Review: A Gentleman in Moscow

A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I began reading this book for the rich Russian history. I wanted to know about the political changes over the decades after the shift from royalty to Bolsheviks. Having grown up in the shadow of the Cold War, I was fascinated by what was happening on the other side of the Iron Curtain.

So I read the book for the wrong reason. The author assumes the reader already knows the political landscape. Peripherally, the politics are discussed, particularly at the end of the book. Essentially, the Count allegedly wrote seditious poetry that criticized communism. He was tried by the Bolsheviks in 1922 and escaped being shot for reasons later explained, but put on house arrest at the hotel in the worst room. Yet this is a man who is described as "proper, proud, and open hearted." He is also described as a man inclined to see the best in all of us.

The reason I loved the book was not for the historical merits. It wasn't for the intellectually stimulating discussions. That was above my intellect. I'm not familiar with Russian literature. Those, along with philosophical discussions, were my least favorite parts of the book. Fortunately, those were not the bulk of the book. The bulk of the book was character development and interactions between characters. I realized quickly that the humor was rampant, clever, and more subtle than me. But it made me laugh out loud.

Rather than even attempt to recount the clever interplay, my favorite relationships were between the Count and Nina, the triumvirate, the Count and Sofia (loved it!), the Count and Olsip, the bishop and everybody, Anna and the Count, well... Every relationship was increasingly enjoyable. Every scene built on one another. The scene where Sofia exits the closet was a wonderful stage play in my mind. The scene of Sofia forgetting her doll at Marina's was something from my own life, but so many were so real and the characters so distinct and clever, I'd be hard pressed to tell you if I read the book or saw the movie. Yet a movie could not express the tender relationship between the characters or the subtle shifts in perspective.

I enjoyed the characters, relationships, and the story.

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Review: Six Days in Leningrad

Six Days in Leningrad by Paullina Simons
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

After I finished graduate school, I treated myself to a backpacking trip through Europe. Communist Russia had always fascinated me. I didn't make it to Russia but I went into Eastern Berlin less than two years after the wall was toppled and the Iron Curtain fell, revealing an empire in disrepair, a corrupt government, and a life portrait frozen in time. Evidence of Krystalnacht and WWII still littered the landscape. The cars were the same color, make and model and none were newer than 25 years. Most were no longer running. Train lines dead ended before reaching the now non-existent wall. It was a stark contrast to the bustling Westernized life in western Berlin. Yet the people were lovely. They were friendly and as helpful and gracious as they could be. They were humble and many wanted to help us find the train station that would take us on to Austria. The problem was, there was no easy way to get to it from the broken transportation systems.

I share this to perspective to Paullina's narration of returning to Russia. What she describes as life goes in Russia is what I experienced to a much smaller degree in eastern Germany. Nothing had changed or been updated in decades. Repairs were not made. Toilets were not cleaned. If people feel no ownership, why bother? Yet this is a much deeper story, cathartic in nature. Paullina is an American author, mother, and wife who was born in Leningrad during the Cold War to Russian parents. Although her father was sent to the Gulags and she did not see him much between the ages of 5 and 10, she lived an idyllic childhood where she was loved, went to school, and played with her cousin every summer at a summer house. Upon release from the Gulags, her father arranged to immigrate to the United States. At the age of 10 Paulina and her family move to New York.

Six Days in Leningrad catalogs Paullina's trip back to Russia with her father and the way she sees her idyllic childhood homes, school, and city from the perspective of an adult. She sifts through what she has come to learn about her beloved country, her parents and friends, remembers her childhood, then contrasts this with her life in Texas, living in an opulent home with a heated pool and six clean toilets. How does she reconcile her Russian self with her American self? This is Paullina's defining moment that reclaims all of the Russian in her while claiming all of the American she has become. There is a deep dissonance that becomes her own war.

This is very well written and provides a very uncomfortable look into a country that has a very proud history along with a very devastating one.

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Review: Three Minutes to Doomsday: An Agent, a Traitor, and the Worst Espionage Breach in U.S. History

Three Minutes to Doomsday: An Agent, a Traitor, and the Worst Espionage Breach in U.S. History by Joe Navarro
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is my second book by this author and I quite enjoyed it. Joe has made a serious study out of nonverbal communication. To learn more about the "tells" of deceit, read another of his books because this isn't it. This book is the grueling year and some months he spends unraveling secrets from a guy named Rod Ramsey who worked with another guy named Clyde Conrad in West Germany during the Cold War during their time in the army. Ramsay is just a check mark on a list. Talk to him and move on. Simple. Except he cigarette shook on the subject of Conrad. On that nonverbal communication, Navarro launches into a year and a half that drove him to uncover the biggest breach of military secrets in the history of our country.

