Reader Review: "Memorial Days"

 

 

by Ann E Beman (Kernville, CA): People of the Book is an all-time favorite novel, and I love Horse as well. But now Australian author Geraldine Brooks has written the most compelling memoir about grief I've yet read. Yes, of course it's sad, achingly so at times. But for the most part, I found myself feeling hope and appreciation for her departed husband, the writer Tony Horwitz. Brooks found the ideal form with which to frame her memoir, and to give space to her grief. The memoir is told in dual book-of-days timelines, one that excavates from the moment she learns of Horwitz's death on Memorial Day 2019. This alternates with her day-by-day account of the time she spent three years later holed-up in a shack on Australia's remote Flinder's Island. This is the space and time she devoted to mourning. It's beautifully intimate and candid and also informative about various cultural grief rituals. It's also a call for the US medical-forensic establishment to rethink their shitty practices. It's well done, and I hope writing it helped Brooks. I imagine it will help others.

 

 

 

 

Reader Review: "The Cyclist"

 

 

by Labmom55 (York, PA): The Cyclist is the second in the DI Cross series and I enjoyed it as much as the first. Cross is somewhere on the Aspergers spectrum, but he's making an effort to learn the social niceties from his partner, DS Ottey. In fact, kudos to Sullivan for not making Cross a caricature. The reader sees how Cross is trying, but it's not a straight line of told once, mission accomplished.

This time, a dead body is found in a warehouse about to be demolished. The first job is discovering who the victim was. Once that was accomplished, Sullivan throws up multiple red herrings about why and who might have been involved. That said, I thought it was pretty obvious from early on who the murderer was and how it would all play out even down to the final twist. But even with that, I still really enjoyed this.

Cross is a fabulous main character but it's Ottey that I was most taken with. She's determined to make the partnership work, but that doesn't mean he doesn't test her patience. Most of the humor is based on the relationship between the team members. I recommend this one for fans of police procedurals.

I listened to this and it worked really well. John Heffernan did a good job as the narrator.

 

 

 

 

Reader Review: "The Covenant of Water"

 

 

by Anthony Conty (Parkville, MD): "The Covenant of Water" by Abraham Vergese sat on my bedside table for two years, as its intimidating size and depth made me nervous. It was worth it for me. There is enough going on to justify the length. A true sign of a great writer is when they make the story engaging before everything comes together and jells.

The plot, which you could find anywhere, deals with a family with a mysterious death by drowning every generation, resulting in 77 years of love, suffering, dramatic events, and severed family ties. Multiple story lines will make you miss characters when they are gone for too long. Even Digby, technically an adulteress, will arouse your empathy as he experiences unspeakable tragedy.

Philipose is another character who will make you sad as he struggles with deafness and the family's water curse. His knowledge of how to manage his abilities reflects how people who are hard of hearing persevere and behave differently from the rest of us. He becomes a parent and makes mistakes as a husband and parent that most may recognize.

Reading reviews written by others shows an unnatural focus on length. People consistently drudged through the 715 pages. That aspect did not bother me, given the many timelines to finish, though it is a fair point to consider when accounting for taste. My thumb stays up because Vergese does not linger too long on any one topic and thoroughly explains his premise.

When I read works by the greats, I often say, "I could never write like this." Vergese also finds a way to assure you that you could not be a doctor either, based on his character's health struggles. The levels here are beyond any book that you would randomly pick up, and, yes, you should pick it up.

 

 

 

 

Reader Review: "The Overstory"

 

 

by Cathryn Conroy (Dublin, Ohio): I thought this book would be a challenge to read. And it was. But not for the reasons I anticipated. I thought would be big, bulky, and dense. After all, it did with the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction in 2019. And it is big. And little bulky. And somewhat dense. But the challenge I encountered was closing the book so I could deal with real life.

Wow! Just that…wow! This is a book unlike any other I have read.

First, there are stories. So many stories. Gripping, compelling, and captivating stories. Stories I wanted to keep reading to find out more…find out how they continued…and eventually how they ended.

And then there are facts. So many facts. This is one of those novels that is really nonfiction at its core, but it's disguised in the stories so you don't realize at the time how many facts you're learning.

Masterfully and creatively written by Richard Powers, this is the story of trees. Don't let that dissuade you. This is one of the best books you'll ever read. A plot description is far too difficult to write. Instead, we have characters—nine of them—and their stories that define this book. Some of their stories intertwine, as tree roots do deep within the ground, and some only glance upon each other, barely touching, as tree branches do.

The characters: • Nicholas Hoel: The descendant of men who loved chestnut trees, Nicholas is the last in the line on the family farm in Iowa. And when I say last, I mean it…the last one. He is a talented artist.

• Mimi Ma: The daughter of a Chinese immigrant, Mimi becomes an engineer, but all her genius and business acumen is for naught when a stand of pine trees she loves is destroyed and her life changes forever.

• Adam Appich: A brilliant graduate student, Adam is researching his dissertation in social psychology when his field work encounters a glitch: He crosses over the line.

• Ray Brickman and Dorothy Cazaly: He loves Dorothy. She is fiercely (fiercely!!) independent. But their lives are forever changed with a tragic development.

• Douglas Pavlicek: A Vietnam veteran whose life was quite literally saved by a tree, he becomes incensed when the city is summarily cutting down pine trees for future development.

• Neelay Mehta: This boy genius creates a video game that makes him one of the wealthiest men in the world, but a childhood accident has left him paralyzed. The trees talk to him.

• Patricia Westerford: Hard of hearing, a little odd, but brilliant, she is changing the world with her discovery that trees communicate with each other.

• Olivia Vandergriff: After a near-death experience as a senior in college, Olivia turns into a different person. She hears voices from the trees telling her what to do—and she does it.

This is a novel about trees and their interconnectedness to each other and us. It's impossible to read this book and not look at trees differently. It's impossible to read this multifaceted, original, and imaginative book and not want to immediately plant a tree. Trees are a miracle.

 

 

 

 

Reader Review: "All the Colors of the Dark"

 

 

by Labmom55 (York,PA): Was a huge fan of We Begin at the End, so I couldn't wait to read All the Colors of the Dark. I hadn't realized what an undertaking it would be, clocking in at 608 pages. I can't say it was a fast read, but it was such an engrossing read that I didn't mind the length. At the start of the book, it's 1975. A man attempts to kidnap a teenage girl and a young teenager intervenes. He ends up being taken instead. It's a story of the have and the have nots, the obsessed, hope and despair. But mostly, it's about what we will do for those we love.

The plot is character driven, with each of the three main characters driven by their own hopes and demons. Saint is being raised by her grandmother. Her only friend is Patch, a poor one eyed boy who believes himself a pirate. When Patch saves Misty, the daughter of one of the town's wealthiest families, Misty becomes obsessed with him and sees him as her savior. All three of them are damaged by the events. I was totally engrossed in their lives and where things would end up for each of them. But I also loved Sammy and Charlotte. His exploits and her language were priceless.

The writing is beautiful, poetic really, and I found myself highlighting multiple passages. It's a fine line between a book that is philosophical and one that tries to cram philosophy down your throat. This is the former. Every time I put the book down, I found myself still thinking about it. And I loved the ending which brought a few tears to my eyes. Another reviewer (thanks Adrian) mentioned the fairy tale feel of the book and I totally get it. There's a bit of a magic realism feel to Patch's early art and his search for Grace.

My thanks to Netgalley and Crown Book for an advance copy of this book.