The Bone Labyrinth by James Rollins

  I gave this book 2 stars (it was OK) on Goodreads. If they had half stars, I might have given it 2 1/2 since I kind of liked it. It did keep me wanting to find out what happens next, but the whole tale was just a little too formulaic...hunt for a lost world and the origins of human intelligence which could change the destiny of human kind...oh brother. There were some interesting things written about early humans, archeological finds, Neanderthals, etc., and I appreciated the author's notes at the end, explaining which things were true and which were products of his imagination.

2015 (so far) in review

Having read 74 books at this point in the year (end of November), I thought I'd list the ones I really liked and the ones I thought were particularly great. I based the list on my Goodreads ratings where 5 stars mean 'it was amazing' and 4 stars mean 'really liked it'. I would like the rating system better if it had a genre category, but it doesn't. Some of the books I really liked were spy novels or murder mysteries...not necessarily great literature, but for the genre, they were good. I was sparing with the 5 stars, reserving that rating for books I not only really liked, but thought were extraordinary.

Here are two 4 star lists, first the mysteries then the others, in reverse order of when they were read:

MYSTERY

Return to Dust - Andrew Lanh
The Poet - Michael Connelly
The Vendetta Defense - Lisa Scottoline
Fever of the Bone - Val McDermid
Harvest - Tess Gerritsen
The Gods of Guilt - Michael Connelly
Blood Work - Michael Connelly
High Country Nocturne - Jon Talton
True Evil - Greg Iles
The Alibi - Sandra Brown
Long After Midnight - Iris Johansen
Shoot the Moon - Billie Letts
A Wanted Man - Lee Child
Criminal Intent - William Bernhardt
Never Go Back - Lee Child
Worth Dying For - Lee Child

OTHER

The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
The Art of Baking Blind - Sarah Vaughan
Sarah's Key - Tatiana de Rosnay
The Searchers - Alan Lemay
Interpreter of Maladies - Jhumpa Lahiri
A Fifty Year Silence - Miranda Richmond Mouillet
Eight Hundred Grapes - Laura Dave
The Kitchen House - Kathleen Grissom
The Lady from Zagreb - Phillip Kerr
The Loop - Nicholas Evans
The Nurse - Alexandra Robbins
The Alphabet House - Jussi Adler-Olsen


Here is the 5 star list:

What She Knew - Gilly Macmillan
The Zookeeper's Wife - Diane Ackerman
Outlander - Diana Gabaldon
The Hunger Games and the Gospel (non-fiction) - Julie Clawson
The Fifth Gospel - Ian Caldwell
The Nightingale - Kristin Hannah

Risky Undertaking by Mark de Castrique

  This story takes place in North Carolina and features an undertaker/sherriff's deputy, Barry Clayton, who becomes involved in solving a killing of a Cherokee activist. The story centers around the mystery, but also tells of some of the political issues existing between whites and native Americans, reservations and state governments, gaming and preservation, etc. Though involving a murder, the story is presented in a sort of light-hearted, very readable way. The characters seem true to life, especially in their conversations with each other. I was kept wondering how the mystery was going to be resolved. That was good, since I'm always disappointed when I solve the mystery before the book does. This was an enjoyable book to read, and I will look for other 'Buryin' Barry' mysteries, especially for light summer reading.

Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng

  This book is about a Chinese-American couple in the 60's and 70's that struggles with discrimination and its devastating impact on their lives. The story begins with the loss of their oldest daughter, then backtracks to tell of how the parents met, married and raised their family. The type of discrimination that affects them is not only prejudice against Asians, but against women. The family is seriously dysfunctional and the way it impacts the children is heart-rending.

 

The story is told variously from the viewpoints of all the family members, and we learn the thoughts and feelings that they kept hidden from each other with disastrous results.

The book was well-written and gripping from beginning to end. The author made the voices of each character seem very authentic. Though I didn't like some of their actions, I was able to see a little of what led them to act as they did.

This isn't an easy read, or a fun read, but is very thought-provoking. I highly recommend it.

