Tag Archives: Book Review

Book Club: In the Garden of Beasts

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Yesterday I finished Erik Larson’s In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler’s Berlin. After two previous slow starts, I read three-quarters of the book and it became a compelling read that I could barely put down.

How did we let Hitler get away with it? That particular piece of history absolutely should not repeat itself, yet it has in other ways and in other societies across the world. Should the United States be held responsible? Larsen creates a very personal story that reminds us that at least in regard to Hitler’s rise to power, we knew about it and didn’t do anything until it was too late for many European citizens.

Tom Hanks has signed on to star as University of Chicago professor-turned-ambassador William E. Dodd in a movie based on the book, scheduled for release in 2014. Given his ability to play low-key, gentle characters with sensitivity and historical accuracy, Hanks should be wonderful. I look forward to seeing the movie — it’s a long time until it comes out, though. In the meantime, I recommend that you read this riveting non-fiction and very personal account of a family’s relationship with Hitler’s Germany.

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Book Club: Pull

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Over the past few years, I have watched a member of my church carry around a yellow legal pad, scribbling and scribbling. I don’t know her very well, and I never took the initiative to ask what she was writing. Maybe it wasn’t any of my business.

To my surprise, her scribblings turned out to be a novel which actually got published. Popular reviews on amazon.com were positive and we wanted to support our friend, so our church book club decided to choose Pull for one of our monthly titles.

Pull by B.A. Binns tells the story of an African-American teenager who has lost his bearings due to his mother’s death at the hands of his abusive father, a death which he feels he might have prevented. Since Dad is in jail, David and his two sisters are reluctantly taken in by a relative, rather than separating the family in foster care. The kids move to a city neighborhood where their aunt lives, and David leaves his high school basketball stardom behind to go to an inner city high school where his attempts to remain anonymous are thwarted by relationships with both students and faculty. In order to help support the family, after school he works for a construction firm, where he finds satisfaction and pride in his new-found competency.

It’s not a good story without conflict, and Binns creates a compelling tale about how David and his siblings negotiate making a new start in a foreign environment. As with most teenagers, David’s story revolves around his preoccupation with a beautiful girl and his testosterone-infused competition with another male student. I was engaged immediately and read the whole book in two sittings.

Pull is a realistic look at what teenagers in urban schools deal with on a daily basis and I recommend it for readers in high school and beyond. It’s gritty and has overt sexuality, so don’t be surprised or offended by its frank look at a boy’s view of the world. I think that Barbara Binns has done an excellent job writing in a male voice, and I would go out on a limb to say that Pull is similar to The Outsiders in its contemporary message.

As with most authors, it turns out that this isn’t Binns’s first novel; she has written others that have yet to be published. I look forward to reading them.

Book Club: Velocity

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In a direct sequel to Crush, which I reviewed on my 2011 Book List, Velocity continues the story of FBI profiler Agent Karen Vail’s search for her missing lover, Roberto Hernandez. After having been on what she understood to be a vacation in Napa Valley wine country with her boyfriend, she finds out that his disappearance is actually linked to his undercover work with the Drug Enforcement Agency and the FBI. The chase takes Karen and the reader from Napa to FBI headquarters in Quantico, Virginia, and on to  drug hideouts in San Diego and Las Vegas. It’s a dizzying story of one of America’s dirty secrets, and really highlights how much we civilians don’t know about the drug trade which is going on right under our noses.

Author Alan Jacobson has actively researched and trained with law enforcement professionals and has used experience to inform his Karen Vail novels. Although I’ve read two of the Karen Vail books, I chose the first one because I was hoping to find a story set in Napa Valley. Jacobson seems to be as careful about his setting research and development as he is about his cop research, but I found that his heroine Karen Vail sets my teeth on edge. Her on-the-edge-of legality behaviors don’t resonate well with me; she seems hysterically determined to take matters into her own hands despite what protocol and common sense would indicate. Of course, it wouldn’t be a thriller if she didn’t get her man in the end, but it makes me shudder to think that there are actually cops out there behaving in such risky ways.

If you are a fan of Criminal Minds on television, you will find this story right up your alley.

