Review: Cutting for Stone

Author: Abraham Verghese
Format: audio 18 discs (approx 24 hrs), 688 pages trade paperback
Narrator: Sunil Malhotra
Characters: Marion and Shiva Stone
Subject: practice of medicine
Setting: Addis Ababa Ethiopia, New York
Genre: fictional narrative memoir
Source: audio: Public library; print - my own copy
Challenge: Books from my shelves, TBR, audio, support your local library

I can't believe it took me three tries to read this book.  Late last autumn, I began listening to the audio, but found it difficult going.  It wasn't the accent of the narrator---I found that charming and easy to understand.  It wasn't the writing--that was clear and moved along at a good clip.  It just seemed that the story didn't hold my interest, and it seemed like it was going to be exceptionally long.  Then I got the print copy from the library, and tried reading it.  Again, I found myself unable to get past the first 100 or so pages.  So I put it aside, vowing to try again later.

Two weeks ago I noticed one of our local libraries was having a group discussion of this next week, so I thought  perhaps having some other insights might help me get through it.  I dutifully began listening to the audio again thinking I'd be able to pick up where I left off, but found I had to go back to the beginning. (At least, thought I, even if I can't finish it again, I'll be able to participate in some of the chat.)

This time however, after one hour, I was so hooked, I went to Amazon and ordered myself a copy to come next day air.  I finished it four days later, having both listened and then re-read the text. I did not want it to end.  I LOVED THIS BOOK.

Cutting with Stone is a superbly written, beautifully narrated story of the lives of Marion and Shiva Stone, born identical conjoined twins in a hospital in Ethopia; they were separated at birth.  Their mother, who died giving birth, was an Indian Carmelite nun who worked as a surgical nurse at the hospital where they were born.  Their father, an Indian born Englishman, Thomas Stone, was the hospital's only surgeon who botched the C-section he was called to perform because the obstetrician was out of town.  Dad disappears hours after the birth, unable to deal with a pregnancy he claimed to know nothing about and the death of his beloved Sister Mary Joseph Praise.

The orphaned twins were adopted and raised by two doctors at the hospital, Hema (the obstetrician) and Ghosh (the internist turned surgeon).  There was an entire staff of surrogate parents to help in raising the boys.  Medicine and its practice, including surgery was normal dinner conversation in the household.  It was small wonder both grew to become doctors.

We are involved in the coups and political unrest in Ethiopia during the second half of the 20th century including the arrest and imprisonment of Ghosh, and the twins' later dealings with a rogue army bandit who threatens to kill them; we watch as the humble hospital in Addis Ababa continues to care for a diverse group of patrons, from the emperor's family to the poorest of the poor, with little funding and often crudely fashioned homemade instruments. We are given broad but specific (and sometimes gory) details of medical procedures in language the layman can understand, even though the amount of detail sometimes slows down the story.  We watch as the boys mature, learn to dance, quote Shakespeare, and learn the art as well as the science of medicine from their parents.  We see one of them fall hopelessly in love and then see one betray the other.

When Marion leaves to go to America, we are made brutally aware of the differences in medical practice in the two countries.  It's not that the two countries have doctors of different abilities making the difference, rather it is the difference in resources and expectations that is vibrantly portrayed.  Marion's residency in surgery at a hospital in New York eventually brings him face to face with his biological father and ultimately leads to history making and life changing experiences for all the family.

This book is long.  It is 18 discs on audio (almost 24 hours of extremely well narrated story read by Sunil Malhotra) and 688 pages in print. It is difficult to do it justice in a review because, although written as a fictional narrative memoir, it is a novel with a spectacular ending that deserves not to be spoiled. Forget about my abortive initial attempts (blame it on the weather or something) it is a story that is engrossing, exciting, appealing, easy to read and extremely difficult to put down.  It is also one that I will want to read again and again.  In both its print and its audio versions it is a story not soon to be forgotten.  It is simply one of the best books I've ever read.

