Category: Books

Genre: Book   

Grade: A

Notable People: Ken Follett

Title:  Eye of the Needle

Review: This 1978 novel by the author of The Pillars of the Earth medieval trilogy may be one the greatest spy thrillers ever written. A semi-factual account of the battle of deception between Hitler and the Allies surrounding the decoding of where the penultimate D-Day attack will occur. Th abate of wills and spy tactics would ultimately decide the key to victory for either side. One enemy spy knows the secret to the Allies’ greatest deception, a brilliant aristocrat and ruthless assassin — code name: “The Needle”. Only one person stands in his way: a lonely Englishwoman on an isolated island, who is beginning to love the killer who has mysteriously entered her life. Follett is a truly gifted and exceptional writer, who is still actively writing. His sense of nuance and character is shockingly good-you will feel like you are there and can connect to the investments of the characters fully. It does not hurt that he is extraordinarily well informed historically. He is my favorite lit discovery of the last year.

Genre: Book  

Grade: B+

Notable People: Michael Dorris

Title:  A Yellow Raft in Blue Water

Review: Picked up this book at a library sale because I liked the title (astute reasoning, I know). Dorris, the late husband of writer Louise Erdrich, and a professor of Indian studies at Dartmouth wrote his one and only novel in 1987- a fierce saga of three generations of Indian women, beset by hardships and torn by angry secrets, yet joined by the bonds of kinship. Starting in the present day and moving backward, the novel is told in the voices of the three women: fifteen-year-old part-black Rayona; her erratic and dying American Indian mother, Christine; and the fierce and mysterious aunt Ida, mother and grandmother whose haunting secrets, betrayals, and dreams echo through the years. The book took me a long time to respond to, and I almost quit it, but in the end, I thought it was compelling story and a taut look into the life of the modern Native American woman. Incredibly preserving group of women.

Genre: Book         

Grade: A-

Notable People: Alexander Wolff

Title: Endpapers

Review: An extraordinarily rich book by this Vermont author (and former sports writer) given to me as a reading assignment from our German academic friends before they left for the winter for Deutschland. Wolff is the grandson of Kurt Wolff, a very famous 20^th century German (later NY) publisher who published the discontented likes of Kafka, Sartre, Herman Hesse and Boris Pasternak- and was involved in Nazi resistance. He eventually escaped to France and then to New York, with his second wife, Helen, and together they created the very famous Pantheon Books in Greenwich Village. Kurt left his first wife, a Merck, in Berlin with their two children; Nico, who is the author’s father, stayed in Germany, and fought for the Nazis in the Wehrmacht, bur eventually emigrated to the US (once forgiven by the War tribunals as a helpless conscript) and hid his past. Alexander spent years and many trips to the homeland researching this book, and it is a fascinating family portrait, an informative treatise on war, and a very revealing take of the modern day German angst, guilt and defensiveness. Extraordinary insight into the powers behind the Fuhrer’s ascent and especially the role of the Merck Pharmaceutical power house and its cronies. Very powerful book.

Genre: Book    

Grade: A-

Notable People: Louise Penny

Title: The Madness of Crowds

Review: Penny continues to put out one brilliant Armand Gamache mystery after another. This is her 2021 published book chronicling the effects of the Pandemic and post-pandemic life is Quebec. As usual the mystery is world influencing, the characters are beyond brilliant and the settings sublime. Who would not want to live in Three Pines…well, maybe if you are squeamish about small village murders. Gamache remains one of the best characters in my reading history-a philosopher and reflector for the ages. As usual the boo includes some very real historical references that will shock you. I struggled a bit with her projected (maybe Pollyanna) projection of the pandemic being fully resolved by a wiling populace being fully vaccinated and there no longer being any threat (life fully normalized)- but maybe, that’s just Canadian? I parse these books out periodically to hopefully never quite catch up with the end. Great reads; you’ll want to be off to Quebec this winter.

Genre: Book  

Grade: A-

Notable People: Donna Leon

Title: Dreed for Death

Review: This 1994 novel is the third installment in Leon’s wonderful series featuring Commisario Guido Brunetti foe the Venice Policia. Brunetti is a great character-thoughtful, wise and incredibly ironic. The commentary on the state of Italian life, culture and government is worth it alone foe these reads. And, Leon winds in masterful mysteries full of offbeat characters. This one I tackled the underside of sexual identity way before it’s time and will keep you guessing to the end. This series is major keeper for those of us who like serial reading, mysteries and enigmatic characters-plus its lovingly set in Venice, in all its glory. You can almost feel the gondola ride.

