The Meryl Streep Movie Club by Mia March FIC Mar

When I read the back of this book to see what it was about it didn't take long to realize that I've read this book - under different titles of course!  There is always a shared activity - a knitting group, a Jane Austen book club or in this case all of the Meryl Streep movies.  There are always a group of women who share this activity and in coming together they change their lives or mend past breaks.  In this book the women happen to be related.  But you know what?  I didn't care that I had already read it.  I enjoyed it very much.  Most of the book takes place at an Inn in Maine run by Lolly.  Many years ago Lolly and her husband were at home in their Inn on New Year's Eve because they had guests.  They had one daughter, Kat,  but that evening  they also had Lolly's nieces June and Isabel staying with them while their parents went out to party.  When Lolly's sister called and asked for a ride home from the party Lolly sent her husband.  The three of them were killed in a car accident and Lolly was left with three girls to finish raising.  There hasn't been much closeness in the family all of these years but Lolly has asked them to come to the Inn for an important announcement.  While there they have 'movie nights' - and this time it is all Meryl Streep all the time!  Her movies have a lot in common with the lives of these women.  It is not a deep book.  It won't change your life.  But I think you will enjoy getting to know these characters.  I look forward to a second book by this author. 

The Queen's Lover by Francine Du Plessix Gray FIC Gra

I love French history and I especially like the 1700's with all the Louies and the French Revolution.   When I was teaching I did a lot of reading about this period.   Now my mind has begun to unravel a bit and I have forgotten so much!  That is why I loved this book.  Once I began to read it things came back to me and I enjoyed reliving the excitement and tragedy of Marie Antoinette.  This novel tells the story very accurately but the emphasis is on Axel von Fersen.  He was a Swedish aristocrat who 'worked' for King Gustave of  Sweden.  His job seemed to consist of traveling with the King sometimes and spending the rest of the time traveling and hanging out with royalty in other countries.  He met Antoinette when he was young and she was not yet the Queen.  He was quite smitten with her - of course he was smitten by many, many women.  He became devoted to Antoinette and her entire family.  His first attempt to get the family out of France and out of danger was ruined by several small events which together led to failure.  Von Fersen outlived the Queen by a few decades and he never got over the loss (even though he continued to be quite the womanizer).  If you like historical novels this is a good one.

Miss Me When I'm Gone by Emily Arsenault

Gretchen Waters, author of the surprise best-seller Tammyland, is found dead on a set of dark, crumbling stairs outside the library where she had just finished a reading and book signing. A terrible, unfortunate accident, the police say. Yet there is the question of her missing purse.

After the funeral,  Gretchen’s grieving parents ask Jamie, her best friend since college, to act as literary executor to try to piece together and finish up the manuscript for Gretchen’s second book. Of course Jamie will do it – for Gretchen – no matter that she is nearly seven months through her first pregnancy. As Jamie plows through notes and portions of Gretchen’s manuscript it becomes obvious that this second book is not within the scope of the publisher’s plan for it and is much more personal than the first. Someone breaks into Jamie’s house; Gretchen’s purse is pulled from a nearby lake; the police – and

Jamie – begin to investigate a little more intensely.

Miss Me When I’m Gone is a pretty decent whodunit (and whydidit). There is an aspect of this book that I didn’t really care for, though.

Gretchen’s first book was a travel memoir of sorts based on a road trip she took following the end of her marriage. She packed her bag, loaded her CD player with music by female country stars, and toured the South, trying to make sense of the sadness and sorrow that is pervasive in country music by visiting the places these famous women lived. So Arsenault’s book chapters are written to be either a.) a chapter from Tammyland, b.) excerpts from Gretchen’s notes, or c.) Jamie’s first person account of her adventures. Frankly, I’m not a huge country music fan, so the Tammyland chapters didn’t do much for me. And some of them seemed not much more adeptly crafted than what a capable eighth-grader could write for a school report. Which makes me wonder if I would have missed any part of the story if I had just skipped over the Tammyland chapters. I’d almost be willing to give it a try, except I don’t have enough time to read all the books I want to read once, so I’ll never waste time on a second reading of a book that wasn’t riveting the first time. If you pick up this book and skip the Tammyland chapters, let me know how it worked for you.

