Monday, July 8, 2013

June Books




One False Move by Harland Corbin Myron Bolitar series has the unforgettable, smart mouth sports agent agreeing to protect a top female basketball star.  He has both a professional and personal interest in Brenda but there is a chasm of corruption and lies, a vicious young Mafioso on the make, and a secret that some people are dying to keep–and others are killing to protect. The dialogue is crisp and engaging, but the conclusion is a bit disappointing.

Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky tells the story of men and women thrown together in frightening circumstances beyond their control. As Parisians flee the city, human folly surfaces in every imaginable way. Nemirovsky was already a highly successful writer living in Paris when she started the book but she was also a Jew, and in 1942 she was arrested and deported to Auschwitz. The book remained  hidden and unfinished for 64 years.  It is brilliant in places, but would doubtless been better if she had lived to finish the work.

One Shot by Lee Childs continues to chronicle the exploits of ex-military investigator Jack Reacher who is called in by a man accused of a lethal sniper attack on a heartland city.  The evidence against him is (almost too) overwhelming, but Reacher (picture Tom Cruise  at 6’6” and 250 pounds)  teams up with a young defense attorney to find an unseen enemy who is manipulating events behind the scenes.  This isn’t great literature but an engaging vacation diversion.

*Life After Life by Jill McCorkle follows the residents, staff, and neighbors of a North Carolina retirement center (from twelve-year-old Abby to eighty-five-year-old Sadie) as they share profound discoveries about each other and themselves.  McCorkle captures a cacophony of voices (almost too many) as they subtly experience their own transformations.

*The Revised Fundamentals of Caregiving by Jonathan Evison  was described by the NYTimes as “a story that offers a profound look into what it takes to truly care for another person.” After losing virtually everything meaningful in his life, Benjamin trains to be a caregiver, but his first client, a fiercely independent teen with muscular dystrophy, gives him more than he bargained for and soon the two embark on a road trip to visit the boy's ailing father.