What I enjoyed about the book is Navarro himself. Perhaps with a two and a half decades of retrospect he is able to see where he may have been abrasive and detached enough (read: married to his job) that he was off putting. And irritating. And there was a reason She-Moody was reticent to work with him. I lived She-Moody and how she puts him in his place and is willing to shoot him in the hip if strays. The account of the interviews and explanations of the gravity of it are well written so that a lay person can get a pretty clear picture. Laced with humor, the book was easy to read and a little heartbreaking.

Warning that there F bombs. It's not rampant but is definitely present.

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Review: Mischling

Mischling by Affinity Konar
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Loosely based on a couple of actual twins that survived Mengele's experiments, this book tells the story of Stasha and Pearl, identical twin sisters. What is unique about this book is that it is told through the POV of 12 year old girls in Aushwitz and the POV of twins that share a connection of which Mengele was studying. If one twin is maimed, does the other twin experience the pain? What happens when one twin is put in an isolated cage and experiments on?

Mengele is painted in all his clinical and apathetic glory yet strangely enamored by his twins. At the same time, seeing them as near pets. Although pets would be treated better.

The book is difficult to rad due to the subject matter. On the other hand, the author carefully intimates about some of the more horrible details that a person with more knowledge on the subject will understand while a younger audience might miss it. Not that the book is lightweight by any means. Simply that 12 year old protagonists describing some things won't understand all of it and that uncertainty is carried over to the reader with careful consideration.

Excellent historical information told in a unique manner. Must read.

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Review: Fractured

Fractured by Catherine McKenzie
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I started reading this book knowing absolutely nothing about the story. Fortunately, I'd read a cookbook if it was written by Catherine McKenzie. Or a court brief, if I had to. I absolutely LOVE her writing style and insights into thoughtful characters. She narrates the minutiae of thoughts that bring a little of our own crazy to light.

It's illuminating and refreshing.

The main story is not as engaging as the mini stories going on within the book. I guess that's what you would call a frame novel. The main story is told in different time periods beginning today which sets the frame then goes back and works forward and told from two different points of view.

I really liked the possible discussion points at the end of the book and really gave me pause. I came up with some of my own in my head but maybe haven't quite clarified them into questions. I would like to further explore a few aspects of the book that were left a little open ended. I don't think this is a spoiler since I read a hint of it in the book description, but it would be interesting to discuss the relationship within the couples then between John and Julie. Both are happily married and spend a lot of time musing about their spouses and how they came to be. Yet the relationship may be considered inappropriate. When does that happen and what should John or Julie have done when they identified that line? It is fuzzy throughout. When would a reader define it? Would the reader ever have defined it as inappropriate? Another discussion would be the reaction of both spouses to the developing relationship/friendship (?) between John and Julie and where the spouses were at the end of the book. Would the reader agree with Julie's thoughts at the end (wish I could I quote it but it might be too spoily)?

Taking the last chapter into account, and Julie's thoughts on the fracture, I would like to compare and contrast the way she sees the fracture and the way that Becky's literal leg fracture healed. Months later, Becky has a noticeable limp even after the break has healed. What could be the figurative limp in the aftermath?

Mental illness is big one in this book. Perhaps a discussion point would be to identify all the thinking fallacies of each character. Did the reader ever doubt the existence of a certain character? Pull out a diagram of Karpman's Triangle and identify the different roles the characters play in different situations. Do they play more than one role at a time?

A closed society with one person or a group of persons with more power than is appropriate creates an unhealthy dynamic of mobbing and character assassination. Has this ever been an issue in polite society? Could the characters that this occurred to in the novel have done anything about it? Would you have intervened? Could you have prevented it if it happened to you? How? I would need a licensed therapist present for this discussion.

Speaking of mental illness, were the characters mentally healthy? If not, what were their thinking errors? Did they need professional help or were they still functional in society? Were they within the norms of acceptable neurotic or psychotic? Or were their belief systems perfectly rational given their experiences? Why or why not?

These are thoughts I had a day after I finished the book. I really enjoyed it, as I always do with Catherine McKenzie. I think she is absolutely brilliant in writing her characters and getting inside the characters' heads. I recommend any and all of her novels. And probably her court briefs.

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Review: Faithful

Faithful by Alice Hoffman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I really like Alice Hoffman's writing style. I don't know what it is that grabs me but I start a book by her and don't put it down until the wee hours of the morning when I'm finished. She somehow taps into the subconscious reasons we do things and end up with a well written narrative that somehow gives the reader hope and perspective. This book is about Shelby who begins by identifying and defining herself by an event that was tragic for another family. She drifts through the next few years without making a definite plan and finds herself beginning to make plans, realizing how others' love for her is more defining than what she has done, and eventually finding perspective and and gratitude for those who loved her when she didn't love herself.

It's a complicated story of finding yourself through the tumultuous young adult years with the added burden of guilt but well worth the read. I highly recommend it.

