Lies My Girlfriend Told Me - Julie Anne Peters

Angst. I have a love hate relationship with teen angst. I felt a lot of it in my teens and resented adults who didn't "understand" and now I'm an adult and just think teens should get over it already and hate myself for it. So while the angst expressed in Lies My Girlfriend Told Me made me roll my eyes at the teen characters several times, I also couldn't figure out why the parents were sometimes being real douches.

In the story, Alix wakes up on a Saturday ready to head off snowboarding with her girlfriend, only to be told by her mom that said girlfriend, Swanee, suffered a cardiac arrest while running and has died. Alix is devastated. This was her first real girlfriend, her first love. And she was planning to "go all the way" with Swanee this weekend. Begin eye roll at exclamations of never loving again and wishing she had died with Swanee. Give major eye roll to Mom who doesn't seem to understand that her daughter is genuinely grieving, even if the relationship did only last six weeks.

Well after the weird funeral service put on by Swanee's eccentric but "cool" parents, Alix finds Swan's cell phone in her room and on this cell phone are a lot of texts from "L.T." expressing love and asking where Swan has been. Ruh-roh. Turns out Swan kind of sucked. Watching Alix come to terms with this was probably the most interesting part of the book. Because at first, Alix leads L.T. on in an effort to find out who she is and who she was to Swan.

Turns out, Swanee Durbin gave a fake name (Swanelle Delaney) to another girl in a town not far away complete with a fake facebook account. But this part of the book was a little bit of a stretch for me. LT or Leonna Torres as we come to find out, is an extremely hot cheer leader and has no idea that Swan has died. Oh she saw a report on the news about Swanee Durbin, but even after not hearing from Swan for an entire week, didn't think it could possibly be the same person. Even though Swan won the high school track state championship the year before.

Did I mention Alix and Leonna meet later in the book at a track tournament where Leonna is cheering for her high school and Alix's is competing, meaning wouldn't have Leonna met Swan at some kind of even before? I know I'm reading too much into this part because we're supposed to be focused on the fact that Alix and Leonna fall in LOVE. And then Alix has to admit that she was the one who was texting her as Swan when Leonna didn't know Swan was dead.

Look, I'm happy these two ladies found love in the end. Swan sucked and they deserved it. But the narrative was a little too convenient. As introspective as Alix is, she never quite gets the lesson as deep as you expect. Swanee's parents never made her do laundry or start dinner. Ah gentle reader, this is why Swan sucked. Swanee's parents are in a poly-amorous marriage and this is why she slept around. And yes, I want to be more like Alix's parents even while realizing they are held up as a foil to Swan's parents to explain her suckage. It's probably a little unfair to people in open marriages to assume that is why they raise spoiled unfaithful children.

Anyway, this was a well constructed teen romance with a small mystery with maybe just the right amount of angst on both sides.

3.5/5

Lions - Bonnie Nadzam

At some point in Lions, the residents of the town refer to it as a "living ghost town" and the description is hauntingly perfect. In fact, lots of things about this book are hauntingly perfect.

When a mysterious stranger and his dog walk into town, they have the fortune of meeting probably the kindest, most unassuming, three people to ever walk the dusty roads of Colorado. Georgiana and John Walker, and their son, Gordon, feed, clothe and give money to the man so that he can make it through another day or two. Unfortunately, the man takes the money and charity (not the same thing) and goes to the local watering hole where he meets other citizens of the town less likely to be friendly to a stranger. Small towns, small minds kind of thing. A fight ensues and the man ends up in the local jail for the night and his dog... well, a dog on its own in a strange town and dark roads...

And after the encounter, the town, which was already teetering on the brink of extinction, gets tipped over the edge into a downward spiral. And just as Gordon Walker's life is about to change and he's about to go off to college with his girlfriend Leigh, his father dies and Gordon enters a spiral of his own.

It's a jarring time in someone's life to lose a parent (I know only from watching others go through it - I'm blessed to still have both of mine). And Gordon seems to suffer more than most. On top of the normal grief is a way of life and a town that John Walker was not prepared to leave. And his son is tied to that way of life in a way that others may be free. John would take days at a time away from his welding work to travel north to where the Colorado roads become gravel and unpaved. What he did up there was a town mystery and source of gossip. And, it's a question that's never really answered in the book which adds to the entire feeling the book evokes.