Full Body Burden by Kristen Iversen 363.17 Ive

It's October - the month of Halloween.  Time for a scary book?  Look no further because this one should shake you to the core.  It is not about a serial killer.  There are no monsters, space ships or little green men.  It is much worse.  It is the story of greed.  It is also the story of our government whom we think will protect its citizens.  And this isn't a book that blames the Republicans or the Democrats.  It is a story that spans five decades!  In the 60's Iversen's family moves to a new housing subdivision in Arvada Colorado - not far from Rocky Flats where in 1951 the Denver Post reports the good news of a plant being built.  They don't really tell the people what goes on there.  Since the operating contractor is Dow Chemical most assume that they are making Scrubbing Bubbles or other cleaning products.  No one questions it much because the pay out there is really, really good and they have benefits too.  There are people who try to raise an alarm.  They are quickly silenced.  There is a lot of cancer but hey, that happens.  Iversen shares with her readers the personal story of her alcoholic father, long-suffering mother and her siblings.  She also tells the personal stories of many people who worked there and how their lives were impacted by this plant.  She tells the story of people trying to get some compensation for having been harmed by workplace exposure to radioactive and chemical toxins.  I know that if the government tells me not to worry about certain levels in the atmosphere or chemicals in my food......well, I don't think I will feel very comforted.  If you live in Colorado, don't read this book! In 1970 a nonprofit report stated that the plutonium deposits in the soil outside Rocky Flats were “the highest ever measured near an urban area, including the city of Nagasaki.”

The Unfinished Work of Elizabeth D. by Nichole Bernier FIC Ber

Good book alert!   Loved this one.  Bernier has written a lot for magazines but this is her first novel.  Kate and Elizabeth met in the suburbs when they were just starting their roles as mothers.  They quickly became good friends.  Years later Kate and her family have moved but the two women keep in touch and see each other from time to time.  When Elizabeth dies unexpectedly in an accident, Kate is devastated. She is shocked to find out that she was mentioned in Elizabeth's will.  It wasn't a monetary gift but a trunk filled with journals that cover decades of Elizabeth's life.  Kate is to read them and to decide what is the right thing to do with them.  Through the journal entries Kate reads the story of someone who had been so secretive that Kate feels she didn't really know her friend at all.  Elizabeth's husband (and also Kate) are waiting to see if the journals will reveal the truth of the last trip she took - was she unfaithful to her husband.  Secrets - we all have them.  Should they be kept private or shared with those closest to you.  I don't think you will be disappointed in this book!

The Dog Stars by Peter Heller FIC Hel

This is not the type of book that would normally attract my interest.  To be honest it was probably the dog that made me check it out.  The main character is a guy named Hig who narrates this story in a marvelous way and the love he has for Jasper is quite evident.  If you enjoy audio books I highly recommend that you listen to this book (it is available through our WILBOR site).  The book is almost poetic and the reader reads it in a most soothing manner.  And believe me, this is not a soothing book.  Civilization is almost extinct - well maybe it is.  Hard for Hig to know.  He lives at a little airstrip and shares the area with his beloved dog Jasper and a 'neighbor' named Bangley.  Bangley is militaristic and has set up rules for maintaining their perimeter.  Hig helps by flying around in his old Cessna. They have to kill people that try to come into their space -young and old, male and female.  It has been almost ten years since a flu pandemic swept the globe.  Hig lost his pregnant wife and everyone he knew.   It is a post apocalyptic world with no communication left except for his airplane radio and there doesn't seem to be anyone left to answer him.   The climate is changing and with that comes the gradual extinction of some of the things Hig loves best - the trout.
If I lost everyone I knew,  I don't think I would want to stay around - except if my dog was still here and she needed me!  I remember feeling the same way after reading On The Beach many years ago.  It's a different type of book but I liked it. 

The Cost of Hope by Amanda Bennett 362.196 Ben

Amanda Bennett has won a Pulitzer Prize  so you know that this is a well-written book.  By reading this book you will get an education about illness and health care in this country.  It is not a particularly political book but it will make you think about what is ahead for each of us.  She is just telling the story as it happened to her.  Amanda married Terence Foley whom she met while they were both in China.  Although they were total opposites and fighting was their main past time,  they eventually get married and become parents to two children.  Life is good until a radical operation to remove Terence's colon also reveals a shadow on his kidney.  And thus begins a long road and battle to save his life.  In a sense they were lucky.  Through her jobs Amanda had excellent health insurance.  She was aware enough of some of the bills paid by her insurance to know that not everyone would have had the options they did. And because of their ability to travel to doctors and attain expensive medicine, he successfully waged the battle for years.   After his death she used her journalistic skills to actually figure out what it cost.  These days the cost of hope is quite high. 

