American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins with thoughts and a link

Reading American Dirt and even getting it in the mail was such an interesting experience. It literally arrived in my mailbox right as the controversy was erupting, after a months-long wait (I pre-ordered it). After reading a lot of articles and some thoughts by individuals, I was pretty sure I wanted to put off reading the book. I would read it eventually, sure, with a healthy skepticism of its accuracy — I'd already paid for it, after all — but I figured there was no hurry. Then, I spoke to my friend Michelle (formerly blogger Kookie at A Fraternity of Dreamers). Michelle has Mexican ancestry and she knows her history, her Mexican food, her soccer players. I don't. We finished reading the book on the same day, so we were able to chat about it while it was still fresh in our minds.

WARNING: THIS DESCRIPTION CONTAINS SPOILERS!!!!!

PLEASE SKIP TO THE SAFE LINE IF YOU PLAN TO READ AMERICAN DIRT AND DON'T WANT TO KNOW ANY DETAILS OR PLOT POINTS FROM THE STORY!!!!!

American Dirt is the story of Lydia Quixano Pérez, a bookstore owner in Acapulco who unknowingly has befriended a drug lord named Javier. Her husband is a journalist and she has one child, a son named Luca. The book opens with an incredibly tense scene in which Lydia and Luca are huddled in a shower enclosure while gunfire rattles outside. They're at a family cookout and as they hide they overhear the shootings of everyone present, the search for Lydia, the men walking through the house to make sure they've left no survivors. Lydia knows the deaths of nearly her entire family must be connected to the article her husband wrote exposing Javier. Lydia thought Javier would find the article flattering. He must not have. Now, she has no choice but to run.

Javier's friendship with Lydia started innocently enough. He loved books, wrote poetry, and was oddly magnetic. Lydia enjoyed Javier's company until she became aware of what he did for a living. She's seen and heard enough, by the time of the mass shooting, to know that Javier has tentacles throughout the country so even as she's running, Lydia is careful who she speaks to and what she says. But, as she and Luca ride buses, stay in overnight migrant centers, walk, and ride the dangerous train known as The Beast, they are dogged by a young man with a tattoo that Lydia recognizes. Is he pretending to be a migrant or has he really left the drug business?

-------------------------SAFE LINE! SAFE LINE! SAFE LINE!------------------------------

NO SPOILERS AFTER THIS POINT. 

Recommended with dramatically mixed feelings. Instead of summarizing my thoughts, I've decided to summarize our discussion a bit, share Michelle's review, and directly quote a few of her thoughts. I highly recommend you read Michelle's review:

Michelle's review of American Dirt at Facebook

Michelle and I were jumping back and forth between the comment section below her review (which you can see) and another post at Facebook, so you can't see the entire conversation at Facebook. This is an analogy Michelle wrote about the book:

Imagine you are in a horrific car crash and barely escape with your life. Someone asks you to tell them what it was like and before you even open your mouth someone who SAW the crash describes it. They get it mostly right, but they can't describe the physical and emotional impact the accident had on you. American Dirt is a bystander to the Latin American immigrant experience.

~Michelle McIntyre 

That seems fair.

I came into the reading from an entirely different perspective, of course: ignorance of the Mexican culture. My extent of experience in Mexico amounts to a couple of walks across the border from Texas as a young child and then a teenager. I don't remember much.

Without knowing what the author got right or wrong (except from articles I'd already read; there are tons of them online if you've missed out), I viewed American Dirt on its merits as a piece of writing, like any other novel, and my general feeling was that it was marketed badly. Billed as a tale of immigration, American Dirt is really (in my opinion) a thriller. The author is equally guilty in the mischaracterization of the book. She talked about her desire to tell the story of a people viewed as  "faceless brown masses" (a quote even I find extremely offensive — maybe there are people who see immigrants that way but I certainly do not). But, then she added that she wanted to make her heroine "someone like me". This makes little sense as Lydia is not typical of the masses; she is a bookstore owner with plenty of money and her weird friendship with a cartel boss further sets her apart.

So, there's a little bit of a disconnect, there. I think if you leave out the attempt to market American Dirt as a a novel of immigration and look at it as a thriller, it works. Thrillers tend to lack depth and are meant to be fast-paced. The idea is to propel you through the pages and give you a vicarious thrill, not to deeply examine an important social issue, although a social issue (immigration; environmental crisis, etc.) can serve as the backdrop. So, I agree with Michelle's car crash example in that as a thriller the book skims over the emotional and physical impact of immigration and focuses, instead, on the escape.

I also thought Cummins' comment in the author's note about wishing someone slightly browner than her had written the book was a bit of garbage pandering to her audience. As someone who has been published, I think I can safely say that no author wishes someone else had written her book, period, regardless of the shade of their skin. I do, however, know that writing a thriller set in another country is nothing new and, yep, authors get details wrong when they don't know the location or the people intimately or don't do their research. The argument that someone shouldn't have written a particular book has been around for ages, not just in contemporary fiction but in historical, where there can be a huge difference between fiction written by historians and popular fiction.

Michelle said she enjoyed parts of the book and agreed that it wouldn't have been so controversial, had it been marketed as a thriller. But, there were times that elements struck her as lazy googling instead of real research:

The real shame of it is most of those details could have been avoided if she’d just done her research. I’m sure she Googled “famous Mexican soccer player” to get the name Hernandez, but if she’d just turned around and Googled his name she would have realized he’s never called that. That really bugged me. 

We also talked about the author's part in the controversy. This was my opinion:

Her author's note just added fuel to the fire. She painted herself as some sort of heroine trying to reveal hidden truth. Nah. You wrote a thriller. It was good but not brilliant. It's a fun read if that's what you're in the mood for. Thrillers sell; that's the real reason she got the big bucks and the knowledgable writers didn't. A little honesty about that would have probably prevented the controversy (although, controversy generally is a good thing for publishers because any publicity is golden -- people *are* buying the book out of curiosity -- so this won't necessarily lead to thoughtful action, IMHO). [...] She also has some writerly ticks, things she reused, especially toward the beginning. One was people pouring beverages that nobody bothered to drink, including Luca. And, she did some weird head-hopping. There was one page where she was in Lydia's head, then Luca's, then Soledad's. That is generally considered bad writing, although some authors can pull it off well. She did not.

