Dragon Pearl - Yoon Ha Lee

I've been reading books with my middle reader as he gets more into deeper narratives. I loved that middle reader books have these young protagonists that make the story more accessible. In Dragon Pearl, Min gets disturbing news about the disappearance of her brother Jun. He's off serving on a starship in the Space Forces as a cadet. He went missing during his training mission and is considered a deserter. Rumor is that he was in pursuit of the Dragon Pearl, a rare object that is said to be able to transform whole worlds turning barren landscapes into lush environs - a task currently reserved for the Dragon Guild, who, for obvious reasons, is not interested in anyone else getting possession of the pearl. 

Min's family are fox spirits, able to shape shift into anything their hearts' desire and use charm to persuade others to do their will. They are therefore distrusted and like to keep their identities secret. Min goes in pursuit of Jun and must find her way onto a starship and into the eerie Ghost sector where the terraforming went terrible wrong. Ghosts now populate the colony and space pirates frequent the area. But this is where the Pearl is rumored to be so this is where everyone is gravitating. Throw in a menacing Tiger spirit captain, and Min must best them all to find the truth about her brother, and the missing Pearl. 

I didn't realize this was based off Korean folklore but I really liked that aspect combined with the sci-fi space theme. A well done narrative that will capture the imagination of a middle reader. 

3.5/5. 

A Foreign Country - Charles Cumming

Being an American and reading a British spy novel is so hilarious to me, because mostly it's "Wow, why would France try to compromise a British intelligence officer?" And then vaguely remembering that England and France have been at war far more in their history than they've been "friends". So, apologies in advance British friends for my absolute incredulity at the idea that France would go so far as to kill two of it's own citizens just to further its attempts at international espionage against a friendly nation.

Have I given enough away yet?

The beginning of this fairly formulaic thriller is a bit scattered. In A Foreign Country, a young au pair leaves following an affair with the father of the children she has been hired to care for. An elderly couple is brutally murdered while on vacation in Egypt. And a small strike force yanks a target off the night time streets of Paris. All to find ourselves with Thomas Kell, a man still in his prime, but hungover after a night of drinking. He's bereft of options following his ouster from MI6 (apparently for something I've seen James Bond do it basically every movie so this is an injustice).

But when the head MI6 officer in waiting goes on an extended vacation, he's pulled back in to find out what she's really up to. Kell is anxious to get back into the good graces of MI6, and also to make a little cash. So he agrees to this slightly skeasy role and follows Amelia Levene to Nice France and then to Tunisia. Now if Amelia is the name of the au pair from twenty years before it's not a coincidence. Looks like our girl grew up to be named as the next chief of MI6.

So it makes sense that her soon to be number 2 wants to find out what exactly she's doing taking a vacation right before taking the helm of MI6. Poor Thomas Kell has some affinity for Amelia, having worked with her before and liked her personally. But he seems less squeamish when going through her personal belongings in an unattended hotel room. Something is going on in Tunisia with the very young man Amelia is spotted spending time with.

In the meantime, some other young man is being held captive by some unsavory folks. I spotted the old switcheroo before Kell, but admittedly that was the author's intent. Recapping anything else will give too much away.

All in all this was a decent spy novel from an author I'd never heard of before but will likely read again.

3.5/5 Stars

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

The Dreamers - Karen Thompson Walker

Is it a good idea to read a book about a deadly contagious disease while staying at home to avoid a deadly contagious disease? I don't know about any of you but it did feel a little surreal.

The Dreamers explores what happens when a contagious sleeping sickness strikes a small Southern California college town. The inhabitants are at first carefree and oblivious to the possible danger participating in daily activities and even celebrating Halloween trick-or-treating with abandon as the disease spreads from person to person. Who gets it and who doesn't, doesn't seem to follow any particular pattern.

Since we are all amateur virologists these days, there were some technical aspects of the disease I expected the book to address which it did not. This is not a "Contagion" style book. This is a book that looks more at the societal collapse under a viral threat combined with a thoughtful contemplation of what it means to dream and what it would mean to dream for weeks at a time without the touchstone of reality to fall back upon.

The beginning of the book begins with a quote from the book Blindness, by Jose Saragamo (you can read my review of that here), which I read several years ago and still stays with me at times. This book doesn't dip into the levels of depravity found in that book, but the cycle of the disease and the exploration of the citizenry is evocative of that novel.

