lecat, did an excellent job. She was able to differentiate the author’s voice from childhood through to a young adult.

The Marriage Plot

2011-11-13T07:49:00.001-05:00

The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides, Farrar, Straus and Giroux October 2011

"...a weak story well told"

For me The Marriage Plot was my most anticipated book of the year. I had read Eugenides earlier works (Middlesex, Virgin Suicides) and loved them. I went to hear the author read from his work and answer questions at the Free Library session he conducted. All of this anticipation I think added to my disappointment with this story.

The setting for the novel is the Brown University campus in 1982. There are three central characters – Madeline, an indulged rich girl is a Literature major who loves the works of the great Victorian novelists (Eliot, James, etc.); Leonard is a brilliant biology major who has bipolar disease; Mitchell an idealist majoring in religious studies rounds out the trio. The story opens on graduation day. Madeline and Leonard have been lovers but have separated. On the way to graduation Madeline finds out that Leonard has been hospitalized for his bipolar disorder, she skips graduation joins him at the hospital and begins a period that ends up with her marriage to him a year later. Mitchell has been in love with Madeline (or an idealized version of her) since freshman year but his love is unrequited. The story is told in three parts from each of their view points.
Let me first concentrate on what I liked about this novel. Eugenides is able to create genuine characters that have a real depth to them. The sections where Leonard’s mental illness is depicted were excellent. He described the lithium effects on Leonard’s personality and he gives real understanding to the depression that he suffers from. I read these parts and was sure that Eugenides must have had firsthand experience with mental illness to write this well. Leonard is the most developed of the characters; we get his back story of family problems and have a real understanding of his personality. Mitchell is also a well done character, he is the seeker of truth and beauty in the trio, even his idealism rings true for a 22 year old. His trip to work at Mother Teresa’s hospital in India (something Eugenides did) and his eventual dawning that he is not meant to become a religious mystic again rings true in the telling. I also liked the way Eugenides was able to describe the places where the novel occurred. The Brown campus, the genetics laboratory and the upper class New Jersey society all were worlds that were lush with detail and alive to the reader.

There were a number of things I did not like about this novel. I thought that the number of literary and philosophical references (some of which I understood, most of which probably passed me by), were too clever and in the end pretentious and distracting from the story. I really didn’t care for any of the characters, Leonard was narcissistic to the point of annoyance – I know, I know he was mentally ill – but it didn’t make him any more likeable. Madeline, like Mitchell was an idealist, but she seemed to also be self absorbed and really didn’t show much character growth. I was never able to understand what she saw in Leonard. Mitchell was the best of them, but again not enough for me to care about. Lastly, I thought the story lacked tension, probably because toward the end I had only a mild interest in the fate of these characters.

This novel is not Eugenides best effort. He is a fine writer who is erudite, witty and clever but that isn’t enough to carry this novel – a weak story well told.
I read a copy of this book that I purchased.

Destiny of the Republic

2011-11-01T07:09:00.000-04:00

Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicne and Murder of a President by Candice Millard, Random House Audio, September 2011, narrated by Paul Read, 9 hours, 47 minutes.

It is the best kind of history to read -engrossing and all encompassing without been dry or stilted in anyway

In this gripping account of the murder of James Garfield, 20th President of the US, Candice Millard uses the assassination as a means to examine the culture and politics of America in the 1880s. My guess is if you remember anything at all about Garfield from US history it is that he was assassinated by a “disappointed office seeker”. Millard clears that one up early; he was killed by a man who was seriously mentally ill, certainly way more than disappointed.
We are treated to an examination of the US society fifteen years after the end of the Civil War. In 1880 the politicians are divided between those who support the spoils system (winners get to name their friends and supporters to federal offices) and those who are looking to reform the system into a meritocracy. Garfield is among the latter. Garfield was a poor son of an Ohio farmer who had worked to get himself a classical education. After service in the Union Army where he rose in the ranks to become a general officer he has won the US presidency through an unlikely series of events. After reading this story I am convinced that Garfield could have been a great president if he’d lived. He was certainly a top notch guy – well rounded, courageous, ethical, funny, empathic and intelligent

Garfield’s assassin, Charles Guiteau, receives almost as much background as Garfield himself. The author recounts Guiteau’s descent into mental illness. His unsuccessful marriage, his inability to hold a job, his chronic indebtedness and his delusions are all laid out. The parts of this story about Guiteau are downright scary and read like a thriller as he slowly moves toward the assassination.

Millard has a great gift in her ability to describe what it was like in the 1880s. One of the things that got my attention was that the president of the US, everyday had office hours where anybody (!) could make an appointment and meet with him. You just came to the White House, sat in the anteroom and waited to be seen. No security, little or no screening – amazing and this was only 130 years ago! In fact Garfield had spoken to Guiteau at least twice prior to the assassination. Garfield was shot at the train station in DC where he had gone accompanied only by his friend the Secretary of State, to board a train to vacation with his family at the Jersey shore.

The medical drama ensues after Garfield is shot. Antiseptic techniques have not been accepted by the majority of US physicians. Joseph Lister attended the Centennial celebration in Philadelphia and described his success with asepsis; he was ridiculed by the most eminent surgeons in the US. Garfield’s wounds were survivable; the bullet he took did not hit any major organs. He was most probably infected by the medical staff who continually probed his wound with unsterilized hands and instruments. He lived for 10 weeks as he slowly and painfully succumbed to overwhelming infection. The battles that took place between the arrogant physician in charge of his care (William Bliss) and younger colleagues who understood wound infection are all documented. This tragedy plays out almost in slow motion and really is heart breaking.

My review really doesn’t do justice to how good this book is. In an effort not to make the review too long I’ve left out lots of things that add to the richness of this story. It is the best kind of history to read -engrossing and all encompassing without been dry or stilted in anyway. If you read history or even if you don’t, don’t miss this one!
I listened to the audio edition and Paul Read was a good narrator, although some of the female dialogue he read was breathy and a little strange.

I listened to a copy of this story I bought from audible.com

Catherine The Great

2011-10-26T07:15:00.000-04:00

Catherine The Great: Portrait of a Woman
by Robert K. Massie, Random House, November 2011

Massie really can write history that reads like fiction.

Massie has taken the well know story of Catherine and written a highly readable Russian history. Catherine, whose baptismal name was Sophie was a teenager when she was brought to Russia by Empress Elizabeth to become the wife of Grand Duke Peter, heir to the Russian throne. When Sophie arrived she was unable to speak Russian, knew nothing of the customs and was directed to convert to the Orthodox religion from her German Lutheranism. She took the Russian name Caterina. Catherine’s marriage was deeply unhappy and the union remained unconsummated for 10 years. During that time she educated herself in all things Russian and worked to give herself a classical education corresponding with Voltaire, Grimm and Diderot. Catherine did produce a son but no one thought that Peter was the father. Evidently this was an unimportant detail in 18th century Russia. Her son Paul was recognized as a member of the royal family and in line for the throne.

When Peter finally came to the throne his reign was short and dysfunctional. In a coup he was removed from the throne and Catherine declared Empress. In 1762 she began her 35 year rule of Russia. She reigned with compassion and intelligence. She worked to improve medicine in Russia, becoming the first to be inoculated against smallpox and ensuring the vaccine was available in Russia. She amassed a collection of European art that even today is unrivaled. She instituted a legal code and extended the boundaries of the empire to borders that stood until 1991. She built schools and orphanages and developed curricula that provided for a broad education for those lucky enough to get schooling.

Catherine’s personal life was also fascinating. Massie identifies over 10 men who were her lovers. She was passionate in all aspects of her personal life. In addition to ensuring her lovers had a pretty face she looked for intellectual stimulation. She was serially monogamous. Her most serious and long standing relationship was with Gregory Potemkin. Massie postulates but doesn’t prove that Catherine and Potemkin were married. They remained lifelong friends and allies. She enabled him to essentially rule southern Russia, developing the city of Odessa to give Russia a port on the Black Sea.

This 600 page story flew by for me. Massie really can write history that reads like fiction. Strongly recommended for those who love history!

I read a copy of this novel supplied by the Amazon Vine program

Night Circus

2011-10-21T06:03:00.002-04:00

Night Circus
by Erin Morgenstern, Random House Audio, narrated by Jim Dale, 13hrs, 39 min., September 2011

What I usually have trouble with in the magical realism genre (all of the descriptions and an unbelievable story) I liked here, it was the characters that fell short for me.

Spoilers ahead
Night Circus is the latest novel aimed at the adult Harry Potter fans. It is the story of two magicians, Celia and Marco, who are engaged in a lifelong challenge. They do not know the rules of the challenge and they do not know how it will end. Their patrons (Prospero and Alexander) have created a circus as a stage for their challenge. Celia travels with the circus, Marco works his magic from afar. The story is told primarily from the two magicians' perspectives but other characters from the circus and the circus supporters (rêveurs) give their views of the story. Against the odds Celia and Marco fall in love. The story continues over a number of years as they enhance the circus with new tents magically produced. There are a number of minor characters; Poppet and Widget twins born on the day the circus opens; Tsukiko the contortionist who can bend her body into a small glass bottle, the Burgess sisters Scottish supporters of the circus and finally Bailey the young man who eventually saves the circus. The conclusion of the novel wraps up in a satisfying way all of the many narratives in this story.

There were things about this novel that I absolutely loved. The quality of the imagery was outstanding, the authors ability to describe the circus was superb, both beautiful and sensory. The plot of this novel was imaginative yet in a strange way quite believable. I had no trouble signing on to believing in this story (often a problem for me in books like this).

What I did not like about this book was the character development or lack thereof. Of the two main characters I found Celia fairly one dimensional and Marco in particular not very likeable. Early in the novel Marco throws over his girlfriend Isobel without even a care to her feelings and then his behavior towards Chandresh, a man who has proved for him most of his life is really despicable in an attempt to achieve his ends. I was happier with some of the character development of the minor characters, the clockmaker is well drawn, the twins also and finally Bailey I found to be the most interesting. He is one of the few characters who seems to express free will and shows growth over time.

So unfortunately I can’t join the chorus of exuberant reviews for this novel. What I usually have trouble with in the magical realism genre (all of the descriptions and an unbelievable story) I liked here, it was the characters that feel short for me.

I think this would make an excellent film. I never read The Wizard of Oz but I believe that it is probably a better movie than a book, I have the same thought here – this story would be a better film experience.

I listened to the audio version of this novel read by Jim Dale of Harry Potter fame. Dale was excellent in his narration. The non sequential timeline made listening instead of reading a challenge. If you missed the date at the beginning of the chapter you struggled a bit to place the events within the story. Perhaps better to read than listened to.

I listened to a copy of this story I bought at audible.com

The Girl Who...

2011-10-16T07:57:00.000-04:00

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest

The Girl Who Played with Fire

by Steif Larrson, Knopf, 2009, 2010

I realize I may be the last person in the western world to read these mysteries. I read the first novel in the trilogy (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) when it was published in English. I enjoyed it but was left wondering what the buzz was about this series. I recently read the last two and I have the same reaction. These are good mysteries no doubt, but in my mind not to the level of best stories from P.D.James, Michael Connolly or even Tana French.

Spoilers ahead. The last two books are in reality one story that deals with Lisbeth Salander’s life. In Dragon Tattoo she is introduced as a fairly quirky character but we don't learn much of her life story. In these stories we are told about her KGB defector father and the cruelty of her early life. The kid couldn’t get a break and things aren’t improving for her here. She is wrongly accused of the murders of an investigative journalist and his partner who were in the process of exposing a sex trafficking ring. While most of Sweden believes her guilty she is assisted only by Blomkvist and a loyal group of supporters. In Fire the action centers on the chase to catch Salander and convict her of the murders, ending the story with her shot in the head after a violent confrontation with her father and a previously unknown half brother. Hornet’s Nest picks right up where Fire stopped. The key story line here is the cover-up within the Swedish Secret Police that allowed Salander’s father to operate with impunity as a criminal in Sweden. This story is the weakest of the three. There are pages upon pages that attempt to explain the Swedish government system of checks and balances or lack thereof. There is no end to administrative steps that go on as Blomkvist et al attempt to roll up the Secret Police cabal who are responsible for Salander’s troubles. Within the Secret Police there isn't a strong villian character to focus on. Salander is in either the hospital or in jail throughout the entire story so there is way less action in this novel. There are some side stories in this one that help a bit with the lack of action in the main event but not enough in my opinion.

So I’d say if you read mysteries and thrillers you should probably read this trilogy. Tattoo was far and away the best, Fire was decent but Hornet’s Nest was a yawner for me. The English language version of Dragon Tattoo (Michael Craig as Blomkvist, Rooney Mara as Salander) will be released by Sony Pictures in December of this year. I bet that only adds to the hype that these books have received. Can’t figure it out!

I read copies of these novels borrowed from The Free Library of Philadelphia.

Buddha in the Attic

2011-10-11T07:11:00.001-04:00

Buddha in the Attic
by Julie Otsuka, Knopf, August 2011

It is a short book, just over 100 pages but it is both haunting and heartbreaking

This is the story of Japanese mail order brides who came to the US in the first twenty years of the twentieth century. The author has chosen a unique way to tell their story. Instead of concentrating on one or several of these women she has chosen to tell the story in a plural voice. This story is overwhelmingly sad and it wouldn’t take much to push their experience into a sensationalist saga. She conveys the strangeness of the new land, the homesickness felt by these women and the language barriers they faced. Just when these women have formed an attachment to the new land and have raised children who are now strangely to them so American, all of the Japanese are taken to the internment camps. Certainly a unique immigrant story, but must read American history.

Otsuka’s writing style is straightforward and quite elegant in its simplicity. Few characters in the novel are named, I’m sure in an effort to show the anonymity of these women. Many of the paragraphs read like chants which only add to the mystic of the story. It is a short book, just over 100 pages but it is both haunting and heartbreaking. Every immigrant group from the Pilgrims to the present day refugees has their unique story; these women are well served in the telling of theirs.

I read a review copy of this novel provided by the publisher

When She Woke

2011-10-01T06:23:00.001-04:00

When She Woke by Hillary Jordan, Algonquin Books, October 2011

I believe that people will either love or hate this book

This one had my attention from the first page. It is a dystopian look at a U.S. theocracy in the not too distant future. The lead character Hannah Payne, a young woman devoted to her family and her Christian faith has been convicted of murder. The victim is her unborn child that she has aborted. Hannah had an illicit love affair with an influential minister and bore his child. In these new United States prison is reserved for the only a few hard core inmates, most criminals are punished by chroming. The inmates’ skin is treated so that it is a bright color, red for murders, yellow and green for lesser offenses. The criminals are then released into the general population to fend for themselves. As this story open Hannah wakes to find her skin bright red.

Hannah has chosen not to identify the father of the child so she is left to face her life as a ”red” essentially alone. In this fast paced novel Hannah deals with all of the difficulties of being shunned and ostracized. After a short stint in a dismal, cruel, half way house Hannah and her newly acquired friend Kayla attempt to escape their fate. The story is well conceived and well told. The details about a country where the separation of church and state is no more are credible. As interesting is the journey Hannah takes spiritually trying to reform her beliefs and reconcile herself to the loss of her family, her lover and the life she has known and then embrace a new more independent path.