It's so rare that a place serves as an extra character in a book, but Lions is certainly a main character here. It's really well done. I was uncomfortable with Gordon and his quietness as I think I was meant to be.

4/5 Stars. 

The Hate U Give - Angie Thomas

I'm going to say this one more time in case anyone missed my multiple IG posts, but I'm going to be an Angie Thomas fan for life. The Hate U Give (THUG) is the second Angie Thomas book I've read this year and I stand by my earlier review of On the Come Up that her writing feels real and her characters are authentic. Too many times YA novels get teens wrong, or work too hard to teach lessons that the authors forget to include real people with real issues. Kids are a lot like adults in that they're complex and full of conflicting motivations - they just haven't figured out how to fake it yet.

THUG wastes no time setting up the central conflict - namely that the protagonist Star Carter is present when a police traffic stop ends with the murder of her friend Khalil. Star tries to process her heartbreak over the death of her friend, her own trauma of witnessing it first hand, and the complex social set she's created for herself by attending an exclusive private school. All of these things inform who she is and how she reacts to the situation.

Star's mother and father present as strong parental figures in the story, with both of them providing stability and strength to Star in her time of need. That her father is an ex-gang member who is constantly battling with figures from his past, complicates their family life, but the love they share between them is real and deep.

I basically loved every character in this book (except King and Haley obviously) but each character is used for a specific purpose and creates such a vivid picture. The overarching theme of police shootings is timely and presented in a way that even real dummies should be able to understand the human cost of police violence.

I'm planting my flag in the Angie Thomas fan club soil. I'm going to read whatever she comes out with next. 

5/5 Stars. 

The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace: A Brilliant Young Man Who Left Newark for the Ivy League - Jeff Hobbs

I was really moved by the life story of Robert Peace. Written by Rob's Yale college roommate, Jeff Hobbs, The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace does the rare job of showing the 360 degree humanity of Rob. I was so struck by the messy and complicated essence of being fully human that Hobbs manages to capture in this story. Hobbs is clear upfront that he was not one of Rob's closest friends but had been touched by his friendship with Rob and by Rob's death. The book seems like a search for answers by Hobbs to how his friend could have lived a life of such promise only to be killed in such violence. 

Peace grew up just outside of Newark, NJ, the son of a single mother who, though she kept in contact with Peace's father, wished to maintain a distance between the world in which she raised her gifted child, and the drug selling lifestyle led by his father. When Rob was seven, his father was arrested for the double homicide of two women living in the same apartment complex. Skeet's trial was unfairly delayed and badly prosecuted, but the murder weapon having been found on him sealed his fate and he was sentenced to life in prison. Rob's mother Jackie took Rob monthly to see his father and as he got older, Rob maintained the visits on his own, often giving his time and talent in assisting his father in possible appeals.

Rob pushed himself hard, for his father, in assisting with his legal actions, for his mother in excelling at school and later at water polo at his private college preparatory school. Rob managed all this, eventually earning the school's highest honor. His introduction and then speech at a senior banquet caught the eye of a wealthy alumna who offered to pay for Rob's college education. 

While not his first choice a series of unlucky breaks led Rob to miss an application deadline for his preferred college led Rob to matriculate at Yale where he met the author. Rob balanced a course load in molecular biology, a spot on the water polo team, and eventually, a side hustle of selling marijuana to the mostly white co-eds at school. 

Following graduation, Rob was intent on two things: travelling to Brazil and returning home to live among his friends and family. But these two things left him somewhat adrift after a family friend entrusted to keep Rob's college savings safe, spent the money Rob had depended on to get set in life. Without many options, Rob signed on to teach high school biology at his alma mater in Newark. But this endeavor quickly left him dissatisfied as he was not prepared for the limited means such teaching provided and cut short his ambitions to travel. He moved on to a job with Continental Airlines as a baggage handler in order to take advantage of the free standby flights afforded to employees. 

Rob took advantage of this perk for years as he traveled around the world, but a equipment accident led to a request for drug testing which Rob declined having been a habitual user of marijuana since the age of 14. Losing this job was a turning point for Rob as the meager means with which he had been eking out his life withered up and he became desperate for a way to make money. So he went to what he knew, selling marijuana. But with gang front lines and aggressive territory protection, Rob became an instant target. 