Island of a Thousand Mirrors by Nayomi Munaweera

I definitely liked this book about how the civil war in Sri Lanka impacted the lives of several families, though I was bothered by a few things. I didn't get the title. Is this a name that the island is called? I found the beginning of the book a little slow going. There was a lot of family history of what turns out to be a main character later in the book, Yasodhara. Her and her family's story take up more than half the book. I was surprised at this point by the introduction of an entirely different family and character, Saraswathi, in part 2. There wasn't nearly as much history about her family. I might have liked it better if the two stories were more intertwined throughout the book. The descriptions of Saraswathi's life in the civil war really helped to describe what might lead someone to become a brutal terrorist. 

I did like that the book told the story from the viewpoint of both sides in the war. It seemed to say that the war was senseless, prolonged, brutal, and happened for no good reason. The stories of how it affected individuals on both sides of the conflict were well written. I hope this author writes more.

The Beekeeper's Ball by Susan Wiggs

This story is a romance, light-hearted at times, but with a side story of horrific WWII events in Denmark. Basically a young woman chef, Isabel, is starting a cooking school at her home in Sonoma valley when a renowned journalist, Mac, comes to spend time with her grandfather, Magnus. Mac is writing a book about the history of the grandfather's interesting life.

Everyone in the story had life altering events in their past which color their present lives. Isabel had a traumatic romantic past, so is reluctant to open up to the prospect of a new romance with Mac. Mac likewise had a sad experience in his past. Magnus survived the loss of his parents in the Holocaust and his subsequent time in the Danish resistance before coming to America and becoming the owner of the Bella Vista estate where he, Isabel and her sister live, tend orchards, and keep bees.

I always find war stories interesting, particularly those about WWII, so was very interested in the recounting of  events in Denmark told in this book. The way people who were so horribly persecuted survived and went on with their lives is fascinating. And it's always interesting to read the stories from personal viewpoints, even when the characters are fictional.

I was not previously aware that this book is the 2nd in a 'Bella Vista' series. Now I want to read the 1st, though I wonder if the story will be somewhat spoiled by knowing 'future' events already. I'll just have to read it and find out.

Alice Close Your Eyes by Averil Dean

I received this book as an ARC and read it in a day, more because I was curious about how it would end than because I actually liked the story. It seemed to be a series of explicit and increasingly sadistic sex scenes, loosely tied together by a story of a woman with a difficult childhood who was out to get revenge on someone who had wronged her in the past.

It was difficult to feel sympathy for the main characters, Alice and Jack. Since the story was told from Alice's point of view, there was some writing of her thought processes, but there was none for Jack's. I really had no idea where he was coming from or why he acted as he did.

I might have liked this book if it were more a straight forward mystery/psychological thriller, and less a reason to explore the deviant sex practices of the main characters. I think the author probably felt these scenes helped underscore Alice's need for pain, but I got the idea better from the other things Alice did.

Born to Run by Christopher McDougall

After reading this book I almost feel like taking up running myself. This is an amazing true story of one man's search for the best way to run without injury. As a writer for Runner's World he embarks on a journey to find the elusive Tarahumara tribe who live in the Copper Canyons of Mexico and are reputed to be some of the fastest runners in the world. In the course of telling his story, the author gives some history of long distance running, and of the development of running shoes. As it turns out, the more running shoes were used, the more injuries occurred. McDougall also tells some of the science of running in an easy to read and understand way.

McDougall was able to finally run without injury as he studied and adopted the style of running learned from some of the best runners and coaches in the world. The whole idea is that people are designed to run. We don't need the shoes with the extra support. They actually work against the foot's natural running ability. There's also a sort of mystical aspect to running in which the best runners are the ones who are the most unselfish and run for the pure joy of it.

This should be a must-read for anyone who runs, but also for anyone who enjoys a tale of a fascinating life.

The Tenth Witness by Leonard Rosen

What an interesting, thought provoking book. It's the story of a young French engineer, Henri Poincare, who the 1970's has designed a dive platform for searching for a sunken ship off the coast of Germany. While there he meets and falls in love with a German woman, Liesel Kraus from a wealthy industrialist family which got its start during WWII making steel for Hitler and the Nazis. Henri is hired by Liesel's brother, Anselm, to develop a way to extricate gold from old computers, but is troubled by the murky history of the family. When his adopted uncle, who had survived a concentration camp, dies, Henri is compelled to find out the story of the past that his uncle was never able to talk about. During his exhaustive research, Henri discovers connections between the Kraus family and the Nazi war effort, though 10 witnesses, who are now strangely dying off, declared that Otto Kraus, the family patriarch, had been of great help to the Jewish slaves who worked in the mills.