I believe that people will either love or hate this book. The author does pursue a pro choice agenda that will surely turn off some readers. I found the story fairly balanced though. While there were plenty of right wing Christian zealots, there were also some true Christians – Hannah’s father, and a sensitive Episcopalian minister among them. I am sure many readers will note the similarities to The Scarlet Letter, The Handmaid’s Tale and Children of Men but I thought the author did a credible job of creating a richly detailed setting for her story. The pacing is excellent and the tension she creates as Hannah attempts to flee is quite good. Maybe not the best book I’ve read recently but I enjoyed it and read it almost straight through without a break.

I read a copy of this book I received through the Amazon Vine program.

Giveaway Winner!

2011-09-29T06:32:00.000-04:00

Margaret at hotmail is the winner of the Portrait of a Spy audio CDs. I've emailed her but the email has bounced back. Please get in touch and reconfirm your email address.

Restless

2011-09-24T07:27:00.000-04:00

Restless: A Novel

by William Boyd, Macmillian Audio, 10 hrs, 20 mins, narrated by Rosamund Pike, October, 2006

...good writing, interesting characters and great plot.

Restless is a different type of spy story. It is historical fiction rather than a shoot ‘em up international thriller. William Boyd, the author has a great track record of writing elegant fiction with varied settings (Any Human Heart, An Ice Cream War). This story, set in the years leading up to WWII is a good one. The main character, Eva Delectorskaya is a Russian émigré living in Paris in the 1930s. Thirty years later she reluctantly tells her up until then secret life story to her daughter Ruth.

Spoilers Ahead Her story -after her brother is killed working for a British spy agency she is recruited into a special branch of the same service. Her boss, Lucas Romer soon becomes her lover. Their group is charged with manipulating stories in the media that will give the UK an advantage in the war against the Nazis. In New York, the group cleverly plants media stories that will encourage the US to enter the war on Britain’s side. These British efforts at propaganda aimed at manipulating US public opinion were not anything that I had previously read about and I found quite interesting. The story setting moves from Paris, to Brussels, to London and finally New York. The author gives quite a bit of period detail that greatly enriches the telling. After an encounter in New Mexico with German agents, Eva realizes that she had been betrayed. When a colleague is murdered, she flees the US and goes into hiding assuming a new identity.

Interspersed with the WWII tale are scenes from the daughter’s life as an Oxford PhD candidate and single mother. These sections add nothing to the story. The daughter’s life is boring in contrast to her mother’s narrative and actually just plain boring.

The denouement was excellent. The author manages to keep this tale exciting right up until the end. I strongly recommend this historical spy tale – good writing, interesting characters and great plot.

I listened to an audio version (borrowed) narrated by Rosamund Pike who was outstanding.

Portrait of a Spy - Review and Giveaway

2011-09-20T08:06:00.001-04:00

Portrait of a Spy by Daniel Silva, Harper Audio, 11 hrs, 32 mins, July 2011

...every bit as good as the earlier books in this series

This will be perhaps the third or fourth thriller in this series that I’ve reviewed so I won’t write a lengthy review of this novel. Let me just say that it is every bit as good as the earlier books in this series. Daniel Silva through his lead character Israeli spy Gabriel Allon does a fantastic job of educating the reader about Mideast politics, rivalries and factional fighting. So often his stories have a real ripped from the headlines feel. This one is particularly topical dealing with terrorist attacks in London and the US. Allon’s adversaries are a post Bin Laden terrorist group centered in Yemen; he is assisted by a progressive billionaire Saudi woman, Nadia al-Bakari who quietly is trying to improve conditions for women in the Mideast. All of the familiar characters from earlier Silva novels are present, Allon’s wife Chiara, British gallery owner Julian Isherwood, the complete Mossad team, Allon’s mentor Shamron and the principals from US and UK intelligence. The plotting is intelligent and tight, the writing is first-rate and the characters are realistic. Silva doesn’t shy from sharing his feelings about rights and wrongs in the Mideast – the treatment of women and minorities in the Mideast (wrong), the tepid US support for Israel (wrong), the Saudi financing of terrorist groups (wrong), the support of Israel among the Western intelligence agencies (right).

If you’ve enjoyed Silva’s earlier novels you will like this one, if you haven’t read any novels in this international spy series this one can stand alone as a satisfying read. I listened to the audio version of this thriller and for me it was quite a different experience than reading it. Simon Vance did a first-rate job narrating, he was able to give voice to a myriad of accents that really gave the story a theatrical feel. I would be hard pressed to compare the experience of listening v. reading this story. Both are enjoyable just different!

I would offer the audio edition of this novel that I received from the publisher as a giveaway. Rules are in the box to the right of this review. Giveaway ends September 28.

Rin Tin Tin: The Life and Legend

2011-09-13T07:49:00.000-04:00

Rin Tin Tin: The Life and the Legend
by Susan Orlean, Simon & Schuster, September, 2011

...Well researched and well written, thankfully the dogs carry the story

My only memories of Rin Tin Tin (RTT) are from the 1950s. It was a never to be missed Friday night TV show that in our house included the entire family, my best friend and TV Time popcorn. We lined up as the bugle called us to report and we faithfully watched Rusty, Rinty and Lt. Masterson overcome the trials of life on a Western army fort (Yo Rinty!). Who knew that RTT had a fascinating story that started on the battlefields of WW1. In this in depth telling of the life and legend of the dog (s) Susan Orleans gets the story. Interspersed with personal recollections from her life she leads us on a fascinating journey through the twentieth century.

The original RTT was born in France on a battlefield and rescued by an US Army private, Lee Duncan. Working through what must have been considerably less red tape than today Duncan was able to get the dog shipped to his southern California home. Duncan, taciturn and in many ways unknowable trained the dog and secured for him parts in the rapidly growing film industry. The author gives a full picture of Hollywood in the 1920s. I had no idea of the wide influence movies had in the 20’s and 30’s. To quote one of many statistics in the story 100 million movie tickets were sold weekly in a country with a population of 150 million people – everyone went to the movies! And in the late 20’s before talkies everyone went to see RTT movies. RTT and Duncan would travel the country appearing at theaters, hospitals, and civic events. In Houston 10,000 people attended a RTT appearance! So the TV show that all of us boomers watch in the 50’s had its beginnings with our parents in the movie culture of their generation.

The author does a comprehensive job of describing all aspects of this story. The origination of the German Sheppard breed in pre WWI Germany, the training of the dogs for use in war by the Nazis, the movement from dogs as working farm animals to domestic pets, the evolution of dog shows in the US, the efforts of the US to quickly develop a canine corps at the start of WWII are all side stories supporting the main narrative and many of them are wildly interesting. Good thing too because the major human characters in this story are not interesting. Lee Duncan was a one dimensional man more interested in dogs than in wives, children, other people, etc. Bert Leonard, the RTT producer responsible for much of the RTT programming was a similarly uninteresting character. Thankfully the dogs can carry this story, the original RTT and his assorted namesakes and offspring were iconic symbols for several generations of Americans.

This book is hard to characterize, part autobiographical by Orleans, part a social history of the US in the twentieth century and part man loves dog biography. Well researched and well written this book reads like an extended New Yorker (for which Orleans writes regularly) non-fiction article. I enjoyed this book and had no trouble skipping some of the latter parts of the story that dragged along.

I read a copy of this book provided by the publisher.

Giveaway Winner!

2011-09-10T07:31:00.000-04:00

Heather L. is the winner of the Harlen Coben novel shelter. She has been notified and has 48 hours to contact me. Thanks to all who participated.

Shelter - Review and Giveaway

2011-09-02T07:34:00.001-04:00

Shelter: A Mickey Bolitar Novel by Harlan Coben, Putnam, September 2011

Mystery lovers of all ages enjoy!

Shelter is published as a teen novel, but I thought it was a pretty good adult read. Harlen Coben introduced Mickey Bolitar in Live Wire and now gives him his own story. He is a bright, energetic, high school student who is having a really bad year. He has witnessed his father’s death and is now dealing with his mother’s drug addiction. Forced to live with his uncle Myron he starts the school term by meeting an enchanting girl, Ashley, who quickly becomes his girlfriend. Just as quickly she goes missing without a trace. Working with some quirky new friends he has made at school Mickey tries to find Ashley. He uncovers a conspiracy and along the way finds out some things that cause him to question his father’s death.

The writing is good, the wry humor that Coben is noted for is fully present and actually sounds realistic coming from a teenage boy. The plotting is also good; the action moves right along. I think this will be a successful series for Coben and will bring new young readers to the mystery genre. Mystery lovers of all ages enjoy!

I am happy to giveaway my gently used copy of the novel. Follow the rules posted to the right of review. Giveaway ends September 9, 2011

I read an advanced reader copy provided by the publisher.

Shut Your Eyes Tight

2011-08-30T06:26:00.000-04:00

Shut Your Eyes Tight (Dave Gurney, No. 2): A Novel by John Verdon, Crown Publishing, July, 2011

...the plotting was complex and engrossing but at 500+ pages it is just too long

Shut Your Eyes Tight is the second novel to feature Dave Guerney, the highly decorated, retired NYPD detective now living in upstate New York. Guerney is enticed into an investigation where a bride has been beheaded at her wedding reception. The obvious suspect is nowhere to be found and the police investigation is stalled. Guerney is hired by the victim’s mother to investigate the murder. Guerney uncovers clues that the police have overlooked and the investigation focuses on sex crimes, a sex procurement business and a school for young sexual predators.

I thought the mystery element of this book was very satisfactory. The plotting was complex and engrossing and the denouement was quite good. The story really needs better editing though, and at 500+ pages it was just too long. Many passages share the detective’s thoughts and doubts and really doesn’t advance the story. The other disappointment I had was Guerney’s personal life didn’t progress at all. He still has a poor relationship with his son, if the author is not going to develop this side story just leave it out of the book. He still has a poor relationship with his wife. I found the passive/aggressive wife to be a very inconsistent character, again not really well developed or very appealing. I think the author needs to jettison all of his personal life if he can’t do a better job developing it in subsequent books.

So in summary, this book doesn’t improve on the promising debut novel Think of A Numb3r but I’ll probably read the next in the series in hopes that this author can sharpen his writing.

I read a copy of this novel that I received through the Amazon Vine program.

Maine

2011-08-26T07:41:00.001-04:00

Maine

by J. Courtney Sullivan, Narrated by Ann Marie Lee, Random House Audio, 17 hrs, 20 min., June 2011

Just say no to this one

This is the story of a very dysfunctional Irish-American family who just happen to have a family home in Maine. I was interested to read it after a number of bloggers reviewed and liked it. The story is told from the perspective of four women in the family – Alice the 83 year old matriarch, Anne Marie, the daughter-in-law, Kathleen the daughter, and Maggie, Kathleen’s daughter. The book is a character driven family saga that really doesn’t have much of a plot. Each character gives her view on family events. What shallow, hateful, judgmental and boring characters they are. Alice has decided to give the beloved Maine home to the local Catholic Church after her death and has concealed this fact from her family. Her daughter Kathleen, a left over hippie from the ‘60s is self centered and almost as hateful a character as her mother. Ann Marie is an emotionally stunted superficial woman who would make fertile ground for a psychiatric evaluation. Maggie, now pregnant by her latest poor choice in boyfriends is the best of the lot. Events conspire to bring these women together in the Maine house.

I found this story so depressing that I wondered how the publisher had marketed it. When I went to look I saw descriptions such as characters that are “flawed but lovable” (plenty of the former not so much on the latter); “wickedly funny” (not a single thing about this book was funny); “a great beach read” (only if you are willing to consume alcohol at the same rate as this group of alcoholic women);”abiding often irrational love for one another” (save me from this type of love). I also object to the characterization of this family as Irish American. I’ve known more than a few Irish American families and none as self centered, nasty and totally without any joy as this group.

You might ask why I continued with this story; about the only reason I can give is that I listened to it during some long car rides. The audio narration by Ann Marie Lee was really quite good and the only positive I can bring to this review. There were a number of accents that she seemed to effortlessly capture within the narrative.

Just say no to this one!

I listened to an audio copy of this novel borrowed from The Free Library of Philadelphia.

The Return of Captain John Emmett

2011-08-21T07:29:00.000-04:00

The Return of Captain John Emmett
by Elizabeth Speller, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, July 2011

Some of the prose was excellent, the research was outstanding but it did not all come together for me

London in 1920 is the setting for this mystery. The protagonist is Laurence Bartram, a young widower who has lost his wife and child while he was serving at the front in France in WWI. Bartram is withdrawn and uninvolved in life as he struggles to deal with the horrors of the war and the personal losses he has suffered. A letter from the sister of a school friend asking him to investigate the circumstances of her brother’s suicide draws him back into society. Laurence, with the obligatory sidekick, his friend Charles looks into the suicide of Captain John Emmett. As you might expect the investigation uncovers evidence that makes the suicide less likely and murder more likely. Laurence finds that Capt. Emmett was involved in an incident during the war where an officer was charged with cowardice and executed for it. This allows the author to examine how shellshock was treated during the First World War, as he continues to puzzle out the circumstances of Emmett’s death.
I may have World War I fatigue myself. I have read quite a bit of both fiction and nonfiction from that time period. This story had good period detail and examined an interesting issue – the way the military handled soldiers who refused to fight – but all in all it left me fairly unexcited. The mystery aspect was long and meandering. Bartram never focused on the obvious suspects - relatives of the executed officer. When the murderer was revealed he arrived from left field in my opinion. Also the characters were not well developed despite lots of detail I found myself hard pressed to care about them. I think the issue may have been that the author couldn’t decide whether he was writing a mystery or writing literacy fiction. Some of the prose was excellent, the research was outstanding but it did not all come together for me. If you are interested in the effects of WWI on the post war British I’d recommend the Maisie Dobbs series. In that series the characters are well drawn and the mystery complex enough to engage. Also quite good are the early novels by Charles Todd in the Ian Rutledge series. Perhaps if I hadn’t read mysteries in those two series I’d be kinder to this one but it just didn’t do it for me.

I read a copy of this book borrowed from The Free Library of Philadelphia.

Rules of Civility

2011-08-18T08:10:00.001-04:00

Rules of Civility: A Novel

by Amor Towles, Viking Adult, July 2011

If you want to visit another time another place that is both romantic and sophiscated read this book

Spoilers ahead
In Amor Towles stunning first novel, rich with period detail, the elegance of New York City in the late 1930s comes alive. The story centers on Katey, Eve and Tinker, three friends. The two women are roommates in a boarding house in NYC and they meet Tinker, an investment banker, in a jazz club. The story is told by Katey in a flash back. All of the action comes in the year 1938. Katey (aka Katya) is the daughter of Russian immigrants working in the steno pool at a law firm but out to better her circumstances. Eve is a Midwestern girl, intent on making her own way rather than take money from her well to do parents. Tinker, a man of mystery, seems the very essence of an old money Ivy League WASP now working on Wall St. The trio are involved in an auto accident when Tinker drives their car into a pole. Eve is seriously injured and disfigured. While initially Tinker and Katey seem destined to be a couple, Eve’s injuries change that dynamic. Tinker and Eve travel to Florida and Europe; Katey is courted by Wallace a wealthy, idealistic, liberal intent on fighting in the Spanish Civil War.