His death is tragic but so much more so because of how much he meant to so many people rather than a trope of wasted potential, though that is part of it too. I wonder if he had access to more social capital and a more robust system of advisement following graduation, if he would have been more able to reconcile his desires with his realities. He tried to be a protector and provider to so many, selflessly giving of his time and money even to those who never reciprocated. There is something child-like in this desire of the person Rob wanted to be and the way he tried to go about being that person. What a senseless tragedy that his life was cut so short. What a touching and moving tribute Hobbs has prepared for his friend.

4/5 Stars. 

Inside the O'Briens - Lisa Genova

I'm choosing lately to go back to authors I trust and I know Lisa Genova is going to lay it all out for me on these terrible heartbreaking diseases in a way that makes me really understand not just the science but the humanity.

In Inside the O'Briens, Boston police officer Joe O'Brien begins having irrational outbursts of anger in his late 30s. Pop forward to his early forties and Joe is having a few issues with involuntary movements. A toe that is tapping too much and without Joe really wanting it to. Joe is doing his best to ignore it, but his four kids, all in their early twenties, and his wife, Rosie, are having trouble ignoring it. Finally, Joe's best friend and fellow police officer, and his wife intervene to have him checked out. He's then confronted with the diagnosis. Huntington's Disease. A cruel chromosomal extension of a particular gene that causes symptoms that are an unfair mix of Parkinsons, Alzheimers, and ALS. And with four kids, each child has a 50/50 chance of inheriting this gene. 

So now the mom inside me is reeling as I think about Rosie and having to look at her four children, J.J., Megan, Katie, and Patrick and wonder what awaits them. There is no cure for HD. And a diagnosis means debilitating symptoms leading ultimately to death. J.J., whose wife is newly pregnant, is the first to get tested. Then Megan, then Katie. Patrick prefers not to know. And we all wait with them as they find out their fate. But the great and truly wonderful thing about Genova's writing, is that she lets these characters be themselves. She lets them be so flawed. Not everything in a Genova book is tied up at the end. Not everyone gets to be their own hero. Some of the characters are going to let you down. They're going to disappoint you. And that's very very real.

But also, these diseases don't define the characters. The results, ultimately don't matter. Because they are all still people living with the disease, not an embodiment of the disease itself. Genova lets her characters show the human struggle of maintaining our humanity while a disease strips us of our identities. It's a remarkable thing. 

So I was ready for all of the above, and it still really hit hard. But then, then, Genova switched up the narration and some of the chapters come not from J0e, but from Katie. And there it was. The point of view that I hadn't considered and wasn't ready for. Because I have one sister. And if she had something like this, I'm not sure what that would do to me, to us. And when Katie and Megan have to explore this issue... well I wasn't ready. And there was a lot of ugly crying in my car in my work parking lot as I tried to put myself back together. Sister stuff. It gets me every time.

4/5 Stars. 

The Year of Magical Thinking - Joan Didion

The Year of Magical Thinking has embarrassingly been on my TBR list since it came out in 2005. So it's only fitting that my review was also so long in being finalized. It finally made it on my TBR shelf thanks to my local library used book sale and I picked it up for a solid $1. 

As soon as I started reading I remembered why I had been so interested in reading in the first place. To say that Joan Didion is an exceptional writer should really not have to be said, but for the uninitiated, Joan Didion and her husband John Dunne are basically literary royalty. That a personal tragedy would occur and the best way Joan could process it was to write it all out as a touching memoir is the least surprising thing that could happen. 

And it's fortunate for us that she decided to do this. Because there is something so poignant in the way she has shared her sorrow. She's able to put words to experiences that others can only feel. And she has access, in her brain, from all this writing to the writing of others that can succinctly say what she needs said, and there's only honor in turning to these sources when they're required. 

I read: "'one has only learnt to get the better of words / For the thing one no longer has to say, or the way in which / One is no longer disposed to say it'". YES!! My heart sang as I LITERALLY leapt out of my seat. Yes! I've felt so many things in my life that I was unable, at the time, to explain or comprehend, only later to find I could put words to the thoughts when they were no longer relevant, or no longer urgent and the time had past for saying them.

Joan is able to spell out the pain and confusion and just plain heartache that comes when losing a spouse. The fog she wandered in for months afterwards feels so real and so damn relate-able, even if I can't imagine myself in a NY apartment, having the connections she had. That she was also dealing with her daughter's serious illness just compounds my deep sympathy and admiration of her courage in sharing it all on the page.

5/5 Stars.

