Early 2019 Books Read & Recommended

**The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce is the odyssey of a recent retiree who is Jolted out of emotional numbness by a letter from an old friend who wants to say goodbye before she dies.  He embarks on a 600-mile hiking journey to his friend's side without a plan, “phone, or supplies, an endeavor that stirs up memories of his unhappy marital and parenting experiences.” A novel with unsentimental charm, humor, and profound insight.

**Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens is another coming of age story about a girl who grows up without parenting or education. Kya is becoming an important, self-taught naturalist whose progress is interrupted when she is accused of murdering a former star quarterback who was obsessed with her.  This mystery is beautifully interwoven with a growing awareness/understanding of the differences in the natural order of live and the demands of civilization. "Painfully beautiful."(NYTimes)

*Dark Sacred Night by Michael Connelly brings together two of his detective creations with his legendary professionalism.  Working the night beat, Det. Renée Ballard makes her way back to  Hollywood Station, only to find retired detective Harry Bosch going through old file cabinets, obsessing over a cold case involving the murder of a 15-year-old runaway. First, she throws him out, then they join forces to solve this and a couple of other cases.

*Nine Perfect Strangers by Liane Moriarty introduces the ultimate transformative, New Age seminar. Tranquillum House seems like the ideal place for rest, relaxation and repair. Owned by Masha, a former high-powered executive who switched careers after a heart attack, the bucolic wellness center is a refuge for broken souls with deep pockets. Everyone has problems. Everyone has issues, but is the staff able to offer redemption, transformation or trauma?

Confessions of Stephen Colbert by Colbert, host of "The Late Show"(and staff) provides a compilation of satirical, irreverent writings about numerous memories and behaviors for which he is almost sorry, based on the popular segment from the show. A (very) quick, pleasant read.

When You Find Me by P.J. Vernon is her fiction debut in a Southern Gothic mystery steeped in politics, adultery, alcoholism, family dysfunction, psychosis and murder. Visiting her family's South Carolina estate, Gray Godfrey wakes from a night out to an empty bed. Her husband Paul is gone and a classic hangover has wiped her memory clean. Is he taking a break from marriage or something more permanent? There are lots of red herrings, coincidents and plot twists witha dramatic, if predictable, finale.

My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh is about a recent college graduates 's efforts to escape the angst of her world by embarking on an extended hibernation with the help of a drug smorgasbord and New York’s worst psychiatrist.  The NYTimes named it a notable book of 2018 and numerous literary critics called it “One of Best Books of the Year.”  Sorry, but I thought it was depressing, dark and unbelievable. 

**Help Me:  One Woman’s Quest to Find Out if Self-Help Really Change Your Life? by Marianne Power is her hilarious, thought-provoking, and honest account of a year-long quest to find out if self-help books really can change your life. She manages to distill the essence of gurus from Stephen Covey to Eckhard Tolle and a dozen more, apply their essence to her life for a month in hopes of finding perfect self-knowledge and happiness.  The test doesn’t work out perfectly, but the reader learns a bit and enjoys this marriage of Bridget Jones and Tony Robins.

*The Reckoning by John Grisham is a Southern Gothic murder mystery, courtroom drama, and family saga. The story revolves around a Mississippi war hero who refuses to defend his actions in killing a local minister during a bizarre trial. We take an incredible journey, from the Jim Crow South to the jungles of the Philippines during World War II and an insane asylum filled with secrets.  Not Grisham’s best, but an engaging read.

*As Long as We Both Shall Live is JoAnn Chaney s wicked, masterful examination of a marriage gone very wrong, a marriage with lots of secrets. Marie Evans falls off a cliff while hiking with her husband Matt, but detectives have doubts that it was an accident, especially when they learn about the suspicious death of Matt's first wife—a worthy competitor in the Gone Girl sweepstakes.

*The Alice Network by Kate Quinn is, according to the NYTimes, “an enthralling new historical novel” that brings together a pregnant American student. Charlie St. Clair, who is banished to Europe just after WWII and takes the opportunity to search for her missing French cousin.  She teams up with Eve, a former spy from the real WWI Alice Network, to solve a mystery involving a French collaborator who managed to betray and injure them both. “Both funny and heartbreaking, this epic journey of two courageous women is an unforgettable tale of little-known wartime glory and sacrifice.”