Michelle agreed and noted that Cummins referred to her mother as Abuela, capitalized, which is like calling your own mother "Grandma". It's normal to say something like, "You're going to have a great time at Grandma's house!" to your child. That's not what was happening. In one case, a policeman referred to Lydia's mother as Abuela, as well, which is just bizarre. No policeman calls a victim's mother "Grandma". If you know Mexico, you'll apparently notice a lot of little mistakes like that in the book. Another one is Luca ordering extra sour cream on his tacos — something I probably would not have noticed if I hadn't read about it, although the fact that Luca's extra sour cream order comforted Lydia did. What? Why would someone ordering extra anything comfort you? That was weird.

The bottom line:

Mistakes were made. The marketing of this book implied that there was some deep, unique revelation or insight about the immigrant experience in American Dirt when, in fact, even the journey (which is, admittedly, pretty exciting reading) was not apparently accurate. Even I noticed that Cummins had a priest warn migrants about the dangers of The Beast and then . . . nothing happened. Everyone was nice to Lydia and Luca on The Beast. I've read two other books in which people rode that train and while she is the only author who bothered explaining why people ride on top (it's a freight train — there are apparently no passenger trains at all in Northern Mexico, thanks to American influence) in the other books I read, one person who rode The Beast was raped and the other robbed.

The use of barbed-wire-wrapped centerpieces at a party and the way the author painted her nails with the cover image were additionally incredibly offensive, so it wasn't the marketing alone that stirred people up. As a white American with European roots, I would never have spotted most of the inaccuracies or seen the book as racist and I respect the opinions of those who find the book upsetting. But, I do think the proper marketing could have prevented some of the anger and hurt. And, clearly, authors should be very careful what they say about their writing.

If you read American Dirt, read it as a thriller but bear in mind what those who know the country have to say. Better yet, take Michelle's advice:

I could go on forever talking about the flaws of American Dirt, but I’d rather talk about the books that tell the REAL Latin American stories. Read Luis Alberto Urrea, Octavio Paz, Jennifer Clement, Alfredo Vea Jr. and Sandra Cisneros. Read Juan Rulfo, Yuri Herrera, Carlos Fuentes, and Carmen Boullosa. Read Juan Pablo Villalobos, Daniel Saldana Paris, Sergio Pitol and Elena Garro. All of them tell the story of American Dirt a million times better than Jeanine Cummins.

©2020 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

The Passengers by John Marrs

The Passengers by John Marrs is set in the near future. There are five defined levels of driverless cars, from Level 0, in which the driver performs all tasks, to Level 5. Soon, all cars will be Level 5, totally autonomous with no manual override and no steering wheel. As the day begins, the author introduces readers to 8 characters who are boarding fully-autonomous cars. Some of the characters are uncomfortable with the lack of manual override; some are fine with it or even appreciate the freedom to read or do other tasks instead of paying attention to the road. The setting is England.

In Birmingham, there is a court in which the responsibility for autonomous automobile accidents is decided and Libby Dixon has jury duty. Libby was the witness to a horrific accident and knows how such cases can turn out. Now, Libby will have to share her opinion about similar cases between autonomous cars and pedestrians or other vehicles that are not autonomous. She has her suspicions that not everything is on the up-and-up in this court.

Back to the 8 passengers. After all the passengers have been on the road for a while, a hacker takes over their cars, one by one, and claims that he will crash them into each other in about 2 1/2 hours. Soon, the passengers will all be dead. But, he's taken over the airwaves. Now, the people in the autonomous accident court and viewers across England have no choice but to choose one person to live. The hacker provides proof that there is no way to rescue the occupants of the autonomous vehicles.

What's the hacker's objective? Will anyone survive?

Recommended - I had some minor issues with this book, the main one being that it was just a little too far-fetched for me. Some of the victims were chosen at random, according to the hacker. But, he knew intimate details about the lives of most of them and chose to only release partial information, just enough to make them all look guilty of something. In the end, I understood the point the hacker was trying to make. It's really a book about how a small percentage of people controls the vast majority of what happens to the population, how limiting information available can provide a skewed viewpoint, and how difficult it is to get all that across to the populace. I think that's the theme, anyway. I don't want to give away what's being manipulated and why he's trying to draw attention to it because that would ruin the story, but I will say that I found the book a little awkwardly written yet difficult to put down. And, the one thing I loved best about it was that the author managed to keep surprising me. I have a tendency to guess what's going to happen in a suspense, so I always appreciate an author who can surprise me.

I received a copy of The Passengers from Berkley Books in exchange for an unbiased review. My thanks to Berkley! I've already picked out the person I'm going to pass this book onto and I can't wait to hear his thoughts.

While I was in the midst of reading The Passengers, a friend wrote a comment to me on Goodreads to tell me John Marrs is one of her favorite authors. I love it when that happens!

©2019 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

Layover by David Bell

When Layover by David Bell opens, Joshua Fields is in the hospital with a concussion and a police officer says, "Tell me where she went." You have no idea who the woman in question is, nor how Joshua ended up fighting with another man. It's a typical prologue beginning, teasing you with what's to come so that all the way through the book you're aware that there will be a final conflict that lands Joshua in the emergency room.

Then, Joshua's story returns to the beginning. He alternates chapters with Detective Kimberly Givens, the officer questioning him in the ER. Givens is under pressure by her town's mayor to find a missing man but really just wants to spend time with her daughter, who is on a school break.

Joshua Fields is a real estate developer who travels constantly and is terrified of flying. He carefully times the ingestion of his anti-anxiety meds so that he'll be calm and maybe even sleep off his flight but will be awake and able to function when he reaches his destination. On this day, he's headed to Tampa. But, then he decides to stop in a bar before going to his gate and there he meets a mysterious woman.