Barracoon: The Story of the Last “Black Cargo” - Zora Neale Hurston

This is a really hard book to review. Barracoon was initially written by Hurston in the 1930s based on interviews she conducted with Kossulo (renamed Cudjo Lewis following his freedom), abducted and forced onto the Clotilda, the last ship to carry enslaved people to the United States.

Hurston insisted on maintaining Kossulo's original dialect and vernacular, one of the reasons the piece was originally rejected for publication. In the afterward, many pages are devoted to analyzing a plagiarizing issue with Hurston's earlier articles about Kossulo, mainly that she lifted entire background passages from an un-cited work. Although not mentioned, this could also be problematic in getting this later work published. 

Kossulo's story is a sad and cruel one. A teenager in Africa, his tribe is attacked by another and he is sold into slavery in 1859, at a time when the international slave trade is supposed to be outlawed. The importing of enslaved peoples to America has been prohibited but three brothers and a ship captain have decided they will run the risk. Of course, they have no qualms about accepting enslaved peoples, but when they get to America, the market has become a little dry and the brothers and ship captain end up retaining most of their "cargo." 

Not much is said by Kossulo about the time he spent enslaved aside from the loading and unloading of river ships. He does recount the day he is told he is free. And it's a stark moment because there is no where to go and he's not quite sure what he should do. But he and some other men manage to work and save and buy some land together to make their own town. He eventually marries and has six children. 

And then, tragically, his six children are killed one by one. He also loses his wife and is left bereft and lonely in Africa Town, waiting, it seems, for someone to come and listen to his story and show an interest in the life he has led. And it is interesting, and devastating. There is little redemption in the story except to say that Kossulo persisted and tried to make a life for himself, but even a life after slavery was filled with hardship and loss. 

The story of Kossulo itself garners 4 stars. The forward pieces and afterward were long on words, but somehow short on information. What became of Kossulo? What else can be said about his family or Africa Town (Plateau, AL)? I think the style of non-fiction written by journalists has developed so much over the last almost 100 years, that this story is almost unrecognizable in its current format and it left me wanting so much more. 

So this story is so important because there are so few first hand narratives of actual enslaved people. And the Clotilda represents such a dark and reprehensible period of our country's history. But I wish there was more. I wish someone had advanced Hurston the capital and independence necessary to really get the whole of Kossulo's story.

4/5 Stars

Every Note Played - Lisa Genova

It's 11 p.m. and I have one hour left to go in this audiobook that has continually crushed me through each chapter. Do I stay up and listen to the last hour or go to bed and leave the last hour for my commute today? Of course I stayed up, my sleep regulator (my husband) is out of town and book choices always turn into "one more chapter" affairs.

But honestly, with the amount of crying I did in the last chapter of Every Note Played, I'm glad I didn't try to arrive at my place of employment looking the way I looked when I finally turned out the light at midnight. 

ENP tells the story of Karina and Richard - estranged spouses, talented pianists, parents to a single child who has chosen sides in an ugly breakup of the family. Richard is a famous concert pianist, travelling the world to perform with symphonies. Karina gave up her own dream and possible career at the piano to raise their daughter in suburban Boston. There's so much resentment and misplaced anger in this story that it's hard sometimes to live in the heads of the characters.

Chapters alternate from Richard to Karina's points of view as we learn that Richard has been diagnosed with ALS, a debilitating motor neuron disease which has no cure and no real treatment. As we move through the stages of grief with Richard and then Karina as the disease slowly affects more and more of Richard's functions, the characters are forced to reckon with their past relationship and the resentments and disappointments they harbor for one another. 

I found myself more frustrated with Karina than with Richard through a lot of the book. I think she unfairly blamed him for things (not that he didn't deserve some blame) that were actually her issues. But, Genova knows her craft and in the end.... well. It's just a really good book, so go read it.

4.5/5 stars. 

No Shortcuts to the Top: Climbing the World's 14 Highest Peaks - Ed Viesturs

Ed Viesturs may not be the most talented writer in the world, but his accomplishments more than make up for the lack of flowery language and stunning prose. Viesturs doesn't need stunning prose, he's stood atop the 14 most stunning vistas in the world. 

No Shortcuts to the Top details Viesturs quest to climb the world's 14 highest peaks, all without the use of supplemental oxygen. In doing so, he took on no shortage of personal risk, and I'm not just talking about the possible loss of life or limb that climbing these beasts necessarily entails - but personal sacrifice. Ed grew up in a middle class family in Rockford, IL, fell in love with the idea of climbing tall peaks after reading Herzog's account of the 1950 ascent of Annapurna, and so moved out west to pursue this hobby while completing undergrad and eventually going to vet school.

