The White Princess - Phillipa Gregory

Probably a 3.5 star book. I really liked the story but the middle of the book was repetitive and thus got a little boring. This installment in the Cousin's War books (do not need to be read in order) tells the tale of Princess Elizabeth of York who weds Henry VII (Henry Tudor), her family's enemy. Told from Elizabeth's point of view, the story focuses on a series of York pretenders to the throne and Henry's treatment of them. It also posits a possible back story for the final York pretender which Tudor historians named "Warbeck" but understandable skepticism exists regarding the plausibility here. I do appreciate that Gregory isn't afraid to go her own way on some of these unclear historical events. The tale ends before Henry's reign ends. I would have liked to see Elizabeth deal with her son's death and the eventual crowning of Henry VIII rather than all the pages wasted repeating Henry VII's fears regarding Warbeck which is basically the same chapter over and over for 100+ pages. I feel like that put the story firmly in Henry's domain rather than focusing on Elizabeth.  3.5/5 Stars.

Only Time Will Tell (Clifton Chronicles) - Jeffrey Archer

So this meandering tale follows Harry Clifton as he grows from boyhood into an adult. The story shifts between various narrators including Harry's mother Maisie, Harry's best friend Giles, Old Jack Tar and a couple others which would be giving away plot points to mention. Through the various characters different lines of the truth are exposed and it's interesting to learn certain facts when the perspective changes. 

There are a couple things about the writing that I was not a big fan of. Each narrative shift encompasses a few chapters. The first chapter after the shift is written in the first person. The remaining chapters after a shift are written in The third person. I'm not sure what Archer is doing here. It's just distracting. 

The second issue I have with this novel is that although it seems to be well placed in historical events, the author might have not looked in to American history as well as he should have. For one there is a scene at the end with a character being read his Miranda rights. In 1939. Miranda v. Arizona didn't happen until 1966 so that's a little lazy. 

Otherwise I found the story entertaining even if it's not the most eloquent writing I've read. I'll read the rest of the series I'm sure but I'm not going to be reading them back to back. 

3/5 Stars. 

Dark Places - Gillian Flynn

If I could pick one writer I have read over the past year whose style and narrative voice I really enjoy and would want to emulate if I were to write something of my own, it would be Gillian Flynn. I think I enjoyed this story more than Gone Girl although the stories have some similarities which make them great.

First, Flynn writes characters that are morally ambiguous. You want to root for them but discover you can't, or you can, but you feel bad about it. No one is either all good, or all bad here (except maybe Diondra) and that feels more real than other stories. 

I also like her understanding of the way the narrators control the story. the narrator gets to decide when they will tell you something and it completely shapes how you see them, and Flynn knows just when to drop the best knowledge on you. It manipulates the reader in the perfect way. As a reader, it's a rare treat to feel completely in the author's control. Realizing at some point that the author has been manipulating all along is a delicious surprise.




This story follows Libby Day, a young woman who is getting by in life despite her awful past. As a seven year old, she witnessed her family's murder and now, as an older woman, she's being asked to reevaluate everything she thought she knew about the murder - including the evidence she gave that put her brother behind bars! It's exciting. 



Included in the cast of minor characters are some really great people to hate, including Libby's brother's girlfriend, and a whole slew of junior gumshoes who think they have the key to solving the mystery of Libby's murdered family. It's such great exercise detesting these people.

Sharp Objects, I suppose is next!

5/5 Stars.

Ploughshares Spring 2015 Poetry Edition

I've been reading Ploughshares as a subscriber for about three years now, but I would read it casually before then. And if you've ever read some of the "Best Short Stories of ____" series, then you've probably run across some of their published material.

Typically, the format includes short fiction and poetry from American authors. Occasionally, they do an all prose edition. This is the first time I've received an all poetry edition. Initially I was pretty excited, as my exposure, sad to say, to poetry comes exclusively from my Ploughshares subscription. And all told, I've really enjoyed the poetry that is typically published.