Genre: Book

Grade: A-

Notable People: Thomas Perry

Title: Dance for the Dead

Review: This 1996 novel is the second in Perry’s unusual Jane Whitefield series. Jane is a Seneca Indian in far upstate New York who infamously makes people disappear who need to not be found by people with very bad intentions. The development of the main character from the first to the second book is significant and the story of Jane’s attempt to save an orphaned young boy, who is inheriting millions, form a cutthroat syndicate keeps us hurtling back and forth across the country with abandon and glee as readers. I’m hooked on the series now. thanks to my lit mentor, Professor Neil.

Genre: Book  

Grade: A

Notable People: Ross Macdonald

Title: The Drowning Pool

Review: I was reading a review of a current mystery writer I am interested in and they referred to this book as one of the best ever-so got the library to track it down and gave it a read. MacDonald’s Lew Archer, which he wrote from mid-40s till his 1983 death, is the heir apparent to Dashiell Hammett’s Sam Spade and Raymond Chandler’s Philip Marlowe- think dark noir, one of the great literature types to emerge from the American canon. This book is riveting from start to finish, which you will do quickly. Don’t like murder mysteries? Don’t be fooled. In a retrospective of his work, the LA times said “MacDonald should not be limited to connoisseurs of mystery fiction. His worth and quality far surpass the limitations of the form”. This is great stuff- and Archer is the true /American archetypal hero in every way.

Genre: Book

Grade: A-

Notable People: Donna Leon

Title: Death in Strange Country

Review: The second in Leon’s award winning series featuring Commisario Guido Brunetti of the Venice policia. Wonderfully written with great-gusto characters who are not merely Italian- they are Venetian……. which I’ve learned, is most definitely a thing. Brunetti is a thoughtful character- much more cerebral than physical and a lifelong Venetian. The detailed descriptions of life in the canal city are absorbing and alluring and the mysteries well-conceived and well developed- with a wry commentary on power and corruption. If you are looking for something to sink your teeth into for a while, there are 32 books in this series that started in 1992 and Leon is still actively writing. Roba fantastica.

Genre: Book   

Grade: A-

Notable People: Walter Mosley

Title: Cinnamon Kiss

Review: after a month reading the laborious Pillars of the Earth, I went for down and dirty, reaching back to an old friend, Walter Mosley, who is like a well-worn pair of jeans. Had been a few years since my last dance with the fabled LA private dick, Easy Rawlins (think Denzel) and his mega- dangerous killer associate, Mouse Alexander, but it was like I nave left. Picked up with this gem, set in post Watts LA in 1963, where Easy follows up on some Sam Spade like intrigue, while ruminating on the world’s condition, the purpose of war and especially on racism in America……. all set in La and San Francisco at the dawning of the 60s counterculture. It’s a lot to unpack, but brilliant story by one of the best ever in the genre, and I read the dam things in 3 days. Mosley originally set this series immediately post war with the general, and especially African-American, LA boom of returning GIs and this ones takes us up to  the summer of love-written in 2005 and the 10^th in this wonderful series, that the magnificent Mosley is still writing. You Go, Easy!

Genre: Book

Grade: A-

Notable People: Ken Follett

Title: Pillars of the Earth

Review: This almost 8 pound, 1000-page hardcover book took me a month to read (some read In between for a break) and gave me forearm cramps juts holding it up (might want to consider this one on kindle). But-its’ a beauty. Follett is a master writer of spy fiction-dating back to the Cold War- but took a break in 1989, defying convention, to write this, the first of three works on medieval history/culture and the building of the giant European cathedrals. This book has it all: love, lust, extreme evil, power brokering rarely seen, extraordinary perseverance, enlightenment, scientific discovery- all around the lives of a group of people in 12^th century Britain, over a 60-year period and amidst the building of a historically designed massive cathedral (without power tools). It is an amazing wok of historical fiction and filled with unique highs and lows in the reading of it. Hard not to love and hate the characters and hard to take the sheer brutality of the lust for power and control, but this is a brilliant piece of work worthy of your time (a lot of it). And, Follett’s circa 2000 updated intro is worth the price of admission