Those We Love Most by Lee Woodruff by FIC Woo

This is a novel about a fairly ordinary family - at least on the surface.  Margaret and Roger have raised three children who are now grown up with kids of their own.  Roger is still working and doing a lot of traveling - and she has a feeling she knows what is going on during some of that time.  Their daughter Maura has married her college sweetheart and they have three children.  Life is pretty good, if you ignore the fact that Pete drinks a bit too much and Maura spends a lot of time talking to her dog's vet.  Normal life ends suddenly.  Maura is walking her two sons to school while pushing her daughter in the stroller and walking the dog.  When her cell phone vibrates in her pocket she happily takes it out to check that the display is the one she wants to see.  She begins to send a reply when she hears the squealing brakes.  That is it for normal.  Will a tragedy bring people closer together or shatter their relationships forever?  The book kept my interest and seemed true to life.  I enjoyed reading it.

Midnight in Peking

A father’s stubborn determination to find his daughter’s killers is the core of Paul French’s true account of the 1937 murder of a British girl in Midnight in Peking.  French takes us back in time to a jittery city at the breaking point.  The Japanese army has encircled Peking and its only a matter of time before the city is captured.  It’s in this charged atmosphere that an English teen is murdered, her body carved up and dumped near the "haunted" Fox Tower.

Two detectives, British DCI Richard Dennis and Chinese Detective Han Shih-Ching team up to try to discover her killers.  But from the beginning mistakes abound – evidence is mishandled, information is leaked, and someone higher up meddles with witnesses and interferes with the investigation.   The search slumps along without success until the trail becomes cold and the detectives move on to other crimes.

Here is where the story gets really interesting.   By all accounts, the girl’s father, E.T.C. Werner, was an odd and difficult man.  A scholar at heart, Werner was content to spend his time surrounded by his books.  He wasn’t very social but when he was with people he seemed quick to antagonize them, including the police. As a result, Dennis and Han pretty much ignored him (except for suspecting him of the crime) and lost a valuable resource in the process.  When the police finally closed the case, Werner began his own investigation.  Despite being in his 70s, Werner left his orderly home to delve into the seedy underbelly of Peking and visit brothels and drug dens.  He met with criminals and shady characters and eventually pieced together what happened to Pamela that night.

Midnight in Peking is not for those of you with weak stomachs.  The murder was atrocious and French’s descriptions are vivid and sickening.  But if you like a good murder mystery, you should give this book a try.  The search for the killers, the uncovering of the clues, and the many interesting characters, especially the cantankerous E.T.C. Werner, makes this nonfiction mystery a fascinating read.    

The Crime of Julian Wells

“There is no more haunting story than that of an unsolved crime … but solutions, I was to discover, can be haunting too.” 

So begins Thomas Cook’s beautifully written mystery The Crime of Julian Wells as we step into the haunted life of Julian Wells.

When famed true-crime writer Julian Wells commits suicide, his oldest and closest friend, Phillip Anders, takes it upon himself to pack up his belongings and settle his affairs. While doing this, Phillip learns that at the time of his death, Julian was burdened by a “crime” he committed years ago – something he believed Phillip witnessed him committing. Phillip knows of no such crime and retraces Julian’s life, especially his life-long obsession with the “disappearance” of a young woman in Argentina, in search of this mysterious crime.

The story is built on a unique premise, a twist on the typical mystery structure: The main character (along with the reader) is not trying to discover “whodunit”. In fact, we know from the beginning that Julian is the culprit. What we don’t know is his crime. The central mystery is actually what is Julian Wells’ crime?

The Crime of Julian Wells is not for all mystery lovers – the pacing is slower than what we’re used to in a typical mystery, the structure is unusual, and the book hints at peripheral events without actually explaining them. I didn’t mind these traits and, in fact, found them to be a refreshing change. The writing is expressive and lyrical, without being overwrought. It truly earns the right to be called a “literary mystery” and is one of the best books I've read this year.

Most importantly, the ending is fitting and satisfying – although as haunting as Phillip warned us it would be on page 1.