By Alan
Caruba
My Picks of the Month
It is said
that you cannot understand the present unless you understand history and
Charles Emmerson has made an excellent contribution to history with his new
book, 1913: In Search of the World
Before the Great World ($30.00, Public Affairs). In 1913, few if any
anticipated that World War I would break out the next year and Americans
resisted being drawn into it until 1917. Structured by taking the reader to the
world’s great cities in 1913, what emerges from its pages how much that year
resembles our own today. It was a year when globalization was occurring with
the ease of worldwide travel and communication with much commerce between
nations; a world in which the peoples of Europe traveled easily among its
nations and one in which all manner of change and innovation was occurring in
the arts, sciences, and politics. Royalty in Germany and Russia still played a
major role in their nation’s lives, but in America the nation’s economy was
booming thanks to immigration from the Old World to the new. Emmerson lets the
reader visit Europe’s capitals, to Bombay, Tokyo, St. Petersburg, Peking, and
of course, America’s great cities from New York to Los Angeles. It is a big book,
exceeding 500 pages, but learning of the world in that world is an exhilarating
reading experience and one that will transform your view of that year.
Though it
is early in the year, I am inclined to believe that one of the best new books about
U.S. history will be Thomas Fleming’s A
Disease in the Public Mind: A New Understanding of Why We Fought the Civil War ($26.99,
Da Capo Press). Fleming has already established himself as one of the nation’s
leading historians. His new book provides an insight that few others about the
Civil War have done. Fleming examines how the Founders in writing the
Constitution had to compromise with the southern slave-holding states and thus
established a republic that declared that all men were equal, but in fact
created a nation that accepted slavery as a compromise to secure its
ratification. Though the Founders owned slaves, they understood that the issue
slavery could eventually tear the nation apart. At the heart of his book is the
fact that “Few people criticized or objected to slavery; it was one of the
world’s oldest social institutions…” From its earliest days, prior to the
Revolution, slavery was a part of life in America both in the north and the
south. “By 1750, there were a half million slaves in the American colonies.” By
1790, there were only six slave states, but the great wealth generated by
growing cotton created a new for greater numbers of slaves. Moreover, the
states before and after the Revolution were hardly “united” as most regarded
themselves as sovereign entities and cooperated in a fitful fashion. As the
black population grew, vastly outnumbered white southerners grew fearful of
them and events such as Nat Turner’s rebellion that slaughtered whites and the
bloodshed in Haiti only deepened those fears. By the time of the Civil War
there were four million slaves, most in the south. The rise of the abolition
movement created discord and hatred between the north and south until in 1860
the election of Lincoln led to secession. I heartily recommend reading this
book to understand what led to the Civil War—a long process—and the failed
compromises that could not deter it.
The History of the Renaissance World by Susan Bauer ($35.00, W.W. Norton)
represents two factors I favor, one is history and the second is a big, fat
book filled with all manner of information that continues to surprise me. At
768 pages, this book, beginning in the days just before the First Crusade, is a
chronicle of the many changes occurring around the world at that time. A
Christian empire was stopped short at the walls of Constantinople, the wisdom
of the Greeks was revived, the claims of monarchy were challenged, the early
signs of an Islamic threat to Europe emerged, along with that of Mongols. It
was a time in which the mini-ice age occurred, a great famine killed millions,
and the Black Death still more. We tend to think we are living in dangerous
times, but this book demonstrates the history of civilization is always about
dangerous times, as well as innovation, discoveries, and progress.
Trying to
figure out what is happening in the world and why is a constant challenge.
That’s why books like Deepak Lal’s are so helpful. Poverty and Progress: Realities and Myths about Global Poverty ($24.95,
hardcover, $11.95 softcover, and $9.99 digital, Cato Institute) informs us that
the greatest reduction of mass poverty in human history has occurred during the
current era of globalization. The number of the world’s poor is shrinking and
their lives—health, education, and life spans—are improving. Lal is an
economist who brings fifty years of experience around the globe to this book
that describes developing-nation realities and corrects mistaken notions about
economic progress. He says that the rapid spread of economic progress over the
last three decades is “one of mankind’s most amazing achievements.” It’s nice
to read some good news for a change and to discover, as the author documents,
that much of what we’ve been told is not true. You will come away with a new
and better understanding of what is occurring in the worldwide economy,
especially as it affects its poor.
