Three Weeks With My Brother

written by Nicholas Sparks

My friend Kellie loaned me this book and talked me into giving Nicholas Sparks a second try. This is his first nonfiction book, and I will admit, I did like it better than his smarmy novels. There's some candid, touching stuff here as he tells some stories about his childhood, set against the backdrop of a travelogue from a current-day trip that he embarks on with — you guessed it — his brother. His style still irritates me, though.

Of note:

• The byline includes Sparks' brother Micah, but the entire book is told only from Nicholas' perspective. I find that kind of weird. I kept expecting to hear from Micah, but that never happened.
  
• Sparks calls this "a memoir." I'm sorry, but the guy's only thirtysomething! Is he really entitled to use the word "memoir" when his life isn't even half over yet?
  
• It was fun to read about some of these brothers' childhood antics, especially because they grew up around the same time as I did. The parenting styles and cultural trends of the early and mid-seventies are certainly things that I identify with.
  
• Even in his nonfiction, Sparks is guilty of oversimplifying just about everything! Case in point: he tells of how his son seems to have some form of learning disability or autism or something, and scads of respected medical professionals couldn't agree on a diagnosis or effective treatment. So what does Sparks do? He basically just pulls the kid up by the bootstraps, spends hours on end "working with him" and by third grade the son ends up being pretty much normal. Huh? Anyone with a special-needs kid knows that life just isn't that simple! You don't solve a learning disability by just "working with" the kid more, or harder.
  
• Sparks seems to have a perpetual need to to puff himself up, sending the message that his biggest fault is that he just can't quit accomplishing so much. Check out this self-important statement about one of the more difficult periods in his life: "Somehow, despite all that, I squeezed in time to earn a black belt in Tae Kwon Do, lift weights, and jog daily. I continued to read a hundred books a year. I slept less that five hours a night..." (And he did this all while writing a sizeable collection of very simplistic but bestselling novels, each of which he carefully and clearly mentions by name, several times.) Looking past all the overachieving, I see a dysfunctional dad/husband/workaholic who just seems driven to write more books and make more money.
  
• There is some pretty enjoyable humor here, though if you're super-sensitive to cultural propriety, there might be some stuff that offends you. In some of their travels, the two brothers come off as dorky, juvenile, overgrown nine-year-olds swept up in a lot of buffoonery, with no appreciation for foreign cultures. (Micah, for example, gets busted for lying down on a sacred ritual stone at a Mayan ruin and asking to get his picture taken.)
  
• There were some kind of aimless ponderings about God and faith, but they didn't materialize into much. Sparks seems to have a vague sense of devotion but can't quite seem to close the loop on why God should matter - to his brother or to anyone else.
  
• The recounting of the loss and pain this family has experienced is memorable. I think any person will empathize with some of the difficulties Sparks experienced through the death of his parents and his sister.

The Innocent Man

written by John Grisham

There was a time in my late twenties when I went on an "extreme Grisham" kick and within the span of about a year, read every book he wrote. No small feat, considering I had a newborn at home to contend with back in those days, and there was precious little spare time for reading (or anything else!) in my life.

So now, just for old time's sake, I try to keep up with the newest stuff he comes out with. This one was published in 2006, so I was a little late getting around to it. It's his first-ever nonfiction book. It tells the story of Ron Williamson, a man whose life was pretty much ruined when he was wrongfully convicted of a brutal rape and sent to death row.

Of note:

• Grisham makes some important and disturbing points just by telling Williamson's horrific story. If even half of the stuff about the mishandling of William's case is true, I fear for anyone who finds themselves at the mercy of our criminal justice system, which is apparently ruled by the good-old-boy network and is deeply riddled with heinous flaws and injustices.

• His storytelling is really plain Jane in this book — quite lackluster compared to the drama and suspense you find in his fiction. Maybe it's because he gets so bogged down in the details of the story, or maybe it's because he didn't want to poison the well by inserting his own dramatic twist on this appalling real-life story. But I felt he could've been a lot more engaging. Parts of the book seemed to drag on and on; it became a bit of a chore to keep reading. In some areas he repeated himself. I came away believing that Grisham's should really stay with his forte: fiction.