I was pleased to find that the writing and the narrative in The Dreamers was finer and tighter than The Age of Miracles, which I read a couple years ago but didn't enjoy as much as this one. (You can read my review of that book here).

3.5/5

Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? - Mindy Kaling

I love Mindy Kaling. One of my favorite parts about listening to the Office Ladies Pod is hearing which Office episodes I wrote were written by Mindy. She's witty and smart and her jokes just land. So I was very excited to find this book on our office book swap shelves. Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me is a collection of essays, written in between the hey day of The Office and the start of The Mindy Project when Mindy went from a fan favorite character on a popular sitcom to the lead of her own vehicle.

I never watched the Mindy Project because I don't really watch TV and I don't have Hulu, but I did see her latest movie Late Night, which I loved. The writing in it was so reminiscent of some of the best Office episodes she's credited for. So I guess I am surprised I didn't fall out of my seat in love with this book. But while each little story was funny on its own, I didn't devour it as a whole.

I liked learning about her background and I'm real bummed that I didn't even know Matt & Ben was a thing until listening to the Office Ladies Pod. So if anyone is doing a revival of that after we all stop hiding in our homes, hit me up because I'd like to see it. That she was an awkward, pudgy youth is not really a surprise. People who grow up golden don't typically tend to have a sense of humor.

So I'm glad I read this. And I love Mindy. I'll definitely read Why Not Me?, her second book, whether I find it for free at the office or not.

3.5/5 Stars 

Agent 6 - Tom Rob Smith

I hate to say this was my least favorite of the Leo Demidov books but it was although I may be more sad that the series has ended here. I really liked Leo and Raisa and their struggles to do what was right governed by a regime that cared little for the morality of the system within which its citizens operate. This book starts with their meeting and slingshots way into the future as Leo struggles to find out the real facts behind a family tragedy.

It's hard to see in Agent 6 that Leo has become powerless to move on and become a shell of himself. While certainly lacking autonomy and power in the second book, here Leo lacks the social capital to even find out simple facts behind a murder. And so he spirals down and into the back streets and opium haze of pre-war Afghanistan.

The breadth of time and space the novel takes up may have shot too wide. Leo is jolted out of complacency in Afghanistan by a threat to a police trainee and a civilian child. He is uncomfortable with the lessons he has inadvertently passed on to his trainee and by a thin margin, is able to broker a deal with Mujahideen to get them all out of the country. Once in America, Leo is unable to give up the thread of his long ago abandoned investigation. But this is really just the denouement of a character we first met callously telling a colleague to "get over" the murder of his child and then ruthlessly hunting down a man whose guilt was less than apparent.

Whereas Leo first loved nothing and was strictly obedient to doctrine, he comes to lose almost everything to be the man the people he loved wanted him to be. Was his life richer for it? He certainly suffered more but he also became an extremely principled person and at least I'd like to think, that has a value above measure.

3.5/5 Stars.

The Flame Bearer - Bernard Cornwell

Cornwell continues to deliver with this series. Somehow Uhtred keeps surviving and each story feels fresh despite this being the 10th in the series so far. In The Flame Bearer, we get a very Uhtred-centric story. For most of the previous books, Uhtred is caught up in political and literal battles beyond his control and he's serving on behalf of one king or another. But in this one, Uhtred is working for himself. He's finally, finally going to take back Bebbanburg.

But of course there is a little wrinkle. Uhtred has continued to make enemies. His championing of Edwards first son Aethelstan has rankled the Ealdorman Aethelham the grandfather of the other possible heir to the throne. Uhtred is unfailingly loyal to those people who have earned his regard and Aethelstan is one of them. So when Aethelham sees an opportunity to cut the knees out from under Uhtred, he goes for it.

I, like Finan, was not quite sure how Uhtred was going to get himself out of this one. He decided to take on a larger enemy in an impenetrable fortress. Classic Uhtred. When will this man ever lose his swagger? Hopefully never. But I'm very interested to see what is going to happen in the next book. Because as everyone knows, North Umbria did NOT remain an independent kingdom. So I'm certain that clash is coming. How will Uhtred thread that future needle?

3.5 Stars

Open, Honest, and Direct: A Guide to Unlocking Your Team's Potential - Aaron Levy

I like a good book on communications so I was pleased to receive this from a Goodreads giveaway. While this book's main focus was on inculcating open, honest and direct communication within a group from the leader's perspective, I always find that as a team member, I can also gain insights from this kind of text.

