Robert Dugoni, THE EXTRAORDINARY LIFE OF SAM HILL
I read this compelling, engaging book in one day. Born with ocular albinism, resulting in him having red eyes, young Sam Hill is bullied and tormented as a child but, with the support of his two friends and his extraordinary parents, he grows up to be a generous, evolved ophthalmologist who travels the world helping others. This would be a 5-star read for me except that I felt the ending was just a tad too tidy and picture-perfect. Also, the line from the bully's cruelty to his monstrous parents (and from Sam's "big heart" to his loving parents) is drawn a little too sharply. Still, I thoroughly enjoyed the read. I was surprised that Dugoni is actually better known for his bestselling mystery novels. I read around that genre pretty widely; how the heck have I missed those? I'll be looking for them next because he is a wonderful storyteller. I recommend.
I read this compelling, engaging book in one day. Born with ocular albinism, resulting in him having red eyes, young Sam Hill is bullied and tormented as a child but, with the support of his two friends and his extraordinary parents, he grows up to be a generous, evolved ophthalmologist who travels the world helping others. This would be a 5-star read for me except that I felt the ending was just a tad too tidy and picture-perfect. Also, the line from the bully's cruelty to his monstrous parents (and from Sam's "big heart" to his loving parents) is drawn a little too sharply. Still, I thoroughly enjoyed the read. I was surprised that Dugoni is actually better known for his bestselling mystery novels. I read around that genre pretty widely; how the heck have I missed those? I'll be looking for them next because he is a wonderful storyteller. I recommend.
Richard Powers, THE OVERSTORY
This Pulitzer-prize winning novel is part epic and part fable, though it begins with what I'd characterize as a series of short stories about different families in which a tree has some significance. It's about trees, yes; but it's also about how humans have mistakenly come to see ourselves as the central figures in our narrative. Trees have lives and ways of communicating among each other that we are only beginning to understand ... because we're not looking and listening properly. So much has already been written about this book that I'm not going to try to explain it. But it's a bighearted, ambitious book, very well-written, and it shifted the way I look at the world. I'd recommend to anyone.
This Pulitzer-prize winning novel is part epic and part fable, though it begins with what I'd characterize as a series of short stories about different families in which a tree has some significance. It's about trees, yes; but it's also about how humans have mistakenly come to see ourselves as the central figures in our narrative. Trees have lives and ways of communicating among each other that we are only beginning to understand ... because we're not looking and listening properly. So much has already been written about this book that I'm not going to try to explain it. But it's a bighearted, ambitious book, very well-written, and it shifted the way I look at the world. I'd recommend to anyone.
Judith L. Pearson*, THE WOLVES AT THE DOOR
*Tempe, AZ author
This compelling story was completely new to me, for I'd never heard of Virginia Hall, an American woman who served as a spy in WWII. Generally I appreciate books that recover women's history, as so many stories about WWII focus on men's heroics. And Hall was extraordinarily brave, putting herself back in France to work with the Resistance when she knew her portrait was circulating among those who'd capture and torture her. I thought Pearson did well exploring Virginia's youth and the accident that she refused to let limit her; I felt outraged for Virginia as the Foreign Office rejected her applications, largely based on her sex. Pearson explores the politics of the different intelligence agencies (section D of the Foreign Office vs. Special Operations Executive) and sustains the historical context without going into detail about WWII history that most of us know (the invasion of Austria ... Poland ... etc.). The section on Vichy France is very well done and, as it falls within Virginia's purview, contains more specifics--I learned a great deal (again, I was outraged by much of it!). Pearson also shares some of the details of Virginia's training for going undercover in France--for example, how when startled from their beds, they were taught to jump up and scream "Nom de Dieu" instead of "Bloody hell!" At times her synopses left me wishing for more detail ("Virginia was now working almost nonstop. There were agents in need of money, contacts, or a shoulder to lean on. There were RAF pilots, anxious to return to the fighting, who needed safe transport back to England...."). But overall a quick, engaging read that provides a window into a surprising world. Readers who like Susan Elia MacNeal's (fictional) Maggie Hope books and Elizabeth Wein's CODE NAME VERITY, will probably find this book provides an interesting viewpoint.