• Why on earth are the pictures inserted in the middle of the book? The photos and their captions totally give away the ending of the story! That was really annoying. If you plan on reading the book, force yourself to bypass the pictures till the end.

The Human Stain

written by Philip Roth

When this book caught my eye at the library, some murky corner of my memory told me that I'd heard of it (or was it just the movie by the same name?)... anyway, I vaguely remembered it being acclaimed by ... someone, I don't know who. After reading the back cover, I was intrigued enough to check out the book: it details how a dean at an upper-crust New England university gets ousted for purportedly being a racist, despite the fact that his secret and shocking personal history "would astonish his most virulent accuser." In a nutshell (spoiler warning!), he's actually black — but because his skin and features are not profoundly African-American, he has spent most of his adult life passing himself off as a white man with Russian Jewish roots.

Kind of an interesting premise, but I generally did not like this novel. One reason was that Roth's writing felt quite laborious to me (sentences spanning several lines - enough to send a technical writer running)... but the bigger reason I disliked it was because there was just too much offensive vulgarity. And before you accuse me of being too prudish, I need to say that yes, I do get the fact that modern literature usually has a hefty dose of sexual themes. But this book just contained far too much desperation and sleaze for me. The main character, Coleman Silk, reminded me a lot of the protagonist in Disgrace, by J.M. Coetzee: an intelligent, mature, seemingly respectable man who, just under the surface, is disturbingly immoral. Still, like the Coetzee book, there were some pockets of great writing that did make me want to keep reading.

Of note:

• I could not get a clear picture of Faunia Farley, Coleman Silk's mistress. She seemed like an utterly unknowable character in this story. Maybe that was the way the author intended it? She was, after all, a woman with a very troubled life and appeared (to me at least) to have some incredibly complex social problems. Maybe her unknowableness was an intentional reflection of that.


• There is a really brilliant section of the book in which Faunia observes and contemplates crows. I know it sounds funny, but I found it to be such a profound and symbolic passage. And then Roth artfully closes the loop on the symbolism by bringing it back in near the end of the book. It was very cool. You have to read it to understand what I mean.


• Coleman Silk has a colleague at the university, a Pariesienne-born female professor, who takes up way too much of this book. She is a sub-plot that feels very unnecessary to me, and the long sections on her foibles really drag.


• Also unnecessary was any mention of Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky. I'm not sure why that had to be a backdrop to the story. It was annoying.

Bottom line: I wouldn't recommend this book. Am I getting cranky? I haven't read any real you-must-read-this books lately...

Once Removed

written by Mako Yoshikawa

I am not above being drawn to a book by its cover. The art on this novel's front, along with its title, made me curious, so I checked it out from the library in hopes that it would be a good summer read. After a few difficult starts (my fault, not the book's - life is just too busy sometimes to get engrossed in a new book without some effort!) I re-started and finished this book while Jay and the kids and I were visiting my in-laws in Maryland.

The story is mainly about a whole bunch of conflicted women. Two of them are stepsisters (Claudia and Rei) and though they forged a deep relationship as children when the dad of one married the mom of the other, the parents divorced when the girls were both 17. The girls consequently drifted apart. The book picks up 17 years later when they rekindle their relationship. The main thread of the novel, though, is not really about Claudia's relationship with Rei, but rather the tension between Claudia and Hana (Rei's mother and Claudia's stepmother).

Of note:

• One of the reasons I found it hard to get engaged in this book from the beginning is because there is such a complicated web of relationships to keep track of: the two sisters, their own natural parents, the parents' former spouses... and then there's also a persistent romance between Claudia and a married man, so you'll need to keep track of his wife and children in the mix. Interestingly, though, this kind of complexity is a reflection of real life, with so many of us being part of blended families and step-relationships.


• The title is clever, given the story line. And like I suspected, the art on the cover does have some significance to the story.


• Rosie (Claudia's natural mother) feels like a flat, incomplete character to me. Even though her role becomes bigger toward the end of the book, we never really get a clear picture of what kind of person she is.


