• (2/25) Peace Like a River by Leif Enger.
  
  Boy, I don't even know where to begin in describing this novel. It's the story of a family -- a father with two sons (Davy and Reuben) and a daughter (Swede) in 1960's Minnesota. When the eldest son Davy kills two of his peers bent on harming his family, he is jailed for the crime. Somehow, he manages to escape and, soon after he disappears, the rest of the family sets out on the road to try to find him.

  The story is narrated by Reuben, who is 11 at the time it takes place. But the best part of this book isn't its story, though it too is wonderful. No, the best part is the writing. I have a notebook in which I copy passages from books that I have loved -- they have touched me or impressed me or made me smile. But ten pages into this one, I realized the only solution would be to just rubberband the entire novel to my notebook -- I was copying at least every other paragraph down! Single sentences made me gasp. And when I got to the last page, I was choking back tears not just because the ending is so movingly happy and sad, but because I knew the book was over and I would never ever be able to read it again for the first time. When was the last time a book made you feel like that? When was the last time the way an author strung words together made your chest ache? If you, like me, LIVE for books like that, you need to read this book ASAP. And, when you're finished, fire off a letter just like mine to the book's editor, begging him to please make Enger publish the complete Sunny Sundown poem posthaste. I'm just dying to hear what really happened to Valdez. I can't recommend this book highly enough. If you read only ONE of the books I recommend, make it this one!!
  [FICTION]

  (2/22) Shoot/Don't Shoot by J. A. Jance.
  

  Another in the Joanne Brady series, this one is set just a few months after Joanna is elected sheriff by her small Arizona town. Because she is not actually a copy (her newly deceased husband was), she decides to take a 6-week police trainin course in Phoenix to learn some basics. At the same time, she is asked by a friend to investigate the murder of a young Hispanic mother. The dead woman's husband has been accused of the crime but claims he is innocent. Once in Phoenix, though, Joanna is sucked into the investigation of another murder -- that of one of her classmates. The more she investigates, the more she comes to believe the two murders are connected, not only to each other, but to about three others in the area as well. In every case, someone close to the victim has been charged with the crime -- yet all the victims died the same way. As usual, her investigation puts her own life in danger. That's okay. But when the killer next kidnaps her daughter, he's gone just a little too far. Ya just don't mess with Joanna Brady -- Super Cop, Super Mom, and Super Butt-Kicker. Nver read a bad J. A. Jance novel. This is no exception.
  [MYSTERY]

  (2/20) Ship of Fools by Richard Paul Russo.
  

  Gripping sci-fi novel about a huge ship that has been out in space for so many generations, nobody on board can remember where they originated from or what their mission is. When they receive a sudden transmission from a nearby planet, they immediately plot a course to investigate -- hoping to finally see some life other than the extremely familiar faces on their own ship. Unfortunately, what they find instead is a huge complex packed with rows and rows of dead, mutilated corpses. No signs of intelligent life are found anywhere else on the planet.

  Just as they are giving up hope, though, they pick up another signal emanating from the planet. It seems as though someone is trying to point them in a specific direction out in space. Thinking it might be a distress signal, and maybe thinking they don't have anything better to do anyway, they follow the beacon, which leads them directly to an alien ship adrift in space. Scans indicate it is uninhabited, but the ship sends a crew to investigate. Though a few of them die almost immediately in freak accidents, all in all, they find the ship too interesting to ignore. But it definitely appears to be deserted. Um, until the explorers return the next day to find it now has gravity. And then the day after to discover the ship has breathable atmosphere. Something is clearly on the ship -- something that knows what they are and wants them there. Is it good or evil, though? And, perhaps more importantly, what is its connection to the horrors of the planet below?

  The suspense almost gave me a heart attack, seriously. This is hands-down the most exciting sci-fi thriller I've read since Orson Scott Card's "Ender's Game." While I was a little disappointed in the ending, the rest was so great I hardly cared. If you love a good space disaster novel, this is the book for you. Recommended!!
  [SCIENCE FICTION]

  (2/14) Field Guide by Gwendolen Gross.
  

