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last modified July 03, 2008

 

 


Grange House Before air conditioning, Victorian families would travel extensively to spend the summer months in a cooler place.  The focus of the novel “Grange House” is a well run resort home in Maine which hosts the prosperous Thomas family of Boston.  Maisie and her parents have been coming to Grange House for years, so she is familiar with the staff that runs the hotel.  Miss Nell Grange is a shadowy constant presence, although she is not involved with day to day operations.  Instead she lives in the attic and occasionally interacts with the guests.  Her role is uncertain, and she is generally considered to be a poor relation that has simply been provided with a place to stay.

Maisie is at the point when a young Victorian miss will make the biggest choice of her life.  Of course her parents will have a great influence on the choice of the man she marries.  But Maisie is questioning the direction her life is taking.  She wonders if there is more to life than aspiring to being a good wife and mother.  Maisie dreams of being an author like Nell Grange.  These two compare stories and Maisie becomes confused about whether Nell’s stories are fact based or totally imaginary.  Nell gives Maisie what she claims is her diary, but is it?  Is Nell trying to tell Maisie important facts about their families or is she trying to stimulate Maisie’s imagination?

On the day Maisie and her family arrived for the summer of 1896, two lovers are found, drowned with their arms intertwined.  What is their story?  As Maisie attempts to learn what passions inspired them to try to sail away, she also must confront the two men in her life.  One is a staid, serious young man who works for her father.  The other is a committed traveler who sees the romantic in every situation.  Complicating the plot are ghostly children’s handprints that show up on walls.  Is this a ghost story or a romance?  The writing style makes the reader feel they are reading a Victorian novel instead of a modern novel.  Both the actions of the characters and the dialog have the flavor of another time.  The author, Sarah Blake, received her doctorate in Victorian literature. This novel is a successful attempt at recreating a story which might have been read by a daring Victorian miss. [7/3/08]


When Science Goes Wrong, Twelve Tales from the Dark Side of Discovery, by Simon LeVay, is an entertaining look at scientific debacles from the last century.  His book probes whether risks taken during scientific experiments outweigh the rewards.   The topics are wide ranging, and written at a level even a science novice can understand. 

LeVay’s book begins with the story of an accomplished track and field star who was unlucky to acquire Parkinson’s Disease in 1979.  His effort to get the best care took him to China in a last ditch effort to try an early stem cell transplant.  The chapter chronicles the ups and downs of the treatment, and the patient’s ultimate demise. 

Volcanic research is a field that requires scientists to get up close and personal with their subjects.  Unfortunately, a group of scientists studying a volcano in Columbia in the early ‘90s had the worst of luck.  Despite indications the volcano was about to erupt, several scientists descended into the caldera, and were vaporized. 

In 1928, the St. Francis Dam north of Los Angeles was completely destroyed just days after it was officially opened, due to an engineering mistake made by a respected “chief engineer” with little formal education.  The blunder caused the death of hundreds downstream and destruction in the millions of dollars. 

Three men died in January, 1961 at the Idaho National Laboratory, conducting routine tasks to bring a nuclear reactor back online after a hiatus during the Christmas holidays.  The cause of the explosion was determined after the radiation dissipated but the accident’s cause remains a mystery. 

During the height of the cold war in the late 1970’s, the U.S.S.R. was conducting clandestine research in the field of biological weapons, or maybe not.  Over the years, many respected scientists have researched the deaths of more than 40 in Sverdlovsk as a result of anthrax poisoning, but several theories still abound regarding the outbreak’s cause.    

Other scientific mysteries are discussed in detail in the book, from the botched weather forecast of an English hurricane, recent research into the party drug Ecstasy, a CSI-style story about forensics nailing the wrong man, a Mars surveyor lost completely due to a software problem attributed to the wrong units which inadvertently changed the spacecraft’s trajectory, and more.  LeVay’s book is an eye-opener, and makes you think about the ultimate impacts of scientific research. [6/24/08]


Dark Tide Andrew Gross has been a co-writer with James Patterson on several very successful best sellers.  His solo novel “The Dark Tide” begins on the day when Charles Friedman supposedly dies in an explosion at Grand Central Station.  Charles owns and manages his own hedge fund.  He had been a trader on Wall Street, working for a powerful firm, but he left to start his own business.  He was able to take several customers with him and they were enough to enable Charles to earn a quality living for his family.  Together, they all lived the good life.  Charles and his wife, Karen, have two perfect children, Alex and Samantha.  There is a classic Ford Mustang in the garage, color Emberglow.  The vanity plate reads Charlie’s Baby.  The only point of grief in their life was when their Westie dog had been run over the previous week.

