Category: Books

Genre: Book 

Grade: D

Notable People:  Steve Hamilton

Title: A Scandal of the Particular

Review: What can I say…. from the strange title and from the very first page, this may be the worst book I have read in my adult life. My local librarian e-mailed me to let me know it was in and give em e first dibs, knowing my fondness for Steve Hamilton books …unfortunately the Hamilton I read and admire (the Alex McKnight and Nick Mason series) …. only shares the same name. This guy is a former prosecutor and writes like one……. a bad one. Every line of every page is filled with run-on over descriptive metaphors of sorts, and a story line almost impossible to keep up with……after a few pages you start gagging. I had the misfortune of taking this along as my second book to read on our recent trip to Ohio, so wearily made my way through the whole damn thing just to have something to read at night. There should be a cigarette like warning posted on the side of the book. Just awful.

Genre: Book  

Grade: B+

Notable People:  Lindsey Davis

Title: Shadows in Bronze

Review: Who would have thunk that a gumshoe series set in ancient Rome would be a thing? Obviously, Davis does, and so do a million readers. This is the second in God knows how many in this series dating back to the late 80s (this one is 1991). Our reluctant hero, Didius Falco, resumes his nocturnal, clandestine activities and chases after his beloved maiden, Helena. These books will inform you more than you ever probably thought you wanted to know about all things of the Roman Epoch. Well written and dialoged, with compelling characters. A bit of challenge to get the knack of the language and terminology at first, but I’m moving on to number three.

Genre: Book

Grade: A-

Notable People:  Louise Erdrich

Title: The Night Watchman

Review: The veteran author hits pay dirt with this luminous novel based on the experiences of her Chippewa grandfather. The year is 1953 and a lunatic senator has decided to dispossess the Chippewa Indians from their adopted homeland in North Dakota. The book is a beautifully written treatise on the modern Native experience. Erdrich has configured wonderful truth- based fictional world populated with an endless array of compelling characters. We find a hodgepodge of personal stories and complex relationships set in the cultural context of the Chippewa- and explores themes of love and death with both lightness and gravity. It also asks the very specific question of how the American government consistently can abandon treaties with the Native American population, made in good faith, “for as long as the grasses shall grow and the rivers shall run”. Good question.

Genre: Book

Grade: A-

Notable People:  Kate Quinn

Title: The Alice Network

Review: This is a completely compelling novel about two women searching for justice in post war(two) France. The historical context centers around the true story of “The Alice Network”- a mostly unknown network of Female allied spies during the first world war- which is an absolutely extraordinary story of heroism, bravery and composure under the direst of circumstances. The book flashes back and forth between the two world wars and to 1947 when the older woman (an “Alice” from the first war) and the younger woman (searching for her beloved and lost childhood cousin in post war France) hook up for a momentous road trip across the continent to find the Nazi collaborator that holds the key to both their mysteries. Well rooted in historical facts and enticing with its characters, this boo lacks some polish in writing style, but is still mesmerizing.

Genre: Book

Grade: A-

Notable People:  Louise Penny

Title: The Nature of the Beast

Review: I think by now everyone who reads this knows how I regard Penny’s Gamache works. This is the 11^th in this astounding series that combines mystery with philosophy, psychology, religion and a great deal of angst…. all told by an absolute master storyteller. This one has a now retired Gamache newly settled in the idyll of Three Pines in the Eastern Townships of southern Quebec- just a throw from the Vermont border……grappling with the discovery of the largest weapon of mass destruction ever assembled which has been hiding in the woods for almost 30 years. There is murder, mayhem, The Whore of Babylon (no shit!), Neil Young and the ever more revealed cast of wonderful characters. Did I mention we also have Saddam Hussein? I though this one might be a wee bit more farfetched than the previous tall stories-but still almost impossible to put down. The next one is by my bedside, but I need to read a few other books first, to avoid feeling like an addict.