Along the way Henri has questions not only about the Kraus family, but about his own ethics as well. Is the expedient thing also the right thing, or is that only something he tells himself? How Henri deals with the truths he discovers was as fascinating as the mysteries he solved.

This book is a prequel to the author's previous book, All Cry Chaos, in which Henri is an older man, working for Interpol and on the verge of retirement. I hadn't heard of this book before, but now must read it!

Children of the Jacaranda Tree by Sahar Delijani

I really liked this book. It's a novel that follows the lives of children of political prisoners in Tehran, Iran, following the revolution in the 1980's. Some of the children were born in prison, then separated from their mothers. Others watched as their parents were arrested and jailed. Some parents were killed in mass executions, others returned to their families after many years. The children were raised mostly by relatives.

The story encompasses 3 generations....the grandparents and relatives who cared for the children when they were young, the politically active parents who were jailed, and the children themselves as they confronted the reality of life in Tehran as they grew to adulthood. The chapters are each from the point of view of one of the characters. At the beginning it is a woman prisoner in labor, giving birth in a prison hospital,  having her baby with her for a few months, then having to give the baby up to relatives outside the prison. Then we read of a father who sees his child once or twice, several years apart, and is finally killed. There is a chapter about an aunt who helps raise her nieces and nephews. Later chapters are about the children, both as children and as adults. All the characters lives touch and are intertwined in one way or another, as relatives or neighbors or friends or prison mates.

The story traces these lives through different regimes in Iran, and describes in such a personal way how people's lives were affected, how they suffered both from being silent and from being politically active and how the young people growing up dealt with so many frightening things in their lives...loss of parents, lack of freedom, fear of arrest, failed relationships, and so on.

I was especially interested in this book after having read Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi. There were many parallels, particularly in the lives of the women and the oppression they suffered. Reading Lolita is a true story.  Children of the Jacaranda Tree is a novel but I think based on the life of the author who was herself born in Tehran's prison. Delijani has told this story in a rich, poetic, and powerful way. I highly recommend it.

Pinocula The Creature From My Closet by Obert Skye

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this children's book. It was funny and smart and sarcastic and thoughtful all rolled into one. The main character, Rob, a middle school student, occasionally is visited in the night by creatures from his closet. In this story the creature is Pinocula who teaches Rob something about lying. Besides the printed words, in a really cool font, there are lots of little funny cartoon illustrations. I spent almost as much time reading the tiny print words in the cartoons as I did reading the story...they were hilarious.

This book is third in a series of The Creature From My Closet books. I'm sure the first two are as funny as this one. I highly recommend it for all young readers.

The Kill List by Frederick Forsyth

This is the story of a hunt for a modern day terrorist, the Preacher, who is responsible for using the internet to urge followers to each kill some notable person serving 'the great Satan' and then kill themselves. After a series of killings in both the US and Britain, a marine colonel, Tracker, who works in TOSA (technical operations support activity) is commissioned by the highest authorities to find and eliminate the Preacher. The story tells in great detail of the use of high tech computer technology to search for the terrorist and then on the ground intelligence to finally kill him.

Though the search becomes personal for the Tracker when his own father, a retired marine general, is shot by one of the fanatics, there isn't any real character development in this story. It doesn't matter, however, because the way the search is carried out is so interesting. I had a feeling things would conclude satisfactorily at the end, but was kept on the edge of my seat wondering how it would happen. I don't know if all the technical and military things were accurate, but they were so detailed they certainly seemed to be.

The book doesn't explore any moral or ethical  dilemmas which might be associated with the killing of terrorists without trial, but just tells what happened in this particular situation. It was another book I couldn't put down.

Some other reviewers have said this book isn't as good as some of Forsyth's previous novels. That really makes me want to read them too.

Cartwheel by Jennifer duBois

This is the story of a young college student, Lily, studying in Buenos Aires who is arrested for the murder of her roommate. The book says it's 'loosely' based on the Amanda Knox real life story, but I do think it's more than loosely based. At any rate, I found it a really interesting psychological drama. I wasn't sure until the end how it would play out, so I couldn't put it down.

