Monday, September 14, 2015

More Fall Reading

My Grandmother Asked Me To Tell You She's Sorry by Frederik Backman
Last year one of my favorite books was A Man Called Ove; I wondered if Backman could repeat the trick of making me laugh and cry, all at the same time.  He did.  The main character, Elsa, is a seven year old girl who doesn't quite 'fit in' at school.  She deals with bullies, believes in a fantasy world called 'Almost Awake, ' and is smarter than most of the grown-ups around her. A busy working mother, fortunately for us, leaves Elsa with Granny quite a bit...and Granny is a hoot.  A former doctor who has now devoted her life to her grandchild, Granny is incorrigible; she breaks into a zoo to help Elsa get over a bad day, escapes religiously from her home and drives a car illegally, and sasses everyone in sight.  I howled over Granny and Elsa's conversations.  Unfortunately, Granny has cancer and as Elsa comes to find out, she's got people who are owed an apology from her; it is Elsa's job to do this after Granny's death.  The book ultimately becomes a journey, as Elsa discovers the people in Granny's past and finds redemption and acceptance not only for her grandmother, but for herself. I loved, loved, loved this book.

Disclaimer by Renee Knight
Each night Catherine Ravenscroft, an award-winning BBC documentary producer and happily married woman, reads a book left for her in her office.  As the pages turn, she begins to realize the story is of her own life, of an incident buried long ago.  Once the secrets begin to pour out, we become a witness to the implosion of Catherine's world.  Told from a dual perspective, the voice of the past wraps the reader insidiously in this world of mystery and we hear Catherine tell her side of the drama as well.  Numerous red herrings will be thrown in your path as you try to decipher the truth.  Did Catherine destroy another couple’s life?  Did she cheat on her family?  Did she ruin her son willfully?  This is a taut, psychological thriller that will keep you guessing until the very last chapter.






The Tournament by Matthew Reilly
If you like historical fiction, this book literally has it all...as in the author threw in every historical figure known to man in the 1500's.  The story begins when Princess Elizabeth, as in Henry's daughter, is taken away from her plague-ridden country by her famous (and factual) tutor, Richard Ascham.  They journey through far away lands until reaching Istanbul, home of Suleiman the Magnificent, his web of spies and castle intrigue, and the site of the most famous chess tournament that ever occurred.  Countries from around the  continent have sent their best and brightest, but a murderer is in their midst as well.  Ascham puts his fearsome mind to the task of investigating the murder, which brings him into the harem, the underworld of the cisterns, and into the vicinity of the harem girl-turned-queen.  And all the historical characters thrown in willy nilly?  Well, there's Ivan the Terrible, a young man whose chess champion is a rather unpleasant boy; Michaelangelo, the great sculptor who designed the silver and gold chess pieces; Ignatius from Loyola, the educated Catholic priest who will soon begin the order of the Jesuits; and Suleiman the Magnificent, the last great sultan of the Ottoman empire.  It's a campy romp through history, with a little mystery thrown in.

Black-Eyed Susans by Julia Heaberlin
A lifetime ago, sixteen year old Tessie was thrown into a grave filled with murdered young women and black-eyed Susan flowers, left for dead, but unexpectantly rescued.  Fast forward eighteen years later and the man convicted of the crime is set to be executed on Texas' death row.  Due to trauma and memory loss, grown up Tessa, mother of a fourteen year old daughter now, is no longer convinced the man is guilty.  This is a well-written, page-turner of a thriller that takes the reader back and forth through time. We are part of Tessie's sessions with her psychiatrist of long ago, trying to help the hysterically-blind young Tessie to see again, to remember the night in question, and to prepare her to testify against the accused in the upcoming trial. In the adult Tessa's life, we see her fear explode as black-eyed Susans are planted under her kitchen window, she visits the convicted man on death row, and she continues her search for her best friend, Lydia, who disappeared two weeks after the conclusion of the trial.  Heaberlin draws out the tension and the mystery with each progressive chapter, leaving you guessing until the end.  If you are the lover of mysteries, this is a solid choice.

The Gilded Life of Matilda DuPlaine byAlex Brunkhorst
In a story embedded with Gatsbyesque allusions, in the rich and famous world of modern-day Los Angeles, secrets live and ordinary folks merely peek into the windows of the wealthy and entitled magnates.  Thomas Cleary, a poor Harvard graduate from the Mid-West (yep, think Nick Carroway and his obsessive curiosity of all things 'Gatsby'), steps into an antique store run by the daughter of a famous Hollywood studio mogul...and his life is forever changed.  Drawn into the decadent world of the rich, Thomas is willingly used and manipulated.  He sees his career skyrocket, yet risks it all when he falls in love with a mysterious young woman.  As the secrets are slowly unwound, we see the underworld of this fairytale lifestyle, and much of it is not pretty.  Brunkhorst is a truly beautiful writer; not only does her story bring back memories of the tale of the Great Gatsby, but her writing style is also reminiscent of Fitzgerald, with beautiful sentences that linger long after you have turned the page.  I hope other people discover this gem of a book with its complex characters and provoking thematic ideas - I thought it was fabulous.

