Category: 3 1/2 Star Books

Salty Like Blood, by Harry Kraus, MD

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Salty Like Blood by Kraus Kraus: Book CoverFinished 5-1-09, rating 3.5/5, fiction, pub. 2009

In the next hour we asked every resident of the street if they’d seen our little girl.  Everyone we questioned returned the same concerned stare, as if we were bad parents.  They never said it, but I felt it at every doorstep.  You let your little girl go out by the water alone?

Chapter 3

Seven year old, Rachel Conners, is a normal little girl with two parents who love her.  Then, while visiting her sick grandfather on the Chesapeake shore, she goes missing.  Her parents, Dr. David Conners and his wife Joanne, are frantic and their sometimes troubled marriage approaches a breaking point.  Joanne wants to assume she is dead and move one, but David needs answers and the two live apart, each trying to cope in their own way.  While David stays at the shore to look for answers he is tempted by fantasies of his Muslim neighbor and back in the city, Joanne begins to fall prey to her ex-fiancee, Blake. 

This book tackles the horrifying prospect of losing a child and the uncertainty that comes with a disappearance.  David and Joanne’s marriage was in trouble and it was shown, warts and all.  It shows happens when two partners need to grieve or fight in two different ways. 

There were so many storylines that it was almost too much.  Losing a parent, losing a child, racial prejudice, small town expectations, betraying a friend, and social pressures are just some of the main themes.  The multiple storylines kept the story moving, although I’m not sure they all came together for me. 

The story is a quick read and written in a straightforward voice that will keep you guessing what will happen next.  David’s quest for answers leads to thoughts of revenge and forgiveness and Joanne must deal with the lies in her marriage.  The end was surprising and far-fetched (at least I hope so!) and I never really liked Joanne.  She was too cold and distant and never really thawed.  David was a more sympathetic character and I was rooting for him to find his answers and save the day.

All in all, there was more good than bad and I did enjoy it.

Durable Goods by Elizabeth Berg

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Cover ImageFinished 3-28-09, rating 3.5/5, fiction, pub. 1993

She couldn’t do a whole sentence; it took too much air.  So she would say pieces like that.  Sometimes, even if you were loving her so much, your fists clenched and your heart feeling like it had a tight peel around it, you would get mad like that.

page 13 of the mass market paperback

Katie is a twelve year old Army brat living in Texas with her abusive father and her older sister.Her mother has recently died and Katie crawls under her bed to have conversations with her and even harbors a hope that it was all merely a misunderstanding and that one day she will walk through the front door.  Her best friend, Cherylanne, lives next door and is two years older, so Katie learns about kissing boys and sex and shaving her legs from her,  Their conversation about sex was pretty funny.

Katie is just  a girl trying to make her way in a world without a mother and a sister already halfway out the door.  She is every girl and it is easy to recognize yourself in her, of course, some things are scarier and more painful than others.  When she starts her period she thinks of it as a gift and is excited that she can now have a baby, something to call her own.  When her father tells them that they will have to move again she resists the idea because she would be moving to a place where her mother had never been.

This is a powerful coming of age story.  I read the second book about Katie, Joy School, first, and liked it better than this one.  I understand her father and her sister now that I’ve read this one, but I did not like the story as much.   I still recommend it,  as I do with anything Elizabeth Berg writes,

Behind the Mask…No More, by Byron Nease

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Behind The Mask...No MoreFinished 3-27-09, rating 3.5/5, memoir, pub. 2008

On the difficult days, denial helps, but denial ends.  Forgetfulness helps … a call from a friend helps me, a hug from someone I love, a stiff drink, a wonderful audience, but my forgetfulness ends.  And what I am left with is something I cannot create, cannot fabricate, cannot innovate.  It’s something that my grandmother called Grace.  It’s not about being good or bad, right or wrong.  It’s about being loved, anyway.

page 60

Byron Nease shares his life from the early days of abuse and abandonment, through his Broadway days in New York and Toronto, past his many trips around the world, all with the never ending courage of a man who finds out he  is HIV positive at a time when it is a death sentence.  He is a survivor and an inspirational one.

I agreed to review this book because I love going to the theatre and Nease spent five years in Toronto in Phantom of the Opera and I wanted the scoop. What I found was the heartfelt story of his life told with heartbreaking honesty and vulnerability.  There were stories about his days on Broadway, but the purpose of the book is to paint a picture of a life full of opportunity and hope.

The book is full of photos and family stories.  I also really appreciated Nease’s description of how he reconciled the religion of his youth as a preacher’s son to the reality of his life as a gay man.  He really is an interesting man and this book provides great insight into his over 20 year struggle with HIV and his strained family relationships due to his sexuality.  I think this would be great book if you are interested in either of these topics.