Morgan has a hat and sunglasses on indoors. She's clearly nervous and is unwilling to leave her bags for anyone to watch, even for a quick visit to the bathroom. At first, she really doesn't want to have anything to do with Joshua, but then she opens up to him and he doesn't want the acquaintance to end, even after seeing her described on TV as a missing woman.

On impulse, he changes his ticket from Tampa to Nashville to follow her. Why is Morgan traveling incognito? What is she hiding and why is she thought to be missing? How much of the story Morgan has told Joshua is true? And what, if anything, does Morgan have to do with the disappearance of another missing person?

Recommended - Layover is a fast-paced, rollercoaster ride that had me sneaking in pages whenever I could find a spare moment. There are some plot points that are a little disappointing — a bit lame, at first appearance — but I was enjoying the book enough that I decided I'd just wait and see whether those things were misleading. Morgan is an unreliable character, so parts of the story she tells Joshua (which sound shrug-worthy) seem likely to be more complex than they appear. Is she telling the truth or is there a more sinister reason for her disappearance?

One of the things I like best about Layover is that Joshua does stupid, impulsive, even unconvincing things, and yet there is still some logical action on his part. He's not afraid to get the police involved, trusts his instincts and acts accordingly, and he's always cognizant of the fact that his father, with whom he works, will be worried when he doesn't check in, yet he still manages to lose track of time and forget to return calls. In other words, he's a much more believable and likable character than most. I often have trouble with characters who decide not to get police involved when it appears their lives may be in danger. I liked Joshua because he seemed so normal. I gave Layover a 4/5 at Goodreads and I will be looking for more by David Bell.

I received a copy of Layover from Berkley Books in exchange for an unbiased review and it was absolutely what I needed at the moment I picked it up. Thank you!


©2019 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

The Wife Between Us by Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen

Vanessa used to be married to Richard. Nellie is getting ready to become his bride. And, someone has to warn the new bride before it's too late. But, wait . . . who is whom in this twisted thriller? You won't know for sure till the end.

And, since that's what makes The Wife Between Us a thriller (the rush to find out what's really going on and whether or not the future wife can be warned in time) I can pretty much tell you nothing about this book without giving everything away. So, instead I'll just tell you that what you think is happening at the beginning of the book is totally misleading. In Part Two, the perspective shifts and you realize that the narrators in Part One were unreliable. Who is the wife-to-be and what happened to the wife before her to make her such a nervous wreck? Will Richard's former wife succeed at her mission to warn the bride-to-be? Or will some other twist throw everything in Part Two into question.

Yeah, it's twisty, all right. Unfortunately, I thought The Wife Between Us was just a little too similar to another book I read recently. And, I didn't like the way the author played head games with me. Still, I found the authors propelled me along nicely. Apart from a slightly dull beginning and a jarring shift at the beginning of Part Two when I was so confused that I almost abandoned the book (I took a brief break from it, came back, and it made sense after I'd had time to let the story roll around in my head), I found that the pages flew.

Recommended but not a favorite - In general, I'd say The Wife Between Us was an average to slighty above-average read. I had trouble getting into the book, at first, and part of that was because it was immediately apparent to me that Richard was a controlling jerk. I couldn't understand why Nellie was even interested in him, much less why two women would have fallen for him during his charming moments but not run after seeing his dark side. But, the main problem was that I disliked the shift from Part One to Part Two and never fully managed to get those wives straight in my head after picturing them a certain way and then having it all mixed up, as if images of the wives had been turned to confetti, tossed into the air, and then settled into different pictures when reformed on the ground. If you like that kind of confusion, this is definitely the book for you. Unreliable narrators, twists and turns, a surprise ending, and a quick pace (at least, after the first section) will make you race to the end to find the answers.

©2018 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

Dark Matter by Blake Crouch

There's an energy to these autumn nights that touches something primal inside of me. Something from long ago. From my childhood in western Iowa. I think of high school football games and the stadium lights blazing down on the players. I smell ripening apples, and the sour reek of beer from keg parties in the cornfields. I feel the wind in my face as I ride in the bed of an old pickup truck down a country road at night, dust swirling red in the taillights and the entire span of my life yawning out ahead of me. 

~pp. 11-12


This is the only thing I wrote in my Goodreads review of Dark Matter by Blake Crouch: "Could. Not. Put. Down."

And, really, that's probably all you need to know, but nah. I want to talk about this book. Dark Matter is about a scientist whose life has not turned out quite as he originally intended. Jason's never finished the project that he planned on making his life's work, instead choosing to marry, have a family, and teach. Although his life isn't perfect, he's happy. Then, one night, everything changes.

Knocked unconscious by a masked man and taken to a place that appears abandoned, Jason awakens in a hospital and finds that he hasn't returned to the same Chicago he left. Instead, he's ended up in a world in which he's unmarried, his son doesn't exist, and he's a successful scientist rather than a college physics professor. Pursued by people who claim to be his friends, Jason must figure out how his own invention -- the one he didn't get around to finishing or even figuring out -- functions. Only then will he have a shot at returning to the home and family he loves. Can Jason survive long enough to find his way home? Or will someone stop him before he runs out of chances?

Highly recommended - The science aspect of Dark Matter can be a little hard to follow, at times, and the story is definitely mind-bending as the Justin Cronin quote says on the cover, but I didn't have any difficulty following the logic of Crouch's world building. And, Dark Matter is by far the most gripping novel I've read in years. Jason and his family are likeable so I rooted for him to find his way home. I also thought the book was well written. Fast-paced books are often not crafted with as much care as one would hope, so I appreciated the competency and care of the author's writing.

The cover shown above is, I assume, the American version (or one of them). My copy was purchased from Book Depository and looks a bit different:

Dark Matter is my second read by Blake Crouch. I also read Pines and enjoyed it enough that I downloaded the following two books in the Wayward Pines series to my Kindle app (haven't read them, yet). Dark Matter is a stand-alone novel. I enjoyed it so much that I'm going to hang onto my copy to use as a slump breaker, in the future.