Review : Fireworks over Toccoa

Author: Jeffrey Stepakoff
Format: paperback galley proof 260 pgs
Characters: Lily Davis Woodward, Jake Russo, Andrew Woodward
Subject: love, duty, relationships, fireworks
Setting: Toccoa Georgia 1945, 2007
Genre: fiction
Source: Advanced Review Copy from St Martin's Press (Thomas Dunne Books)
Challenge: ARC

Married for just a few weeks before her husband Drew left to go overseas during the war, Lily Davis Woodward, daughter of a wealthy Coca Cola executive, has waited three long years to take her place in society. Now just a few days before his scheduled return, she meets Jake Russo, war veteran and pyrotechnic engineer. He is preparing a huge fireworks show to honor the returning servicemen.

When they meet, love happens-- slowly, tentatively, tenderly and then with same explosiveness of Jake's fireworks.

In understated, elegant, exquisite prose, Stepakoff presents us with a painful, tragic, gorgeous, affirming love affair. The character development of Lily and Jake, as well as the presentation of Lily's parents and other supporting characters, gives us a picture of longing, duty, relationships, and heartbreaking honesty. Lily's dad for instance says to her when he suspects she's conflicted about her husband's return:

"I have been married to the same woman at least five times. Marriage comes in phases. Some good, some not so good. But you work through things, and you grow, and you change, and you stick by the decision that you made, even when you were seventeen.  That is your duty." (pg. 178)

The searing anguish of these star-struck lovers reaches its peak when Lily must choose whether to leave her home and roam the world with Jake shooting fireworks, or stay with her husband.  The resolution of her dilemma is heart rending but almost inevitable.  I will not spoil it for other readers.

This is simply one of the best love stories I've read in my adult life.

The envelope please

After reading 175 books this year, it was hard to narrow down to choose the best.  I read some really good ones, and a few dogs. But the overwhelming feeling here is that it was a very successful year for reading, and for getting to know some great fellow readers. The list here is my personal judgement of the best books I read...they may not be on someone else's list, but these are my award winners. So without further ado...the envelopes please.

Best Children's or YA books:

    Sea chest by Toni Buzzeo
    The Secret Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate DiCamillo
Best Fiction
   Sacred hearts by Sarah Dunant
   Saudade by Kathleen Vaz
   Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout

Best Mystery

  Wife of the Gods by Kwei Quartey
  Rizzo's war by Lou Manfreda
  Brutal Telling by Louise Penny

Best Non-fiction

    Amazing Grace by Kathleen Norris
    The Dark Side: the inside story of how the War on Terror turned into a war on American Ideals by Jane  Mayer
    Night by Elie Wiesel
    The Johnstown Flood by David McCullough
    Rule Number Two by Heidi Squier Kraft

Best Short stories

    The Blackford Oakes Reader by William F. Buckley, Jr.
     Ship Fever by Andrea Barrett
     Our Lady of the Artichokes by Kathleen Vaz

Best poetry

     Dante's Divine Comedy - The Inferno
    
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Favorite new authors discovered this year:

Andrea Camilleri - the Inspector Montalbon series
Donna Leon - the Commissario Brunetti series
Kaye Gibbons
Deborah Crombie - Gemma James/Duncan Kincaid series

How does your list stack up?

Review: A Circle of Souls by Preetham Grandhi

All I can say is Wow!  Anyone who knows me can tell you that I don't normally read scary stories, stories about child murders, and I normally shun anything that is about the "paranormal."  So why am I reading so many of them lately?  A Circle of Souls was sent to my by the author Dr. Preetham Grandhi back in July and I'm ashamed that I haven't gotten to it sooner.  It's a winner!

I've finished it, and I'm not quaking in my boots, and I don't think I'm going to have nightmares.  While the subject matter is unpleasant, the writing is so crisp, clear and centered on the good guys that it quickly becomes a real page turner.

