January Books

*Let Me Be Frank With You by Richard  Ford has four connected novellas, almost an afterword to his highly praised Frank Bascome trilogy.  This book has the retired realtor confronting his 70ls, a lonely life,  and, at the same time, dealing with the impact  of ravages associated with  Hurricane Sandy, aging, and failed marriages. This isn’t Ford’s best book, but it shows that why still he is considered one of the best of contemporary novelists. 

The Wives of Los  Alamos by TaraShea Nesbit is the collective story of the women who were silent partners of  one of the strangest and most important  research projects in modern history. It's a testament to the remarkable  women who carved out a life for themselves, in spite of the chaos of the war, isolation  and the smothering impact of intense secrecy.  Despite excellent reviews, I found this debut novel’s collective voice to be a bit strained.

 Intimate Apparel by Lynn Notage is the script for February’s production of the Ensemble Theater. Esther is a black seamstress in New York City in 1905  who sews intimate apparel for clients from wealthy white patrons to prostitutes. Despite lacking beauty, she still  longs to find a husband and start a beauty parlor. After corresponding with George, a worker on the Panama Canal, they decide to marry, sight unseen, but he betrays Esther and fritters away her money. While the plot is predictable and a bit sexist, I am confident that the cast will make the script come alive.

Stumbling on Happiness by Harvard psychologist Gilbert Daniel describes the foibles of imagination and illusions of foresight that cause each of us to misconceive our tomorrows and misestimate our satisfactions. Drawing from research in psychology, cognitive neuroscience, philosophy, and behavioral economics, Gilbert discusses what has been discovered about the uniquely human ability to imagine the future, the capacity to predict how much we will like it when we get there and why we fail to understand ourselves. Although witty and accessible, I still found the book a bit pedantic in places.

 Gray Mountain by John Grisham is another of his enjoyable, formulaic “David and Goliath” novels wherein a young attorney takes on an evil adversary.  After losing her job at New York City's largest law firm after the economic crisis,  Samantha becomes an unpaid intern in a small Appalachian community, where she stumbles upon dangerous secrets, does battle again nefarious coal companies who will do anything (including murder) to hide their abuses of workers and the environment. Grisham keeps even jaded readers interested with colorful background data, well-drawn characters and a touch of suspense and romance.

World Made by Hand by James Howard Kunstler is set “a few decades into the future  after global catastrophes  have destroyed industrial civilization." The inhabitants of Union Grove  struggle to deal with a new way of life over the course of an eventful summer and  plays out against a panorama of abandoned highways and empty houses, horses mowing in the hayfields, and neighbors working shoulder-to-shoulder to survive. “A powerful tale of love, loss, violence, and desperation…(Kunstler) depicts a surprisingly lyrical, tender, and hopeful new America struggling to be born.”

**The Rosie Effect by Graeme Simsion is a much anticipated sequel to The Rosie Project (my favorite book of 2013). Don Tillman (think a slightly more adaptable Sheldon Cooper of  “Big Bang Theory) and Rosie are now living in New York and unexpectedly expecting their first child.  As Don tries to schedule time for pregnancy research, getting his friends to reconcile, servicing the industrial refrigeration unit that occupies half his apartment, helping Dave save his business and marriage while staying on the right side of his social worker, he almost misses the biggest challenge  until he realizes that his compulsive helpfulness might cause actually him to lose Rosie.

December Books

*A History of the Future: A World Made by Hand Novel  by James Howard Kunstler depicts a simpler post-apocalyptic United States after oil, after pandemics, after environmental disaster.  Yet, in little Union Grove, the townspeople are preparing for Christmas without the consumerist shopping frenzy of an earlier era when they are shocked by a double murder and news of a new civil war in the South. Adaptable folks or those with practical skills face numerous challenges but seem doing well  in isolated pockets. Kunstler has an engaging way of presenting  potential unanticipated consequences and challenge.

