• (7/31) Girl in Hyacinth Blue by Susan Vreeland.
  
  Truly original little novel tracing a Vermeer painting from fictional owner to fictional owner -- through World War II and all the way back to the moment of the artist's inspiration. While each story is unique, they all have the same unifying theme -- art changes life. Beauty transforms us. And the way these alterations take shape is what makes us all unique and unforgettable. A really lovely little book. Recommended to readers of all genres!
  [FICTION]

  (7/30) Deck the Halls by Mary Higgins Clark and Carol Higgins Clark.
  

  Pleasant little mystery written by the mother-daughter mystery novelists. The authors have combined more than just their skills though, but also their main recurring characters -- Regan Reilly and Alvirah Meehan. The plot centers around a holiday kidnapping, with an amusing little twist in that the kidnappers are both bumbling idiots. In some ways, their stupidity makes it even more dangerous though -- they act irrationally and, thus, their actions are hard to predict. Fans of the authors will enjoy this collaboration. Fans of mysteries in general will enjoy this short little story. Recommended to either group!
  [MYSTERY]

  (7/28) Corelli's Mandolin by Louis de Bernieres.
  

  A group of friends and I recently started a bookclub together and this is the first book we've read. Our talk on the book isn't for another week or two, but I just finished it this past weekend and definitely can't wait until then to say what I want to say about it. I'll just abridge my opinion to make it fit in this small space instead. (Well, I'll try to abridge it, anyway!)

  First of all, let me say that this is a truly wonderful book. It's set in Greece during WWII, which, in and of itself, is fascinating since you hear all the time about WWII and England, Germany, Japan, Italy, and the U.S., but since when have you heard anything about WWII and Greece? And why not? It was definitely involved in the whole thing too, you know. How much of what happens in the book is fact and how much is fiction, I don't know and I really want to find out -- that alone ought to tell you that I found this book interesting enough to want to learn more. A good sign.

  Setting aside, the plot is also fascinating. On a small scale, it focuses on a young Greek woman who falls in love first with a village boy and eventually with an Italian soldier (Captain Corelli). On a much grander scale, the book is about what war does to people. People on every side -- people of every position, every rank, every country, every sex, every occupation. While the effects of the war on the people in this book were varied -- some became brave, some became cowards, some fell in love, some fell out of love, some became proud, some ashamed, etc. etc. etc. -- for the most part, the effects can be boiled down to one phrase: war hurts. But this book goes beyond the usual examination of that concept. Some of the characters in this book experience the war in a way I've never seen written about in all the many books I've read about war. One of the best characters in the book (and I mean "best" both in that I found him the most intriguing and he was the best person) is a gigantic gay man who joined the military so that he could be around the kind of brotherly love that men encounter when thrown together in those kinds of circumstances. Whereas the current debate over gays in the military usually focuses on how sexually stimulating those nasty gays will get when they see their comrades nekkid in the showers, this book really brings into focus a much more realistic look at the issue. Our gay soldier does fall in love with a straight friend. In fact, he falls in love with two of them. And what it does is this: it makes them ALL better men for it. Take that, you don't-ask-don't-tell dunderheads.

  The writing is also tremendous. de Bernieres has a keen wit and he's not afraid to us it! He is also masterful with the language -- some of his descriptions of things moved me to tears. Some of them made me laugh out loud. I have underlined entire passages and already gone back to reread them twice. He is a truly talented writer and I already miss getting to read his phrases. I can't wait to find out what other books he's got out there. Another good sign!

  However, despite the fact that I loved the setting, characters, plot, and writing, I have to say now that the ending of this book is just plain awful. My perception of what happened is this: de Bernieres got towards the end of the book and realized he had only two options for the ending -- the happy option and the tragic option. And rather than settle for one of those two, either of which would be hard to pull off without running the risk of being cliche, he decided to just pretend he had a third option and made up an ending that fit none of the characters involved and essentially ruined the whole book for me. Not only did the ending come 50 pages and two decades too late, but it is one of those endings that is neither happy nor sad, neither good nor bad, and, alas, neither interesting nor moving. After a book of such powerful emotions and messages, to have an ending like this one tacked on carelessly at the last just killed me. I was so majorly disappointed. While it sounds like I'm cursing the author for daring to take a path that hadn't been gone down before, what I'm actually cursing him for was for not having the courage to be cliche and to hell with it. By writing this "neither" ending, he betrayed not only the readers, who were desperate by this point for some kind of emotional finale, but his characters as well. The explanation one of them gives for what went wrong is so wholly unbelievable that it made me snort. As if I believe for a moment that lovers like those two would ever have made that kind of a mistake about each other. The tragedy here is that de Bernieres chickened out. That he did it in the name of originality does not make it okay. And don't even try to argue that it was intended to be yet another example of the damage that war can do to people. You aren't going to convince me of that.