• On the other hand, the author portrays Henry (Claudia's natural father) with great clarity. Her descriptions of his mannerisms and personality were really vivid.


• The author draws interesting parallels between Hana as the "other woman" who broke up Claudia's parents' marriage, and Claudia's own relationship with Vikrum, a married man. I especially found it intriguing that both of these illicit relationships were intercultural.


• There is a lot of looming, unresolved drama surrounding Hana's experience as a girl when she witnessed the Hiroshima bombing. The novel implies that Hana's choice to keep her experience a secret is what led to her marriage dissolving. Huh? I don't get that.


• The back cover of the book is full of hyperbolic adspeak, particularly the last paragraph, which claims that the novel "Tak[es] us from the exotic Japan of the 1940s and '50s, to the verdant English countryside, to the urban streets of Boston..." Come on now! The book is about relationships, not locales! In fact, I had to think hard to remember what part of the book even took place in the "verdant English countryside."


• There are big (and sometimes painful) observations here regarding love, marriage, devotion, and betrayal.

Our Lady of the Forest

written by David Guterson

This was a pretty funky book, the funkiness probably compounded by the fact that I read it in one sitting, immediately after a week-long solo hike on the Appalachian Trail, when my head was still spinning from walking out of the woods and back into the frenetic buzz of civilization.

The novel deals with a homeless teenage runaway named Anne Holmes who, while hunting for mushrooms in a remote area of the Pacific northwest, encounters several Marian apparitions. She confides mainly in two people: a fellow wanderer named Carolyn who doesn't really believe in the apparitions but is excited about the potential financial benefits, and a confused young priest who is struggling with doubt and his role in the church.

Of note:

• I liked the way Guterson develops such a vivid picture of the depressed logging town where the story takes place. North Fork is definitely a gloomy place in need of redemption, and this becomes all the more apparent when Anne's visions create such a swell of activity and hope. North Fork kind of reminds me of some of the towns I've seen in the upper peninsula of Michigan. Towns that have lots of history but are now sadly languishing under economic hardship and loss of purpose.


• The character of Tom Cross, an unemployed logger with all kinds of problems, is intertwined with Anne's visions, but his story felt underdeveloped to me, and his abrupt transformation in the end of the book seems very trite and unsubstantiated.


• The priest in whom Anne confides has a complicated sexuality that I found really bothersome to the story. And yes, I know there's a point to be made here about how those trained and chosen for sacred work (like the priest) are sometimes much less qualified and much less spiritual than mundane but faithful riffraff (like Anne). But the constant references to the priest's issues with lust and masturbation got old.


• I think the book makes an interesting point made about how society is quick to grope for the miraculous, and to turn spiritual phenomena into commercial ventures. Once word gets out about Anne's visions, miracle-seekers from all over the surrounding area start coming out of the wordwork, turning Anne's experiences into frenzied media-worthy events.

A Walk to Remember

written by Nicholas Sparks

In preparing for my June backpacking trip, I stopped at the library in search of some light reading, literally and figuratively. I needed something that wouldn't require too much concentration and wouldn't add too many unnecessary ounces to my backpack. This book met both requirements, so I added it to the small pile of stuff on my ping-pong table that I would eventually shoehorn into my pack (which, incidentally, ended up tipping the scales at a mere 27.5 pounds, even after adding the book).

It was classic Nicholas Sparks - definitely a chick book, and a tearjerker on many levels. If you haven't read any of Sparks' books, think Message In a Bottle, the movie from 1999, which was based on one of his novels.

This story's about an unlikely match between two high-school students in the 1950s: an affable, underachieving boy and an angelic but dowdy and hyperreligious girl. In a sweet but far-too-perfect romance, they end up facing a horrific situation together (spoiler warning): she finds out she has leukemia and has only a short few months to live, but they end up marrying anyway.

Lots of cliche here, to be sure, but if all you want is a quick read and don't mind the schmaltz, it's not bad. As for me, it suited me fine for a backpacking trip (anything that doesn't mention bear attacks or predatory mountain dwellers pretty much qualifies as okay reading) but I don't know if I'll be shopping for more Sparks books.

