Absolute Proof by Peter James

When journalist Ross Hunter opens his door, he didn't expect to find an older man who insisted he had to talk to him.  When he invited him in, he definitely didn't expect the man to tell him that he had the key to absolute proof that God existed and that he needed Ross to help him publicize the news. 

Ross is leery but after talking to others and researching the man's background, he agrees to at least check out the first clue the man presents him.  He does so and finds the coordinates for an amazing treasure, a cup buried in a hidden chamber on a religious site that could be the actual Holy Grail.  Soon the chase takes Ross around the world to other countries chasing more artifacts and trying to find out the truth.

But there are those who don't want him to succeed.  Representatives of many of the world's oldest established religions want to either buy the proof or find a way to suppress it.  Businesses chime in, hoping to make a fortune off Christians who will buy anything associated with their Savior.  There are break-ins and frightening messages and soon, several murders as those against the possibility pull out all the stops to keep Ross from finding the truth.  Can he push through to the truth?

Peter James is known for his mysteries starring Detective Roy Grace.  This is a different theme for him and the reader is hurtled around the world as Ross attempts to solve the mystery and decipher the way his own life will work out going forward.  Readers may feel that the book is a bit repetitive as it seems to take Ross quite a bit of time to figure out that he is in danger and decide what to do but the ending is thought provoking.  This book is recommended for readers of thrillers with a religious or historical background.

Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward

In her third novel, Jesmyn Ward portrays a poor family in rural Mississippi.  The family is African-American.  Living in the house are the grandfather, who is the patriarch of the family and his wife.  Their daughter, Leonie, lives there off and on, disappearing for days on end either working or doing drugs.  Her two children, Jojo and Kayla, regard the grandparents as their parents and have little regard for Leonie.  Finally, their father, Michael, shows up occasionally.  Michael comes from the white family that lives next door.  He and Leonie haven't married but have the two children.  They can't live with each other or without each other and have a tumultuous relationship.  As the book opens, Michael is about to be released from prison.

Jojo is thirteen and trying to learn all he can about being a man.  His hero is his grandfather and he tries to be just like him.  His white grandfather will have nothing to do with him even living as closely as he does due to Jojo and Kayla's black heritage.  Jojo learns to be a man though stories.  There are the stories of his uncle, Given, who was killed by a member of Michael's family.  There are the stories that his grandfather tells of him time at Parchman prison, back when it used the prisoners as the next thing to slaves.  There are the stories about the boy his own age caught up in Parchman, Richie, and his relationship to Jojo's grandfather. 

Jesmyn Ward has given the reader an intimate look into the lives of this family and the hurt and love still caught up in racial relations in the United States.  Most of the individuals in the novel are just doing the best they can to get by, often hurting those around them as they try to make a life they can live with.  It is an indictment not only of the state of racial relations but the poverty that exists in the United States and that most people have little experience of.  This book was a winner of the National Book Award, (Ward's second win of this prize) and a New York Times Top 10 Notable Book.  This book is recommended for readers of literary fiction.

Booksie's Shelves, December 26, 2018

Tis the day after Christmas, and what do I see?  A lovely stack of books, for me, me, me!  Christmas time is always a dangerous time in the life of a bookophile.  What else could one possibly want as a present?  What could be more delicious than sitting inside on a cold, dreary day and reading the hours away?  Why are so many good books published and put on sale at this time of year?  All these things have my stacks overflowing.  Here's what's come through the door:

1.  Unsheltered, Barbara Kingsolver, literary fiction, a gift
2.  The Witch Elm, Tana French, mystery, a gift
3.  Delicate Edible Birds, Lauren Groff, anthology, purchased
4.  Where The Crawdads Sing, Delia Owens, purchased
5.  The Perilous Adventures Of The Cowboy King, Jerome Charyn, historical fiction, book tour
6.  The Feral Detective, Jonathan Lethem, mystery, purchased
7.  Murder Once Removed, S.C. Perkins, mystery, sent by publisher
8.  The Death Of Mrs. Westaway, Ruth Ware, mystery, gifted
9.  The Night Before, Wendy Walker, mystery, won in contest
10.  Becoming Mrs. Lewis, Patti Callahan, literary fiction, sent by publisher
11.  If, Then, Kate Hope Day, literary fiction, won in contest
12.  Manhattan Beach, Jennifer Egan, literary fiction, purchased
13.  The Complete Sherlock Holmes, read by Stephen Fry, anthology, purchased
14.  The Female Persuasion, Meg Woltizer, literary fiction, purchased.

