**A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles is the best book I’ve read this year. It “immerses us in an elegantly drawn era” and
the life of Count Alexander Rostov. In 1922, he is sentenced to house arrest in a
grand hotel across the street from the Kremlin.
With an indomitable spirit, erudition, wisdom and wit, he ‘witnesses’ some
of the most tumultuous decades in Russian history while living in an attic room
withutlosing any of his aristocratic
civility.
The Guests on South Market Street by Karen White is apparently part of a series about Charleston houses
and a psychic realtor. When her maternity leave ends,
Melanie Trenholm dreads leaving her new husband and twins but quickly gets a
great listing, a super nanny and a few scary ghosts. The psychic angle (her mother and nanny are
also have ‘the gift’) is a flexible writing gimmick that doesn’t require logic
or any hint of inevitability.
A Lowcountry Heart: Reflections on a
Writing Life
by Pat Conroy, edited and introduced by his widow, is a 'new' nonfiction
collection of letters, interviews, blogs, testimonials and magazine articles
spanning Conroy’s career. Like Conroy, some
of it is brilliant and touching while some is not.
*The Impossible Fortress by Jason Rekulak is a late 1980's story of fourteen-year-old
New Jersey nerd who aspires to build a successful company in the emerging
computer gaming industry. Billy Marvin also wants to get a copy of the Vanna
White issue of Playboy. Billy pretends to seduce a girl as part of an elaborate
plan steal a copy of the magazine before discovering that she is his
computer-loving soulmate. . While not sophisticated
or great literature, it is an engaging, fun book about the angst of
adolescence, young love and the evolution of computer simulation.
*The Wrong Side of Goodbye by Michael Connelly is another well-done police procedural
featuring Harry
Bosch who is now working as a volunteer suburban cop and as a PI. A
terminally ill mogul may have sired a child who may or not still be alive.
Harry's job is to determine if there is an heir and then to report only to the
mogul. Juggling this investigation with his
volunteer gig focused on trying to catch a serial rapist, Harry manages to
solve both mysteries, find both the good and bad guys while helping the victims. After almost 30 novels, Connelly manages to
maintain his crisp plotting, dialogue and pacing to produce another enjoyable
best seller.
