The Crane Wife

The Crane Wife by Patrick Ness
310 Pages


George Duncan is an American in London, divorced, 48 and lonely.  One night he wakes to hear a keening in his back yard.  He goes out to find a wounded crane who has been shot through the wing with an arrow.  He saves the crane but is left shaken.

As George goes on with his life a mysterious woman named Kumiko comes into his shop and starts a relationship that changes George, George's daughter Amanda and everyone who sees the art work the two create.

Based on a Japanese folk tale, this book is about the relationship between man and woman and the role of forgiveness.   Sometimes it gets bogged down in heavy handed moral telling but redeems itself at the end.

Planned Bullyhood

Planned Bullyhood: The Truth about the Planned Parenthood Funding Battle with Susan G Komen for the Cure by Karen Handel, 276 pages

In 2011, the Komen breast cancer charity, instantly recognizable across America by its pink ribbon brand, made the decision to end its grants to Planned Parenthood.  This ignited a controversy which dominated a news cycle, until Komen pledged to reinstate the grants.  At the center of this decision, and the resulting controversy, was Komen's Senior Vice President Karen Handel, a former candidate for the Republican nomination for governor of Georgia.  This book represents her account of the decision, the controversy, and the aftermath.

It is Handel's contention that Komen faced a preplanned attack coordinated by Planned Parenthood supporters inside Komen and the news media.  She believes that the real issue was not the relatively small amount of funding at stake, but the framing of a political narrative for the 2012 presidential campaign.  Perhaps she's right.  Unfortunately, based on the book, it is difficult to have much sympathy for her.  Distracting from the specifics of the Komen-Planned Parenthood firestorm is Handel's inadvertent portrayal of high-level politics and philanthropy, where people move freely between private and public sectors, and everything seems to be about having the right connections.  Handel herself comes across as narcissistic, blaming everyone except herself and spending more time on scandals involving her opponent in the 2010 gubernatorial primary than the Live Action exposes of Planned Parenthood which actually impact her narrative.  Likewise, her continued assertions that there was no political reason for the withdrawal of the grants ring hollow in light of her equally frequent expressions of outrage over Planned Parenthood's links with the Democratic Party.

A self-serving book that will please no one - except maybe Handel herself.

The Walking Dead Compendium One

The Walking Dead Compendium One, by Robert Kirkman and others, 1088 pages

Before Tiger did his blog post on this book I was unaware of this series. But after reading his post and listening to him talk about it, I knew I had to read it eventually.

If you enjoy zombie movies or zombie fiction this compendium is a must read for you. The zombies follow the classic slow moving, attracted to noise and smell genre. They have none of the Hollywood tricks that to make them scarier like the ability to climb or run. But they don’t need them. Despite being a comic the imagery as style allow for the classic jump scare type moments you would expect.

The turnover on characters is rather fast though and just when you are starting to like a person or cheer for them to make it to the end they go and die, much like the Song of Ice and Fire series. I still enjoyed the compendium and must mirror what Tiger said “It was hard to put down”.  

I look forward to reading the second compendium to see how this all might end.

The Here and Now

The Here and Now by Ann Brashares
256 Pages

Ann Brashares returns to young adult fiction with the story of Prenna James who is part of a group of people that have escaped a bleak future to our present.  Prenna's future is a world where a mosquito borne illness has become a pandemic killing millions.  The past is this group's refuge as long as the follow a strict set of rules including never reveal where they're from, never interfere with history, and never, ever be intimate with anyone outside their community. However, Prenna falls for Ethan Jarves, a boy in her class and finds that the rules may have to be broken to save the world.

A good read for the young adult reader, a little light on content for the adult reader, Brashares' latest should prove to be a popular choice of those who like the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants series. 

For Once In My Life

For Once in My Life by Marianne Kavanaugh
368 Pages



Tess and George are supposedly soul mates, if they were only to meet.  The book chronicles 10 years of near misses and bad decisions as each person tries to maneuver through life.

Set mainly in London the book has Tess struggling with a career in customer service even though her one true passion is vintage clothes.  George is a jazz pianist who wants to be taken seriously and be successful at the same time. 

This is one of those feel good fun reads.

One Piece Vol 11-20

One Piece Volumes 11-20, by Eiichiro Oda, 2018 pages

One Piece is a manga that has it all. It has pirates, battles, silliness and of course attractive women in skimpy clothing! The story is pretty good too.

In Volume 12 Luffy finally reaches the Grand Line and can start his adventure looking for the One Piece. Of course the Grand Line is where the toughest and most ruthless pirates reside. This of course means more adventures and fights for Luffy and his crew.

Something I found interesting is that Oda uses one page images to keep us aware of and informed about what previous characters are doing. An example was Buggy the clown, the illustrations showed him meeting the guy stuck in a treasure chest and assembling a new crew before his triumphant reappearance. These side stories help you not only remember that a character still exists, but also are normally humorous as well.

I know Eiichiro Oda is still writing more volumes and in some ways I hope this series never ends.