Despite becoming a veterinarian with a job, Viesturs still felt pulled to the mountains. Unable to pursue both pursuits at the same time, he made a difficult choice - left the practice of vet medicine and focused on climbing full time. In the mean time, he lived in basements, worked construction and odd jobs - all to make his mountain climbing dreams a reality. 

It appears to be an endeavor he's suited for. Indeed, medical tests have found his lung capacity and oxygenation are above average, allowing him to climb these peaks without the assistance of bottled oxygen.

No Shortcuts begins with Ed's most dangerous climb, his ascent of K2 in 1992, during which he ignored his instincts and continued with a summit bid even though the weather did not appear to be on his side. It's a story he details more thoroughly in his book about K2 (read that review here). However, that climb remained his touch stone as he later started to imagine being able to climb all 14 8000m peaks. It's why he failed to reach the summit twice on Annapurna before finally bagging the mountain in his final ascent of his Endeavor 8000 project. 

Meticulously committed to safety, Ed has been a reliable presence during other mountaineering disasters and a motivational speaker for corporations, sports organizations, and the general public. He manages to make one of the riskiest human endeavors seem doable (not by me, but probably by other people who like to push themselves to the limits of their physical and mental capacities). He also is a Rolex ambassador, because the dude is dope. 

Ed painfully recalls the 1996 Everest disaster that claimed the lives of so many and has been so well chronicled in Jon Krakauer's Into Thin Air (review here) and the 2015 film, Everest. It's a tragedy that claimed the lives of his friends Scott Fischer and Rob Hall, both of whose bodies he had to pass just a few short days later on his way to the top of Everest. 

I'm certain this climbing 8000m mountains is not for me. But I'm glad someone like Ed Viesturs is around to share his triumphs and his preparation. Easily the greatest American climber of all time, Ed is known not just for his climbing feats, but also for being an all around likeable guy and selfless human being. He was willing and did give up several of his own summit bids to assist climbers in need. He's exactly the kind of athlete that inspires with both his skill and attitude. 

4/5 Stars. 

K2: Life and Death on the World's Most Dangerous Mountain - Ed Viesturs

I knew once I read Jon Krakauer's "Into Thin Air"  (you can read that review here) that I would never have the desire to climb crazy high mountains. Don't get me wrong. I like mountains. I prefer them to oceans. I think they're beautiful. I want to ski down them. I want to watch the snow line move down them. I want to climb to the top of ones that I can get all the way up and down in a day. So the idea of spending a couple months for the right window to risk my life and limb to get to the top just isn't in my blood. But it is in Ed Viesturs blood. And you can tell in his writing that it always will be.

In K2, Viesturs details the many triumphs and tragedies that have taken place on the slopes of this beautiful and unforgiving mountain. Beginning with the most recent (to publication) 2008 tragedy and then going to the beginning and forward. It's good that Viesturs is coming from a place of knowledge in writing this. He can compare and contrast the equipment and tactics used by the various parties to discuss what went wrong and what might have gone wrong. All in all, it seems he's lucky to be alive, when so many others have tried to make it to the top of all 14 8000-ers and met their fate on one or the other. Viesturs closest call may have come on K2 and so he understands the dangers - obvious and hidden lurking on the mountain. 

I'm going to pick up a copy of his "No Shortcuts to the Top" next, but I'll probably switch to the printed version (I listened to the audio version of this one) because I want to see all the pictures of these mountains I'll never have the courage or desire to see in person.

4/5 Stars.

Into Thin Air - Jon Krakauer

NOTE: I found this review in my Goodreads profile from March 30, 2011. Having just finished K2 by Ed Viesturs (you can read that review here) I thought I should post this review for context on the blog. 

I really enjoyed Krakauer's narrative voice in "Under the Banner of Heaven" and again I enjoyed it in "Into Thin Air." His tone is conversational and straightforward. I thought Banner was a slightly more polished book than Thin Air, but it was more a matter of seeing the writer developing his craft over time. One of the criticisms of Krakauer is that he jumps around in chronology in a way that can be confusing. I've never had that problem with him, but I noticed more in this story that he tended to jump around. 