Here's what I'm reading:

1.  Rembrandt's Eyes, Simon Schama, hardcover
2.  Autonomous, Annalee Newitz, Kindle Fire
3.  Sing, Unburied Sing, Jasmyn Ward, hardcover
4.  Absolute Proof, Peter James, audio
5.  Foundryside, Robert Jackson Bennett, Kindle Fire
6.  The Children's Crusade, Ann Packer, hardcover
7.  The Luminaries, Eleanor Catton, Kindle Fire
8.  Quietus, Vivian Shilling, paperback
9.  The Monster In The Box, Ruth Rendell, hardback
10.  Cold Granite, Stuart MacBride, hardcover
11.  Sunstroke, Jesse Kellerman, hardcover

Happy Reading!

The Liar's Wife by Samantha Hayes

Ella lives a very restricted life.  She goes to work, works all day without socializing with her co-workers, rides her bike home where she spends her evenings alone, reading or doing embroidery.  She wants more but knows the scandal in her past prohibits that.  For all she knows, she is wanted by the police and if she isn't, she wants to stay under the radar so that she isn't.

Then it happens.  On the way home one dark, rainy night, a van comes out of nowhere and the next thing Ella remembers is waking up in the hospital where she is informed of her injuries and the lengthy recuperation she'll need.  But don't worry, the nurses tell her.  Your husband can take care of you.  With that, Ella raises her eyes and sees a face she never thought she'd see again, a face she thought she had killed one night all those years ago.

Although she denies being married to him, her objections are seen as part of her injuries and as soon as she is ready, she is sent off with the man she dreads seeing more than anyone.  Jacob has done everything to make sure his second chance at a life with Ella will work; he has bought a new house and furnished it with everything they need, including a security system that works to keep Ella prisoner during the days while he works.  He even makes friends with the neighbors to keep up the facade.  Ella realizes that it does no good to make waves and decides she will have to escape by her own wits.  Can she do that before her past catches up?

Samantha Hayes has written a psychological thriller that will make the reader squirm.  It is an impossible situation but is laid out in a way that makes it imaginable, although revolting.  Ella is determined to save herself no matter what happens and the introduction of a co-worker who has missed her and wants to help adds another dimension.  This book is recommended for mystery readers.

The Rise & Fall Of Great Powers by Tom Rachman

We meet Tooly Zylberberg as an adult.  She runs an independent bookstore in Wales.  To say that Tooly had an unconventional upbringing would be an understatement.  She remembers living in Hong Kong with her father, Paul, who loves birds and computers and doesn't seem to know what to do with her.  She is spirited away by Sarah, a free spirit who claims to love Tooly more than anything in the world while ignoring her for days on end; the last person one would trust to raise a child.  In actuality, Tooly spends her days with Humphrey, an elderly Russian man who loves books and Tooley and not much else, who cannot give a straightforward account of his life and looks at the world askew, a viewpoint he shares with her.  Then there is Venn.  Venn is a charismatic man who all the others revolve around.  He travels the world, making friends quickly, then leaving them when they discover that he isn't who he seemed to be and that his real mission was to con them out of their money.  Tooley grows up around these people, not attending school and learning mostly how to remain separate from others and to use them for her own gains.

