Shangri-La

The success of Unbroken led me to explore more true WWII stories and I found this one - Lost in Shangri-La by Mitchell Zuckoff. A transport plane crashes in the wilds of New Guinea with 24 US soldiers, including WACS, aboard. The three survivors - one beautiful, injured WAC, a burned man with a vicious head wound, and a lieutenant whose twin brother died in the crash, must survive in the uncharted and inaccessible jungle, surrounded by cannibals, until they are found and rescued. Totally good one. Complete with real pictures of naked women and men with penis gourds.

Trex Recommends

Ghosts of War by Ryan Smithson, a Columbia High grad who went to Afghanistan as a 19 year old GI. Tristan really liked this and I learned from it. It was written in very simple language, explaining basic Army terms and abbreviations. Not too gory and sad in spots but not overwhelmingly so. I kept thinking it was a YA book, but it wasn't.

In return, I gave him Dave Pelzer's A Boy Called It and was very pleased that he zipped right through it. It is such a great story. He is now readinga Walter Dean Myers' war story about Fallujah which I brought him from the lib.

Joyce recommended a YA book that I also liked: Revolver by Marcus Sedgewick. Set at the turn of the century in Alaska, a teen must cope with the freezing death of his father and a murderous stranger who invades their small isolated home in the wilds.

Finally finished Love is the Best Medicine, a vet's story by Dr. Nick Trout. Sort of a "pick up and read a little now and then" kind of dog book.

I attempted to read Lisa Scottoline's bestseller Save Me and found it totally insipid, bad dialogue, improbable situations, unlikeable characters. A popcorn read for the brain dead. I abandoned it.

Mem Day Reading - two

Emily, Alone reinforces Stewart O'Nan creds as a master storyteller, one who takes an unfortunate backseat to such popular less talented writers such as Grisham. O'Nan has a unique ability to expound on subjects he couldn't possibly have experienced (as in a woman's perspective) as he does in this novel of an aging widow. It is a timely study as we Boomers are approaching this stage of our lives and excellently done.

I also read a little known nonfict account called Death in the Barrens by George Grinnell who, as a college student in the 50's completed a horrific, ill-fated canoe trip across Northern Canada. Not particularly well written but nevertheless very readable, I enjoyed it.

Albany, O Albany

I always like novels set in the Capital District and this is no exception, made especially desirable by the fact that author Vincent Zandri will be here at the library in June. Zandri's new protagonist in the Concrete Pearl (yes, downtown Albany, Pearl Street)is Ava "Spike" Harrison, a tough-as-nails female construction company owner, battling to save her late father's business in the face of an asbestos scandal and murders. I love the references to the area - APL, Miss Albany Diner, etc., and the presence in the story of Tess and the Lark Tavern. Intend to ask how a writer goes about fictionalizing a real person, name and all. Permission? I read this on my Kindle and was distressed by the grammatical errors. Who to blame for that? I am eager to meet Vincent and ask some questions.

A Drop of the Hard Stuff

Sometimes I wish I drank alcohol becuase I find this title particularly attractive. It is a Matt Scudder novel and a good one, as he approached his first year sober and finds him enmeshed in a complicated and threatening multiple killer investigation. Lawrence Block is a dependable writer and I like Scudder.

Not spectacular

what the night knows - Dean Koontz Too supernatural for me. Cop and family assailed by the presence of a long-dead killer.
Crunch Time - Diane Mott Davidson Same old, same old.

Easy Reads for a Hard Week

Sandra Brown is always a reliable storyteller and she came through with tough customer which was easy to get in and out of as I suffered from insomia and worried about my nephew. It was not only a killer/stalker tale, it was a neat love story with some echoes of my own life in it.

i'd know you anywhere is told in flashbacks, a technique I'm not fond of. The situation is: Elizabeth, kidnapped at 15, held for 6 weeks, released by abductor who has previously killed his victims. Twenty years passes, name change, marriage, two kids, Elizabeth starts recieving communications from the incarcerated killer. And, for reasons which the author (Laura Lippman) attempts to explain, the victim responds. I was not thrilled with this book on several levels.

However, I am pretty happy with Rebecca James' Beautiful Malice, although it also was told in flashbacks. A psychopathic "friend" exploits a young woman's guilt over the rape and murder of her younger sister. This "friend" is truly frightening and wrecks havoc in many lives. Read this in a matter hours. Can't find any more by this author, but I'll be watching.

Boys of the Dark

Unbelievable true story of the Florida School for Boys in Marianna, FL - a house of horrors where children from 6 - 17 were hogtied, handcuffed, flogged, raped and murdered from its inception in 1900 through the 2000's. Many people were aware of what was happening there and no one cared enough to expose it and put a stop to it. Eventually the hidden graves of over 30 nameless boys were discovered in a nearby woods. This book was the collaboration of Robin Gaby Fisher and two of the survivors who were finally able to confront the impact their incarceration there as children had on their lives. A group of these men became known as the White House Boys, finally met, and were acknowledged as the victims of terrible atrocities for which no one was ever prosecuted.