Some critics of the novel also claimed Krakauer was too hard on some people and too light on himself. While I never think Krakauer will get the proper journalistic distance from this subject matter that may be necessary to tell the story, I did find that he was more than willing to accept and note his own failings in the events leading up to the tragedy. 

I don't believe I have any kind of perspective on whether or how to criticize any of the actions of the actors in this book. You can never really know what you would do, at high altitude, having not slept in over 48 hours. I think Krakauer does a wonderful job of identifying all the things that went wrong, and will continue to go wrong with the inherently dangerous business of climbing the world's highest peak. When ordinary people attempt to do the extraordinary, it is no wonder that failure can have such far rippling effects. 

So many of the climbers on the mountain that day showed equally great feats of human strength, and human weakness. 

4/5 Stars

Man's Search for Meaning - Viktor Frankl

"The more one forgets himself--by giving himself to a cause to serve or another person to love--the more human he is and the more he actualizes himself. What is called self-actualization is not an attainable aim at all, for the simple reason that the more one would strive for it, the more he would miss it."

It's crazy to think, that in surviving four different Nazi concentration camps, Viktor Frankl was still able to find meaning in his life and in his suffering. Man's Search for Meaning, first published in 1946, is brief and poignant. How did Frankl survive the camps is not the real question. How did he find meaning in his suffering is more to the point. 

Frankl serves up depravity from a detached point of view, and offers sympathy and grace equally to those who did not survive, and to those that became monsters to survive. In so doing, he offers a better way, a hope for ourselves when all else seems lost:

“Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.”

I've been on a huge "Choose Joy" kick lately, all the while understanding that choosing joy may be easy when you live a life of privilege. But here, Frankl suggests that joy is even available for those who do not have all the benefits of a gifted life. And that even death with dignity is a meaning unto itself.

5/5 Stars. 

Sing, Unburied, Sing - Jesmyn Ward

There's a definite flow to the language of this book that takes a minute to get into, but once you get used to it, the prose of Sing, Unburied, Sing is really beautiful. And the story, oh God, the story. 

SUS is told from three perspectives: first, JoJo, a 13 year old boy who is trying to learn how to be a man from his grandfather, Pop. But JoJo faces challenges in the form of his barely engaged mother and his incarcerated father. This beautiful boy saves his whole heart for his three year old sister, Kayla. Oh, and his grandmother is dying from stomach cancer. Oh and his uncle, Given, was shot and killed by some racist Good Ole Boy because he shot a deer with an arrow better than this POS used a shotgun. 

So JoJo and Kayla are dragged by their mother to pick up their father from jail. On their way upstate, they are taken to a meth kitchen and a meth dealer's house, the entire time JoJo having to steal food for him and Kayla, otherwise their mother, Leonie would completely forget. And once they pick up their father, Michael, better decisions are still not made. 

The story of this family would have been enough on it's own, but Ward attempts to go deeper and further by involving ghosts in this story. Leonie is haunted both literally and figuratively by her dead brother, Given. JoJo meets a ghost in the form of a former prison inmate who was contemporaries with his grandfather. The boy was 13 when he was incarcerated with much older men. 

But in Mississippi a 13-year-old black boy is seen as an adult, as a threat. And this comes down on JoJo just as hard as it did on the ghost, Richie. And there's no resolution to this issue because this is America. But the journey of the story is well written while heartbreaking for all the failings of the parents and the despair of the grandparents.

4/5 Stars. 

Spider Bones - Kathy Reichs

I haven't read a Temperance Brennan book since probably before Bones became a TV show, so it was kind of like visiting an old friend. I'm not sure where in the series I left off, but lucky #13 Spider Bones seemed as good a book as any to start back with. 

A man found floating in a pond in Quebec has fingerprints traced back to a KIA from Vietnam. The investigation takes Tempe all the way to Hickam Air Force Base on Oahu where exhumed and discovered remains are identified and laid to rest by CIL. Additional remains become involved and well, no spoilers right? 

There is the familiar on-again off-again romance between Detective Andrew Ryan and Tempe. Daughter Katy makes an appearance as does Ryan's daughter, Lily. It's been a while so I didn't remember him having a daughter but well whatever. Some of those details seemed rushed and so did the overall story frankly. Reichs almost seemed just as done with the tedious details that have made the books interesting to read. 

Maybe it's just hard to write a book a year, but this well done story ended up feeling to rushed at the end and garners only three stars. If you've read these, you know what you're getting into already. It's my first "summer" read of the season and it was a perfect beach read, even though pool side will have to do for now. 