I read this on two legs of a cross-country, multi-state work trip, and I really took to heart the chapter on effective listening. We're all aware of the edict that we work on active listening. But despite knowing this, Open, Honest, and Direct gave me a very explicit instruction to listen to what my inner dialogue was doing when I was supposed to be listening. Sorry friends and co-workers, I have not done a good job. My inner dialogue runs from trying to race ahead the speaker to the point, to trying to figure out what I am going to have for dinner.

This book's real strength lies not in its content as much as it's design. See, Aaron Levy openly talks about what a waste multi-day seminars are that teach teach teach without any application. So Levy lays out the principles, then discusses how to put those into practice, but then MOST importantly, talks about the reflection that is needed for continuous improvement of these principles in action. This is where most leaders fail. I've encountered so many managers who know all the right buzz words to describe how a working environment should function, but they are terrible at actually practicing the principles they espouse.

3.5/5 Stars. 

Sometimes I Lie - Alice Feeney

Some parts of Sometimes I Lie I really enjoyed, and other parts fell very flat for me. It's a good sign that I was relatively certain through the first quarter of the book that Amber had multiple personality disorder or schizophrenia, but alas, Claire turned out to be a real person. (I was right about Jo though).

Anyway, this thing turns a bit at different spots and I don't want to say too much except to say that reading from the perspective of someone in a coma felt a bit contrived, but necessary for the structure that was set up and this was the element I liked least of all.

I'm fine with untrustworthy narrators, and as those things go, Amber was very very untrustworthy. But that makes the reading fun, but also sometimes confusing. It took a while to figure out who was doing what and why. I was even pretty pleased with Madeline Frost's comeuppance until it got real dark.

People who are really into these "psychological thrillers" will probably enjoy this book more than I did. But it was entertaining and kept me guessing quite a bit, even if the end didn't really make sense and mucked things up.

3.5/5 Stars. 

Boomerang: Travels in the New Third World - Michael Lewis

When Lewis was busy researching what would become The Big Short, he ran across a Dallas investor who seemed so outlandish that Lewis brushed him off. Governments, the guy told him, would be the next domino to fall due to the economic crisis. But this idea seemed so absurd as to likely be false that Lewis gave it little other thought, until it looked like governments were going to fail. And since he already had that good good background in his pocket from The Big Short, he was able to continue to watch the fallout through governments. 

Boomerang is a short little book that details big fiscal failure. Starting in Iceland where a lot of fishermen decided to try their hand as investment brokers, through Greece where austerity measures were crippling the bribery economy, to Ireland, Germany and finally California, Lewis finds a culture of easy money and the governments that spent it. 

The details are sad and overwhelming. How can governments behave so badly? How can the outspend so richly? How can they possibly not see this as a problem? Turns out governments were having a grand time bailing out banks who had made monumentally stupid gambles and passing that cost on to their citizens. But, to try to write of an entire national character based on a couple weeks of travel with carefully selected citizens may be a bit of a stretch and obviously unfair to the entire populace of these countries. 

Frustrating and full of gallows type humor, Boomerang made me feel that absolutely no one is minding the store. And we're all doomed.

3.5/5. 

Black Klansman: Race, Hate, and the Undercover Investigations of a Lifetime - Ron Stallworth

I'm definitely a "read the book before seeing the movie kind of person" especially when a movie is about real life events because I know Hollywood has a tendency to make things very "Hollywood". So I was very excited to see this book was available from my library.

Quick and to the point, Black Klansman tells the story of Ron Stallworth's undercover infiltration into the KKK in Colorado Springs in 1979. As a black man, this was an extraordinary feat, and the way he was able to quickly gain the trust of not only the local chapter but also David Duke himself is amusing and a testament to Ron's quick thinking and long range vision for where he wanted to take the investigation. 

Told by Stallworth himself, Black Klansman gives the details of Stallworth's involvement and the intricate politics walked in the police department in order to make this investigation a go. The reader gets to laugh along with Stallworth as the unwitting klan members enthusiastically support his taking over the local chapter and their sincere affirmations that they would absolutely know if they were talking to a black person on the phone (they clearly did not). 

I'm excited to see the movie now. Spike Lee is a master story teller, and while Ron lived the story of a lifetime, his livelihood doesn't rely on his story-craft.  It would all be a good laugh at these silly dum-dums if they weren't so ignorant but also evil. I had no idea that Colorado had such a racist history but there's likely politicians with klan connections in every state in the union when we look closely enough. 

