Category: Book Reviews

“A Thousand Splendid Suns,” another winner by Khaled Hosseini, is based in his home country of Afghanastan and followed the lives of a few families as it depicts what we in the United States would think of as a more normal life, what happens when Russia invades the country and then, of course, the Taliban takes over. It is amazing to read how any people could survive in such conditions, but then if you read “Surviving the Extremes” by Dr. Kenneth Kamler, you will read about how amazingly adaptable the human body is to extreme conditions. Dr. Kamler was the doctor on the Mt. Everest team when the storm hit that is chronicled in “In Thin Air”. Most of the stories are about the places he has been – climbing, diving and traveling as the “doc” for various extreme expeditions such as into the depths of the Amazon to help observe crocodiles.

I read “Shakespeares Secret” because my daughter liked it so much she wanted me to read it. The story is based around a 6th grade girl that moves to a new town and finds out about Edward de Vere, who is speculated as being the “real” Shakespeare.

“The Color of Water, A Black Man’s Tribute to His White Mother” by James McBride chronicles the life of James as one of 12 African American/Jewish children growing up in New York. His mother is a white Jewish woman who marries an African American, who then dies, and she meets and marries another African American man. Each chapter is interspered between actual interviews with his mother. As he grows up, it shows the struggles between being African American and having a white mother and the contrast between his world and his mother’s Jewish upbringing. What is totally fascinating about this book, and seeing that this mother practically raised these 12 children on her own and in poverty, is that every one of these children have at least a college degree.

I bought The Kite Runner about 1 year ago and finally picked it up to read, almost never being able to put it down and it ran into my time I was supposed to be reading the Omnivore’s Dilemma for my book club. However, this book by Khaled Hosseini took me back to wanting to re-read “Lay Down with Lions” by Ken Follett, as his book follows more of the war and Hosseini’s book is strictly from the perspective of an Afghanistan family. After reading this book, I was able to understand a bit more of the Taliban, Pakistan and Afghanistan, but the family and friendship and corresponding guilt are underlying every aspect of this novel as the narrator grows older and has to deal with his own and his family’s demons.

The Ominvore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan is something that every American should read. Although the book contains a lot of Mr. Pollan’s musings about the subject at hand, when you read about corn for 119 pages, you start to get tired of corn. However, if you get past the first 60 pages, it gets more and more interesting. Anyone who has watched or read “Fast Food Nation” only got about 1/5th of the information about our nation’s food supply. The more people I have told about this book, the more that want me to pass it along when I finished. The organic section of the book was about 150 pages and it makes you want to seek out all the local sustainable farmers in the area and just buy your food from them. This book is on the top of my list of books that everyone should read.

Pillars of the Earth, by Ken Follett, was my second time around with this book. It was just as amazing and fascinating as the first time, almost 20 years ago. It something for everyone in it…love, death, war, God, all woven around the building of cathedrals. I actually picked this one up again so I could read the sequel that just came out.

Simple Genius by David Baldacci: This book was interesting but I should have picked up something simpler to read after reading Pillars of the Earth, because my mind was not ready to try to figure out what was going on with the characters, the secret, government operations and brainy mathematicians. However, this was an enjoyable book and would make a great movie.

Fool me Once by Fern Michaels was sitting on my shelf and I wanted something I could read in a day. I didn’t realize that Ms. Michaels lived in South Carolina and although the overall ending was predictable, there were some great surprises preceding the ending of the story. It is a good book to pick and read quickly.

The Looking Glass by Richard Evans was a bit too poetic for my tastes, but it is short enough and the story was good enough to keep me reading for two nights. I have read a few other of his books and they seem to all make good stories for the Hallmark Hall of Fame movies.

What Matters Most, by Luanne Rice: This book was a sequel to “Sandcastles” and followed the lives of the Nun and the caretaker of the convent and takes place mostly in Ireland. What impressed me more about the previous book is that after I read it, I started seeing some articles about the “real-life” artist that makes temporary sculptures all over the world, takes photographs of his creations, then destroys them. Although this person has a minor role in this book, the story seamlessly pulled you into the new one using the same characters and adding a few new ones.

“Bonded”, by Donna Jo Napoli was on my daughter’s reading list for school. A short book, it is based on the Cinderella story, but revolves around a Chinese girl who never gets her feet bound, and her half sister and her bound feet. Since we are so “Disneyfied”, it came as somewhat of a surprise to me how old the Cinderella story is and how there are several old Chinese “Cinderella” tales. This was a good book to read, even for an adult.

“Duncton Wood”, by William Horwood, must have been sitting on my mother’s shelf for more than 20 years because it was published in 1980. The writer spent several years secluded in the forest and emerged to write this entertaining family-saga about moles. It follows the lives of several moles, their births, their rise to leadership, their deaths, their loves, their journeys and their spirituality.