©2017 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

Blackout by Marc Elsberg

I've recently read two thrillers because I've been in a mood for fast-paced reading and neither disappointed, although Blackout is good but it also is the lesser of the two.

Blackout is a realistic novel about what might happen if the European electrical grid were taken down by saboteurs. Some of the details can be a bit of a yawn but the book is fast-paced and often very exciting.

Lights start going out across Europe. Piero Manzano, a former hacker, is in an automobile accident - one of many that happen across Europe when the traffic lights go out. After attempts to restart the power stations end up bringing up error messages, almost all of Europe is cast into darkness for an extended period. The longer the power is out, the worse things grow. If the power isn't restarted within a certain amount of time, nuclear plants can go into meltdown. Nobody can pump gas so food, medicine, fuel, and other supplies quickly run out, leading to deaths by starvation, freezing, illness, and fire. What can be done?

Manzano is the hero of the book. Shortly after the power goes out and he's injured, he has an idea. He and an elderly neighbor decide to try to contact authorities to explain what he thinks has happened. Meanwhile, you also occasionally get a brief, vague glimpse into the world of the terrorists and the reason for their plan (but only a few paragraphs at a time - Elsberg is quite the tease). As Manzano tries to help uncover the problem and come up with a solution, he also becomes a suspect and befriends a young CNN reporter who just wants a chance to break a big news story.

The author tried to stick as close to reality as possible without providing a road map for potential terrorists as this is a realistic danger, both in Europe and the United States. He guessed at what would happen with the population (with the help of at least one actual study on the possible outcome). If anything, I'd say he was a bit too kind at the outset. Having lived through Hurricane Katrina's aftermath, I can tell you that it doesn't take long at all for people to begin to panic. Fights broke out at the local gas stations in my area (well inland) within days of the hurricane's landfall as people tried to hoard gas for generators and vehicles. The grocery stores only let in a handful of people at a time and wrote transactions down by hand. All perishables were ruined. It took slightly longer for people to become desperate and dangerous in Blackout. But, the author did a great job of describing what happens without power and I found the book a pretty quick and, at times, exciting read.

Recommended - Solid, realistic storyline with plenty of exciting action. While not a favorite thriller, Blackout is, in fact, pretty realistic. And, reality involves a lot of people gathering, having meetings, and getting bogged down in expectations while a few people who are able to think outside the box end up coming up with the answers. In this case, you have a heroic outside-the-box thinker in Manzano, undoubtedly a deliberate rogue type because he needs to be an anti-hero so that he will easily fall suspect. Sometimes that worked for me and sometimes I thought it was just a useful tool that didn't quite fit. At any rate, I found the book pretty gripping. There is a large cast and I had a little difficulty keeping some of the characters distinguished from each other in my mind, at first, but eventually they crystallized a bit and I was able to just enjoy the storyline, even though I didn't always entirely understand the IT details.


©2017 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

Two thrillers: North of Boston by Elisabeth Elo and The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins

2015, besides being a slower reading year, seems to be one in which I've read a lot of books in pairs: two books about the Great Depression, two thrillers, two children's storybooks (reviews forthcoming). In the case of the two thrillers, I just happened to be in the mood for fast-paced reads at the same time I came up with a story idea that's on the thrillery side (necessitating a little thriller reading to find examples of good pacing).

Briefly, John Rodgers and Jean-Luc square off, shoot subtly hateful glances at each other. Imagining that these two men could agree on anything is like imagining that the north and south poles could overcome their magnetic issues and meet for lunch at the equator.

--from North of Boston 

North of Boston by Elisabeth Elo was one of the books recommended to me when I asked for thriller title suggestions from friends. And, then the friend who recommended the book offered to send me her copy (which has a different cover than the one at left but I couldn't find a decent image). I'm so glad she did.

Pirio Kasparov was on a fishing boat with her friend Ned on a foggy morning when a freighter ran into the boat, killing Ned and leaving Pirio clinging to flotsam for hours in frigid water. Convinced that the collision was not an accident, Pirio begins to investigate, uncovering a tangled web of deceit that leads her to discovery and danger.

I have mixed feelings about North of Boston. I loved the writing, adored some of the characters (especially Pirio and her best friend's son, Noah), appreciated those who were unreliable, liked the added interest of the question, "Why did this character survive something that kills most?" and really liked where Pirio's search led -- to a legitimate world concern. But, I didn't find the book gripping, nor did I always find Pirio's ability to keep going in spite of serious injury entirely believable. Still, a solid read, definitely well-written and recommended.

The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins was a total risk. You've undoubtedly heard of it, by now -- the book everyone is calling this year's Gone Girl, the story of a woman who sees the same couple from the train most weekdays and imagines their perfect life until . . . a kiss, a death, a mystery, and somehow Rachel ends up in the middle of a tangled web.

I haven't read Gone Girl but I'd read a few reviews of The Girl on the Train, knew friends were reading it, and saw that the buzz was growing. What convinced me to spend some of my Christmas money was none of the above. I simply liked the idea and the setting. A London setting is always going to grab my attention, especially when the story happens to fit the characteristics of something I'm seeking (in this case, of course, an engrossing, fast-paced read) with gift card money in hand.

As it turned out, I did find The Girl on the Train every bit as gripping as I hoped. The reviews I read before buying were mixed. A lot of people didn't like the characters. Too flawed, too unlikable. I tolerate unlikable characters a lot better if I know they're coming, so I opted to go ahead and order the book and hope for the best.

Fortunately, The Girl on the Train was exactly what I was looking for and, nope, I didn't mind the characters. Yes, the women are definitely unlikable -- all of them. But, each is flawed in ways that I found believable. I particularly found the alcholic and unreliable main character had the ring of truth. I also thought the use of three viewpoints worked very well and, even though I figured out "who done it" around 100 pages before the end of the book, the pages continued to fly. Highly recommended.

