The Racketeer by John Grisham (2012)

Thank goodness for this blog, as I did not recall ever reading a book by Grisham, but sure enough, I have read two of them (Playing for Pizza and Painted House), though neither is a legal thriller like this book. We have black lawyer Malcolm Bannister telling us his story from prison - how he was wrongly convicted of racketeering and how he plans to get out, because he thinks he knows who actually killed a federal judge. The story is quite convoluted and you never quite know what to believe, but it was a great tale and a good read.

At the end of the book the author has a disclaimer, that none of this is based on any facts and that he did not do any research for it. There is no prison camp, murdered federal judge or uranium mine court case, but the story reminded me of  the senselessness of our prison system. Grisham mentions a $40,000 per prisoner per year price tag. A quick Google search places that at the low end of estimates, so we are spending huge amounts to incarcerate large numbers of the populace for non-violent crimes. It ruins the lives of those individuals, as a conviction closes many doors, and creates huge stresses for the families. I would not be surprised if the divorce rates are high, as pointed out in Grisham's story. On one hand the monotony of prison life is mind numbing, on the other it gives one time to concoct elaborate plans as the one we see unfold. I also liked that Malcolm worked in the prison library and helped other prisoners with their legal problems, though rarely being able to shorten their stay in prison.  I also like a well thought out scam like on Leverage or the Ocean movies.

Beautiful Disaster by Jamie McGuire (2012)

That old adage, don't judge a book by its cover came true again - literally. I picked this book up, because I liked the cover. (Maybe I will explore this again sometime. When I had a bookstore, all the horror books had black covers with dripping red or purple letters. The romances too could be classified by their covers. Westerns had a certain style, so did science fiction and fantasy. I am sure the publishing industry puts a lot of thought into the type of customer they want to draw in with their cover.) I read the blurb and thought I was up for a contemporary book about college age kids. But it disappointed in so many ways. I will write what I thought and then look at what other people have said.

The opening chapter was good. She - Abby - gets drawn into a basement where there is an illegal fight going on. He - Travis - is one of the fighters, the reigning champ of Eastern University from some Midwest state not too far from Wichita, Kansas. The story is basically a romance with the usual push - pull. He isn't the type of guy she wants tatoos and all, she is getting away from some past and he reminds her of that too much. He doesn't want any woman - he sleeps with them but doesn't call or date. She has a best friend America, who is going out with his roommate and cousin. He talks her into a bet she loses, and ends up having to live with him for a month - just friends. But then it gets frustrating as they work things out. Maybe things have totally changed since I was in college, but since when are freshman looking for the one and only? Sure, people are looking for relationships, learning in them, but rarely do they end up forever. (OK, so my best friend in college was an exception, but they started in high school, and did some soul searching before they realized they really are meant to be together and still are.) I had a hard time with the college life depicted. Everyone meeting for lunch in the cafeteria every day, like in high school, sitting in clicks? With everyone watching what everyone else is doing? Maybe that happens in small schools, but it seemed so immature.

Then there was the physical fighting. Not my favorite thing, but I could get there being impromptu fights called together through cell phones like a flash mob, with bets going on, where everyone keeps mum, but there was some major fighting outside these situations, that never seemed to draw the attention of authorities. Maybe it is literary license, like Clint Eastwood movies, or the norm in that part of the country, but my sense is that any fight, especially if someone is injured, gets the attention of the police or campus safety. That seemed to barely graze the consciousness of the characters, especially in the last fight when a lot of people were injured. No way that would have gone unnoticed.

I was going to give up on this book early on, but since I have dropped a few books recently, I decided to stick with it and see if there was anything redeeming about it. It did get exciting about three quarters of the way through, when we get a glimpse into Abby's past, as she is forced to play her former role as an expert gambler. Now this I found interesting, but it was over way too soon. I wanted to know more about this life, how her friend America had gotten to be her sidekick at times like these, why Travis was not more impressed with her skills, more about her mother other than a brief mention. When Abby broke up with Travis, because he did not understand some aspects of her past, I never felt that he got it in the end. I do get that they were both broken in some way and in that way worked together, but I have a hard time understanding the "forever" sentiments at that age.

When looking for the book covers, I look at reviews. Of course, I must be getting old or way off mainstream, because this book got some sort of romance of the year award. I actually like Amazon personal reviews, there one reviewer that said it better than I: "the relationship was so raw and emotional that the rollercoaster that was their relationship became quite stressful. By the end of the book I just wanted them to stop fighting!" Though she did point out that the ups and downs in their relationship were more like real relationships than in many books. OK, I'll give it that.

The Last Runaway by Tracy Chevalier (2013)

Tracy Chevalier is one of the authors I will continue to pick up, no matter what she has written, and she did not disappoint. I can't explain why, but this is the type of historical novels I really like. I could not say why Ian McEwan just didn't grab me as Chevalier does. 

I understand this is the first time she has written about American history, having an English girl Honor Bright (what a great name for a Quaker heroine to have) come to the US with her sister, only to find herself all alone in Ohio with a community of Quaker "friends" as they call themselves, where she does not really fit in. Her one true friend in Ohio is Bell, a whiskey drinking milliner woman who's brother catches runaway slaves, and keeps eying Honor.

