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.

May Books

 Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan got great reviews—“A gleeful and exhilarating tale of global conspiracy, complex code-breaking, high-tech data visualization, young love, rollicking adventure, and the secret to eternal life.” After the Great Recession sidelines his tech career, Clay Jannon takes a job at a strange bookstore in San Francisco, and soon realizes that the establishment is a facade for a strange secret sect that will take the intellectual resources of his nerdy friends and Google to unravel.

*The Next Digital Age: Reshaping the Future of People, Nations and Business by Eric Schmidt and Jared Cohen is a “widely anticipated, transformational vision of the future: a world where everyone is connected—a world full of challenges and benefits.” Clearly, it is an important book by “two of our most prescient and informed public thinkers” and deserving of incredible reviews from around the world. Nevertheless,  after struggling through the first 200 pages, I settled for a 20 page summary prepared by Amazon. 

The Trust by Norb Vonnegut offers an insider’s perspective   and dark humor in a fast-talking suspense thriller.  Summoned to Charleston to settle the affairs of a drowned real estate magnate and mentor who had been running a lucrative investment firm and a successful philanthropic trust,  Grove O'Rourke authorizes a charitable transfer only to discover disturbing links between the organization and illicit groups. Lots of action and close escapes follow in a readable novel that isn’t likely to make many college reading lists.

*The Dinner by Herman Koch is a dark, suspenseful novel of love and hate and how they often overlap. At a fashionable, pretentious Amsterdam restaurant, two couples move from small talk to the wrenching shared challenge of their teenage sons' senseless act of violence that has triggered a police investigation and will force the parents to make the most difficult decision of their lives. During the course on a single meal, each parent will determine the extent to which each family will go to protect their children. “Tautly written, incredibly gripping, and told by an unforgettable narrator,” The Dinner has doubtless been the topic of countless dinner party debates in 26 countries.

The Kingdom of Men by Kim Barnes, a Pulitzer Prize finalist for In the Wilderness, traces the experiences of a dirt poor woman in the 1960s who gets pregnant to escape her Oklahoma town and then follows her new husband to an expat community provided by The Saudi American Petroleum Company.  As she learns to enjoy the relative luxury of her new life, the death of a young Bedouin woman causes her to question the prescribed role of women and the values of her new community. A great concept, but crippled by one-dimensional characters and a disappointing ending.

April Books

**Kind of Kin by Arilla Askey deserves the enthusiastic NYT review (nytimes.com/2013/01/27).  When Oklahoma passes a tough "illegals" law, Robert John Brown is sent to prison for hiding migrant workers.  Brown's daughter Sweet Georgia is left to manage a family (including a troublesome son and an orphaned nephew) that is coming apart at the seams as her marriage collapses under the stress. Askew’s treatment of poverty, politics religion, immigration and family (dis)functionality is masterful, heart-breaking and laugh-out-loud funny at the same time.

*The Art Forger by Barbara A. Shapiro’ s razor-sharp writing and plot twists makes this an absorbing literary thriller that also gives us  three centuries of forgers, art thieves, and obsessive collectors. Claire makes her living reproducing famous paintings   for an online retailer.  To improve her situation, she is lured into a Faustian bargain a powerful gallery owner and agrees to forge a painting—one of the Degas masterpieces stolen from the Gardner Museum—in exchange for a one-woman show in his renowned gallery. Of course, there are a few wrinkles in the well-researched and written novel.

The Black Box by Michael Connelly has LAPD detective, Harry Bosch trying to solve a 20 year old cold case. Bosh links the bullet from a recent crime to 1992 the killing of a young female photographer during the L.A. riots.  The new ballistics match indicate that her death was not random violence, but something connected to a deeper intrigue. Like an investigator combing through the wreckage after a plane crash, Bosch searches for the "black box," the one piece of evidence that will pull the case together. Not Connelly’s best, but still an engaging, quick read.

A Land More Kind than Home by Wiley Cash is a southern coming of age debut novel about life in an unassuming mountain town that believes in protecting its own secrets.  Jess Hall is plunged into an adulthood for which he is not prepared when his autistic older brother sneaks a look at something he isn't supposed to with catastrophic repercussions for his family, the charismatic, snake-handling minister and the strange sect that follows him 

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*Mortality by Christopher Hitchens is accurately described as a "courageous, insightful and candid thoughts on malady and mortality from one of our most celebrated writers". Hitchens maintains his skepticism about religion and life after death while chronicling his losing battle with esophageal cancer while writing columns for Vanity Fair on politics and culture and also describing his personal  and philosophical view of life and death.

*The Future: Six Drivers of Global Change by Al Gore is an important, impressive  jumble of a book. Gore surveys our planet’s clouded horizon and offers a sober, learned, and moderately hopeful forecast “in the visionary tradition of Alvin Toffler’s Future Shock.”  The book reflects great breath of knowledge and research with genuine passion and commitment, but like the former VP himself, it tends to go on a bit and needed a firmer editorial hand.

Dark Places by Gillian Flynn is an engaging mystery but not as well-crafted as her later book, Gone Girl. For a price, Libby Day will reconnect with the people involved in the murder of her mother and two sisters in "The Satan Sacrifice of Kinnakee, Kansas."  At seven, she testified that her brother Ben was the murderer.   Now 32 and down on her luck, she is not so sure as the unimaginable and almost unbelievable truth emerges. The book shows signs of the talent that emerges in her next novel.

Brown’s Guide to the Good Life Without Tears, Fears or Boredom by David Brown is pretty well summarized in the title. The former editor of Cosmopolitan, husband of a subsequent editor (Helen Gurley Brown) producer and author  is wise, witty, and irreverent as reflects on a life well-lived from his tenth decade. "Helpful, humorous bits of advice and sage pithy truisms.”