North of Boston and The Girl on the Train both have substance-abusing characters in addition to a mystery and it was fascinating to see how that played out in both books. I thought it was a little better handled in The Girl on the Train but Rachel is the character I considered the female protagonist, in spite of the fact that the book is told through several different points of view, and in North of Boston it's Pirio's best friend who is the substance abuser so Rachel's alcoholism is key to the plot while Thomasina's (that of Pirio's friend) is not. That may have impacted how I feel about the use of substance abuse in the characterization. Both fed nicely into the reading of my book group's latest read, The Road to Echo Spring: On Writers and Drinking by Olivia Laing. More on that later, I hope.

©2015 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery  or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

Quickie reviews - The Martian by Andy Weir, The Riverman by Aaron Starmer, The Big Needle by Ken Follett

A few quickie reviews to help me catch up.  Of the following three books, only one is an ARC: The Riverman by Aaron Starmer. The other two books are from my personal library.

The Martian by Andy Weir is a recent release. I looked it up after I noticed a bit of buzz and saw that Andi was reading and enjoying it. That fabulous cover art was also undoubtedly part of the reason I was seduced into buying. Before Andi finished reading her copy of The Martian, mine had arrived so I was relieved to find out she gave it 4 stars.

When a dust storm cuts an expedition to Mars short after only 6 days and astronaut Mark Watney is presumed dead, he is left alone on Mars with little chance of rescue before he runs out of food. The dust storm has left him without a working communication system to inform NASA that he's alive.

The Martian has been compared to all sorts of things -- McGyver combined with Robinson Crusoe,  Apollo 13 with a touch of The Castaway. It's a little of all those, I suppose. Although the science and engineering that go into the inventions and alterations Watney makes to stay alive can be difficult for a non-technical person to follow (Marg called it "hard-core" sci-fi), the story is never dull. Most of the book is told from Watney's perspective but now and then the book veers to Earth or to the ship carrying his crew mates away from Mars. 

While the book is not without its flaws, they're minor and I so completely enjoyed the ride that I gave The Martian 5 stars. Watney is a delightful, clever and likable character with terrific sense of humor; and, the pacing is excellent. Boy, was I glad I spent some of my Christmas gift card money on The Martian! I'll definitely revisit this story and highly recommend it.

Engineers and scientists will probably get a special kick out of The Martian.  Also of interest: Michele of A Reader's Respite and The Lit Asylum (Tumblr) says the audio is excellent if you're more of an audio person. I am not, but I'm planning to see if my library has a copy, just for fun. 

Side note:  The Martian's opening line is a new favorite: "I'm pretty much f***ed." So much said in so few words.

The Riverman by Aaron Starmer says it's for ages 10-14 but I would be careful not to go too young because it seems like potential nightmare-inducing territory to me. Having said that, The Riverman -- about a girl named Fiona who has found her way to a magical place where she can create her own world by telling stories -- is fanciful and fun.  It's also incredibly realistic, at times.  

When Fiona shares her story with Alistair, it's with the hope that someone will know where she's gone if a dangerous creature known as "The Riverman" steals her soul and she goes missing in the real world. Alistair is convinced that the world Fiona describes doesn't really exist, that it's a story she's created as a defense mechanism to help her forget problems in her real life.  But, what if she's telling the truth and there is a Riverman who steals children's souls?  Is there anything that Alistair can do to save Fiona?

I found The Riverman fascinating, creative and surprisingly gripping, with believable characters, particularly in the Real World portions of the book. Alistair and Fiona are outcasts and dreamers but Alistair is also an 11-year-old with a rebellious streak. I found Alastair very realistic if slightly dense, at times. The ending of The Riverman unfortunately was a little too nebulous for my taste and left me feeling like I'd had the rug swept out from under me. However, I liked the book enough to only take off a point for its disappointing ending. Recommended, but I'd advise caution to those with particularly sensitive children on the lower end of the recommended age spectrum. I gave The Riverman 4 stars.

The Big Needle by Ken Follett was originally published in 1974 and made its way to a U.S. publisher in 1975.  His website says Ken Follett "burst into the book world in 1978 with Eye of the Needle", so The Big Needle predates his first truly successful book. I'm not surprised this early book was not the book that made Follett a household name.

There were hints of what was to come in his future mystery/thrillers but The Big Needle is clearly the work of a writer who had not yet fine-tuned his writing. The hero is a wealthy man whose daughter is near death from an overdose and he wants revenge. He investigates, attempting to work his way up to the top boss, the drug lord guilty of shipping heroin into England. During the investigation, he's pretty casual about killing anybody who gets in his way.

The Big Needle is very much a product of the times with drugs, sex (pretty kinky stuff, including wife-swapping and a threesome), rock 'n roll, and a hero who is fabulously wealthy and not afraid to use his money to get what he wants, for better or worse.  I loved reading about the hero's clothing more than anything.

A big negative: As in many books from the era, there is a rape in which there are no lasting emotional consequences. Grrr.  On the positive side: It was kind of cool to see the old usage of "an" with a word beginning with "h" (as in, "an hotel").  Nice reminder that not long ago students were taught that now-defunct English rule.

Overall, The Big Needle was interesting but not a particularly cohesive story so I gave it 2 stars and it will be going out the door.  Not recommended unless you're simply curious about Ken Follett's early writing. I've been a fan of Follett since I read The Eye of the Needle and The Key to Rebecca and found that I could clearly spot the elements that Follett continued to use, altered or dropped in the breakout novels that followed.  It was fun pondering the differences between The Big Needle and later works.  However, I probably would not have made it all the way through the book, had it not been a mere 175 pages long. His books have just kept growing in length, haven't they?

©2014 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery  or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

Ice Station Zebra by Alistair MacLean

Ice Station Zebra by Alistair MacLean

Copyright 1963

Fawcett Crest - Thriller

224 pp.

First Sentence:

Commander James D. Swanson of the U.S. Navy was short, plump and crowding forty.