I like filling in my knowledge of history with stories that help me understand details, how towns evolved, how the underground railroad worked as far north as Ohio. Having lived in Ohio for six years, I could relate to the descriptions of nature and places. I have had friends say they have attended Quaker meetings, but I learned more about their beliefs and practices through this story. But my favorite detail was about quilting. Honor was a great quilter, and she worked patchwork quilts rather than the applique quilts favored in the town she landed. She saved scraps of cloth from people important to her life to incorporate into her quilts. Of course I always like strong women who think for themselves, so it was a pleasure to watch this shy little girl from a thousand year old town in England blossom into a woman and an American who accepts change and its challenges.

Atonement by Ian McEwan (2002)

This book in my favorite historical fiction genre did not really grab me until the very end, when I felt its

power. It is divided into three parts with an epilogue of sorts, though having listened to it, I couldn't quite figure out how it was labeled.

We start in 1935 with a detailed description of just a few days in 1935, where we see the well off Tallis family - 13 year old Briney, who wants to put on a play with her newly arrived cousins, her older sister Cecelia and older brother Leon. Mother Emily suffers from constant migranes and spends most of her time in bed. Father Jack is busy at work and doesn't always come home. Robby is the son of their housekeeper and is in love with Cecelia. I know kids are imaginative, and I too remember having flights of fancy, though I don't recall details of the topics of my thoughts, but it was hard reading about the over active imagination of Briney and her misinterpretation of what she sees that ends up affecting other lives.

The second part takes us to France during 1940 and the British retreat to Dunkirk, where the story is told mostly from Robby's point of view. This is a glimpse into the harsh realities of that war. As much as I dislike hearing these stories, we must keep telling them and hearing them, as only then we have any chance of having the motivation to prevent future wars. My friends in Facebook are currently discussing the atrocities of WWII done to women, and how little we know of those, as our parents would not talk of such things.

The third part of the book also takes place in 1940, but this time in London, following Cecelia and Briney, who saw the horrors of the war in their work as nurses in the hospitals. I was struck by the details such as preparing for bomb attacks - fortifying walls, doors, windows and roofs. I had heard of blackening out all light, so enemy planes could not find you, but I just can't imagine what that would be like. I am uncomfortable when we have a power outage and I drive through completely dark neighborhoods.

The epilogue shows us Briney for a few days in one of the last years of her life. Her acerbic wit comes through and pulls the whole story together. It is only when I realized what her atonement was, that I was struck by the skill of Ian McEwan as an author. I just may need to read some of his other work and see the movie version of this book.

I just realized this is my 500th post. Not bad for 8 years of book reading.

End of Your Life Book Club by Will Schwalbe (2012)

Will Schwalbe was a book publisher when his mother Mary Anne was diagnosed

with pancreatic cancer. On a simplistic level, the book is about the time they spent together before she died, and since they both loved books, they read books together and discussed them. But it is much more.

First of all it is a glorious and clever tribute to his mother, who was such an amazing person with a wide range of interests and careers - theater, Director of Admissions at Harvard and Radcliffe, counselor, refugee camp worker, founder of the Women's Refugee Commission, raised a family with three kids, traveled a lot, loved art, music, theater, and of course- books.

Secondly, it was a wonderful lesson in  how to die gracefully and how family and friends can support someone at the last stages of their life. I felt personal regrets, as I did not find a way to talk to my mother in the last nine months of her life, as she too battled pancreatic cancer. We never were good at discussing problems as a family, and I am afraid she died without some important things being said.

Only thirdly this was a great book lover's book - listing dozens of books the two of them read over a two year period, mentioning many more. I now have a lengthy list of books to read, with abstracts of sorts and a commentary which is beyond your normal book review. I was relieved that I had read at least some of them, vindicated for loving books like Stieg Larsson's The Girl With a Dragon Tatoo. There was commentary on the importance and value of reading, the many forms of reading available today, the social aspect of reading, and much more. The books gave Will and his mother something to talk about during the long waiting periods at the doctor's, in the chemo treatment room, and elsewhere. They also gave them the opportunity to talk through things like dying, family, world problems, solutions, important issues in life, that you might not just start talking about. I really wish I had this way of connecting with my son, and I should try to find someone to discuss books with, as you get so much more out of it, when you do so.

I don't recall the last time I read a book and thought to myself: "I wish I knew this author or person in a book personally." I really liked Will and Mary Anne Schwalbe. At least I have gotten to share their lives through this book.

Playing for Keeps by Nora Roberts(2013)

This is a reprint of two Silhouette books:

Opposites Attract (1984)
I forgot that Silhouette books are too simplistic for my taste. This one takes place on the tennis circuit, where two top players - Ty Starbuck and Asher Wolfe are in love, but some unexplained past issues stand in their way. I guess I did get a better sense of the intensity of the tennis world, and since I have a relative who makes his living training tennis players, it helps to understand the sport, the individuality of it, the need for intense focus. Not that other sports don't need focus, but there is something about having to read your opponent and having to react to what they give you in such an intense way that sounded fascinating. And as in any performance, a lot depends on where your head is at, what is going on in your life, and what you do with your emotions.  They did traipse around the world in this book, but I have liked the Roberts books that are immersed in a particular setting better.