*Tempe, AZ author
This compelling story was completely new to me, for I'd never heard of Virginia Hall, an American woman who served as a spy in WWII. Generally I appreciate books that recover women's history, as so many stories about WWII focus on men's heroics. And Hall was extraordinarily brave, putting herself back in France to work with the Resistance when she knew her portrait was circulating among those who'd capture and torture her. I thought Pearson did well exploring Virginia's youth and the accident that she refused to let limit her; I felt outraged for Virginia as the Foreign Office rejected her applications, largely based on her sex. Pearson explores the politics of the different intelligence agencies (section D of the Foreign Office vs. Special Operations Executive) and sustains the historical context without going into detail about WWII history that most of us know (the invasion of Austria ... Poland ... etc.). The section on Vichy France is very well done and, as it falls within Virginia's purview, contains more specifics--I learned a great deal (again, I was outraged by much of it!). Pearson also shares some of the details of Virginia's training for going undercover in France--for example, how when startled from their beds, they were taught to jump up and scream "Nom de Dieu" instead of "Bloody hell!" At times her synopses left me wishing for more detail ("Virginia was now working almost nonstop. There were agents in need of money, contacts, or a shoulder to lean on. There were RAF pilots, anxious to return to the fighting, who needed safe transport back to England...."). But overall a quick, engaging read that provides a window into a surprising world. Readers who like Susan Elia MacNeal's (fictional) Maggie Hope books and Elizabeth Wein's CODE NAME VERITY, will probably find this book provides an interesting viewpoint.
Madeline Miller, THE SONG OF ACHILLES
I was haunted by Miller's CIRCE and would put it in the top 20 for my year. But I also loved this earlier book, THE SONG OF ACHILLES. An imaginative, compelling retelling of the story of Achilles from the point of view of his best friend and lover Patroclus. The themes of the myth most of us know (at least in part)--loyalty, justice, desire, and the longing for power--are rendered fresh and intensely felt in this book. My daughter loved it too.
I was haunted by Miller's CIRCE and would put it in the top 20 for my year. But I also loved this earlier book, THE SONG OF ACHILLES. An imaginative, compelling retelling of the story of Achilles from the point of view of his best friend and lover Patroclus. The themes of the myth most of us know (at least in part)--loyalty, justice, desire, and the longing for power--are rendered fresh and intensely felt in this book. My daughter loved it too.
Tayari Jones, AN AMERICAN MARRIAGE.
The author came to Phoenix on her book tour, and because she was warm and charming, perhaps I was predisposed to like this contemporary novel. But I wasn't even three pages in before I realized how accomplished the writing is, how deft the narrative voice. The book is told from several perspectives: those of the married couple Ray and Celestial, and their friend Andre.
Because I believe an author's writing speaks best for itself, here is a sample from Ray's first entry: "Atlanta is where I learned the rules and learned them quick. No one ever called me stupid. But home isn't where you *land*; home is where you *launch*. You can't pick your home any more than you can choose your family. In poker, you get five cards. Three of them you can swap out, but two are yours to keep: family and native land."
The plot begins when Ray is wrongly convicted of a crime; and the book traces the effects on a person, on a marriage, and on a community. With richly developed secondary characters and a voice that is neither embittered nor preachy, I found this book heartbreaking, raw, and real. Given the current discussions and the #BlackLivesMatter movement, this book feels very timely. Highly recommend.
The author came to Phoenix on her book tour, and because she was warm and charming, perhaps I was predisposed to like this contemporary novel. But I wasn't even three pages in before I realized how accomplished the writing is, how deft the narrative voice. The book is told from several perspectives: those of the married couple Ray and Celestial, and their friend Andre.
Because I believe an author's writing speaks best for itself, here is a sample from Ray's first entry: "Atlanta is where I learned the rules and learned them quick. No one ever called me stupid. But home isn't where you *land*; home is where you *launch*. You can't pick your home any more than you can choose your family. In poker, you get five cards. Three of them you can swap out, but two are yours to keep: family and native land."
The plot begins when Ray is wrongly convicted of a crime; and the book traces the effects on a person, on a marriage, and on a community. With richly developed secondary characters and a voice that is neither embittered nor preachy, I found this book heartbreaking, raw, and real. Given the current discussions and the #BlackLivesMatter movement, this book feels very timely. Highly recommend.
Georgette Heyer, DEATH IN THE STOCKS
A thoroughly enjoyable read, with witty, flippant characters, unexpected twists, plenty of suspects, and a romance. Read it on a lazy Sunday afternoon. For those readers who love Heyer (and this cozy historical mystery genre, set in England), try Dianne Freeman's books, beginning with *A Lady’s Guide to Etiquette and Murder.*
A thoroughly enjoyable read, with witty, flippant characters, unexpected twists, plenty of suspects, and a romance. Read it on a lazy Sunday afternoon. For those readers who love Heyer (and this cozy historical mystery genre, set in England), try Dianne Freeman's books, beginning with *A Lady’s Guide to Etiquette and Murder.*
Austin Channing Brown. I'M STILL HERE: BLACK DIGITY IN A WORLD MADE FOR WHITENESS.