Wednesday, September 2, 2015

Time for Fall reading

Circling the Sun by Paula McClain
 McClain hit a winner with The Paris Wife back in 2011 and as good as that story was about Hemingway and his young wife, Circling the Sun is even better. Breathtaking in its setting of Africa, McClain has written a masterpiece about a remarkable woman, Beryl Markham.  Born in Kenya, abandoned early on by her mother, this tenacious little girl broke gender expectations to become a horse trainer and an aviator, always fighting for her free and independent life.  Not meant to be tied down, Beryl goes through men at a rapid pace, but not in a rash manner, rather in a way to revel in the great passions of life.  Writing almost as if Kenya is a character itself, McClain is able to portray a world long gone - of roving herds of elephants, flood-torn rivers, rolling hills of grass, and of the European people who took on the most difficult terrain in an attempt to tame this wild continent.  It was a fascinating read that reminds us that having the life one desperately desires is never easy, and is sometimes painful.  This would be a fantastic book club book as it is rich in its themes and riddled with complex, intriguing historical characters.

The Flying Circus by Susan Crandall
A favorite read of mine a couple years ago was Whistling Past the Graveyard, a road trip in the old South with a spunky 'Scout-ish" red-headed girl and a wise black woman; Crandall is now back with another historical fiction, this time setting her story in 1923, involving the barnstormers of the new age of aviation.  Her three main characters are complex, each dealing with their own demons:  Cora, the New York formerly rich girl now turned poor who wants more than to be sold to the highest bidder in marriage; Gil, the tortured survivor of WWI reconnaissance flying who sees his future only in death; and Henry, the orphaned boy of German descendants, whose entire past is written in disaster and who has secret corners of his youth that he feels need to be hidden from his new flying family.  Crandall truly captures the spirit of this new age - the courage and bravery it takes to walk on wings, the stunts of the pilots who fly machines made of wood and cloth, and the obsession of American society with these new daredevils.  This is an entertaining book that will keep you turning the pages, rooting for the heroes to overcome their own foibles.

The Swans of Fifth Avenue by Melanie Benjamin

Glitzy, gossipy, and deliciously naughty, this book exposes the inner circle of Truman Capote and the decadent women of New York Society:  Babe Pale, wife of CBS executive Bill Pales - on every best dressed list, constantly striving to be perfect, who busy a pair of identical shoes for each of her five homes, and trusts her friends too much; Pamela, who has so many last names they are hard to count, constantly moving from husband to husband so she can pick up great wealth and status; Slim, Babe's best friend who never quite marries as well as she should; and of course, Truman, their own 'trueheart' whose questionable trust and love is bought in lunches at the Plaza and weekends in the Bahamas.  Thank People magazine in 1955...the dirty little affairs, the neglected rich wives, the parties dripping with jewels, and more importantly, the question of who is really a friend and who is just using you.  This book will keep you turning pages until the last piece of dirty laundry is aired.



House of Thieves by Charles Belfoure
Here it is, the second novel by the author of The Paris Architect. One of the main things I loved in Belfoure's debut novel, was the complexity of his characters, finding them both despicable and admirable at different times.  In this novel, set in the Gilded Age of New York in 1886, the main characters were intriguing, but had few redeeming qualities.  The bad guy, Kent, whoe keeps his gang in line by well-placed, vicious murders; the 'hero', John Cross, an architect who plans robberies for Kent, using his architectural knowledge, in order to pay back his son's debts, but is conflicted by the choices of his new life; the socialite wife, Helen, who thoroughly enjoys trolling her friends' homes, looking for the next joint to rob; and their three children, who all get pulled into the gritty underworld of the Tenderloin and Delancy streets, betting on dogs to kill the most rats, fishing treasure out of the East River, and accruing more gambling debts for mommy and daddy to pay off.  It was ultimately quite the page turner, and would give a book club some juicy moral dilemmas to discuss.

After You by Jojo Moyes
Lou is back...the quirky, loyal, 'my life is a disaster' heroine from Moyes' huge bestseller, Me Before You.  Do you need to read the first book?  In a nutshell...yes, but it is worth it.  That book encompassed Louisa's change in life, when she goes to work for a wealthy, adventurous man who had been paralyzed by a car accident and wishes to legally kill himself.  It was a heartfelt, thought-provoking, fabulous book.  The big question is, does the sequel merely repeat the story, as so many sequels do (think The Rosie Effect...ugh)?  In this case, Moyes nails it and repeats only the tone, characterization, and lovely thematic development of the first.  In After You, Lou is trying to reclaim her life and move on from Will's death.  In her search for healing, she comes across some eccentric members of a grief counseling group, begins a relationship with an ambulance driver who treats her after falling off a building, and has her whole life turned upside down by the appearance of Will's never-before-known daughter.  As we watch Lou attempt to live the life Will wanted her to, we laugh, cry, and cheer on this delightful character.  This sequel nails it.