Anyone who
has to fly regularly on business, to visit relatives, or take a vacation knows
that flying these days can be an unpleasant experience. Mark Gerchick explains
why in Full Upright and Locked Position ($24.95,
W.W. Norton). Gerchick is a former FAA chief counsel and an aviation consultant
with twenty years’ experience to draw upon as he guides readers through what it
means to board a plane today. His book is not a diatribe, but rather an
entertaining explanation thanks to his sense of humor as he explains why
travelers are nickel-and-dimed by the airlines, why bags are mishandled, why
the fares keep rising, and all the other factors that too often make flying a
stressful experience. It is a portrait of as multi-billion-dollar business that
has undergone profound changes over the past decade and he explains why the
constant demand for efficiency, cost-cutting, and new sources of revenue have
brought the industry and its passengers to the present state of affairs. This
is also a history of air travel from the 1970s deregulation as well as the
challenges currently affecting the industry. It is a fact-filled look at the
industry and one that is full of surprises. For those for whom flying is a
regular or occasional part of their lives, this book is well worth reading.
One might
think that a book devoted to a history of the Harvard Lampoon from the 1960s
would be very entertaining. One might be wrong. Ellin Stein has written a book
that extends to 445 pages. That’s Not
Funny, That’s Sick ($27.95, W.W. Norton) is filled with the names of the
generation of funny men and women who reshaped humor in America, many of whom
got their start writing for the Harvard Lampoon. In time, two of them would
begin to publish The National Lampoon to great success. Stein has laboriously
reported about the key players and that is the main problem of the book. In
real life, many were simply not that interesting. Many seemed to be engaged in
adolescent rebellion not uncommon to that age cohort, but around them the 1960s
was exploding in actual rebellion on college campuses and in the streets of the
nation. There is no question they and others created an irreverent brand of
comedy that includes Saturday Night Live, The Onion, the Daily Show, South
Park, and others, but the book’s dissection of the people and factors that led
to this is too labored to hold one’s attention.
Books By and About Real
People
It is the
strangest thing to read a memoir by someone who you’ve known a very long time,
only to discover they had this whole life about which you were oblivious. In
the 1970s when we were both members of the Society of Magazine Writers (later
to become the Society of Authors and Journalists), I met Tania Grossinger who
was already a very successful public relations professional as well as
freelance travel writer. One of her PR clients was the famed feminist, Betty
Friedan, the author of “The Feminine Mystique.” Tania would help launch the
book that would eventually selling four million copies. Betty had mellowed by
the time I met her, but I recall I instantly liking Tania who was blessed with
one of those personalities that is welcoming and warm. So, when I sat down to
read Memoir of an Independent Woman: An
Unconventional Life Well Lived ($24.95, Skyhorse Publishing) I did not put
it down until the last page. Tania’s PR career was at its peak in the one of
the most exciting times in our recent history. She knew all the major
personalities in radio and television who hosted talk shows. She did PR for the
Playboy Clubs, handled some the most famous authors of that era such as Ayn
Rand. She either knew or dealt with iconic names, Elizabeth Taylor, Richard
Burton, Hugh Hefner, and others she names. If her name has a familiar ring, she
was a member of the family that operated the famed Grossinger’s resort in the
Catskills and, even at a very early age, she came to know “celebrities” as real
people. She was especially blessed to have the friendship of Jackie Robinson of
baseball fame. Though her life sounds glamorous (and it was), there were elements
of sadness she unsparingly shares as well. I am delighted to call her a friend
and astonished to have read her moving, entertaining memoir. She did, indeed,
live an unconventional life and she did it very well! I want to keep her around
for many more years.
