A through N of the Alphabet series

Letters A through N by Sue Grafton, 4433 pages through 14 books.

So this month was almost entirely devoted to working my way through the Kinsey Millhone, better known as the Alphabet series by Sue Grafton. The series as a whole follows the life of Kinsey who works as a private detective in Santa Teresa California. As she is quick to tell you in every book she has been married and divorced twice, graduated from the police academy, and is not one for rules and regulations.

I started reading this series while in looking for a cozy mystery series that would meet my criteria. That is the series had to be over ten books long, somewhat humorous and written well enough for me not to throw the book across the room. I had known about the “Alphabet” series for quite some time but I never really through about reading it until it was suggested by multiple reader advisory sites based on what I had read.

The Alphabet series certainly lived up to the recommendation. The characters are easily likeable, and there is a good mix of humor throughout. The books will not have you laughing in your chair but there are some good one liners that made me smile. If I had one critique to the series, it is the ending. In a good majority of the books the story is chugging right along to the final confrontation and ta da book over. I mean she does explain what happened afterwards in a short epilog, but there is hardly any details. For example in one of the books it technically ends with her being knocked out. In the epilog we learn that she awoke three days later in the hospital, bad guy dead, case solved. Technically that wraps up the plot but I would still like more details.

Despite that one short coming the series is still well worth the read, and I know I will continue reading them. Sadly at this blazing pace I will catch up to Grafton before she has time to finish Y and Z.  

The Perfect Girl

The Perfect Girl by Gilly MacMillan.   464 pages.  on order - due out in August, 2016

What’s the true price of a second chance?  Zoe Maisey is about to find out.  A 17 year-old with a genius IQ, Zoe was involved in a tragic incident three years ago.  Having served her time, she’s now living with her mother and new step-father, and trying to rebuild her life.  However, at a recital that has been planned for months, everything changes in an instant and by the end of the evening, Zoe’s mother is dead.  As everyone tries to piece together just what happened, Zoe knows too well that the truth is usually less than obvious, and that it can be difficult to see what’s right in front of you.

This is a tautly written drama where the tension steadily builds as the layers of the story are revealed.  Characters that at first seem unsympathetic turn out to be different than previously thought, while others, seemingly wonderful on the surface, are revealed to be something else altogether.  

Very Rich Hours of Jacques Maritain

The Very Rich Hours of Jacques Maritain: A Spiritual Life by Ralph McInerny, 211 pages

In Ralph McInerny's account of the thought of Jacques Maritain, one of the recurrent themes is the Thomistic distinction between the knowledge connected with thinking and the knowledge associated with inclination.  In his account of the life of Jacques and his wife Raissa, the attainment of both kinds of knowledge is the central theme.  The couple heroically sought not only to know virtue and holiness as concepts but to live them as realities, dedicating themselves to the truth they found in the conclusion of Leon Bloy's The Woman Who Was Poor - "There is only one tragedy in life, not to be a saint."

McInerny (a philosopher by trade but best known as the creator of Father Dowling) models the biography on the hours of the Divine Office - Matins, Lauds, Prime, Terce, Sext, Nones, Vespers, and Compline - tracking the life of his subject from the dark of the morning to the dark of the evening.  Throughout, the personal lives of the Maritains are interwoven with the development of Jacques' philosophy.  The result is revelatory - a biography of a public intellectual and an examination of the thought of a great philosopher, but also a demonstration of what philosophy and faith can offer each other, and what both can offer life.

The Book That Matters Most

The Book That Matters Most by Ann Hood  348 pages

Books about books are nirvana for readers. And this book is one of the next best things to heaven. I could barely put it down.

Ava thought her twenty-five-year marriage to Jim was strong. Then she sees a text on his phone from another woman, a woman Jim claims to be in love with, and her life begins to completely unravel.

For years, Ava has wanted to join the book club at her local library, but membership is held to ten members, and there is a waiting list. However, the librarian is one of Ava’s best friends. She knows that Ava needs the group, so she bumps her to the top of the list.

The book club picks books based on a theme for the year. Each member gets to pick a book based on that theme. The theme for the upcoming year is “The Book That Matters Most.” Each member is to pick the book that has changed his/her life, the book that has had a substantial impact on his/her life.

Hood’s story is broken into chapters, each with an epigraph from that month’s book and the theme for the chapter. The titles range from The Great Gatsby to Pride and Prejudice, from The Catcher in the Rye to Anna Karenina.

Ava’s life is complicated by her rebellious, just-out-of-rehab daughter, Maggie, who has gone to study in Florence. Along with Ava’s story, Maggie also has a section in each chapter that tells of her decent into addiction at the hands of a much older man whom she follows to France.

As Ava tried to come to terms with her new life, a retired detective shows up at her door, wanting desperately to put to the bed, at last, the tragic events of Ava’s childhood that have haunted her.

Ever since I first read this book’s title, I’ve been trying to determine which book matters the most to me in my life. Two of the strongest runners are Jonathan Hull’s Losing Julia or Margaret Mitchell’s Gone With the Wind (the book version, not the movie version). But if I had to name just one, could I say, “All of them?”

I loved The Book That Matters Most.  I give it 6 out of 5 stars.

The Ghost of Alcatraz: The Autobiography of Former Alcatraz Inmate #1076

The Ghost of Alcatraz: The Autobiography of Former Alcatraz Inmate #1076 by John Dekker  127 pages

What could be better than a ghost story set on “The Rock,” the infamous Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary?  Not much in my book.  When I saw this slim memoir in a Pier 39 gift shop, I immediately grabbed it.

