Tag: Books

A Patchwork Planet, by Anne Tyler

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Cover ImageFinished 2-19-08, rating 4.5/5, fiction, pub. 1998

“Oh, what makes some people more virtuous than others?  Is it something they know from birth?  Don’t they ever feel that zingy, thrilling urge to smash the world to bits?”      Chapter 1

Who knew that one day I’d have a crush on a man named Barnaby?  Barnaby is the black sheep of a well-to-do family and his mother never lets him forget it.  His family has the charming belief that for generations each member has been contacted by a personal angel.  This angel is to help them find their way in the world.  Barnaby is a 30 year old divorced father and he is still waiting for his angel.

Barnaby has a dead end, but fulfilling job at Rent-A-Back where he spends most of his days doing the bidding of senior citizens who in turn love him and drive him crazy.  He is renting the basement of a house and his car is always in the shop.  One Saturday morning when the car was in said shop, he hops on the train from Baltimore to Philadelphia for his monthly visit with his daughter.  He becomes intrigued by an exchange he witnesses and convinces himself that he has found his angel.

Barnaby is a complicated man who doesn’t fully realize his own worth.  That is the powerful and moving journey of this book.  I loved it.

WITSEC, Inside the Federal Witness Protection Program

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Cover ImageWITSEC Inside the Federal Witness Protection Program by Pete Earley and Gerald Shur

Finished 2-17-08, rating 3.5/5. non-fiction, pub. 2002

Where to begin?  Well, I chose this book because I am researching the Witness Protection Program for my own book (fiction) and was curious about the inner workings of this government program.  This was co-written by the creator of the program, Gerald Shur, so you get a fly-on-the-wall view of the inception all the way through its current troubled times.  During Shur’s tenure WITSEC protected 6,416 witnesses and 14,468 of their family members.

The program began because of the government’s priority of taking down the mob.  The book is full of colorful stories about mob witnesses and the Justice Department’s struggle to keep them alive long enough to testify.  Having little to no interest in the Mob, I still found this book fascinating.  After the mob, drug lords, gangs, and terrorists all became witnesses in this storied program. 

This book highlights the good, the bad, and the ugly and some notables came out a little muddied.  Hoover’s FBI and Geraldo Rivera did not look good. Also, there was an interesting story about Jeb Bush encouraging his Dad to pressure the Justice Department to release a terrorist to curry favor with Floridia Hispanics.  But the book isn’t aimed at making people look bad.  It is an honest and thought provoking look at the pros and cons of this program.

I came away with great respect for Shur and the others who toiled with him to make WITSEC a success.  Is it safe to put known killers and rapists in unsuspecting communities?  Shur says it is for the greater good, but you’ll have to judge for yourself.  I highly recommend this if you are at all interested in the Witness Protection Program, the mob, US Marshals, or the way that the Justice Department works.

Chill Factor, by Sandra Brown

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Cover ImageFinished 2-11-08, rating 3/5, fiction, pub. 2005

 Five women have disappeared from the small community of Cleary, North Carolina.  Lilly is in town to close the sale of her mountain cabin after her divorce from the town sheriff.  Before she can get off the mountain a storm blows in and traps her in the cabin with a very sexy acquaintance, Tierney. They had met a year earlier  when Lilly was still married and sparks had flown. 

 Back in town, her ex-husband Dutch, is desperate to rescue Lilly because he cannot bear the thought of her secluded in a cabin with a man who makes women throw themselves at him.  Then things get worse when the FBI show up suspecting Tierney of being the Cleary lady killer.  Cleary becomes the epicenter of all things small town, from the local drugstore where everyone goes to gossip to the gang of local men armed and ready to walk up the mountain to give Tierney their own justice. 

The book is fast-paced and loaded with enough characters to give life to the story and town.  The many twists and turns did not give everyone a happy ending, which gives the story the punch it needed at the end.  I really liked it and think thriller lovers will too.

Los Alamos, by Joseph Kanon

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Cover ImageFinished 2-2-08, rating 3.5/5, fiction, pub. 1998

 It’s 1945 and Los Alamos is the the heart of scientific discovery.  The Manhattan Project has been working on the atomic bomb that will end the war when the murder of a security officer worries those in charge of the project’s secrecy.  Michael o is called in to find out what happened and make sure there are no leaks at Los Alamos.  His investigation takes him to neighboring Santa Fe and the lonely areas surrounding it. 

This book is a murder mystery, but because of it’s setting it is much more.  Kanon delves into the ethics of making the bomb, paranoia, homophobia in the military, and communism, while still keeping the story a mystery at heart.  There is also a surprising love affair and I enjoyed the realistic grit of it. 