The Sacred Journey: A Memoir of Early Days

written by Frederick Buechner

This is the first of three autobiographical works by Frederick Buechner. (Although I think he would argue that there's a bit of autobiography in each of his books, even the novels.) It's a very compelling story, this candid retelling of how he came to faith. He strings together bits of childhood memories and recollections of his early adulthood, and in the process points to how many of the events of his life - both the overtly significant ones and the seemingly mundane ones - guided him along a path (without his knowing it) that culminated in his realization of God's active and loving presence in his life.

Particularly powerful, I think (and this is a spoiler, so be warned!) are Buechner's ponderings about his father's suicide. If you have been affected yourself by the suicide of someone close to you, I think you might find his perspective interesting - maybe even healing.

Unlike some of his other stuff, this book is easy and quick to read. You'll find yourself doing a lot of your own self-reflection as you read his impressions and thoughts about God and life. You will see yourself in this book. But you won't feel preached at or proselytized. In fact, if you're like me you'll probably find it extraordinarily refreshing that Buechner doesn't purport to have all the answers to life's hardest spiritual questions; nor does he persuade you to join up with any particular line of thinking, or make you feel less-than-worthy if you disagree with him.

Telling the Truth

written by Frederick Buechner

One of my college literature professors, Jeff Duncan, has been on my mind recently, and here's why. I went on a cleaning rampage last month, one of my chief missions being to reduce the size of my burgeoning library. As I was doing some tough love on the bookshelves, I came across Frederick Buechner's Telling The Truth, which Duncan kindly gave me when I was the ripe age of 21. At that time I tried my darnedest to slog my way through it, and I remember being a bit bewildered and confused, thinking: perhaps one day I'll understand some of what this guy is saying. If memory serves, I don't think I made it through the entire book.

Fast-forward 16 (oy!) years, and there I sat in my home office, trying to decide whether to keep the bloody book or move it on. I decided to give it another try, and whoa. It was somehow both jarring and gentle at the same time. I guess some things are just more compelling now that I "have a little age on me," as my dad used to say.

Buechner spins the gospel in light of human failure (tragedy), the hilarity of God's free gift of redemption (comedy), and the amazing truth of how in the end there is resolution and good really does triumph over evil (fairy tale).

Now I find myself on a steady diet of Mr. Buechner's other works - fact, it's been all Buechner all the time around here lately, and for that I have Duncan to thank. It's funny how sometimes God starts a little something in us and then waits around patiently — sometimes years! — while we dilly-dally, drinking nothing but milk for far too long but then finally one day accepting a few morsels of solid food.

I'm so grateful not just for the book Duncan gave me, but that he had the guts to give a flighty, self-absorbed student something to ponder. It took me a while, but I'm pondering now.

Blue Like Jazz

written by Donald Miller

This book came on recommendation from my friend Dave. Every Tuesday morning, Dave and I supervise the dropoff area at our kids' school while solving most of the world's problems in about 30 minutes. One of our favorite woes to discuss is how the church (universal) has become pretty dogmatic and in many ways irrelevant to the rest of society. Hence this book.

The author, Donald Miller, wrote this book as a commentary on "Christian spirituality" - which he carefully differentiates from what you and I think of as mainstream evangelical Christianity. He equates Christian spirituality to jazz music, saying that he never used to like jazz because "it doesn't resolve." But after exeriencing God in a multitude of ways outside of the usual boxy white-bread evangelical Christian paradigms, he comes to know and love Jesus in a different way. A way that still "doesn't resolve" but is embraceable nonetheless.

Of note:

• The premise of this book is sort of "Velvet Elvis lite." Which is pretty arrogant for me to say, actually, now that I think about it, since I haven't even read all the way through Velvet Elvis yet. (Jay has though - and isn't that almost the same thing?) Anyway, one of the themes is this: what you're used to thinking of as normal, right, Christian living might not be normal, right, or Christian.
• Donald Miller's style was refreshing to me for about the first 20 pages. Then it got annoying. The guy needs an editor. Badly. Some of the essays in the book read like a Junie B. Jones story.
• One of the biggest things in the book to resonate with me was how Miller describes his ineptness at living out biblical community. I feel like he is describing me as he compares his life to a movie with just one central character: "Life was a story about me because I was in every scene. In fact, I was the only one in every scene. I was everywhere I went. If somebody walked into my scene, it would frustrate me because they were disrupting the general theme of the play...the movie, the grand movie, was about me... that is the way I lived." That was, and unfortunately to a great extent, still is, the way I live.
• The other big thing I loved about this book is how he blasts the traditional notion that to be a Christian, you have to be a right-wing Republican, hate homosexuals and hippies, and never question or doubt. Who can live like that, really?