Side Note:

Interesting to note that in the movie based on this book, the commander was played by the tall and dashing Rock Hudson.  I had pictured someone more along the lines of Ralph Waite, the man who played the father in The Waltons, as I was reading, partly because Commander Swanson was also a cheerful man and I remember Pa Walton smiled a lot.  I know I'm old.

Summarize the plot without giving away the ending:

An arctic science station known as Drift Ice Station Zebra has been damaged by a horrific fuel oil explosion and the nuclear submarine Dolphin and its crew have been called upon to attempt to reach Ice Station Zebra's survivors.  At the last moment, a doctor has boarded the sub. The commander doesn't trust him; however, after checking to make certain that everything is in order, the doctor is allowed aboard. 

But, there's a saboteur on the Dolphin, the damage to Ice Station Zebra may not have been an accident and communication is spotty at best. Will the crew of the Dolphin be able to find Drift Ice Station Zebra?  If so, how will they get through the arctic ice surrounding the floating base and what will they find?  

Capsule Description:

When a science station near the North Pole is seriously damaged, an American nuclear submarine is sent to the rescue.  But, even if the crew of the Dolphin can survive a saboteur's repeated efforts to stop them, will they be able to survive an Arctic storm and a desperate murderer?

What did you like best about Ice Station Zebra?

I loved the language, the fact that things keep happening (it truly is a "thrilling" thriller), the fact that it had a very cold setting and I'm so tired of the freaking heat, the author's sense of humor.  The book really is a roller coaster ride - more thrilling than anything I've read in quite a while.   

A bunch of excerpts:

The tallest of the three tall men, a lean, rangy character with wheat-colored hair and the definite look of a man who ought to have had a horse between his legs, stood slightly in advance of the other two.  Commander Swanson gestured toward him.

"Lieutenant Hansen, my executive officer.  He'll look after you till I get back." The commander certainly knew how to choose his words.

"I don't need looking after," I said mildly.  "I'm all grown up now and I hardly ever feel lonely."

~p. 8

Commander Swanson's cabin was bigger than a telephone booth, I'll say that for it, but not all that much bigger to shout about.  A built-in bunk, a folding washbasin, a small writing desk and chair, a folding camp stool, a locker, some calibrated repeater-instrument dials above the bunk, and that was it.  If you'd tried to perform the twist in there, you'd have fractured yourself in a dozen places without ever moving your feet from the center of the floor.

~p. 18

This ridged and hummocked ice cap had a strange quality of elusiveness, of impermanence, of evanescence; one moment there, definitively hard and harsh and repellent in its coldly contrasting blacks and whites; the next, ghost-like, blurring, coalescing and finally vanishing like a shimmering mirage fading and dying in some ice-bound desert.  

~p. 53

The ice storm was no longer the gusting, swirling fog of that morning but a driving wall of stiletto-tipped spears, near-lethal in its ferocity, high-speed ice-spicule lances that would have skewered their way through the thickest cardboard or shattered in a second a glass held in your hand.  Over and above the ululating threnody of the wind we could hear an almost constant grinding, crashing, and deep-throated booming as millions of tons of racked and tortured ice, under the influence of the gale and some mighty pressure center heaven knew how many hundreds of miles away, reared and twisted and tore and cracked, one moment forming another rafted ridge as a layer of ice, perhaps ten feet thick, screeched and roared and clambered on to the shoulders of another and then another 
[. . .] 

~p. 64

"What do your men think of your making them risk their lives to save the good name of the submarine service?"

"You heard the captain," Rawlings said.  "We're volunteers.  Look at Zabrinski there: anyone can see that he's a man cast in a heroic mold."

~p. 71

"Shall we just lie down and die now or shall we first stagger around in circles for a couple of hours and then lie down and die?"

"It's tragic," Rawlings said gloomily. "Not the personal aspect of it, I mean the loss to the U.S. Navy.  I think I may fairly say, Lieutenant, that we are--or were--three promising young men.  Well, you and me, anyway.  I think Zabrinski there had reached the limit of his potentialities."

~p. 78

A pity they had no submarines in the Middle Ages, I thought; the sight of that little lot down there would have given Dante an extra fillip when he started in on his Inferno.

~p. 188

What did you dislike about Ice Station Zebra?

There were moments I couldn't quite follow the logic of the doctor who works to unravel the mystery of what happened at Drift Ice Station Zebra and who is responsible for the sabotage but it's not unusual for me to think, "How on earth did [whoever] come to that conclusion?"  Mysteries often go over my head.

Highly recommended - Loads of fun.  I must share the cover quotes, all of which I agree with:

"Spellbinding  . . . never a dull moment" --The New York Times

Pulse-Pounding adventure beneath the arctic ice -- "An exciting thriller with a macabre and dramatic background." --Publisher's Weekly

"Don't start reading this book unless you have a free evening, for you won't want to lay it aside until the very end." --Seattle Post-Intelligencer

"Only superlatives could describe this story." --Washington Post

Cover thoughts:  I love that cover.  It's a work of art.  In fact, one of the reasons I adore older books is the fact that their covers were so obviously painted specifically for a single book -- not stock images or photos that would be used and then used again with a slightly different coloring or lettering, as we often see, now.  The cover image deposits you right in the midst of a scene as three men, the submarine still in view, struggle across the ice.  Awesome.

Ice Station Zebra came from my personal library.  

©2013 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery  or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

The Last Surgeon by Michael Palmer

The Last Surgeon by Michael Palmer
Copyright 2010
St. Martin's Press - Medical Thriller
373 pages
Michael Palmer's Website

Gillian Coates didn't believe the police when they said her sister's death was suicide. Nick Garrity is determined to find a missing war buddy with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. Both believe something very wrong is going on, but they're in for a monstrous surprise . . .

A man who takes pleasure in making murders look like suicides or accidents:"non-kills," he calls them. A very evil man is taking lives. People are dying, but nobody has connected the dots and more lives are in danger. Can Nick and Gillian figure out the connection before it's too late and the last surgeon is gone?