I knew by looking reading that the first few lines that the story wouldn’t be well written. But I was pulled in by the dedication to his wife, Linda.

John Dekker was from Chicago where he grew up during the Great Depression. He was a tough kid with tough friends and tough relatives. His pulled his first caper to get his hands on $1,000, a heck of a lot of money in those days. He needed it to bail his father out of jail.  It was easy, it was fast, and it accomplished his goal. Thus, a criminal was born into the body of a teenager. The story is told in Dekker’s own words. He did a great job with description and creating conflict. One thing you can say about Dekker, he was loyal.

The first half of the book is a setup for Dekker’s ultimate destination, Alcatraz. The descriptions of the life during the time he spent there, 1953-1958, reveal a hellhole. Punctuated by a recent visit, Dekker drew vivid pictures of his life on The Rock. He served his time and was released in 1958.

As far as the ghost went, well, I’m not sure what Dekker was trying to convey. I was thinking literally, but no ghost story was told. I was disappointed, but nonetheless fascinated by Dekker and his life choices. Another thing that disappointed me was that he never mentioned his age at the time of the his crimes, when he was transferred to Alcatraz not when he was released. 

After his release, he settled in California. He returned often and attended many of the reunions. I find it odd that the inmates and guards held reunion, much like high schools and colleges. That seems plain ol’ weird to me.

I tried to find Dekker on Google, I wanted to know more about him and if he is still alive, but alas, I couldn’t find any information. I “think” he was alive as late as 2004, but after that, well, I’m just not sure. I bet whoever is reading this can come up with all kinds of fascinating information, and if you do, please let me know.

Although the title is misleading, the style that of a tenth grader, I still found The Ghost of Alcatraz: The Autobiography of Former Alcatraz Inmate #1076 to be a fascinating read. I give it 6 out of 5 stars.

How to Run with a Naked Werewolf

How to Run with a Naked Werewolf by Molly Harper, 317 pages

Tina has been on the run from her crazy husband for a couple of years.  When she's afraid he's getting close to finding her, she picks up and moves again, changing identities each time.  She recently had to leave a community of werewolves who she'd been treating as the pack doctor for some time and shortly after that, had to leave her situation again.  this time she ended up running with a werewolf, Caleb, who is from the pack she had left such a short time before.  The problem is, she thinks she might be falling in love with him.  If she can't fix her problem with her husband, or figure out how to tell Caleb the truth about her situation, she can't possibly stay.  I like Harper's stories a lot.  They're pretty formulaic but light, fun, and enjoyable.  Fans of the paranormal romances will want to read them.

Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for Everything across Italy, India, and Indonesia

Eat,Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for Everything across Italy, India, and Indonesia by Elizabeth Gilbert, 334 pages

"Elizabeth Gilbert tells how she made the difficult choice to leave behind all the trappings of modern American success (marriage, house in the country, career) and find, instead, what she truly wanted from life. Setting out for a year to study three different aspects of her nature amid three different cultures, Gilbert explored the art of pleasure in Italy and the art of devotion in India, and then a balance between the two on the Indonesian island of Bali." I really liked this book, even more than I thought I would.  I decided to read it because of the hype not necessarily expecting it to be that good but it pretty much did live up to the hype for me.  I would recommend it to people who like memoirs or biographies or even realistic fiction, since it reads that way most of the time.

Auggie & Me: Three Wonder Stories

Auggie &Me: Three Wonder Stories by R.J. Palacio, 303 pages

These were actually three novellas about stories that happened concurrently with Palacio’s book, Wonder.  People that haven’t read Wonder would probably still like the stories but they probably wouldn’t have as much impact.  The first story, The Julian Chapter, is told from Julian’s point of view.  Julian bullied Auggie in Wonder and this story gives us a glimpse into his point-of-view.  The second story, Pluto, is told by Christopher, Auggie’s first friend from babyhood.  Christopher is introduced in Wonder but doesn’t have a large impact on the story.  His story about his friendship with Auggie rings true.  The last story is about Charlotte.  She was asked to be Auggie’s welcome buddy in Wonder and stepped up to the task.  This story is very much about everything else that was going on in Charlotte’s life at the time.  These were pretty terrific realistic stories.  Anyone who has read Wonder, which I would highly recommend, should read this book too.  Kids who like realistic stories will really enjoy it.

Fuzzy Mud

Fuzzy Mud by Louis Sachar,181 pages

Tamaya has to walk to and from school with her neighbor, Marshall.  However, Marshall has decided today to go home through the woods because another boy, Chad, threatened to beat him up.  The kids aren't supposed to go in the woods but Tamaya decides to follow Marshall because either way she'd be breaking the rule.  Unfortunately, Chad also finds them in the woods and tries to make good on his threat.  Tamaya is scared but picks up a handful of mud and throws it in his face, giving her and Marshall time to get away.  Later that night Tamaya gets a rash on her hand.  And the next day Chad isn't at school.  This was a lot scarier and less funny than Sachar's usual books but it was a great story and I would recommend it to any elementary age kid that likes realistic fiction.

Lair of Dreams

Lairof Dreams by Libba Bray, 613 pages

"The longing of dreams draws the dead, and this city holds many dreams.  After a supernatural showdown with a serial killer, Evie O'Neill has outed herself as a Diviner. With her uncanny ability to read people's secrets, she's become a media darling, and earned the title "America's Sweetheart Seer." Everyone's in love with the city's newest It Girl...everyone except the other Diviners. Piano-playing Henry Dubois and Chinatown resident Ling Chan are two Diviners struggling to keep their powers a secret--for they can walk in dreams. And while Evie is living the high life, victims of a mysterious sleeping sickness are turning up across New York City. As Henry searches for a lost love and Ling strives to succeed in a world that shuns her, a malevolent force infects their dreams. And at the edges of it all lurks a man in a stovepipe hat who has plans that extend farther than anyone can guess....As the sickness spreads, can the Diviners descend into the dreamworld to save the city?" I really enjoyed this book.  Teens who like scary fantasy and aren't put off by the length will definitely want to read this series.

