Magical Realism for Non Believers by Anika Fajardo

Magical Realism for Non Believers by Anika Fajardo

I discovered this title during my search for a book to compare to my own memoir, which I'm currently pitching on the open market while trying to find an agent. Magical Realism for Non Believers is a memoir about finding family as is mine. But to me that's where the similarity ends.

Anika was born in Columbia but raised in Minnesota by her single mother. Her mother returned home after a short lived marriage to a Columbian man she met while in college. Anika remembers little about the father left behind. They had no interaction until he invites her to Columbia when Anika is eighteen. When she arrives in her homeland everything she knows about herself changes. A place she's never really known is familiar to her. 

Her father, however, is the mystery and he holds even more surprises for Anika that knock her off her feet. Anika spends alot of time trying to wrap her head around who and what makes up a family unit as is to be expected. She had much thrown at her during the time she crossed the bridge between teenager and adult. 

I understand her confusion about who she really is and where she belongs, but I'm not a big fan of the way this book was written. Anika has a compelling story to tell, I just wasn't captivated by the way it was told. I didn't feel connected with any of the family members, they appeared flat and aloof. And I never understood the meaning of the title Magical Realism for Non Believers. 

Dear George, Dear Mary by Mary Calvi

Dear George, Dear Mary by Mary Calvi

I'm not usually one to read historical romance but after I saw a piece on CBS Sunday Morning about the author of this book, I decided to read it.  I also like to mix up the subject matter and setting of the books I read, so this was the perfect update for me on pre Revolutionary War.

As a young man in a new country, George Washington set out to learn military strategy as well as the ways of a sophisticated and civilized man.  He had great respect for his mother who taught him polite table manners along with how to dance.  He becomes a highly sought after bachelor for the times.  George lived by the 110 Rules of Civility and Decent Behavior which the author gracefully sprinkles through this story.  He is an intelligent and gentle man.

In 1756 George is invited to the New York colony to the home of the wealthy Philipse's.  It is here that he becomes captivated with the beautiful Mary Philipse. And she with him.  The story leads the reader through the sumptuous food served at the dinner to dancing the minuet in the ballroom.  With lovely descriptions I imagined myself wearing the silk gowns, smelled the men's powdered wigs and heard the music that filled the mansion.

A few days later George must leave but vows to Mary to return to her.  But in the time of impending war, both sides use any method they can to manipulate the other side.  Dear George, Dear Mary is an immersion into the birth or our country wrapped around a beautiful love story interrupted by war.  This is a very well researched story and even though it's hard to tell the fact from the fiction, I was left feeling I learned about a side of George Washington that the history books never taught me.  This book is well worth your time.  I loved it. Romance and history mix seamlessly in Dear George, Dear Mary.  

As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner

As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner

Okay! It's time for a classic!  A friend from high school is on a quest to read 100 books this year.  He's already up to 25 and this was one of his latest.  I'm not too familiar with William Faulkner so I thought I'd give this one a try.

As I Lay Dying is the story of a family who are on a journey to take their dead wife and mother to another county to be buried and fulfill her dying wish.  Each chapter is told from the point of view of a different family member, friend or acquaintance they encounter along the way.  Believe me, anything than can go wrong does.

Much of the story was difficult to read because the characters speak in a very complex, southern vernacular.  But that didn't mean I couldn't follow the details of building the coffin or getting the wagon across the river when the bridge washed out.  And I do have to say nothing prepared me for the shock at the end.

Supposedly Faulkner wrote this story start to finish without making a single edit.  If true that would be an amazing feat. He is a Noble Prize winner after all.  If you're like me and need a classic literature fix every now and then, As I Lay Dying is not to long and a good place to satisfy your craving.

My Husband's Wife by Jane Corry

My Husband's Wife by Jane Corry

I have a good friend who loves to read mysteries and thrillers.  I read an eclectic mix of things from classic to contemporary but rarely a mystery.  In an effort to expand our reading horizons, I'm trying to read the titles she suggests and she reads some of what I enjoy.  The only problem is that now I'm hooked.  I found Jane Corry and My Husband's Wife on a list and was intrigued.  I must admit the Brits are pretty good at writing the thrillers so I checked it out of the library.

Lily is newly married to Ed and trying to work her way up as a newly minted lawyer.  When her firm decides she would be great at criminal law, she visits her first client in prison with much trepidation.  She wins the case which sets in motion a brilliant law career.  Lily's winning ways however, are because she has a secret helper.

Carla is only nine and lives with her mother across the hall from Lily and Ed.  Lily offers to babysit so that Carla's mother can work on the weekends.  Ed, a painter, becomes enthralled with her Italian good looks.  Carla, even at her young age, learns that secrets can get her anything she wants. She grows up and comes back to get what she's wanted all these years from Lily and Ed.

My Husband's Wife is not a linear story.  It requires the reader to pay attention to the ups and downs of each character.  There are not many likable characters in this story but if they were, there'd be no story to tell. Not until the blood flows, will you feel much sympathy for any of them. Their lives are meticulously intertwined however and clues are left with precision.  The ending is as you might expect but not as you expected.  

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.