In the face of such ignorant hate, Black Klansman is a good reminder that it's not enough to just not be racist. We need to be anti-racist.

3.5/5 Stars. 

Behind Her Eyes - Sarah Pinborough

I finished Behind Her Eyes on a flight to California this week and after I shut the book, I couldn't quite get the final images out of my head, the bad bad thoughts, the worry about future events (helllllo! the characters aren't real, their fates end with the last page - but man I was really worried about them). 

This book is filled with a lot of cool twists and turns and comes at the reader from two points of view. Louise, a part time secretary at a psychiatry office is out at a bar after work and meets a handsome man who she chats with and ends up kissing. They have great chemistry and she's really into him. 

But, when he shows up to the office the next day as her new boss, with his WIFE, she's mortified and hides in the bathroom. Knowing she needs to confront him she eventually does and agrees it meant nothing and that she can remain professional at work, but oh the chemistry is still there. So as she's thinking all this through she literally runs into another woman outside her child's school. 

Well this other woman happens to be the boss (David)'s wife, Adele. A shockingly beautiful woman, Adele invites Louise to coffee and they strike up a friendship which is super awkward for Louise. 

Then we switch to Adele's voice and we realize she KNOWS! How she knows, we don't know yet, but she KNOWS. And therein lies the mystery as we try to figure out what game Adele is playing at. Because she is planning something. And as we get more of her backstory, we realize there is something very off about Adele.

But listen, David and Adele have a crazy marriage and Louise is content to put herself right in the middle and try to be a hero all the while not recognizing this may put her SIX YEAR OLD son in danger. So, no girl, this is just bad bad. And I got a little judge-y of Louise about this. I got a lot judge-y actually. 

In the end, this book has a lot of twists and turns and there's an element of supernatural (reminiscent of Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger). But it's well written and moves well. I enjoyed reading it and didn't think too hard about who did it so I could maintain surprise for the end. A good summer read.

I can't say much else without ruining all the surprises, but it's getting a 3.5/5 rating because it went to a place that always makes me feel some things I don't like feeling, but I can't really say much about that because it's part of the ending. 

3.5/5 Stars. 

The Secret Speech - Tom Rob Smith

I ran across the first Leo Demidov book by accident, when I finished a previous audio book and the did a search for more books by the narrator. What a fun find. Semi-historical, but slightly far-fetched, Leo Demidov, the ex-MGB officer turned homicide detective has been on the beat for three years since events ending the prior book, Child 44. The Secret Speech continued Leo's story and quest to become a better man. 

Leo and his wife Raisa are trying to raise Zoya and her sister Elena, girls left orphaned by Leo's prior activities in arresting denounced anti-Soviets. But you see, they're not doing a good job. Because try as he might, Leo is still responsible for their parents' death, and 13 year old Zoya is having NONE of this. 

In the meantime, it seems like someone is out to get old MGB officers, hunting them down and killing them. Well, they had created quite a few enemies. At the same time, Khrushchev has given a speech, a "Secret" speech before the party leadership denouncing the excesses and cult of personality operated under Stalin. Now the power dynamic is shifting and no one in Russia is quite sure what is going to become the new normal.

And, as it happens, the people who were made powerful by the denunciations, purges and reprisals of the past, are not looking forward to letting go of power. This leads to unlikely allies and a quest by Leo to hold his family together. 

I like Leo's struggle to be a better person in the face of a state apparatus designed to bring out the worst in people. I also like the banality with which Soviet violence is presented. There's such an undercurrent of futility and waste that makes one wonder why the whole experiment didn't crumble sooner.

3.5/5 Stars. 

American Fire: Love, Arson, and Life in a Vanishing Land - Monica Hesse

There's nothing like a good airplane ride to get some pages logged. I finished American Fire shortly after touchdown in Florida. I love a good narrative non-fiction book. This one felt a little less smooth than my favorites, but I really enjoyed the subject matter.

Essentially, abandoned structures start burning on the East Shore of Virginia. Accomack County has seen better days and the countryside is littered with buildings left behind when the County was. Brave crews of volunteer firefighters begin to battle the blazes and are shocked when three burn in one night. Something nefarious is going on. 