  When American Annabel Mendohlssohn decided to go to Australia to do graduate research on fruit bats, she was expecting a bit of adventure. Only a few weeks into her research, though, her professor disappears and Annabel finds herself teaming up with his son Leon to try and track him down. The real adventure isn't the snakes, leeches, bats, or even the loggers who hate them because they are "greenies" (environmentalists). It's not really even the search for Professor Goode. Instead, the real adventure, for Annabel anyway, is the distance she crosses in her own mind -- away from her fixation on her dead brother and towards Leon and the romance that sparks up between them. All these "adventures" combine to make this a book hard to put down. And the science is fun too. Altogether, this is a graceful examination of the natural world -- flora AND fauna. Engrossing, entertaining, and original. Recommended!
  [FICTION]

  (2/12) Hookman Speaks by Matt Clark.
  

  Extremely unusual, funny, and oddly touching novel that is a fictional memoir of sorts, narrated by the Hook Man. You know, that scary guy with the hook for a hand who, according to the famous urban legend, would sneak up on parking lovers and scratch at their windows? Yeah -- him! In the story, the Hook Man is older, pretty much retired, and mostly spending his time talking to a sociologist who is researching urban legends. The sociologist sort of comes to idolize Hook Man, and, eventually to emulate him. Hook Man is smart, funny, and (yes!) sweet, so you can understand why he's so fascinating. But, as the sociologist discovers, scaring people gives you a power over them that can be pretty addictive. Good thing Hook Man is there to help the good doctor stay grounded, huh? This book is just so WEIRD, folks, and I loved it! Devastating news comes in the "About the Author" note, unfortunately. Matt Clark died at age 31 and this was his only novel. Bummer.
  [FICTION]

  (2/5) The Captain's Wife by Douglas Kelley.
  

  Terrific novel based on the true story of Mary Patten, the wife of a clipper ship captain (Joshua Patten). In 1856, Mary joined her husband on a long voyage to move some cargo from New York to San Francisco, via Cape Horn at the bottom of South America.

  The voyage gets off to a rocky start when Captain Patten loses his first choice for First Mate and is forced by time constraints to hire a Mate named Keeler he knows little about. Sure enough, Keeler turns out to be a lousy seaman -- not only lazy and careless, but mutinous as well. Keeler and Patten's relationship goes from tense to violent when Keeler eventually attacks the Captain. He's quickly restrained and locked in the brig, but not before landing a solid blow to the Captain's head.

  Four days later, the Captain is felled by a mysterious fever (which may or may not be related to the blow to the head). Now the ship is down both First Mate and Captain -- just as it enters the treacherous waters around the Cape. The Second Mate, Hare, is capable but timid and he quickly takes a shaky command. The only problem is, he can't read or write -- and therefore, he's never learned how to navigate. And without a navigator, they're all doomed to be lost at sea.

  Luckily, in her spare time on the ship, Mary has learned to use the sextant. So, while nursing her husband as best she can, she also unites with Hare to attempt to lead the ship and its crew on to its final destination. And boy oh boy, is it ever a challenge.

  I really enjoyed this novel a lot. The nautical stuff was fun (so THAT'S how a sextant works!), but what I really loved was seeing Mary switch from young, dutiful wife to Old Salt without missing a beat. It was a thrill and inspiration to know it was a true story, as well. She's one amazing lady! Additionally, the writing is truly wonderful. I could almost feel the sea spray on my cheek during some of the passages. All in all, this is a terrific novel. Highly, highly recommended!
  [FICTION]

  (2/3) 24/7 by Jim Brown.
  

  Vacuous and ultimately almost insulting thriller about a reality show gone horribly awry. The original plan was to cross "Survivor" with "Big Brother" -- to throw 13 contestants onto an island ("Vassa") covered with cameras and let them try to survive physical and emotional challenges in front of the entire U.S. of A., knowing not only that they were always being watched but also that every three days, those watching would vote one of them off. The last person left on the island would take home $2 million and "whatever their heart desires."

