July-August Books

*The Swans of Fifth Avenue by Melanie Benjamin, bestselling author of The Aviator’s Wife, is historical fiction about the “scandalous, headline-making, and enthralling friendship between literary legend Truman Capote and peerless socialite Babe Paley” and other members of  New York’s high society in mid-20^th Century. Like me, you may have missed some of the glamour (and heart-break) of this era.

*Al Franken Giant of the Senate by Al Franken is the story of how an original member of the SNL team gets a chance to serve in the United States Senate, by the narrowest of margins,  and actually turns out to be good at it. Much more insightful and  fun to read than most books by big time politicians. 

*How the Light Gets In by Louise Penny is another mystery set in Three Pines  where Chief Inspector Armand Gamache investigates the disappearance of a woman who was once one of the most famous people in the world and now goes unrecognized. Gamache solves her murder, protects loyal members of the Sûreté du Québec, defends the serenity of his village and finds proof of corruption in high places.  

Camino Island by John Grisham features a young academic who is recruited to help recover priceless F. Scott Fitzgerald manuscripts that were stolen during a daring heist at Princeton.  She befriends several Camino Island authors and the owner of a popular bookstore who also deals in the black market of stolen books and manuscripts. Not Grisham’s best, but still enjoyable light reading.

*The Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz, popular "Masterpiece Mystery” author, gives the reader two excellent British mysteries for the price of one. The first, set in 1950s England, is a whodunit complete with vicar, village, and vengeance. The second, features a modern editor who must solve a murder surrounding that book, as her firm’s fortunes rest upon its success. “This fiendishly brilliant, riveting thriller weaves a classic whodunit worthy of Agatha Christie into a chilling, ingeniously original modern-day mystery.”

*Testimony by Scott Turow has Bill ten Boom, a disillusioned American prosecutor taking an assignment in the Hague to investigate the unsolved disappearance of an entire Gypsy refugee camp during the Bosnian War. He navigates a complex, deceptive environment,  takes testimony from a host of suspects while uncovering disturbing alliances and betrayal. I didn’t agree that  it was Turow’s  “most irresistibly confounding and satisfying novel yet,” but it was engaging, entertaining and educational.

The Curious Charms of Arthur Pepper by Phaedra Patrick is a A Man Called Ove wantabe that doesn’t quite make it.  A 69 year old widower finds a charm bracket in his wife’s closet and sets up to discover what he didn’t know about her. Suddenly, he breaks with his rigid routine and begins an odyssey that takes him from London to Paris and as far as India in an epic quest. Described as evoking “whimsy and poignancy,” I found it predicable and a bit saccharine.

*Beartown by Fredrik Backman (A Man Called Ove) is the story of a town collapsing under the burden of unemployment and desperately needing to win the junior ice hockey championship. During a boisterous celebration after an important win, something happens between star player and the coach's daughter that threatens everyone's hopes and illusions.


*The Nature of the Beast is Louise Penny's 11th book featuring Armand Gamache who is failing retirement as chief inspect of the Surete' in a small lidyli8c Quebec village.  When an imaginative local boy is found  dead, Gamache starts looking for clues and finds a gigantic WMD, a complex web of conspiracies and a local serial killer.   Perhaps there are a few too many coincidences, but Penny's novel "peels away the emotional and psychological layers" of the locals while capturing the essence of a beautiful village and life stye despite its proclivity for murder.


*On the Sickle’s Edge by Neville Frankel is a multi generational saga 20^th century chronicle of a Jewish family through the rise and fall of the former Soviet Union. The story of the Shtein family spans three continents, and provides a glimpse into how ordinary people lived through turbulent periods of history—similar times but a very different experience from A Gentleman in Moscow.