“Step on a Crack”, by James Patterson. I read this in one day. It has a lot of short chapters and while I was reading it I was wondering why I wasting my time on another book like this. A short murder-mystery and I never did figure out what the title of the book had to do with the story. Sorry, that’s all you get from me on this one.

“Trace”, by Patricia Cornwell. I read this a month or two ago. Frankly, it was so memorable that I have to read the back cover to remember what it was about. Oh yes, another Scarpetta novel about her after she was fired from the Virginia as chief medical examiner. If you are following Scarpetta’s life through all her other books, it’s good to see she landed on her feet somewhere.

“Eat Pray Love”, by Elizabeth Gilbert mostly follows a year in the life of Elizabeth Gilbert. She has a very natural, easy way of writing that makes it easy to fly through the book. She reveals a lot of personal history and personal everything…well, not sure if there is anything personal left that we don’t know about from this year in her life. She runs off to Italy to learn the language and eat, then off to India to hang out in an ashram, and then over to Indonesia where she falls in love. I think I enjoyed reading more about the friends she made in all these places than anything else in the book.

“Brother Odd” is based on a character that was developed in an earlier book, one of which I read but remember nothing about! This was a good, interesting read set at a monastery but the ending leaves you to believe there may be another one! Thumbs up!

“Shopaholic & Baby” was just as enjoyable as the previous books! If you didn’t read any of the earlier ones, you can still pick this one up to read. But if you do, it will make you want to go back and start at the beginning of the series. Thumbs up as usual for this book with its British humor.

“The Book of Fate” has some comparisons to a John Grisham’s writing, but it seems more like a cross between Dan Brown and John Grisham. The history is Dan Brownish, but the constant running from someone trying to kill you is both. It was a great story, well-written and even though it was a book of fiction, it was weaved around even facts that what took place could seem quite plausible. I give it a thumbs up!

“The Millionaires” – I think this was one of those books I left up in Martha’s Vineyard while on vacation! It was a great story about 2 brothers, one the high achiever, the other the somewhat struggler, and how innocent brothers are set up to take the fall for the “higher ups” in the firm. The brothers work for an investment firm for only the richest of the rich, and when they find something they were not supposed to find, it leads to a lot of mayhem and murder! If you are not one of the richest elite of the world, it will fascinate you to read about the large sums of money that are transferred around, and that even the rich are still greedy for more. I also give this one a thumbs up!

I took a book hiatus to catch up on old magazines that had piled up. A book or two slid into the mix of all that but I didn’t bother to keep up with them.

However, I took 5 books on vacation in June and if I can remember what they were (I actually left them along the trip as I finished them), I’ll list them here:

After reading 3 books on my trip that involved murders and pathologists, I wanted something without all that so I picked up Sandra Brown’s “Ricochet”, only to find one more book with a murder and some sleazy cops. It was a bit suspenseful but predictable at best for me. I had already started to feel like a pro after the other 3 books I had read:

Tess Gerritsen, “The Mephisto Club” was based in Boston (where we happened to be at the time) and was an interesting twist and turn into how people who study criminals can actually make them create gruesome crimes to get their attention. It was a bit different read than the others, but still involved murder and mayhem and autopsies. Ugh.

James Patterson and Andrew Gross’ “Judge & Jury” was also about murder and mayhem and kept you interested to the very end. It involved a single mother as a jurist and brings to light how unsafe you can be if picked for the wrong jury. Very believable.

Frankly, the other book was so memorable that I cannot even remember what it was about, but the same theme as the 2 above.

A book I started back in May and recently finished was Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky. This book was started by Irene before she was taken to a concentration camp, never to return. It appears to be 2 parts to what was a “never-finished” novel. Because of the timing of the events in the book, which were June, 1940 to July, 1941, it appears that she was writing the book simultaneously to events that were happening at the very moment. Although the book doesn’t really seem to end, it still gives you a very different perspective of living in France during WWII and the writings describing the various classes of society and their reactions to the war around them are fascinating. It gets a bit boring at the beginning of the 2nd section but if you stick with you will get wound up in the story.

Probably the best book I have read since “The Historian” is one I had on my bookshelf for quite some time, “The Life of Pi” by Yann Martel. This book was nothing like what I thought from the title (can’t judge a book by its cover for certain on this one!). It was so fantastical that I gave it to my 13-year-old daughter to read and we are still commenting about parts of the book. It is not a long book but it is based on interviews of Pi (the person) that were recorded in the late 1970’s and recollections of a short period of time back then. I don’t want to tell anymore as to spoil the book for anyone else wanting to read it.

I picked up the Sue Grafton book at a used book store because I have read several of the Kinsey Millhone mysteries, but didn’t know how it all began! ‘A’ is for Alibi was entertaining, more so since I have read some already up to Q or R. If you like a series involving basically the same characters, this is a good series to pick up.