In the retelling this plot sound somewhat insipid but nothing could be farther from the truth with this story. Katey is a strong heroine. While she is intrigued by the world of wealth and security, she sees in the upper classes she remains grounded and loyal to her upbringing. The story focuses on the choices she makes, some small some large that drive her life - quitting her job, calling in sick, getting a ride to the city from a suburban party.

All of the characters are interesting – flawed but so believable. The relationships among the three friends and some of the minor characters that are introduced are fascinating and really well told. The dialogue is witty and entertaining, reminiscent of Nick and Nora Charles! Many reviewers have noted the similarity to Fitzgerald and I’d have to agree. Pre WWII high society NYC has never seemed as alive as in this story. If you want to visit another time, another place that is both romantic and sophiscated read this book.

I read a copy of this book provided by the publisher.

Seven Seasons in Siena

2011-08-10T08:24:00.001-04:00

Seven Seasons in Siena: My Quixotic Quest for Acceptance Among Tuscany's Proudest People

by Robert Rodi, June 2011, Ballantine Books

This is a fun well written book. Rodi has a conversational style that is very engaging.

Each summer Sienna hosts a bareback horse race right in the central piazza. They haul in turf, cover the stone and transform the city into a wild affair. Ten of the seventeen independent societies, called contrade compete for the win. The societies have ancient roots, defined Sienese geography, clubhouses and a strong family/clan hold on their members. Where in the US someone would be introduced and their occupation named, in Sienna their contrada association would be part of the introduction. The author, Robert Rodi, a Chicagoan falls in love with the Sienese and vows to become more than a spectator to this community. Rodi has marginal Italian language skills providing for a number of comic scenes in this book.

Rodi writes of his experiences in seven trips to Siena over several years. Through a friend he is introduced to the Noble Contrada of the Caterpillar. He gains entry into the contrada and gives the reader a unique view of the Palio. The horserace is quintessentially Italian affair. There are feuds and alliance (centuries old) that are integral to the race. While the horses play a part in the outcome of the race, so does the strategy of the contrade. In this case strategy translates into bribing other contrade to allow a win for an ally. As I said uniquely Italian. The contrade provide a social structure for the Sienese. Rodi’s attempts to gain inclusion in the Caterpillar contrada are both poignant and awkward. He is drawn to the camaraderie of the group and works hard to gain acceptance. He volunteers in the kitchen for contrada dinners, runs in a relay race, and fulfills a vow to walk from a local village to Siena in honor of a Caterpillar Palio win. Finally as he despairs of ever gaining acceptance by the Sienese he is invited to be baptized into the Caterpillar contrada.

This is a fun well written book. Rodi has a conversational style that is very engaging. He is so honest in his telling and so self deprecating that I just loved him. This might not be the only book you should read if you are traveling to Italy but if you are going or even if you wish you were, read this one you won’t regret it.

I read a copy of this book provided by the publisher.

To End All Wars

2011-08-04T08:08:00.000-04:00

To End All Wars: A Story of Loyalty and Rebellion, 1914-1918

by Adam Hochschild, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, May 2011

...definitely worth the time for those who enjoy reading history.

The author takes a different angle in this very readable WWI history. Drawing portraits of those British who opposed the war – aristocrats, journalists, ordinary folks, suffragettes, Irish patriots and even a former prime minister- Adam Hochschild brings them to life. The story is told chronologically from Queen Victoria’s diamond jubilee through the Boer War (a new slice of history for me) right up and through the carnage that was WWI.

This is as much a social history of the times as a military story. The backgrounds of the two major military players (Douglas Haig and John French) are told in detail including the story of French’s sister Charlotte Despard a leading pacifist and antiwar demonstrator. Since the causalities of the war were more likely to come from Britain’s ruling classes (including the son of Rudyard Kipling, brother of the future queen, etc.) the courage that it took to oppose this conflict was considerable. The author tells these stories in a fairly even handed unemotional way. He doesn’t shirk the telling of the trench warfare though. The military strategy (?) employed by every general in this war was to send men directly into the fire of machine guns where little or no progress is made in four years of fighting. The losses incurred on the battlefields are truly incredible, while this story is told with Britain at the center; the numbers of men killed or wounded throughout Europe were stunning. You really have to read these sections of the story in small bites to let some of this senselessness sink in.

The characters that Hochschild has chosen to focus on really give the story a view into every social stratum in Britain. Douglas Haig the commanding general throughout most of the war and a good friend of the King is a window in to the unimaginative world of what was the British military command. Charlotte Despard and Emily Hobhouse were aristocratic Brits who actively worked to oppose this war and in Hobhouse’s case was the only Brit who attempted to bring the two sides to the negotiating table during the war. The story of the Wheeler family set up and tried for treason gave a view of socialist/communist sentiment among the working classes. The Pankhurst family, prominent suffragettes divided by their sentiments on the war shows the women’s movement in the early 20th century and also the rise of communism among the British. Kier Hardie, a socialist MP, an early critic of Britain’s involvement in this conflict is profiled and speaks for many unionists in the country. The power of the empire and British nationalism overwhelm Hardie and most socialist hopes for international cooperation that would have avoided fighting among the working classes.

In addition to being a fairly good recounting of WWI, this book does a great job of describing Britain in its waning days as a colonial power. While not quite on the same level as Guns of August, Tuchman’s masterpiece history of the beginning of this conflict, it is definitely worth the time for those who enjoy reading history.

I read a copy of ths book borrowed from The Free Library of Philadelphia.

White Heat

2011-07-28T08:08:00.000-04:00

White Heat: A Novel

by MJ McGrath, Viking Adult, August 2011

...The mystery part was engaging if in the end a little farfetched but the setting in the far north was very interesting.

This is a mystery set in the Arctic tundra. The protagonist is Edie Kiglatuk, a half Inuit half Caucasian guide. Because of her mixed background and because she is a woman she struggles for acceptance in her village. When she is leading a hunting trip with two tourists and one is shot dead she senses that this death was not an accident. Following this event the suicide of her stepson leads her to believe that something is rotten in the small village where she lives. Initially unable to get the interest of the police inspector Derek Palliser, she, using her hunting skills, works to solve these crimes. Edie keeps to the native Inuit beliefs that include an appreciation of nature and the surrounding environment and the place of all creatures living and dead in the circle. Not to give away too much of the plot let me just say we are treated to a tour of the far north, from Arctic Canada to Greenland.

This story has an authentic feel to it. The author has included many words from the Inuit language and while they seem almost unpronounceable they do add to the uniqueness of this story. All of the Inuit lifestyle is embedded in the novel. Sustenance living, dependent in the north on hunting, fishing and trapping skills is shown in an interesting way. The absolute place of weather and seasonal changes on the lives of the Inuit’s is integral to this story. Also the descriptions of how the Intuits relate and interact with the white political establishment had a real ring of truth to it. In a place so far from the centers of power the law has only a limited ability to touch people. Inuit culture has a more stabilizing value to the villagers than anything the white man has to offer.

I enjoyed this mystery. The mystery part was engaging if in the end a little farfetched but the setting in the far north was very interesting. The characters including Edie and Inspector Palliser were well drawn and very likeable. I’ll look forward to the next entry in this new series
I read a copy of this book provided by the publisher.

The Watery Part of the World

2011-07-24T06:55:00.000-04:00

The Watery Part of the World by Michael Parker, Algonquin Books, April 26, 2011

...this relatively short novel really did not move me
To my mind, this story brimmed with possibility. It promised a story spanning the time period of 1800 to present day on an Outer Bank Island. Taking the life of Theodosia Burr, daughter of Aaron Burr who was lost off the Outer Banks and never again heard from, the author postulates that she survived tragedy at sea and built a life and had a family on the fictional island of Yaupon. In a parallel story 150 years later, two white women descendents of Burr live out the last days on the island with a black man, also a long time island resident. They are the only inhabitants of the island.

The story in the 1800s has lots of color. In the fictional account Burr is saved from a pirate attack because the pirate captain is convinced she is mad “touched by God”. Burr had been extremely well educated by her father and was thought to be the most well educated woman in the US at that time. Then she falls into a world where foraging for shipwrecked cargo is a more valued skill that reciting Shakespeare. Despite this she adapts and thrives on this island. She meets a former pirate and falls in love with him. Her strong will to live allows her to make a life for herself and her offspring on this island. She is a memorable character.

The 1950s story of the island residents, the two white sisters Whaley and Maggie, and Woodrow a black man descendent from a free African is really quite strange and hard to relate to. Talk about lives of quiet desperation, Thoreau must have had this crew in mind with that phrase. The elder sister Whaley, the more eccentric of the two is devoted to preserving her interpretation of the island’s history. Each year they are visited by anthropologists (called the Taperecorders). Whaley assumes an old island brogue and relates the history back to Theodosia leaving out any issues that would reflect poorly on the family. The younger sister unable to escape the island’s hold on her life mourns the loss of a love affair with a man who left the island. Woodrow also heavily drawn to life on this island is a remote character who in very understated ways expresses the frustration of the subservient black man in his relationship with these women. The relationships between and among these three characters is the central theme of this story; they have a strange, odd dependency among them. I found this second story somewhat dissatisfying in dealing with the race issue, while it is of great importance in their relationships it is never really tackled head on. I guess the other criticism I had of this second story was that the characters were all so passive and the island hold on them was so strong. While that is surely possible it is overwhelmingly sad to have lives wasted in this way.

So this relatively short (272 pages) novel really did not move me. I liked the section dealing with Theodosia and her adaption to life on the island. All of the prose relating to the island was good and gave a dreamy (perhaps watery?) feel to the story. Lastly I was left cold with the 1950s section.

I read a copy of this novel borrowed from The Free Library of Philadelphia

In the Garden of the Beast

2011-07-18T07:19:00.000-04:00

In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler's Berlin by Erik Larson, Crown Publishing, May 2011

...a totally different view of the time period

Having read many books about WWII and the run up to it I was pleasantly surprised at Erik Larson's contribution to this body of work. He tells the story of William Dodd, an unlikely choice to be America's ambassador to the new German government formed by Adolf Hitler in 1933. Dodd, on paper unqualified for the job, comes from an academic background teaching in Chicago. A self described "Jeffersonian democrat" he responds to Roosevelt's request to fill this position. He moves his wife and two adult children, Martha and Bill to Berlin. Martha is recently separated from an older husband and open for adventures of all kinds in Europe.

In retrospect it is easy to see the evil that was Hitler's Reich. In 1933 as he was coming to power in Germany things were much less clear. The primary concern of the US government appears to have been getting Germany to repay US loans (the large financial institutions making self serving decisions as usual). To his credit William Dodd early on recognized the evil aspects of Hitler's regime. When the career US diplomats were cautioning against any opposition to Hitler, Dodd was making speeches that warned of the lawlessness and arms building occurring in Germany. In 1933/34 Hitler's power was far from absolute and you can only speculate what might have happened if some governments - US and European - had spoken out as Dodd wanted.

Dodd's daughter Martha had a different take on the new regime. She had a romantic relationship with at least one military officer in the SS. While initially enamoured of the energy and charisma of Hitler, she witnesses at least one attack by "brown shirts" and recognized the developing hatred of the regime for the Jews. She has several affairs while in Germany and develops a lasting relationship with a Russian embassy officer, at least until he is terminated by Stalin. Her story captures the cosmopolitan atmosphere of Berlin in the 1930s. She too in the end recognizes the evil in the Nazi government.

Both Dodd and his daughter were faithful diarists enabling the author using the diaries and other sources to reconstruct an almost day by day account of those times. It is a totally different view of the time period from what you would read in most histories. It reads almost like gossipy fiction.

My one criticism of the book is that it was remarkably devoid of photos. I've come to expect them in non fiction stories like this and there were very few throughout the text.

Before I Go To Sleep

2011-07-14T06:11:00.000-04:00

Before I Go to Sleep: A Novel
by S.J. Watson, read by Orlagh Cassidy, Harper Audio, 11 hrs, 35 minutes, June, 2014

...until the very last pages of the book I couldn’t figure this one out

This is a debut novel for S.J. Watson and it is a good one. The plot involves Christine, a 47 year old amnesiac who wakes up each day with no memory of her life. Her husband Ben is a stranger to her. Each day he explains to her that she had a terrible accident that robbed her of the ability to retain memories after she falls asleep each night. Christine works with a new doctor who encourages her to write a journal each day so she can revisit the memories she has developed. Inconsistencies in her story between what her doctor tells her and what her husband tells her cause her to question what is true and what might be false memories. She reads in the front of her diary in her own hand the words “Don’t trust Ben”. And that is all of the plot you need to know!
This story is really well done. It plays with your understanding of memory and subconscious thoughts much as Christopher Nolan’s films Memento and Inception do. The narrator is possibly unreliable and that adds to the mystery in this tale. You are never sure what is a real memory and what might be a fabricated one and neither is the narrator. There is a real writing skill needed when Christine must retell her story each day and not leave the reader bored to tears in the telling. The author accomplishes this brilliantly with exceptionally good pacing and prose. As Christine’s knowledge widens she is left unsure who she might trust, her doctor, her husband, her old friend. The story progresses from a psychological drama of an amnesiac to a full fledged suspense thriller. Up until the very last pages of the book I couldn’t figure this one out. Surely will be a major motion picture made from this one! Can’t wait to see what S.J.Watson writes next.

I listened to the audio version of this story real by Orlagh Cassidy. She was a perfect voice for this novel, conveying a range of emotions from puzzlement to panic with great skill.

I listened to an audio copy of this novel provided by the publisher.

The Coffins of Little Hope

2011-07-10T07:40:00.000-04:00

The Coffins of Little Hope

by Timothy Schaffert, Unbridled Books, April 2011

...for a summer read it is quirky, charming and memorable.

This story is narrated by 83 year old Essie Myles, obituary writer for a small town newspaper in a mid west small town. There are three plot lines going – Essie’s relationship with her family, her grandson Doc and great granddaughter Tiff; the local publication of the last in a series of gothic children’s books (read H. Potter) and the disappearance of a local girl who may in fact have never existed.

The plot meanders along as all of the characters are introduced. I absolutely loved the voice of Essie. I can’t remember when I last read a book that had an 83 year old narrator. She is a great character very much alive with a wisdom developed over a lifetime – I really cared for her.

The author gently satirizes the culture we live in where the news media relentlessly covers scandals and feeds the public obsession with these cases. When news of the missing girl Lenore isn’t available, news is manufactured to continue the story. There is real doubt as to whether Lenore ever existed, but in the end it doesn’t matter because the story has a life of its own.

The printing of the children’s books (last in the series is Coffins of Little Hope) is done by the presses at the local paper. The author of these books, a character in how own right, also becomes fascinated with Lenore’s disappearance and arrives on the scene to add to the hilarity of the story.

Essie’s relationship with the two people she cares for the most Doc and Tiff is nicely told. The friendship between Tiff and her great grandmother is believable and filled with the everyday moments that make up a life. Tiff is a child who has been abandoned by her mother, raised by her uncle Doc and now trying to reestablish a relationship with her mother. Essie stands with her as a support but encourages her to make her own choices in facing life.

The plot is almost incidental and really just lazes along. This definitely is not an action story. It is a story of delightful characters. In the end I felt like I really knew and liked these people. At less than 300 pages it isn’t a major time investment but for a summer read it is quirky, charming and memorable.

