"God'll Cut You Down: The Tangled Tale of a White Supremacist, a Black Hustler, a Murder, and How I Lost a Year in Mississippi", by John Safran - Book Review

A long, complicated title for a similarly long, complicated book. I read about God’ll Cut You Down in Garden & Gun magazine, one geared specifically to Southerners, and had to get it.

Author John Safran, a Jewish Australian documentarian, pursued the story because he had spent time with murdered white supremacist, Richard Barrett. Why Safran knew Barrett is a titillating story on its own and is explained in the book.

The title sets the scene. Barrett’s partially charred body is found in a field in front of his house with multiple stab wounds. Vincent McGee, a young black man who had been in trouble more than out, is the suspect. Why? Well, in addition to being the last person to be with Barrett, he confessed. The twist? It might have been self-defense.

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Deceit, Love, and Decades of Mystery at "The Rocks", by Peter Nichols - Book Review

Author Peter Nichols has written a wonderful novel that takes us to the coast of Spain with vivid, intertwined characters, romance, secrets, and deception.  Nichols weaves a unique story in The Rocks that is captivating and hard to put down. He methodically leads us back through time as the deftly structured story is slowly revealed.

The Rocks: A Novel
By Peter Nichols

We begin with Lulu and Gerald who once had a relationship, but have not spoken in over fifty years despite living in the same Spanish town. They hold a secret to their disdain that remains a mystery until the end. While unfolding the lives of Lulu, Gerald, their children and those around them, Nichols’ setting is a beautiful seaside resort called "The Rocks", which Lulu has run since the 1950’s. The Rocks attracts a colorful cast of English expats - a reformed criminal, failed writer, and other regulars all loyal to Lulu and her welcoming hospitality. The retreat is a sexually charged place where friends and family come for comfort and escape, with the resort’s bar at its vortex for meals, chess, conversation, and lots of misbehavior. 

Also central to the narrative are the children of Lulu and Gerald - Luc and Aegina respectively. Their separate dramas and shared thorny past provide another layer of tension and provides its own mystery, divulged over decades. Their parents and their own unusual relationship contributes to the dark, decades long family saga.

The characters in The Rocks are loved and scorned, but Nichols makes it so alluring I could sense the ocean breezes, walks through the lemon groves, and feel of a boat at sea. Nichols doesn’t deliver his story on a silver platter - he makes us think about the facts presented and leaves it to us to put the pieces together with great anticipation as he reveals the past to us. The Rocks is an intelligent, romantic, disturbing page turner - very high on my summer favorites list.

Published: 2015
Publisher: Riverhead Books

Vickie’s rating: 4 stars 

A Dead Writer, a Curious Teen, and a Crime in "Finders Keepers", by Stephen King - Book Review

In the past couple of decades, Stephen King has made a decided shift from horror to thriller/supernatural, a shift that has turned me into a huge fan. Previously unable to finish his books out of sheer terror, I am chomping at the bit for the thrillers.  Finders Keepers, the sequel to Mr. Mercedes, did not disappoint. Started it on a Wednesday; finished it that Sunday.

Early on, Finders Keepers seems only tangentially related to Mr. Mercedes and I wondered if it was a marketing gimmick to call it a sequel. But mid way through, the rag tag crime team of Bill, Holly and Jerome from the first book show up to help our latest protagonist in trouble, teenager Pete Saubers.

Pete has the fortune to happen upon a trunk full of money and notebooks filled with poetry and prose at a time of family crisis.  In time, he realizes the notebooks are the true value of his find. They are 20 years of unpublished writing from American hero author John Rothstein, who was tragically murdered years before.

Finders Keepers: A Novel
By Stephen King

The problem for Pete? Morrie Bellamy, the man who buried the trunk, gets paroled after decades in prison and, you guessed it, comes looking for his trunk.

