Third Degree - Greg Iles

Meh. I didn't like any of the characters and that was a big detriment to this book. Even the ones you are supposed to like aren't likeable for a number of reason. Danny is the hero but comes off as too perfect and there were little things that bothered me about his storyline. He has two kids with his wife, but he's only ever talking about one of them and is only concerned with custody of one. 

His Air Force backstory is a little faulty. From reading the notes this makes sense w- Iles consulted with an Army warrant officer. The Air Force doesn't have warrant officers (any more) so that portion was just weird. I'm not sure why they didn't just make the guy have an Army backstory. In the end, the only purpose this serves is so he can fly a helicopter. 



I don't want to sound prudish, but it's a bit hard to drum up some sympathy for these adulteress characters who spend so much time just thinking of themselves.


 
The story happens in one 24 hour period and it just gets too black or white at points. The dialogue is not really that believable either, which I think happens a lot when people write using kids as characters. Towards the end it felt like Iles backed himself into a narrative corner so the story just kept going on and on until Warren did himself and the reader a favor and killed himself. That was really the only logical ending.

2/5 Stars.

Big Little Lies - Liane Moriarty

How did I get here?

This is what I was thinking last night when I looked at the clock and realized it was 1145 and I only had 7% left of the book to go. But, actually I knew exactly how I got to that point.

Big Little Lies is essentially a story about three friends, beautiful Celeste, volatile Madeline, and fragile Jane. When Jane moves to the beach side town of Piriwee, she meets Madeline. Jane is a young, single mother whose son, Ziggy, will be starting kindergarten. Madeline also has a daughter starting kindergarten. Celeste is a friend of Madeline's who has twin boys starting kindergarten. So all these mothers and their children happen to meet at the kindergarten orientation day.

Madeline, who loves a good fight, takes hapless Jane under her wing. The way Moriarty sets up the narration gives us a twist however. The very first chapter starts six months after the orientation. At "Trivia Night" a fundraiser held by the school. We learn early in the first couple of chapters that someone is killed during trivia night.

So when the book introduces us to Madeline, Celeste and Jane, we think... hmmm... maybe one of them. And I was curious, for a few chapters I thought, who is is going to be... who dies. But then this funny thing happened. I started to really really like and identify with Madeline, Celeste and Jane, and I didn't want ANY of them to die. And then I was worried about them. (I think reading George R.R. Martin has ruined me on the survivability of favorite characters). I was worried about their families.

Moriarty sets us up to think these three women are just a bunch of stereotypes packaged into three frames. And it's easy to get pulled along with that until different details of their past and present conflicts are teased out into the open. Interestingly a lot of the background characters who appear in "interviews" with police interspersed throughout the chapters remain as stereotypes and it's an interesting look at how we really have no idea what is going on with other people.

So around 54% and 9 p.m. when I thought maybe I should be tucking in for the night, it started to become possible that Celeste was going to be the one who was killed. And I really really didn't want it to be her. So I kept reading until I could be certain it wasn't her, and then, well I only had 12% left, and then 7% and who really puts down a book when you are that close?

So I ended up reading for four hours straight yesterday which is basically unheard of but it was also pretty magical.

The book does a really really good job with the three main characters and sensitively dealing with issues of domestic violence. I hate to admit that it actually forced me to really examine why some people don't leave abusive relationships for the first time in a new way. It was clear Moriarty did her homework on that one and it's with a sense of relief, because who wants to read that when it's done poorly. 

4/5 Stars.

For Love of Country: What Our Veterans Can Teach us About Citizenship, Heroism and Sacrifice - Howard Schultz and Rajiv Chandrasekaran

A good read that will not reach much of its intended audience. I was lent this book from a co-worker who also served in the Air Force. This is one of the great things about physical books over Kindle books. You can rave about them. You can cajole people into reading them, but unless you can physically hand them the books, your recommendation may not go anywhere.

That's probably what would have happened with this one. If my co-worker had only recommended it and not handed it to me, then I likely never would have read it. It's not that I don't like reading about American heroes, I do. But I already have a to-read book shelf that is slightly bowed in the middle, and a Kindle to-read shelf that is currently taking up quite a few swipes to get to the next book. Sometimes reading becomes an exercise in getting to the next book rather than actually enjoying the book I'm reading.

In the first line, I mention that the book will likely not reach much of its intended audience. So let me explain. My co-worker, the Air Force vet, and me, another Air Force vet are not the intended audience of this book. Howard Schultz is the CEO of Starbucks. He's got a lot of money and therefore a bit of influence and he had almost no exposure to veterans and their issues/causes. He talks in the introduction about how he finally woke up to the reality that men and women in uniform make every day sacrifices and he, as an "average" American citizen has no exposure to that.