An Eye for an Eye

AnEye for an Eye by Irene Hannon, 299 pages

Mark Sanders, FBI agent, has just run into an old flame, Emily Lawson, in the park.  Minutes later, Emily is shot by an unknown assailant.  Unsure if he or she was the target, the local police and the FBI have both of them under protection.  During this time, Emily and Mark begin to rekindle their old romance.  But both are hesitant.  Emily has already lost someone who worked in a risky job and doesn't think she can go through that again.  Mark isn't sure he's ready to make a commitment and he is supposed to go back to Quantico in a few weeks anyway.  And nothing can be completely settled until the gunman is found.  This is a typical story for Hannon but well written and entertaining.  Readers of Christian romance books will probably like it and so will fans of mild suspense.

Year of Yes: How to Dance It Out, Stand in the Sun and Be Your Own Person

Year of Yes:How to Dance It Out, Stand in the Sun and Be Your Own Person by Shonda Rhimes, 311 pages

“In this poignant, hilarious, and deeply intimate call to arms, Hollywood's most powerful woman, the mega-talented creator of Grey's Anatomy and Scandal and executive producer of How to Get Away with Murder reveals how saying YES changed her life--and how it can change yours too. This wildly candid and compulsively readable book reveals how the mega talented Shonda Rhimes, an unexpected introvert, achieved badassery worthy of a Shondaland character. And how you can, too.”  I read this book to see if I could get some insight into this person because I don’t always like the way she handles her shows.  In fact, I had decided that I wasn’t getting caught up in any more shows she has a hand in.  I liked the book, I think she’s pretty interesting and I admire what she’s accomplished.  But I’m still not watching anymore of her shows.

The Fault in Our Stars

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green.   313 pages.

I think just about everyone knows what this book is about, so I'll give a quick synopsis.  Two teens meet, both in a support group for really sick kids, and fall in love.  Awesome and awful things ensue, but there's some hope at the end.

I read this book for the Booked for Lunch book group, and it was a re-read for me.  I had read it when it was first published and remembered liking it.  This time around, I found myself noticing some things I hadn't remembered.  Overall, I like the book and I think it's an important books for teens, especially, to read because it brings up some good, thought-provoking things.  It's a book that can generate good discussion, as well.

Thinking about it, I wonder if I'm responding differently to this book because I am not the actual audience it's written for; I am not a teen.  I think if I had encountered this book at 13 or 14, I would have been all over it (like fur on a bunny, as I say).  However, reading it as an adult, I find myself wondering about whether teens actually think or talk like Hazel and Gus (even though they are quite mature for their age).  But, overall, I can breeze over that and just enjoy the story.

The Trespasser

The Tresspasser by Tana French,   464 pages.  On sale 10/4/2016 (I read an e-galley of this book courtesy of Edelweiss).

The Murder Squad is nothing like where Detective Antoinette Conway came from. Apart from her partner, all the other detectives on the squad seem to have it out for her and while’s she’s holding on, she’s close to the breaking point.  When a new case lands in her lap, Antoinette and her partner dive right in to what appears to be a typical lovers’ fight turned murder, with young Aislinn Murphy discovered dead in her flat.  However, as she uncovers more details, it becomes clear that this murder isn’t typical.  Why is the rest of the squad pushing for Antoinette to arrest Aislinn’s boyfriend when it seems clear he isn’t the murderer?  And what is one of the squad detectives really hiding?  There’s clearly more to Aislinn than previously thought.  This taut, quick-paced thriller will have you looking in dark corners and following Antoinette as she determinedly digs out the truth.

This is the 6th book in the Dublin Murder Squad series, and although I hadn’t read any other books in the series, I dove right into this story with no problems.  There’s just enough background on Antoinette to make you understand her current situation, and feel like you get a good grasp on her as a character.  The author uses descriptive writing, as well as deft use of language and slang, to put you firmly in the Dublin setting and make everything feel quite real.   This is the kind of story where although it’s tempting to whip right through, it’s important to slow down a bit and pay attention to the details.  Because the information about some of the characters unravels, it’s key to be able to remember things to understand what’s happening to them in the story, and how they play a part in the bigger picture.  What I found interesting was I was equally vested in the main character as I was in finding out who committed the murder and why.  Antoinette is a complicated character, and this adds depth to the entire story.   After reading this one, I’m thinking it would be a good idea to go back and start at the beginning of the series, just because I enjoyed this one so much.

I’d give this book (and probably the whole series) to readers who enjoy books by Mo Hayder.

Plot to Kill God

The Plot to Kill God: Findings from the Soviet Experiment in Secularization by Paul Froese, 199 pages

When the Bolsheviks seized power in 1918, their Communist ideology predicted that with the destruction of the old political order religion would gradually but inevitably wither away - an especially plausible theory for Russians, for whom the Orthodox Church and the tsarist regime were virtually indistinguishable.  When this did not happen, the Soviet perspective on religion shifted from that of symptom to that of disease, resulting in a more active persecution.  Attempts to destroy religious belief ranged from the desecration of churches and mass murder of clergy to the integration of atheist propaganda with every subject in the school curriculum and the institution of atheist rituals to replace the traditional religious ceremonies solemnizing birth, marriage, and death.