On what seems to be the start of a typical workday, Charlie takes the commuter train in from Greenwich, Connecticut to New York City.  Karen is at yoga practice, when suddenly TV bulletins about a fire caused by a bombing at Grand Central Station rivet everyone.  Many families in town have a family member who regularly takes the train into the city, so people worry that they might know a victim.  It is several days before Karen can believe that Charlie is dead.  The devastation at the bombing scene is so great that bodies are unidentifiable.

On the same day that Charlie dies, a young man is killed by a hit and run driver in Greenwich.  Ty Hauck, a police detective, becomes both professionally and emotionally involved in that case.  Ty had accidentally left his car in gear and the vehicle ran over his red-haired daughter.  This victim had the same bright red hair, so that pulled a visceral response from Ty.  He was determined justice would be found for this young man’s death.

Months after Charlie’s death, Karen is visited by two men who threaten her and accuse her of hiding millions which Charlie had supposedly stolen from the hedge fund.  On the anniversary of the bombing, Karen reluctantly is watching a TV special about the event.  The program is very difficult for her to watch, but just as she turns away, she sees a brief glimpse of Charlie leaving the station after the bombing.  What happened to Charlie and what happened to the money?  Eventually Karen and Ty partner in this cliffhanger search. [6/17/08]


The Book of Joe by Jonathan Tropper is the fictional account of the trauma undergone by an author when he writes a novel about his hometown, including thinly disguised local characters.  Joe Goffman left his hometown seventeen years ago and has not been back since.  After college and several years spent in New York City, he wrote a very successful novel about his hometown and his tragic high school senior year.  It even became a movie starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Kirsten Dunst.  Two close friends and a girlfriend were a part of that senior year in both reality and Joe’s fiction.  Joe’s great failure in high school was that he was not on the basketball team.  The Bush Falls Cougars frequently win state championships, so the team is the focus for the entire town.  Joe’s father and older brother had both been team members.  Virtually every town leader had played basketball.  If you weren’t a player, you don’t count in Bush Falls.

Strangely, Wayne, an outstanding basketball player, spends time with Joe.  Wayne is the kind of kid who sees no boundaries.  He makes friends wherever he wishes.  Joe’s other friend is Sammy, a new transfer student.  Sammy tries to be an outsider.  His dress, hairstyle, and musical taste indicate he wants to be in New York instead of suburban Connecticut.  The three boys manage to stay close friends, doing the slightly irresponsible things teenagers do in 1986.  Some of these scenes are hysterically funny and some are unbelievably tragic.

When Joe’s father has a stroke, Joe feels a familial duty to return to his hometown.  Joe now has to face the outrage of the Bush Falls residents.  Although the book had been an outstanding bestseller, it is not popular locally.  On Joe’s first night at a local diner, the wife of the high school basketball coach throws a milkshake at Joe.  Joe’s reunion with his brother, Brad, and the old friend, Wayne, isn’t much happier.  Even the local book club welcomes him back by throwing copies of his novel at the house.  Additional characters that add dimension are Owen Hobbs, Joe’s agent, and Joe’s nephew, Jared.  Jared is leading a new generation’s rebellious teen life, and (gasp) he is not playing basketball.  Joe has a new definition of ancient when he begins to grasp the chasm between his and his nephew’s interests and moral codes.   Lyrics from Bruce Springsteen songs are used to highlight characters’ philosophies. [6/11/08]


Executive Privilege.  Philip Margolin has authored an exceptional read in Executive Privilege, a 2008 release by Harper-Collins. This fast-paced mystery chronicles the steps a President and his entourage might be willing to take to retain the position as “Leader of the Free World.”

This tale begins with two people holed up in a safe house waiting to be heard in an investigation of murder charges being pursued by a special investigator against the President of the United States, and then flashing back to the series of events leading to this moment.

On both coasts of the United States, serial killers have a single unexplained murder amidst their gory kills. The investigation of one jeopardizes the career of a young lawyer doing pro bono work for his firm. Doing research on a potential death row appeal, he learns that the condemned killer, while accepting his death sentence for his acknowledged homicides, refuses to be condemned for a murder he couldn’t have committed. His alibi was never shared at trial, but this innocent is saddled with the gruesome information proving the impossibility. The second anomaly brings a PI too much information regarding a presidential tryst with a teen-ager working for the opposition’s campaign who winds up dead. As the actual serial killer is identified, the copycat has missed a key unreleased piece of information establishing this murder as the product of a different source. The resulting attempts on her life, send her into hiding while attempting to find a long-term solution allowing her to live.