This debut book is extremely well-written, has a tightly woven plot, and well-developed characters.  Beginning with seemingly separate stories: a brutally murdered young girl and another young girl with hellacious nightmares, the author moves us inexhorably toward the meeting of these two separate stories and blends them believably into one.  In the beginning,  there are no clues to the murder, and no reason (either physical or mental) for the nightmares, but they are related, and the pychiatrist treating the young nightmare victim intuits their relationship from drawings made by his patient.  As he searches for the meaning of her drawings, and recognizes the locale in the pictures, he anguishes over how to help his patient and whether he should share his intuitions with the special FBI agent who has been called in to help local police investigate the case.

This is not a normal murder mystery suspense thriller.  The characters are the strong point in this story: even the bad guys are well developed, with sound background and motivation presented to pull the reader in.  There is a large dose of the paranormal entwined with Indian cultural traditions, and Jamaican/West African folklore.  There are several side issues and players building enough doubt in the reader's mind to make it interesting and challenging to figure out 'whodunit.'

It was written in short chapters that encouraged the reader to read 'just one more' before putting the book down, and in the end, to just continue reading to the climax.  Let's hope that Preetham Grandhi has more such well-written tales up his sleeve. 

Just a note:  I find it fascinating that two of the best books I've read this year are debut crime stories written by doctors...the other was "Wife of the Gods" by Dr. Kwei Quartey.  We may not be able to read their prescriptions, but their books are great.

Edited later to add a note:  I just found out that A Circle of Souls has just been announced as the winner of the General prize for Fiction in the 6th Annual National Best Books Awards sponsored by USA Book News. Congratulations to Dr. Grandhi.  It's nice to know others thought as much of this book as I did.

Review: A Rule Against Murder

While this novel by Canadian Louise Penny is an Inspector Armand Gamache mystery, it is not set in Three Pines as were the others.  It is however, every bit as tightly plotted, exquisitely written, and spell-binding as her others.

Gamache takes his beautiful wife Reine Marie to the idyllic rustic Manoir Bellechasse to celebrate their wedding anniversary (it is where they spent the first night of their honeymoon).  While he's there another family has taken over the rest of the lodge, and it soon becomes apparent that these people do not like each other very much.  They are there to commemorate their deceased father by unveiling and dedicating a statue to him.

As one would expect, there is a murder on site, and Gamache (along with his second in command, Jean-Guy Beaumont) goes about the ugly task of interviewing this most unhappy group of visitors and staff to solve the mystery.  They are an intriguing group: the chef who looks familiar to Jean Guy, and Reine Marie, the aloof maitre d', the surly summer hire, the shy and nervous gardener, the sons of the deceased (one a total snob, the other --well---), the widow of the deceased (who has re-married) and her husband, the daughter of the deceased and her child (we must question whether a child named "Bean" is male or female--I won't tell) and the proprietess who owns and runs the shop. 

Add in the ex-son-in-law (sitting in a Vancouver jail for investment fraud) and Gamache's struggles with his memories of his deceased father and this book becomes one with layer upon layer of complexity.  It is frankly magnificent.

Although this is not set in Three Pines, Penny manages to involve the villagers (Peter is the son of the deceased pater who is being memorialized) and she evokes the quiet, beautiful wilderness that is the hallmark of the other books in the series.

I think Louise Penny is going to be this generation's Agatha Christie.  She is that good.  I love her characters, I love her settings, and she is masterful at developing plot lines.  If you haven't read any of her books, take it from TUTU...you must.  It will be on my list of Best Reads of the Year for sure.

Review: South of Broad

Pat Conroy hasn't published a novel in almost 14 years, but South of Broad was worth waiting for.  Meet Leo "Toad" Bloom, whose mother is his high school principal, and whose father is the high school's physics teacher.  The trio is battling to hold on to a semblance of family following the suicide of Leo's older brother Steve, when Leo was 10 years old.  The story begins in the summer of 1969, as Leo is entering his senior year of high school. 