3/5 Stars. 

A Man Called Ove - Fredrick Backman

A Man Called Ove is a thoroughly entertaining of a lonely curmudgeon who is really actually a good person. The writing is humorous and swift. There is a lot of detail but it doesn't bog the story down unnecessarily. This is a story of big sweeping themes about love and loss, friendship and family, told through small details about one individual person. 

The story starts with Ove attempting to buy an iPad and slowly through the story in various back flashes and limited description from other characters, we get to see what has brought Ove to be the person he is, and why he is so desperately unhappy. 

I liked this book so much that I went home after finishing it and stayed up way too late watching the Swedish language version of the film (apparently a Tom Hanks version is in the works but no real facts on that yet) and I cried even though I knew EXACTLY what was going to happen. The movie doesn't have some of the lightness of the book, but it's extremely well done. Highly recommend.

4.5/5 Stars. 

The One from the Other - Philip Kerr

The One from the Other was a little all over the place. I still like Bernie Gunther and his wit. In this installment it's no different. 

The story begins with Bernie travelling to Palestine with a young Adolph Eichmann. Bernie is there to set up a bank account and property for a Jewish business owner emigrating with the assistance/urging of the SD. Eichmann is there to see if he can make a few alliances that will help Germany strategically. Then we fast forward to after the war and Bernie is living in Dauchau at his father-in-law's hotel while his wife, Kiersten is in a mental hospital following a break down. 

Following Kiersten's death, Bernie travels to Munich to set up shop as a private investigator again. However, the clients who keep coming in are looking to help former SS war criminals awaiting German amnesty. Bernie doesn't' have a lot of enthusiasm for the work, but when a good looking woman shows up trying to find her missing husband, he doesn't ask many questions to figure out his motives. This leads to some further violence and well... the plot gets really twisty and turn-y after that. 

I still enjoyed reading/listening to this book, but at times I felt the history lessons were turning into filler. 

3/5 Stars. 

The Cellist of Sarajevo - Steven Galloway

The Siege of Sarajevo lasted from 5 April 1992 to 29 February 1996 during with time the Army of Republika Srpska encircled Sarajevo in its surrounding hills and bombarded the city with artillery and sniper fire. A total of 13,952 people were killed during the siege, including 5,434 civilians. During the siege cellist Vedran Smailovic played Albinoni's Adagio in G Minor in ruined buildings around the city.

These are the events that inspired this book. Vedran Smailovic is not named in the book and in fact, when he found out about the book he was deeply upset and felt that his story and likeness were stolen from him and asked for remuneration from Steven Galloway. This little wrinkle left a bit of a sour taste for me after finishing what I thought was otherwise a brilliant book. 

The Cellist of Sarajevo begins with the cellist's decision to play at the site of a bombed-out market place for 22 days to honor the 22 people killed there. The story then breaks off from the unnamed cellist and follows three characters - Arrow, a sniper; Kenan, a father going to fetch water; and Dragan, a brother going to get bread. 

Arrow is a city defender and her story spans a couple weeks in the time it takes to detail Kenan and Dragan's single day. I found this an interesting editorial choice, but decided I ultimately liked it. For the civilians, Kenan and Dragan, even the mundane tasks take a very long time and only Arrow, who can take action and move through the city with more confidence with a weapon at her side, time is under her control. 

The book really captures the banality of evil and of war - situations where killing is random and undignified. Kenan's arduous task of gathering water from one of the only sources left, across the river at the brewery, becomes an odyssey through which he is forced to confront the very heart of his humanity. The same goes for Dragan, who is heading to the bakery where he works on his day off in order to secure the one loaf of bread he provides to his sister and her family every day. As he waits to cross an intersection he discovers it has become targeted by a sniper and he is forced to a deeper understanding of his own cowardice and the extent to which he will allow the war to change him. 

Arrow operates on her own terms with a loose affiliation with the army. As a sniper, she is given the task of protecting the cellist. She can sense her priorities shifting and her values disintegrating and has to make a decision about what to do. 

In the end, the book seems a little contrived as all three characters come to more or less the same conviction about whether or not they will allow the war to change their true character. In that respect the book reveals itself as written by an idealistic outsider rather than someone intimately familiar with the stark realities and necessities of war.

4/5 Stars. 