The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid

written by Bill Bryson

I picked up this book because I thought I loved Bill Bryson. Certainly I did love A Walk in the Woods and have also enjoyed portions of A Short History of Nearly Everything and some of his travel writings. He's famous for his ability to capture the humor and idiocy of the places and people he visits, and Thunderbolt makes this evident - only this time it's not a travelogue of a physical journey, but a journey of his growing-up years.

But his writing, to me, falls short this time. It's funny but not funny. Part of it's a generational thing; I think people of Bryson's generation (who grew up in the fifties and sixties) might get more out of this book than I did. Some of the story line just felt plainly uninteresting, since the events of the time didn't hold personal relevance for me. And although the typical Bryson humor is there, I grew weary of his overused hyperbole. Sometimes it just felt like he was trying way too hard to be funny. Some of the humor was even annoying or offensive, like the frequent cutting references to the "fat kids" he grew up with, or the parts about constantly trying to persuade his classmate Mary O'Leary to disrobe.

After reading other Bryson stuff, this book felt like a disappointment. Like a quick, thrown-together patchwork of some of his childhood memories, with no real point to the story. If he hadn't already made a name for himself with his previous work, I don't think this book would be that big of a seller.

How to Be Lost

written by Amanda Eyre Ward

This is perhaps the first time since high school that I've read an entire novel in under 24 hours. But I guess anyone could pull that off if trapped on a tour bus for most of a day. I brought this book along on the one-day Grand Canyon excursion that Janet and I signed up for while we were in Las Vegas for a few days. (The heck with Girls' Night Out — how about a Girls' Weekend Out!) Since the drive time between Vegas and the Grand Canyon is a staggering 4.5 hours across a barren desert, this book is what prevented me from going catatonic while listening to the torturously bad jokes of the tour bus driver.

I'd first heard of this novel from Cindy, who read it during our backpacking trip through Great Smoky Mountain National Park last spring. I remember her being both engrossed in this book and shocked by some of its twists. It sounded to me like a good "chick" book.

It's about a girl named Caroline Winters whose younger sister Ellie vanishes at age 5. The family basically falls apart in the ensuing years. Much later, when Caroline's an adult, her mother shows her a page out of a magazine, and in the background is a woman who the mom thinks is the missing sister. Caroline ends up going on a quest to Montana to find the woman.

Of note:

• The style of this book is very Jodi-Picoult-ish, which Janet and I decided is a pretty common theme lately in new novels. You get a fairly close and disturbing look at a dysfunctional family with many layers of problems, and there's not a necessarily tidy ending. You also get to see things from multiple people's perspectives, which I always find kind of cool.
• There are some wandering side plots that go nowhere. (The following might be a spoiler if you plan to read this book.) A major example is when Caroline finds the woman she thinks is Ellie but it ends up being someone who just looks a little like Ellie. The mistaken identity becomes obvious to the reader pretty early on, yet the story lingers way too long on this. Other annoying tangents that take up too much of the reader's time include the premature birth of Caroline's niece, her (other) sister's rocky marriage, and the sudden death of Caroline's mother.
• The ending was abrupt and lame. Definitely a lot of unfinished business and loose ends. I got the feeling that the author's publishing deadline was looming or something, and she just stopped writing.
• I loved the character of Agnes Fowler and the way the author revealed her personality through letters. I'm a bit embarrassed to say that Agnes reminds me a little of myself. Trusting, naive, very un-savvy in many ways, yet fairly competent in other ways. For the record, though, I must clarify here that, unlike Agnes, I have never visited a website called AlaskaHunks.com.