We meet the group of friends who will influence him well into adulthood: there is Ike Jefferson, son of the first black football coach at the school, his girlfriend Betty; Chad Rutledge and his sister Fraser, Molly Huger - all arch stereotypes of old Charleston society;  Niles and his sister Starla, orphans whom Toad is ordered by his mother to befriend; and there are the twins--the beautiful Sheba, the future Hollywood starlet and Trevor her equally beautiful and homosexual brother whose mother is a raving alcoholic, and whose father is .....well......NO SPOILERS HERE.  Conroy takes each of these and gives us a deeply developed character, relationships that are all too real, and heart-breaking scenes of friendship, denial, betrayal and loyalty.

Leo and the group must cope with mental illness, segregation, integration, AIDS, divorce, alcoholism, Hurricane Hugo, death, betrayal, and forgiveness as they live their lives through the tumultous decades of the 70's, 80's and into the 90's. Like his previous books, Conroy writes of relationships, of the influence of Roman catholicism during this period and on those relationships, and lets those relationships define the story.  At several points, he could have written 'the end' (lesser writers certainly would have) but he is able to climb from one resolution up another peak and then slide down into a whirl of crisis bringing the reader along to a thoroughly unexpected (at least for me) finale.

Over, under and behind it all is the city of Charleston SC with its rivers, its sultry weather, its incredibly snooty old guard, and its antebellum mansions.  Conroy's ability to evoke the essential beauty and ambience of this queen of southern cities is incredible.  I've never lived there, but have visited several times.  Each time I read one of Conroy's novels, it's like being on a trip to the low-country.
It's one of his best, and will be on my 'best of the year' list. Run and get it....or at least put it on your Christmas wishlist.

Thanks to Nan Talese at Doubleday for the ARC and the chance to review this fantastic novel.

Review: The Rapture

Whew! As many of you know, I don't handle horror stories very well, so I almost turned down the chance offered by Doubleday to review this. I got my Advanced Review Galley last month, and kept putting it off. The Book went on sale this week, and if I had to write a one-line review, I'd say You must buy and read this book.

I don't believe in the Christian concept of the Rapture, and I do believe in the reality of global warming. Liz Jensen has written an incredibly well plotted story about both featuring a physo-therapist, Gabrielle Fox, and her patient Bethany Krall. Bethany, 16 yrs old, has been confined to a mental institution because she brutally murdered her mother. Her father, a preacher who believes in the Rapture, refuses to have anything to do with his daughter, saying she is possessed by the devil.

Gabrielle, who is still suffering physically and psychologically from a terrible car accident in which she was left a paraplegic and her lover was killed, takes on Bethany as a patient against the advise of her previous boss, and her own medical team who do not think she is ready to return to work.

Bethany's 'visions' of terror to come have a surrealistic habit of proving true. She predicts earthquakes, hurricanes, storms, etc, with incredible and scary accuracy.

Enter Frazer Melville, a Scottish physicist who is not only interested in Gabrielle, but in Bethany's 'talents.' As Bethany's predictions increase, and the horror of what she is suggesting sinks in, Frazer and Gabrielle must decide if they believe her, if they have any obligation to warn the world, and how to handle the increasingly violent and disruptive teenager.

Enough plot. I don't want to spoil the ending. I won't discuss whether the Rapture happens or total disaster strikes the earth. You will have to read to find out. But you must read it.

The story keeps you on the edge of your seat. The characters are quite believable and often poignant. But it is THE PROSE, THE WRITING, that will have you breathless.

I am reluctant to quote because I only have a galley, and final changes may have occurred. I hope the editors don't change one word. Liz Jensen has written some of the most incredible imagery, dialogue and story lines I've read this year (and I've read over 100 books). Her ability to paint pictures with words is incredible. There were times I was left gasping. Here is one small example describing the aftermath of a giant earthquake:

Morning glory, cyclamen, and all shades of bougainvillea will writhe their way through the remains of tower blocks and climb up the rusted steel reinforcements of hospitals to bloom in bright carpets; poppies and bindweed and rosemary and lemongrass will deck splintered wood and smashed concrete with verdure; acacia trees and chinaberries will colonize the cracks, splitting tarmac to conjure the worst kind of beauty: the kind that celebrates human collapse.