Froese takes the results of this Soviet attempt to impose atheism on its population as an empirical test of various theories of secularization.  In his view, the Soviet experience invalidates theories which attribute religious belief to ignorance, indoctrination, political utility, social pressure, or mass enthusiasm.  According to Froese's economic model, although the Soviets were somewhat successful in diminishing the supply of religion from traditional institutions, they were utterly unable to eliminate the demand for religion.  This suggests that the Soviet regime never correctly understood the nature of that demand.

The Plot to Kill God is not a history of Soviet anti-religious policies, but an analysis of the results of those policies.  There are a number of typographical problems ("Protestants sects", "League of Militant Atheist", "ingenuity in alluding authorities"), but those mostly disappear after the first dozen pages.  There are also some suspect claims and sweeping generalizations ("secular alternatives to religious marriage ceremonies, for example, have always existed") somewhat sloppily thrown about without support.  Neither of these flaws affects Froese's argument, which is strong enough to deserve more thorough study.

Dare Me

Dare Me by Megan Abbott.  304 pages.

Aren't cheerleaders sweet?  If you read that and thought, "not so much, actually," then this might be the book for you.   Addy Hanlon, our main character, has always been Beth's best friend.  Beth calls the shots and Addy carries them out, on the squad and off.  Now that they're seniors, they rule the school, right?

When a new coach arrives, things start to turn in a different direction.  Coach French seems to be from a cool, adult world, and starts to draw Addy and the others into her personal circle of friendship. However, her expectations for the girls are pretty high and Beth, unsettled by Coach's new regime, starts to wage a vicious campaign against her.   When a suicide rocks the community, the police focus on Coach French and the cheerleading squad.  Question is: just who is really involved, and why?

I found this book to be a taut pageturner.  I didn't really like Addy too much, or Beth, but it's like watching a car wreck on tv: you're repulsed, but at the same time, you can't look away.   I don't have any personal experience with cheerleaders; my high school had a pretty small squad and they were no big deal.  However, I know that cheerleading has become a seriously competitive sport, so it was interesting to read the descriptions of how the girls in this book were learning the different skills, and how dangerous some of the moves were.  I think that's the thing that makes the book really interesting: the underlying sense of danger and unease that runs beneath the surface of the story.

I picked this up because I'm curious about Megan Abbott's newest book, You Will Know Me, which has been getting a lot of advance praise.  I don't know if I would have picked it up, otherwise, but it made for an entertaining read.

Gravity and Grace

Gravity and Grace by Simone Weil, translated by Arthur Wills, 236 pages

Simone Weil was born into a French Jewish family in 1909, but renounced the faith in which she was raised to live her life on the periphery of Christianity, while rejecting nothing she came across which seemed of value to her in her studies, pulling in sources ranging from Virgil to Racine to the Upanishads.  Her relentless search for Truth was a search driven, above all, by her conviction that only an understanding that made suffering make sense could make the universe bearable.  The result is a via negativa so dark that it resembles Buddhism by way of Plotinus, regarding the cosmic void as the self-giving of God, and the object of the spiritual quest.  She died in exile in England in 1943, her death hastened by her fasting in solidarity with her countrymen living under German occupation.

Gravity and Grace collects items from her notebooks as fragments towards a never-finished work in the tradition of Pascal.  In another writer, it might be possible to blame the approach for decontextualizing her more unconventional beliefs - especially her Marcionite separation of the "God of the Christians" and "Jehovah" and her deep antagonism towards society and the political community (understandably exaggerated given the times in which she lived) - but with Weil those views become even more pronounced in her more developed work.  The presentation does have the effect of emphasizing the mystical aspects of her life and thought - in addition to some solid aphorisms, the best of Weil's fragments possess an uncanny Sibylline quality, promising wisdom to those who explore their mysteries.

The Woman in Cabin Ten

The Woman in Cabin Ten by Ruth Ware.  352 pages.

Lo Blacklock, a travel journalist, has landed a great assignment: a week on a luxury cruise on a small boat.  At first, it seems absolutely lovely.  However, as the week continues, some of the guests seem less than friendly and then Lo thinks she witnesses a woman being thrown overboard.  However, all of the guests, as well as the staff, are accounted for and none of them seem to be the woman that Lo met in Cabin 10, who has vanished.  Or did the woman in Cabin 10 ever exist?  As Lo continues her pursuit of the truth, it's clear that something has gone terribly wrong on this boat . . . and now her own life is in danger.

I had gobbled up Ruth Ware's last book, In a Dark, Dark Wood, and had been eagerly anticipating this newest story.  I wasn't disappointed, and found this book to be just as dark as the previous one.  Like the previous story, as well, we have a main character who doesn't seem like she has all of her s__t together, and thus is a somewhat unreliable narrator.  Right before Lo goes on this cruise, she encounters a burglar in her house.  Suffering anxiety, and self-medicating with alcohol, Lo isn't sleeping well.  In her first evening on the cruise, she's also drinking heavily and suffering from lack of sleep, so by the time she thinks she seems a woman go over the side of the boat, you aren't sure if it's real or not.  Compounding this is the revelation that she also takes anti-anxiety medication.  While Lo is quite sure that she met a woman in Cabin 10, she only has tiny pieces of evidence of this mysterious woman, and when those vanish, it's hard to know if Lo really is telling the truth.

However, I trusted my gut and sure enough, there was a big twist partway through the book.