Reading Lolita in Tehran

written by Azar Nafisi

My friend and stepsister Terry gave me this book. Back in January we endured a very long day together at St. Joe's hospital as we waited for the ER doctors to figure out what to do with my very ill, very frail stepmother. (Which, believe me, is another story for another blog altogether.) As a diversion, we began chatting about what we'd been reading lately, and Terry found out that I had this book on my must-read list because I'd heard good things about it from Jay's mom. She promptly ran out to Borders and bought it for me.

It's a compelling true story about Azar Nafisi, an Iranian professor of literature, who weathers a turbulent and socially repressive period of political upheaval in Iran. Sadly, she quits her job at a university in Tehran due to the rampant Islamic authoritarianism and the rigid restrictions placed upon women. As a means of promoting and affirming the right to independent thought, she assembles a small group of women who believe in the power of literature, and conducts a makeshift class once a week in her home. The book is a memoir of those difficult years, told through a discussion of the novels they read together.

So the book is really a combination of literary criticism and poignant memoir. Woven throughout is Nafisi's political commentary about the transformation of Iran from a vibrant, progressive nation to one where much of the population is manipulated through repression and intimidation. It's a sad, disturbing glimpse into a society that attributes very little value to women.

Of Note:

• Overall, I felt very uneducated as I read this book, mainly on two levels: (1) I know very little about the political and religious history of Iran, and this book places you smack dab in the middle of the Iranian revolution. (2) I used to think I knew something of great literature, but after reading this book I realize I know next to nothing. Of the many novels that the author weaves into her memoir, I recognized the titles of maybe two in ten. Maybe.


• The one big take-away that I LOVED in this book is the message that literature, even if it portrays immoral people or bad behavior, does not in itself corrupt the reader. The Islamic regime in Iran wanted to prohibit citizens from reading such controversial stories as Pride and Prejudice and Lolita because the assumption was that if you read that stuff, you become just like the main characters (i.e., you read about sin, you become sinful). Interesting that some ultra-conservative Christians would say the same thing! I'm not saying that I necessarily recommend or embrace the particular novels Nafisi mentions, but I do believe that reading literature can only open our eyes and our minds, helping us to contemplate issues of truth and justice in a way that allows us to see for ourselves what is right.


• She makes reference several times to "her magician" -- a man who was a champion of free thought but who had intentionally withdrawn from the educational and social system in Iran. He is her sometimes-friend, sometimes-counselor, sometimes-colleague. I found it weird that she portrayed him as some kind of mysterious, Yoda-like being. He was underdeveloped and too murky of a character for me to understand or connect with.


• I found it interesting that there was not a lot of Persian pride, language, or culture woven into the story. Have you noticed that some stories that take place in non-English-speaking locales are filled with the language and imagery of the protagonists' ethnicity? Not this one. In fact, I would even say that the author goes to some length to show that she and her proteges think and act very much like the typical Western citizen, except that they live under a restrictive totalitarian regime. There are very few references to Persian foods (she does mention eating Western goodies, though, such as sandwiches and ice cream) and very few instances where she uses Persian epithets or Persian words. Rather than drawing attention to the uniqueness of Iranian culture, it feels to me like she instead draws attention to the fact that Iranian people, if left unrepressed, would be essentially the same as American people. I'm not saying this is a bad or incorrect view; just notable different than the style of many other foreign authors.


• The story meanders; there's no nice way of saying it. There were several points where she lost me with her long and complicated dissections of literature such as The Great Gatsby, Lolita, and Jane Austen novels. I get the fact that there are parallels to be drawn between some of those books and the plight of life in Iran... but at times the literary criticism started to annoy me. I would've been happier if she had focused more on the lives and personalities of her students and herself.

The Broker

written by John Grisham

I've been out of the Grisham scene for a couple years. Not because he fell out of favor with me, but because I ran out of his books to read. I thought I had read all of them except the newest one (the one based on a true story). So when I ran across this one at the library I was surprised I had missed it. John Grisham novels are like an old shoe - sometimes overworked and weary but always comfortable - so I couldn't not pick it up.