Every word is that precisely written. Whether you believe any of the horror, or sympathize with the characters, you will not be able to forget this one. Thanks to Doubleday for making it available. This will definitely be on my "Best of the Year" list.

Note: edited to correct the name of the main character - it's Bethany, not Brittany.

LT Birthday

It's been a year since I joined LibraryThing as a way to track both my collection of volumes and the reading I had done. When I discovered I could also keep books I didn't own yet but wanted to read and I could talk about books with like minded people, i truly had met my match. During the past year I've read 165 books, added 2367 books to my account, joined 15 groups, led an online book discussion (and participated in 4 others), and posted 98 reviews. In case you're curious, here's the list of books read. I'm in the process of constructing a sidebar to track blog reviews, but these titles are linked to mine or other interesting reviews on LT.

I'll start the list with my BEST OF THE YEAR (they may not have been originally published during this time, but they were the best I read during this period:

Non- Fiction:

• The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion
• Worst Hard Time Timothy Egan
• The Dark Side: The Inside Story of How the War on Terror turned into a War on American Ideals Jane Mayer
• Great Souls: six who changed the century David Aiken
• Rule Number Two Lessons I learned in a Combat Hospital. Heidi Squier Kraft
• Library at Night – Alberto Manguel

Fiction:

• Still Life Louise Penny
• Olive Kitteridge Elizabeth Strout
• Any Bitter Thing Monica Wood
• Wife of the Gods Kwei Quartey
• Mistress of the Art of Death Ariana Franklin
• Labor Day Joyce Maynard
• Sacred Hearts Sarah Dunant

1.Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson

2. In a Sunburned Country, Bill Bryson

3.Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert.

4.Marley and Me by John Grogan

5. Free for all: Oddballs, Geeks and Gangstas in the Public Library by Don Borchert.

6.1001 Books You Must read before you die

7.People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks.

8. Purrfect Murder - A Rita Mae Brown mystery.

9.The Thirteen American Arguments by Howard Fineman.

10. The Wrecking Crew: How Conservatives Rule Thomas Frank

11.Bulls Island by Dorothea Frank

12.The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

13.Suite Francaise

14.Whole Truth David Baldacci

15.700 Sundays Billy Crystal

16.Don't Know Much about History Kenneth Davis

17.Friar and the Cipher Lawrence Goldstone

18.Tales from the Rhapsody Home John Gould

19.R is for Ricochet Sue Grafton

20. T is for Trespass Sue Grafton

21. Playing for Pizza by John Grisham

23.Constant Princess Philippa Gregory

24. Boleyn Inheritance Philippa Gregory

25.Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen

26.Man in the Middle Brian Haig.

27. Third Angel by Alice Hoffman

28. Comfort Food Kate Jacobs

29. Friday Night Knitting Club Kate Jacobs

30. Children of Men P.D. James

31. Careless in Red Elizabeth George

32. Mermaid's Chair Sue Monk Kidd

33. Secret Life of Bees Sue Monk Kidd

34.Bootlegger's Daughter Margaret Maron

35.Eats, Shoots, and Leaves Lynne Truss

36.Remember ME? Sophie Kinsella

37. The Good Husband of Zebra Drive Alexander McCall Smith

38. Senator's Wife Sue Miller

39.What Happened Inside the Bush White House and Washington's Culture of Deception Scott McClellan

40. Teacher's Funeral: A Comedy in Three Parts Richard Peck

41.Three cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace...One School at a Time Greg Mortensen

42.Julie and Julia:365 days,524 recipes Julie Powell

43.The Water's Lovely Ruth Rendell

44.When you Are engulfed in Flames David Sedaris

45.Innocent Traitor Alison Weir

46.The Bush Tragedy Jacob Weisberg

47. Best Defense Barbara Wilhelm

48.In the Land of Invisible Women Quanta Ahmed

49.Life on Wheels, the A to Z Guide to Living Fully with Mobility Issues by Gary Karp

50.Crocodile on the Sandbank Elizabeth Peters

51. Camel Club by David Baldacci

52.The Collectors by David Baldacci

53. Sweet Potato Queens Big Ass Cookbook and Financial Planner

54. 44 Scotland Street by Alexander McCall Smith.

