The Informationist by Taylor Stevens

The Informationist by Taylor Stevens

Vanessa Michael Munroe is a hired gun of sorts, who's handsomely paid to gather information for corporations doing business in developing countries.  She's an expert in analyzing the political and cultural practices in far corners of the world where few dare to tread.  How she came to this line of work is buried in a past that's filled with both physical and emotional scars. Sometimes she uses all of Vanessa's charms to lure her subjects, other times the makeup and heels come off and Michael takes over.

This novel is set in Africa and the author did a fabulous job of research to set the scene for the reader. The jungle, the non stop rain mixed with heat, the government corruption all got under my skin. Other things got to me also.  The writing was only okay. I found a lot of repetition and cliches.  For me, it ruined some of the enjoyment of the story.  Plus I found it difficult to read the words "Equatorial Guinea" over and over again in my head.

The Informationist is a book club selection.  What I love about book club is that I have to read books I've never heard of and wouldn't normally be attracted to.  It's rare that I would pick up any kind of suspense or thriller.  But I like being pushed outside my comfort zone. The Informationist is full of twists, turns and heart stopping surprises.  I wasn't completely satisfied with the ending, but then again, I don't read many mysteries or thrillers.  I'm also not a serial reader so it's unlikely I will read more of Vanessa / Michael's adventures.  But if suspense is what you like, I think you will find The Informationist a compelling and fulfilling story.

How Green Was My Valley by Richard Llewellyn

How Green Was My Valley by Richard Llewellyn

I'm a big fan of classic contemporary literature.  I love Steinbeck, Hemingway, and a family favorite, Thomas Wolfe.  And since I'm not typically a fan of British authors, I surprised myself by picking up this title. I remember loving the movie when I saw it many years ago, but couldn't remember much about the story other than its set in a Welsh coal mining village.  That's what happens with age.

How Green Was My Valley is the story of the Morgan family as told through the eyes of their youngest son, Huw.  Due to an accident with his mother in a blizzard, he is confined to his bed for several years.  He observes the rigors of mining life and also its pleasures while he recuperates.  The family has high hopes that Huw will not go into the pits like his father and his brothers.  Huw is given an education but coal mining is in his blood.

What a beautifully written story!  The coal miner's life is hard, yet the family that waits at home is happy, food is shared and Sunday chapel is a requirement.  But what the mine can give, it can also take away.  The slag waste from the mine creeps across the valley, sending Huw's brother's and sisters away to find greener pastures.  The black coal dust stamps out the light of the life Huw was born into.

How Green Was My Valley was a wonderful book to start the new year.  It's full of characters to love and to hate, scenery that comes alive in the mind's eye, and prose that will carry you away to a nostalgic place in time.

2015 Year In Review

2015 Year in Review

I always like to look back at all the books I've read during the year.  I'm amazed at the sheer number of books I've read.  Included in that number, however are a lot of dogs.  I spent too much time thinking all those free Kindle specials were the answer to feeding my reading hunger.  They weren't.  I joined a book club at my local library and got back in touch with what it means to read a thoughtful and well written novel.

Here is my list of the most memorable titles in 2015 and my reasons why.

Best Overall Title
All The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
There's a reason this won the Pulitzer Prize.  It's a beautiful and perfectly crafted story about a blind, French girl during WWII. Exquisite!

Most Talked About
Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee
I have never been that attached to an image of Atticus Finch found in To Kill a Mockingbird.  Here I think we see a real man and his struggle to raise his family.

Most Out of My Comfort Zone
Mr. Mercedes by Stephen King
I don't usually read thrillers or horror.  I can watch the news if I want any of that.  But Stephen King is a brilliant writer and I enjoyed every single page.

Most Charming
The Little Paris Bookshop by Nina George
Paris, a barge on the Seine, romance and books.  A recipe for love and adventure unfolds that will fill your heart.

Best Non Fiction
Being Mortal by Atul Gawande
I had the responsibility of making the end of life decisions for my elderly step mother in 2015.  This book helped me navigate that world with greater understanding.

Most Impactful
Take Me With You by Catherine Ryan Hyde
A recovering alcoholic finds himself in an unlikely place and takes two young boys he doesn't know on his summer camping trip.  An amazing an unbreakable bond forms between them.  This novel teaches so many lessons in life and love.

2015 turned out great in my world of books.  Here's to an even better 2016.  Happy New Year!

The Time of My Life by Cecelia Ahern

The Time of My Life by Cecelia Ahern

Lucy's life is a mess.  She's living in a tiny apartment where her rack of clothes has to double as the curtains.  She's still hanging on to her past relationship with a globe trotting boyfriend who dumped her almost three years ago.  A lie on her resume helped Lucy land her most recent job after she was fired from a much more lucrative one. And then the letters from her life began to arrive.  She refuses to respond to them, but her life is persistent.

