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.

Nine Perfect Strangers by Liane Moriarty

Nine Perfect Strangers by Liane Moriarty

Nine guests come to relax and detox for 10 days at the remote and lovely Tranquillum House.  All have arrived at some difficult time in their lives and are anxious to return to a blissful existence. Although pricey, Tranquilly House comes highly recommended to solve their problems.  Their luggage is searched and all alcohol, chocolate and contraband is confiscated much to the dismay of the guests.  Cellphones and iPads are also locked up out of reach.

The novel begins with the near death experience of Masha, the owner of the spa.  She's turned her health around and now tries to help others do the same.  She sets the rules, the meals and the contents of their daily smoothie.  Frances, a successful romance writer who is haunted by the rejection of her latest manuscript, is the corner stone of the novel.  She befriends all of the participants at some point in their journey.  But let's just say Masha has more sinister plans for everyone's recovery.

I love Liane Moriarty.  The Husband's Secret is my favorite but Truly, Madly Guilty was a huge disappointment.  I found Nine Perfect Strangers an interesting and enjoyable read.  The characters were diverse in age and background and each had a very different reason for being there.   They all interacted in a very believable way.  And I hope this isn't a spoiler, but the end made me smile.  The Nine Perfect Strangers each found a way back from the depths of despair when  no one thought they ever could.

In The Midst of Winter by Isabel Allende

In The Midst of Winter by Isabel Allende

As the book club leader I picked this book for January.  It's winter.  Winter is in the title.  Why not?  I've read other Isabel Allende novels in the past and always found them to be interesting and enjoyable.

I'm just not sure what to say about In The Midst of Winter.  Richard Bowmaster is a sixty-ish college professor, set in his ways, living in Brooklyn.  Lucia, is his basement tenant also a college professor whose expertise is in the political upheavals of the seventies in her native Chile. They are both looking for a love to mend the tragedies of their pasts.

Evelyn is an undocumented immigrant from Guatemala. In the midst of the worst blizzard in memory, Richard rear ends her in a traffic accident.  He hands her his business card and says to call him to file the insurance claim.  When she shows up at his door, he calls Lucia to translate.

What unfolds is each character's tragic story of persecution in south and central American countries.  Woven in is the current story set in motion by the car accident.  I'm not going to spoil what that story is about but I thought the decisions the trio made together were bizarre.  And they made them in what seemed to me to be a very nonchalant manner.  But as I continued to read their stories, I realized the past guided their present and their future in a very profound way.

I wouldn't say In The Midst of Winter is Allende's best novel but in the current state of immigration in the United States, there is a lot to be learned from the stories within these pages. Book club is next week.  I can't wait to hear what they think.

Educated by Tara Westover

Educated by Tara Westover

Educated came highly recommended since I too am writing a memoir.  Where all memoirs focus on some aspect of the family, mine seem to be a pussycat in relationship to Tara's.

Tara grew up on an isolated mountain in Idaho in a Mormon family.  Her father created an even more narrow view of the world by his anti establishment views of government, schools, doctors and hospitals.  Tara and her siblings were home schooled but that term is used loosely.  She learned to read from the Book of Mormon.  There wasn't any structured schooling going on at home.

As Tara grew to be a teenager, an older brother begins a pattern of tormenting her on a regular basis escalating to violent abuse. When confronting her parents about it, they determined she was lying. The abuse continued unanswered.  Women had no status in this family.

That Tara was able to rise above the dysfunction at home is amazing to me.  When she arrived at BYU, she knew so little about the world but also nothing about how to care for herself or fit in to society.  It was heartbreaking to read.  She succeeded however, even when her parents and siblings harassed and bullied her.  But it wasn't until she became truly educated that she broke the grip that they held on her.

Educated is a gut wrenching and eye opening story. You will stop taking what you have for granted after reading this book.  

The Lying Game by Ruth Ware

The Lying Game by Ruth Ware

I never used to read mysteries or thrillers, I didn't like heart pounding feeling they gave me so I steered away.  But I have a friend who reads nothing but thrillers and frankly, now I'm addicted.  I still read my tried and true literary fiction but now have tendency to mix in a blood curdling murder or two.

The Lying Game is the story of four bratty and self absorbed girls, Isa, Kate, Thea and Fatima who all end up at a questionable girls boarding school for different reasons.  They exert their power over the other students by creating the lying game and only the four of them know the rules.  It eventually gets them all expelled.

Seventeen years later Kate summons the rest of the group to her home near the school.  She needs them.  Bones have been found near her property on the beach.  Isa now has a young baby, Fatima is a doctor and practicing Muslim and Thea, well she's yet to figure out what to do with her life.  Within a day, they have all dropped their regular lives and appeared on Kate's doorstep.

I can't tell you any more of the plot, only that for the most part, The Lying Game is a page turner.  But don't expect to like any of these characters.  They haven't grown up or left their teenage aspirations behind.  Isa, who narrates the story, has a wonderful partner, Owen at home and she criticizes him every chance she gets.  She whines a lot and it gets annoying. Kate is a control freak and Thea may have anorexia.  Meanwhile, Fatima won't drink alcohol and prays 5 times a day and yet she still inserts herself into this aging, immature clique.  Maybe that will make sense to some readers but it didn't to me.

I've read several other Ruth Ware novels and here's how I would rank them.  Number one is The Woman in Cabin 10, next is In a Dark, Dark Wood, third is The Lying Game and lastly The Death of Mrs. Westaway.  If you are in the mood for an edge of your seat thriller any of these will fit the bill.  They are all good, some just more satisfying than others.  You'll have to decide.