55. 1st to Die James Patterson

56. 2nd Chance James Patterson

57. 3rd Degree James Patterson

58. 4th of July James Patterson

59. Stern Men by Elizabeth Gilbert.

60. Off Season Anne Rivers Siddons

61.Chocolate Chip Murder Mystery Joann Fluke

62.Pawing through the Past Rita Mae Brown

63.Shakespeare: World as Stage Bill Bryson

64.Bestseller! Jane Daniel

65.Prince Mammoth Pumpkin James Adams

66.The Gift of Story Clarissa Estes Pinkus

67.Love Letters of a Portuguese Nun Myriam Cyr

68.Sonnets from the Portuguese Elizabeth Barrett Browning

69.The Coffee Trader David Liss

70.America's Hidden History Kenneth C. Davis

71. Hard Row Margaret Maron

72. Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader Ann Fadiman

73. The Spellman Files Lisa Lutz

74. Plato and a Platypus walk into a Bar Thomas Cathcart

75. Ella Minnow Pea Mark Dunn

76. A Few Quick ones P.G. Wodehouse

77. The Blackford Oakes Reader William F. Buckley, Jr.

78.Pillars of the Earth Ken Follett

79. Portuguese Irregular Verbs by Alexander McCall Smith

80.Comforts of a Muddy Saturday Alexander McCall Smith

81. Ship Fever Andrea Barret

82. Geography of Bliss Eric Weiner

83. Corduroy Mansions Alexander McCall Smith

84. The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court by Jeffrey Toobin

85. 16 Lighthouse Road Debbie Macomber

86. Misquoting Jesus: The Story behind who changed the bible and why Bart Erhman

87. The Shape of Water Andrea Camilleri

88. Sixpence House Paul Collins

89. The Little World of Don Camillo by Giovannino Guareschi

90. One Man's Meat E.B. White

91.Year of Living Biblically A.J. Jacobs

92.Christ the Lord: the Road to Cana Anne Rice

93.Being Catholic Now Kerry Kennedy

94.Sarah: A Novel Marek Halter

95.Dating Jesus Susan Campbell

96.Mere Christianity C.S. Lewis

97.Suffer the Little children Donna Leon

98.Blood from a Stone Donna Leon

99.Stupid American History a stupid ER book

100.Heart and Soul Maeve Binchy

101.The Lady Elizabeth Alison Weir

102. The Inferno Dante

103. Amazing Grace Kathleen Norris

104. The Shack Wm. P Young

105. So Many Books, So Little Time by Sara Nelson

106. Here Lies the Librarian Richard Peck

107. The Girl who Loved Tom Gordon Stephen King

108. Bad Blood Linda Fairstein

109. The New 50 Simple Things Kids can Do to Save the Earth

110.There is a Season Joan Chittister

111. Delectable Mountains by Earlene Fowler.

112. NIGHT by Elie Wiesel

113. Mysteries of the Middle Ages the Rise of Feminism, Science, and Art from the Cults of Catholic Europe by Thomas Cahill