“TripTych” by Karin Slaughter, who I really just read a book or two of hers this past year for the first time, interested me more than the others since it was based in Atlanta. It manages to take a very clever, twisty turn of events and characters, enough that you finally figure out who is who. The character development is enough that it can get under your skin a bit, enough to really understand where the character is in his/her mind.

Mary Higgins Clark, “Two Little Girls in Blue” but definitely along the lines of previous Mary Higgins Clark. Very suspenseful. A quick read. Would recommend to anyone who likes her novels.

The House, by Danielle Steele, is one of the better one of Steele’s novels I have read, seeing that I haven’t read one in 12 years. The last one I read was so awful, I threw it in the trash rather than pass it on. Since I live in a 117 year-old house, this story was something more that I could relate to.

At Risk, by Patricia Cornwell, seemed more like a short story. It was a quick and suspenseful read but I have read much better from Cornwell. Done in one afternoon.

The best book I have read lately is “Pope Joan” by Donna Woolfolk Cross. Reminded me a bit of “The Historian” but not as lengthy. A wonderfully written book and fascinating to read about this bit of “erased” history from the Catholic church. I would definitely recommend this book.

“The Husband” by Dean Koontz
The wife gets kidnapped, and the husband, who is an ordinary gardener who wouldn’t normally hurt a fly, rises to the occasion to get his wife back. Another entertaining page turner.

“Killer Dreams”
Another Iris Johansen book, the main character, a woman, has some type of mysterious past and has a child she is raising on her own. In comes a commando-type character she despises and ends up, well, just read the book. Same basic overall theme as the other one’s I’ve read by the same author.

John Sandfords, “Hidden Prey” and “Mind Prey”
I am not sure why these 2 old books arrived on my bookshelf, but “Mind Prey” was published in 1995 and “Hidden Prey” in 2004. “Mind Prey” was the 7th book in a series featuring Deputy Chief Lucas Davenport and all his cohorts. I wasn’t crazy about the book overall until I picked up “Hidden Prey”, the 16th book with Lucas Davenport. I became more curious about what happened to his personal life between all those books and the second one was more enjoyable because I felt familiar with the main characters.

“Sam’s Letters to Jennifer” by James Patterson
Reminded me somewhat of a Nicolas Sparks novel, but with a little more depth to the character development. It was very different from the other James Patterson novels I have read and was enjoyable to read about this woman who returns home and starts to read letters addressed to her.

“Sandcastles” by Luanne Rice
Starting out in Ireland, this book’s setting changes back to the Connecticut shore and follows what happens after he husband returns home. Everyone’s secret past is slowly unrolled throughout the novel coming to a lovely, but predictable end.

“Prior Bad Acts” by Tami Hoag
A horrible crime changes the lives of all who investigate it, and this story reveals how hard it is for officials to distance themselves from a crime, and what happens when they don’t. A strong woman figure is brought to her knees and bounced back up again, as is the theme of most of these books I have been reading this year.

“Sweetgrass” by Mary Alice Monroe
Set in the South Carolina lowcountry, this book follows the “loser” son that returns home to tragedy, not only for his family but the inevitable erosion of lowcountry plantations and traditions. For anyone living near the coast or from the coast of South Carolina, it is an honest, eye-opener about what is really happening to this area of the state.

“The Lovely Bones” by Alice Sebold
A chilling story about a young girl lured into an underground bunker (which right now is scaringly similar to real incidents in the news) and what happens to her. The story is told by the young girl who cannot fully rest until her murder is solved.

“The Secret Life of Bees” by Sue Monk Kidd
Set in South Carolina in 1964, this follows what happens to a young girl after the death of her mother and an emotionally distant father, who decides to leave her home to find out about her mother’s past based on something she found in a box of her mother’s belongins. What follows is how this young girl ends up living with 3 black women in their home and how they become the only real family she has.

Both these books base themselves on do-gooders who prove that “no good dead goes unpunished”.

In “The Innocent”, you constantly are unsettled by the fact that an innocent person was unjustly accused and served time in jail, and how one mistake changed that “good” person’s life forever. When after several years more bad things start to happen, he and his pregnant wife have to go beyond the law to try to figure out what is going on and both she and he discover some interesting facts about their lives prior. It has enough twists, turns and emotional upheavels to keep you unsettled the entire way through, and manages to lift you back up at the end so you feel everything has been set right.

In “Lying with Strangers” you also get that unsettled feeling of someone who you think is trying to do what is right but as with the “Shopaholic” books, a lot of what people see is not exactly what is happening so wrong assumptions are made that tend to tumble and escalate out of control. You just want to kick some of the characters in the pants, tell them to stop their running off with the wrong conclusions and wonder if it all will be set right in the end.