A sensitive, smart, sometimes even wryly humorous collection of memoir-essays about the author's experiences over the years of interacting with white people, from the outright racists to the well-meaning but obtuse "nice" ones. Her first line: "White people can be exhausting." She tackles assumptions, defenses, excuses, and fears, for both Blacks and whites. Well worth the read.
A sensitive, smart, sometimes even wryly humorous collection of memoir-essays about the author's experiences over the years of interacting with white people, from the outright racists to the well-meaning but obtuse "nice" ones. Her first line: "White people can be exhausting." She tackles assumptions, defenses, excuses, and fears, for both Blacks and whites. Well worth the read.
Jess Montgomery, THE WIDOWS
A solid debut historical novel/mystery set in 1924 Ohio coal country. Two women are drawn together after the death of Daniel, the sheriff, because one is his wife and one is his oldest friend (and former lover) and both want to know the truth about his murder. The historical details are feathered in organically (no info-dumps) and although at times I found myself feeling as if the emotional lives of the women were laid just a tad bit thickly on the page (for my taste), the plot ratchets up the tension consistently with shifting loyalties, threats and violence, and the growing resentment of the miners over the abuses perpetrated by the system. (Yes, there's a mine cave-in.) But the most compelling plot arc belongs to Lily, Daniels' widow, the new sheriff, who uncovers hidden relationships among the townspeople, as well as secret motivations, and slowly realizes how to use that personal information to resolve a public crisis. In the end, these two women produce a solution that is arguably feminist--they neither enact a vengeance (that would appease their rage) against the villain nor let him go (out of abject fear) but find a way to force him to behave with decency. I think fans of Amy Stewart's GIRL WAITS WITH GUN series, with its emotionally astute and courageous NJ police woman, will enjoy this. (NOTE: I discovered this author through a panel at the virtual Bouchercon 2020.)
A solid debut historical novel/mystery set in 1924 Ohio coal country. Two women are drawn together after the death of Daniel, the sheriff, because one is his wife and one is his oldest friend (and former lover) and both want to know the truth about his murder. The historical details are feathered in organically (no info-dumps) and although at times I found myself feeling as if the emotional lives of the women were laid just a tad bit thickly on the page (for my taste), the plot ratchets up the tension consistently with shifting loyalties, threats and violence, and the growing resentment of the miners over the abuses perpetrated by the system. (Yes, there's a mine cave-in.) But the most compelling plot arc belongs to Lily, Daniels' widow, the new sheriff, who uncovers hidden relationships among the townspeople, as well as secret motivations, and slowly realizes how to use that personal information to resolve a public crisis. In the end, these two women produce a solution that is arguably feminist--they neither enact a vengeance (that would appease their rage) against the villain nor let him go (out of abject fear) but find a way to force him to behave with decency. I think fans of Amy Stewart's GIRL WAITS WITH GUN series, with its emotionally astute and courageous NJ police woman, will enjoy this. (NOTE: I discovered this author through a panel at the virtual Bouchercon 2020.)
Catriona McPherson, STRANGERS AT THE GATE
Twisty and atmospheric. Although it takes place in a small town, this is no cozy. When Finnie Doyle (the protagonist) and her husband Paddy Lamb are hired for positions in the town of Simmerton, where she'll serve as deacon and he'll be a lawyer at a small firm, and where there's a cottage conveniently waiting for them, there's a twinned sense of "too good to be true" and faceless malice that feels reminiscent of Grisham's THE FIRM. After two murders, the couple become immersed, over the course of one intense week, within a tight little web of strange people with hidden motives and secrets. To be honest, I found myself having to reread paragraphs as I approached the ending because the twists come in quick succession. But McPherson is extraordinarily attuned to how people's minds work, how they build stories out of a single piece of information plus their own assumptions--for example Paddy's mother Elayne, who (Finnie recognizes) "quick as that, decided I'd tried to stop [her son] Paddy seeing her by cooking up a story about wanting Rocky Roads," so Elayne would be out of the house, shopping at Marks and Spencer, when Paddy stopped by. I found that to be the most brilliant part of this book.
Twisty and atmospheric. Although it takes place in a small town, this is no cozy. When Finnie Doyle (the protagonist) and her husband Paddy Lamb are hired for positions in the town of Simmerton, where she'll serve as deacon and he'll be a lawyer at a small firm, and where there's a cottage conveniently waiting for them, there's a twinned sense of "too good to be true" and faceless malice that feels reminiscent of Grisham's THE FIRM. After two murders, the couple become immersed, over the course of one intense week, within a tight little web of strange people with hidden motives and secrets. To be honest, I found myself having to reread paragraphs as I approached the ending because the twists come in quick succession. But McPherson is extraordinarily attuned to how people's minds work, how they build stories out of a single piece of information plus their own assumptions--for example Paddy's mother Elayne, who (Finnie recognizes) "quick as that, decided I'd tried to stop [her son] Paddy seeing her by cooking up a story about wanting Rocky Roads," so Elayne would be out of the house, shopping at Marks and Spencer, when Paddy stopped by. I found that to be the most brilliant part of this book.