Rather than just a simple murder mystery, this book delves into the characters in a much more in depth way. It examines the 'truth' from all sorts of points of view, leaving the readers to find they actually kind of believe all of them at various times. Or maybe disbelieve. The characters are portrayed  with both good and bad characteristics that we can sympathize and empathize with on the one hand and feel disdain for on the other. Some of the characters are very unusual, such as the boyfriend, Sebastion, others act entitled, some had lives colored by tragedy, but all were fascinating.

Jennifer duBois has also written A Partial History of Lost Causes which I haven't read yet, but now feel I must.

Accused by Lisa Scottoline

This is another of Lisa Scottoline's Rosato and Associate's novels. Bennie Rosato is the senior partner of her law firm, and her associate, Mary DiNunzio, has just been made a partner. This story is about a case of Mary's. The firm is hired by a young 13 year old girl to free a man who she feels has been wrongly imprisoned for the murder of her sister 6 years ago. The girl's parents strongly oppose the girls actions and do everything they can to get Mary off the case. But Mary is determined to see it through. Along the way Mary deals with issues in her own life as well as handling the case on by herself.

It's a good story, interlaced with bits of humor particularly involving Mary's Italian family and their old friends. I enjoyed reading about how Mary tried to solve the case and I liked that I hadn't anticipated the outcome. There's not a lot of interaction among the women of the Rosato firm in this book as there has been in past Rosato books, but Mary was still a believable character with doubts about both how she deals with the case and about whether she should marry her boyfriend, Anthony. I thought Anthony seemed a little unreal, but maybe I'd learn more about him in other Rosato novels. I've read and enjoyed a couple others in the past, but don't remember his character.

At any rate, this was an enjoyable, quick read, a fun mystery without much of the gore that's often found in other murder mysteries.

The Girl You Left Behind by Jojo Moyes

I loved this book! What a wonderful story. I've always liked reading war stories, not so much ones about how the war was fought, but rather personal stories about how the wars affected the life of an individual, and this book is a very personal story. It's the story of two young women who both fought desperately for what they loved the most.  It begins in 1916 during WWI and the German occupation of France. There we meet Sophie, whose husband painted a beautiful portrait of her which she hung in her home, an inn. When her husband was missing in the war, the painting was a comforting reminder of him, even after the Germans took over her village and forced her to cook for them. She does what she can to make things a little easier for her family and fellow villagers, but ultimately makes a great sacrifice in the hopes of being reunited with her missing husband.

Almost 100 years later, the portrait is given to a young English woman, Liv, as a wedding gift from her husband. He dies a few short years later and the painting gives Liv comfort as it had Sophie years before. However, the painting becomes embroiled in a controversy over who is its true owner, and Liv risks everything to keep it.

The story weaves back and forth between Sophie's story and Liv's in an easy to follow way. The descriptions of life during the occupation were so vividly written, I became tied up in them almost the way Liv did in the book as she researched the provenance of the painting. The story is heartbreaking in many ways but also hopeful and satisfying in many other ways.

Jojo Moyes has also written Me Before You and The Last Letter from Your Lover. They are both on my must read list now.

(I just have to add that I really dislike the cover....I don't think it suits the story at all.)

The Husband's Secret by Liane Moriarty

I haven't read any of Moriarty's books before, but after reading this one, I will definitely read her others. It's the story of 3 women whose lives intersect after one of them finds a letter from her husband to be read after his death. She reads the letter while he is till alive and this sets off a series of events that cause her to rethink her whole marriage and it greatly impacts the lives of the other women.

The author made the characters seem multi-dimensional and thus very real in spite of the extraordinary situations they find themselves in. They all face moral dilemmas, and it's interesting to read how they handle that. One main theme that is repeated throughout the story is what a parent will do to protect his or her children.

This was a great read. I couldn't put it down. I don't think I would have reacted the same way the characters did, but it was fascinating to read about them.

Someone Else's Love Story by Joshilyn Jackson

I enjoyed this book a lot. The story is written mostly from the point of view of Shandi, a young single mother who is held hostage in a convenience store hold-up, along with her son and 3 other people. She becomes entwined in the life of William, one of the hostages, who was able to save their lives. We learn in the beginning that Shandi has been drugged and raped and has a child as a result, and William is suffering from the loss of a wife and child. As a result of their close to death experience, both she and William are able to face their pasts and move in new directions in their lives. Shandi is a smart, quirky character who becomes neither overly helpless or ridiculously independent.