The twists and turns take the reader from the scenic Williamette River to a dumpster in downtown D.C. pursuing the truth about an out-of-control, above the law triangle, which looks much different to its adoring public than it does when all is exposed. An incumbent President on the campaign trail, his devoted, newly pregnant wife and the long-time friend who has cleaned up his messes before, share a secret that binds them together in protecting the presidency and endangers anyone outside of the circle who knows it.

How far does loyalty go? What price would one pay for their ultimate prize? When money and power combine is anyone safe from its clutches? Margolin’s grasp of legal, political and investigative nuances melds with believable characters to create a riveting read challenging the reader to answer those questions.

This page-turner has you certain you know how it happened until the final turn unlocks key details that only the murderer would know leaving one gasping at the identity of the improbable culprit. [6/3/2008]


The Office of Desire by Martha Moody.  Martha Moody writes about a background in which she functions.  The author of “The Office of Desire” is a practicing physician in a medium sized Ohio town.  The office of the novel is a small internal medical practice made up of two physicians and three medical/clerical staff.  Their office building is directly across from an Ohio mall, so leaving the parking lot can be very difficult at Christmas time.  The office is run by the ABC’s, three people who become close friends while working in the small office.  In a compact working environment, the workplace becomes an extension of family, where everyone has a certain role to play.  Alicia, the office nurse, is a single mother.  She has been through two failed marriages, but devotedly focuses on her brilliant teen-age son.  Brice is the office manager, who lives with his elderly mother.  Caroline, the office receptionist, is a cancer survivor who has an artificial leg.  She is the center of the emotional action, trying to hold together the interrelationships as the choices made by everyone destroy their previously cordial working environment.  Dr. Hap Markowitz and Dr. Will Straub met in medical school and drifted into practice together.

 The novel is written using alternating voices of Hap and Caroline who are the more detached observers of the group.  The smooth working relationship is damaged when the newly divorced Dr. Straub becomes sexually involved with Alicia.  They quickly marry and office dynamics change radically.  Tension develops between the two doctors over billing procedures.  Dr. Straub wants to increase the practice’s financial yield because Alicia demands that he send her son to an expensive debate camp.  We get to learn how billing codes and the amount a doctor earns will differ based on the questions we are asked by our doctor.  The two doctors even argue about whether or not a patient should be charged specifically for cleaning out ear wax.

 Soon the marriage is in difficulties and Dr. Straub becomes involved with a fundamentalist church.  Caroline, who has had some commitment issues, starts a new relationship with a 72 year-old patient named Fred.  Both Brice and Hap must deal with serious health problems of their mother and wife, respectively.  These are all changes that cause the participants to stop filling each others needs.  The nuances of their close friendships are lost.  Staff no longer has time for each other.  When the personal connections are lost, something very precious is destroyed. [5/28/08]


Windy City: A Novel of Politics by Scott Simon sounds like it might be a boring rehash of Chicago politics, but it definitely isn’t that.  Scott Simon is an award winning print journalist who has covered the world’s hot spots from 911 to Kabul to Cuba.  Much of his work has been with NPR, but he has also worked in TV journalism.  In 1977, he joined NPR as the Chicago bureau chief.  In this novel he gives the diversity which makes Chicago such a vibrant town, a humorous tweak. 

The main character of the novel is Sundaran “Sunny” Roopini, a Chicago alderman of the forty-eighth ward.  His mentor has been the mayor of Chicago, a hysterically funny character who loved the sport of politics, food, and language.  He explains his appetite for sampling the food of whatever part of Chicago he finds himself in by saying “A man has to consider the consequences before he keeps his mouth shut.”  No politician can be accused of not liking someone’s food.  That commitment to avidly sampling any offered foodstuff causes the mayor to develop a routine.  After eating so many things which he may not have liked, he would reward himself at the end of the day with an extra large, extra cheese and prosciutto pizza from Quattro’s.  Then one night he is found in his office, dead, face down in his pizza.  It is quickly determined that he has been poisoned by his pizza.