I was a little disappointed in the Broadway part of the book only because it was such a small part.  What stories he does tell are fun and I enjoyed hearing about the wardrobe malfunctions and the antics on stage that the audience is not aware of .

Byron Nease has led an interesting and truly inspirational life.  I am glad that he let us see behind the mask.  I’m better off for it.

Shoot the Moon, by Billie Letts

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Cover ImageFinished 3-9-09, rating 3.5/5, fiction, pub. 2004

“That’s why I came here.  I want Gaylene Harjo to tell me her side of the truth.”

“She can’t do that.”

“She can’t or she won’t?”

Teeve leaned forward, reached across the table and put her hand on top of his, but he pulled free of her touch.

“Gaylene’s dead.”

She waited for some response, watched for a reaction, but could see nothing more than the muscles clenching in his jaw.

“She was murdered.  The same night you disappeared.”

Chapter 5

Mark Albright, a Beverly Hill veterinarian, has come to DeClare, Oklahoma looking for his birth mother.  Only after the recent death of his father did he learn that he had been adopted and his mother’s name was Gaylene Harjo.  Once in the small Oklahoma  town of his birth he finds that he and his birth mother are at the heart of a 30 year old mystery.   His birth name was Nicky Jack and he was presumed dead when he was 10 months old.

The town is full of quirky characters and villainous men.  The stoner Kyle, abuser O Boy, and the helpful Teeve all bring Mark closer to the truth of the murder and his father’s true identity.  He also finds himself drawn to his very pregnant cousin, Ivy, and he is able to help her understand the repurcussions of  her own pregnancy.

The story grabbed be from the very start and I was entertained all the way through.  There were so many interesting characters and the charm of small town life made this a fast and fun read.  The mystery of the murder itself was not that hard to figure out, but Mark’s true father was a surprise (and disappointment) to me.

The story had so much potential and for the most part it delivered, but at the end there were still too many unanswered questions.  And it was missing depth for me.  Mark was a little too cool for me to really understand.

This is the first time I’ve read Billie Letts and I look forward to reading more.

Ultra-Longevity:The Seven-Step Program for a Younger, Healthier You, by Mark Liponis, MD

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Cover ImageFinished 3-1-09, rating 3.5/5, health, pub. 2007

Aging is an autoimmune disease.  It is caused by your own immune system attacking you.Yes, that’s correct.  Aging is not a natural result of living too many years…

page 23

This book starts with a quiz.  Twenty-one questions determine how fast you are aging.  There are the expected questions about weight, smoking, and exercise, but then there are the unexpected questions about siblings, sex, jokes, and even about the time of year you were born.  Once I saw my score I immediately started reading the book. 

Just as our country’s defense system would be sorely tested if several invaders attacked simultaneously, so, too, when your body has to deal with many potential terrorists, the opportunities for breakdowns multiply.  This confusion leads to malfunction of the immune system, and that malfunction leads to bodily damage.

pages 55-56

The first section deals with your immune system and the many organs and cells involved in making it work.  This section is somewhat interesting and very detailed.  I don’t need that much information, but it is nice to have it explained in a relatively simple way.  This is also where he explains the CRP Test.  Essentially, this tests how active your immune system is and the less active the better.

The second section of the book discusses the seven steps you need to take to maintain a healthy immune system.  They are: breathing, eating, sleeping, dancing, loving, soothing, and enhancing.  I think it is interesting that he puts all of these areas side by side, with eating being equal to the others, not more important .  I thought this section was fun to read and easy to understand.  Who doesn’t like reading that a good sex life, singing every day, and massages can prolong your life? 

Many of these things aren’t new, but the immune system activation is a new way of looking at it.  I learned a lot and because some of these seven areas are easier than others you can start working right away on preserving your health.  It is a very holistic approach.

My main complaint is that is sometimes there is too much information.  I don’t need two pages about B-cells.  After a few paragraphs my attention starts to drift.  And while it’s nice to include studies to prove a point, they, too, can become  easy to skip over when there are too many.

Overall, I thought this was worthwhile and I took away lots of good information.  As for the quiz, I went back and decided what I needed to do to age at a slower pace, but because I live in Cleveland, am an only child, and was born in the fall, there are a  small number of things I can change.  But I’ll do what I can 🙂

Author Mark Liponis, MD, is the medical director of the Canyon Ranch Spa

God on a Harley, by Joan Brady

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Cover ImageFinished 2-25-09, rating 3.5/5 , fiction, pub. 1995

How had I become so unhappy with myself and the way my life had turned out?  Why couldn’t I find solutions to the problems that were holding me back from a joyous life?  I know for a fact that I am at least a fairly intelligent person and I’ve even known stupid people who are a whole lot happier than me.  Why couldn’t I find a way to fill the emptiness in my life?

