The Witch Elm by Tana French

The Witch Elm by Tana French

Toby is young, in love and looking to make a upward career move until one day he participates in a huge faux pas in the art world.  I hesitated to use the word faux pas when in reality it was all out fraud but after the fallout, Toby lands on his feet right back where he began.  His colleague did not.  He's back on easy street until one day intruders break into his apartment in the middle of the night and beat him almost to death.

As part of his recovery, Toby moves in with his dying Uncle Hugo in the old family home.  Toby and his cousins, Susannah and Leon, spent many summers at the Ivy House while their parents left them to travel.  Uncle Hugo turned a blind eye to most of the teenage adventures which suited the cousins just fine.

I have friends who love to read only mysteries and I'm trying to understand what they find so captivating.  Tana French is a popular writer in this genre so I wanted to give her latest a try.  I will say what I enjoyed most was the conversation between the cousins.  They had a tendency to drink alot, smoke pot and share Toby's never ending supply of Xanax.  But their conversations were so real and natural I felt I was sitting in front of the fire with them, chatting and laughing while trying not to wake Uncle Hugo who was sleeping upstairs.

What I didn't like is, the rest of the story was a real slog.  And I still don't know who did it.  The crime made no sense to me whatsoever ever.  If you love solving crimes and piecing together the clues, you might like this story.  After reading other reviews, most fans liked other Tana French novels much better.  The writing is top notch but the story telling left me cold. I'm going to give mystery novels a rest for a while.  After 500 plus pages of confusion, I need to get my thoughts back in order.

The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton

The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton

I selected The Outsiders as this month's book club read.  We like to mix things up, contemporary, classic, sci fi, young adult, just about anything.  As a group we followed the Great American Read and The Outsiders fell near the top of that list so as the book picker, I thought we should give it a try.

How this book came to be written is as interesting as the book itself.  S. E. Hinton was a teenager herself in Oklahoma in the 1960's.  She was disturbed by the division of the kids in her school and I also read that she was looking for a good book to read herself.  So she wrote one.  As I understand it, through the mother of a friend who knew someone the book got published.  But again with a hitch.  Her initials were used instead of her name because no one believed a book written by a woman would sell.  Thank God things have changed.

I vaguely remember reading The Outsiders in high school by have no recollection of it having any impact on my life.  This time around however, the impact was quite different.  Ponyboy, Sodapop and Darry are brothers left without parents due to a tragic accident.  Darry as the oldest, is desperately trying to keep them together.  They live in the neighborhood on the greaser side of town. Their rivals, the Socs live on the richer, preppie side of town.  When Ponyboy and his friend, Johnny meet a Soc girl, Cherry, at the movies, the storyline is set in motion.

I fell in love with Ponyboy, a good, thoughtful teenager trying to figure out how to be in the world.  But what struck me most is that the world of a teenager hasn't changed.  It's a time for learning and growing and figuring out how to make a mark in this world.  And that involves alot of jockeying among friends and foes.

The Outsiders is a must reason matter what age you are.  Everyone will take something, no matter how big or how small away from this story.  America loves this book because it's as current today as the day it was written.

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.