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August 30, 2010
Fiction
The latest installment in the series of thrillers with Seattle lawyer David Sloane finds our hero about to win a huge malpractice case against pediatrician Peter Douvalidis for the death of a young boy. Sloane should be ecstatic, but he has doubts about the case; despite his performance in court impugning the doctor's skills, he doesn't really believe that the doctor caused the death. When a crazed-looking man shows up outside the courtroom with a sheaf of documents he claims prove the doctor's innocence, Sloane is even more conflicted. It turns out the agitated man is Kyle Horgan, the toy designer whose creation was responsible for the boy's death; his design was changed by a greedy toy company out to minimize costs and maximize profits, uncaring about safety. Sloane tries to contact the toy designer to get more information, but finds his home torn apart, and Horgan nowhere to be found; someone wants to make sure that the truth is never uncovered. Sloane must find out what really happened before a ruthless assassin gets to him and his family. This is an exciting and fast-paced thriller with plenty of action; readers who like Gregg Hurwitz or Stephen White should try the Sloane series.
Tolstoy's famous observation about unhappy families is illustrated in this novel. Winnie McClelland and Jerry Trevis, two people in their seventies, have fallen in love and decided to marry and begin a new life together. However, Jerry's family is horrified when moves from Chicago, where he is a rich businessman, to upstate New York, where he buys a mansion for his new wife. Jerry's daughter Annette sues her father to take control of his business empire and protect her inheritance, while Winnie's daughter Rachel asks Jerry to lend her money for her husband's medical expenses as he recovers from a head injury. Added to this volatile mix is Annette's son Avery, a recovering addict and chef who dreams of opening a restaurant (bankrolled by Jerry, of course). The situation becomes more complicated when the relationships between Jerry, Annette, Avery, and Jerry's new step-family develop in unexpected ways, and everyone discovers that money may not be the most important thing they are fighting over, after all. The lovely writing and detailed, convincing characterization make this debut novel something truly special.
In this hilarious re-imagining of the Beatles saga, John Lennon is a zombie and aspiring rock guitarist who decides to start a new band by killing and re-animating Paul McCartney, and then recruiting young zombie George Harrison and Seventh Level Ninja Lord Ringo Starr to complete the group. On their way to the top, they literally fight off rival bands and musicians (like vampire Pete Best and zombie killer Mick Jagger), feast on the brains of their fans, and make great music. When Eighth Level Ninja Yoko Ono attacks, the band's own inner rivalries and conflicts threaten to tear them apart; will they stay together and go on dominating the charts for eternity? This horror mash-up continues the trend started by Pride and Prejudice and Zombies; it's a laugh-out-loud funny and imaginative alternative version of the Beatles story.
Aspiring author Nancy Markopolis is writing her first novel, based on the life of her much-loved late father. When she is invited to join the Leopardi Circle, a writer's group that includes several successful writers, Nancy is excited, and somewhat surprised at the offer. She is uncertain that her work is up to the group's standards, and insecure about how she will react to the group members' opinions of her writing. As Nancy gets to know the other members of the Circle, the complexities of their relationships emerge; Bernard, a somewhat pretentious writer of biographies, and his ex-wife Virginia, the group's mother hen, have not figured out how their new situation will play out. Chris, a divorced man who writes bestselling thrillers, is trying to be a good father to his sons, despite the animosity of his ex; and the youngest of the group, Adam, is obsessed with his unrequited love for Gillian, a brilliant and successful poet whose coldness is as evident as her talent. Nancy's presence acts as a catalyst, forcing the group members to re-examine their work, their lives, and their relationships to each other. Demas is very effective at creating distinct viewpoints and voices for all of the characters, and this close-up view of the creative process of writing is fascinating. Readers who like Karen Joy Fowler or Anna Quindlen will want to try this one.
After graduating from college in 2003, the author was at loose ends, looking for meaning in her life. As the child of two atheists, she had explored various religious traditions, but Islam seemed to resonate most closely with her; however after the incidents of September 11, 2001, Wilson was uncertain that she wanted to embrace that faith. She went to Cairo to teach English at a high school there, and was surprised at how well life in a Muslim country suited her. She learned Arabic and immersed herself in Egyptian culture; she even found romance with Omar, one of the other teachers at the school. Wilson beautifully evokes the feeling of being a stranger in a completely unfamiliar place, and how it feels to be both embraced and rejected by the culture you have decided to adopt. This memoir provides unique insight into the Muslim world for American readers, and illustrates how the things that unite us as human beings are more important than the things that divide us.
According to a recent survey of Americans, public concern about global warming has decreased significantly since 2008; the percentage of people who are worried about global warming, who believe that it is real, and who believe that human activities have caused it, have all declined sharply in the last two years. What caused this shift in public opinion? Pooley, the deputy editor of Bloomberg Business Week, spent three years investigating the controversy around climate change theory; he spent time with people in all areas of the spectrum of opinion, from leaders in the coal industry to radical environmental activists. Pooley discovered that contrary to popular belief, there is strong consensus among scientists that global warming is real, and is a grave danger to the future habitability of Earth; the doubt can be traced to a group the author calls "the Denialosphere," made up of people and groups that have a vested interest in preventing change and avoiding stronger environmental regulation. The author examines how and why this state of affairs has happened, and analyzes the political dimensions of the battle over climate change. Whatever your position on climate change, this book is well worth reading; Pooley has written an informative, absorbing, and well-researched book about a vitally important topic.
The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom of August 28, 1963 was an amazing moment in history, a gathering of hundreds of thousands of people focused on achieving social justice. The march took place one hundred years after the Emancipation Proclamation, President Lincoln's directive ending slavery in the Confederate States; a century later, true racial equality still seemed very far away. The most celebrated moment of the march came with the "I have a dream" speech of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., but there were many other moments, both public and private, that helped chart the course of the Civil Rights movement. The march's organizers, Bayard Rustin and Asa Philip Randolph, wanted it to be a peaceful demonstration of how ordinary people of all ethnicities supported the aims of the movement; the 250,000 people who attended came from all over the country, by plane, bus, car and even on foot, to participate. Euchner documents the celebrated events with King, John Lewis, and other notables, but he also interviewed hundreds of others, creating an oral history of the event as it was experienced by those in the crowd. This is essential reading for anyone interested in American history.
It has been reported that modern-day terrorists have studied the ideology and methods of nineteenth-century anarchists, communists, and nihilists; these included Russians Mikhail Bakunin and Peter Kropotkin, French Communards Louise Michel and Henri Rochefort, and even some Americans. They advocated the creation of a utopian individualist state, where everyone could do as they pleased without the oppression of laws and social rules. As the struggle to enact their ideas intensified, some became disillusioned and began to use violence-assassinations, bombings, and other such tactics-to try to achieve their aims. The governments of Russia and other nations fought back by creating secret police, infiltrating the movement to destroy it from within, and often running roughshod over their citizens' civil liberties. Butterworth paints a fascinating, in-depth portrait of a social and political movement that began with lofty goals, but drifted into chaos and violence; he also demonstrates how the response of those in power failed to stop these terrorists, and has some interesting observations on the relevance of this history to our own times. This excellently written, well-researched, and gripping book is essential reading for anyone seeking a deeper understanding of the phenomenon of terrorism.
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