Partners (1985)
At least this romance comes with a mystery, maybe not the greatest mystery, but it added some spice. The book was set in New Orleans, a city I love, but I did not get any flavor of the city, except for the heat, surrounding large estates and the swamp. The romance is between Laurel Armand, a reporter whose father owns the paper, and Matthew Bates, a reporter from New York who has been interested in her since her brother was his roommate in college. They both start investigating the death of a young woman, who might have been murdered. Then Laurel gets warnings to stay away, which of course only leads them to want to investigate even more, and Matt gets to comfort her, which finally brings them together. Fluff, but I kept reading. I have to find the more substantial Robert’s books, maybe stay away from those she wrote for Silhouette.

Caleb's Crossing by Geraldine Brooks (2011)

Geraldine Brooks has done it again - created a wonderful picture from another time. And that is all I wrote back in 2011 when I read the book. I do remember it, but have to draw on some details from Amazon.

Bethia Mayfield is a girl on Martha's vineyard in the 1660s. Her father is a minister who is trying to convert the Native Americans to Christianity and to educate them. She befriends Caleb, the son of a chieftain, who ends up attending Harvard. I do remember what I loved most about this book - reading about the early days of Harvard, and that it did have one Native American student back then. I have already forgotten what actually happened, but as a result, it took years, maybe even centuries, before another Native American attended Harvard. But even Harvard had its meager beginnings, and the way students were taught, the subjects they were taught was all so fascinating. I was not comparing Harvard to my own Cornell, which was established over 200 years later, but with institutions like Tartu University in Estonia which was founded four years before Harvard, and Vilnius University in Lithuania over 50 years before Harvard. But those were established cultures, while the pilgrims had not been there long before they established this institution of higher learning.

The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway (1926)

After reading The Paris Wife, I had to read Hemingway's side of the story - or the book he wrote during the time in Paris, as described by his then wife. I realized how much Hemingway wrote of his own experiences in Paris, his love of bull fights, his relation to women. So the author of The Paris Wife had plenty of "primary source" material to use for her own book.

I found that I had never completed this review, so I will leave it brief. I did find the cover of the first edition and found it more interesting than contemporary covers.

Fated by Alyson Noël (2012)

This is the first book in a series called Soul Seekers and is about Daire Santos, the last in a line of soul seekers. Of course she doesn't understand what is happening to her when she starts seeing things and has crows talk to her to the point where they want to institutionalize her. As a last resort, her mother takes her to her father's mother in New Mexico (I kept imagining the Four Corners and Shiprock, where I met an Indian medicine man). Her grandmother starts to teach her about her powers, but of course she is a disbelieving teen. I understand this is a young adult book, but the heavy dose of teen angst and rudeness got in the way of my enjoyment. I know a bit about Native American spirituality and though the book tried to connect with some of it, it did not feel authentic to me. It also seemed like things happened too quickly - in a matter of days Daire had to become well versed in her powers. I do not think it would have hurt the plot to lengthen the time frame, have Daire learn more gradually from her grandmother. Then, though I am well aware of the dark side of power, the dark side seemed too dark, too evil. Reminded me of those Halloweentown movies on TV that I used to watch with my kid. Then there are the twin brothers Cole and Dace - each raised by a separate parent and different as night and day. There were things I liked - the unusual upbringing of Daire as the daughter of a makeup artist for films, who traveled around the world with her mom to different film locations and learned to make each film cast her family. I also liked the grandmother.

The After Wife by Gigi Levangie Grazer (2012)

I was looking for a California book to listen to while I was driving in California, so I picked this up - but it was too California for me, too southern CA to be specific. Since I have already given up on two books this year, I thought I would stick it out and see what the author had to say. Hannah works in the reality TV industry, but when her wonderful husband John is killed in a car accident and leaves her with 3 year old daughter Ellie, she loses it. Understandable after such a devastating loss, but somehow I could never quite feel empathy for this woman. She was funny in a way that is not funny to me. Her trio of friends - one earth mother, one aging starlet, one gay TV producer with a highly developed sense of style just did not appeal to me, felt too stereotypical, though they did stick by her side until she finally started pulling out of depression.  The kind of things they choose to do together, which Hannah doesn't enjoy - like going to a spa for cleansing on New Year's just left me baffled. The part that kept me reading was that Hannah could talk to ghosts. In her grief she becomes open to spirits of the deceased. I was wondering where the author would take this. I did enjoy the fact that she changed some people's lives for the better when she gave them messages from deceased loved ones. But though I believe the spirits of loved ones stay around for a bit after they have died, her spirit world was too corny for my tastes. My short trip to LA and SF reminded me that what I love is northern CA and northern Californians - they still wear tie died sundresses, etc. I enjoyed all the people I met, but the world reflected in this book reminds me that I don't want to live in southern California.