Petina Gappah, OUT OF DARKNESS, SHINING LIGHT
This is what I think of as a warp/weft novel, reframing a story we think we know. Other examples include Jean Rhys's Wide Sargasso Sea, which offers the story of Bertha Mason, the madwoman whose story is reduced to Rochester's contemptuous narrative in Jane Eyre; Michael Cunningham's The Hours, which illuminates aspects of Woolf as she wrote Mrs. Dalloway; and Peter Carey's Jack Maggs, which imagines the backstory of Magwitch in Great Expectations. Gappah's novel reframes the Scotsman David Livingstone's explorations of Africa, which is traditionally refracted through the English/American Henry Morton Stanley's account of finding Livingstone at Ujiji. Set in 1870s Africa, this book imagines the perspectives of the native Africans who buried Livingstone's heart in the jungle and brought his dried bones to Bagamoyo on the east coast. The first section is told by Halima the shrewd and sharp-tongued cook, and the second by Jacob Wainwright, one of the "Nassick boys" who were seized from slave ships and educated by the British in a school in Bombay. She is voluble and wryly humorous; he is self-righteous and naive, and their comments about each other add spice and humor. (To be honest, I found Halima's section more engaging.) There is a full complement of secondary characters, including Stanley, the various villagers, thieves, porters, chiefs, and children. The novel is immersive, thoughtful, and profoundly aware of how our experience is deeply subjective, and the stories we tell ourselves shape our lives. I think fans of Geraldine Brooks's YEAR OF WONDERS will enjoy this book. Recommend to fans of historical fiction. (Also ... for those who like their historical fiction to hew close to the truth, I found that it did. I read this novel because I'm writing a book in which a London journalist returns from Africa in 1872, having witnessed the horrors of the ivory/slave trade, so I have been researching the topic.)
This is what I think of as a warp/weft novel, reframing a story we think we know. Other examples include Jean Rhys's Wide Sargasso Sea, which offers the story of Bertha Mason, the madwoman whose story is reduced to Rochester's contemptuous narrative in Jane Eyre; Michael Cunningham's The Hours, which illuminates aspects of Woolf as she wrote Mrs. Dalloway; and Peter Carey's Jack Maggs, which imagines the backstory of Magwitch in Great Expectations. Gappah's novel reframes the Scotsman David Livingstone's explorations of Africa, which is traditionally refracted through the English/American Henry Morton Stanley's account of finding Livingstone at Ujiji. Set in 1870s Africa, this book imagines the perspectives of the native Africans who buried Livingstone's heart in the jungle and brought his dried bones to Bagamoyo on the east coast. The first section is told by Halima the shrewd and sharp-tongued cook, and the second by Jacob Wainwright, one of the "Nassick boys" who were seized from slave ships and educated by the British in a school in Bombay. She is voluble and wryly humorous; he is self-righteous and naive, and their comments about each other add spice and humor. (To be honest, I found Halima's section more engaging.) There is a full complement of secondary characters, including Stanley, the various villagers, thieves, porters, chiefs, and children. The novel is immersive, thoughtful, and profoundly aware of how our experience is deeply subjective, and the stories we tell ourselves shape our lives. I think fans of Geraldine Brooks's YEAR OF WONDERS will enjoy this book. Recommend to fans of historical fiction. (Also ... for those who like their historical fiction to hew close to the truth, I found that it did. I read this novel because I'm writing a book in which a London journalist returns from Africa in 1872, having witnessed the horrors of the ivory/slave trade, so I have been researching the topic.)
Philip Roth, NEMESIS.
One of Roth's shorter novels, this one is powerful partly because it is timely. In his usual spare, clear prose, Roth explores the uncertainty, fear, anger, and blame that results from a polio epidemic striking Brooklyn in 1944, with all the uncertainty and fear of WWII as a dark echo and backdrop. The novel is focalized primarily through earnest, twenty-three-year-old Cantor, who, even after it's all over, cannot clearly assess his role in it and who bleakly ponders the unanswerable question: how can a benevolent god allow such things to happen? My favorite Roth novel (of those I've read) is THE HUMAN STAIN, but this one felt pertinent and raw.