Learning to Listen: A Life Caring for
Children ($24.99, Da
Capo Press) is a memoir by Dr. T. Berry Brazelton, M.D., covering eight decades
that has led him to be respected as “America’s pediatrician.” His books on
child-rearing in the earliest years of life have helped thousands of parents
understand what they need to know to be better parents. His Brazelton Neonatal
Behavioral Assessment Scale is used in hospitals worldwide as a way for doctors
and parents to interpret the behavior of babies. He began his medical career in
the late 1940s, a time when physicians were beginning to shed old practices and
develop medicine as it exists today. His observations revolutionized the way
pediatricians practice infant care and how parents parent. He is the author of
more than thirty books on child development and is a professor emeritus of
pediatrics at Harvard Medical School. This is a most interesting memoir to
read.
My late
father was born in 1901, was two young for World War I and deemed too old to
serve in WWII. Although I served in the U.S. Army, I was fortunate to do so in
one of those rare periods of peace that did not require my being in combat. I
have read much about wars, but still cannot imagine what it must have been like
until I read Stories in Uniform: A Look
at the Heroics, Sacrifices, and Triumphs of Our Soldiers ($15.00, Readers
Digest), a splendid collection in which the realities of war leap off the page
as told by some excellent writers. How such heroism and sacrifice can exist in
our present times is testimony to the same grit and determination of George
Washington’s soldiers, often unpaid, lacking even shoes, and enduring terrible
conditions, but following him into battle after battle until we had an
independent United States of America. A whole new generation of warriors will
earn your admiration when you read this book.
May This Be the Best Year of Your
Life: A Memoir by
Sandra Bornstein ($12.99, Create Space, softcover) is the story of “a
50-something-year-old woman who faced a decision to teach English and social
studies to fifth graders at a prestigious international boarding school in
Bangalore, India. It would mean leaving her husband and soul mate, and three of
her four sons behind, and traveling well out of her comfort zone, She would be
on her own The opportunity, however, was
intriguing Her memoir tells of the many sights, sounds and discoveries she made
during her year; learning about the extensive poverty, the squalor that many
children lived in, and the lack of safety in Bangalore. The principal of the
school said, “This is going to be the best year of your life” and you can read
this memoir to see if that was true or not.
Sometimes
dealing with a personal tragedy involves setting it down on paper. This is part
of the memoir, Swimming with Maya: A
Mother’s Story by Eleanor Vincent ($14.95, Dream of Things, softcover) that
begins when 19-year-old Maya does in a fatal horseback accident. She was
celebrating with friends here scholarship to the UCLA Theatre Arts program. Her
mother shares the intimate details of her tragedy and the healing process which
included the decision to donate Maya’s organs to help others. In 2011, only
one-fourth of the people in the nation on an organ waiting list received the
life-giving transplant. On average eighteen die each day. After her decision,
Eleanor Vincent could hear her daughter’s heart beating in its recipient’s
chest and she corresponds with the person who received Maya’s liver. This is a powerful memoir and a please for
the donation of organs to save live.
Some
people just know how to get the most out of life and do so with gusto and the
kind of courage most of us to not possess. One of them is Sonya Klein, the
author of “Honk If You Married Sonja” and now her latest book, Roundtrip from Texas ($15.95, Ambush
Publishing, Barksdale, Texas, softcover) continues with more accounts from a
life spent as a fifth generation rancher in between going off to all parts of
the world. She married four men—hence the title of her first book—but it is her
attitude and knowledge, especially of food, that will capture your interest and
admiration. Musician Lyle Lovett is a cousin and recalls that “When I was a
boy, Sonja was one of the first grown-ups in my life to show me it was okay to
have fun. She was pretty, wore cool clothes, drove fast cars, and raced
motorcycles.” They spirit infuses the book, along with a keen eye and enjoyment
of food as she describes meals in exotic places in loving detail, from sea bass
in Halifax, Nova Scotia, to Peking duck in Beijing. You may never visit these
places, but you will feel like you have when you read this delightful book.
There are
people who love the outdoors and I am not one of them. That said, I can still
recommend Majestic and Wild: True
Stories of Faith and Adventure in the Great Outdoors by Murray Pura
($13.99, Baker Books, softcover and ebook). An award-winning novelist, Pura has
long been an avid outdoorsman who has loved hiking, hunting, and more. Amidst
the stories he tells of his experiences, he shares his belief in the value of
getting out of the pew and into the outdoors to be closer to God. This is, as
you might imagine, a book intended to be enjoyed by Christians. Pura is an
ordained minister, has served five churches, and has written fifteen books. You
can find him these days living in the Rocky Mountains near Calgary, Alberta.