King not only tells a fast paced story that keeps you turning the pages as fast as you can read the words, but he masterfully illuminates the important, yet tenuous, connection between authors and readers. One that King certainly grapples with daily. While extreme, King, perhaps partly autobiographically, shows how destructive a relationship can be between an obsessed reader and an unaccommodating author.

Don’t worry; even though the underlying theme is reminiscent of Misery, the plot is fresh enough for Finders Keepers to stand fully on its own. And, for those of you longing for King’s horrors of the past, don’t fret, Morrie Bellamy, even in his 70 year old broken down body, is as dark and frightening as they come.

Published: 2015
Publisher: Scribner

Elizabeth's rating: 4 stars

 

Tragedy, Angst and Solace in "In the Unlikely Event", by Judy Blume - Book Review

Judy Blume’s first book in 17 years has been widely anticipated and having been an avid reader of hers as a young girl, I was one of the first to check it out at the library.

The plot of In the Unlikely Event revolves around astonishing real life events that happened in Blume’s hometown. Taking place within three months in late 1951 and early 1952, three commercial planes crashed in Elizabeth, New Jersey, resulting in the death of passengers and town people alike. The plane crashes serve as a backdrop for Blume’s look into how everyday life in an American town is defined by not one, but three tragic events.

For the first hundred pages or so, I struggled to keep the characters straight and fully engage with the story. However, somewhere along the way, the cylinders started clicking and I was committed. 

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"Love and Other Perishable Items", by Laura Buzo - Book Review

“So, Amelia, what do you hate?” he says, leaning back in his side of the booth.
“Hate?”
“Yes, hate. You know, despise, loathe, abhor. What erodes you from the inside?”
“What, about myself, or the world in general?”
“Let’s start with you, then move on to the world in general.”
“I hate that I am fat and ugly and stupid.”
Chris takes a swig of his beer. “You are none of those things, but I can dig irrational self-loathing. What else?”

Australian author, Laura Buzo’s novel, Love and Other Perishable Items, takes a realistic and charming look at what a young girl endures when she has a crush that she knows deep down will not amount to anything except a broken heart. 15-year-old Amelia Hayes falls for her grocery store co-worker, Chris. At 21-years-old, Amelia knows that Chris is too old for her, but this does not stop her from falling for him and obsessing non-stop about every interaction.

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An Orcas Island Thriller in “The Find”, by Rainer Rey - Book Review

The outer edge of the Pacific Northwest is as slow paced and calm as you can get, but author Rainer Rey adds a whole lot of excitement to its peaceful existence. He successfully combines government covert operations, an Indian shaman, psychic powers, terrorism and adventure into his novel, The Find. Frankly, in reading the book description, I had my doubts. But Rey came through with each page.

There are several converging stories, of which the most significant are high-powered business woman Lorna Novack and ex-FBI agent Kellen Rand. Lorna is fed up with the pressure of her work, but dives into it head first to prove herself in a  man’s world. She gets a call regarding her long lost step-sister who has been seriously injured and whose daughter has gone missing. Lorna travels to Orcas Island from Chicago to be by her side and find out what has happened to her niece. Kellen is through with big cities and after an ugly dismissal from the FBI, has started a new life and launched a salmon hatchery. One evening, he and his friend Paddy venture via boat to witness a shaman connect with nature; or rather, seemingly control nature. It’s an undeniable spectacle, that is described in enough detail, we can quite clearly imagine the scene.

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"Drink: The Intimate Relationship between Women and Alcohol", by Ann Dowsett Johnston - Book Review

Drink: The Intimate Relationship between Women and Alcohol is a sobering look – pun intended – at the role that alcohol plays in the lives of women. Ann Dowsett Johnston adeptly combines a well-researched analysis of women and drinking in today’s society with her own personal walk through alcoholism into sobriety. By using her own drinking history as a jumping off point for her research, she provides a vulnerability that makes the book much more relatable than had she just reported her findings.