 

**Washington Black by Esi Edugyan might be considered a Black Forest Gump. Chosen to be a family manservant, an eleven-year-old Barbados field slave is initiated into a world of scientific inquiry and dignity before betrayal propels him throughout the world in search of his mentor and his true self. The book was a finalist for the Man Booker prize and named as one of 2018’s Best Books of the Year by the New York Times, Washington Post, TIME, Entertainment Weekly, Slate, Boston Globe, NPR, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, and The Economist

*The Library Book by Susan Orlean explores the unsolved mystery of the most catastrophic library fire in American history, the 1986 Los Angeles Public Library fire.  She also overlays the evolution of Los Angeles and the crucial role that libraries and librarians play in modern American culture. The book jumps from one interesting story or another but never loses the reader’s interest. “Everybody who loves books should check out The Library Book.” —The Washington Post

*Unsheltered by Barbara Kingsolver depicts two  families and a world teetering, one in 2016, and a different but connected type of 19th-century teetering. Kingsolver captures how humans are inevitably connected through the possibility of collapse, whether it’s the collapse of our houses, our bodies, logic, the social order or earth itself.  In an… "absorbing novel, the two narratives reflect each other, reminding us of the dependability and adaptiveness of our drive toward survival.”NYTimes

Country Dark by Chris Orffutt introduces Tucker, a young Korean War veteran who returns to Appalachia to work for a bootlegger. He falls in love and starts a family, but when his family is threatened, Tucker is pushed into violence and everything from bad to worse. The story of people living off the land and by their wits in a backwoods Kentucky world of shine-runners and laborers whose social codes are every bit as nuanced as the British aristocracy.

*Women Rowing North: Navigating Life’s Currents and Flourishing as We Age by Mary Bray Pipher offers a timely examination of the cultural and developmental issues women (and men)  face as they age. Aging omen growing often contend with ageism, misogyny, and loss, yet, most elders are deeply happy and filled with gratitude for the gifts of life. Their struggles help them grow into the authentic, empathetic, and wise people…a worthy goal for all. “bound to become the bible of baby boomer women." ( Library Journal)

The Good Detective by John McMahon is an impressive first novel featuring “a decent if flawed hero battling personal troubles while occupied with a murder case of great consequence to his community." (NYTimes). Detective P.T. Marsh was a rising star on the police force of Mason Falls, Georgia--until his a personal tragedy undermines his the ability to see the line between smart moves and disastrous decisions. McMahon provides procedural details with a sharp sense of people and their problems, their language and values in a small Georgia town.  Detective Marsh is a sardonic and sympathetic character who will be around for future books.

*Cemetery Road by Greg Illes is a complex, engaging, sometimes over the top, Southern potboiler reminiscent of Pat Conroy.  Iles “writes with passion, intensity and absolute commitment.” (Washington Post). Bienville, Mississippi and Marshall ‘s family’s 150-year-old newspaper are failing, but a dozen powerful patriarchs who rule the town through the exclusive Bienville Poker Club have offered economic hope in the form of a billion-dollar Chinese paper mill. There’s massive corruption, dishonesty, prejudice, gun violence, adultery, incest and murder—just a typical Southern town. Despite its flaws, Illes kept me engaged for most of  the 500 pages.

October Books

Less by Andrew Greer is, surprisingly to me, the winner of the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for fiction. Basically, this is a satirical odyssey of a gay American author abroad, ruminating about age, love, time and success (Is he a failed author or a failed gay?) The New York Times has hailed Greer as "inspired, lyrical," "elegiac," "ingenious," as well as "too sappy by half." Less shows a talented writer “raising the curtain on our shared human comedy”, but I especially agreed with the “too sappy by half”.

*The Winter Soldier by Daniel Mason is an unforgettable love story of a young doctor and nurse at a remote field hospital in the First World. It contains intriguing insights into Vienna’s aristocracy, medical education, and the brutal realities of warfare or battlefield medical care. A “lyrical and affecting novel about the costs of war and lost love will satisfy readers of quality fiction.”