Getting Down to Business
Books
With fewer
jobs available, many have had to improve their interview and other skills to
secure one. Martin Yates has just added to his list of excellent books on how
to write resumes and other secrets of success in a job search and career
management. This time he addresses the beginner in Knock’em Dead Secrets & Strategies for First-Time Job Seekers ($15.95,
Adams Media, softcover) that provides a wealth of information and insight
regarding how to make one’s resume discoverable in databases, how to build and
leverage social networks, and how to turn job interviews into job offers, among
other related topics. This would make a great gift for any young person
graduating from college this month.
An
interesting book by a retired U.S. Navy Captain, L. David Marquet, Turn the Ship Around: A True Story of Turning
Followers into Leaders ($25.95, Portfolio, an imprint of Penguin) is the
story of how he challenged the U.S. Navy’s traditional leader-follower approach
as captain of the USS Santa Fe, a nuclear-powered submarine. Turning the old
paradigm on its head, Capt. Maquet took his ship from worst to first in its
fleet by pushing for leadership at every level. Instead of issuing orders, he
delegated control to officers and men in the ship’s various departments,
building a crew that was fully engaged in what they did. The Santa Fe began to
winning awards and promoting a large number of offices to submarine command.
Fortune magazine calls this book “The best how-to- manual anywhere for managers
on delegating, training and driving flawless execution.” A U.S. Naval Academy graduate, the author
currently teaches graduate level leadership at Columbia University.
There used
to be and probably still is something called “the old boy’s network”, but
Pamela Ryckman has put the world on notice about the Stiletto Network: Inside the Women’s Power Circles that are Changing
the Face of Business ($22.95, Amacom). Rather ironically, she dedicated the
book “about girls to my boys” whom she names and thanks for their love,
patience, and support. The author has written for the leading financial
publications and comes to this book with excellent story-telling skills as she
sheds light on how women in the world of business and finance are banding
together to help one another. This was, perhaps, inevitable as more and more
women sought success on terms formerly reserved for men. The book chronicles
the stories of a number of women who have achieved extraordinary success and
the groups, formal and informal, that aided them along the way. These are new
networks that are reshaping the business world and one suspects that men, as
well as women, will read this book to learn about them. Getting It Done: How to Achieve Results and Accomplish Fulfillment in
Work & Life ($16.95, Mill City Press, softcover) by Iris Dorreboom and
Rudi de Graaf is a fairly slim book that represents their thirty years of
experience as personal and organizational development consults, coaches, and
boardroom confidants. Co-founders of Beyond, they live alternately in France
and the Netherlands. Their book is a personal and professional guide in two
parts. The first pulls the reader into a leading role in a fictional adventure
where they discover how attitude and interaction affect every result. The
second part gives pointed direction on how to mindfully create the best
possible personal experience and professional outcome. You are very likely to
find yourself in its pages.
From Smart to Wise: Acting and Leading
with Wisdom by Prasad
Kaipa and Navi Radjou ($27.95, Jossey-Bass, a Wiley imprint), is by two men who
have been studying the concept of wise leadership since 1989 as a CEO coach and
a strategy consultant. They have worked with hundreds of executives in global
Fortune 500 companies, as well as entrepreneurial ventures. Their book is
unique in that they believe that just intelligence (being smart) alone won’t be
sufficient to deal effectively with the increasing complexity of the 21st
century. They argue persuasively that what leaders need is “practical wisdom”
that includes qualities like prudence, humility, ethics, and a desire to serve
the common good. There is “functional smart” and “business smart” in which the
former excel in one field or function while the latter are “big picture
thinkers, visionaries, and risk takers with a competitive drive.” Both styles
have great strengths and serious limitations. Suffice to say this book will get
you thinking about your own strengths and weaknesses, how to improve them, and
how to apply them to achieve success.