I read a copy of this book borrowed from The Free Library of Philadelphia

The Tigers Wife

2011-07-03T07:46:00.003-04:00

The Tiger's Wife: A Novel
by Tea Obreht, narrated by Susan Duerdin and Robin Sachs, Random House Audio, March 2011, 11 hours, 26 minutes.

...the stories are folkloric and individually are very good, great prose and really very lyrical in the telling, but I can’t get on the bandwagon for this one

This story is set in the Balkans, most probably modern day Croatia where the author is from. The centuries old ethnic fighting gives background to this unusual story. Natalie Stefanovi, a physician on a “cross border” mission to inoculate children is the main character and narrator. Natalie has just learned that her beloved grandfather has died far from home. Her grandfather, a well known physician has been forced from his medical practice because he is suspected of disloyalty to the new state. Natalie interrupts her volunteer medical mission and seeks answers to his death. The story then separates into a number of different threads - some occurring in the present and some from her grandfathers youth when the Nazi’s invaded Yugoslavia. All of the stories are folkloric and individually are very good, great prose and really very lyrical in the telling.

The Tiger’s Wife sub story tells of an escaped tiger from the Belgrade Zoo and a deaf mute who befriends him. The presence of the tiger terrorizes the village and its inhabitants but not the deaf mute who in the face of death remains unafraid. The story of the Butcher, the Pharmacist and the Bear Trainer provide vehicles for the author to describe not only the rich ethnic background of the area but also differing views on life and death. The Deathless Man is a story of a character who cannot die but appears at the scenes of catastrophe (no shortage of these in the Balkans, always man made). Another story set in the present tells of a large family digging to recover the bones of a close relative so he may be properly buried and centuries old traditions honored. Superstition and fear have prominent roles in most of the stories.

As maybe you can tell from my review so far, I was not wild about this novel. Individual stories were very good but overall I did not think they tied together well. For a novel that deals with some very basic human emotions, the main character Natalie was strangely unemotional. The allegorical nature of the novel was as usual wasted on me. I am not a fan of puzzling out what the author is trying to say (I know, I know that is a key element of great literature but it started early for me – reading Coleridge in high school I could never get the fuss over the albatross in Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner).

So while the author has been selected by The New Yorker as one of the best writers under 40 with this her debut novel, I can’t get on the bandwagon for this one. I also listened to an audio copy read primarily by Susan Duerdin. I wasn’t a fan of her reading style, a little too breathless and in the moment for this sadly recurring Balkan tragedy.
I listened to an audio copy borrowed from The Free Library of Philadelphia.

Faith

2011-06-26T08:35:00.001-04:00

Faith: A Novel

by Jennifer Haigh, read by Therese Plummer, Harper Audio Productions, 10 hours, 4 minutes, May 2011

...the author gets these characters pitch perfect.

Faith is billed as a story about the sexual abuse scandals in the US Catholic church, but it’s really a family drama with the abuse scandal as a key part. Set in 2002 in the Boston diocese, ground zero for the scandal in the US, this story centers on the McGann Family- a lace curtain Irish brood with a myriad of dysfunctional behaviors. Sheila, the daughter has been long estranged from most of the family but has remained close to her elder brother Art, a popular pastor in a suburban Boston church. Sheila’s younger brother Mike and her parents Ted and Mary round out the family. Sheila returns to Boston when her brother is accused of sexual abuse of a child from his parish. Sheila finds her mother in denial, her brother Mike believing his brother guilty and Father Art himself strangely reluctant to defend himself from the accusations. Sheila arrives in Boston convinced of her brother’s innocence but slowly that faith wavers.

This is a character driven novel with some mystery to it. Sheila narrates the story and presents a slow but steady stream of information that is enlightening. The descriptions and back story of each of the family members is fascinating and helps explain the behaviors of these folks. The author gets it just right. The mother Mary is a deeply repressed soul unable to cope with situations that don’t fall within her very straight-laced world view. The role of her alcoholic husband and his slow steady decline to a shell of himself is tragically told. Mike, the younger brother very different from Father Art is impulsive in all things. The most interesting character for me was Father Art. His boyhood, entry into the priesthood and parish activities are examined. I can’t help but feel that there were a number of younG boys like Art who ended up as priests with no idea exactly how they made that life choice. Don’t want to give away too much of the plot here but let me say that the author gets these characters pitch perfect. While I don’t exactly know people who would match up to this family, I have seen parts of these personalities in a number of people I know. This story takes a look at the abuse scandal from a very different view and actually left me with some compassion for all of the victims here.

I listened to an audio reading of this book by Therese Plummer. It was a very good production and I’d recommend it.

I listened to an audio copy provided by the publisher.

Matterhorn

2011-06-21T15:59:00.000-04:00

Matterhorn: A Novel of the Vietnam War
by Karl Marlantes, narrated by Bronson Pinchot, Blackstone Audio, April, 2010

Don’t miss this one!

Matterhorn is a memorable novel. Parts of it will stay in my head for a long, long time. It is the story of Waino Mellas, a newly minted Marine second lieutenant and the men of Bravo Company. Amazingly, the book covers only the first three months of Mellas’s thirteenth month tour in Vietnam. Mellas narrates the story. The writing is so authentic I had to keep reminding myself that is was a work of fiction. For those of us who thankfully have never had the experience of front line fighting in a war this novel could be as close as you will ever come to experiencing what these men experienced. Mellas is a great character- frightened, arrogant, brave, inexperienced, and in the end very likeable. Mellas matures through the three month time period into a leader of men. The other soldiers in the company take a while for their characters to develop but also are equally well crafted by the author.

Throughout most of the novel the North Vietnamese Army is not encountered, far more deadly to the men of Bravo Company are the dangers in the jungle, the hatred between black and white soldiers, the incompetence of the battalion leadership and the lack of good medical care and decent food. The few fighting scenes though are intense. This book does more to explain how men are able to overcome fear and give their lives to protect their friends than anything else I’ve read. In the scene I quote below Lt. Mellas is charging a protected grenade position.

“He ran because fate had placed him in a position of responsibility and he had accepted the burden. He ran because his self-respect required it. He ran because he loved his friends and this was the only thing he could do to end the madness that was killing and maiming them.”

Powerful writing! Throughout the book the author subtly brings out the pointless nature of this war. Armies did not fight to control territory but to inflict casualties and then inflate body counts. The dehumanization of the soldiers is strongly felt.

“The day was spent in weary stupefaction, hauling dead American teenagers to a stack beside the landing zone and dead Vietnamese teenagers to the garbage pit down the side of the north face.”

Throughout this novel I kept thinking of my friend Johnny, a Vietnam vet, dead too young from the effects of Agent Orange. What a life altering experience he must have had serving in the bush in that war. He never talked much about it and after reading this story I can understand why. If you weren't there it would be hard to believe. Thanks to the author for taking me "there".

Karl Marlantes a Vietnam era Marine wrote this book over the last 30 years. It’s his first novel and clearly his life’s work. We should all be able to tell a story this well. He captures it all – the horror, the courage, the cowardice, the camaraderie, the confusion, the exhilaration and the sorrow of war. Don’t miss this one!

I listened to an audio copy of this book read by the very talented Bronson Pinchot. I’d recommend listening to this one, while it was long I thought the narrator enriched the experience over what I would have felt just reading it.

I listened to an audio copy of this book borrowed from The Free Library of Philadelphia

Trader of Secrets

2011-06-18T07:16:00.000-04:00

Trader of Secrets: A Paul Madriani Novel

by Steve Martini, William Morrow, May 2011

...little or no character development, an implausible plot (asteroid hurling!) and insipid prose

I now officially feel about Steve Martini books the same way I feel about Circus Peanuts (orange colored marshmallow candy) – I have trouble passing them up but really don’t enjoy them much when I am done and all in all sorry I indulged.

Martini has moved from legal procedural crime novels to international thrillers and it hasn’t been a successful transition at least in my opinion. In his earlier novels the settings were primarily in California and the characters and plots had some depth to them. In Trader of Secrets the three main characters – Paul Mandriani, his law partner Harry Hinds and his girl friend Jocelyn rocket around the world (DC to Bangkok to Paris to Mexico) chasing Liquida the villain who has stalked the Mandrianis’ for at least the last two novels. Mixed in with the chase is a story about two NASA scientists who have sold a secret weapons system to the Iranians. The weapons system maneuvers asteroids so they can be sent hurling into specific locations like say Phoenix or Israel. The good guys chase Liquida and the other bad guys to a remote location in the Mexican jungles where aided by a full contingent of Israeli Defense Forces a 40 page battle ensues.

So in summary, little or no character development, an implausible plot (asteroid hurling!) and insipid prose. I really wonder if this book was ghost written as it is so off the mark from Martini’s earlier courtroom dramas.

I read a copy of this book borrowed from The Free Library of Philadelphia

The Report

2011-06-11T14:28:00.000-04:00

The Report: A Novel
by Jessica Francis Kane, Greywolf Press, August 2010

...a small gem that is both educational and moving

This is a fictionalized telling of a true story – the death of 173 Londoners on March 3, 1943 and its aftermath. In entering the Bethnal Green Tube station to shelter from a German air raid people were trampled when for unknown reasons the crowd pushed forward and crushed and suffocated many of them. The government asks a respected London magistrate, Laurence Dunne to investigate the tragedy and write a report. He does so in three weeks, interviewing over 80 witnesses, local politicians, engineers and others. The story is told primarily through the eyes of 8 year old Tilly, her mother Ada, Warden Low the shelter manager, Reverend Mc Neely the pastor, and several others. As the thirtieth anniversary of the tragedy approaches, Paul Barber works with the now retired Dunne to film a documentary of the event. Barber was orphaned as an infant when he was saved but his mother was not.

I read this book straight through and couldn’t put it down or get it out of my head. It was good on so many levels. The writing is clear, concise and wonderfully descriptive – there are no wasted words here – kudos to the author and her editor! An example

…talking to him was like talking to any young person about the war years; they spoke from a background of black-and-white pictures, while your memories were very much in color. They asked about the rationing, while you saw coupons. They spoke about the public morale, when what you remembered were the faces. Try as they might, they only heard a chord or two, while the whole symphony still roared in your head.

The research is impressive. The details of life in war time London enrich the story – there were no weather reports for Londoners throughout the war, sewing circles making topographical maps of German landscapes for the RAF to cite two examples that were new to me. The author gives an authentic feel to the Bethnal Green community and their feelings after this event.

Dunne wants to avoid scapegoating one person or one group so he makes some interesting decisions as he completes his report. The questions that the author raises as Dunne finishes his report are universal and have applicability far beyond this time period. In times of war are decisions that support civilian morale justifiable? Do all tragedies have a responsible party? Is it even possible to determine exact circumstances when witnesses have conflicting views? Do people act differently in a crowd than when alone?

In a story that could easily have been melodramatic and given to sentimentality the author has delivered a small gem that is both educational and moving. A great read!

I read a copy of this book borrowed from The Free Library of Philadelphia

Audio Book Week

2011-06-08T06:34:00.000-04:00

I am participating in Audio Book Week that Jen at Devourer of Books is hosting this week on her very interesting blog. If you haven't visited you should. Today's questions are listed below.

Current/most recent audiobook: I am listening to Matterhorn by Karl Marlantes
Impressions: This is a long audiobook nearly 26 hours but very intense. Some of the scenes in this Vietnam War novel will haunt me for a long time.

Current favorite audiobook: What is the What by Dave Eggars is my all time favorite audiobook. I am sure I never would have read it on my own but got hooked on a ,long car trip to Florida. The narrator Dion Graham (The Wire) is wonderful and really added to the enjoyment of this story of the Sudanese tradegy.

One narrator who always makes you choose audio over print: I usually don’t choose an audiobook based on the narrator but have come to like John Lee, Cassandra Campbell and Bahni Turpin

Genre you most often choose to listen to: I listen to primarily non fiction and memoirs on audio. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks was a favorite.

If given the choice, you will always choose audio when: Memoirs especially when read by the author. Current favoite here is Bossypants by Tina Fey, very funny

If given the choice, you will always choose print when: Novels with large casts of characters and time shifts. I need to go back and reread and keep everyone straight, especially in the early pages.

4:50 From Paddington

2011-06-07T06:47:00.002-04:00

4:50 From Paddington: A Miss Marple Mystery (Miss Marple Mysteries)
by Agatha Christie, read by Joan Hickson, 7 hours, 7 minutes

It's been a long time since I read an Agatha Christie mystery and I had forgotten just how good they are. This is a Miss Marple mystery that was read by the wonderful Joan Hickson who has played Miss Marple on stage and screen. The murder takes place as two trains slowly pass one another on the track. A friend of Miss Marple's sees the strangulation and reports it . Only Miss Marple believes her and follows with a thoughtful investigation. The setting is a large family estate Rutherford Hall (so many Christie's have this setting) with a family - the Crackinthorpes (love the name) with many members. No more of the mystery from me! If you are looking for a good read or a good listen Agatha Christie is always a good choice. Some of the BBC full cast productions of Christie are also good options - try One Two Buckle Your Shoe.

Today's question on the Audio Week list is do you like sound effects in audio books. With out going into a rant let me just say no! It's a book not a play.

I listened to a copy of this story downloaded from The Free Library of Philadelphia

Bossypants

2011-06-05T21:28:00.001-04:00

Bossypants

by Tina Fey, April 2011, Hachette Audio 5hrs. 35 mins.

Fey is witty, intelligent, sarcastic, surprisingly serious, and self deprecating – her memoir is all of the above.

I will be participating in Audiobook week hosted Jen at Devourer of Books this week so I will post a couple of reviews of audio books I’ve listened to. I just started listening to audiobooks last year. Here is a link to some of my favorites last year. I'll post later this week on this years favorites.

Bossypants is far and away the funniest of the books I've listened to recently. Tina Fey reads her memoir herself and her comedic timing as always is excellent. The memoir is part comedy, part life advice and part assessment of social mores. On more than one occasion I found myself laughing out loud at the comedy. She relates stories, with great characters and descriptions from her experiences in the Summer Stage program at Upper Darby HS (full disclosure Fey grew up near me and went to high school near my parents’ home in Drexel Hill, PA). Her Greek parents, her time at Second City in Chicago, and her work at Saturday Night Live and 30 Rock all have segments in this story. Some of the funniest sections are the descriptions of how the Sarah Palin role came about.

Her life as a female comic in a male dominated world is fodder for much comedy but also many insightful suggestions for women facing gender discrimination. She draws some universal life lessons from what she learned in improve theater, also very funny. Soooo, in summary this audiobook is worth your time. Fey is witty, intelligent, sarcastic, surprisingly serious, and self deprecating – her memoir is all of the above.

I listened to a copy of this story that I downloaded from the Free Library of Philadelphia and there was an annoying problem with this production. At the end of Fey’s sentences the volume would become lower for the last two to three words. Not sure if it was a function of the download or the original production

State of Wonder

2011-05-30T08:11:00.000-04:00

State of Wonder by Ann Patchett, Harper, June 2011

...this is a good yarn that I believe readers will embrace and enjoy

A Minnesota physician, Marina Singh working for a big pharmaceutical company is sent by the CEO Jim Fox to the Amazon jungles to follow-up after the death of a colleague. The company has supported the unorthodox work of an obsessed researcher, Annick Swenson who has worked with a remote jungle tribe where the women maintain fertility well into their 70s. Singh has ties to all of the principals – she is lover to Jim Fox, colleague and friend to the dead employee and former student of Swenson. After cooling her heels with a couple of ex pat Australians in the Brazilian city of Manaus she finally is taken to the jungle research station. Then the fun begins. I don’t want to give away plot details here but while not exactly entirely believable from the scientific viewpoint, the story is credible.