Chapter 2

Christine Moore was a 37 year old nurse who had just moved back to New Jersey and was fighting the apathy and bitterness she felt about life.  Then she meets Joe, or God if you are old school, and she begins a path to a less complicated, more fulfilled life.  He starts popping up in her life in the flesh and sometimes on his Harley.  Unfortunately, at some point she feels that she is in love with Joe/God.

“It’s simple,” he said.  “I’m getting you ready to live.  I mean really live.  Meaningfully.”

Chapter 3

This is a slim new age fable that may help you see your life in a new light.  At its core it is about learning to love yourself and making changes in your life.  After reading this yesterday all I wanted to do was purge old stuff out of my closets and live with less stuff  (and it is still a work in progress today).  It is a charming and hopeful book and a nice gift for any woman who has ever had her heart stomped on and has lost faith in herself or God.

It’s probably not for everyone and for most it is not going  to change your life, but it may make you look at your choices from a different perspective.  I thought it was a little hokey, but Christine felt real enough to make it a nice read.

What I Did for Love, by Susan Elizabeth Phillips

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Cover ImageFinished 2-20-09, rating 3.5/5, romance, pub. 2009

She dropped the tabloid and turned to flee, but they’d trapped her.  She tried to back up, but they were behind her, in front of her, surrounding her with their hot strobes and heartless shouts.  Their smell clogged her nostrils – sweat, cigarettes, acrid cologne.  Someone stepped on her foot.  An elbow caught her in the side.  They pressed closer, stealing her air, suffocating her… (Chapter 1)

Georgie York grew up in front of the camera becoming the darling of sitcom tv.  Her life in the eight years since has become a circus.  She married Lance, a hugely successful action star, and he left her for the icy do-gooder, Jade.  He spread lies after their break-up, but his betrayal only cemented Georgie’s title of America’s sweetheart.  But her movies have tanked and she has become a paparazzi magnet, making her life a game of cat and mouse.

Bram had spent eight miserable years rescuing Georgie from thorny situations, but his days of playing gallant Skip Scofield to Georgie’s spunky Scooter Brown were long behind him.  This time Scooter Brown could save her own ass – or, more likely, wait around for Daddy to do it. (Chapter 1)

Bram Shepard was wildly popular when he and Georgie played Skip and Scooter, but he had ruined that opportunity with drinking, drugs, and a sex tape.  Now, he received only small offers in B movies and he was trying to find a way to reform himself in the eyes of studio execs who didn’t trust him.

Georgie and Bram hated each other, but a few drugged drinks, a marriage certificate, and a sleazy paparazzi forced them to come to terms with each other, literally.  Georgie could not endure another scandalous marriage so soon after Lance, so she made a deal with the devil.  Bram would stay married  to Georgie for a hefty fee and use her to gain respectability.

There are great secondary characters in this book.  Georgie’s father, Paul, appears heartless and his slow thaw was a wonderful story.  I loved Bram’s young cook, Chaz, and Georgie’s confidence lacking assistant, Aaron.  The only problem may have been that at times they, especially Chaz, overshadowed Georgie and Bram.

Anyone who knows the Brad, Jen, Angelina story will recognize it here.  And if you need last names you may not be interested in this celebrity culture story.  I think the story is very current in that that tabloid reporters are taking greater and more dangerous steps to get the money shot, and it was interesting to see it from the other side. 

I have read every one of Phillips’ books and while I really liked this one it was not my favorite.  Bram and Georgie had chemistry and sass, but the end became sentimental mush.  I think she’s great, but if you have never read her, this is not the book to start with.

Plum Spooky, by Janet Evanovich

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Cover ImageFinished 2-13-09, rating 3.5/5, mystery, pub. 2009

Elmer came back to the table, and Grandma trotted in with coffee and half an apple pie.  She served the coffee and pie, and Elmer reached for the cream and farted.

Broomph!

Flames shot out of Elmer’s ass, set his pants on fire, and ignited the upholstered seat on the cherrywood side chair.  Elmer jumped up and dropped his pants, drawers and all.

“Holy crap,” my father said.  “That smells like the slaughterhouse burned down.”

Chapter 22

This Between-the Numbers Stephanie Plum novel was a welcome surprise.  I have complained about the first two being too short in length, humor, and plot, but this one was fun and funny.  And it was just long enough to make it feel worth my time.