114.Summer in Tuscany by Elizabeth Adler

115. The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate DiCamillo.

116. The Other Queen Philippa Gregory.

117. Longitude Dava Sobel

118. New England Tales Sarah Orne Jewett

119. Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam Edward Fitzgerald

120. Scarecrow and his Servant Philip Pullman

121. Lethal Legacy Linda Fairstein

122. Last Night at the Lobster Stewart O'Nan

123. Soldier's Heart: Reading Literature through Peace and War at West Point Elizabeth Samet

124. The Frozen Thames Helen Humphreys

125.Girl of His Dreams Donna Leon

126. Savage Beauty: The Life of Edna St. Vincent Millay Nancy Mitford.

127. Taste for Death P.D. James

128. The Curious case of Benjamin Button F. Scott Fitzgerald

129. Our Lady of the Artichokes and other Portuguese-American Stories. Katherine Vaz

130. Ants on the Melon Virginia Hamilton Adair

131.The Link Colin Tudge

132.Mint Julep Murder Carolyn Hart

133.Scarecrow Michael Connelly

134.On What Grounds Cleo Coyle

135.Tea Time for the Traditionally Built Alexander McCall Smith

136.Reading Lolita in Tehran Azar Nafisi

137.Losing Mum and Pup Christopher Buckley

138.Morning Poems Robert Bly

139.Lobster Chronicles Linda Greenlaw

140.Cream Puff Murder Joanne Fluke

141.Short and Tall Tales – Lilian Jackson Braun

142.Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World – Vicki Myron

143.Cemetery Dance Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child

144.Food of Portugal Jean Anderson

145.Dinner at Mr Jefferson’s Charles Cerami

146.All Other Nights by Dara Horn

147.Executive Privilege – Philip Margolin

148.Little Fingers – Filip Florian

149.Deadly Nightshade Cynthia Riggs

150.The Alchemist Paulo Coelho

151.American Lion Jon Meacham

152.Fatally Flaky Diane Mott Davidson

153. Yellow-Lighted Bookshop Lewis Buzbee

All in all, it's been a very exciting book year. Join me in another one.

Review: Labor Day

What a powerful story! Pure fiction at its best! Several reviewers have been quoted as saying they could not put it down. I couldn't either. This is a book I can hardly wait to talk about with people who have read it, but don't want to spoil for those who are yet to have the fantastic experience of reading it for the first time. The main character Henry, 13 years old, lives with his hamster Jim and his mother Adele who is becoming more and more of a recluse. He visits with his father and step mother and their children once a week, but seems to accept his aloneness (and his mother's withdrawal from life)with a sort of "that's life" attitude. Into this life comes Frank, and once he appears on page 5, you will not be able to put this book down. Your heart will be in your throat, your pulse will race, your breathing will stop. Don't misunderstand, this is not a physic terror story, nor is it bloody or fantasy-like. It is simply a story of three people, each dealing with life issues, and how each reacts to events and circumstances, and interacts with the others over a six day period. Some things they have control over, some they do not. You can see several different possible endings coming, you don't know which one you want, and you don't want it to end badly. I think most people will find the ending acceptable. This is a story of growing up, a story of teen-age angst, a story of trust, a story of betrayal. But most of all it is a story of possibilities, realities, and dreams--life as we all experience it, but life as we hope we never have to. I'm sure his book will be on many book club discussion lists. I can't wait to see it in bookstores and libraries in August. It is going to be one of my "best of the year." So put in your reservations, and mark time on your calendar.

Review: Rule Number Two

Subtitled Lessons I Learned in a Combat Hospital, the lessons and rules are from an episode of M.A.S.H: There are two rules of war. Rule number one is that young men die. Rule number two is that doctors can't change rule number one.

This is the well written story of a young female Navy clinical psychologist who is sent to a field Marine surgical unit (think MASH) in Fallugah Iraq in Feb 2004 during some of the fiercest fighting of the war. She left behind her 15 mo old twins in the care of her parents and her husband (a Marine pilot). It's an incredibly honest, compassionate, compelling, and heartwrenching story of her tour of duty and the heroes she counts herself privileged to serve. I count her as one of the heroes. Stories of her days in Iraq are interwoven with 'email' from home, making it as gut-wrenching for the reader as it must have been her to serve. The book is not long, not technical and 'easy' to read on the one hand--the prose is sharp and clear. However, it is difficult to read about a young parent separated from her family, enduring incredible hardships, who is still able to help those Marines both younger and older than herself not only to endure and function, but survive the carnage with some humanity. With people like Heidi Kraft taking care of us, we will remain a strong country. It's one of my best of the year.