That's all I'll say --- but if you're looking for a nice pageturner to settle in with over a weekend, this might be the book for you.

Deep State

The Deep State: The Fall of the Constitution and the Rise of a Shadow Government by Mike Lofgren, 277 pages

According to former congressional staffer Lofgren, the elected government of the US is only the visible tip of the proverbial iceberg - the bulk of which is invisible, unaccountable, and actually responsible for the direction of policy.  This "deep state" is made up of dense networks of lobbyists, consultants, contractors, bureaucrats, senior military officers, and lawmakers, all of whom move so easily between the public and private spheres that the boundary has effectively ceased to exist.  Far from moving into the much-feared era of the "imperial presidency", there has been a slide into a "ceremonial presidency", where a figurehead president acts as a lightning rod for controversy while real policy is made elsewhere.

It is expected that any book of this sort is going to be cynical - cynicism and its sibling, wounded idealism, are the former insider's stock in trade.  It is a fine line, however, between cynicism, with its claim to cold realism, and bitterness, which suggests the settling of personal scores.  Lofgren zigzags back and forth across that line through the book.  The book is further handicapped by its Beltway provincialism, which tends to regard everything as ultimately caused by action from Washington, and important only insofar as it affects Washington.  The limitations this imposes become clear when it comes time for Lofgren to offer some positive solutions to the systemic problems he has vaguely outlined, and all he can recommend is measures that would only strengthen the same system.

The Year of Fog

The Year of Fog by Michelle Richmond     432 pages

When I go on vacation, I like to read books that place in that locale. This year my destination was San Francisco, and I happened upon this wonderful novel about memory, obsession, and one woman’s search for a missing child.

I don’t know about you, but when I hear about a child who has gone missing without a single trace, I shake my head, say a quick prayer, and tell others that I cannot imagine what the parents are feeling. Michelle Richmond did an amazing job in keep the character in one place yet moving forward at the same time, all the while letting readers be voyeurs of this horrific happening.

Freelance photographer Abby Mason is the step-mother-to-be to six-year-old Emma. Abby loves her new role as fiancée and as friend and mom. Abby and Emma go to the foggy Ocean Beach almost every day. Today it may be summer, but it’s almost always cold and foggy at this remote beach. Emma twists her tiny hand from Abby’s and runs ahead. Momentarily distracted by a dead seal pup, when Abby turns back to Emma, she has disappeared in the fog. Literally, she is gone.

Readers will get a behind-the-scenes look at a search for a missing child. The police and volunteers who comb the area, the flyers, the reward posting, the sleepless nights, the inability to choke down more than a few morsels of food, the fear that grips Abby and Jake, Emma’s father.

Police at first believe she has drowned. Then they look at the Jake and Abby as possible suspects. Jake goes on national television to plead with anyone who may have seen Emma, especially her mother, Lisbeth, who abandoned Jake and Emma three years earlier.

As the minutes turn to hours to days to weeks to months, the police give up as new, more solvable cases capture their attention. After months, Jake wants to hold a memorial service and move on with life. But not Abby, she refuses to believe that Emma cannot be found.

Readers go with her on her travels through the Bay area, shoving flyers into strangers’ hands, practically begging for help. Readers go with Abby on her quest to locate any memory of their surroundings on the beach that day.

I don’t often have a need to peek at a novel’s ending, but the tension is so great that it was all I could do not to peep at the ending.

I give The Year of Fog 6 out of 5 stars.

Lilac Girls

Lilac Girls by Martha Hall Kelly     496 pages

Debut novelist Martha Hall Kelly spent 10 years researching and five years writing this haunting novel of three women as Hitler begins his mad march across Europe. It is based on the true story of an American philanthropist; a Polish woman incarcerated at Ravensbruck, the female-only Nazi concentration camp; and the only female doctor in that hellhole. “The story is told from three points of view: the victim, the hero, and the villain, together creating a complex picture of an unimaginable time in history” I cannot remember what review I read this sentence in, but it was powerful enough to warrant my writing it down.  The novel begins in 1939 and ends in 1959.

We first meet the heroine. Hundreds, thousands, of people are fleeing France in advance of what they fear will happen: Hitler. Former actress and Broadway start Caroline Ferriday is now a humanitarian, doing her best to help as a volunteer at the French consulate in New York. One of the people who needs her help is French actor Paul Rodierre. Caroline spends her own money sending care packages to French children.

Next we meet the victim, Polish teenager Kasia Kuzmerick. Kasia works with underground, delivering messages. It’s very dangerous work. She is caught and sent to Ravenbruck, where she become one of the “Ravenbruck Rabbits,” women who were subjected to the Nazi SS leader Goerring’s medical experiments. The author was candid about what happened to these women, but did not go into such depth as to make this reader give up on the story. I had a basic knowledge of the experiments happening, but didn’t know any of the details.

Herta Oberheuser is the villain. An ambitious young doctor, she answer an ad in the paper for a government medical position and winds up performing horrendous atrocities on the Ravensbruck ladies. Herta is the most difficult character to understand. In 1939, she is eager to work in medicine, but as the war drags on, she seems almost eager to perform the experiments.

I found the shifting of point of view easy to follow. Well, except that the author did a great job leaving this reader hanging at the end of each section. I was sad to reach the conclusion of Lilac Girls.  I wanted to keep reading about Caroline, Kasia, and Herta. I did, however, read somewhere that Hall Kelly is writing a prequel to this story. I personally can’t wait to get my hands on it. I literally flew through all 496 pages of this book in two days.

I give Lilac Girls 6 out of 5 stars; the highest rating in Julie’s world.