  Of course, if all went as planned, we'd just close the book and turn on CBS. Lord knows the cast of the latest Survivor installment was far more interesting than the totally 2-D characters in this book. But when everyone but the 13 players dies during the first broadcast and a voice announces that the rules have changed, I got intrigued. Call me crazy. The voice, "Control," says they've all been infected with a deadly virus (which everybody kept comparing to Ebola even though it was NOTHING LIKE EBOLA -- this got on my nerves after awhile, probably cuz I'm a biochemistry snob). Anyway, without a vaccine injection every 24 hours, the contestants will die just like the crew did. The game is to continue as planned, but every day at noon, viewers will vote one person out -- and that person will be denied that day's dose of the vaccine.

  This intrigued me not because it was particularly clever or thrilling, but because I assumed it was going to lead to something interesting. It was a direction I thought was obvious -- would the American public really play along? Really vote to KILL someone off each day? Despite witnessing first-hand the torturous pain the virus inflicts when left unchecked? Yet instead of an exploration of this, the plot follows a completely shallow and straight path. The bad guys lose, the good guys win. And nothing is made of the fact viewers did indeed vote to execute 8 or 9 people before the game was stopped.

  Clearly Brown didn't find that all that unusual. Even the parents of a teenage boy who has become addicted to the 24 hour coverage end up helping him vote to kill one of the contestants who has flipped out and turned into a homicidal maniac. Brown sets the scene up like this: parents confront boy who has missed FOUR DAYS OF SCHOOL (how COULD he let his grades slip like that! He's a GOOD BOY!). Boy makes excuses. Parents ground him and decide to take his computer. But as the Dad goes to grab the monitor, they all notice that the crazy contestant is trying to KILL the hero! And, as a family, they sit down and immediately vote so many times to kill off the nutter that their fingers are sore! Well, thank god these fine people were watching! Thank god they voted to kill that guy before he could hurt anybody! Thank god nobody bothered to think, "Hey, that guy might not have turned into a homicidal maniac had someone not infected him with a deadly virus, forced him to watch others die from the disease, and then told him he had less than 10 days to live himself. Maybe we ought to cut him some slack?" Thank god everybody in the world apparently had no problem with voting to kill complete strangers for no good reason.

  Anyway, not only did this book do its best to ignore any call for deep thought, it's also chock full of stupid dialogue, characters so stereotypical they don't even seem human, and just plain ol' carelessness. For example, are we really supposed to believe that the designers of the 24/7 game didn't put any safeguards in place to keep people from voting more than once? Hell, I could set up a system preventing that myself in ten minutes! And, for pete's sake, why all the references to Ebola, which has absolutely NOTHING in common with the virus Brown kept describing? I found this novel exasperatingly awful. I can't believe I read the whole thing. Save yourself! Stop now and turn on CBS instead!
  [CRAP]

  (2/2) The Camera My Mother Gave Me by Susanna Kaysen.
  

  My god, what a life Kaysen, the author of "Girl, Interrupted," a memoir about her teenage years in a mental institution, has had. First that and now this -- a follow-up memoir about her experiences years later with a mysterious and ultimately untreatable vaginal syndrome, the main symptom of which is unbearable and constant pain. As she struggles with the pain and her frustration over her doctors' inability to find out what is causing it, she also finds herself battling her boyfriend who has no compassion for her problem and just accuses of her not wanting to have sex with him anymore. Again, Kaysen does not shy away from all the gory details -- including the intense emotional ups and downs that ensue. But it was really her words on chronic pain that truly affected me. The realization, for example, that, honestly, the pain itself isn't the worst part of chronic pain. The worst part is the fact that you can't ever leave it. Even when you are distracted into forgetting it's there -- it's ALWAYS THERE. And this, more than the pain itself, is what makes people with chronic pain so incredibly exhausted.