 

Strangers in Budapest by Jessica Keener describes post-Communist Budapest from the perspective of a young, entrepreneurial American couple who become enmeshed in an old man's plan to seek vengeance for his daughter's murder. “Despite the book's bleak tone, (the characters) all draw our interest as people to care about, and Budapest becomes a powerful symbol of past horrors, lush culture, and an uncertain future.”

**The End of Alzheimer's: The First Program to Prevent and Reverse Cognitive Decline by Dale Bredesen, MD is “a paradigm shifting book that offers hope to anyone looking to prevent and even reverse Alzheimer's Disease and cognitive decline”.  Bredensen suggest that AD is not one condition, but three with different protocols. Basically, the protocols emphasize testing to establish benchmarks which can document progress or decline and then chart an individualized plan to show how to rebalance key lifestyle components such as nutrition, exercise, sleep quality, stress and socialization. The book is often dense with scientific data and frequently self-serving but seems to be based on quality research and of interest to caregivers or everyone over forty who worry that their memories aren’t what they used to be.

August-September Books

*A Rule Against Murder by Louise Penny, Chief Inspector Armand Gamache and  his wife celebrating their wedding anniversary at the remote, luxurious Manoir Bellechasse. True to form, this classic drawing room mystery rich, cultured, and respectable family arriving  for a celebration of their own. One of them I murdered and most of them can be considered suspects.  Penny’s trademark lyrical descriptions and people and places, sumptuous means and sly clues lead to satisfying resolution of multiple mysteries.

The Marriage Artist by Andrew Winer is an introspective analysis of the aftermath of the double suicides of an art critic’s  wife and protégé, who were suspected to be lovers, Daniel Lichtmann evaluates how his career and choices have been influenced by World War II, the Jewish culture and a talented young ketubah artist. Highly recommended by a good friend,  but a bit too much Judicia and introspective for me.

The Order of Time by Carlo Rovelli, best-selling author of Seven Brief Lessons on Physics presents an almost accessible exploration of the nature of time. Rovelli challenges assumptions that time is linear or even measurable while explaining the critical role of perception.  According to The Sunday Times, “The Order of Time is a dazzling book." I needed to be smarter to grasp much of the well-written prose.

*The Great Alone” by Kristin Hannah is set in the Post-Vietnam and follows a girl coping with the dangers of an alcoholic father, domestic violence and the harsh realities of living off the grid in Northern Alaska.  Descriptions of the wild natural beauty are nicely done and the extreme dangers of life on the “last frontier” are intriguing, but the tale of star-crossed lovers has been told often and more convincingly.

*Lincoln’s Last Trial:  The Murder Case That Propelled Him to the Presidency by Dan Abrams recreates Abraham Lincoln's last (of 25) murder trial-- as he defends the son of a close friend and loyal supporter. It attracts national attention because there is speculation that he might run for the presidency and the added publicity generated by the transcribed proceedings provided by pioneer stenographer and future congressman, Robert R. Hitt.  Sometimes tedious, but useful insight into the practice of law before the Civil War.

-Exit Strategy by Charlton Pettus got a good recommendation by the NYT, but I don’t know why. The brilliant founder of a financially ruined tech startup uses a secretive organization to stage his death, create a new identity and help him escape all his problems.  With a dizzying variety of setbacks, double crosses, unbelievable coincidences, improbable characters and disjointed scenes, the book lumbers to a lame conclusion.

**Something in the Water by Catherine Steadman "brings...wit, timing and intelligence to this novel." (NYTimes).  With unpredictable characters, wry voices, excellent pacing, and plot twists, this may not be great literature but is an engaging, enjoyable read about a young couple who embark on a dream honey to  Bora Bora where that make a discovery that will change both their lives.  "This capivating if credulity-stretching debut marks Downton Abbey alum Steadman as a new writer to watch."

Warlight by Michael Ondaatje, author of the Booker Prize-winning The English Patient, features a 14-year-old protagonist dealing with his parents announcement that they are going away for a year and that he and his 15-year-old sister, Rachel, will be left in the care of a strange acquaintance known as the Moth. Set at the end of World War II, Nathaniel and Rachel accept the Moth’s warning “that nothing was safe anymore,” and adjust to adolescence in a strange new world. “Contemplative and mysterious, Warlight is utterly engrossing,” but also often confusing to me.