I'm going to lean more toward sharing my thoughts about this book than reviewing the content, for once. The killer in this book has been compared to Hannibal Lecter of Silence of the Lambs in at least one review. I've successfully avoided both the book and movie versions of Silence of the Lambs, although I enjoyed Thomas Harris' Black Sunday, many years ago. I like Harris' writing and that is true of Michael Palmer, as well; I just don't like reading about characters who are pure evil. So, that was one (probably unfair) strike against The Last Surgeon. I don't take pleasure in reading about the kind of character Gillian and Nick eventually had to face.

Second strike - I had just finished reading Mass Casualties by Spc Michael Anthony, a memoir about the time Anthony spent working as a surgical assistant in Iraq, when I began reading The Last Surgeon. There were some discrepancies between the way Anthony described his experience and the fictional account of Nick's time as an Army surgeon in Iraq by Palmer and they really bugged me. So, the first time I attempted to read The Last Surgeon, I didn't get very far. I needed time to let go of reality and step into a fictional world.

The wait didn't help. I think I can safely say it's a rare "thriller" that I find thrilling, these days, (strike three) and The Last Surgeon simply didn't do it for me. I did finish the book, although I considered abandoning it several times. And, this in spite of the fact that the ending is quite satisfying, as the bad guy gets payback involving a suitably torturous amount of pain. This book just wasn't the right one for me, at least at this moment in time.

I'm going to skip the rating because I would rate it as I felt, not by content, and I don't think it's a terrible book, although it's definitely a bit contrived. An average read that requires a heroic amount of effort to suspend disbelief (which I didn't manage to summon), I found it implausible in many ways. But, that's not always a problem. Sometimes I'm able to put up with implausibility for the sake of entertainment. In this case, it appears that the evil character bothered me enough that I wasn't able to let go of disbelief and just enjoy the book.

While this book didn't do much for me, thriller readers who don't mind an extremely scary killer (and those who enjoy being creeped out) may enjoy The Last Surgeon. My personal favorite by Michael Palmer is an older title, Flashback. I read it so long ago (the copyright date is 1988 and it was reissued in 1995) that there's no review at this blog, but I remember it made my heart pound. My thanks to the author and St. Martin's Press for the review copy of The Last Surgeon.

Other reviews:

California Literary Review
Caribou's Mom
Booklorn

Recent acquisitions:

I don't do Mailbox Monday posts because I'm too forgetful, but at least I've remembered to keep the last two weeks' acquisitions together. Top to bottom (this is apparently the point at which the spacing gods freak out):

Postcards From a Dead Girl by Kirk Farber - from HarperPerennial

All My Patients Are Under the Bed: Memoirs of a Cat Doctor by Dr. Louis J. Camuti (from PBS)

A Rumor of War by Philip Caputo - Recommended by CJ for the Vietnam reading challenge (from PBS)

White Tiger by Aravind Adiga - Recommended by a nice British fellow whose reading I rudely interrupted in Costa Rica because I wanted to know what he thought of the book (from PBS). He politely told me it was excellent.

Dawn of a Thousand Nights by Trisha Goyer - A WWII novel that's been on my wish list for quite some time (from PBS)

The thing about life is that one day you'll be dead by David Shields - A biography that I read about at an author's blog (from PBS)

The Lotus Eaters by Tatjana Soli - I asked to be squeezed into the blog tour for this one and the author very kindly agreed to squishing me in. (from author for TLC Book Tours)

The Unseen by T. L. Hines - I have no idea how I came across this one in the first place, but it was on my wish list and a copy became available. (from PBS)

Not shown in photo: Cesar Takes a Break by Susan C. Thoms, Illus. by Rogé - for the Sterling Listen-Along Storybook promotion, which I'll be talking about tomorrow. It's a very cute children's book about a classroom-pet iguana who must occupy himself when the students are away on vacation. (from Sterling Kids)

TSI: The Gabon Virus by McCusker and Larimore (review)

TSI: The Gabon Virus
By Paul McCusker and Walt Larimore, M.D.
Copyright 2009
Howard Books - Fiction/Thriller/Christian
431 pages - includes afterword, interview with authors and reading group guide
Paul McCusker's Website
Walt Larimore, info at Simon & Schuster

This may very well end up being Bookfool's best reading month, ever. TSI: The Gabon Virus is such a fun read that I was a worthless lump, yesterday. I started the book two weeks ago, but the tour was delayed after I'd already sat down and read the first 100 pages in a single sitting. Argh! Disappointment!! Knowing I tell myself I'll pre-post reviews and then never do, I went ahead and set the book aside, fearing that I'd forget everything if I finished the book and then waited two weeks to post. I was a little worried that I'd have to reread that first 100 pages (even though I liked them enough to find the book worth starting over).

Boy, was I wrong. When I picked the book back up the characters, setting, and plot were still firmly entrenched in my memory. This is one grabber of a story.

TSI stands for "Time Scene Investigators"--basically, a team of scientists who research historical outbreaks of certain diseases in order to stop or prevent modern plagues. In TSI: The Gabon Virus there is a ruthless pharmaceutical company, a band of radical environmentalists called Return to Earth, the science team, their cohorts in various health- and crime-investigating organizations and a military presence. The cast is huge, but the bulk of the book focuses on the science team.

In 1666, a devastating plague hit Eyam, England and the selfless decision to quarantine the town led to the death of nearly all of its citizens; yet, their sacrifice kept the disease from spreading throughout England. The mysterious Blue Monk, who comforted and aided those who were suffering from the plague but did not contract it himself, along with the descendants of the villagers who survived, may hold the key to stopping a new plague.

In Gabon, Africa, a cultish religious group has committed mass suicide after the test of a vaccine for a strain of ebola has gone horribly wrong, infecting everyone. One boy, however, chose not to drink the poison and escaped -- only to see his village blown up by the military and then to end up carrying the now-airborne disease with him, infecting everyone he encounters as he runs for his life, convinced the end of the world has begun.