When I started reading this book, I thought I'd never make it to the end.  The first ten pages or so seemed to drag on forever with long sentences. I couldn't make heads or tails of where I might be headed.  Then Lucy finally decides to meet with her life and let the fun begin.  They don't exactly hit it off. We could all say we've had some disagreements with our lives at some point in time.  That's all I needed, I was hooked.

The Time of My Life is funny, charming and witty. It's fast, romantic and funny with a unique fantasy twist.  Life refused to go away even when Lucy tried to ignore him. And just as Lucy learns to love her life, you will too.

There Was an Old Woman by Hallie Ephron

There Was An Old Woman by Hallie Ephron


When her alcoholic mother is rushed to the hospital, the neighbor, Mina Yetner, makes the call to let Evie Ferrante and her sister, Ginger, know what's happened.  Evie is a busy historical museum curator with no desire to bail out her mother yet again.  But Ginger insists it's Evie's turn to pitch in this time.  Evie goes back to the home she grew up in, only to find it a disaster.  Among the rotting food, roaches and new big screen television,  she also finds suspicious envelopes of cash and uncashed checks.  These discoveries start Evie on a journey she never imagined when she befriends the aging Mina.

I met Hallie Ephron once at the Willamette Writers Conference in Portland, Oregon.  She is interesting, dynamic and there is no question that she can write.  The characters are brilliantly created and the settings are expertly set.  When Evie is walking through mounds of trash and stink in her childhood home, the reader feels the skin crawling disgust just as Evie does. But this novel is billed as a suspense thriller.  Hardly.  I figured out what was going on less that half way through.

That being said, There Was An Old Woman is an interesting read.  It has a little bit of history, a touch of environmentalism and more about how gracefully or not, we face getting old. The subject matter knows how to play into that little voice of doubt in our heads, that grows louder as we age.  Beware.

The Little Paris Bookshop by Nina George

The Little Paris Bookshop by Nina George

I'm always excited to choose a new book to read once the last one is finished.  I'm a hoarder of books and thank goodness, I can keep a hefty stash on my Kindle.  This time the choosing was easy once I saw the name Paris in the title.  The terrorist attack there had recently occurred and I had visited Paris in April.  Paris was on my mind and in my prayers.  Spending time in a bookshop in Paris was exactly what I wanted.

Monsieur Perdu is a bookseller.  He sells them from his barge moored on the Seine.  He calls the barge 'The Literary Apothecary' since he has a knack for matching the perfect book to the person, choosing the right medicine so to speak.  It's been 21 years since the love of his life, Manon, left him. He never opened the goodbye letter she wrote, too afraid of its contents.  When he comes across the letter inside a book, his new love convinces him to read it.

The contents of the letter sets Jean Perdu off on a journey to search for Manon and mend his broken heart after all these years of pining for her.  A rag tag set of characters joins him along the way as he sails his barge down the rivers and canals of France.  Charming is used to describe this lovely tale over and over again.  And charming it most certainly is, from the first sentence to the delicious recipes included at the end.  The Little Paris Bookshop is delightful, winsome, seductive, and captivating.  I couldn't wait to read what would happen next.  Just as I fell in love with Paris, I loved The Little Paris Bookshop.

Stitches by Anne Lamott

Stitches by Anne Lamott

I recently had my hip replaced and took this book with me to the hospital.  I thought that by the title alone, it would be just the spiritual medicine I would need to get me back on track.  Little did I know however, that I had no physical stitches in my incision.  The surgeon glued me back together.  Modern medicine is quite amazing.  

What I learned from this book is that even though I didn't get stitched back together, many stitches have been made in the quilt that is me from this experience.  We are made up of stitches, each one carefully sewn for every step we take in life.  

There are many passages here that I wanted to highlight and remember forever.  The one however, that stuck with me is, "The American way is to not need help, but to help."  Right now I need help to do a lot of things and I hate asking for it.  I'm using a walker just to get around.  Managing it and me is a full time effort.  I can't even get a drink from the refrigerator with out asking for it.  It is a humbling experience and a lesson I needed to learn.  And a stitch my quilt needed in order to grow.  

I love Anne Lamott.  She's funny and has a unique way of writing about the journey of life.  I have to admit I liked Help, Thanks, Wow a bit better than Stitches.  This book was exactly what I needed during my road to recovery.  It's amazing to me how books have a way of working their way to the top of the reading pile at just the right time.