This story has all of the elements of a good read – wonderfully described exotic setting in the jungles of Brazil; a story that is complex and contains enough plot twists to hold the reader’s attention; excellent character development that onion like leaves the reader knowing more and more about the principals and lastly a denouement that is very well done. For me what keeps this latest Ann Patchett from the highest rating was the main character, Marina Singh. She is an unlikely adventure heroine with no end of unresolved issues. She had an absent father who continues to haunt her dreams (a bit too many nightmares in my opinion), professional insecurities, and a love affair to which she has only a half hearted commitment. She careens from long periods of inaction into wonder woman like live saving fetes (beheading a 15 ft. anaconda with a machete, performing C-sections with shoe horns, facing down cannibals). Patchett allows her to face her demons and develop into a plausible heroine but in the end her character has a certain flatness to it that I couldn’t get beyond. The author does leave some ambiguous hope for a brighter future for Singh in the ending though. Don’t take this minor criticism as a negative, this is a good yarn that I believe readers will embrace and enjoy. I expect to see it widely read on the beach this summer.

I read a copy of this book provided by the Amazon vine program.

Doc

2011-05-25T08:58:00.000-04:00

Doc: A Novel by Mary Doria Russell, Random House, May 2011

... Doc is a unique character brought to life with all of his charms intact, you can't help but like him

In Doc, Mary Doria Russell has taken us to the Wild West, Dodge City 1878 to be specific. Dodge City functions for the express purpose of separating Texas cattle drivers from the money they bring to town using card games, alcohol and prostitutes. Into this wild place comes John Henry Holliday (Doc). He is a young man from Georgia doomed to an early death by the tuberculosis in his lungs. He lives life for all he is worth. A trained dentist he primarily earns his living playing poker. Along with his girlfriend, Kate a sometime aristocrat and now prostitute he settles into Dodge City's colorful lifestyle. Local characters include the Earp brothers, Wyatt, Morgan, James and Virgil, and the county sheriff Bat Masterson. Wyatt is employed as the local law enforcement in Dodge. There is the mysterious death of Johnnie Sanders, a mixed race young man who was friend to Doc and Wyatt that provides the backdrop of this story.

Dodge City a wild place and Russell brings it vividly to life. Her characters are real and we come to know the people not the legends that Hollywood has given us. Even the minor characters China Joe, Bat Masterson, Eddie Foy (yes that Eddie Foy), a Jesuit priest, and the local merchants are richly drawn and memorable. This really though is the story of Doc and he is a unique character brought to life with all of his charms intact, you can't help but like him. The murder mystery is really a minor part of this wonderful character driven novel. In the notes Russell outlines the parts of her story that are based on fact and surprisingly quite a bit of it is. While this novel is not in the same class as Russell's psychological sci fi novel The Sparrow it is a good read.

I read a copy of this book provided by the Amazon Vine program

Lost in Shangri-La

2011-05-20T08:41:00.000-04:00

Lost in Shangri-La: A True Story of Survival, Adventure, and the Most Incredible Rescue Mission of World War II by Mitchell Zuckoff, read by Mitchell Zuckoff, April, 2011, Haper Audio 8hrs, 32 min.

If you like a good adventure tale this one is for you no two ways about it!

Just when you think you’ve heard every WWII story there is to hear a new one comes along. First there was Unbroken the inspirational life story of Louis Zamperini and now we have Lost in Shangri-la a story of survival in the remote jungles of Dutch New Guinea.

In spring of 1945, when the war in Europe was won and the invasion of Japan was looming a group of 24 Army personnel including 9 WACS were on a sightseeing over flight of an impenetrable valley in the highlands of New Guinea. The valley had a great allure to the Americans because it was thought to be populated with primitive people perhaps cannibals whose lives were untouched by modern society. The plane nicknamed the “Gremlin Special” crashes into the side of a mountain within the confines of the valley. Six people survive the crash although three die within the first 24 hours. A young lieutenant, John McCollom who was relatively unhurt and two badly burned survivors, sergeant Kenneth Decker and an Army stenographer Margaret Hastings. The survivors almost immediately come in contact with the native people and develop an uneasy relationship. The army locates the survivors quickly but does not have a clue how to extract them from these jungles. Enter the real heroes of the story – Captain Earl Walter and the Filipino members of the First Recon Battalion (special). Two members of this group – medics Doc Bulatao and Rammy Ramirez parachute into the jungle and begin to treat the burn victims whose wounds have worsened. Capt. Walter and other paratroopers establish a base camp miles away. The groups connect and so begins a long wait as the army ponders how to get them out. The interactions with the native population advance from hostility to a developing mutual respect. There is a lot of humor and misunderstanding in these encounters and an underlying tension that never quite leaves the narrative. I won’t reveal how the army rescued this group because I think the actions were so thrilling you’d swear they were fictional.

Mitchell Zuckoff has nailed this story. He was aided by army records, a diary kept by Margaret, WWII home front interviews with families of the lost and missing, interviews with the few surviving participants, interviews with relatives of deceased personnel, and lastly interviews 50+ years later with some of the New Guinea peoples who were there. The native interviews enhance this story greatly; hearing their interpretations of the events was fascinating. The story is enriched with all of this detail. I really enjoy the book; my father spent a goodly portion of the war in Dutch New Guinea so I was pleased to learn so much about the Army Air Corps experience there.

I listened to an audio of the story read by the author which was a real plus in this case (not always true!); I did miss seeing the pictures of the people involved but if you go to the Amazon website they are posted there. If you like a good adventure tale this one is for you no two ways about it!

I listened to an audio of this story provided by Harper Audio

Dreams of Joy

2011-05-15T06:21:00.000-04:00

Dreams of Joy: A Novel

by Lisa See, Random House, May 2011

...lots of action, a genuine historical setting, characters that we have grown to know and like.

This story picks up where Shanghai Girls - a story about Pearl and May- two Shanghai sisters ended. The novel opens in the late 1950’s, with Joy, a Chinese–American girl raised as Pearl’s daughter but actually May’s daughter, leaving for China. Joy is estranged from her mother and aunt and is returning to China to discover her true roots, participate in the building of the People’s Republic and find her real father (get the soap opera qualities of this story yet?).
Joy finds her father, Z.G., a famous communist artist. She accompanies him as he is sent to the Chinese countryside for “reeducation”. In the countryside Joy falls in love with Tao a young villager who aspires to be an artist like Z.G. Meanwhile Pearl has followed Joy to China to attempt to reconcile with her and have Joy return to the U.S.
The story is told in alternating first person narratives by Joy and Pearl, a technique that works well here. Without giving you blow by blow of the story, suffice to say every horrible aspect of China’s struggles in the late 1950’s and early 60s are depicted in the lives of Joy, Pearl, Tao and Z.G. Scenes of public denunciation and punishment for all who are deemed not “red” enough are integral to the story. The disillusionment of the Chinese when communism is discovered to be the latest iteration of failed government to inflicted misery on the poor people of this country is shown. The starvation that killed millions in China when The Great Leap Forward failed is movingly portrayed in the story. Almost unimaginable things – cannibalism, and other barbaric practices were not unknown through this time period. Lastly the struggles of people to leave China and escape to Hong Kong and the west are also chronciled here.

I know the review reads like soap and in some ways the story does also but it really is a good read - lots of action, a genuine historical setting, characters that we have grown to know and like. If you read and liked Shanghai Girls, you will enjoy this one. If you haven’t I’d read that one before reading Dreams of Joy. If you want to read Lisa See's best historical fiction read Snow Flower and the Secret Fan a fabulous book

I read an advanced reader copy of this novel provided by the publisher.

Doomsday Book

2011-05-09T07:36:00.000-04:00

Doomsday Book

by Connie Willis, 1993, narrated by Jenny Sterlin, 26 hours, 30 minutes

...a total immersion experience

(spoilers ahead)
I think I am late to the party with the Doomsday Book! First published in 1993 this sci fi is anything but standard fare for the genre. The book won both the Hugo and the Nebula awards when it was first published. It uses time travel in an unusual way, not to go forward to a high tech future but to travel back in time to the Middle Ages. Set in 2048, Kivrin, an Oxford graduate history student travels to 14th century England. The book alternates between her situation in the 14th century and events in the 21st century. Her journey is supported by her mentor, Mr. Dunworthy and although he does not exert the control over her journey that he would like, he is strongly in her corner. Through human error she ends up right in the middle of an emerging bubonic plague epidemic. She is found by a village priest, Fr. Roche and is taken to stay with an upper class family. The medieval characters (called “contemps”) seemed very genuine and their actions are rooted in the reality of the time. They have no understanding of disease transmission, their language rings true, the religious practices are appropriate to the era; the whole setting is just perfect! I understand that Connie Willis, the author researched this material for five years and it really shows in this story.

Events in the 21st century in Oxford travel on a parallel course with Kirvin’s journey back in time. While the midcentury is mostly disease free, mutant viruses can challenge the population. Kirvin’s support system (Mr. Dunworthy, Badri the tech controlling her time travels, Mary her physician and many others) are infected with an unknown virus. The illness and resulting quarantine impede the ability of the characters to help and support Kivrin.

I am once again backing off from describing much of the plot because I really can’t do it justice in this space and with my meager writing skills. Suffice to say, that the plot elements are very good and in what I consider the highest praise at no time did I think wow this stuff is not believable. Almost hard to imagine for a sci fi, there was no need to suspend belief.

What I will rave about is the author’s ability to create three dimensional characters that you really care about. Her characters seem so human, they have flaws but also an immense decency. The story is full of humor, compassion, bravery and despair- many characters displaying each of these qualities. I loved the character of Father Roche, while the author portrays him as a simple, uneducated village priest, he represents what is good and wise in all men- a character I won’t soon forget.

While the story is long (600+ pages) it is a total immersion experience. I listened to the audio book, it was recommended as one of the top ten audio books and I agree. Jenny Sterlin, the narrator did yeomans work conveying the emotion and drama of this story. I think it would read almost as good but am not sure, so try the audio book for this one.
I listened to an audio copy of this book that I bought from audible.com

22 Britannia Road

2011-05-05T06:21:00.000-04:00

22 Britannia Road: A Novel

by Amanda Hodgkinson, April, 2011, Pamela Dorman Books

Historical fiction at its best!

Historical fiction at its best! This is the story of a Polish couple, Silvana and Janusz and their son Aurek. They met and married in 1937. As both the Russians and the Germans invaded Poland in 1940 the couple is separated. He joins the military and after a long journey, typical of Poles who chose to fight on after the defeat of their country, ends up in the RAF in England. She initially raped by a German soldier, flees with their son to a live in the forests of Poland. The story opens in 1946 as the couple is reunited after their six year separation. Building on the memories of a deeply loving relationship before the war the couple tries to reestablish their family life. Each has secrets that they do not share with the other. These secrets, the crux of the story, are slowly revealed in two separate threads. No more spoilers from me on the story!

This book is vividly written and has complexity to the plot that continues to draw you in right up until the last chapter. The long lasting effects of war on people are brilliantly portrayed in the story. In post war Britain, the couple has every advantage- an intact family, a house, a car, a good job - but the lingering effects of what happened to them during the war destroy their chances to go forward. The son has been deeply influenced by his time in the forests avoiding both Germans and Russians and living off the land. In one scene his father shows him how to collect and save birds eggs and the boy can only think of how he wants to eat the eggs contents as he did so often in the forests. He has a particularly difficult time socializing and entering into normal relationships. It was heartbreaking and at times almost too sad to bear. In the end though this story is a triumph of the human spirit over adversity.
I read a copy of this book provided by the publisher

Caleb's Crossing

2011-04-30T11:24:00.000-04:00

Caleb's Crossing: A Novel

by Geraldine Brooks, Viking Adult, May 2011

Right down to the prose which is brilliantly created you feel as if you’ve read a genuine tale of early colonial historical fiction.

Geraldine Brooks has once again immersed us in a historical setting far removed from present day. The time is the last half of the 17th century; the place the Puritan Massachusetts Bay colony, the main characters Bethia Mayfield, daughter of a minister and Caleb Cheeshaahteaumauk, a Wampanoag Indian. Brooks has an easy talent, no doubt the result of copious research, in creating an authentic feel to this story. The inspiration for the story was Caleb, a real life character who was the first Native American to graduate from Harvard College in 1765. Brooks has created this story from the barebones facts known about Caleb.

Both Bethia and Caleb are born on Martha's Vineyard and the first chapters of the story are set there. Bethia is the narrator for the tale and an interesting character. She is intelligent, committed and often guilt ridden for events beyond her control. Brooks brilliantly recreates life for the settlers on the island. Hardships are abundant and loss of life commonplace. A childhood friendship between Bethia and Caleb sets the stage for the events to follow. Bethia’s father works at converting the Indians to Christianity. He tutors Caleb, another convert Joel and his own son Makepeace so that they may attend Harvard and become ministers. All three leave the island for Cambridge to continue their education. Bethia, desperate to learn but denied education because of her gender, accompanies them as a servant. Again we are treated to descriptions of life at Cambridge and later Harvard College that ring true.

Without giving away too much of the plot, let me say that I found the last third of the book oddly flat. In it, Bethia now an elderly dying woman, looks back and describes the events that transpired at Harvard and after. The telling is almost rote and, in contrast to the passions expressed in the first part of story, is detached and unemotional. I think in sticking to the known facts of Caleb’s life instead of fully creating a fictional story, the ending was stilted and unfulfilling.

Despite the finish, I did enjoy this book. Right down to the prose which is brilliantly created you feel as if you’ve read a genuine tale of early colonial historical fiction.

I read a copy of this book provided by the publisher.

Cutting for Stone

2011-04-25T07:14:00.001-04:00

Cutting for Stone

by Abraham Verghese, Vintage, January 2010

this is a sweeping saga...that you should dive into

Cutting for Stone (drawn from a phrase in the Hippocratic Oath) is a sweeping saga set in India, Ethiopia and New York City. The author, Abraham Verghese, has drawn from his own life as a surgeon and Indian immigrant to America as he tells a tale of conjoined twin boys born to an Indian nun and a talented British surgeon. The majority of the action is set in Addis Abba and the political events of the last half of the 20th century are the backdrop for this story of love - parental love, fraternal love, unrequited love and love of country and community. I really don’t want to give away too many plot details so you have the pleasure of gradually understanding and being drawn into this complex compelling story yourself.

A couple things stand out about the story. First, Verghese has a talent for creating characters that are fully developed and giving them both heart and soul. Each of the major players has a back-story told with sufficient detail to allow understanding of their actions in the story. Secondly there is a strong sense of place in this story, I’ve never been to Ethiopia but after reading this I feel like I have. The descriptions of Addis right down to the food really brought it to life for me. Can’t wait to try some injera! Lastly the author’s ability to integrate the medical aspects of this story into the narrative I thought was exceptional. I do have a medical background so I wasn’t at all put off with his descriptions of surgical procedures but some readers might be. I thought the author’s passion for medicine and surgery came through in his writing.