When a former boyfriend tracks Tooly down over Facebook and informs her that her father (as friends think Humphrey is) has fallen on bad times, Tooley decides that it is time to discover the truth about her life.  She flies to the United States and indeed, finds Humphrey in a bad way, living in a decrepit rooming house and rarely leaving his room.  She tracks down Paul and Sarah and finds out their piece of her story.  It is only when she reunites with these companions of her youth that she comes to realize that the stories she has believed all her life were false and that the truth of how she came to be an adult is largely based on ideas she generated as a young girl adrift in the world.  Will she be able to find the truth at last?

This is a wonderful novel and will be in the top five of the year for me.  It is filled with marvelous characters and the reader is entranced with Tooley's journey to find her truth.  The reality of her life is so different from what she has always believed that one must reexamine their own truths to see if memory and childhood explanations have hidden truths for years.  This book is recommended for readers of literary fiction.

Gathering Prey by John Sandford

When Lucas Davenport's daughter, Lettie, meets two Travellers in San Francisco, he doesn't think much about it.  Lettie had listened to them playing music, and when they weren't getting much money for their mediocre performance, offered to buy them a meal.  They accepted and she talked with them a while about their lives traveling the country, making it by doing whatever they could to keep going.  She gave them contact information and told them she was about to head home for the summer to Minnesota and if they ever got there to give her a call, never expecting to hear from them again.

But she does.  She gets a call from the woman, Skye, who is distraught.  Her partner, Henry, had disappeared while they were out West.  He didn't show up at their agreed meeting place and she's heard rumors that he got caught up with a group headed by a shadowy figure who calls himself Pilate.  Pilate has a group who follows him and travels with him, dealing drugs and women and committing violence for the fun of it. Skye is afraid that the group may have harmed Henry.   Lettie fronts Skye the money to get to Minnesota and introduces her to Lucas.

At first Lucas is wary but soon realizes that the group may be in Minnesota or the neighboring states and that they are involved in several gory murders.  Now they are in his territory and even worse, are on the periphery of his daughter's life and perhaps she is in danger from them.  Can Lucas pull together the resources of several states in order to capture this modern Charles Mason and his followers?

This is the twenty-fifth book in the Prey series.  Lucas is getting older and less likely to care about the rules of the bureaucrats he works for.  Some of the more recent books in the series have seemed a bit cookie cutter but this one is intriguing and a real page-turner.  This book is recommended for mystery readers.

The Waters & The Wild by DeSales Harrison

When Father Spurlock is approached in his church by the young woman, he suspects that she might be one of the street people who come there for help.  She has come for help but he cannot provide what she needs.  The woman seems to think that he has something for her, some papers she needs.  When he states that he has no knowledge of any papers, she disappears with no way to contact her again.

Several days later, Spurlock does receive papers.  It is the papers of a psychoanalyst named Daniel Abend and it is a confession of his life and that of his daughter.  Abend has recently had a patient commit suicide; one that he thought he had helped.  Father Spurlock had performed the eulogy at the young woman's funeral and that is where Abend meets him and decides that he is the person who can help him in his time of need.

For it turns out that Abend's patient had not committed suicide but been murdered, and worse, that the person responsible may have Abend's daughter who left home as a young woman.  The story is revealed slowly, over months, to Abend, and as he gets a clearer picture, it becomes evident that he has an enemy.  This enemy has harbored hate for Abend for many years and is determined to get revenge.  In order to protect his child, Abend is forced to relive his own youth and the mistakes that were made in it and to understand how those mistakes are coming back to impact his life.  Can he resolve the issues in time to save his daughter?

DeSales Harrison has written a debut novel that will resonate with readers long after the last page is turned.  The mystery is slowly revealed, ratcheting up the suspense with each new revelation.  Harrison himself studied psychoanalysis as a student and is currently a professor of poetry and the director of the creative writing program at Oberlin College.  He has written a novel that readers will not soon forget.  This book is recommended for readers of literary fiction and psychological suspense.