A Secret Kept - Tatiana De Rosnay

I read Tatiana de Rosnay's first book, Sarah's Key a couple of years ago (before I had a blog) and really liked it. This sophomore follow up didn't live up to the first books expectations. A Secret Kept starts with Antoine and Melanie Rey going for a long weekend to the seaside French town they vacationed to as children with their parents. Both are going through a mid-life crisis of sorts. 

Antoine is recently divorced from his wife Astrid and is struggling with part-time parenting of his three children - two of whom are full throttling through puberty. Melanie is coming off a long term relationship with a man who swore he would never get married just to up and impregnate and marry a woman 15 years his junior within weeks of the breakup. They both need some time and space away from Paris.

However, on the drive home Melanie wrecks the car and nearly dies after attempting to tell Antoine some long held family secret. The secret however, is hardly worth the build up and the letters from the past used to hint and then reveal the secret are easily the worst contrived writing in the book. I honestly thought the rest of the prose was well done but the letters were the hardest part to get through. 

So the great family mystery doesn't really seem much of a mystery and all the characters who have a stake in the mystery just up and die or are already dead so there's no real effect of learning the secret. So many people died in the second half of this book I thought maybe George RR Martin was ghostwriting. 

The book probably would have been better if it didn't try to pass itself off as a mystery and instead was a straightforward character examination of a man in a mid-life crisis. Antoine was the most well flushed out character and I actually enjoyed his journey. The characters also make some non-conventional choices which I enjoyed, even if it did leave the ending a bit unfulfilling.

3/5 Stars. 

The Lowland - Jhumpa Lahiri

Sunil Malhotra again beautifully narrates a tale of brothers living separate but irrevocably entwined lives in Jhumpa Lahiri's novel, The Lowland. (Malhotra also narrated Cutting for Stone - you can read that review here). 

Raised in Calcutta (Kolkata), Subhash and Udayan are inquisitive about the place in which they live and the social hierarchies endemic both of the Indian culture, and the British imperialist relic. It is Udayan who becomes critical of the disparity in wealth and stature which the nearby Tally Club represents, an exclusive golf club for members only. 

Udayan's passion leads him to communist thinkers such as Che, Mao, Marx, Castro. He looks at the world and is impatient with his inability to make a difference, to rise to the level of notoriety achieved by other communist leaders. He becomes more active in the communist party in India, and for it, he pays the ultimate price.

Udayan's misplaced idealism has a chain reaction of negative consequences - his parent's withdrawal and overwhelming sorrow, Subhash's assimilation of the life Udayan was living including marrying Goudi, Udayan's pregnant widow and taking her to Rhode Island where he plans to continue his studies, Goudi's inability to find contentment and love with Subhash and her daughter Bela, Goudi's eventual abandonment of them both to pursue her own academic interests. 

All of the above is told in Lahiri's beautifully woven prose. While some of the characters fail to fully emerge from the page, even as they become the narrators of their story, overall The Lowland delivers a story of one person's destructive effect on generations up and down the familial tree and how those individuals work or not, to overcome the pain and destruction caused.

4/5 Stars. 

March Violets - Philip Kerr

Bernie Gunther is a private detective in the volatile world of Berlin in 1936. With the backdrop of the Olympic summer games, Bernie is asked by steel magnate, Herman Six (sorry for the spelling errors, I listened to this one), to find out what happened to a diamond necklace stolen from a safe the night his daughter was shot and killed while in bed with her husband - before their home was set aflame. In the mix are the March Violets, newcomers to the Nazi party with something to prove and status to gain. 

Bernie unravels more than he bargained for as he tries to navigate the changing landscape of power in the Third Reich. Goring, Himmler and Goebbels all make brief appearances to help cement the reader in time. 

As far as noir goes, this novel is spot on. A devastatingly beautiful film actress, secret motives, guns for hire, etc etc, this book has it all. I was able to figure out a very important piece of the story before Bernie, but the plot went in such wild directions afterwards that I was pleasantly surprised by later developments. There is a bit of melancholy which the period evokes that can never be done away with. But Bernie's dogged determination and cynical viewpoint help to move the story along.

It's a bit incongruous to have the book read by John Lee, who is British, and the story occur in Berlin. Lee is a great narrator, but at times it was jarring to hear a cockney accent on a German thug. Written by the British Kerr, the book is one stepped removed from the realism or authenticity a German author may have given to the story - as the jokes are more heavily in the British style of humor than German. 

4/5 Stars.