Fabricated: The New World of 3D
Printing: The Promise and Peril of a Machine that Can Make (Almost) Anything ($27.95, John Wiley and Sons,
softcover) by Hod Lipson and Melba Kurman explores a technology that is so far
above my pay grade that I won’t even pretend to understand it. For those in the
business world, however, it provides an informative and comprehensive
exploration of the world of 3D printing. According to the authors he promise of
this technology is that businesses will be liberated from the tyrannies of
economics of scale, factories and global supply chains will shrink, putting
them closer to their customers. The whole process reminds me of the science
fiction shows like Star Trek where a machine materializes anything one wanted
to eat or drink in the ship’s cafeteria. Suffice to say, it is likely the next
wave of the future, so you may want to pick up a copy!
Thinking About Thinking
Blind Spot: Why We Fail to See the
Solution Right in Front of Us ($27.99,
Harper One) by Gordon Rugg with Joseph D’Agnese answers the question that we
tend to ask in retrospect. If the answer was so obvious, why didn’t we see it?
In 2004 Gordon Rugg made international news by deciphering a 16th
century text called the Voynich Manuscript that had a worldwide cult following.
It had defied code-crackers for almost a century. Rugg declared it a hoax and
his book demonstrates the surprising ways in which all people tend to make the
same sorts of mistakes, no matter their level of intelligence. With often much
dependent on those decisions, this book provides insight into what motivates us
and why we fail to ask the questions that will provide the answers we’re seeking.
His approach is based on the 7-step Verifier Method that can be applied to any
situation. This book will help you avoid logical errors, false conclusions, and
selective perception to arrive at good answers based on actual facts.
In Time Reborn: From the Crisis in Physics to
the Future of the Universe by Lee Smolin ($28.00, Houghton Mifflin
Harcourt), the theoretical physicist, a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada,
named one of the world’s top hundred public intellectuals by Foreign Policy and
Prospect magazines, take the reader on a journey that will set your
intellectual synapses ablaze. Smolin believes that thinkers from Plato to
Newton, to Einstein, defined the concept of time incorrectly. The nature of
time, he says, has broader implications beyond physics in the realms of
religion, ethics, economics and law. If the laws of physics could change the
future, what does that imply about why they exist and why they currently allow
for a human-friendly universe? Good question and one which the author asks and
seeks to answer. A warning, however. Smolin has fallen into the “climate
change” trap and wonders into economics and the social sciences. This reader
concluded that Smolin should stick to physics.
Prometheus
Books has carved out a niche for itself, publishing many books about atheism,
humanism, and similar “enlightened” topics that toss out belief in God (or
gods) and rely instead on science—almost as a new religion in itself. I am a
great fan of science, but I also believe that humans are hardwired spiritually
to find a larger reason for their existence and that of the universe. A number
of the newest books from Prometheus include The Enlightenment Vision: Science, Reason, and the Promise of a Better
Future by Stuart Jordan ($26.00); The
Science of Miracles: Investigating the Incredible by Joe Nickell ($18.00,
softcover); God and the Atom: From
Democritus to the Higgs Boson—the Story of a Triumphant Idea by Victor J.
Stenger ($25.00); and The Turbulent
Universe by the late Paul Kurtz ($20.00, softcover).
The common
theme in these books is a reliance on reason and science to the exclusion of
any spiritual explanation of how the universe works. For anyone who is
comfortable with this, any of these books will prove quite informative, but I
personally suspect that religion does more good than harm (with the exception
of the death-obsessed Islam), providing direction to leading a moral life and
comfort when one must face its challenges.
There’s a
lot of “big thinking” going on in these books. There are views that believe in
the potential of humanity to accept universal human rights and recognize our
similarities over our differences. History, however, tends to argue against
that. The Stenger book reminds us that as far back as ancient Greek philosophers,
the concept of the atom as the building block of everything was already being
advanced. He concludes that between atoms and the void that is all that exists. Nickell has devoted
his time to debunking such things as the Shroud of Turin, “weeping” icons, and
miracle healings, among other spiritually-based claims. These things matter if
you want to disprove the role of belief, spirituality, in our lives, but why
bother? Jordan, a physicist, looks at the progress humanity has made since the
Enlightenment, but notes too that we have inherited some problems such as the
persistence of widespread ignorance, the disparity between prosperous and
impoverished nations, and the existence of weapons of mass destruction. He is
concerned about over-population, nuclear proliferation, and climate change.
