The Hot Zone by Richard Preston

The Hot Zone by Richard Preston

I like to read in bed before I turn out the lights and go to sleep. The night I read the scene about Nancy Jaax, the Army veterinarian, who after cutting her hand at home, was assigned to enter a Level 4 hot zone to dissect a dead monkey, sleep wouldn't come.  Dressed in a space suit and with gloves and boots taped on, she went in to do her job.  The terrifying sensation when she felt something cold on her hand, will live in my mind for a very long time.  And another seven minutes in decon with bleach and other chemicals being sprayed on her suit before she would be able to undress and assess the situation.

Nancy imagined a deadly virus replicating itself through her body.  What would happen to her husband, children if she ended up in the isolation of what the Army called the Slammer.  Her mind raced and mine raced right along with her.  There was no restful sleep for me that night.  The Hot Zone became daytime reading material only.

The Hot Zone is the true story of how close the United States came to a full fledged ebola outbreak long before the recent history of the virus traveling to the United States in 2014.  This book traces the path of the virus from a bat filled cave in Eastern Africa to the man who visited this cave and is thought to have been its human host.  The Hot Zone reads like a novel with characters all fighting for position, research monkeys daring the humans to mess with them and a deadly virus who will outsmart them all.

The Hot Zone will get your heart racing and all you didn't know about ebola will become clear.  This is cringe worthy but fascinating stuff.  Read it because you will learn something you may know little about.  Read it because it's an exciting page turning story.  Read it because human life is much more fragile than we want to believe.

Looking for Salvation at the Dairy Queen by Susan Gregg Gilmore

Looking for Salvation at the Dairy Queen by Susan Gregg Gilmore


Anyone who knows me, knows I spent a good part of my formative years hanging out at the Dairy Queen.  I loved it all, Buster Bars, Mr. Mistys, chocolate covered cones all with the curly cue on top.  As a teenager, I hung out every summer evening in the Dairy Queen parking lot with friends talking about our hopes and dreams for the future and a variety of other teenage stuff.

When I saw the title of this book on a list of must reads, I had to have it.  Catherine Grace Cline did all her best thinking with a Dilly Bar at the picnic table at the Dairy Queen in Ringgold, Georgia in the 1960's and 70's, the same time I was solving the problems of the world over a soft serve cone.  Her Daddy was the preacher in town, her Momma died when she was six.  And the only thing Catherine Grace wanted in life was to get out of that small town and move on to bigger and better things.

On her eighteenth birthday she did just that,  packed her bags and got on the Greyhound bus headed to Atlanta.  She worked things out in the big city and met a whole new cast of characters.  But when fate forces her to return the the small town she couldn't wait to escape, Catherine Grace found what she was searching for.

This Dairy Queen was in the south and the one I knew was in the north but the similarities between the life lessons learned there were identical.  I loved this book and all the people in it. Even though they spoke with a southern drawl, they spoke to me in Dairy Queen, a language I could relate to.  When I recently returned to my hometown and found the Dairy Queen I loved had been torn down 15 years ago, I cried.  Catherine Grace and the Ringgold, Georgia Dairy Queen touched me in the very same way.  

Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter

Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter

It's 1962 and Pasquale has returned from his studies in Florence after his father's death to run the family business in the tiny village of PortaVergogna. His mother has put herself to bed mourning the loss of her husband so Pasquale is left to manage the Hotel Adequate View alone.  One day a beautiful American actress arrives to stay at the secluded hotel and everything changes for him.

Dee Moray has been in Rome working on the film Cleopatra with Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor.  When she gets sick, she's sent away for some rest and relaxation.  Pasquale falls in love.  Fast forward to the present day and an elderly Pasquale turns up at Michael Deane's office in Hollywood.  Deane, as a young man, was sent by the studio to fix the disaster that the film had become.  Pasquale remembers his name and logically comes to him looking for Dee.

Jess Walter writes with a funny, sarcastic tone that will keep you guessing.  His ability to weave the past and present together is fantastic and his prose is full of lush descriptions.  You will see the Italian cliffs of the fishing village in your mind and the picture will never leave you.  And he has a very special way of wrapping it all up in a neat little bow at the end.

Beautiful Ruins is a tale of love lost and found yet not overly romantic.  The reader is taken on a journey to a charming Italian seaside village, a road trip with a drunk Richard Burton at the wheel both intermingled with the glamour of Hollywood past and present.  Certain scenes will have you laughing out loud and others will warm your heart.  I think you'll love Beautiful Ruins.