So the Spring 2015 edition was all poetry and instead of just American authors, this collection used a British editor and pulled selections from British, Irish and American authors. Some authors are immigrants of those countries, some selections were written in the original Gaelic text (translated, thankfully as well). As I was reading, I kept in mind that I would eventually review the entire collection and I wanted to be able to point to a few of my favorite poems.

As I was approaching the halfway mark, I realized I hadn't really marked any yet. Hmmm... was this an effect of me reading before bed and really not being in the right frame of mind for poetry? Am I just so obtuse that I'm not getting the profound nature of some of these poems? Am I simply on poetry overload? Or, am I just not connecting with the subject matter? I'm not sure what the answer is.

While I typically really enjoy the selected poems printed in Ploughshares, I didn't feel that about this edition. The poems present an interesting collection, and they certainly span a wide array of style and voice. I just didn't find any that I thought, absolutely, I need to read that again and again and pull out a quote and put it on my wall. 



That said, I did really enjoy "The Case of the Inconvenient Corpse" by Tracey Herd, "Return of the Native" by Suji Kwock Kim, "Psalm" by Dorianne Laux, "Ode While Awaiting Execution" by Thomas Lux, "Freudiana" by Jamie McKendrick, "Anthropologies" by Kate Potts, "Atropa Belladonna" by Austin Smith, and "My Problem" by Matthew Sweeney.

So I feel kind of lukewarm about this edition, although overall when I receive Ploughshares in my mailbox it makes me insanely happy.

3/5 Stars.

A Stolen Life - Jaycee Dugard

I don't want anything in this review to diminish the horrifying ordeal that Jaycee Dugard survived. I believe she showed strength and courage in writing this book and should be commended on raising what seem to be two well-adjusted daughters and for keeping her own sanity during 18 years of captivity and maltreatment. That being said, it's really too bad that she didn't have an editor to work with her on writing this memoir. It would have given it some structure to fall back on. At first she starts with writing about the past and then has sections called "reflection" where she discusses how that portion of the story has evolved in her thinking. This drops off midway through the book and becomes jumbled with the "in time" narrative. If you're not familiar, Jaycee was kidnapped as a teenager and held for ten years by a man and his wife. She was repeatedly raped and bore two of her rapists children while in isolation. She was eventually rescued and is trying to now live her life after the trauma. Again, I think she's a champion for surviving, and hopefully she can find a fulfilling career and life beyond her ordeal. She and I are very nearly the same age (within months) and I can't imagine going through what she has been through. Also being pregnant now, I can't imagine how scary it must have been to give birth without modern comforts with two people who are intent on using and abusing you for their own sick pleasure. I hope the paparazzi leave Jaycee and her daughters alone to grow and adjust to life on the outside. It's tough out there enough for regular people. 2/5 Stars.

The Lazarus Project - Aleksandar Hemon

I'd probably give this book three and half stars if I could. (Oh wait, I can, it's my blog!) It's interesting and different from anything I've read in a while. It really delves into the American immigrant experience both in 1908 and 2008. While the times certainly have changed, the longing for home, the slightly unsettled feeling, and the loneliness are all quite the same.

Hemon uses the narrator and his subject to explore a realm of being in a place without really knowing it, and the disconnect that comes from having motivations and experiences totally different some someone else, to include the basic building blocks of personality (in this case founded in nationality).

With that said, I didn't really like all the jumping around done between the two distinct stories. While the stories switched off by chapters, they sometimes intermingled in the narrator's chapter within paragraphs. I see how Hemon was trying to more closely tie these two experiences than in other chapters, but it ended up forcing me to make the connection, and I would have appreciated a bit more breathing room in the narrative. 

3.5/5 Stars.

M is for Malice - Sue Grafton

This is the 13th installment in the Alphabet series. Kinsey is still living in the 80s, still wearing her turtlenecks and driving an old VW car. There's something that I appreciate about the books still be set back in the 80s. Large portions of time don't pass for Kinsey so the timeline is relatively truncated, even though after 13 books I feel like Kinsey should be using a cell phone by now.