Absent Friends by Frederick Busch

In this anthology of fourteen stories, Frederick Busch explores how individuals deal with the missing parts of their lives, whether they attempt to rediscover it, to move past it, to be crushed by it or to move on to discover something else to take its place.  In the first story, From The New World, a man deals with the fact that his family will never accept the woman he loves and will try to control him even from beyond the grave through their money and influence.  In the last story, To The Hoop, he deals with a man and his son who are dealing with the aftermath of their mother and wife committing suicide and choosing to leave them.  Between, the dozen stories talk about loneliness, the aching to belong and the lengths individuals will go to in order to fill the voids in their lives.

Frederick Busch is known as an author's author; he is respected by those who know writing and are amazed at his ability to eloquently outline the human condition.  He has written several anthologies and several novels such as The Night Inspector or Girls.  This fifth book of stories is dedicated to Reynolds Price, another author who falls in the same category of a writer admired by other writers.  Busch was a professor of literature at Colgate University and a winner of the 1991 PEN/Malamud Award for short stories.  This book is recommended for readers of literary fiction.

Border Child by Michel Stone

Life is hard for Hector and Lilia in Oaxaca, in southern Mexico.  Hector works long hours at a physically tasking job in order to provide them a living.  Lilia looks after their toddler and is about to give birth again.  She works as a potter as the women in her family always have in order to make a little more money.  It's a hard life, not the one the pair had dreamed of as young lovers and then a young married couple.

Their dream was to go to the United States, where work was more plentiful and the money was much better.  Hector went first and found a job in South Carolina which was too far away for him to visit.  Lilia decided to follow him but when she reached the border her coyote said that he wouldn't take her across with her baby, Alexandra.  Instead, he would take her and his friend, a woman, would take the baby and meet them across the river.  Lilia didn't like the plan but had no other resources so reluctantly agreed.  She made it across the river by swimming but the woman never came to the agreed meeting place.  When Hector met up with her, they spent frantic days searching but there was no word and no trace of their baby.  They reluctantly moved on to South Carolina to make money to extend their search.  They were ultimately arrested and deported back to Mexico.

The loss carved a hole in their marriage.  It was almost impossible for Hector to forgive Lilia for her foolishness that had cost them their child.  Now, with a son and another baby about to be born, they have reached an equilibrium in their marriage.  It isn't the same as it was when they were young, but it has its joys along with its difficulties. 

Then a miracle occurs.  They find the man who arranged their passage with the coyote.  The coyote was killed in a car wreck so there can be no answers from him about their Alexandra but they discover that a woman and a baby were also in the wreck.  The woman was also killed but the baby survived.  Was that woman the one Lilia trusted with Alexandra?  Did Alexandra survive and if so, where was she now?  Hector immediately prepares for a journey to find out what happened three years ago and if Alexandra is still alive to rejoin their family.  He leaves Lilia, heavily pregnant, behind as they search for the missing piece of their family.  Will they be successful?

Michel Stone has written a moving account of why families immigrate and the perils they face as they do it without the legal protections that exist for legal immigrants.  Those who come illegally are at the mercy of whomever they meet, to provide work, to keep their secrets, to not cheat them or take too much from them.  Sometimes, tragedies occur and may rip families apart.  The reader feels for Hector and Lilia and their child who is torn from them.  This book is recommended for readers interested in current events.

The Innocents by Ace Atkins

Things are different for Quinn Colson this time around at home in Jericho, Mississippi.  Colson has been in and out of the Army serving as a Ranger for a decade, reupping whenever home causes issues.  The last time Quinn was home, he was the Sheriff but he lost in the reelection.  He's thinking about going back to Iraq but as a contractor this time.  But things are pretty hot at home also and he's got to decide if he'll stay and help out there or go back overseas.

The new sheriff is a woman, Lillie Virgil.  She seems to have things under control or at least until Fannie Hathcock moves into town and takes over the local nude bar.  She uses a motorcycle gang to serve as enforcement and the whole scene is getting out of control.  When a former high school cheerleader is found murdered gruesomely after a short stint at Fannie's place, tempers run high and Lillie finds she needs help and offers Quinn a job as deputy.  Together they try to find out what happened that night to the girl and who was behind it.