  As someone in that category myself, I could really relate to her stories -- her guilt (is this my fault? did I do something wrong? if I don't want to try something that might help, does that mean I don't want to get better?), her frustration, her fear that it's "all in her head," and, most of all, her ultimate decision not to let it rule her life anymore. She says at one point she felt like she'd become a vagina -- a walking, talking vagina, the pain had so consumed her world. And that changed everything. That was unacceptable.

  This is a short but incredibly powerful book. Great for chronic pain warriors (I prefer that to "patients" or "sufferers") who crave the validation that comes from hearing someone else articulate what you feel. And, even better, great for the friends and family of CP warriors who struggle to understand but so often just cannot. One of the passages that made me gasp -- I could have written it myself, you see -- was this one:

  (after she has decided to try to get on with her life and accept the pain as part of it): "My friends assumed I was cured. . .When I complained that my vagina hurt, they thought it meant it hurt a little right then, that evening. They didn't seem to understand that it hurt all the time. . .Low-grade pain is debilitating in a subtle way. I could get interested enough in a movie or a conversation to forget about the pain for an hour or so, but it lurked just beyond consciousness. I tried tricking it. Go away!, I'd tell it. . .I could feel my body tensed, though, waiting for the return of the pain. And, of course, it always returned."

  In the passage just after this one, she describes chronic pain as being like carrying an unwieldy suitcase around. It's not that the suitcase is too heavy to bear -- it's that you can't ever set it down. That's it. That is EXACTLY it. This is a marvelous book. Go read it.
  [NON-FICTION]

  (2/1) When We Were Orphans by Kazuo Ishiguro.
  

  Extremely well-written but odd and ultimately confusing novel about a famous English detective, Christopher Banks, and his quest to discover the truth about his parents' disappearance. When Banks was a child, he and his folks lived in Shanghai, where his father worked for a company known for its connections to the opium trade. One summer, when Banks was about 11, both his parents disappeared -- first his father, then, a few months later, his mother as well. Christopher ends up moving to England, where he ultimately becomes a detective.

  His memories of those childhood years plague him, though. Details that he recalls as an adult take on new meaning and, ultimately, he is driven by those details to return to China and try to piece together what happened to his parents. And it's here where things become truly bizarre. Up to this point, the novel mostly consists of Banks telling us stories about his childhood -- not only things he remembered about his parents, but also about his best friend in Shanghai, a Japanese boy named Akira. After his father disappeared, Christopher and Akira would spend hours playing detective together -- making up elaborate theories and inventing clues and scenarios for rescue. So, is the sudden switch at the end of the book from England back to Shanghai all in Banks' head? It certainly seemed unrealistic enough and not only that, but juvenile as well. Banks becomes obsessed with a clue that only a child would believe held any water so many years later. He can't see anything but the clue -- he can't even see the war that is raging in Shanghai, even when he follows that clue right into the battles themselves. At the time, all I could think was, "He's supposed to be a famous detective? What the heck is he thinking?" It wasn't until later that the person who had recommended the book to me in the first place pointed out that the whole situation so closely paralleled the games he played as a youth that it MUST have been some kind of psychotic break. Not real -- wholly imagined.

  This would've been okay with me -- and so would've a straight ending in which the famous detective really DOES return to try to find his parents. But instead, the ending is almost too unstable. I couldn't tell if it was reality or not. Sometimes that's a trick that works, and I won't say I wasn't thoroughly entertained by it here, because I read the second half of this novel in one sitting. But instead of leaving me excited about such an unpredictable and creative twist, it left me confused and wondering if I'd missed something.

  However, and I want to stress this, I REALLY enjoyed this novel. It is unusual and extremely well crafted. It would make a terrific selection for a book club, in particular, because it lends itself so well to a variety of interpretations. Recommended to anybody who likes a challenge and who always appreciates fine writing.
  [FICTION]

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