Hesse does not structure this like a mystery, so we know right away who the culprit is. The details of why are teased out over the course of the story. Charlie Smith, a one time volunteer firefighter and convicted felon has had a rough go of life. Seemingly below normal in IQ and decision making skills, Charlie has a recurring drug problem that leads him into trouble, but he is occasionally able to set that aside for the sake of love and a new woman. He does so about a year before the fires begin. His new flame (haha I'm punning) is Tonya Budnick, a bit of a party girl. The two of them fall in love and annoyingly have a joint facebook account. 

But there's a problem. Charlie suffers from crippling insecurity and he can never believe he is deserving of this woman. So he is unable to "perform" sexually. Which, combined with the couple's dwindling finances and problems with one of Tanya's children, lead to a whim one night to burn something down. So they begin.

And for 66 fires, they baffle the investigative teams sent to solve the crimes. Until they are caught. While Charlie confesses right away, Tanya remains steadfast that not only was she not involved in the setting of the fires, she also was not aware Charlie set any of them. If you find that far fetched, you're not alone, so did the jury that convicted her. 

I liked the woven themes of an aging and declining County and the arson. It was a good read.

3 1/2 Stars. 

Warlight - Michael Ondaatje

I've been sitting on this review all day because I felt a lot of things while reading Warlight that I wasn't sure I'd be able to succinctly describe. After a few days I'm more comfortable about how I felt about the book so here goes:

First off, I'd like to say that I listened to the audio version of this book and I believe this was a critical and exquisite mistake. Exquisite because the vocalist did a fantastic job and had a wonderful voice. Critical because the language of the novel, the dreamy quality and the trustworthiness of the narrator led to a really hard narrative to follow in audio format.

The story opens with our narrator, Nathaniel, thinking back upon a very formative period in his life during his early teen years when both of his parents left him and his sister, Rachel, in the care of strangers. Their father, an emotionally distant, blurry figure who, as an executive at Unilever has been called to relocate to the company's Singapore offices for a year. Their mother, Rose, has decided to accompany him for the year, sending the children to boarding school. Their London home is to be looked after by a boarder whom the children refer to as "The Moth." During the months after their father's departure and the start of school whereby their mother will leave, the children grow close to their mother, whom they have no real connection with, having lived with their grandparents during much of the war years.

Once they are ensconced at boarding school, both Nathaniel and Rachel determine they hate it and sneak out to return to their home. The Moth promptly visits the schools and has the children converted to daytime only students. It is once they are back home that Rachel discovers their mother's steamer trunk, carefully packed with all those Singapore gowns, tucked away in a corner of their basement. Both children feel bereft and abandoned. With no way to get in touch with their mother they are left to wonder at the true depths of their abandonment and their parents' deception.

Left to their own devices, Nathaniel and Rachel grow close to The Moth and his case of vaguely criminal friends who frequent the house. Nathaniel especially grows close to a once successful amateur underground boxer nicknamed The Pimlico Darter. While The Moth encourages Nathaniel to get his first real job, The Darter teaches Nathaniel about the back waterways and alleys of the Thames while they smuggle racing dogs of questionable provenance. Un-moored, Nathaniel strikes up a relationship with a girl whose real name he never knows and manages to become close to her while still keeping her at a distance.

And all of this was very interesting and Ondaatje's writing is really fantastic, but then... well the story changes and Nathaniel starts telling the story of his mother, for reasons I don't want to say in this review for risk of spoilers. And given the wonderful distance and mystery Ondaatje spends the first 1/3 of the book creating, the credibility of the knowledge of the last 2/3 is stretched and destroyed by what Nathaniel is able to share about his mother.

The novel is really 1/3 a telling of a child's story from a child's point of view, and 2/3 a telling of a child's story from an adult point of view. It brings up questions and vulnerabilities that are touching and deeply moving and asks us to look at our parents anew from the distance of hindsight and the earned wisdom of adulthood. But it doesn't undo the damage done and the hearts broken in accepting a new perspective.

So all this is to say there were things I really really loved about this book, but when it's all put together it left me wanting a more believable mechanism for getting to the heart of Rose's story without damaging Nathaniel's credibility.

3.5/5 Stars.

Strong Mothers, Strong Sons: Lessons Mothers Need to Raise Extraordinary Men - Meg Meeker

"In most situations we encounter with our sons, our instincts tell us how we should respond and what we should do. So when you are faced with a decision that you must make about your son and you feel confused, I encourage you to pull back from the advice of well-meaning friends and listen to what the small voice inside you is trying to say."
At times repetitive, but I did gain some good insight from reading this book about mothers and sons, and mothering sons. It made me ask some hard questions about the way I parent and whether I am allowing my husband equal opportunity for parenting. Since fathers (or father figures) are so important for boys, pushing for a closer relationship between those two is important. There were several passages I snapped a photo of and sent to my sister, "remind you of anyone?" (Sorry Dad, but it was all RIGHT there). 