This is the sixth novel in the Quinn Colson case.  Readers will appreciate him; he is a salt of the earth, decent man who takes care of others and does what he can to make his country better, whether its serving in the military or helping out back home.  Colson has issues but they don't stop the reader from liking him.  The mystery of what happened to the cheerleader is interesting and the bigger crime that is uncovered in the process is surprising.  This book is recommended for mystery readers.

The Missing by Chris Mooney

Darby McCormick is a typical teenage girl, at least until that day in the woods.  Darby and her friends, Stacy and Melanie, are headed for their party place when they come across a man killing a woman.  They escape, but somehow the killer tracks them and before everything is over, Stacy is killed and Melanie is kidnapped.  Somehow, Darby manages to escape her friends' fate.

Twenty-five years later, Darby is now a criminologist with a doctorate in forensic investigation.  Her work gives her a way to silence the fears left behind from the trauma in her past.  That is, until another girl is kidnapped the way Melanie was.  Determined to find this girl, Darby, her partner Coop and the FBI soon determine that the case is bigger than one girl.  In fact, this is a serial killer the FBI has long called The Traveller, and he is responsible for murders going back thirty years.  In fact, it becomes apparent that he was the man from Darby's past, although another man was held responsible for those crimes.  Can Darby find the killer and put her past behind her?

This is the first in a series of eight thrillers starring Darby McCormick.  Although the formula is now common, with shows like Criminal Minds and podcasts and documentaries about true crime, its commonness does not take away its power to terrify.  This is a chilling book about a diabolical killer and the reader will be compelled to turn the pages until the resolution is complete.  This book is recommended for mystery readers.

The End Of The Wasp Season by Denise Mina

Alex Morrow's job as a homicide detective in Scotland is difficult enough.  But working the job while being pregnant with twins is another level of difficulty.  Alex is about to go out on maternity leave but the call comes in of a murder so she goes out to investigate what may be her last case before she leaves for the break.

It's a horrific crime.  A young woman, home to settle her recently deceased mother's estate, has been found in her childhood home.  The victim of an apparent home invasion, she has been brutally beaten to death.  Alex and her staff find some clues to go on, but when it is discovered that the woman made the money to care for her mother through prostitution, sympathy for her and interest in her case decreases.  Alex knows that's not fair but its life.

In addition to working the crime, Alex is especially challenged by this crime.  Interviewing witnesses brings her back to her childhood and her childhood friends.  Alex got out of the projects; most of her friends did not.  Even more troubling, the gangster brother she has distanced herself from is back in her life, asking for favors.  Can she balance all these issues while providing justice for the victim?

This is the second in the Alex Morrow series by Mina.  Readers will be drawn to Alex and the way she is singularly engaged in the work she has chosen.  Mina uses the novel to make points about family dysfunction and how our pasts influence our presents.  This is more of a police procedural than a mystery and its always interesting to see how police work is done in different locales.  This book is recommended for mystery readers.

Welcome Thieves by Sean Beaudoin

In this anthology of twelve stories, Sean Beaudoin explores everyday life from an offbeat, darker point of view.  Beaudoin made his mark writing YA novels but these stories show that he is an expert at working his way into adult minds and minds that aren't the ordinary ones.  These are minds at the edge of society and the situations he narrates are not your everyday normal occurrences.

In And Now Let's Have Some Fun, the reader is transported into the world of professional boxing.  In D.C. Metro, we meet Penny, who is renting a room and trying to go straight but who falls back into destructive habits she can't seem to escape.  Exposure is about a tenement apartment house and its inhabitants.  The Rescues take us inside the world of a collegiate lacrosse player after he has sacrificed his body for his sport and is left at an early age to figure out the rest of his life.  In each story, there is an offbeat aspect but also a human commonality that lets the reader feel that we are truly all connected, that there are emotions and experiences we all can relate to.  This book is recommended for literary fiction and anthology readers.