  But, I'm sure I'm the only one out there who feels this way. It wouldn't be the first time I was disappointed by something everybody else in the world absolutely loved. So, hey, just ignore me and go read this book. I'm sure you'll enjoy it -- I did myself. Just don't say I didn't warn you when you get to the ending!
  [FICTION]

  (7/24) Forty Words for Sorrow by Giles Blunt.
  

  Engrossing mystery set in the middle of a Canadian winter (yay!). When the body of a young girl is discovered by some snowmobilers, Detective John Cardinal feels vindicated -- he'd been thrown out of homicide a few months previously for insisting the girl had been murdered, even after his boss demanded that he write it off as just another teenage runaway.

  But soon the bodies are piling up and Cardinal realizes what he's got is a serial killer. Making his job harder, though, is the fact that his new partner is not-so-secretly investigating HIM for allegedly helping a criminal escape capture. Cardinal does have a guilty conscience, but is that why? Anyway, this is a complex novel with great characters and a truly vivid setting. Thumbs up! Recommended!
  [MYSTERY]

  (7/22) Driving Lessons by Ed McBain.
  

  Disappointing novella by one of my favorite authors (he writes the 87th Precinct police procedurals). I was expecting something like his series -- great characters and plot twists -- but instead this was just like a stock episode of Law & Order, about a young woman who, while on a driving lesson, runs down and kills another woman, seemingly by accident. The "shocking" truth about what really happened didn't shock me at all -- maybe because I predicted it after about page 5. Oh well, at least it only took about an hour to read, right? Not much time wasted, and I still can say I've read all of McBain's works. That's gotta be worth something. But hey, even if you love McBain, skip this one. Trust me. You have better things to do with that hour (floss, make spaghetti, vacuum something, etc.)
  [MYSTERY]

  (7/21) Birds of Prey by J.A. Jance.
  

  Oddly enough, this is the first J.A. Jance novel I've ever read, even though I've heard about her for years and know she is even a resident of the same city I am. I just assumed she was another Mary Higgins Clark, though, and I'm not a huge Clark fan, though I enjoy her novels from time to time, I'll admit. You'll note that most of the Clark novels reviewed by me on this site, though, are given the genre designation "Fluff."

  Boy, was I wrong, though. Jance is a marvelous writer! This is the latest in one of her two famous series -- the J.P. Beaumont series. Beaumont is a Seattle homicide detective and in the novel right before this one, something apparently happened to him that was so awful, it drove him into retirement at last. So, this novel starts with Beau's (his nickname) first act of official retirement -- he's going on a cruise. Technically, it's not exactly a vacation for him -- he's agreed to go to serve as a kind of chaperone for his elderly grandmother and her new husband (they wanted to go but were worried something might happen to them mid-trip and wanted a family member present just in case). Still, it promises to be a relaxing and pleasant voyage for Beau.

  Of course, that wouldn't make for much of a mystery novel, so before Beau even has a chance to settle in, a woman at his dinner table goes missing and another woman, one he's attracted to, is the prime suspect. Not long after, another person on the ship is murdered, and things start to get a little crazy after that. This was one of the best mysteries I've read in awhile -- complex plot full of twists, wonderful characters (Beaumont is terrific -- kind of a cross between Robert B. Parker's Spenser and Lawrence Block's Matthew Scudder), and a unusual setting (a cruise ship!) that made even the non-thrilling moments pretty entertaining. As soon as I finished this novel, I logged on to the local library site and put several more Jance novels on hold. Can't wait to get them! Highly, highly recommended to all mystery fans!
  [MYSTERY]

  (7/18) Postville: A Clash of Cultures in Heartland American by Stephen E. Bloom.
  

  When journalist Stephen Bloom moved his family from San Francisco to Iowa City, giving up his newspaper job to be a professor, he realized fairly quickly that he stood out in his new community. Partly because Iowans are suspicious of outsiders. But mostly because Bloom and his family are Jewish.

  When he hears stories from the locals about a group of ultra-orthodox Jews (the "Lubavitchers") in a tiny Iowa town called "Postville," his curiosity is piqued. He goes to Postville not only to see how the two cultures are clashing, but to see if being around some Jewish people again might take the edge off his feelings of isolation and outsider-ness.

