April Showers...of books!

I am Pilgrim by Terry Hayes
This book has hit it big:  New York Times bestseller for weeks on end, every person I see in a doctor's waiting area seems to be reading it, and it is all over airport bookstores.  However, the number one reason I know it is something special is that my husband literally could not pull his face out of it for days...March madness basketball, a visit from his daughter who lives in LA, and constantly sad looks from his dog that wanted to play ball... nothing else but finishing this book seemed to matter.  And once I picked up this book, I could see why.  It is a rollicking good read, a mind-numbing thriller, and a page turner to the degree that dinner did not get cooked for three days.  Yes, a book that is over six hundred pages took me just three days to read; that's what happens when one reads obsessively.  Here's the basics of the plot line:  A defunct American spy gets pulled into a murder scene by his NYPD pal; a Saudi Arabian sees his father beheaded years ago and is a titch angry; a loyal Turkish policewoman raises a mentally challenged boy; a rich young husband mysteriously dies in a palatial estate on the Turkish seaside.  Anything more than that and I might give something away.  Needless to say, this is a five-star, can't miss, read it on vacation or in the library or standing on your head - you won't be sorry.

The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessy by Rachel Joyce
For those of you who read and loved The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Frye, Joyce has now written what she calls a 'companion' book.  It is not a sequel, yet I question whether it could stand alone or be read before Harold.  Joyce's first book was utterly delightful, following an older English gentleman who goes out one day to mail a letter to an old friend, Queenie Hennessey, and realizes he has done her a terrible wrong years ago so he begins to walk, hundreds of miles, to her deathbed.  In this companion book, we see the story from Queenie's point of view: the terrible death of Harold's son David and Queenie's role in it; the aftermath and the job loss; the construction of Queenie's sea garden; and most importantly, her time spent in the hospice house as she dies a slow, agonizing death from a cancer that has stolen her ability to speak.  We hear her story through her journal, and we see the wild and crazy characters who live, and die, with her in this lovely home staffed by kindly nuns.  For anyone who has volunteered for hospice care, you will see your life reflected here.  It is a beautiful, poignant story told through the eyes of a very special woman.  It is narrated on Audible by a deliciously British-accented woman.  It is just a lovely book; if you enjoyed Harold Frye,  I strongly recommend it.

Running the Rift by Naomi Benaron
Having read about this book on one of the many "award-winners" lists in December, I was compelled to check out the winner of the Bellwether Prize for Social Engagement.  Written by a UCLA professor who has worked extensively with Rwandan genocide survivor groups in Rwanda, Benaron is a uniquely knowledgable and gifted writer.  She has crafted a beautifully told story about the years leading up to the horrific time in 1995 where over a million Tutsis were slain by the Hutus in their own country.  The story follows Jean Patrick, a Tutsi boy and gifted runner, who has been groomed for years to become the great Olympic hope not just for Rwanda, but for his tribe. This book is a slow roller, with the first eighty pages slowly building the characters and the setting, and make no mistake, the setting of Rwanda, its cities and countryside, plays the role of a main character as well as the boys who inhabit it.  Benaron can write, I mean really write, with the lyrical style of Alan Paton who wrote of Africa as well, in Cry the Beloved Country.  As the boys grow up and we start to see Rwanda devolve into tribal factions, the story picks up pace and unfolds in a tragic, yet redemptive way.  This book is a perfect example of my motto:  The More You Read, the Smarter You Get.  It would be a powerful book for a classroom, or a book club, as it will not leave your memory any time soon.

Men We Reaped by Jesmyn Ward
This is another book that is timely, politically charged, and I believe, a book that should have a wider audience.  Written by a professor, who grew up in a small Mississippi town on the border of Louisiana, Ward tells of the five deaths in this black township that changed her life and the lives of many of its citizens.  It seems so simple and straight forward, but it is not; this is Ward's view into a world that exists only for poor black people, a world that does not really exist here in the Pacific Northwest or even on the West Coast.  This small town lives, breathes, and dies together; the children grow up with their cousins, pop in and out of each others' homes depending on the happenings in their families, and as readers, we slowly see the insidious effect poverty has on the young men in particular.  Most of the dead boys dropped out of school after being seen as stupid, lazy, or incapable of learning.  As a former teacher, I know the power expectations, high or low, has on a student and as a reader, we see the powerful effect this lack of education has on their future, or lack thereof.  Ward escapes, but with each death, she is sucked back in by the dominant pull of the South and of family.  She finishes her autobiographical tale with the story of her brother's death, and it is a poignant, heartbreaking sign of what is happening still today in poor townships down South.  This could be an intriguing book club choice that would garner some provocative discussions; it is also a strong companion book to Bryan Stevenson's book Just Mercy.  