The TSI team is called in to investigate and search for a solution to prevent a major pandemic. They arrive in Eyam, England with the hope of discovering some sort of genetic key to what makes some people survive by acquiring DNA samples from living descendants and original survivors. But, there are complications. Members of the radical group Return to Earth believe humans are destroying the earth and, therefore, need to die in order to restore the planet. A pandemic would suit their purposes and they're willing to kill to stop progress in the search for a cure.

Meanwhile, history plays an interesting role as it turns out bodies aren't necessarily buried beneath their tombstones and the mysterious Blue Monk's burial site is unknown. When the Blue Monk appears in ghostly form to drop hints, those who see him are a little nervous about sharing their information; and, they're not exactly certain what the ghost is trying to tell them. But, the clock is ticking. The young boy in Africa is headed toward Libreville, a city with a population close to 500,000. If he makes it to Libreville, the end of humanity is almost certain.

There are a few historical scenes from Eyams to help fill out the historical perspective. The authors also describe the historical basis for their story, distinguishing which parts are real (based on actual history or current medical science) from the entirely or partially imaginary aspects in the extra material at the end of the book.

My thoughts: Wow. What a breathless, exciting, thrilling ride. I absolutely loved this book and truly was a worthless bum, yesterday. While I wouldn't call it a perfect book because there were a few too many coincidences in the plot (none of which I can share because they're spoilers), I was willing to dismiss those moments when suspension of disbelief got a knock on the head because I was having too much fun reading to let a few little things bother me. I could not put the book down.

Preachy or not? Not really preachy, but the Christian element can't be overlooked. Mark Carlson, one of the doctors who has joined the TSI team, is a wounded soul and has not yet learned to carry on despite his losses. The answer to his pain comes to him in a way I can't share (another spoiler) but it's definitely Bible-based. There are Christian and non-Christian characters. Those who are Christian pray or reflect on Bible passages. The young boy has been reared with a group that can only be called a cult, although they base their beliefs on the Bible. So, there's plenty of mention of Christianity and there are quotes from the Bible, but there's also a realistically diverse cast.

4.5/5 - Excellent story, with a few "coincidences", but they're worth ignoring because the story is too fun to abandon. A fast-paced, deliciously thrilling, well-written, plot-driven story. Where necessary, the authors did a great job of explaining motivation and filling in necessary backstory for characterization.

This is my third book written (co-written, in this case) by Paul McCusker -- the other two were Young Adult books that my son and I enjoyed. McCusker is fast becoming one of my favorite authors. The TSI team will be returning in future novels and I can't wait to read more. But, I guess I have to. You know how that goes.

Since part of the book takes place in Africa and gorillas come from Africa, you get a gorilla pic. Lucky you.

Happy Sunday!

Bookfool, who really needs to accomplish something, today

The Dharma King by B. J. Stroh

The Dharma King

By B. J. Stroh

Copyright 2008

iUniverse

Fiction/Thriller

187 pages

Sam looked down at his watch, which was unconcerned by the obscene time change and events of the day. The hands told him it was almost midnight in Kathmandu. When time is it in California? Sam's mind searched, as if a slight wrist turn and ruminating on base twelve numbers could connect him to a world that ceased to exist the moment he rubbed his sleep-swollen eyes halfway across the world. How quickly the familiar world can slip away into a dark corner.

The Dharma King tells the story of Samuel Falk Simms, Jr. Newly graduated from college and heir to his father's vast financial empire, Sam decides to celebrate his graduation by booking a trip to Kathmandu on impulse. Hung over from a night of partying, he falls asleep on the flight and, upon waking, finds that his seatmate is a Buddhist monk. The monk tells Sam about the search for the new Panchen Lama, a special child whose reincarnated life is crucial to Tibetan Buddhists. The Panchen Lama may be the last hope for Tibetan Buddhism; but, a cruel Chinese Colonel is rushing to find him first -- to kill the child and quench hope for a struggling, occupied nation.

Just off the plane to Kathmandu, Sam finds himself at the heart of the search when he is snatched up by the evil Colonel Zhang and threatened, his bag searched. In a hidden pocket is the map that will lead to the young boy. But, will Sam be able to find him first, or will Colonel Zhang and his vicious friends find the new Panchen Lama and destroy hope for a dying culture?

I absolutely loved this book. It's occasionally a bit horrifying and a tiny bit gruesome, but otherwise a suspenseful and better-than-average thriller, in my humble opinion. Sam is sensitive and caring. He has lived an easy life, for the most part, with one major exception. And, it is that one huge mistake that haunts him and leads him to seek redemption and peace.

The only thing I didn't like about this book was the romance. I found Sam's romantic interest a unique character and liked her, at first, but then it seemed like she became a bit of a lifeless platform for Buddhism. Otherwise, a little bit of a sagging middle and then it became exciting, again. The writing isn't perfect. Had someone handed me this manuscript to edit, I would have scratched out that bit about the watch and simply had Sam go from looking at the time (ditch the bit about an inanimate object being unconcerned) to musing about California, for example, but that's just me being picky. I'd choose his writing over Dan Brown, if that means anything to you at all.

Definitely recommended for those looking for a unique thriller and don't mind a tiny bit of preaching about Buddhism. I enjoyed the bits some may consider preachy, actually, because I felt like I learned a bit about the region and the importance of its ancient religion.

Now reading:

The Integrity Dividend by Tony Simons (business) - I'm about halfway through this one and loving it. The author talks about studies that prove managerial integrity increases profitability. Hope to review this one by Sunday.

An Abundance of Katherines by John Green (YA) - A great, quirky set of characters, a bit of teenage angst and a road trip. Loads of fun, so far. Also about halfway through this one.

Grit for the Oyster by Various Authors (NF) - Writing advice from published Christian/inspirational authors. I'm about 1/4 of the way through this one. It's packed with uplifting quotes and a nice, quick read, so far.

Baby Shark's High Plains Redemption (Mystery) - A nice, gritty crime novel with a recurring P.I. character (I haven't read the others in the series). Just started this one and I can tell it's going to be a great change of pace.

Messy, but true: