Bob's 12 Best from 2012

FICTION

Girl Child by Tupelo Hassman is an exquisite counterpoint to “Starboard Sea” as Rory Hendrix devours the Girl Scout Handbook to discover a way out of the Reno trailer park where she lives with her mother, Jo, a hard-luck bartender at The Truck Stop. Rory’s been told that she is a “third-generation bastard surely on the road to whoredom.”  From diary entries, social workers’ reports, half-recalled memories, arrest records, family lore, Supreme Court opinions, and Tupelo’s grandmother’s letters, Hassman crafts a devastating collage that shows the frighteningly unfair world of the bottom 1%.

The Starboard Sea by Amber Dermont is “A rich, quietly artful novel that is bound for deep water, with questions of beauty, power and spiritual navigation.” Jason Prosper lives in the elite world of Manhattan penthouses, Maine summer estates, old-boy prep schools, and exclusive sailing clubs. Now at a “last chance” school trying to cope with the suicide of his sailing partner and best friend, Jason needs to grow up.  The novel is reminiscent of Catcher in the Rye with a little mystery thrown in for good measure. 

The Barbarian Nurseries by Hector Tobar is the “great panoramic social novel (of) Los Angeles”. Araceli is the live-in maid in a once affluent household. She is the last of three Mexicans employed and financial pressure is causing disturbing domestic arguments. After a particularly dramatic fight, Araceli wakes to an empty house—except for the family’s two sons she’s never had to interact with before. Their parents are unreachable, so she does the only thing she can think of and heads to the bus stop to seek out their grandfather. None of the family and much of Southern California will ever forget the adventure that follows. With shades of The Bonfire of the Vanities, Tortilla Curtain and Babel, this empathetic, insightful novel was named as the Boston Globe’s Best Fiction Book of 2011.

Turn of Mind by Alice LaPlante is a literary thriller about a retired orthopedic surgeon suffering from dementia and suspected of killing her best friend, Amanda, who was found dead with four fingers surgically removed.  The prime suspect, Dr. White doesn’t know if she did it. Told in White’s fractured and eloquent voice, a picture emerges of the surprisingly intimate, complex alliance between these proud, forceful life-long friends. As the investigation deepens, White’s relationships with her live-in caretaker and two grown children intensify and everyone wonders if White’s shattered memory is preventing her from revealing the truth or helping her hide it? “A startling portrait of a disintegrating mind clinging to reality through anger, frustration, shame, and unspeakable loss.”

The Expats by Chris Palone is a confident, complex first novel by an ex-patriot editor. Dexter is offered a job in Luxembourg with a private bank, and his CIA agent wife Kate,  who hasn’t told Dexter about her real job, finds housework and lunches with other expats boring. Moreover, Dexter's  uncharacteristic , behavior and the curiosity of new friends Julia and Bill raise her suspicions. “Kate's character, her CIA experiences, and her new life are examined in granular detail, all of which helps drive an intricate, suspenseful plot that is only resolved in the final pages.”

Defending Jacob by William Landy is a gripping, multiple-faceted story with well-crafted plot twists and turns.  A 14-year-old boy is stabbed to death near his middle school in a Boston suburb, and Assistant DA Andy Barber takes the case despite the fact that his son, Jacob, was a classmate of the victim. But when Jacob become the prime suspect, Andy is removed from the case and spends the next several months trying to understand his son and assist in his defense. I thought the work was a worthy heir of Scott Thurow at his best.

The Lost Prince by Selden Edwards is a pleasing sequel to his debut success, The Little Book.  Recently returned from the experience of a lifetime in fin de siècle Vienna, Eleanor Burden settles into her expected place in society--except for one small difference. Eleanor possesses an unshakable belief that she has advance knowledge of major historical events to occur during her lifetime-- and incredible insights into investment opportunities-- “A ‘Back to the Future’ for intellectuals."

NON FICTION

The Creative Destruction of Medicine: How the Digital Revolution Will Create Better Health Care by Eric J. Topol, one of the nation’s top physicians and a leading voice on the digital revolution in medicine, argues that radical innovation and a true democratization of medical care are within reach. Topol asks “what happens when you combine cellular phone technology with the cellular aberrations in disease or create a bridge between the digital and medical revolutions?”  This marvelous book by Eric Topol, “ a leading cardiologist, gene hunter and medical thinker”, was my ‘best of 2012’ and answers these questions and many more with an amazing combination of breath, depth and excellent writing.

The End of Illness by  David Agus tackles some fundamental questions about modern medicine and “taking a cue from physics, he views the body as a complex system and helps us see how everything from cancer to nutrition fits into one whole picture.” The result is both a useful guide on how to stay healthy and a fascinating analysis of the latest in medical science.  “A bold call for all of us to become our own personal health advocates, “The End of Illness is flawed only by his overemphasis on the potential of work being done by Navigenics, a company he helped found.

  

Abundance: The Future is Better Than You Think  by Peter Diamandis and Steven Kotler  optimistically  documents how four forces—exponential technologies, the DIY innovator, the “Technophilanthropist”, and the Rising Billion—are conspiring to solve our biggest problems  in the near and medium term future.  The authors introduce dozens of innovators who are making great strides in each our major problem areas--water, food, energy, healthcare, education, freedom and lays out a strategic roadmap for governments, industry and entrepreneurs.

Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power by Pulitzer Prize–winner Jon Meacham “brings vividly to life an extraordinary man and his remarkable times.” Jefferson is depicted as a great and complex human who hated confrontation, and yet was able to marshal ideas, to learn from his mistakes, and to prevail. Passionate about women, his family, books, science, architecture, gardens, friends, Monticello, and Paris, Jefferson seemed to love the idea of America most. Meacham lets us see how Jefferson found the means to endure and win in the face of rife partisan division, economic uncertainty, and external threat. Meacham’s use of original letters and speeches convey impressive scholarship, but make the book a slower read than necessary.

Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman, a psychologist who won the Nobel prize for economics, draws on an impressive stream of research to introduce his "machinery of the mind" model on human decision making to reveal the faults and capabilities of intuitive versus logical thinking—and how easily we slip away from our assumed rationality.  He weaves threads of Charles Darwin, Adam Smith and Sigmund Freud and is “arguably the most important psychologist in history.”  “Kahneman has reshaped cognitive psychology, the analysis of rationality and reason, the understanding of risk and the study of happiness and well-being.”

December, 2012

*Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power by Pulitzer Prize–winner Jon Meacham “brings vividly to life an extraordinary man and his remarkable times.” Jefferson is depicted as a great and complex human who hated confrontation, and yet was able to marshal ideas, to learn from his mistakes, and to prevail. Passionate about women, his family, books, science, architecture, gardens, friends, Monticello, and Paris, Jefferson seemed to love the idea of America most. Meacham lets us see how Jefferson found the means to endure and win in the face of rife partisan division, economic uncertainty, and external threat. Meacham’s use of original letters and speeches is impressive scholarship, but makes the book a slower read than necessary.

*The End of Illness by  David Agus tackles some fundamental questions about modern medicine and “taking a cue from physics, he views the body as a complex system and helps us see how everything from cancer to nutrition fits into one whole picture.” The result is both a useful guide on how to stay healthy and a fascinating analysis of the latest in medical science.  “A bold call for all of us to become our own personal health advocates, “The End of Illness is flawed only by his overemphasis on the potential of work being done by a company he helped found.

October-November

*The Lower River by Paul Theroux “wrestles with questions of good intentions and harsh reality...” Ellis Hock runs an old-fashioned menswear store in a small town where he dreams about  the four years he spent in Malawi with the Peace Corps.  When his wife leaves him, he realizes that the place for him to go is back to his on the remote Lower River, where he can be happy again. He finds dusty village transformed.  The school he built is a ruin, the church and clinic are gone, and poverty and apathy have worsened. They remember and welcome him, but is his new life an escape or a trap?  Updating Thomas Wolfe, Theroux proves you can’t go home to Africa either.

 

Gilded Age by Claire McMillan  re-imagines  Wharton’s The House of Mirth as a modern story set amid the upper crust of Cleveland instead of New York. While the book hews to the original in terms of plot, “the dialogue is sharp and witty, and the characters inhabit a world of their own making.” It’s a tragic comedy that’s alternately humorous and heartbreaking.

 

Double Fault by Lionel Shriver is described as “a brilliant and unflinching novel” as it explores the depths of conflict between professional and personal commitment. Tennis has been the love of Willy Novinsky's life since she first picked up a racquet at four. A middle-ranked pro at twenty-three, she's meets her match in Eric Oberdorf, a low-ranked, untested Princeton grad who also intends to make his mark on the international tennis circuit. Eric becomes Willy's first passion off the court, and eventually they marry. But while the marriage begins well, full-tilt competition soon puts a strain on their relationship.

 

Girl in the Park by Mariah Fredricks is the story of a “Preppie Murder” and called a “haunting psychological thriller.” When Wendy Geller's body is found in Central Park, shy Rain, once Wendy's best friend, knows there was more to Wendy than the newspaper hyperbole.  As she struggles to separate the friend she knew from the tangle of gossip and headlines, Rain becomes determined to discover the truth about the murder. Written in a voice at often riveting, and convincing, Frederick's mystery exposes the cracks in the New York City world of privilege.

 

Drawing Conclusions by Donna Leon explores the death of a retired teacher who was helping abused women escape offers a sensitive exploration of a contemporary social problem. It also delivers a typically Leon-style ambiguous ending in which traditional justice is either less important than or even detrimental to Brunetti's real concern: doing his best to set things right for the troubled people he encounters in the course of his investigation. This is a popular series set in Venice and is particularly pleasant to read while in the area.

September Books

*Tigers in Red Weather by Lisa Klaussmann is “an unforgettable debut novel from a writer of extraordinary insight and accomplishment." Nick and her cousin, Helena, have grown up summering on Martha's Vineyard in a family estate known as Tiger House. After WWII, the two women are on the cusp of their 'real lives' and the gilt begins to crack. Then, in the 1960s, Nick and Helena--with their children, Daisy and Ed--try to recapture that sense of possibility but the intrusion of violence causes everything to unravel and their prescribed lives change forever. Told from five points of view, the novel has excellent character and class development with suspenseful longing for something even better.

 

It’s Even Worse Than It Looks: How the American Constitutional System Collided with the New Politics of Extremism  by Thomas Mann and Norman Ornstein, one a democrat and the other arepublican expert on Congress, outline recommendations for ending obstructionist tactics and artificial barriers to compromise, suggesting specific institutional restructuring measures while calling on the public and media to work with government to correct problems rather than perpetuating acerbic campaign cycles.   

The Absolutist by John Boyne Will is set in the fall of 1919 when World War I veteran Tristan Sadler travels from London to Norwich to deliver a package of letters to the sister of Will Bancroft, a soldier Tristan met while training for the war in 1916. Tristan bears the scars of war on his body, but the real scars come from the horrors of war—especially WWI superimposed on his love for Will, who becomes an absolutist after having to face the immorality of war.

 

Criminal by Karin Slaughter is “an epic tale of love, loyalty, and murder that encompasses forty years, two chillingly similar murder cases, and a good man’s deepest secrets.” Slaughter uses parallel stories, separated by 40 years, to chronicle the challenges of Atlanta’s emergence as a major metropolitan area while coping with racism, sexism and too many murders.

Stay Close by Coben Harlan tracks three people living lives they never wanted, hiding secrets that even those closest to them would never suspect. As the consequences of long-ago events come together and threaten to ruin lives, a suburban housewife, a failing photographer and a grieving father each confronts the dark side of the American Dream.  An engaging book, but not Harlan’s best. 

 

The Innocent by David Baldacci is an engaging story of a government hit man with a heart. After aborting an assignment rather than kill a child, he crosses paths with a fourteen-year-old runaway from a foster home. She is smart, streetwise and in danger because her parents were murdered, and her own life is on the line. Robie rescues her and finds he can't walk away-- until the culprits are captured/killed and a nefarious plot revealed.