Since the Earth currently sustains a population of seven billion and we can do
nothing about the 5.4 billion years of natural climate change, we’d best pay
attention to things we can actually do something about
Novels, Novels, Novels
The novels
keep flooding in so here’s a look at some of the latest to arrive.
Karen
White already has a huge fan base of women based on her softcover novels and The Time Between is her first as a
hardcover ($25.95, New American Library) just out this month. Set in South
Carolina low country, it is a beautifully written, compelling story about the
complicated bond between sisters, the enduring legacy of family, and the power
of forgiveness. The main character, 34-year-old Eleanor Murray is consumed with
guilt for causing the accident that paralyzed her sister and for falling in
love with her sister’s husband. When she is offered a part-time job caring for
an elderly woman, Helena, she accepts in the hope that this good deed will
atone for her mistakes in life. The two bond over their mutual love of music
and, as she learns of Helena’s past, she learns the key to healing her
relationship with her sister. This hardly does justice to the depth of the
characters and their lives as revealed in this novel, but it surely advances
the author’s career as an excellent novelist. Another new hardcover is
Elizabeth Kelly’s The Last Summer of the
Camper-Towns ($25.95, Liveright Publishing, a division of W.W. Norton &
Company). Filled with dark plot twists and the author’s talent for authentic
dialogue, the novel is set in Cape Cod
and the year is 1972 as a twelve-year-old girl named in honor of Jimmy Hoffa
(!), Riddle James Camperdown, is the daughter of a labor organizer and a
retired starlet. She just wants to enjoy a quiet summer amidst the dunes and
the horse farms out of earshot of her bickering parents. This is a coming of
age novel filled with questions for Riddle and, after she witnesses something
potentially criminal, she decides to keep it to herself despite its being
crucial evidence in the disappearance of a local boy. It will, however, unveil
carefully constructed secrets within her family and their extended
relationships. It’s one of those novels that are impossible to put down once
you begin.
The bulk
of the novels I receive are softcover (and thus affordable), so let’s wade
through the stacks, many of which debut this month.
There’s a
new erotic thriller, Vengeance is Now,
by Scott D. Roberts ($17.95, 3L Publishing, Sacramento, CA) that is an
action-packed story about a disgraced former police detective and private
investigator, Tate Holloway, who has taken to drowning his sorrows in Tequila,
smoking weed, and turning tricks with wealthy women to make a living; a secret
he keeps from his girlfriend. His life really takes a turn for the sores when
he’s set up, framed, and forced to go on the run for unspeakable crimes. He has
to find the real killer and each revelation uncovers departmental and political
corruption that leaders to a heart-pounding final showdown. The author is a
writer, producer, and co-director with a career that spans twenty years. There
are plenty of plot twists in Patrick M. Garry’s novel, Saving Faith, ($14.00, Kenrik Books), not to be confused with David
Baldacci’s novel of the same name. It raises a whole number of philosophical
questions as its narrator, a 20-year-old Jack Fenian, finds himself drawn into
the life of a former journalist, Ev Sorin, whose car he has had mistakenly
repossessed for a car dealership. While in court they watch a hearing on
whether to keep alive a comatose patient whose identity is unknown and who
Clare, a party to the case, is trying to save. Suffice to say this is a very
complex story of people seeking to find meaning in their lives and grapple with
the big questions of life. The novel follows four characters and their various
motivations as they come together to save the patient. This is Garry’s eighth
novel, many of which have won awards over the years. It is not light reading,
but it is a story that will draw you in and keep you engrossed.
The Replacement Son ($16.95, Two Harbors Press) by W.S.