In this one, Kinsey is hired by her cousin Tasha to locate a missing person who stands to inherit a lot of money from a will. At first I was a bit annoyed that Kinsey is still so reluctant to spend time with her newly found cousins. (New to the series? Kinsey's parents were killed in a car accident when she was little. She was raised by her aunt. Her aunt has since died too. Her mother and her aunt were two disowned children of some apparently super rich family in a nearby town. They never looked for Kinsey. She's bitter). Anyway, now her cousins have found her, they are interested in having a better relationship with her but she's not having it. And she bitches about it a lot. And part of me thinks, "get over it already." But having read the first paragraph of this review, I realized that although this has been four or five books coming already, it's only about 6 months in Kinsey time. So really, she hasn't had that much time to adjust yet. Sorry Kinsey, I'll stop judging you about this... for now.

Anyway, so Kinsey is sent to track down Guy Malek, the youngest of four brothers and black sheep of the family. The other brothers, hardworking Donovan, jealous Bennett, and golf pro Jack, all would like nothing more than for their younger, former addict brother Guy to remain missing so they can cut him out of the will and share in his $5 million portion of their father's estate. But Kinsey finds him and brings him back. Hmmm... that was short - it takes about 100 pages or less for this to happen. And I was thinking... what's the rest of the book going to be about. 

Oh wait, then Guy... well something happens to Guy and THAT is where the mystery really takes off. I actually was able to pick up a few of the plot points ahead of time. Good for me. I usually am pretty slow on the uptake of those.

This book had the return of Dietz, Kinsey's erstwhile love interest. It also featured Jonah Robb which I thought would be included more in the book, but he only shows up once and Kinsey and he do not have a big scene together. It's somewhat dissatisfying. I'm giving this one three stars because it got pretty slow there in the middle and there were these weird elements hanging out there, but I'm definitely going to keep reading this series. It's kind of a nice break from heavier literature.

3/5 Stars.

Matterhorn - Karl Marlantes

I simply can't say enough good things about Matterhorn. It's an intricate story with a lot of characters to keep track of, but it's worth it. I found myself so invested in the book 100 pages in that I had to put it down several times just to calm down before I could go on reading.

The book mainly follows 2d Lt. Waino Mellas, a Princeton grad who after signing up for the Marine reserves before going to college gets shipped off to Vietnam after graduation. 600 pages later, you have only been in the bush with Mellas for two months, but it feels like you've known him forever. Marlantes has written Mellas wonderfully ambiguous. He has some likeable and unlikeable qualities, but above all else he feels real.

It's probably not a spoiler to say some of the characters die, but I was surprised at just how many did. The book packs politics, racial equality, and battle descriptions all into its pages. The book should be required reading at any officer basic training school. While there is commentary about the political nightmare that was Vietnam, it also gives a great look at the men who bravely fought a war everyone back home would blame them for. 

This is a book that is going to stay with me for a long time. While people with no military background might not be drawn to it, I think it is something everyone should read to understand what that lifestyle is like. This one is so moving and so powerful on a human level. It is also long, but hang in there reader, it's totally worth it.

5/5 Stars.

Three Cups of Deceit - Jon Krakauer

It took Jon Krakauer 75 pages to unravel all the lies spun by Mortenson and Relin in 350 pages of Three Cups of Tea (read my review of that one here) I wasn't blown away by Krakauer's writing in this one, but he didn't intend this to be like one of his longer books. 

He succinctly unravels Mortenson's deceit.

Like Krakauer I am really confused why Greg would go to all that trouble to concoct such an elaborate lie. The story, the parts that are true would be admirable. It reminds me of the woman who lied for years about being a September 11th victim and really was nowhere near the towers on that day. 

The lies undo a lot of the good that could be done by bringing the entire scheme into doubt. The mismanagement of the funds make me happy that I never gave money to the organization. 

I hope the CAI can move on from here. Mortenson can take his millions and quietly live with his family, but I doubt someone who's ego needs that much fluffing will be able to stay away from the spotlight. At least he won't be looking at the Nobel prize anytime soon.

4/5 Stars.