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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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