Culpepper is a psychological drama framed within an epic adventure story that
begins in Depression-era New Orleans, moves on to World War Two, and then to
the devastation following Hurricane Katrina. Harry McChesney was seven years
old when he learned of his brother who had died young and left his family in
misery. He becomes the replacement son of the title and a man who seeks to
rescue his family from the aftermath of his brother’s death, requiring a
lifetime of labors. Along the way he gets help from a trusted family servant, a
powerful talisman, and a bizarre set of twins. Harry is an unlikely hero and
this novel has the feel of a classic tale that stretches over a long period of
time. Another character seeking redemption is at the center of Wake the Dawn by Lauraine Snelling
($15.00, Faith Words, a Hachette Book Group imprint). For those of a spiritual
nature, this book delivers the goods as the main character, Esther, runs a
clinic in a small Minnesota town bordering Canada, an act of atonement
following a hit and run accident years before. When a storm ravages the town
she must deal with the reality of her past and learn to forgive herself. She is
joined in this quest by a border patrol agent who lost the love of his life in
a tragedy and never finished grieving. When Ben finds a young child along in
the woods as the storm rolls in, Ben and Esther are brought together by this
opportunity to change, redeem their lives, and grow. Another novel with a
Christian core is Billy Coffey’s When
Mockingbirds Sing ($15.95, Thomas Nelson). It is about childlike faith, a
mysterious Rainbow Man, and a sleepy town divided between those who see a small
child’s visions as prophetic and those who are afraid of that they perceive as
the danger she represents. The story is based on his own daughter’s
conversations with God. Coffey is a gifted writer and the book will please
believers.
Set in
World War Two, I’ll Be Seeing You by
Suzanne Hayes and Loretta Nyhan ($15.95, Harlequin) is about two women who have
never met strike up an inspiring correspondence and forge an extraordinary
friendship that sustains each of them while their loved ones are risking their
lives on the front lines. Neither of the co-authors has ever met in person,
giving the novel a unique sense of authenticity. The year is January 1943 and
Glory Whitehall has randomly pulled Rita Vincenzo’s name out of a hat at her 4H
meeting and begins to write to a perfect stranger. It is an unconventional
friendship that carries them through the uncertainties, dreadful loneliness,
and temptations of tending to home fires while the men they love are fighting a
world away.
A very
different story is told in Hazardous
Material by Kurt Kamm ($14.95, MCM Publishing) that explores the life of a
firefighter with the Los Angeles County Fire Department, Bucky Dawson, who is
awakened at 1:45 AM and it is a real page-turner that tells of the gritty world
of outlaw motorcycle gangs and the meth labs in the heart of the Mojave Desert.
When his task force is called out to support a sheriff’s raid on a meth lab,
Bucky witnesses his estranged sister standing at the door of a double-wide
trailer just before it explodes. Divorced, lonely, and struggling with a
painkiller addiction, his life plunges into chaos after her death. There is
plenty of drama and danger in this story. I reviewed Mike Resnick’s previous
novel, “Dog in the Manger” his first Eli Paxton mystery. He’s back with The Trojan Colt ($15.95, Seventh Street
Books, an imprint of Prometheus Books) when the down-on-his-luck private eye is
on a routine security assignment to guard the high-priced yearlings of
“Trojan”, a recently retired classic winner in Lexington, Kentucky. He is no
sooner on the job when he must respond to a fracas in the horse born where he
arrived just in time to thwart a vicious attack on a young groom. The
assailants get away. When he doesn’t show up the next day, Paxton is assigned
to investigate his disappearance and it turns out that two other staff members
have disappeared in the past couple of months. Paxton has stumbled upon a
multi-million-dollar plot that the perpetrator will kill to keep secret.
Resnick knows how to plot a face-paced, intriguing mystery and you will enjoy
this one.
If you
enjoy short stories, you will enjoy Alana Cash’s How You Leave Texas ($8.00, Hacienda Press) that is comprised of
three short stories and a novella by a native Texan, who tells the stories of
four young women who leave Midland, Austin, Fort Worth and Mayville, Texas, for
lives in New York, California, Jakarta, and, in one instance, jail. They are
seeking to escape boredom and sorrow and find that you can leave Texas, but
one’s life follows you around wherever you go. These are stories that women
will relate to from their own lives and the fourth, “Frying Your Burger” is
autobiographical, based on the author’s experiences in a year at Universal
Studios and the people she met there. All four stories are very entertaining.
That’s it for June! Come back next month and, in the
meantime, tell your friends, family, and coworkers who love to read about
Bookviews.com. There’s a whole lot of summer reading ahead and you won’t want
to miss out on the great new fiction and non-fiction that is waiting for you.