 Sunny had been the vice mayor, so he now becomes the interim mayor for two days until the City Council can select a new mayor.  He is the owner of an Indian restaurant and is currently the single father of two teen-age daughters.  A year ago his wife was killed when she was a bystander at a hold-up.  The family is still trying to work through their grief.  As Sunny guides the council while they juggle for supremacy in the choice of a mayor, he must cope with the search for the mayor’s murderer and deal with a US District Attorney who is trying to indict almost any one of the aldermen.  The multiculturalism of Chicago is parodied by the names of each of the aldermen.  Virtually every one has been given a name that would easily identify the ethnic make up of their ward.  Almost every page of this book has a funny line, but it still is a loving portrait of Chicago.  [5/20/08]


Hard Call written by John McCain with Mark Salter, is an exploration of decisions made by influential people who had the power to change either political or cultural history.  Perhaps McCain has focused on what a book called “Profiles in Courage” did for John Kennedy’s reputation and has hoped to duplicate that positive spin for himself.  McClain and Salter do a credible job of a book that can be read as entertaining social history. Their premise is that there are six qualities usually present when the best decisions are made.  Awareness, timing, foresight, confidence, humility, and inspiration must be present to make a good decision.  Each discussion of a significant change in the world focuses on the presence of these factors, and accents how one or two qualities, present or not, takes the decision on to success or failure. 

At the very beginning of the book, McCain literally walked through one of the more consequential decisions he made in his life.  As a fighter pilot, he was familiar with what is called “situational awareness”.  This is the ability to fully evaluate everything that is happening to the plane and its surroundings.  On his last combat run in Vietnam, he admits his ego developed to a point where he felt he could mistakenly depend on luck. 

The events that led to the peace agreement between Egypt and Israel were a matter of timing.  Anwar Sadat of Egypt and Menachem Begin of Israel had each known so much violence and destruction both personally and in their country’s history.  They were each ready to attempt to secure a level of peace for their country.  Although they represented countries that had suffered so much, they were able to conceive of peace, not despite their history, but because of it.  The peace these two leaders created between Egypt and Israel has endured.  The time was right.

I thought the most historically interesting segment was the chapter about King Gillette and the invention of the safety razor.  I had no idea that the use of a straight razor was so difficult.  Infection from a slight nick in the skin was also much more dangerous in a time before antibiotic creams.  The success of this product depended on the ability to see the advantage of a safety razor and the progress of technology which enabled sharpening machines to produce a blade thin enough to be disposable. [4/29/08]


The Romanov Prophecy by Steve Berry is a historical thriller that features the restoration of the Romanov dynasty in post-Soviet Russia.  Miles Lord is an African-American lawyer working in Moscow for an Atlanta law firm representing the interests of Stefan Baklanov, a possible claimant to the tsarist throne.  Lord is suddenly a victim of a murder attempt, possibly by the Russian mafiya.  He has no idea why anyone would attempt to kill him.  He had been researching archival material about the Romanov family and had discovered a letter from Alexandra, the tsarina, which described a prophecy of Rasputin concerning the fate of the Romanov family.

Nicholas and Alexandra, the Romanov tsar and tsarina of Russia, and all their children were assassinated by the soviets during the revolution in 1918.  Their only son had been the victim of hemophilia, a bleeding disease that was untreatable at that time.  The only person who seemed to offer the family some hope was Rasputin, an uneducated monk.  The influence which Rasputin had over the imperial family disgusted the aristocracy and he was assassinated by Youssoupov, a cousin of the imperial family.  Miles Lord’s job is to thoroughly investigate Baklanov, a distantly related Romanov, to make sure there are no negative blots on his claim.  There are wheels within wheels, so Miles has no idea who is promoting Baklanov’s claim.  Communism has been a failure and the Russian people are ready for an imperial restoration.  A Tsarist Commission has been appointed to select a new tsar and Baklanov is a strong candidate.  The mandated check and balance is that all the seventeen commissioners must agree on a choice. The commission requires that the successful claimant must meet several criteria of the laws of tsarist succession.  Any pretender must be male, as long as there is an eligible male.  He must be Orthodox, his mother and wife must have been Orthodox.  Any marriage must be to a woman of equal rank from a ruling house.

As Lord crosses Russia searching for documentation about any of the tsarist family who may have survived the assassination, he is joined by Akilina Petrov, an acrobat with the Moscow Circus.  The novel is an absorbing mix of genuine Russian history and the supposition that direct descendants of the Tsar may still be alive.  Even Faberge Easter Eggs provide clues.  If you have never heard of these eggs before, I think you will research them after you read this novel. [4/29/08]

 

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