Something For Nothing by David Anthony

All Martin Anderson wants is what he doesn't have.  Yes, he has a beautiful wife, but the neighbor's wive is more enticing.  Yes, he has a business where he sells planes and an ocean cruiser and a racehorse but he desperately needs money.  He's sure he is going broke, that everyone is always talking about him, that there is something out there, just out of reach, that will finally satisfy him.

When his horse trainer approaches him with a get rich quick plan, Martin is ready to listen.  The business isn't doing that well in the oil crisis of the 1970's, and Martin just needs a cash infusion to ride it out until things get better.  His partner, Val, has just the thing.  The DEA is cracking down on heroin brought in from Mexico.  The border checkpoints are getting harder and harder to get product through.  But Martin could fly down, load up the heroin and bring it back.  He doesn't need to do anything else and he can make five thousand for every trip.  Martin isn't sure but then agrees.  What can go wrong?

Apparently, lots can go wrong.  Martin is consumed with guilt about his role, sure that the police will show up any day.  When a DEA agent does show up, to ask about a plane he sold a few months before, Martin is thrown into a panic.  His marriage is having issues and his son isn't sure Martin is the hero he has always thought he was.  Can he pull it out before everything is lost?

David Anthony has written an engaging debut novel.  Martin is a character who the reader knows is doing wrong but can't help emphasizing with and liking.  The drama goes slowly from event to event until it is snowballing down the cliff, taking the reader along.  Although the situations are dire, humor is found throughout and Martin, the ultimate Everyman, gets the reader's sympathy.  This book is recommended for thriller readers.

Tropic Of Cancer by Henry Miller

Inspired by my resolution to read more classic novels and by the fact that the author Henry Miller played a part in this season's Durrells in Corfu PBS series, I pulled this novel off my shelf one afternoon.  An account of Miller's life in Paris after deciding that the United States was soul deadening, it was banned in this country for thirty years due to its explicit, sexual nature.

For many people, Miller does not come off well.  He is broke, his days spent roaming the sidewalk cafes and poor hotels searching for friends who might buy him a meal.  His friends are mostly in the same straits; searching for food, money and of course sex.  Miller has left his wife behind in the States and the fact that he is married has no effect on his constant searching for women.  He and his friends have little regard for the women they sleep with, describing them in crude terms and treating them with little regard.

Although one may not have wanted Miller as a friend, his ability as an author jumps off the page.  The writing is vibrant and immediate and the reader is transported to a Paris the tourists don't see.  It is one of poverty but freedom, the freedom to make a life that is what an artist needs. It describes men and women who are willing to live in poverty to have the freedom to carve out lives that matter, that allow them to freely express who they are.   It is obvious why this novel is considered one of the classics of literature and the language and attitudes don't seem any worse than much of what is commonplace in books and movies today.  This book is recommended for literary readers.

Murder In Hindsight by Ann Cleeland

They make a strange couple.  Kathleen Doyle is a sheltered, Irish Catholic girl who joined the police but retained her innocence.  Chief Inspector Michael Sinclair is also Lord Acton, one of England's wealthiest heirs.  They work together on the London police force and when Acton sees Doyle one day, he instantly falls in love with her.  He is actually obsessed with her and quickly convinces her that they must marry.  Now each is famous in their own way.  Acton has long been a darling of the press, his aristocratic background a major story in every situation.  Kathleen becomes a media darling when she jumps from a bridge to save her partner from drowning. 

A new case has come to light.  There is apparently a serial killer at work, one who has gone undetected for a while.  His victims follow no pattern of race, gender, social class or means of execution so there has been no connection.  Doyle, who Acton has put on working cold cases to keep her safe, makes the connection that each of the victims were individuals who had committed a crime themselves and escaped without legal consequence.  There is a vigilante on the loose. 

In the meantime, Acton's actions have made him a target for a shadowy figure.  He has, at times, taken the law into his own hands, and is, in fact, a vigilante who has killed before himself.  Now there is apparently a plot to get back at him and he has plenty of secrets to hide.  Can Doyle solve the murders while discovering how to save her husband?