The figures he quotes are sobering. Only 1% of Americans have served or are serving in the military. And only 5% of American have an immediate family member who has served or is serving. To say our modern day citizen is disconnected from the military and its volunteer members is an understatement. What this book sets out to do is provide a series of vignettes that tell the tales of unparalleled bravery in wartime and then of unparalleled commitment to those veterans after they return home.

But here's the reality. I'm an Air Force vet, I get it. I know what went on overseas during my deployment, and I've been lucky to serve with some truly great and selfless heroes. And I was given the book to read by a retired Air Force Master Sergeant who also served his share of deployments. So the two of us - we're not the target audience of the book. Schultz isn't speaking to us. Yet, the stories told in the book, the still meant something to me.

The stories told by Schultz are recent. They recount bravery and heroism during the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. They are startlingly recent. I served in Baghdad in 2006-2007 and for some reason, my brain has shut off after that time. I've moved on to law school and a law career. And here we are, eight years later, and it still feels, in many respects, like I just got home. And then I read these stories, of veterans coming home in 2012, 2013 and its like I never left, but I'm so far removed from them too.

The part of the book I found really enlightening were in the second half. The stories of veterans working on Team Rubicon and TAPS who are helping veterans, their families and disaster victims here in the United States. And it sort of woke me up to all the good people do every day. Veterans do have so much to give, and so much training and experience to share. It reminded me of the very first job I got during law school, fresh out of the Air Force, where the hiring manager at the law firm told me that if I was scheduled to work from 10-2 on a certain day, I should be there from 10-2. This didn't make sense to me. Of course if I was scheduled to work 10-2 I would show up. Of course I would work those hours. But this was not the Air Force, and people don't always treat their job like a service.

There are so many great lessons and stories in these vignettes. But I just don't know beyond the war buffs and the deeply patriotic, who might be picking this book up besides me and my fellow veterans. No need to tell us how great some of the people who served were. We already know.

Perhaps if you haven't served, make it your goal to read this for Veterans Day, Memorial Day or Fourth of July. Make it the one patriotic thing you do this year.

3.5/5 Stars.

Hungry Monkey - Matthew Amster-Burton

I got this book on a crazy Kindle deal because I was starting to deal with a recalcitrant eater. If you want to know what he likes, check out his blog. It seemed kind of like what I would be interested in too. Creating a curious eater. This is kind of like raising a unicorn. I mean, a toddler who is interested in eating new and interesting foods? Definitely talking mythical creature here.

What this book actually is, is a series of anecdotes regarding the author and his daughter which are cute but sometimes too cutesy. The author also is a bit of a hipster which is fine because he's a food critic in Seattle - what do you expect? So there is a lot of description of foods that kind of seem like he's rubbing it in your face that he has better taste in bacon than you do. But in the end I really didn't care about that all that much.

There is no sage wisdom to be found to convincing your child to eat interesting foods in this book but it's reassuring in a sense that even this guy can't get his toddler to be less picky. The book points out a few things about eating and having a kid to feed that totally goes along with my philosophy on what we do with our kids. First, our oldest toddler is involved in the food preparation process to the extent that he can be. I have not yet let him chop things like the author's daughter, but I imagine he's not far off from that. He does however, get to measure and pour ingredients as well as mix things. Sometimes, I've found that his involvement in the preparation process makes him more interested in the eating process. And sometimes, like the author, I find that this makes no difference.

I've also not thrown down a moratorium on the typical kids foods that he likes. He likes mac-n-cheese, and chicken nuggets. I try to get the whole grain mac and the no additives chicken nuggets but I do occasionally, when Daddy is out of town, allow for this kind of fun meal. Lately when I've been meal planning for the coming week, I ask our oldest what he'd like to have for dinner one night. I feel like this gives him a little agency into what we are eating and that dinner time truly is family time. When we go to the grocery store, which he loves because we live in the South and Publix gives free cookies to kids, we also talk about what the things we are buying are going to become. It's been a semi-success.

Lastly, we make one meal at night and that's what the kids eat. I try to include one ingredient that I know they would be interested in so there is at least something they are familiar with, but sometimes that doesn't happen. We don't make a big deal out of it if they don't eat anything, but we congratulate them when they try something new. I'm trying to make eating a positive experience for them if I can. But I'm not going to be running back and forth to the refrigerator to try to accommodate every request. So all in all, I liked the laid back tone of this book. Probably because it reinforces my own philosophy and who doesn't like reading a book you agree with?

A few of the recipes I wouldn't mind trying but since I got the Kindle edition of this one, it's not going to happen. It's just to difficult to try to go back through and find the recipe. Of course I say that now, but every now and then I have these crazy ideas. 

It's a quick and easy read but not groundbreaking or life changing.

3/5 Stars.

Circling the Sun - Paula McLain

I received a free copy of this book. Could it be because I loved McLain's Paris Wife so much I named my daughter after the main character? Maybe. 

Where to start with Circling the Sun? I'd never heard of Beryl Markham prior to reading the description on Goodreads. I had read, however, Out of Africa, which although the author was originally penned as "Isak Dinesen," this person was later revealed to be Karen Blixen.

While Blixen appears heavily in Circling the Sun, Beryl Markham is absent from Out of Africa. It's an interesting aspect of memoir and the things Karen Blixen chose to remember. By historical accounts, Beryl and Karen were in love with the same man, Denys Finch Hatton, a safari hunter, pilot and basically all around gorgeous human being. To say they were involved in a love triangle would be inaccurate and inadequate at the same time. Both women loved Finch Hatton fiercely, and he, in turn, seemed to be faithful and in love with both women.

Wasn't she gorgeous?

 
The circles in which Beryl moved in Kenya are fascinating and the social decorum required within are dizzying.

Beryl grew up abandoned by her mother and parented by a distracted father. Wild and stubborn, Beryl found her own way until her father's bankruptcy when she was 17 led her into a hastily agreed to marriage with an almost complete stranger.

Unhappy playing wife in her marriage, Beryl sought out an opportunity to be independent and became the first certified female horse trainer. Over the years of her young adulthood she is constantly thrown down in poverty and disgrace only to come back fiercer than ever and more dedicated to being her own woman. She was not afraid to go after what she desired. Her affair with Finch Hatton led to her interest in flying, and even though a crash would take her lover from her, right on the cusp of their rekindled romance, she continued to fly and became the first woman to make a solo flight across the Atlantic (East to West).

McLain's writing is, as expected, spot on. She weaves Beryl's story into the backdrop of Kenya so well it's obvious that Beryl and Africa were inseparable - almost as if Africa is a characteristic of Beryl's personality, like being strong willed, or even having blonde hair. The book left me wanting to know more about Beryl. The book ends following Beryl's solo flight, but she's only in her early thirties as this point.

Beryl went on to write her own memoir - West with the Night (which I will be reading tout suite - you can now read that review here). Despite it getting rave reviews, it was not a hit like Out of Africa. When it was discovered by someone looking through Ernest Hemingway's letters in the 1980s, and ultimately entered into republication, Beryl was living in poverty in Kenya, in her 80s. She was able to live the rest of her life in relative comfort thanks to the success of this second printing.

What a fascinating person and life. I refuse to believe the second half of her life wasn't just as interesting as the first part which is included in Circling the Sun. I wish I knew more about her and the fate of her family.

I really enjoyed this book. It was a little slow in parts and took a while to turn some plot corners and therefore gets a 4 star rather than a 5 star rating, but I'll definitely be recommending this to basically everyone.

4/5 Stars.

Three Cups of Tea - Greg Mortenson

Hmmm... Okay. I read this book knowing that I would read Jon Krakauer's "Three Cups of Deceit" afterwards, so knowing that the allegations were out there that much of this book is fabricated or untrue most likely has changed how I viewed this book while reading it.

Without knowing the specifics on the allegations regarding this book, there were a few things that bothered me about it, that I think I would have picked up on anyway.

First, the author here is listed as Greg Mortenson, but Greg is not the author of this book, it's written by David Relin based on interviews and visits Relin made with Mortenson. Right away that makes me wary. If the book was properly researched and written, Relin wouldn't need Mortenson as an additional author. So I'm not sure what is going on there. If anything it seemed like an excuse to write about Mortenson without Mortenson singing his own praises.

Second, there are far too many "quotes" of things people said and they are presented as direct quotations, even where the events occurred four or five years before Relin even met Mortenson. So there is no way that anyone remembered the exact words used by anyone else that far back, and to present them as quotations rings false.

Third, some of the quotes seem to canned. Even the broken English of translated quotes was too canned and saccharin to be believed.

I didn't have any problems with the events that occurred in the book, aside from the fact that I know they may not have happened the way they are presented, but the above issues with the storytelling really bothered me throughout the book and cast a shadow of doubt around the events described.

That being said, the actual premise of the book, that building schools and investing in education is a better way to fight fundamentalism than bombs and war is totally believable and laudable. It's unfortunate that the message is presented in this format, and now that it's been discredited that the premise may be forgotten or discarded because the messenger was flawed.