Portions of the book are formulaic Grisham: he builds sympathy for a crooked but amiable protagonist, and drops him in an unknown place where he (and you) have to get to know the town (in this case, Bologna, Italy) and the culture in order to fit in. There's a little bit of legal and political stuff thrown in, because that's what Grisham does best. But most of the book is about espionage and an American man trying to reinvent himself in another country after a sudden and inexplicable release from prison and a presidential pardon for the treasonous dealings he engineered in Washington six years prior. Several covert agents from four different countries want his head on a platter, and the CIA (who also wouldn't mind him dead) leaks his whereabouts to these enemies, so the poor guy's on the run from the get-go.

Of Note:

• At times throughout the book, you almost get the feeling you're reading about Grisham's notes from an Italian vacation. There's a lot of travelogue-type stuff in here that you won't necessarily appreciate if (like me!) you've never been to Italy. There's also a fair amount of annoying insertions of Italian phrases as you observe the main character, Joel Backman, trying to learn Italian.
• At a few points in the beginning of the novel, you get a glimpse of the bumblehead president who pardons Backman. Something familiar about that...
• Unlike other authors in this genre, Grisham is pretty tasteful when he chooses to blend in romance with his plots. In this book, Joel Backman has an Italian language tutor, Francesca Ferro, who ends up helping him escape Italy. You get the feeling there could be a nice little little happily-ever-after brewing, but then he abruptly leaves Italy on the lam and at first it doesn't look like he'll be returning. On the last page, though, Grisham brings Francesca back into the picture. I like the way he did that. No raunchy side plots were needed.
• The book could've gotten a lot more mileage out of the relationship between Backman and his son Neal, who helps him escape the foreign villains who are out to get him. Neal was a very flat character.
• The action really cranks up in the last hundred pages or so. If you can bear with the Fodor-esque tour of Italy in the middle 25 chapters, you'll like the ending.

Murder in Foggy Bottom

written by Margaret Truman

It's appalling that I haven't blogged a book in so long. No excuses, except that I just haven't been reading a lot of fiction in the last few months. Actually, I haven't been reading a lot of anything — unless you count the newsletters from the kids' schools, and benchmarking stuff for work. Fact, lately I've been feeling like it's a good week if I can sneak into a corner for a few minutes to read a magazine article here or there. It's a bad sign when you start looking forward to your kid's orthodontist appointments because it could mean a solid 20 minutes of uninterrupted reading time!

Murder in Foggy Bottom caught my eye in early January as I was perusing the shelves at the library, waiting for Joe to pick out a book about trains. I noticed a spate of books by this author, all titled with the same theme (Murder on the Potomac, Murder in the White House, Murder at the Kennedy Center, etc.) Closer inspection revealed that all the novels are set in the D.C. area, which is a little familiar to me. It's always kind of fun to read fiction that's set in a real place that you've been before.

The novel follows two intertwining story lines: the unexplained murder of a Canadian embassy worker, and the sudden and simultaneous bombing of three civilian planes in three different parts of the country. An investigative reporter (Joe Potamos) ends up uncovering the connection between these two crimes.

Of Note:

• It was a little spooky to me that this novel was written in 2000, prior to the September 11th attacks. There are some eerie similarities (terrorists downing three civilian planes) that made me swallow hard.
• The author, I found out after the fact, is the daughter of President Truman. No wonder so much of her fiction centers on the goings-on in Washington, D.C.!
• I love authors who can quietly and casually inject incredibly cool but little-known words into their story line, driving me to http://dictionary.reference.com/! Betcha don't know what "imbroglio" means. And if you do, try using it in a sentence as seamlessly as Truman does on p.264 — I dare you!
• The book's a little annoying in the first 150 pages or so, because there are just too many seemingly unrelated people and relationships to keep track of. Or maybe that's just my impression and is indicative of my inability to devote more than 20 consecutive minutes of attention to any one piece of writing at a time. Never mind that I started the book in January and it took me over six weeks to complete it...
• There's nothing super-complex or controversial here... just a decent, simple read with some interesting twists and a minimum of offensive language. A good book to take on vacation with you.