Meg Meeker is a physician who has seen many mothers and sons in her practice. In Strong Mothers, Strong Sons, she imparts many of the lessons she's learned from her patients and from mothering a son of her own.

One chapter deals with making sure your son is not overly dependent on you. Allowing him to fight his own fights and battles but supporting him all the same. It's an interesting phenomenon I've seen tangentially through work and talking with people who work in higher education. Parents who call professors regarding grades. Parents who manage grocery deliveries and try to mediate roommate squabbles. And this is for young adults. Meeker mentions mothers who finish homework for boys and take to Facebook for public airing of their sons grievances. Yikes. Won't be doing that (I hope).

I also really appreciated the section that talked about boys and sex. I'm a squeamish person by nature. I hate awkwardness in all forms. And sex talks between parents and kids seems really just, awkward. But Meeker gives some really basic pointers and conversation starters for boys of any age. Curious, I gave it a shot testing out the elementary age question suggested that went something like this:

ME: "I know kids at school might start saying things about what Moms and Dads do when they get married and are in love, like kiss and stuff. If you ever have any questions about that, you can always ask me since I'm a grown up and I know a lot of stuff and because kids sometimes get confused about those things and may not give you the best information." 

KID: silence

ME: "So is there anything you want to ask me about that? Or tell me about that?"

KID: "Well, this one kid in the cafeteria, put all his milk in his mouth and then squirted it all over the table and it even came out his nose."

Ah, okay we'll table this and check back in a few months. All is well in first grade boy land at the moment. 

Since I'm goal oriented and reading one parenting book a year is a goal of mine, I'm happy to get this goal checked off my list. And bonus, I actually learned a few things in the process.

3.5/5 Stars. 

Y is for Yesterday - Sue Grafton

I want to give Y a 3.5 star review mostly because this is the final one. The last alphabet mystery due to the passing of Sue Grafton. And I will say that although I usually rate these books around the 3-star mark. The body of the work itself is a 4-star effort. Grafton kept Kinsey consistent and interesting. Her writing evolved and got better over time. The stories were entertaining.

In Y is for Yesterday, Kinsey is asked to track down an extortionist who is threatening to release a damning video tape implicating a recently released felon for sexual abuse. The felon's parents, not eager to part with the $25,000 demand, and also not eager to see their only son head back to prison, hire Kinsey to figure it out. 

In the meantime, Ned Lowe, the big bad from X is back in play and he wants his trinkets (you know the nice mementos from all those teenage girls he killed). So Kinsey plays the two things together, her paid gig, and her private matter. I can't believe I read X way back in August 2017, so it's understandable why this all seemed so vague. 

The book gives us a bit of backstory on the video tape issue. Turns out (forgive my terrible spelling of names, I listened to the audio), when Iris Loehman steals the test answers for her friends and Climping Academy, it sets in motion a chain of events that lead to the tape and Kinsey. Iris gives the test answers to her friend Poppy Earl and Poppy's boyfriend, Troy Radamacher. Those two are turned in for treating and an influental and grade A A-hole, Austin Brown, points the finger at fellow junior Sloane for ratting out the two. Everyone shuns Sloane. To get them to stop, Sloane steals a video tape of four boys, Troy, Bayard Montgomery, Fritz McCabe and Austin sexually assaulting and documenting the assault of 14 year old Iris. 

Sloane threatens Austin with the tape and he calls off the shunning, then inviting Sloane to his house to get the tape and smooth things over. When she doesn't bring it, the four boys take Sloane up the mountain to an abandoned camp and she is killed by Fritz with Austin's father's hand gun. The boys try to hide the body and lie about the circumstances, but Fritz, who was 15, rolls over and confesses. Bayard exchanges his testimony for immunity. Austin disappears. Troy and Fritz both go to jail. The tape is lost, allegedly until it shows up at Fritz's house with a demand for $25K. 

There are so many possible players on this. Kinsey does her best even though she knows it's a small chance she can figure out who has the tape. The flashback chapters do a good job of teasing out the murder story, even when it seems this would be inconsequential as the murderers and circumstances are more or less known. But they do a good job of establishing who knew what and what the stakes are for the individual players. 