While I really enjoyed this story I do have two criticisms. The story was long and I think a good editor could have helped in tightening some of the writing without losing the epic sweep of the story. Secondly, the contrived actions that brought the novel to its conclusion seemed widely unrealistic after a story that was so grounded in the realism of life and medical practice in a third world country. Neither of these criticisms should keep you from diving into this story. I eagerly await this author’s next effort.

I read a copy of this book I borrowed from a friend.

Giveaway Winner!

2011-04-25T06:31:00.000-04:00

Julie at knitting and sundries is the winner of a copy of Save Me by Lisa Scottoline. She has been notified by email and has 48 hours to contact me with mailing information. Thanks to all who entered!

The Trinity Six

2011-04-20T07:14:00.000-04:00

The Trinity Six

by Charles Cumming, St. Martin's Press, March 2011, narrated by John Lee, 11.5 hrs

This is a pretty good spy thriller. The story draws on the most spectacular failure of the British intelligence- the five Cambridge spies who betrayed their country to the Soviets. For years there was speculation but no proof that there was a six man. Meet Sam Gaddis a divorced Russian scholar who is urged by a colleague to investigate and write a book about a potential sixth member of the Cambridge group. Because Gaddis is deeply in debt he considers this offer. Almost immediately his colleague dies an untimely death and Gaddis is left alone to follow the leads that his colleague had developed. The action moves from London to Moscow to Vienna and Budapest as Gaddis tracks down the story of Eddie Crane a Cambridge student in the 1930s who went on to a long career with the diplomatic services.

I enjoyed this story. The author does a good job of character development – I ended up liking Sam Gaddes a lot, he was just enough of a novice in spy craft to be endearing and he had a level of integrity missing in almost everyone else in the story. The plot has enough twists and turns to keep you guessing until the last pages. I listened to audio CDs where the very talented John Lee narrated the story. Lee was able to differentiate voices very well and gave the story a real European feel with his ability to portray authentic regional accents.

I listened to audio CDs provided to me through the Amazon Vine program

Save Me - Review and Giveaway

2011-04-16T06:22:00.003-04:00

Save Me

by Lisa Scottline, St. Martin's Press, April 2011

Scottoline fans will enjoy this one; it is a good, suspenseful read.

Save Me, Lisa Scottline’s new thriller is a disturbing book! The story centers on one decision made in a few short minutes by a young mother during a fire at her daughter’s school. Rose McKenna, a volunteer lunch monitor, interrupts a bullying incident and addresses it with the girls involved. At that moment a fire and explosion engulf the room. McKenna has choices to make, save the girls she is with or go and rescue her own daughter. She is able to work a compromise that seems successful. Without giving away too much of the story McKenna is vilified for her decisions. Throughout most of the story McKenna is unfairly judged, hounded, and denigrated by the community. Scottoline presented this scenario so realistically right down to the use of Facebook as a public humiliation forum that it made me cringe.

The plot is vintage Scottoline – fast moving, emotional and just slightly over the top. McKenna meekly responds to the community actions until she develops a spine and become the “action hero” mom. She is finally motivated to remove the suspicion and implied guilt from her family. She investigates the fire at the school and finds that it was not accidental. A strong thread though the story is the love of a mother for a child and how it drives her actions. The character descriptions, as always, are right on the money. With a well chosen phrase Scottoline is able to bring to life her characters.

The author has left behind downtown Philadelphia as her setting and moved to the suburbs for this story (as I think she has done in real life). I personally miss the Philadelphia scene; those descriptions were always right on the money. Scottoline fans will enjoy this one; it is a good, suspenseful read.

I have one copy of this book to give away. If you'd like it take a look at the rules in the column just to the right of this post and leave you email address in the comments section. The giveaway closes at midnight on April 24th.

I read a copy of this book provided by the author.

The Informationist

2011-04-14T06:34:00.001-04:00

The Informationist: A Thriller

by Taylor Stevens, Crown Publishing, March 2011

If you are unhappy that the Stieg Larsson trilogy has no sequels you might try this story. The flawed heroine, Vanessa Michael Monroe certainly brings to mind Lisabeth Salander. Monroe is the daughter of missionaries and grew up in West Africa. She has a dark back-story that I won’t reveal here but she is a self-sufficient, intense character. After leaving her past behind, she has moved to Houston and with the help of her mentor Kate Breeden developed a career for herself. Monroe’s specialty is gaining information in third world countries that individuals, corporations or governments can use.

Monroe has been lured from her regular work by a big dollar contract to locate the missing daughter of an American industrialist. The girl has not been heard from since she disappeared during a college vacation in South Africa four years previous. The action moves between Houston, Germany, Cameroon, and Equatorial Guinea and off shore islands. Monroe confronts people from her African teenage years as she attempts to locate and return the daughter. She is assisted by a gunrunner, Francois Beyard. The industrialist that has hired her has also sent along a security pro, Miles Bradford to keep him in the information loop as the investigation proceeds. Both of these characters have hidden agendas that are slowly revealed. The information that Monroe uncovers about the circumstances of the daughter’s disappearance lead her to conclude that all is not as it seems!

This story moves at a good clip. The mystery develops and while the ending had a trick or two in it, it was somewhat predictable. I loved the setting, not many books I read are set in Africa so there were new ethnic and cultural ideas to learn. The author did bring these cultures alive in her story. I was so lost with the movements of the main characters though I had to resort to Google maps to see where they were going when they moved from place to place which probably says more about my lack of knowledge of African geography than anything else.

Monroe is a worthy character. The author is able to spin out her intricacies and motivations very well. I ended up rooting for her to work out her demons and get her life on the right course. Didn’t happen in this story but I bet we get another chance in the sequel. This story meets my requirements for a good thriller - tight plotting, good character development and an acceptable ending.

I read a copy of this novel borrowed from The Free Library of Philadelphia

The Dressmaker of Khair Khana

2011-04-10T19:01:00.001-04:00

The Dressmaker of Khair Khana: Five Sisters, One Remarkable Family, and the Woman Who Risked Everything to Keep Them Safe

by Gayle Tzemach Lemmon, March 2011 (Unabridged) read by Sarah Zimmerman, 6 hrs, 16 min

The story reads like a novel. There are tense moments and tearful heartwarming triumphs.

In 1996 the Taliban take over Kabul after a grueling civil war and life changes dramatically for the Sadiqi family. The Sadiqi’s, a devout Muslim family of five sisters and two brothers at home are committed to education for their children both boys and girls. Kamila has just completed a university degree in education. Now the Taliban decree that women cannot work outside of the home and in fact cannot leave their homes without a male family member as a chaperone. Her father and older brother are forced to flee the city and Kamila is left to oversee this family. Armed only with her wits and a strong entrepreneurial spirit she proceeds to set up a dressmaking business in her home which in the end not only brings money but also hope and dignity to her family.

The story was told by Gayle Tzemach Lemmon, a former ABC news producer turned Harvard business student. She traveled to Afghanistan looking for examples of women in business and met Kamila Sadiqi. She developed a close relationship with Kamila that allowed this story to be told rich with detail. I was struck with the similarities of Kamila’s story to entrepreneurs world wide – she had a plan, she developed prototypes, she sold it to tradesmen, she overcame obstacles, she hired workers, and she improved and expanded as she went along. Kamila did all of this under the threat of reprisals from the Taliban and electricity that is available to power sewing machines only sometimes. Like businessmen worldwide she attempts to work around the politics of the current administration, the Taliban. The fact that I loved the best was that Kamila really could not sew very well.

The story reads like a novel. There are tense moments and tearful heartwarming triumphs. The bravery that these Afghani women show is inspiring. This is a great little book (think Three Cups of Tea) that would be a good read for almost anyone but might be perfect for a teenage girl.

I listened to an audiocopy of this story provided by the publisher

West of Here

2011-04-06T10:47:00.000-04:00

West of Here

by Jonathan Evison, Algonquin Books (February 15, 2011)

Read it for the environmental theme, brilliant prose and strength of character development not the plot

West of Here is a big book! It encompasses actions and characters in two eras – the present day and the 1890s. It is set in the fictional town of Port Bonita on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington State. The theme centers on the hope and promise of the pioneering spirit and the present day reality of those efforts. Not the cheeriest of outcomes! The pioneers dam the river to bring electricity to the town; their descendents decide to remove the dam in hopes of replenishing the depleted fish populations of the river. In moving between the two eras and showing the actions of the pioneers the author draws a compelling cause and effect on the environment. (Spoilers ahead)

There are a myriad of characters in this story, almost too many for me to keep up with. The pioneers are introduced in vignettes that deal with significant issues like emerging feminism, the white man’s relations with the native populations, the exploration of the Olympic peninsula, and the entrepreneurial spirit of the old west; the current day characters are much more internally focused. These characters – a factory worker trying to relive his high school ball playing glory days, a single mother struggling with a mentally ill son, a lesbian dealing with an unexpected pregnancy and an ex-con and his lonely parole officer wandering through the wilderness – struggle in the same place to be positive in the face of a landscape that is used up. The contrast between the settlement of the town and the current day could hardly be starker. The pioneers were able to form a community and act for the perceived good of it; the current day characters are much more adrift in their purpose and longing for that connection.

This is not a plot driven novel; it is more a character based story with a strong sense of place. Despite being character based I didn’t end up liking most of these characters, which probably speaks to how well the author portrayed these everyday people. Their actions just left me a little cold. One example, the dam- building entrepreneur and his sometime partner the feminist have a child who drowns in the river. This drowning scene is almost devoid of emotion, the mother and to a less extent the father reacts in a stilted manner to this loss. I am sure this scene was typical of how cheap life was on the frontier, just not something I want to dwell on.

The setting in on the Olympic peninsula is well captured in the novel. One of the story backdrops is the presence of a Bigfoot like character that strikes fear into the hearts of all who come near him. The theme of the environmental changes wrought on the land is also skillfully weaved throughout the story.

In the end I am somewhat conflicted about this book. It is not standard historical fiction in the style of Michener or Rutherford; readers looking for that should take a pass. It is a novel that delivers a message encrypted in a beautifully written series of vignettes (think a Nashville type movie). Read it for the environmental theme, brilliant prose and strength of character development not the plot.

This is the fourth novel I’ve read recently that shifts between present day and an earlier time (Thirteenth Tale, 13 rue Theresa, Goon Squad). I am officially swearing off this format for at least a while; it isn’t one of my favorites. I’d much rather be engrossed in a single set of characters and actions!

I read a copy of this book borrowed from The Free Library of Philadelphia

The Fifth Witness

2011-04-02T08:27:00.002-04:00

The Fifth Witness

by Michael Connelly, April 2011, Little Brown and Co.

If you read Michael Connelly you’ll love the Fifth Witness, if you don’t give it a try, it is highly enjoyable.

If you read this blog (and I hope there are some readers out there) you know I like Michael Connelly mysteries. I have read more of his books in the last year than any other author and I look forward to each new one. He has created a vibrant legal/political/police community in San Francisco. Each book in the series not only provides an engrossing, tightly plotted mystery but also expands and develops the characters in this locale. Mickey Haller is front and center in The Fifth Witness. Connelly introduced Mickey in Lincoln Lawyer (soon to be a major motion picture with Matthew McConaughey). Mickey is a defense attorney trying to rebuild his life and his legal business. Mickey is a twice divorced and a recovering alcoholic. He has a young daughter and two ex-wives with whom he is on good terms. In the Fifth Witness Mickey continues to conduct his legal business in the back seat of his Lincoln Town Car, but today his business is primarily representing homeowners in the midst of home foreclosures. One of Mickey’s clients, Lisa Trammel is accused of the murder of the banker who is overseeing her foreclosure. We are treated to what feels like a real life look at a legal defense – a client who is not likeable, wrangling between the defense and the prosecution, an annoying media presence, and cynicism all around. Haller and most of his team are convinced that Trammel is guilty but they continue to provide a first rate defense.

Several story lines emerge that get Haller and his team investigating the foreclosure apparatus and the nefarious characters who work in it. Evidence that is uncovered supports Trammel’s innocence. .. Let me say no more and ruin the suspense. If you read Michael Connelly you’ll love the Fifth Witness, if you don’t give it a try, it is highly enjoyable.
I read an advance reader copy of this story provided by the publisher

Audio Books Potpourri

2011-03-28T07:15:00.002-04:00

Below are a few audio books I've listened to primarily while driving. I never got around to writing full reviews but thought I'd mention them, particularly Testimony which I really liked and No Graves as Yet which you should avoid at all costs.

Firefly Summer by Maeve Binchy, BBC Dramatization, 2hrs, 49 minutes (Abridged) Read by David Soul. If you’ve read and liked Binchy in the past, you’ll recognize her work – idyllic depictions of life in small towns in Ireland, good always triumphing over evil after some initial adversity, and characters galore. I did not think it a great story but if you’re looking for less than 3 hours of diversion it might do.

Testimony by Anita Shreve (Unabridged) 9hrs. 6 min. Read by Laurence Bouvard. This is a very compelling story. The setting is a private prep school in New England. The plot centers on the consequences of actions taken in a single night of teenage sex and debauchery. The story is told through multiple narrators but primarily Mike the headmaster of the school, Silas a local boy who attends the elite school and Noelle a fellow student and girlfriend of Silas. The ethical issues that are raised and the heartbreak that occurs will occupy your thoughts long after you finished this story. The narrator is excellent and I think listening to this story was better than having read it.

No Graves as Yet by Anne Perry (Unabridged) 12 hrs and 19 min. Read by Michael Page. This is the first novel in the new Anne Perry series about WWI. There may be more novels in this series but I will not be listening to them nor reading them. The mystery was lame; the characters were cardboard stereotypes of upper class Brits whose conversation was stilted beyond belief. The narrator was way too emotional for the material. Why did I continue to listen you ask – I’ve no good answer, skip this stinker.

Shades of Grey by Jason Fforde (Unabridged) 13 hrs, 34 min. Read by John Lee. I can’t summarize this fantasy novel in a short paragraph. I started to read FForde’s Thursday Next series and really enjoyed them. This book has elements of that fantasy world but really has gone completely over the top. You’ll need to enjoy satire and fantasy to step into Fforde’s very creative mind. Check out this Goodreads summary if you are thinking about listening to this one. I did love the reader, the very talented John Lee.

The Wave

2011-03-25T07:19:00.003-04:00

The Wave: In Pursuit of the Rogues, Freaks and Giants of the Ocean

by Susan Casey, narrated by Kirsten Potter, 10 hrs, 30 min., September, 2010

Susan Casey has written a thriller of a nonfiction book

If I had read this book a month ago I would have thought the author was given to hyperbole, but reading it the weekend of the horrific Japanese tsunami disaster I was riveted to the story. Susan Casey has written a thriller of a nonfiction book. She alternates her story between the history and science of rogue and tsunami induced waves and the lives of the “tow surfers” – extreme athletes who are towed by jet ski onto the face of enormous (50 feet plus) waves .