2/5 Stars. 

Mint Juleps and Justice - Nancy Naigle

Setting aside the basic believability of certain aspects of the story (rapist/murderer) released on parole after eight years in jail (also eight years after the crime), the writing, dialogue and unlikable characters make this book practically unreadable. I'm not sure what's going on with its ridiculously high rating on Goodreads.

The reactions of the characters to certain events didn't really fit and the jerky writing left me sometimes wondering what was going on. In the end I was kind of rooting for one of the main characters to die just to give the story some edge.

The two unlikable protagonists involve themselves in a protracted will they or won't they that instead of me rooting for them to get together, left me rooting for them to be offed by the serial killer or the woman's crazy ex husband stalker. Yep, that's right, that portion of the story inexplicably takes up the first 3/4 of the book. 

If you are a fan of the books the supermarket puts in the checkout line I guess you won't mind this one.

0/5 Stars. Yes it's that bad.

Allegiant - Veronica Roth

Just. What? This story took an even worse turn but the masochist in me had to read it to see how it ended. 

What I hated: the premise. Genetic damage? Ugh the convoluted way people had to care about this required mental gymnastics. 

The dialogue. Why am I still reading these weird, awkward and misplaced exchanges which are the equivalent of "aw shucks" between the teenage characters?

The characters. They all suck. Or at least they are annoying. And there seems to be no difference between the narrative voices of Tris or Tobias. They are written the exact same way. 

There's a "twist" to the book that fans of the series are pretty upset about. But for me that was the books only redeeming quality. And it's funny to call it a twist when it's basically the plot point of every chapter of Game of Thrones.

So that one star? That's for me. For finishing this one. 

It will bother me if I don't also mention the lack of continuity in the book as well. How does Tobias have a photograph of his family in his house, the Erudite read textbooks all the time, but no one has heard of a freaking airplane? The Wright brothers could figure it out, and photography was around even before those two crazy brothers attached wings to a bicycle. I'm pretty sure photography technology is equally as complicated. But no, no, let's just have photographs of people in our homes. 

1/5 Stars.

All the Light we Cannot See - Anthony Doerr

Lovely from beginning to end. 

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. The narrative follows two teenagers during World War II, blind Marie-Laure of Paris, France and Werner Pfennig of Germany. Both characters overcome obstacles and deal with their own limitations (Marie's physical, Werner's one of character) where time and the machinery of war eventually lead them to meet. 

The chapters dealing with Werner's schooling at an elite political school and the brutal treatment of the students by the instructors were exceptionally well written and devastating at the same time. In particular, the school sections of Werner's narrative focus on his friendship with Frederick, a boy who "sees things that others do not." Ultimately Frederick's ability to stand outside of the events and refuse to be a part of the cruel system make him a target. I won't get into specifics of what Werner does or does not do, but I will say that at this point in the story, he's not a hero. 

I held out hope for the ultimate happy ending but was not disappointed when it did not happen. 

The chapters are incredibly short, giving this book a fast reading feel despite the 500+ page length. Intricately woven, the short chapters bounce through time and location but surprisingly it was not difficult to follow and was well laid out developing the characters even as we knew how their worlds would ultimately collide. 

I don't want to give away too much of the plot but both the main two characters and the minor characters are so well written and developed that it's an astounding feat. I can't wait to read more from this author.

5/5 Stars.

Senate Proof - Logan Snyder

**DISCLAIMER** I received this book from Net Galley in exchange for an honest review. So that's what I'll aim to do.

I had a lot of issues with the book, some of which I think could have been cleaned up with a bit more editing. First, all the major plot points are there. The book follows a set of characters. At the center of the action is the McAllister Distillery, an illegal bootlegging distillery in suburban Virginia. John McAllister, the reigning patriarch of the illegal empire and family has unwittingly allowed the operation to run away from him as other players in the operation attempt to wrest control of the operation, and its wealth away from him.

Enter Caroline, a beautiful girl out to investigate her father's murder 20 years prior in the town. Enter Jackson, a handsome young law student out to get a summer job in town, who's interviewer is inconveniently murdered the night before the interview. Other involved people, Ron McAllister, John's erstwhile son who after 20 years of exile is trying to get back to the head of the organization, Senator Windgate who is planning his retirement from the Senate (and the distillery), and Chief Justice of the Supreme Court Michael Abramson.

Sounds good right? Yeah, it should be. But it's not. So here are some of the problems.