Drink focuses on the dangers that women specifically face as it relates to alcohol, ones very different than those faced by men. Differences that start early on since most women, often as girls, start drinking to escape from whatever it is that ails them – insecurity, fear, abuse and neglect.

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Offbeat and Wise is “The Sunlit Night”, by Rebecca Dinerstein - Book Review

Sunlit Night is breezy, like a good summer read; yet thought provoking, humorous and at times dark. This is the debut novel by Rebecca Dinerstein and is an impressive first effort. It’s the story of strange and estranged families, and in particular, two young adults who must find themselves despite their familial dysfunction.

Early in the novel, we discover Frances and Yasha, both New Yorkers, in separate tales. Frances, a neurotic recent college graduate dealing with romantic heartbreak and a flawed family, decides to accept an artist’s apprenticeship in Norway (above the Arctic Circle) to escape the oppressiveness of Manhattan and create space between herself and all that is familiar to her. Yasha, a Russian immigrant, has just graduated high school and works side by side with his father in their Brighton Beach bakery. Abandoned ten years earlier by his mother, she makes a mysterious reappearance and breaks his father’s heart all over again - literally.  His father’s last wish is to be buried at the top of the world, which is where Frances’s and Yasha’s lives intersect.

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Fatboy and Priss in "Crazy Love You", by Lisa Unger - Book Review

I have read a few Lisa Unger psychological thrillers so I picked up her latest, Crazy Love You, with high hopes, which unfortunately, were dashed. Unger’s story tracks a treacherous relationship between Ian, the pill popping graphic novelist, and his childhood confidante and protector, Priss.

Ian, an overweight, acne-ridden kid, met Priss in the woods behind his house after suffering a traumatic childhood event. Always in awe that Priss, this lovely, seemingly caring spirit, would actually befriend him. Ian worshipped her and ultimately made her the protagonist in his widely successful series “Fatboy and Priss”.

But as Ian grew, he began to realize that Priss’ devotion to him was a dark force. While narrowly escaping brushes with the law as a child for crimes committed by Priss in her role as his avenger, tensions come to a head between Ian and Priss once Ian meets Megan, the woman he intends to marry. Priss is none too accepting of the proposition and makes her displeasure known through increasingly violent acts of ill will that all circle back to Ian.

Along the way, you begin to realize that Ian’s perceptions about Priss just don’t add up. Is she a real person or a figment of his imagination? This becomes the pulse of the story, but the resolution lacked the catharsis it deserved. I finished the book thinking that there were a hundred pages too many leading up to the denouement and thirty pages too few wrapping it all up.

Published: 2015
Publisher: Touchstone

Elizabeth's rating: 2.5 stars

Love and Companionship in "Our Souls at Night", by Kent Haruf - Book Review

Our Souls at Night is filled with neither passion nor adventure. Rather, it is a restrained telling of a kind of love story - two ordinary people coming together, dealing with adversity. Sounds banal enough; however, our protagonists are old souls. That is, both over the age of 70 whose spouses have passed away. It’s a relationship not often written of, and certainly not in popular fiction.

Author Kent Haruf has written several award-winning novels. Our Souls at Night is his last, published after his death. The story takes place in the fictional town of Holt, Colorado - a small community where everyone knows everyone’s business and openly critiques. Our widow Addie approaches an acquaintance, Louis with an offer. Both have been on their own for years, and Addie is lonely. Her proposal to Louis is to come spend nights with her - lay next to each other, hold hands and talk. Despite becoming the scandalous talk of the town and initial disapproval of their grown children, they openly continue. And it’s lovely. Of course, complications ensue and we see if Addie and Louis can endure.

Haruf’s writing is spare, and the dialogue is confined to only what he feels is important for us to understand - the mere essence of their relationship and care for one another. And on second thought, perhaps the book really is about passion and adventure, though not in the usual sense. It’s the passion for living life through advanced age and continuing to look forward to what adventure is ahead.

Published: 2015
Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf

Vickie’s rating: 3 stars