 *The Innovators: How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution bt Walter Isaacson tells the story of the people who created  computer hardware, software   and the Internet. “It is destined to be the standard history of the digital revolution and an indispensable guide to how innovation really happens.” The litany of names is sometimes mind numbing, but the slog is well worthwhile. 

The Best Care Possible: A Physician's Quest to Transform Care Through the End of Life by Ira Byock is built around the thesis that it is now much harder to die than ever and palliative care should be given a higher priority. Because of tremendous  advances in keeping people alive,   many Americans suffer needlessly and die badly.  Byock provides good illustrations of  best practices in “end of life” medicine but is weak on policy or personal recommendations.

*Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage by Haruki Murakami and Philip Gabriel  a  meditation by  a young man haunted by a great loss and about his dreams and nightmares that have unintended consequences for the world around him. Tsukuru makes  journey into the past that is necessary to mend the present. “It is a story of love, friendship, and heartbreak “ that is uniquely Japanese and also universal.

October-November

*Lila by Marilynne  Robinson is a “powerful, profound, and positively radiant… depiction of a child reared by drifters who finds a kindred soul in 'a big, silvery old man,' the Rev. John Ames  whom she is afraid to love”. . and still does. Robinson deals with the big issues: existence, faith,  abject poverty, life, death, joy, fear, doubt, love, violence, kindness— and more. “A book…already for the ages” but not always easy going for rapid reading.

Best Brothers by Daniel MacIvor is “a bittersweet comedy from one of Canada's most beloved playwrights”  that explores the ways people grieve and  find love in unexpected places. Bunny’s  two sons, Kyle and Hamilton, have the task of arranging her funeral and caring for her most beloved companion, a troublesome Italian greyhound named Enzo. The obituary-writing, eulogy-giving, dog-sitting, and sibling rivalry quickly  unearths years of buried contentions.

*Guns of the South by Harry Turtledove imagines what might happen if a band of white supremacists traveled back through time to alter the outcome of the Civil War by providing AK-47s to the CSA. A  master storyteller with the scrupulous accuracy of a trained historian, Turtledove creates a believable, meticulously detailed world inhabited by plausible  characters both historical and fictional.

*The Son by Philipp Meyer is “part Texas, part classic coming-of-age story, part unflinching portrait of the bloody price of power.”  Kidnapped by  Comanche after seeing his mother and sister brutally murdered,  13-year-old Eli McCullough adapts to Comanche life until the tribe is decimated by armed Americans whereupon he marries and founds a family and financial dynasty.  The novel traces the legacy of violence in the American West through three generations of  McCulloughs with  Intertwined narratives from his son, Peter, who bears the emotional cost of his father's drive for power, and  Eli's great-granddaughter who must fight hardened rivals to succeed in a man's world.

September Books

*The Heist  by Daniel Silva is the latest  in the adventures of Gabriel Allon, art restorer and occasional spy/assassin  for Israel who plays a dangerous game of high stakes international intrigue as he searches for a stolen masterpiece by Caravaggio. Allon has joined the pantheon of great fictional secret agents, including George Smiley, Jack Ryan, and Jason Bourne.  Don’t worry if you haven’t read the previous Allon books as Silva manages to recycle the  highlights of his previous hits. Despite the reminders of past exploits and the predictable, formulaic storyline,  Heist is still an engaging read. 

**Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty , the New York Times best-selling author of The Husband's Secret,   follows three mothers, each at a crossroads, and their potential involvement in a riot at a school trivia night that leaves one parent dead in what appears to be a tragic accident. She explores the reality of modern parenting,  playground politics, ex-husbands and ex-wives, and fractured families. In a “ pitch-perfect way, she shows us the truth about what really goes on behind closed suburban doors”  with witty, insightful dialogue (internal and external).

 **The Good Girl by Mary Kubica is an engaging debut novel about a well-planned kidnapping  that surprises the family, the villains and readers alike. The daughter of a prominent Chicago judge and his socialite wife by her one-night stand who, instead of delivering her to his employers, hides her in a secluded cabin in rural Minnesota. It is difficult to tell who is hero and who is villain in this “additively suspenseful and tautly written thriller.”