Dialogues with Silence

Dialogues with Silence: Prayers and Drawings by Thomas Merton, 183 pages

This collection pairs prayers drawn from Merton's journal with drawings now held by Bellarmine College.  Most of the prayers have a poetic quality, and while Merton's drawings - quick black and white sketches of monks and saints and landscapes - are not by any means great art, they evoke the same quiet stillness that is sought in the prayers.  Merton again and again struggles with the Benedictine charism of stability.  Unlike his rebel cousins Dean Moriarty and Sal Paradise who perpetually "gotta go", Merton seeks his fulfillment in the inky silence of the Kentucky night, confident that the One he seeks is also seeking him.

Little Deaths

Little Deaths by Emma Flint.  304 pages.  due out in January, 2017; read the print galley. Will be on order for the Library.

Ruth Malone, a single mother in 1965 Queens, New York, probably isn't the best mother.  Or the nicest woman. However, is she a murderer?

Working long hours as a cocktail waitress, Ruth wakes early one morning to discover that her two small children have gone missing from their apartments.  Later that day, her daughter's body is discovered and ten days later, her son's body.  As police investigate the murders, Ruth's life becomes exposed, piece by piece.  Seen through the eyes of others, her alcoholism and tendency to date a lot of men make her seem like she's a loose woman and bad mother. Believing the worst of her, she's tried for the murders. However, did she really kill them?

I found this book to be a pageturner. Despite the fact that Ruth isn't really a likeable character, it's easy to see that she doesn't really seem to love herself too much. Her life's a bit of a mess, and she's not the best person, but she doesn't seem like a killer.  The police seem determined to find her at fault, some of them seeming to make it a personal vendetta. However, a rookie reporter covering the murders soon starts digging into the case, and develops an obsession with Ruth.  He becomes convinced that she didn't murder her children, and that instead, something more sinister is going on.

You get Ruth's perspective here, both in real time, and looking back at what happened.  You also get perspectives from the reporter, as well as a few other characters.  Despite that, it's hard to tell if you're getting the true, real picture of Ruth's life and what may have happened to the children (and I found this is what kept me engrossed in the story).

No spoilers here, but there is a reveal towards the very end of the book that I totally didn't see coming.  This book is apparently inspired by a true story.

Dark Age Ahead

Dark Age Ahead by Jane Jacobs, 176 pages

For Jane Jacobs, a "dark age" is a form of cultural amnesia where the knowledge and practices that sustained a civilization are forgotten.  Much of the book is taken up with a continuation of the themes Jacobs has expounded throughout her celebrated career - the breakdown of community exacerbated by an urban planning orthodoxy that demands homogeneity and an inhuman scale.  This orthodoxy has, in her experience, become impervious to correction due to a breakdown of accountability - not only isolated from the empirical reality it seeks to manipulate, but also from self-policing mechanisms that have become increasingly reduced to face-saving.  These factors she attributes in turn to a decline in the kind of mentoring relationships which once instilled in young professionals not only the skills and knowledge needed to practice their trade, but also pride in their vocation and an accompanying sense of standards.  Those who care about their local communities, meanwhile, find themselves caught in a vice between technocratic leftists and miserly conservatives, between one-size-fits-all dictation and malign neglect, a dilemma as destructive in the Third World as it is in North American cities.

This explication of Jacobs' core ideas may rest on solid ground, but problems arise in the framing of those ideas.  Jacobs' theory, evidently borrowed from Karen Armstrong, that cultural collapse is primarily caused by xenophobia and fundamentalism, the triumph of mythos over logos, demonstrates its weaknesses in her own examples.  Chinese culture is said to have stagnated due to Confucian "fundamentalism", with the cancellation of the voyages begun by Zheng He, but the quote Jacobs provides justifies the decision purely in terms of costs against benefits, and Jacobs herself admits in an endnote that "'no one really knows' why the Chinese halted ocean voyaging."  Likewise, the explanation she provides for the stagnation of medieval Islam is the expulsion of Muslims from Spain, which by her theory would seem to indicate the beginning of Spanish decline rather than the beginnings of Muslim stagnation and the golden age of Spanish culture.  Fatally, her theory embraces the modern secularist mythos which considers mythos and logos mortal enemies - the error of which becomes glaringly apparent when she includes Renaissance humanism among her "fundamentalisms".  

Late in the book, Jacobs quotes Armstrong's description of medieval Islam, where "[t]here was no idea... of allowing the... opposing positions to build a new synthesis."  It never seems to occur to her that this is exactly the situation of the West, not only recently but for the last two centuries, dominated by a mythos masquerading as logos, and therefore incapable of seriously engaging with any opposing position.  This would explain why modernism, with its supposed "ideals of democracy, pluralism, toleration, human rights and secularism", has produced oppression, ideological warfare, and genocide on a scale unimaginable in previous eras.  Jacobs concludes that "[a]ny culture that jettisons the values that have given it competence, adaptability, and identity becomes weak and hollow," but the values of autonomy and efficiency (the only values the modern "fundamentalism" accepts) cannot support a culture - indeed, are incompatible even with one another, pulling on the one hand towards anarchy and on the other towards tyranny.

Jacobs expertly diagnoses one part of the material crisis of late modernity - the decline of the city as the center of civilization - and has interesting ideas as to how to overcome this problem.  Unfortunately, she is blind to other material aspects of the crisis, and completely unaware that it is not, at its heart, a material crisis at all.