This novel is the third in the Doyle and Acton series.  The characters are interesting but there are serious flaws in them.  It is hard to engage with a policeman who decides that the laws don't apply to him and who takes the lives of others when he decides it is best.  The worst thing that can be said about the characters is the author's insistence that everyone who meets either of them immediately falls permanently in love with them.  For Doyle, that is her partner, a shadowy figure mixed up in the plot against her husband and of course, her husband.  For Acton, it includes a journalist, a former lover at his ancestral home and every woman who comes in contact with him.  The couple have constant sex, several times daily, and yet constantly question if each other really loves them.  These flaws, if corrected, would make this a more engaging series.  This book is recommended for mystery readers.

Autumn by Ali Smith

Elisabeth grows up a lonely child.  Raised by a distracted and at times neglectful single mother and having little in common with most children, Elisabeth spends most of her time alone.  That is, until she meets her neighbor, an older gentleman named Daniel Gluck.  Daniel is literate and witty and knows things about the world that her mother would never think of wanting to know.  Her mother isn't sure about him but comes to depend on him as single mothers do with those near to them that are willing to help.

Despite an age gap of seven decades, Elisabeth soon finds Daniel to be one of the central figures of her life, giving her things to consider and think about she had never imagined and opening her life.  Daniel loves art and literature and music and he exposes Elisabeth to all of that.  In particular, he loves the work of a sixties female artist named Pauline Boty and that is the subject that Elisabeth eventually chooses as her doctorate dissertation. 

The novel picks up again when Elisabeth is 32 and Daniel is 101 and living in a care facility.  Elisabeth goes to see him regularly although he is in a type of coma and only sleeps while she is there.  She still goes regularly, reading aloud to him and reminiscing about their time together.  She is now a part-time art lecturer and is trying to form a closer relationship with her mother.  She uses her time sitting with Daniel to think about her life and put it into a form she can understand.

This is the first of an anticipated four book sequence.  The form is loose, like the ramblings of a mind left to ponder things in unguarded moments.  Along the way, Smith talks about how she finds the world or at least her corner of it, after Brexit, with a government who doesn't seem to care about its people, about how art can speak to us when we are straining for connection.  It was nominated for Best Book Of The Year by such publications as The New York Times, Kirkus Reviews, The Guardian, NPR, and The Washington Post.  This book is recommended for readers willing to think about what their lives mean and readers of literary fiction.

Booksie's Shelves, November 17, 2018

It's almost Thanksgiving, which is one of my favorite holidays.  It's about family and food, not as much about commercialism or tons of decorating.  All in all, it's a pretty low stress holiday.  My son and all four grandkids are coming this year for the first time; my daughter will be coming home from college and DH will be here as well.  My plan is a big meal, followed by football and reading.  To aid in the reading, here's what's come through the door lately:

1.  Love Can Be, anthology, sent by publisher
2,  Grace After Henry, Eithne Shortall, literary fiction, won online
3.  Astounding, Alec Nevala-Lee, nonfiction, sent by publisher
4.  The Librarians And The Pot Of Gold, Greg Cox, thiller, sent by publisher
5.  Death's Favorite Child, Frankie Bailey, mystery, sent by publisher
6.  Roar Of The Sky, Beth Cato, fantasy, sent by publisher
7.  In Defense Of Guilt, Benjamin Berkley, mystery, sent by author
8.  Golden State, Ben Winters, literary fiction, won online
9.  The Dogs Of Christmas, W. Bruce Cameron, anthology, sent by publisher
10.  Mechanical Animals, anthology, sent by publisher
11.  The Winters, Lisa Gabriele, literary fiction, sent by publisher

Here's what I'm reading:

1.  Rembrandt's Eyes, Simon Schama, hardcover
2.  Autonomous, Annalee Newitz, Kindle Fire
3.  The Templars, Dan Jones, hardcover
4.  Absolute Proof, Peter James, audio
5.  The End Of The Wasp Season, Denise Mina, Kindle Fire
6.  The Children's Crusade, Ann Packer, hardcover
7.  Something For Nothing, David Anthony, paperback
8.  Welcome Thieves, Sean Beaudoin, paperback

Happy Reading!