Casey has traveled the world to get her story. She opens with a scientific expedition caught in a storm off the coast of the Scotland. For a week the researchers are pummeled with waves over 75 feet high. The only recourse for the ship is to face the waves bow first and ride it out. What a nightmare! She outlines maritime disasters from history with a trip to Lloyds of London where all ship losses are recorded. She visits South Africa where the Indian Ocean meets the Atlantic and the turbulent waves have wrecked havoc on shipping for centuries. We get details about the mega tsunami that hit Litya Bay in Alaska. That tsunami wave was 1791 ft. high, for comparison the Empire State building is 1431 ft. high – how’s that for scary! Throughout this riveting history Casey explains the science (as much as is known) about oceanography and geology that causes these freak waves. Her ability to translate these physics based concepts for the layman is exceptional. The impacts of rising seas that well may cause more and more extreme weather and potentially an increase in earthquake inducing tsunamis is thoughtfully presented.

The other half of Casey’s story features the tow surfers. Calling this sport a dare devil activity way underrates the risks that these people take with each ride. She tells the story of Laird Hamilton, a Hawaiian surfer who was one of the pioneers of this sport. Riding the storm created giant waves off the coast of Hawaii and Tahiti Hamilton is fearless in his approach to riding these waves. Casey gets the jargon and atmosphere of this group just right, her writing has an authentic feel to it. Despite all this I was left thinking that these tow surfers were an enigmatic group, hard to know, hard to understand. Possibly this is due to the fact that I have trouble understanding why they take these risks. I can’t think of anything more scary that surfing down the face of a 100 ft. wave, let alone doing it when a spouse and a couple of children are involved.

I listened to the unabridged audio edition of this book narrated by Kirsten Potter. The narration was excellent but I longed for photos of both the waves and the people who were part of this story. I sometimes think that these nonfiction books that have real characters are best to have in hard copy for that reason alone. Oh well you can always google to see pictures.

I do strongly recommend this book. I love writers who are talented enough to take difficult science and make it understandable to the rest of us. Casey is surely one of those and the story she has to tell is one we all would benefit from knowing.

I listened to an audio download from the Free Library of Philadelphia

A Lesson in Secrets

2011-03-19T09:25:00.001-04:00

A Lesson in Secrets: A Maisie Dobbs Novel
by Jacqueline Winspear, Harper, March, 2011

While this book is a little light on the mystery it is a worthy addition to the series

This book is the eighth in the Maisie Dobbs series and can easily be read as a standalone book but I really suggest you start at the beginning if you are new to the series. The two hallmarks of this series are period detail and character development. This story like the previous ones is set in Britain between the world wars. Maisie, a psychologist and private investigator is now an independent woman with an inheritance from her mentor Maurice. She is asked by the government to investigate subversive activities at a pacifist college in Cambridge. Since this is a mystery there is the requisite murder but that story line is almost secondary to the descriptions of British life. Maisie encounters the nascent fascist movement among her students. In typical fashion the government is not worried about the Nazis but about potential communists. In the midst of the murder investigation Maisie discovers a government cover-up of a WWI mutiny where British and German soldiers refused to continue the front line fighting.

While the lasting effects of the First World War on the British has been an integral part of this series, the coming war gives the series and this book a sense of dread that is palpable. On a more optimistic note things are going very well in Maisie’s private life, her love affair with the aristocratic son of her former employer is advancing nicely, her assistant Billy and his family are recovering from the death of a child and her elderly father has a girlfriend.

While this book is a little light on the mystery it is a worthy addition to the series. The author has a talent for realistic descriptions of characters at all levels of British society from her assistant Billy a working stiff to her former employers, Lord and Lady Compton. In this book Maisie for the first time works for the government security forces, a relationship sure to continue as the country moves towards war. Maisie is really the linchpin of these books, daughter of a costermonger (love that word) a former parlor maid who has risen to independence without sacrificing her integrity – she is one of my favorite mystery detectives!

I read a copy of this book provided by the publisher.

The Thirteenth Tale

2011-03-14T09:10:00.003-04:00

The Thirteenth Tale: A Novel
by Diane Setterfield, narrated by Bianca Amato and Jill Tanner, Audible Audio Edition, 15 hours and 40 minutes. Published 2006

...if you would like to lose yourself in a true Gothic mystery The Thirteenth Tale is for you. I was sorry to see it end.

This is a genuine Gothic tale. Margaret Lea, daughter of a London bookseller, comes to Yorkshire to write the biography of a dying Vida Winter. Winter is a world famous author beloved for her many books but mysterious about one story that has not yet been published – the thirteenth tale. She has notoriously never been truthful about her personal life. Lea listens as Winter relates her life story. The story is of the Angelfield family, a mostly dysfunctional group of people; twin girls of the family, a governess, a housekeeper, gardener and at least one ghost all living in a Brontë type mansion in Yorkshire! Winter relates the strange tale, full of mistaken identities, madness, secrets, and sexual obsessions. Margaret travels to the abandoned Angelfield estate to try and confirm the truthfulness of the story.

I really don’t want to give details of the plot as the mystery is central to enjoying this book, but let me make a few comments about the novel. The writing is richly descriptive. The two main characters Miss Winter and Margaret Lea are very well developed and very believable within this book. Margaret is a throwback Jane Eyre type character. She is an intellectual, very well read and with a world of repressed feelings but a true romantic at heart. The pacing of the story is also first rate, just enough information is revealed to keep the reader engaged and off balance in trying to discern the mystery. Lastly the plot itself is excellent. The story just flowed, plot twists were believable, characters remained in character and the conclusion was very satisfying including the wrap up detail given to even the minor characters in the story. I realize this is not a very extensive review but if you would like to lose yourself in a true Gothic mystery The Thirteenth Tale is for you. I was sorry to see it end.

I listened to audio CDs borrowed from The Free Library of Philadelphia

13, rue Thérèse

2011-03-07T08:52:00.002-05:00

13, rue Thérèse: A Novel

by Elena Mauli Shapiro, Reagan Arthur Books; February 2011

The concept for this novel was quite good but the execution just wasn’t there for me

Trevor Stratton is American academic newly arrived in Paris for a sabbatical at a Parisian university. Unbeknownst to him, Josietta a secretary at the university, places a box in his desk drawer. Upon finding it, he discovers memorabilia that belonged to Louise Brunet, a young Parisian girl who was born at the turn of the twentieth century. Stratton studies the pictures of WWI battlefields and other items and invents a life for Louise that includes a young lover, Camille who dies in battle, an unhappy arranged marriage with Henri, a potential lesbian lover in her student Garance, and an assignation with a neighbor at their apartment building 13, rue Thérèse. He shares portions of his imaginative story with Josietta who has been judging his worthiness as a romantic partner based on his reactions to the items in the box. The book is beautifully illustrated with the pictures and other items from the box. There are also links to a website where the box memorabilia can be viewed in 3-D.

Unfortunately I could not join in the generally euphoric reviews of this book on blogs and in print. It held a bit too much fantasy for me. Somewhere in the middle of this story Stratton began to confuse his life with Louise’s life and that’s about where I got off the boat. I had trouble following the narrative unsure if we were in the 1920s or present day. The concept for this novel was quite good (a story told around newly discovered intriguing items) but the execution just wasn’t there for me. So can the true romantics out there who loved this book comment and tell me where I’ve gone wrong?

I read a copy of this book borrowed from the Free Library of Philadelphia.

A Town Like Alice

2011-02-28T07:22:00.000-05:00

A Town Like Alice (Vintage International)

by Nevile Shute, Vintage, February 2010 (original publication 1950)

I do love this story and recommend it for those who like historical fiction.

I read this 1950 Nevil Shute novel for a couple of reasons – it got mentioned on the Book Lady’s Blog (a great book blog) as a favorite of the author Ellen Firsching Brown, it is on the BBC list of 100 best novels and lastly I had seen the Masterpiece Theater performance and absolutely loved it.

The story is about Jean Paget, a young English woman. It is narrated by her solicitor, Noel Strachan. There are essentially three parts to Jean’s story. In the first part we come to know her as a serious young woman working as a clerical in a shoe factory in London. She leads a fairly unexciting life when she is contacted by Mr Strachan and told that she has inherited a small fortune from an unknown uncle who has recently died. The monies have been placed in a trust that will be administered by the lawyer. She and the elderly lawyer begin to get to know one another and she shares with him her war experiences. (lots of spoilers ahead)

Jean was working in Malaya in 1941 when the Japanese overran the country and interred the British nationals who were working on the rubber plantations. Jean and thirty other women and children were force marched across the country for 18 months following their capture. The suffered terribly and more than half of them died during this march. Toward the end of their march they encounter two Australians who had been captured and put to work by the Japanese driving trucks through the country. Jean and the Aussie, Joe Harmon are attracted to each other and he on several occasions describes to her his much loved life on a cattle station in West Australia. Joe often steals food for the starving women and children and finally is caught. In front of the party he is crucified. The dispirited group is finally allowed to stop marching and remain in a small Malaysian village growing rice for the duration of the war. Jean through the difficulties of the march has evolved into a strong leader of the group but has been scarred by the experience and haunted by the death of Joe Harmon.

With her inheritance Jean is determined to return to the Malaysian village and dig a well for the women of the village in gratitude for what the villagers did for them during the war. During this experience Jean comes to find out that Joe did not die as she had thought. She sets off for Australia to find him. Unbeknownst to her Joe has recently found out she is not married as he had thought but is a single woman. This causes him to go to London to look for her.

Weeks later they reconnect in Australia, fall in love, marry and start a life on a Western Australia cattle station. Jean invests in the town starting a shoe factory and ice cream parlor. Descriptions of the lonely life in this outpost are good. In the final chapter Mr Strachan her lawyer visits and closes the narrative with Jean and Joe happily married raising a family in a growing town.

The sections of this story that deal with the war years are far and away the strongest part of the narrative. I love books with narrators, I think it gives me comfort that I won’t miss any important details but this narrator is pitch perfect in a matter of fact way giving details of the horrific war experience. This is the part of the story that is so memorable to me thirty years after having seen the Masterpiece Theater presentation. Also the sections that deal with Jean and Joe reconnecting are engaging and a fine love story.

The last part of this book set in Australia does not quite live up to the high drama of the war years. It does though give you an idea of how difficult and remote life in the Outback was and maybe still is. The novel is dated in only two ways. Everyone is constantly lighting and smoking cigarettes and the prejudice against the aboriginal peoples is explicit and somewhat shocking when read today. Despite those minor criticisms I do love this story and recommend it for those who like historical fiction.

I read a paperback book borrowed from the Free Library of Philadelphia

The House of the Spirits

2011-02-24T06:43:00.001-05:00

The House of the Spirits

by Isabel Allende, translated by Magda Bogin, Dial Press Trade Paperback; Later Printing edition (August 30, 2005)

This is one of the better family saga/historical fiction books that you'll read.

The House of the Spirits, published in 1982 is probably Isabel Allende’s most famous work. I had read and enjoyed some of her later books (Daughter of Fortune, The Sum of Our Days) but had never read this one. What a wonderful novel. She tells a family story with the history of 20th century Chile as the background. The story is told primarily through the words of Estaban Trueba and his granddaughter Alba. Trueba is present throughout the story growing from a young child to an elderly patrone who develops into an anti-Communist politician. His family is composed of the most interesting characters -his wife Clara a somewhat mystical presence with the ability to see and influence future events- his twin sons Jaime, a physician and Nicolas a dilettante and his daughter Blanca. The overriding theme of this novel is the political and class struggle between the wealthy (Trueba) and the lower classes. Trueba is a multi faceted personality; he rapes women on his estate but obsesses over the welfare of his workers and happiness of his family. Trueba’s daughter Blanca falls in love with Pedro Tercero, a peasant on her father’s estate. Marriage is out of the question even though she is pregnant with his child. Their secret relationship is maintained for over 30 years. Alba their daughter is the present day face of Chile. Where her grandfather is both good and evil, she is all good.

The story contains a number of minor characters that lighten the mood of the narrative; the Mora sisters, spiritualists who regularly provide a communication conduit from the recently dead to the living and Transito Solo a bright business woman/prostitute who sets up a union for prostitutes in Santiago.

The saga culminates in the election of a socialist president in 1973. The events that follow mirror closely what happened in Chile at that time. The president is not able to successfully rule because the right wing essentially shuts down the country; there follows a military coup. After military rule is installed all basic rights are gone and dissidents and others are taken and often killed (“the disappeared”). Trueba initially supportive of the overthrow of the government comes to see the disaster that his country has become when his own son Jaime and Alba suffer terrible violence at the hands of the military. While this sounds like a depressing and off-putting story, it really isn’t. Allende infuses the narrative with hope, understanding, forgiveness and the ability for love to overcome the most horrid circumstances.

This novel was autobiographical for Allende, she is the niece of Salvatore Allende, the socialist president of Chile in the 1970s who was deposed in a CIA sponsored coup. She clearly put her heart and soul into this novel and it you can feel her dreams and hopres for Chile in this story. This is one of the better family saga/historical fiction books that you'll read.

I read a copy of this novel that was a gift from a fellow book blogger.

Cleopatra: A Life

2011-02-20T08:05:00.001-05:00

Cleopatra: A Life

by Stacy Schiff, Hatchette Audio, November 2010,

14 hours, 16 minutes

read by Robin Miles

...she might have been one of the strongest female rulers in history, widely misunderstood and wrongly criticized

If your only impressions of Cleopatra are like mine – an Elizabeth Taylor like seductress – prepare to be educated! Stacy Schiff has written a lively, intelligent, researched based biography of the Egyptian Queen. While there is much that is not known about her life, Schiff manages to make it all work by her intense research of that era that provides a rich setting for the action. Cleopatra was born 70 years before Christ into the Ptolemy dynasty. The strongest traditions in her family included sibling murder and incest. That the woman managed to grow to adulthood is a testament to her intelligent and cunning ways. She ascends the throne of Egypt with the help of Julius Caesar at the age of 18. She successfully rules that country for the next 22 years. No uprisings, no famines, no court intrigue. She is beloved by her people. In this time before Christ the Roman Empire ruled throughout the Mediterranean and beyond; Cleopatra’s skill in navigating a successful course for Egypt was masterful. She visited Rome, was Caesar’s lover and the mother of his only child. Following Caesar’s death she and Mark Anthony fall into a 15 year relationship where she bears him three children. In the end Mark Anthony is defeated in Egypt by a Roman rival Octavian. History has blamed Cleopatra for seducing Anthony and diverting him from his military and civil tasks. The author does a good job of sorting out the prejudices of the historians (mostly Roman or Roman clients) who have tagged Cleopatra with this persona.

I learned a lot reading this book. I had only the vaguest understanding of the history of this period. I loved the descriptions of Hellenic Egypt and the excesses that the Ptolemy’s brought to kingship. Also well done were the descriptions of life in Rome at this time. I am visiting Rome in April and will look at the Forum with new interest after acquiring this background. This book completely changed my perspective on this queen. As I said I thought she was a fairly one dimensional character who played a minor role in the Roman story. I now think she might have been one of the strongest female rulers in history, widely misunderstood and wrongly criticized.

As I noted above the prose in this book is splendid but the reading that Robin Miles does in the audio edition is marvelous. She has just the right intonations for this entertaining prose. I am often undecided as to whether reading or listening is the most enjoyable for me – not with this one. Get the audio book!

I listened to an audio presentation of this novel downloaded from The Free Library of Philadelphia

Zeitoun

2011-02-11T07:06:00.001-05:00

Zeitoun

by David Eggers,

AudioCDs, 10 hours, 23 minutes, Recorded Books, August, 2009

Narrated by Firdous Bamji

I think people will still be reading this excellent Katrina story 100 years from now.