Book Club: Good Christian Bitches

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If it’s got Kristin Chenoweth (Wicked, Glee) in it, it’s got my attention. That’s why I was initially attracted to the new television show premiering on March 4 on ABC. Then I found out it was based on a book and I dialed up my public library to get on the list to check it out.

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La divine Chenoweth stars as Carlene Cockburn (in a compilation of characters from the novel), a society maven of one of Dallas’s ritzy neighborhoods, Highland Park Hillside Park. Since I haven’t seen the television show yet, I don’t know how the show will play this change in characterization, but it’s sure to be delightfully naughty.

In the book, the heroine of the piece, Amanda Vaughn, returns to the familiarity and safety of her hometown neighborhood after a nasty separation and impending divorce from her philandering husband. Her two children, not really understanding their mother’s plight, are none too thrilled to be plucked out of their ocean-side home in Newport Beach, California. She is asked to chair the Cattle Baron’s Longhorn Ball after its fundraising efforts for pediatric care have been discredited by the previous chair. Her “good friends” from high school propose this obvious fiasco as a way to drown her failed-marriage sorrows in good works, but their motives are less than charitable — and from thence comes the title. And then there’s the mysterious rich guy…

Apparently the book is a thinly disguised accounting of author Kim Gatlin’s own experience. Only the names have been changed. You should really click into this link and see the discussion, including replies from Kim AND her mother about the book! It’s hysterical.

Although it has garnered lots of controversial press in the Bible Belt, which resulted in a change in the name of the television show from Good Christian Bitches to Good Christian Belles and finally to the sanitized GCB, I’m looking forward to watching the premiere. The book was funny and well-written and in any other socio-political climate would be called the ultimate beach read.

In the comedic hands of Kristin Chenoweth and Annie Potts, who plays Amanda’s mother Gigi, the show has a good chance of being successful. I suggest that you read its inspiration and play the Book 2 Movie game along with me.

I leave you with the best quote I’ve heard this week which my sources tell me comes from Carlene: “Cleavage makes your cross hang straight.”

I hope that Jenners at Life With Books will forgive me for copying her format. It’s so absolutely fabulous that I knew I needed to change my concept — and they say imitation is the highest form of flattery. She reads much more important books than I do, so go over there and check her out.

Book Club: Sideways Two Ways

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As a lover of wine, everyone encouraged me to watch the movie Sideways when it came out in 2004. I watched it, enjoyed it, and bought it for my personal library. Then I ignored it for a few years.

Starring Paul Giamatti, Thomas Haden Church, Virginia Madsen, and Sandra Oh, the story follows the pre-wedding trip of two old friends to the Santa Ynez wine country in California. Miles (Giamatti) plans a laid-back week of golfing and wine tasting while Jack (Church) is looking for a final week of freedom before settling down in marriage. The two are clearly at cross-purposes and the story is full of poignant and hysterical incidents. Madsen and Oh are fabulous in pitch perfect portrayals as the objects of Miles and Jack’s romantic affection. Madsen’s pinot noir speech will convince you that you never want to drink anything else again.  

When school let out, I was looking in the library for something different to listen to in my car and found Rex Pickett’s original novel on which the movie was based. It was an excellent interpretation, but it was also amazing how well the reader (Scott Brick) matched the cadences and tone of both Giamatti and Church. Since quite a lot of the movie dialogue is straight from the book, I suppose it’s not surprising, but this book just seems to be destined to be a movie. In fact, some reviewers said that it made a better movie than a book. Director Alexander Payne and Rex Pickett worked closely together in developing the movie script, and it shows.

I think that both the book and the movie deserve a second look (or a first one if you’ve never read the book or seen the movie). The movie leaves out some interesting plot twists but compensates by deftly changing a few plot developments to make a slightly different story. Both versions are enjoyable. There’s a reason why the movie is rated R, including a lot of graphic sex and language, but it doesn’t feel gratuitous. It’s part of the story; just don’t watch it with your youngsters, including teenagers. (Talk to my daughter about how watching American Pie with her parents scarred her for life.)

Summer gives us an opportunity to relax and expand our horizons. I suggest you do it with a bottle of wine and Sideways. As for me, I’m looking for a copy of Vertical, Pickett’s sequel to Sideways that came out in October of 2010. I can’t believe my library doesn’t have it yet.