One of Roth's shorter novels, this one is powerful partly because it is timely. In his usual spare, clear prose, Roth explores the uncertainty, fear, anger, and blame that results from a polio epidemic striking Brooklyn in 1944, with all the uncertainty and fear of WWII as a dark echo and backdrop. The novel is focalized primarily through earnest, twenty-three-year-old Cantor, who, even after it's all over, cannot clearly assess his role in it and who bleakly ponders the unanswerable question: how can a benevolent god allow such things to happen? My favorite Roth novel (of those I've read) is THE HUMAN STAIN, but this one felt pertinent and raw.
As with the first book of this pair, OLIVE KITTERIDGE, the format is not a typical novel. It's a series of vignettes, all told in third person, centered upon different people in the small town of Crosby, Maine. The outspoken, complex Olive figures in many but not all stories, and perhaps because this form is the same as the first book, I didn't find this book as fresh and original. However, there are elements in Strout's writing that I particularly admire and love. The first is the way she places us in a scene and in a character's subjectivity with extraordinary economy. Here's the first line (which caused me writer envy): "In the early afternoon on a Saturday in June, Jack Kennison put on his sunglasses, got into his sports car with the top down, strapped the seatbelt across his large stomach, and drove to Portland--almost an hour away--to buy a gallon of whiskey rather than bump into Olive Kitteridge at the grocery store here in Crosby, Maine." One sentence and we have place, two people, an intense emotion (wanting to avoid), some insight into Jack's circumstances, and a sense that we are in the hands of an observant, wry, humorous narrator. The second thing I love is that Strout shows us the disparity between two people's interpretations of the same event; that's part of the point of the book, I think, and is enabled by this structure. For example, Jack can't remember the name of a woman he met in the grocery store; Olive saw them together and felt jealous. Third, she doesn't shy away from some of our deepest feelings--shame, love, fear of death, a longing for connection. She homes in on these small moments of belated understanding--when, for example, a character realizes that he had, as a child, accepted the derogatory name "Frenchie" without much thought, but in fact it probably hurt him even then, at some level. And--again, economically--she shows characters at particular pivotal moments, laying bare the uncertainty as they face a new truth. Here's Jack: "What frightened him was how much of his life he had lived without knowing who he was or what he was doing. It caused him to feel an inner trembling, and he could not find the worlds ... there had been a large blindspot directly in front of his eyes. it meant that he did not understand ... how others had perceived him. And it meant that he did not know how to perceive himself." An enjoyable read, full of humor, compassion, and humanity.
Brit Bennett, THE VANISHING HALF
A compelling novel about twins, young black women who are "light enough" to "pass." In the 1950s, at age 16 and faced with having to quit school to clean houses, they flee their small Deep South town of Mallard (where all the blacks are "light") for New Orleans. There, Stella passes for white, takes a job as a secretary, and marries her white boss. Desiree marries a dark-skinned man and has a dark-skinned daughter named Jude. When the marriage turns abusive, Desiree returns to Mallard with Jude, who is scorned by the light-skinned blacks and who eventually escapes to UCLA by being a track star. If this sounds like a set of double and even triple standards (who's scorning whom), it is. What elevated this to 5 stars for me was that Jude's lover Reese is transsexual, in transition from woman to man. I loved the way this subplot worked delicately to both echo and complicate the theme that identity--whether based in race or gender or any category that is ostensibly "fixed" and (usually) binary--is fluid. These categories are not "natural" in the sense that they have no meaning except for what we've given them; they're cultural constructs put in position to assuage some of the more primitive parts of our psychology--including our fear of the other. Definitely worth the read.
A compelling novel about twins, young black women who are "light enough" to "pass." In the 1950s, at age 16 and faced with having to quit school to clean houses, they flee their small Deep South town of Mallard (where all the blacks are "light") for New Orleans. There, Stella passes for white, takes a job as a secretary, and marries her white boss. Desiree marries a dark-skinned man and has a dark-skinned daughter named Jude. When the marriage turns abusive, Desiree returns to Mallard with Jude, who is scorned by the light-skinned blacks and who eventually escapes to UCLA by being a track star. If this sounds like a set of double and even triple standards (who's scorning whom), it is. What elevated this to 5 stars for me was that Jude's lover Reese is transsexual, in transition from woman to man. I loved the way this subplot worked delicately to both echo and complicate the theme that identity--whether based in race or gender or any category that is ostensibly "fixed" and (usually) binary--is fluid. These categories are not "natural" in the sense that they have no meaning except for what we've given them; they're cultural constructs put in position to assuage some of the more primitive parts of our psychology--including our fear of the other. Definitely worth the read.
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