That being said, there is a hefty bit of repetition a good editor should have caught. Things told in real time to Kinsey still appear in the flashbacks in almost the exact format. Also, remember in X when I complained about the voracious details regarding Kinsey's car wash? Well here we're treated to a multiple page description of Iris' chicken dinner preparations. Not needed. 

It's kind of sad that Grafton wasn't able to write a final Z novel (her family has confirmed that Y will be the last Alphabet mystery) but the 25 novels following Kinsey Milhone is not a bad life's work to hang it up on, some never get such an opportunity. RIP Sue Grafton.

3.5/5 Stars

The English Spy - Daniel Silva

I always like spending time with Gabriel Allon, but I wonder just how many missions he has left in him. When The English Spy begins, Gabriel is anxiously awaiting the birth of his twins while restoring the Caravaggio he recovered a couple books ago. But well, in steps Graham Seymour after a Princess Diana type character is blown up on her yacht.

At the heart of the bombing is an ex-IRA rebel named Aemon Quinn (remember I listen to these things people so I'm sorry about the spelling). Turns out this is just one of the guys who captured and tortured Christopher Keller when he was an SAS man in Belfast. Aemon Quinn has been working on behalf of belligerent governments ever since. His plot pulls in both Keller and Gabriel.

Keller begins his transition back to life as an Englishman and away from his time as a paid assassin. There are a lot of "coincidences" and connections in this book which are a bit of a stretch, but Gabriel still runs a tight ship and a good operation. When he's the chief of the office I don't know how much more action his 60 year old body can take, but I guess I'll find out when I'm finally caught up with Silva's feverish writing pace. 

All in all, all the beloved characters are in this book and all the elements that make for a good Allon novel. But how much more gas does this favored spy have? Are the books making a turn to start following Keller instead?

3 1/2 / 5 Stars. 

When the English Fall - David Williams

I really liked the premise of this novel, When the English Fall. A solar storm has wiped out electricity and mechanical tools and society is struggling to cope and overcome, but none of that really matters at first because the protagonist, Jacob, is an Amish man living near Lancaster, PA. He doesn't rely much on mechanical tools, even on his small farm where he lives with his wife, Hannah, his son, Jacob, and his daughter, Sadie.

Their small farm and Jacob's carpentry business provides them with all the food and materials they need to survive. What they can't really control is what the rest of the world, the world of the "English" is going to do. And since we as humans can be a-holes in times of hardship (you've seen The Walking Dead?), the Amish are vulnerable to people with guns who don't care what they have to do to get scarce resources. 

It's an interesting outsider look at post-apocalypse fiction. I felt mildly dissatisfied with the ending, which left a lot unsaid, and with the lackluster opening, which I had to go back and listen to in order to make sure I hadn't missed anything. But it turns out the author was also not completely thrilled with the opening picked by the publisher in this one. Silly publishers. 

Anyway, this was a great start at a debut novel. Inventive and the writing was solid if just a bit stilted due to the attempt to capture the cadence and language of an Amish speaker. 

3.5/5 Stars

The English Girl - Daniel Silva

For me, reading a Gabriel Allon novel is like putting on a beloved winter coat. While it might not be the most stylish thing in the world, I feel warm and comfy and home. It's been a while since I read a Gabriel Allon thriller and I had almost forgotten how much I enjoy them. But I needed a new audio book from the library and The English Girl was available right away. 

In this story, Madeline Hart, a young English political party worker is on holiday on the island of Corsica when she is kidnapped. The British Prime Minister receives a vague ransom note and Gabriel is called in as a favor to Graham Seymour to find and rescue Madeline. 

Unfortunately, he's unable to find her in time and must then deliver $10M in ransom from the Prime Minister himself. In the meantime, Ari Shamron is demanding Gabriel finally take the job as the chief of the office, a position he has been circling around for some time. Going much further into the plot gives a little too much away. I was quite pleased with myself for figuring out some of the mystery early on. And the fact that no one in the story is quite what they seem should not be a surprise. 

So here I'm sitting at work, having finished up the book on the way into the office this morning and needing a book for the ride home. So I've decided to keep my ride with Gabriel going for just a little while longer before I switch out to something else. Because, well, I'm comfortable in this old coat of mine and it's not quite time to take it off.

3.5/4 Stars.