Better by Atul Gwande
Having read Being Mortal last month (see review - truly amazing book), I decided to go back and explore some of Gwande's older books.  I admit, I love his writing; he could write a grocery list that is a page-turner, as far as I'm concerned.  Better looks at a variety of different areas in medicine, where he believes doctors, nurses, and the medical community in general, could do better.  He follows some fascinating story lines:  the push to end polio in India and how the aid workers combat outbreaks; what hospitals do for cystic fibrosis patients, which morphs into how data is collected and communicated to patients; surgical survival in the armed forces and how it has been improved; and the simple, yet difficult task, of merely washing one's hands.  This is a quick read, coming in at under 300 pages, which is a nice change of pace.  It is a truly fascinating look at the inner works of medicine and what can be done to make it...better.



The Girl You Left Behind by Jojo Moyes
Granted, I absolutely loved Moyes' book Me Before You; that book dealt with powerful issues of assisted suicide, what we value in life, and who we choose to love.  I was not sure that another book by her would live up to my enjoyment of her previous book. I have to say, I was not enamored with the first fifty or so pages.  The story begins during WWI, in a country village in France, as two sisters try to run a small inn and restaurant while their husbands are away at war.  Enter the stereotypical 'bad Germans,' the desperate search for food, the mayor's sick child - the cliches abounded and I almost gave up.  However...I am glad I stuck with it.  Once the story hit modern day and the cliches disappeared, the plot thickened and sucked me in.  Enter the new main character, Liv, a young widow whose life is pretty much a disaster.  All she has is the beautiful flat her architect husband left her and the painting they bought on their honeymoon.  As the secrets and mystery swirl around the painting, involving lawyers, detectives, and the always-ugly public media, that is when the plot takes hold.  I ended up thoroughly enjoying this book.  I do not think it would elicit deep and thoughtful book club conversations, but I do think it's just great brain candy and a good vacation read.

Finding Jake by Bryan Reardon
As I read the plot summary for this book, I wondered if I really needed to read another book on school shootings.  Considering we've had over a hundred just since Newtown, I thought it would be frustratingly depressing.  I had already read Jodi Picoult's Nineteen Minutes and David Cullen's journalistic bestseller Columbine; did I really need one more?  Yet, I found Reardon's take on a school shooting to be fascinating, well-written, and cogent to what occurs in childrens' social structures.  The story follows one family: stay-at-home dad who struggles with extreme shyness and his role as the homemaker; high-powered attorney mother who tries to be an involved parent; shy but morally intelligent son named Jake; and socially adept daughter.  The story flips back and forth between time periods, showing us the years of raising Jake and his pivotal childhood social structures, and the powerfully charged moment of the school shooting and its aftermath, both in the neighborhood and in the media.  This story takes some provocative twists and turns, and leads to places that are unexpected.  I cruised through this book in a day, thoroughly enjoying every page.

A Pleasure and a Calling by Phil Hogan

This book is difficult to describe.  It is not a mystery, nor a family drama; it is not non-fiction, though it almost reads like it; it is not comedy, though I did suffer a few deliciously evil giggles at inappropriate places.  The story is told from the viewpoint of Mr. Hemmings, a middle-aged land agent in rural England, who knows every house, every family, every secret in his tiny little town.  How, one may ask? Because Mr. Hemmings keeps all the keys as he lists, exploits, and sells each home, each business, and each apartment.  He gleans information from frequent secretive visits back to their abodes, or on his stalker-ish nightly visits, and satisfies his urges by reading through his copious files on said clients.  As he tells his story of one man, Mr. Sharp, who is rude to him one day on a walk and the fallout of this breach of etiquette, the reader comes to see the brilliant sociopathic nature of Mr. Hemmings.  We see the entire story from his brain, with very little dialogue and little character development other than this narrator.  Mr. Hemmings also gives us a look into his childhood and teen years so we can see how his 'habits' were formed.  I found this to be a rather delightfully wicked book, as I found myself actually cheering for this nasty little man and holding my breath to see if and when he was caught.  I actually think it could bring about some 'wicked' good conversations at a book club about privacy, delusions, and how one's past affects one's present.  I thoroughly enjoyed this twisted tale.