The story grabbed me right from the start as Shandi is staring into the barrel of a gun, and I had a hard time putting it down. Not only did I want to find out what happened and how everything turns out, but the writing was so much more than just a simple stating of the facts.

I will definitely look for the author's other books

Imperfect Pairings by Jackie Townsend

This is the story of Jamie, who works in finance for a large company in California and is trying to achieve partnership in the firm. She meets and begins an affair with Jack who is an engineer with a company that Jamie's firm is working with. Jack is Italian, but has been in America, going to school and working, for 10 years and hardly ever talks about his heritage. Jamie is a driven, fiercely independent woman working hard to reach her goals. Early on in their relationship, Jamie travels to Italy with Jack for the wedding of his cousin. While there she realizes the large cultural divide that exists between her and Jack, as he morphs into Giovanni, his true Italian self. Back in the US, Jack wants to earn his green card but it is a long process. Jamie suggests they marry temporarily to help speed things along, even though marriage was not something she ever envisioned for herself. The two live together, but Jamie doesn't acknowledge to anyone that they are married.

 

The story progresses from here as Jamie and Jack go back and forth to Italy and Jack/Giovanni becomes more and more embroiled in the family vineyards and wine business. It seemed to me that what mostly happened throughout the book was that Jamie gradually gave up all her own existing hopes and dreams to mesh with the new life Jack had chosen for himself. I never did quite 'get' the attraction between the two. Jack was very cool and remote and spent most of his time with Jamie belittling her. I failed to see how she found that endearing. 

 

I did read the entire book. I wanted to see where it was going and how it would end. The ending wasn't as satisfying as I'd hoped it would be, but in general I think the book was well written. The exploration of differences and misconceptions between the Italian and American customs and cultures was interesting. I just didn't like what happened with the main character, Jamie.



The Son by Philipp Meyer

A family epic focusing on 3 generations of the McCullough family in Texas from the 1830's to the present. It is the story of Eli who was captured by the Comanches who brutally murder his family. He lives with them for several years, returning to his roots when the tribe dies out. It is the story of his son, Peter, who suffers moral dilemmas over the murdering of Mexicans by his family. It is the story of Jean Ann, Eli's great granddaughter, who struggles to carry on the family traditions in a man's world.

The book begins with Jeanne Ann at age 86 lying injured on the floor of her home with her life passing before her eyes. From there the story switches back and forth in time and among the 3 main characters. As a result it was sometimes difficult to follow. I often had to go back and double check who was being written about and what year it was. At least there was a family tree printed in the beginning.

There is a lot of fairly graphic violence in the book, but it didn't seem gratuitous. The author was pretty good at presenting the points of view of not just the whites, but of the native Americans and the Mexicans as well. They all seemed equally good/bad. One group would conquer another, and then be conquered themselves.

I didn't find the main characters to be too sympathetic, but at least Peter seemed to have some crises of conscience from time to time.

The book is long, but it was well written enough that I hung in there with it if for no other reason than to find out how it ended.

Vacation Reading

I read several books while on vacation the past few weeks and will post reviews as time allows. Of these, some were the quick read murder/spy mysteries that I can't seem to get enough of on vacation, some were advanced reader copies by new authors, some were new books by established authors, and some were older books that I just hadn't read before. I particularly liked Khaled Hosseini's and Chris Bohjalian's latest books, and an older book by Joseph Kanon, The Good German (I never saw the movie).

Here's the list:

The Son by Philipp Meyer
Nothing to Lose by Lee Child
The Never List by Koethi Zan
Big Girl Panties by Stephanie Evanovich
The Favor by Megan Hart
The Bookman's Tale by Charlie Lovett
The Light in the Ruins by Chris Bohjalian
And the Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini
Somewhere Between Luck and Trust by Emilie Richards
The Secret Keeper by Kate Morton
The Good German by Joseph Kanon
The Last Will of Moira Leahy by Therese Walsh
Blood Orchid by Stuart Woods
Secrets to the Grave by Tami Hoag
Cure by Robin Cook
Hell's Kitchen by David Baldacci