Book Review: The Heights

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I wanted to like this book. I really did. After all, The Heights is written by famous author and screenwriter Peter Hedges (What’s Eating Gilbert Grape, Dan in Real Life, About a Boy). It got great reviews from both professional and amateur critics. Unfortunately, I felt that it was a mundane story about mundane people who make typical mundane choices. The best part of this book is the construct of alternating chapters among the main characters’ voices. Hedges has perfect timing and his taut narrative is admirable, but I just didn’t care very much about any of these characters.

Book Review: Best Friends Forever

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I’ve been reading Jennifer Weiner for years, partly because of her Chicago connections and allusions, and mostly because she knows how to write a good romantic comedy. Best Friends Forever: A Novel (2009) is a somewhat typical take on the “Thelma and Louise on the lam story,” but Weiner’s character development in formerly fat protagonist Addie Downs is superlative. Supporting characters’ portrayals are sometimes uneven and childhood friend Valerie is shallow and reckless to the point of being almost unbelievable. I loved the intricate flashbacks to the girls’ childhoods, however, and they set the reader up for a satisfying end with a twist. Not Weiner’s best work, but certainly a good summer read.

Book Review: Give + Take

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On its cover, Give + Take (2010) by Stona Fitch has a red stiletto pump with a glitter heel sitting on a piano keyboard. It was irresistible on the new books shelf at the library. Happily, the material inside did not disappoint. Give + Take is about a musician turned thief-with-a-heart-of-gold who steals from the rich to give to the poor. It’s a well-crafted twist on the Robin Hood story with some light suspense and gangster action thrown in and is a good summer couch read.

Possibly more interesting, however, is the author’s publishing initiative, the Concord Free Press. What a concept! You give money to the charity of your choice and the publishing house gives away free books. I’d be interested to see if anyone reading this decides to participate. Leave a comment!.

Book Review: The Cinderella Deal

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I’ve just finished another Jennifer Crusie novel, and I have to say, I loved The Cinderella Deal.

I was surprised to find out it was a reissue of one of her earliest stories, but that was just fine with me. I loved the character of Daisy, the flower child turned academic wife, and the supporting characters each had their own little twists. Just be warned, it will leave you wanting to paint decorative borders on your walls.

Book Review: Wild Ride

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I’ve been reading Jennifer Crusie books for years and have loved her Ohio-based characters’ romps through relationships. Wild Ride, a collaboration with her writing partner, Bob Mayer, is their third book together. Like Agnes and the Hitman, it combines both her relationship-driven style and his thriller plot twists but then adds a paranormal element. Sound weird? It kind of is, yet it’s oddly engaging. You can’t help but like all the characters, even the paranormal demons who are slipping in and out of the humans’ bodies — and yes, that was an intentional sexual innuendo.

The story is set in an aging Ohio amusement park called Dreamland, and is run by a group of men and women who guard its secrets. As the old guard is replaced by younger people, the equilibrium of the park is disturbed and disturbing events — think demon attacks! –  happen.

Although I didn’t love, love, love this novel, the characters were intriguing and were typical of Crusie and Mayer. She writes about independent women who find greater strength within themselves when faced with a crisis, and he writes about strong and intelligent men who can save the world from enemies. Together, they create interesting characters and compelling plot design.

As I read this book, I kept thinking that it would make a great cable television show. Its characters are not developed enough to suit me, but there are so many of them that it would take a much longer book to do that. The location shots at an old amusement park would be fascinating to create and fun to watch, especially the nighttime scenes when the paranormals walk.

As I did a little research about who else had reviewed the book, I ran across Lesa’s Book Critiques, which I am going to bookmark for myself. She gave a lukewarm review to Wild Ride, but as I scrolled down through her comments I ran across a comment from a “Bob” who looked quite a lot like the co-author of Wild Ride, Bob Mayer. When I clicked on the photo link, there he was! His link then led me to their website, crusiemayer.com . For the writers among you, I recommend reading about their writing partnership.

All in all, this is a good beach or cruise read (Sorry about that pun!) if you are not expecting the complexity of Welcome to Temptation.  Maybe I should option the book for a TV show myself. Everyone else seems to be able to get oddly engaging shows on television!

This post contains Amazon Affiliate links, but I wouldn’t tell you to buy or read something if I didn’t believe in it. I’m just keeping it real.

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