See also my review of The Bone Yard, the fiction account which started me researching this story. (April 11 post)

Swamplandia

This is a really weird story by Karen Russell. I got halfway through it, decided to abandon, then kept reading. Swamplandia is an alligator wrestling park owned by the Bigtree family who are not real Seminoles, but talked themselves into believing they are. Grandpa is in a home, mom who swims with alligators dies young, the tourists stop coming, son Kiwi runs off to the mainland, as does the Chief who just leaves his two girls alone on this creepy island in the Everglades where the 16 year old falls in love with a ghost and the younger one traipses off with a Bird Man to the underworld to look for her sister. Strangely engaging.

Fourth Day

Charlie Fox' love life is beginning to resemble that of Meredith and Derek on Grey's Anatomy and it is annoying me. If she and Sean don't stop this on again/off again business, I'm going to stop reading. Charlie is too riddled with issues. Zoe Sharp produces a very readable story, but there was something amiss in it for me that I can't quite put my finger on. It was refreshing that the "cult" leader Bane was not portrayed as a total wacko, but the character was not totally believable; the same could be said for truly heartless government agent, not that I have a problem believing in government evil. I always get confused with complicated double agents/double talk/double plots and this was like that.

Mystery - not

Jonathan Kellerman has made a little too much "mystery" out of this mystery. The plot turns out to be a little far-fetched and not that interesting. Starts off nicely with Alex and Robin on a date night at an old hotel/nightclub and is very readable until the end disappoints. Milo reigns.

Smith's Tavern Contest

http://www.altamontenterprise.com/Weekly%20Archives/2011/04-07-11/New%20Scotland1Tavern%20hosts%20contest.html

Florida Catch Up

Did a lot of Florida reading on vacation, all on my Kindle, which proved a trusty traveling companion. I finished Unbroken (see separate post),The 7th Victim by Alan Jacobson, and Baltimore Blues by Laura Lippman. Jacobson was a new author for me and one I would read again. Lippman came through with a very good Tess Monoghan story.

Castle and Cannell

I expressed my deep sorrow over the death of Stephen Cannell last fall and was delighted this week to hear him mentioned on the TV show Castle. Cannell made regular cameos on the show at Castle's Thursday night writer's poker game, whose players were Michael Connolly, James Patterson, Dennis Lehane, Cannell and Richard Castle. When a new writer attempted to take the empty seat at the game, Connolly informed him that was Cannell's chair and no one could sit in it (for at least one year). Made me smile.

Night Vision - Randy Wayne White

Doc Ford is not normally a really exciting type of guy. This episode in his laid back Sanibel life proves to be loaded with extreme characters, and reveals more of the marine biologist's tough-guy background than ever before. Much of the book is about the "bad" guy Harris Squires, a 'roid rage bodybuilder who cooks meth and feeds dead bodies to his pet alligator. When Harris disappears with a twelve-year-old Guatemalan refugee who channels Joan of Arc, Ford's hippie friend Tomlinson urges their involvement in finding the girl. But...does she need rescueing?

Unbroken

Totally mindblowing non-fiction by Laura Hillenbrand. See Best Books entry.

The FIfth Witness

I waited a long time for my name to come up on the list for this Michael Conolly courtroom drama starring Mickey Haller, Bosch's half brother.. Enjoyed every minute of it.

The Bone Yard

It is amazing the amount of stuff I've learned from fiction books. This one by Jefferson Bass led me investigate the Florida Home for Boys, which was a real facility on the FL panhandle with a long history of abuse and murder of the young men in it's charge. I visited the Whitehouseboys.com webpage and found it crammed with accounts of this notorious institution. The book itself is a total page-turner.

TIck Tock

Mike Bennett. Cop. Widower. 10 kids, all adopted, one Irish nanny with whom he is falling in love, Irish grandfather. From his "vacation" on Long Island, Mike is running back and forth to Manhattan to deal with a sick, sick killer who is re-creating famous crimes of the past. Other complications include the arrival of his old romantic interest from the FBI and a family of bullies who are terrorizing his kids. Short chapters, likeable characters, fast moving, but not a deep read. Typical James Patterson who I keep vowing to stop reading.

The Night Season

Kirkus is calling Chelsea Cain “the new queen of serial killer fiction” and I agree. Archie Sheridan remains the hero cop in this timely drama of the Willamette River flooding Portland, first uncovering, then complicating, the search for a man who kills in a weird and unusual way. I won't gvie it away but it is pretty scary. Archie’s friend Henry becomes the victim of an attack, as does pink-haired Susan the young reporter whose relationship with the older cop seems to be developing. Also entangled in the story is the appearance of a kidnapped boy and some survivors of a 1948 flood which wiped out most of another Wasington town. It is a great page-turner which wraps up all the loose ends in a satisfying manner.