Cakewalk

Cakewalk by Rita Mae Brown.  336 pages.  e-galley read, courtesy of Edelweiss.  Book due to be published in October, 2016

In this story, we return to Runnymede, at the end of the Great War and the start of a new era.  Filled with memorable characters and Brown’s signature humor and storytelling, we have the story of two sisters, Louise and Julia.  Taking place day by day, Brown takes us into their lives and how they fit into the small town of Runnymede, where people can be divided on issues, but a good scotch can smooth out all kinds of differences.

I did have to make notes on who was who in the book, because I would put it down, come back to it, and then lose track of who I was reading about.  The day-by-day pace is an interesting way to tell the story, although this book just didn't capture my attention as a continuous pageturner kind of read.

This is a story filled with humor, but I was most struck by Brown’s “Dear Reader” notes at the back, which state, “Sex is interesting.  Sexuality is not.  Or as Celeste says to Fannie, ‘Only a fool refuses love.’”  True and thoughtful words, to be sure.

The Mothers

The Mothers by Brit Bennett.  288 pages.  e-galley read, courtesy of Edelweiss; book is due out in October, 2016

The Mothers know a good secret from a bad one, and notice what goes on in the lives of others.  In this contemporary Black community in California, it all begins with a secret.  Nadia is a high school senior, mourning her mother’s recent death, and smitten with the local pastor’s son, Luke.  It’s not a serious romance, but then takes a turn when a pregnancy (and subsequent cover-up) happen.  The impact sends ripples through the community, reaching beyond their youth and into adulthood.  What if they had made different choices?  The Mothers ask us to contemplate this question, as well as how our decisions shape our lives.

There are multiple viewpoints in the story, which can be at times tricky to keep track of.  The collective voice of the Mothers in the community is a voice unto itself, narrating and guiding the reader through the story.  I found this to be a thoughtful book, and liked how there were differences in the feel between voices in the story. 

The Invisible Library

The Invisible Library by Genevieve Cogman.  329 pages.

Secret agents, forbidden societies, stolen books . . . and mechanized alligators!   Okay, the alligators aren't integral to the story, but they do show up.  Irene is a professional spy for the Library, which has their members go and retrieve (well, steal) books from different realities.  Irene is sent with a new assistant, Kai, to fetch a dangerous book from an alternative London.  However, they soon discover the book has already been stolen and there are factions who are prepared to fight to the death to get the book.

In addition to these elements of the story, there are also supernatural elements,  Because this alternate version of London is chaos-infested, it makes it possible for there to be vampires, and fae, etc.  One of the more interesting things in the story for me was the Language that the Library's agents can use. The Language has elements of power to it, so Irene is able to open locks, etc. by speaking very specifically.

As a librarian and a devoted reader, I found a lot to enjoy in this book.  It's a great mix of the magical and the mundane, with an interesting main character, and an imaginative world.  The book has a steady pace, and the author's descriptive writing style really brings the whole story to life.  Admittedly, I felt like I wanted something a bit more from the book.  It was good, to be sure, but it's like having a premium ice cream sundae and then leaving off the sprinkles and whipped cream.

One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich

One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexander Solzhenitsyn, translated by Ralph Parker, 158 pages

One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich delivers exactly what the title promises - the description of an ordinary day in the life of Ivan Denisovich Shukhov, a prisoner in an Arctic gulag.  During the course of the day, he manages to avoid any severe punishment for the numerous minor rule violations he is forced to make in order to survive, gets enough food to maintain his poor health, enough heat to avoid freezing to death, and is even able to secure some tobacco.  Not of least importance, he is able to do all this without losing his self-respect and the respect of his fellow prisoners.

This is not a novel about overt horror and atrocity, but about steady, unrelenting oppression.  Instead of genocide, the aim of the gulag - indeed, the entire Communist system - is rehabilitation through dehumanization, and resistance is a daily struggle.

Mussolini

Mussolini by RJB Bosworth, 428 pages

Benito Mussolini was the first of the fascist dictators.  Il Duce ruled Italy for over twenty years, pursuing a policy of national unity through the subordination of all things to the state, with the state incarnate in the charismatic flesh of the dictator.  For much of that time Mussolini was widely perceived, by foreigners as well as Italians, as one of the most talented and dynamic European leaders.  In the end, however, Italy was humiliatingly crushed in the Second World War, and Mussolini himself was killed by partisans, his corpse hung from a meathook in a public square in Milan.  In the public imagination he is often reduced to Hitler's "ignoble second", and implicitly associated with Nazi crimes without receiving the benefit of Hitler's luciferian glamour.  Nor have historians been much kinder, often considering him, in the words of AJP Taylor, "a vain, blundering boaster without either ideas or aims".

Bosworth contradicts some of these views.  Mussolini was capable of great ruthlessness, but he talked about the supposed value of ruthlessness more often than he actually acted ruthlessly.  He was the most intellectual of twentieth century tyrants, with the possible exception of Lenin, and one of the few to have something resembling a traditional domestic arrangement, despite his habitual adulteries.  The picture of Mussolini that emerges is that of a born journalist who never outgrew the habit of concentrating on the headlines and letting the stories write themselves.

Bosworth's central interest is not in Mussolini the man, however, but in the interaction between Mussolini and society.  There have been a number of analyses of Nazi Germany (most famously by Goldhagen) which have highlighted the fact that Germans under Nazism tended to "work toward" Der Fuehrer, attempting to anticipate his will rather than waiting for an explicit order.  Bosworth uncovers similar examples in Fascist Italy, notably in fulfilling the dictator's brutal rhetoric with real crimes.  The author also convincingly demonstrates that although Italian fascism was the ideology for which the adjective "totalitarian" was coined, it never managed to overcome the strong Italian commitment to family, region, and religion, but instead was forced to work around or through these more durable institutions.