  After talking to both the Hasidic Jews and several of the townspeople, though, Bloom quickly realizes he and the Lubavitchers have little in common. Though the Jewish community has single-handedly saved Postville from economic collapse, they have absolutely no interest in the town or its non-Jewish, of Gentile, citizens. Instead of trying to settle in, they break the town rules, ignore the people, and even occasionally downright insult folks.

  But is it really that they dislike or are offended by the Gentiles? Or is it simply because that is the kind of behavior their religion dictates. And likewise, is the Gentile backlash really anti-Semitism or is it just confusion mixed with a little uneasiness about the economic power the Jewish population now has over them?

  This was a fascinating (though overly lengthy) look at what makes a community tick (or not tick, as the case may be). It's also an interesting examination of prejudice -- both sides thought the other hated them, but it was more a matter of miscommunication and misunderstanding. I took sides all through my reading of this book -- sometimes thinking the Gentiles were right, sometimes thinking the Jews were -- but by the end I really came to realize what Bloom had come to realize himself -- both sides have handled matters badly. And both sides are both right and wrong, in pretty equal measure. If they'd just come to realize that themselves, there might be a chance the two communities could live together peacefully. Let's hope Bloom passed out free copies of this book to the Postvillians shortly after it was published! Recommended!
  [NON-FICTION]

  (7/15) Lick Creek by Brad Kessler.
  

  Dramatic first novel about a young woman named Emily Jenkins who loses her father, brother, and lover in a mining explosion in the 1920's. While she and her mother struggle to get by on their own in the aftermath, they accept $30 from the Appalachian Light and Power Company for permission to build high-tension towers on their farm for the first electric line to move through the area. Meanwhile, Emily begins going into town to sell mushrooms and berries and there meets a supervisor of the power company named Daniels. When he rapes her, she vows revenge not only on him, but on the entire industry. She begins to sabotage the power towers and lines and when one of the linemen in injured badly in a lightning storm, she is antagonistic about the fact her mother has agreed to take him in and nurse him back to health.

  The only problem is, almost against her will, she begins to learn more about him and his past (he's a Russian immigrant). And, even worse, she begins to fall in love with him. But her mistrust of men and anger towards Daniels in particular leads her to commit a crime that forces the couple to flee. While the ending seemed abrupt and the resolution disappointed me somewhat, I really enjoyed the rest of the novel. Enough to make me forgive the author for the ending. This is a great story not only about a young couple in love, but about the early coal miners and their lives, as well as the effects electricity had on the deeply rural parts of this nation. Very highly recommended!
  [FICTION]

  (7/9) The Reptile Room by Lemony Snicket.
  

  The second in the "Series of Unfortunate Events" series, this one was just as much silly fun as the first one. In fact, I think I liked it even better. These books follow the tragic lives of the Beaudelaire children, whose parents are killed in a fire in the first book and who have since been bounced around from place to place trying to find a safe home to finish their growing up in. Just when they think they've finally found a nice relative to live with, though, someone evil from their past reappears and ruins everything for them. I hate it when that happens! While the stories are supposed to be very depressing and tragic, it's actually just one big ball of goofy fun. It's also a great series for young readers -- lots of big vocabulary words are used (and defined). But don't let the fact it's in the kids' section fool you -- just like Harry Potter, these are books adults who need a break from their long days ought to read as well. I'm thoroughly enjoying them. Recommended!
  [FICTION]

  (7/4) As Long As She Needs Me by Nicholas Weinstock.
  

  Pleasant novel about a beleaguered personal assistant (Oscar) at a Manhattan publishing house (Dawn Books) who reports directly to the bossy boss herself (Dawn). When Dawn, a raving egomaniac, decides to get married, she leaves all the planning to Oscar, who hasn't had a social life since he first took on the job several years ago. In his quest to set up the perfect promotion-worthy wedding for his boss, he crosses paths with a pretty young woman who is also burned out by her job -- and she, lucky for Oscar, is a wedding magazine columnist. The two hook up, in more ways than one. It's a little predictable and some of the funny stuff is too heavy-handed, thus falling flat, but overall, this was an enjoyable novel. Especially last week, when I was finishing up last-minute wedding planning stuff myself (my sister got married July 7th).
  [FICTION]

  (7/1) Just here trying to save a few lives by Pamela Grim, M.D.
  

  Engrossing memoir about the author's experiences in several American ERs, as well as a few hospitals in Bosnia and Africa. If you like these kinds of books (which I do, obviously!), you'll like this one. Recommended!
  [NON-FICTION]

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