The Devil's Half Mile by Paddy Hirsch

When Justy Flanagan returns to his hometown of New York, he is changed from his time in England.  He left an angry young man, uneducated and ashamed of his family ties to one of the most powerful underbosses of the city.  His father had just died and he knew he wanted something else, something more.  That same underboss, his uncle, had paid for Justy's time abroad and his education as a lawyer.  Now Justy has returned with a mission, to find out who was responsible for his father's murder.

Justy didn't just get a legal education during his time away.  He also spent time with the fledgling French police who were starting to approach crime and detection in a forensic manner.  Flanagan is fascinated with the ability to scientifically arrive at the truth.  He feels that his return will be profitable on both a financial and a personal level.

At first glance, not much has changed in 1799.  His uncle still rules the waterfront.  The same financial scalawags who almost crashed the nation's economy are still at work, although it took Alexander Hamilton to rescue the nation's economy the last time they plotted to enrich themselves at the expense of everyone else.  These financiers are ensconced on the Devil's Half-Mile, or Wall Street.  Justy is able to work his way into their company with his new legal skills and connections.

He soon discovers things are not much better.  Girls are being killed and discarded.  Crime is still rampant everywhere and his best friend, Kerry, has turned to street crime and maybe worse.  Kerry has also grown up and is now a beautiful woman, not the pesky tomboy that followed him everywhere.  Justy realizes that the same men are back to their financial tricks, a modified Ponzi scheme that has the ability to trash the entire economy.  Can Justy prevent their schemes while avenging his father?

Paddy Hirsch has created an intriguing figure in his main character, Justy.  America's colonial times and the start of our government and institutions is under a revival with plays such as Hamilton and TV shows about the era.  The mix of historical fiction and thriller is a potent one and readers will enjoy the mix.  This book is recommended for mystery and history readers.

Flight Behavior by Barbara Kingsolver

Dellarobia Turnbow is the first person to see them.  Thousands, maybe millions of brilliant monarch butterflies who turn the mountain on her husband and in-law's farm to molten gold.  What are they doing there?  Are they a miracle sent to brighten her life?  Is God speaking to them all?

Dellarobia could use a miracle.  She sees nothing but tedium ahead of her in her rural Tennessee life.  She married early to a kind man who she will never love and the best they have been able to do in life is to live on her in-laws land in a house the in-laws built them and under the in-laws thumb.  She had hoped to be one of the first to get out, to go to college but an early pregnancy put paid to all that.  Now there is no work and little money, just a constant scrabble to pay the bills and provide for her two children.  She is under her mother-in-law's rule and that means going to church whenever the doors open and doing whatever she's told.  What does this beauty mean in such a tattered, hopeless life?

As the word of the butterflies gets out, things start to change.  A team of scientists come to study the butterflies and what this change in their migration pattern means.  Dellarobia gets to know them and to work for them as a general manager to the college students who come to volunteer.  She is surrounded by people who have science as their base knowledge and who see this as a cautionary event, not a wonderful thing.  Her son is entranced with these new people and Dellarobia sees him stretching and growing and starting to see possibilities that she is determined to find a way to give him.  Her in-laws are not happy and the townspeople aren't sure what to think of all the tourists.  The church hasn't weighed in but Dellarobia knows that may be the determining factor of everything in this area that is so connected to it.

Barbara Kingsolver's novels often use literature to illustrate the way our world is changing and the dangers of how civilization and the consumer society threaten our world.  She uses natural wonders to illustrate the themes of science, responsible behavior and the ability to use knowledge to transform lives.  This book does all that and the reader will find themselves both appalled at what is happening and cheering for Dellarobia to make the changes that will enrich her life.  This book is recommended for readers of literary fiction.