I was excited to listen to Zeitoun for two reasons – first Dave Eggers, I am still haunted by the story of the lost boys of Sudan so well told by Eggers in What is the What and second because Zeitoun was billed as a Katrina story. Having done a stint as a disaster relief volunteer in Louisiana after the storm I have continued interest in all things Katrina.

Zeitoun centers on one family – the Zeitouns – and their storm story. Abdulrachman Zeitoun is a respected Syrian American contractor who has built a successful business in New Orleans. His wife Kathy is a Muslim convert and they have four children. Eggers slowly sets the stage as the hurricane is approaching. He alternates telling their back-story with the reports on the approaching storm. Eggers allows us to really know these people in telling about Kathy’s conversion to Islam and Zeitoun’s upbringing in a large family in coastal Syria. The details about their family life reveal a couple deeply in love, working hard to realize the American dream for themselves and their children. Eggers has a real talent for drawing you in to the lives of his subjects and making you feel part of the woodwork as their life unfolds. By the end of the first third of this book you really care about what happens to these hard working, decent people.

As the storm approaches Kathy leaves New Orleans for family in Baton Rouge and then on to friends in Phoenix. Zeitoun decides to stay and oversee the properties the family owns in the city. He is a well prepared man, with food, water and the ability to take care of himself. Zeitoun successfully rides out the storm and on day one after the hurricane has hit uneventfully secures their property. On the evening of day two the levees fail and the city is drowned in 10-15 feet of water. Zeitoun has an aluminum canoe and tranquilly moves about the city. He participates in a heroic rescue of an elderly woman trapped in her home, assists in evacuating other neighbors, feeds abandoned dogs and generally supports the distressed citizenry remaining in the drowned city. He finds one of his properties with a working land line and is able to stay in touch with his wife every day. His descriptions of flooded New Orleans are almost surreal. He sleeps in a tent on a flat roof of his house, and remains in the city for several days despite various family members urging him to evacuate. One day he fails to call Kathy and she hears nothing from him for two weeks. Her fear, pain and angst are palatable and she finally comes to the conclusion that he is dead. It is a heartbreaking scenario.
(Spoilers ahead)
As Zeitoun prepared to leave the city he was unfairly arrested in his own home for looting. What follows left me enraged! He is held for two weeks first in a hastily constructed out door prison at the bus station in New Orleans (Camp Greyhound) and then in a maximum security prison inland in Louisiana. He received none of the legal protections we all take for granted – no phone calls, no lawyers, no bail hearings, nothing. His family unable to get in touch with him is convinced he is dead. Eggers constructs this story with just the right amount of suspense and drama. The naïve reader (me) also assumes that he is dead, why else would he not contact his family. In excruciating detail Eggers lays out the inhumanity of his treatment, no medical support, strip and cavity searches and continued isolation from friends, family and legal support. Finally Zeitoun is able to convince a prison volunteer to call his wife in Phoenix which starts the steps for his release.

While I don’t think Zeitoun’s treatment post Katrina was due to the fact he was a Muslim (other white Americans were arrested and imprisoned with him) I do think the government’s approach to all things Katrina was deeply flawed. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), formerly a standalone government relief agency, was folded into the Department of Homeland Security and became a quasi military organization losing its primary mission in the process. Eggers lays out all of this in a way that is so understated. He never assigns blame directly to any agency. This low key approach only added to my outrage. The one fact that will stick with me is that FEMA was building a large, outdoor prison in downtown New Orleans 24 hours after the storm struck while many New Orleanians were on their roofs begging for assistance and evacuation. The paranoid government leadership that got us into a meaningless war in Iraq was well in evidence in post Katrina New Orleans. What happened to Zeitoun could happen to any of us if we allow leadership that tramples basic legal rights the way this one did. I think people will still be reading this excellent Katrina story 100 years from now.

My Katrina memories are much more positive – people from all walks of life coming to Louisiana to provide basic food, shelter and comfort to New Orleanians displaced by this horrific storm. While I witnessed some incompetency on the part of FEMA staff, I witnessed no experiences like Zeitoun’s. I can only hope but probably not believe his treatment was the exception not the rule.

Firdous Bamji narrated this story;he was excellent in differentiating the voices. His understated delivery style was just perfect. While I listened to this book I think it would also be a superb read.

I listened to AudioCDs borrowed from The Free Library of Philadelphia

The Secret Soldier

2011-02-07T06:50:00.002-05:00

The Secret Soldier (A John Wells Novel)

by Alex Berenson, Putnam Adult, February 2011

...assassinations, kidnappings and other terrorist plots ...ripped from the headlines and unfortunately not particularly farfetched

Secret Solider is the next installment in Alex Berenson’s series about John Wells, an unconventional CIA operative. Wells has now left the agency and is trying to build a personal life with some normalcy. Not to be! He is recruited by the king of Saudi Arabia to uncover plots against the monarchy and ultimately against the US. Wells and his partner chase the terrorists from Lebannon back to Saudi Arabia without the full support of the CIA. They deal with assassinations, kidnappings and other terrorist plots. Let me say that this novel moves right along and in my mind seemed to be ripped from the headlines and unfortunately not particularly farfetched. In addition to the action in the Mid East, Berenson takes the time to give the reader a background in Saudi Arabian history, the different sects of Islam and other cultural details. I don’t want to give away plot details here as they are the meat and potatoes of this genre but Wells is a credible hero with a meaningful back-story. Additionally the story scored points with me with an ending that was not predictable.

This was the first book I read in this series and it read just fine as a standalone story. In the international spy thriller genre, Berenson, and his protagonist John Wells are now on my reading list.

I read an advanced reader copy of this novel provided by the publisher.

War and Peace Read-along

2011-02-03T08:31:00.001-05:00

After considerable thought about the commitment I’ve decided to join the War and Peace read-along hosted by Kalen and Ann at Wikispaces. I have always wanted to read this book but the sheer size of this novel (~1200 pages) has put me off. I did read Anna Karenina (and loved it) but that was a long time ago when I was much younger and had better powers of concentration. I was attracted to this read along for several reasons. The schedule is spread out from February through the end of the year. Secondly, it is set up with a lot of supporting materials (charts to keep all of those Russians straight!), articles about the Napoleonic wars and discussion groups for each section read. So I’ve determined I’ll give it a try. It’s my intention to do short posts through the year about this novel. Why don’t you give it a try? More info on the read-along on Facebook

Faithful Place

2011-01-31T07:30:00.000-05:00

Faithful Place: A Novel

by Tana French, July 2010, Viking Adult

I was unable to stop reading right through to the conclusion; then I was unable to stop thinking about this story

Some spoilers ahead

Faithful Place is Tana French’s third mystery (In the Woods, The Likeness) about a member of the Dublin police force. In this story, Frank MacKay is an undercover detective, who for twenty years has had little contact with his old neighborhood (Faithful Place) and his family. He left both behind on the night he was to run away with his girlfriend Rose. Rose never appeared to meet him and he assumed she left the neighborhood without him. Frank set out to build a life for himself and now twenty years later is taken back to the old neighborhood when Rose’s suitcase is found indicating that she never left.

Frank narrates the story and the action moves between his life growing up on Faithful Place and present day events. He is now a divorced father with an ex he still cares for and a nine year old who he is trying to shelter from life’s crueler side. Frank’s family is a horror, his “da” is a raging alcoholic who is abusive to all, and his mother makes Cruella DeVil look warm and fuzzy. His siblings all carry baggage from being raised in this home. The amount of cruelty in their interactions with each other is downright scary.

The mystery is fairly straightforward, Rose’s body is soon discovered buried on an abandoned property on the street and the murderer is clearly a local. One of the strengths of this story is in French’s ability to capture present day Dublin. She doesn’t pander to her readers; her prose is rife with references that require some familiarity with modern culture (Kojak, U2,). This is really a psychological mystery and ultimately the story of a very dysfunctional family but French makes it a page turner that fully engulfs you. I was unable to stop reading right through to the conclusion;then I was unable to stop thinking about this story. A primo read!

I read a copy of this book borrowed from The Free Library of Philadelphia

A Visit from the Goon Squad

2011-01-28T07:44:00.002-05:00

A Visit from the Goon Squad

by Jennifer Egan, June 2010, AudioCD 10 hours and 8 minutes

Read by Roxena Ortega

For those who read and love characters this book is a treasure

This is a different type of story, not a traditional novel more than a series of short stories, centered on a group of characters loosely connected to the music business. Their lives are played out over time, not necessarily in linear order and we are treated to viewing the effects of the passage of time – the goon - on their lives, values and relationships.

The story is told over a 50 year time span that begins in the San Francisco punk rock scene in the 1970s and ends in a slightly dystopian future in 2020. We meet Bennie when he is a teenage musician in SF, then in his prime as a successful music producer, see him again when he is a washed up 40 year old trying to connect with his young son and finally as a 70 something having one last hurrah producing a show starring his teenage band mate Scotty.

Sasha the other main character has worked as Bennie’s assistant. We meet her as a 30 year old with psychological issues that include kleptomania, then learn her back-story as a child of a violent relationship, see her in Naples as a lost teenager, then as a college student trying to talk her best friend out of suicide, and finally as middle aged mom with two young children.

Egan introduces other memorable characters, giving them their own chapters and then polishing their stories with short references in other chapters. The characters are the strength of this story and they are memorable. Lou, the successful record producer who does cocaine and chases teenage girls around SF. Dolly the PR executive who loses her business after a devastating fire and returns to rehabilitate the image of a genocidal African dictator. Ted, Sasha’s uncle caught in a loveless marriage who travels to Naples ostensibly to find her but is obsessed with the art there. Jules, Bennie’s brother-in-law, a journalist who during an interview with a starlet inexplicitly attacks her, goes to prison for his crime, rehabilitates and ends up writing stories about Bennie’s washed up protégé. Egan uses modern technology to tell her story, including a PowerPoint presentation from Sasha’s daughter and texting.

This plot summary makes this story sound disjointed and one dimensional and the book is anything but that. Her prose is simple and well structured, a pleasure to read. These characters walk off the page into your mind if not exactly into your heart. For those of us who read and love characters this book is a treasure. Told in an unconventional way Egan has a talent for developing characters that are deeply and fully realized. The overarching theme of the novel, the effects of time on people, relationships and values is captured wonderfully. While none of the characters are particularly inspiring and most come to unremarkable ends, the brilliant prose prevents this story from being depressing.

I listened to this novel on audio CDs and I was worried that I would not be able to flip back and reread a section to keep everyone straight in this complex story but that wasn’t the case, it really flowed well. The story was read by the talented Roxena Ortega. She was able to differentiate these characters well and reliably reproduce their voices over all of the chapters. I believe this book would be just as enjoyable read as listened to.

I listened to this novel on Audio CDs borrowed from The Free Library of Philadelphia

Operation Mincemeat

2011-01-24T06:49:00.001-05:00

Operation Mincemeat: How a Dead Man and a Bizarre Plan Fooled the Nazis and Assured an Allied Victory

by Ben MacIntyre, Audio CD 11 hours, 18 mintues, Random House Audio, May 2010

Read by John Lee

If you like spy thrillers give this one a try it's a keeper!

Operation Mincemeat is the story of a little known British subterfuge leading up to the Allied invasion of Sicily in 1943. The story was told incompletely in the 1950s book The Man Who Never Was. The British Naval Intelligence service invents the identity of a naval officer and releases his dead body loaded with intelligence papers off the coast of neutral Spain in 1943. The entire ruse comes from the minds of a group of British novelists who are serving officers in the intelligence service. All of the creative detail that makes this trick so successful comes from these literary minds. The most recognizable name involved is Ian Fleming but there are several other writers serving in this unit and participating in this operation.

The story reads like the best international spy thrillers. The Brits make up a complete back-story for the dead body complete with family and fiancée. Securing a dead body and preparing it for use in a way that will fool the Nazis is key to the ruse and is more luck than skill in this operation. The papers the dead officer will carry are prepared at the highest levels of the Allied war command with Eisenhower, Churchill and Montgomery giving input on what should be in them. The body is transported clandestinely by submarine and carefully released off the Spanish coast and almost immediately recovered. A tense week ensues as the Spanish Fascists attempt to recover the papers. They succeed and the papers are soon in German hands. The Germans fall for the deception hook, line and sinker moving troops away from Sicily and to the decoy target Greece. The author has access to many official papers in both the British and German governments that allow for a telling that is very complete at each step along the way.

The audio book I listened to was read by John Lee and he was marvelous! He was able to switch between English, German, Spanish, American and French accents effortlessly and in my opinion really added to the pleasure of listening to this story. If you like spy thrillers give this one a try it’s a keeper!

I listened to this story on AudioCDs borrowed from The Free Library of Philadelphia.

Heartbroke Bay

2011-01-21T07:47:00.002-05:00

Heartbroke Bay

by Lynn D'urso, November, 2010, Berkerly Trade

...good historical fiction but characters act annoyingly out of character in final chapters

Lots of spoilers in this review

I had difficulty deciding how I felt about this novel. It tells the story of Hannah Butler who comes to America as a ladies maid in the last decade of the nineteenth century. On a train ride west, almost out of boredom, she elopes with Hans Nelson. Nelson is an attractive man who is traveling west to Alaska to mine for gold. The couple travel from Seattle to Skagway, encounter conditions for which they are completely unprepared – no shelter available causing them to sleep outdoors. They retreat to Juneau to work and wait out the winter and then return north in search of gold. Through the winter they meet Dutch, a dreamer with information on a gold field in the north, Harky a simple minded soul who will provide the muscle for their team and Michael, an Irishman who owns the ship which will take them north.

The author details their trip north to Heartbroke Bay. The story has an authentic Alaskan feel to it. One can only image how brave those who settled this land were. The trip north is a sea voyage fraught with peril. They arrive and set up camp to begin their search for gold. A Tlingit Indian, Negook visits and warns them that settling in this part of the region is not safe – earthquakes, tsunamis, etc. The group ignores his advice (always happens that way doesn’t it!). There is a growing attraction between Hannah and Michael which adds more tension to an already tense group. Nothing goes right for the group, very little gold is recovered and catastrophically their ship is lost when an iceberg destroys it.

Unbeknownst to her husband Hans, Hannah succumbs to Michael’s advances and they become lovers. Helped by Negook they do locate a gold vein and harvest significant amounts of gold. Disastrously, the group decides to delay their departure to mine more gold and pass up their last chance to leave the bay prior to winter’s arrival. The action really picks up here. Food is limited, Hans becomes injured, the weather is worsening and Hans suspects Hannah’s infidelity. One abortive attempt to walk out of the valley fails and costs the group half of the mined gold. After a hunting expedition Michael returns and unprovoked kills Harky and Dutch and attempts to kill Hans and Hannah. This is where I really had a problem with this story, Michael’s behavior is so unexpected and entirely out of character. I believe that the author builds a case for Hannah’s guilt but there is nothing in Michael’s personality that would support an act like this. This story is based on actual events that occurred in Alaska in 1899. It seems to me that the author lost this story when she gave up her narrative and molded this novel to match the actual events that took place. I was enjoying this book until the last few chapters when the characters began to act so annoyingly out of character, so it is difficult to highly recommend it but the Alaskan gold story is a good one and well told through most of this book.
I read a copy of this book bought at Amazon