The Carriage House by Louisa Hall is a “breakthrough debut novel” by the talented daughter of our neighbors.  For three generations, a carriage house has stood on the Adair property, a symbol of their family’s place in the world. Now, the house is crumbling, as is the family.  After a stroke reduces the patriarch, daughters Diana, Elizabeth, and Isabelle take on the battle for the carriage house and a more functional family dynamic. Ultimately they overcome deep and painful misunderstandings and betrayals to find forgiveness and hope.

March Books

*The Lady in Gold by Anne-Marie O'Connor is the spellbinding story  of Gustav Klimt's Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer, the beautiful, seductive Viennese Jewish salon hostess who sat for it; the notorious artist who painted it; the now vanished turn-of-the-century Vienna that shaped it; and the strange twisted fate that befell it. O’Connor paints a striking portrait of  Vienna’s  from Fin de Siecle through the  post-Nazi era to the return of the masterpiece to the heirs of the original owner in 2009 when Ronald Lauder bought it for $135 million a century after Klimt completed the society portrait.

Dark Places by Gillian Flynn isn’t up to the standard of her later Gone Girl, but shows the potential that will develop. Libby Day was seven when her mother and two sisters were murdered in “The Satan Sacrifice of Kinnakee, Kansas.” Libby survived–and testified that her fifteen-year-old brother, Ben, was the killer. Twenty-five years later, Ben sits in prison, and troubled Libby lives off the dregs of a trust created by well-wishers who’ve long forgotten her. She visits her past, an incredibly unpleasant collection of losers  and other “dark places” to shed light on what really happened.

*The Fallen Angel by Daniel Silva begins in Rome, where Gabriel  Allon, art restorer, assassin, spy, is called upon to investigate a murder at the Vatican, one with potentially disastrous repercussions.  Allon jets around the world to protect the Vatican, Israel and the world in a formulaic story that is both engaging and almost believable. Daniel Silva’s thrilling universe of intrigue, danger, and exceptional spy craft is one of the best in a crowded genre. The Philadelphia Inqurer concludes, “The enigmatic Gabriel Allon remains one of the most intriguing heroes of any thriller series.”

Standing in Another Man’s Grave by Ian Rankin features the return of former Detective John Rebus  who has never shied away from lost causes. Now he's back as a retired civilian, reviewing abandoned files and never missing the opportunity to upset his bureaucratic bosses, have a nip of the hard stuff or seeing missed  connections in the cases of missing women.  Rankin has an international fan base who raves about his ‘nuanced prose’, but I’m not a member of the group and thought a little less nuance might have saved a couple of hundred pages.

February Books

*Sweet Tooth by Ian McEwan “is a suspenseful plot-and-character-driven novel with an unexpected postmodern twist.” Serena is brilliant and beautiful, a speed-reading lit geek and Oxford math major, who is recruited by MI5 in the 1970s.  “Sweet Tooth” is her only operational assignment which is to infiltrate and influence the literary circle of a promising young writer named Tom Haley.  Although slow at times, the book offers a bit of suspense, romance, political intrigue and insight into the human psyche.

Hallucinations, according to Oliver Sachs, are not the exclusive property of the insane.  More commonly, they are linked to sensory deprivation, drugs, intoxication, illness, or injury. Told largely through well-crafted anecdotes,  Sacks emphasizes  Charles Bonnet syndrome, a condition characterized by intricate visual hallucinations and his own experience with hallucinogenic compounds.  The book is moderately engaging, but I did not find it substantive.

*Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn is masterful, witty and humorous  suspense story  about a marriage gone  terribly wrong.   On Nick and Amy Dunne’s fifth wedding anniversary, clever and beautiful Amy disappears. Her diary is found, and Nick is exposed as a lying, cheating jerk, but the alpha-girl  Amy could put anyone on edge. Under mounting pressure to find the person responsible for a wealth of clues, the police become increasing focus on Nick.   “Marriage can be a real killer,” but just how guilty is Nick?

The Boy Kings of Texas: A Memoir by Domingo Martinez is a “lyrical and authentic book that recounts the story of a border-town family in Brownsville, Texas in the 1980's.”  It is a tribute to all the smart kids who knew they had to leave home or die or boredom. “Martinez lushly captures the mood of the era and illuminates the struggles of a family hobbled by poverty.”

**Flight Behavior by Barbara Kingsolver is “is a brilliant and suspenseful novel set in present day Appalachia; a breathtaking parable of catastrophe and denial.” The story introduces a young wife and mother on a failing farm in rural Tennessee who experiences something she cannot explain and how that discovery energizes diverse factions—religious leaders, climate scientists, environmentalists, politicians to  address issues of poverty, consumerism, illusion and fear. “Flight Behavior is arguably Kingsolver's must thrilling and accessible novel to date” and the best fiction I’ve read in over a year.

What’s a Dog For? The Surprising History, Science, Philosophy, and Politics of Man's Best Friend by John Homans explores the dog’s complex and prominent place in our world and how they evolved from wild animals to working animals to nearly human members of our social fabric. Homan reviews the extensive serious scientific studies concerning pet ownership, evolutionary theory, and even cognitive science. He explores how dogs moved into our families, homes, and beds in the span of a generation, while becoming a $53 billion industry in the United States in the process.

*Ancient Light by John Banville portrays  an actor, Alexander Cleave,  in the twilight of his career as  he plumbs the memories of his first love (when he was fifteen)  with the mother of his best friend. The story explores  the impact of  his daughter’s madness, a movie role portraying an enigmatic  literary figure and his young, famous and fragile leading lady.  “Ancient Light is a profoundly moving meditation on love and loss, on the inscrutable immediacy of the past in our present lives.”