Arts of the Anglican Counter-Reformation

Arts of the Anglican Counter-Reformation: Glory, Laud, and Honour by Graham Parry, 192 pages

Graham Parry's book chronicles the history and products of the "beauty of holiness" movement that began in the reign of James I and reached its peak under Charles I.  The term "Anglican Counter-Reformation" proves oddly appropriate - as a description of an attempt to restore continuity with the pre-Reformation Church, as a recognition of the influences of continental Baroque art, music, and literature on the English, and as an alternative to terms like "Laudianism" which are overly narrow or "High Church" which are anachronistic.  This movement includes not only Hooker, Andrewes, and Laud, but also the Little Gidding community and the Metaphysical poets, along with other Anglicans who were affected by the spirit of the movement without accepting its theological foundation or ideological program.

It is this last group that Parry highlights.  In his account, the momentum of the aesthetic revival of early seventeenth century England was largely the result of the natural desire to honor God and beautify the world, and not exclusively the expression of partisan concerns, whether ecclesiastical or secular.  In this reading, the abuse of this movement by Charles I, Archbishop Laud, and their party provoked, or at least enhanced, the iconoclastic Puritan reaction.  It is possible that Parry overestimates the popularity of Puritanism, but he is clearly correct in his view that the products of the movement were essential to the maintenance of Anglicanism under the Protectorate.

League of Dragons

League of Dragons by Naomi Novik.  380 pages.

This is the ninth (and final) book in the Temeraire series, which is an alternate history series combining the Napoleonic Wars with dragons.  Yes, that may sound odd -- it did to me when I picked up the first book in the series to read with a book group.  However, I found myself enjoying the book, and then went on to read the rest in the series. Novik has a strong background in history, and combined with her skilled storytelling, the books totally make sense.  What I mean is, it's easy to imagine this kind of setting, where the forces have dragons to aid in fighting.

In this last novel in the series, we're at the end of Napoleon's campaign in Russia.  Napoleon has been denied a victory, but at the price of many lives (both human and dragon).  Laurence and Temeraire pursue the fleeing French army, only to determine that not only has Napoleon made it back to Paris unscathed, but that the French have stolen Temerarie and Iskierka's egg.

So, reading my summary, I can see where it wouldn't make a lot of sense.  This is definitely a series where you need to begin with the first book, because not only are things explained, but this is a series which has a definite timeline. You finish one book and the next one begins pretty close in time to where the previous book left off.   So, if this kind of a story sounds interesting, I would suggest beginning with the first book, His Majesty's Dragon.  

To Flourish or Destruct

To Flourish or Destruct: A Personalist Theory of Human Goods, Motivations, Failure, and Evil by Christian Smith, 278 pages

In To Flourish or Destruct Smith attempts to lay out a new direction for sociology predicated on critical realist personalism.  In Smith's view, sociology has long been dominated by faulty philosophical presumptions even - perhaps especially - when those presumptions have been ignored or denied.  Personalism is centered on the human person, which emerges from, but is not reducible to, a physical human body.  Society emerges in turn from the relationships and interactions of human persons.  Personhood is grounded in an essential human nature, which is ordered towards certain goods that result in human flourishing, the pursuit of which is mediated and enabled but not determined by society and culture.

The strengths of Smith's approach are considerable.  Personalism accepts the existence of free will, pursuing a middle path between atomistic individualism and social determinism, one which recognizes the importance of both the individual and the collective.  Perhaps most importantly, personalism allows for the reality of evil, and a means by which evils can be sociologically identified and confronted.  Although aimed at sociologists, To Flourish or Destruct is an important, insightful book which ought to have an impact far beyond the field.

June

June by Miranda Beverly-Whittemore    400 pages

Dual timelines and dual heroines make up Miranda Beverly-Whitemore’s fourth novel, June. At the heart of this suspenseful tale are movie stars, inheritances, and the fine line between truthfulnesses and falsehoods.

I loved that the title had played three roles, first as the book’s title; second, as the 1955 heroine’s name; and third, as the month both timelines occurred: June 1955 and June 2015.

The book opens in June 2015. Cassie Danvers has retreated back to her grandmother’s home, Two Oaks, in small town St. Jude, Ohio. She seems a tad delusional, or maybe, it’s just sensitivity to the spirits that still lurk in the crumbling mansion. Even her dreams are made of the houses’ long-gone inhabitants. She also seems to be suffering from clinical depression.

The mansion is almost beyond repair, yet all the twenty-five year-old wants to do is stay in bed. She barely eats, lets the mail pile up on the foyer floor, and refuses to answer the landline. Cassie is not only mourning her grandmother, but she is reeling from the breakup, which instigated (I think), with her beau, Jim, back in New York City.

Then the doorbell rings.

The story then switches to June 1955. Told from Lindie’s point of view, the whole town is anxiously awaiting the arrival of a film crew, in town to shoot the exteriors for Erie Canal. Starring in the movie are handsomer-than-handsome Jack Montgomery and more-beautiful-than- a-spring day Diane DeSoto.

June is expected to marry Artie Danvers in three days’ time, provided he returns to St. Jude.

June is a wonderful novel, full of interesting characters and plot twists. It took me a little while to get into the story. I had hoped to be pulled in quicker to the story. Cassie’s section was slower to develop than June’s. I think Lindie’s strong character had a lot to do with it. That’s the reason I give June 4 out of 5 stars.

I received this novel from Blogging for Books in exchange for this review.