Some of the characters, Robert Oppenheimer, General Leslie Groves and others, are based on the actual people working on the project.  This is a wonderful blending of reality and fiction.  This is Kanon’s first novel and I was impressed.  This is a great read for mystery lovers or those interested in the Manhattan Project.

January notes

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“I find television to be very educating.  Every time somebody turns on the set, I go to the other room and read a book.”        -Groucho Marx

The current writer’s strike made it easy to curl up with a book this month.  I read three books I would recommend; Tourist Season, The Painted Veil, and On Writing.  I will be back tomorrow with my new free books for February.  Happy reading!

Hey, Good Looking, by Fern Michaels

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Cover ImageFinshed 1-24-08, rating 2.5/5, romance, pub. 2006

Darby had a best friend, Russell, who we met in the first chapter and was dead by chapter two.  Darby grieves and with the help of her aunts and Russell’s brother, Ben, she copes.  The villainous stepmom, Bella, provides much needed tension and there is a weird storyline involving organ donation.  Michaels made it a plotline, but never really delved into it with any real depth.  There is a conclusion of the plot near the end of the book, but it didn’t make much sense to me. 

I read this because my Mom gave it to me and I wanted something light and fun.  It was light, but too light for my tastes and Michaels tells too much instead of letting me use my own imagination.  And poor Ben had a bad habit of “puffing his chest out” whenever Darby gave him a compliment.  For some reason by the third time this happened I really wanted to just stop reading, but for all my complaints once I reached the halfway point I was interested in the story, if not the writing.  There is an interesting cast of characters and it is a fun read, but not a memorable one.

On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft, by Stephen King

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Cover ImageFinished on 1-22-08, rating 5/5, non-fiction, pub. 2000

My knowledge of Stephen King’s novels is limited.  I’ve read a few, listened to a few more on road trips with my husband, and seen some of the movies.  I usually enjoy them, but I wouldn’t call myself a fan.  So, I was justifiably surprised when I was totally charmed by this book and its author.

The first half of this book is memoir full of stories of his youth and early writing successes.  There were stories of his first sale, for 25 cents to his mother, and his busy adolescence making a statement with his writing.  King moves onto adulthood, marriage, kids, a job he doesn’t enjoy and he doesn’t pull any punches.  This book is told with such honesty that you are drawn into King’s world.  His drug and alcohol abuse could have led to self-pity or delusions of grandeur, but it didn’t.  All of these snapshots of his life are told with rich detail, but with an understanding of just how much to tell.

The second half is devoted to the craft of writing.  Having read much advice from established authors I know there as many ways to write a book as limbs on a tree (King loves simile and metaphor), and King gives his best, unapologetic nuggets of wisdom.  He doesn’t mince words, but they are told with humor and real-life experiences from his own prosperous writing career.  He also delves into what happened when he was hit by a van and was close to death.  The book comes full circle with his telling of the accident.

I loved this book.  I loved the mix of humor, truth, detail, and brevity.  I have been charmed by a horror writer and I’m not ashamed to admit it. 🙂

This is on my Top 100 Nonfiction Books. See the full list here.

Plum Lucky, by Janet Evanovich

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Cover ImageFinished 1-19-08, rating 2.5/5, fiction, pub. 2008

I’m not sure why I continue to read the Stephanie Plum novels, especially these missives she calls “Between-the Numbers.”  This one is a mere 166 pages.  I fell in love with bounty hunter Stephanie in her first novel, One For the Money, and followed her through many zany adventures.  Somewhere around the sixth book the novels became a cartoon of their earlier versions.

Okay, Plum Lucky.  Stephanie receives a visit from her Between-the Novels pal, Diesel, and her Grandmother finds over a million dollars that she claims as her own.  There is also a leprechaun, a horse, ex-hooker Lula, and a shootout with a rocket launcher.  This book is almost all dialogue and very little little heart. 

So, why did I bother if I am no longer enjoying the Plum novels?  Because yesterday when I stopped by the library they gave it to me.  And I read it because it was too short not to.

Mad River Road, by Joy Fielding

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Cover ImageFinished audio 1-17-08, rating 2.5/5, fiction. pub. 2006

“Brad” was released from prison on a technicality and wasted no time in planning revenge against those who wronged him.  His first step was finding a woman with a car to warm his bed.  Enter Jamie, who had just found out her boyfriend was married, and you have a scary combination of recklessness and danger.  They begin their trek from Florida to Ohio to find his ex-wife and his son. 

The book had potential, but never really pulled me in.  There was only one sympathetic character of the bunch.  And I kept waiting for something to happen, but had to wait until the last part of the book.

A good reader can make a good book better or a bad one worse.  The reader used different voices for the many characters, but a few of the characters sounded so silly.  So, I’ll allow for the possibility that it may have been better if I’d read it, but I still wouldn’t recommend this book.