Genre: Book  

Grade: A

Notable People:  Britt Bennett

Title: The Vanishing Half

Review: Absolutely marvelous second novel by this California wittier, who won all kinds of awards for her first effort “Mothers”, which I loved and reviewed here last year. The second book is even better. Gripping from the very start, with great plot twists, dead on psychological insights and a challenging forum for looking at racism through a variety of lenses. The book travels from rural Louisiana to DC, Los Angeles and New York and back in this radiant story of two twin sisters raised in a community exclusively of extremely light skinned black people (fictional Mallard, LA.), who pursue their adult identities in dramatically different fashions, and the effects on their lives, their daughters, their communities and each other. Very, very powerful and exceedingly well written book that was a gift from my daughter, who continues to challenge me on issue of social significance.

Genre: Book

Grade: B+

Notable People:  Harlan Coben

Title: Deal Breaker

Review: Got this book as birthday gift; one in a long series by the prolific Coben, that features Myron Bolitar. Bolitar is fledgling sports agent, former pro football player and FBI special agent, who has a pension foe trouble. It’s an interesting premise and wicked whodunnit with some innovative characters. The writing is above average, but not sterling. Bolitar is somewhat in the classic private eye mode and the book is an illuminating take on the down and dirty of sports agents. Coben has a number of series he writes, and is, coincidentally, the author of “No Second Chance” which was made into a fresh steaming series that I recently watched and was quite good. His books seem to be particularly suitable for transfer to the screen. If you are a big mystery fan, this is a good book- if you are not, it’s a skip.

Genre: Book 

Grade:  A

Notable People: Louise Penny

Title:  “The Long Way Home”

Review:      If my previous dozen or so reviews have not motivated you to check out Penny’s extraordinary Chief Inspector Gamache series……. well……you’re missing something. These books are brilliantly written- blending crime fiction with masterful psychological drama and a wonderful sense of both place and humor. Penny is simply the bomb. These books are very hard to put down. This one has it all. Gamache has seemingly retired and moved in to his muse, the fabled village of Three Pines, Quebec……but that does not end his internal and external investigations to solve complicate crimes and resolve life arcs. The cast of characters only gets better with each work, and this one takes us on a wild ride to the remote and mysterious corner of Quebec along the St. Lawrence Seaway….to the beauty of the Charlevoix region (a must trip). Along the way we have forty year old cults, crazed artists, a road trip for the ages….and…..the Garden of Cosmic Speculation (NO SHIT!!!!). I’d say you can’t make this shit up, but Penny does and with reverence and aplomb. Masterpieces!

Genre: Book    

Grade:  A-

Notable People: CJ Box

Title:  “Dark Sky”

Review:      The latest installment in the long running Joe Pickett-Wyoming Game Warden series is a barn burner from start to finish. Silicon Valley giant comes to Wyoming to bag Big Elk; Joe gets assigned by the corrupt Governor to guide him into the Bighorns so he will consider locating a massive new tech facility in Wyoming- based on his wonderful experience in the mountain west……then all hell breaks loose. Joes’ friend, Nate Romanowski- the legendary Falconer outlaw remains a character for the literary ages, and Box does a really nice job of filling out all his characters…and the man just flat out knows the Bighorns. Read the whole thing in three days- perfect summer reading.

Genre: Book   

Grade:  A-

Notable People: Viet Thanh Nguyen

Title:  “The Sympathizer”

Review:      Pulitzer Prize winning first novel by this Vietnamese -American author is an intensely thoughtful look at the end of the Vietnam War- told though the eyes of an exiled- to America- NVA regular, who is secretly a Communist-Vietcong spy……got that? The book is complicated, but a remarkable debut-both as a thriller and powerful social satire. It is not kind about the American involvement in the winless war, and tackles all kinds of social injustices- but thankfully, with a very subtle but persistent sense of humor. May be the first real effort to novelize the War from the Vietnamese point of view- which is refreshing. Nguyen can get over –heady in his writing and some of the thought and dream sequences are a bit hard to follow/swallow, but the story is riveting. A powerful and important book.