While the characters should be interesting they aren't. Their motivations are always too convenient and too two-dimensional. At the end of the book, I'm not even sure I could tell you what purpose Jackson even served. He's a cute law student. He hits on Caroline. After she's "discovered" by McAllister, she agrees to go away for the weekend with Jackson. So after her dog has been shot and her apartment ransacked, she's what... looking forward to a weekend of boozing and horse track betting? After she's revealed at the end of the book as a federal agent, this makes even less sense.

She gets kidnapped in Louisville by some unnamed member of the distillery group and is then inexplicably passed from place to place as the plot tries to make you fear her ultimate demise. Jackson, pledging to rescue her, also goes to an old law firm, then someone's home, and then finally back to the distillery to try to rescue her. All the while he has no plan and no actual skills to do this. In the end, he's saved by the Chief Justice and Caroline. What?

Amidst all this nonsensical plodding along of the plot, the writing gives out inexplicable levels of detail. Here's an example: (after being held captive in a dark room, the light switch is turned on and)

"She barely made out the outline of a large cabinet against the wall just a few feet away. Blindly, she felt her way to it and wedged herself tightly against the side. Luckily, a blue tarp was next to her and she eased her way under it without making much noise."

The captor then believes she has somehow escaped and sounds the alarm. I really didn't know what to make out of this whole scene.

Here's another one: (our heroine Caroline has been beaten)

"Because of the darkness, Caroline hadn't notice that she was blind in her right eye. It was swollen shut. She reached up to touch it, but winced in pain as she grazed the wound. That explained the blood on her mouth. It must have been running down her face for quite some time."

So hopefully you get the point that a lot of the narration was just oversharing the details. Even the character development was painfully spelled out for the reader. I believe that if the author has to tell me that the character has grown as a person and therefore that's why he's now taking action, that really is a red flag that perhaps the author didn't do a good enough job showing me the character and letting me conclude on their own that he has now grown as a person.

Overall, I thought the writing should have been tighter. For example, when we are first introduced to Jackson, we see him drive to Notre Dame, get dumped for another guy by his girlfriend Samantha, get beat up by said guy, and return to Virginia in disgrace. A more effective introduction would have been to meet Jackson, at his home in Virginia, nursing his wounds. The entire part of the trip to see her was completely overkill. Although he does call Samantha later in the novel, this plot point never develops into anything. I wasn't even sure if I was supposed to care about or remember her at all.

The story and the writing show promise, so I don't want to seem completely down on it. It reminded me a bit of Steve Berry's earlier work that started out a bit sloppy and again too convenient until he got a feel for his style and character. I wouldn't completely say no to reading another Logan Snyder book again, but it won't be something that makes its way to the top of my to-read pile.

1 .5/5 Stars.

A Crown For Cold Silver - Alex Marshall

**DISCLAIMER** I received this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. 

My opinions on the book changed several times over the course of reading it but in the end it earns a four star rating and a hearty recommendation to fantasy readers. 

Where to begin? Well probably the beginning. At first, I was put off by the book dropping me into its fantasy world with little explanation or detail. I spent the first 20% barely hanging on to the facts of what I did or didn't know. But after that initial discomfort, the story really hit its stride. 

I've read that Alex Marshall is a pseudonym for a well established writer and I think that's obvious from the style of the prose, if not from the initial shell shock of the surroundings.

The book has so many things going for it, but instead of following the usual fantasy tropes, this book really turns things on its head. The characters are all over the ace sexually. There are no graphic scenes in that regard but the freeness and openness exhibited by the characters towards the subject don't follow the usual limited rule game of nobility. The story also doesn't take place in an otherworldly Europe. It's kind of like if A Song of Ice and Fire happened all across the sea rather than in the seven kingdoms. The locales are varied and non traditional. 

The story essentially begins when a regiment of the Crown visits a mountain village and slaughters a town - except for the one person they were really sent there to kill. The person they were supposed to kill? Her name is Zosia and twenty years prior to her village being massacred, she and her five lieutenants (the Five Villains) brought war down on the Crown as they sought to usher in a more egalitarian rule. 

The massacre brings Zosia out for revenge and we get to meet her five former villains along the way. Chevalaresse Singh, a cavalry captain with an impressive mustache (a woman), Bang-Ho, husband to a King, Hoartrap the Touch, a sorcerer, Fennec, a sneaky bastard; and lastly, my total favorite, Moroto, a former junkie with a chip on his shoulder. 

The villains all find out their old Cobalt Company has been reformed without them and is taking on the Crown yet again. There are so many minor players and ulterior motives. The big payoff doesn't appear in this first book so I have to expect to read it later. 

By the end I bought into the story big time. I'm excited to read the next installment because as you can expect like every good fantasy novel, there is going to be a sequel. 

4/5 Stars.