Diesel, the mysterious, world travelling, superpower infused hunk of a bounty hunter, is back in Stephanie’s life and bed.  The two are searching for geeky nerd Munch and ice-cold murderer Wulf.  The chase leads them to New Jersey’s Pine Barrens where any number of kooky characters live.  Carl the monkey joins them and spends most of the book playing video games and flipping people his middle finger. 

Diesel is front and center and Lula is spandex deep in her wedding plans to Tank.  Both Ranger and Joe were minor players, but I was okay with that, because I do get tired of Stephanie being in love with them both.   It did maybe lack a little romance.

This book had a farting theme.  Lula sneezed and farted most of the way through and then Elmer the Fire Farter takes the stage to catch things on fire with his rear end gas. 

And there were losts of monkeys.  I actually kind of liked Carl in this one.  There was a scene with him eating mashed potatoes at the Plum dining room table that had me laughing out loud. 

I liked this book more than some of the more recent Stephanie Plum books and would recommend it to anyone who likes a little bit of wacky in their mysteries.  Or anyone who likes monkeys.  And farts.

 

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Books & other thoughts

Scarlet Moon, by Debbie Viguie

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Cover ImageFinished 2-8-09, rating 3.5/5, ya fiction, pub. 2004

“Darling child, what you do does not dictate who you are.  Clothed in furs and jewels you would be the same person as you are when covered with ash and soot.”

“Do you really think that’s true?”

“I know it is.  I loved your grandfather, and we were very different people.  In loving him, though, and marrying him, I didn’t lose myself.  Rather, I gained something I had long been in want of.  Love makes you more than what you are, not less…”

This slim youg adult novel is the retelling of the classic Little Red Riding Hood story and I was enchanted.  Ruth was attacked by a wolf in the woods as a child and saved by her brother, Stephen, when he attacks and wounds the wolf.  Ruth heals, but carries the wounds from the wolf into adulthood.  Her brother and cousin, Peter, go off to fight in Jerusalem and Ruth is left to help her father as a blacksmith.  She makes frequent trips to her Grandmother in the woods and learns from her the power of healing and an enlightened way of looking at the world.

Nine years after the wolf attack Peter returns home from fighting without Stephen and Ruth is heartbroken.  Even Peter’s spirit seems to be broken. Then one day Earl William walks into her life and everything changes.  Ruth suddenly feels like a woman.  Except that William is harboring a mysterious and dangerous secret that could devastate her.

I have never been a huge fan of the Red Riding Hood tale, but I really liked this adaptation.  Ruth is a strong and brave young lady and a perfect heroine for young adults (hormones included!).  The parts of the story told from William’s perspective were chilling and compelling. 

This is one of several fairy tale books from Viguie and I plan on reading more.  It was a pleasant way to spend a few hours!

The Stone Monkey, by Jeffery Deaver

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Cover ImageFinished 2-5-09, rating 3.5/5, fiction, pub. 2002

Lincoln Rhyme series #4

“We’re staying in Mahattan.”

Leaning closer so that Mah could not hear, Chang whispered, “Don’t be a fool. The Ghost will find you.”

Wu laughed.  Don’t worry about him.”

“Don’t worry?  He just killed a dozen of our friends.”  Gambling with Wu’s own life was one thing but to risk his wife and children was unthinkable.

Quadriplegic Lincoln Rhyme is back in New York awaiting the risky surgery that may grant him limited movement.  His partner in crime and in love, Amelia Sachs, is against the surgery, but is trying to come to terms with it because it is what Lincoln wants.  They are both thrust into an INS investigation trying to locate a snakehead (smuggler of desperate Chinese people into the US unlawfully) in the middle of the ocean.  The Ghost is the most feared of all snakeheads because of his ruthlessness with the human cargo on his ships and because of his high connections which enable him to escape prosecution.

The Coast Guard locate the ship, but before they can board the Ghost blows it up.  He survives and kills anyone else who has lived, but two families escape him.  They escape into New York City where the Ghost hunts them down.  A Chinese detective proves very helpful to Rhyme with insight and friendship and the race is on to find the illegal immigrants before the Ghost does.

This Lincoln Rhyme installment was a different kind of book than the first three.  There was so much information about the Chines and Chinese American cultures that the story moved slower, at least the first half.  It was still really good, but I was able to put it down, which did not happen with the first three.  Also, there was less emphasis on Lincoln, which is okay, but I happen to love watching him outsmart everyone. 

I did like his close  friendship with the Chinese detective.  And Lincoln and Amelia’s relationship keeps moving forward, which I love.  Although you don’t have to read the series in order I think it is rewarding to see this relationship develop from the beginning.

This book has all the twists and turns and surprises that I’ve come to expect from Deaver.  He keeps you guessing-even when you didn’t know there was guessing to be done! 

I recommend this thriller especially if you are interested in the Chinese American culture.