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Review: News of the World

News of the World by Paulette Jiles
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is a delightful book that I knew nothing about when I picked it up. It is a historical novel set in Texas following the Civil War. The land is lawless in most places and plagued with corruption or no government. In some parts, the Civil War still burns.

The real story is of Captain Jefferson Kidd, a 71 year kid veteran of 3 wars, and a favor he agrees to do for a free black man (not fictional). A 10 year old child has been turned over by the Kiowa Indians and needs to be returned to her kin, deep in Texas. It's a very long trip and Johanna is Kiowa in all was but by birth. A sweet friendship develops between the cranky old man and wild child. Told with humor and heartbreaking honesty, I only put the book down to sleep and to go to work.

Highly recommend. I can also see it made into a movie. Perhaps on the Hallmark channel. The book is written in a way that it played across my mind in movie format.

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Review: My Last Continent

My Last Continent by Midge Raymond
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I don't know how the author pulled this off with all the skipping around in time but it made perfect sense. I read ENDURANCE, the true account of Shackleton's attempt to cross the South Pole, years ago. It was completely fascinating, exhausting, and uplifting. There was no doubt in my mind that the Antarctic is beautiful, fragile, yet brutal and fierce.

This is a novel that introduces more detail to the beauty of the Antarctic and the harsh realities and plight of the penguin in the changing climate and introduction of ships and people. Yet the environmental part was introduced so seamlessly, I was too fascinated by it to yell "Tree Hugger!"

I like trees. I like penguins. I believe in being environmentally responsible. I live with carnivores. I'm more of a herbivore only because hyperemesis during pregnancies ruined the meat eating experience for me. But go ahead and eat that steak. I eat my chickens' eggs. I'm okay with the annual deer hunt as long as I don't have to eat the deer. Or kill and clean the deer.

But there was much more to the book. There was the human factor - the story of Deb and Keller; their reasons for choosing the desolate and beautiful southern tip of the earth. Solid story line. There is also a shipwreck which is really where the story begins and ends. Deb's POV begins with today then quickly slips to five years ago, the day of the shipwreck. Then the story backtracks and builds again to the shipwreck. It's kind of a cross between Shackleton's own ship imploding from the pressure of the ocean ice, and the Titanic hitting an iceberg. Both are catastrophic yet, if it happens in Antarctica, there are the added interest of shelves of ice to walk on, get stranded upon, icebergs calfing or tipping, orcas, penguins, wind, freezing rain, hypothermia, water freezing below 32 degrees due to salinity, different ice consistencies, and so many more details I would not have considered. Nor can I reveal for fear of spoiling the book.

Great read.

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Review: By Your Side

By Your Side by Kasie West
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Kaiserslautern West writes the cute romances I'd be happy for my kids to read. This book was a little slow to start for me but once there was a change of scenery, it picked up and I enjoyed it to the end.

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Swear on This Life by Renee Carlino

Swear on This Life by Renee Carlino
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Cute story but just misses the mark for me. Too cute. All the loose ends wrapped up perfectly. Not my cup of tea.

Commonwealth by Ann Patchett

Commonwealth by Ann Patchett
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Very well written and so very clever. The author uses the reader's power of deduction to tell the story. There are many protagonists but none too similar to have to double check. The author leaves a trail of bread crumbs to link the chapters and the story together. Do not put the book down for too long or you will miss some of the more delightful bread crumbs. The book covers decades and the cast of characters is basically introduced in the first chapter; some concretely, others abstractly but by the end the reader knows every one of them.

Completely enjoyable book. In part, because of the clever way it is told.

The Last One by Alexandra Oliva
My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

Great premise. Cross between Survivor and Hunger Games and an Apocolypse book. What is real? I can honestly say that I really didn't know until well into the book. I understood Amy's reasoning for the way she approached every new challenge. The story unfolds in such a way that the reader is as much lost as Amy until the reader makes a decision whether or not it is real or not. 

Karolina's Twins by Ronald H. Balson

Karolina's Twins by Ronald H. Balson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was a book I could not put down. I have read many accounts of the Holocaust but this one had a fresh perspective. Told by an 89 year old survivor, the protagonist provides a personal narrative that reeled me in.

Lena was a youth in a small Polish village when the Nazis arrived. Her experiences are unique because she spends time hiding, she lives in a ghetto, she finds love, works with the Resistance, and is sent to a concentration camp. The narrative lacks the violent and disturbing details of abuse that is often included in books on the Nazis during WWII. It isn't absent, by any means, but the story is gentrified by innuendo. Regardless, it's still a difficult read knowing the subject matter.

The court case was interesting and well presented. I thought that Arthur's character was flat and predictable. But the core of the book, Lena's narrative, made the book impossible to put down. Well timed, it never drags and stays true to historical events.

The most striking moments were Lena's recollection of returning to her village after the Russians liberate them. Her description of the town square nearly broke my heart. How she returned to the concentration camp that was emptied and deserted. Very moving.

Highly recommend this book.