A Reason to See You Again

 Jami Attenberg is a prolific author with many books in her list .  I have read some of them and this is the latest one I am adding to my shelf, A Reason to Se You Again.

I will say it was a very interesting book, and would make a great discussion for a book group.  I am sure though there will be as many different opinions of the book as there are participants. 

I found the book a little confusing at points.  though it is told in alternating chapters mostly from the viewpoint of the two sisters and their mother, there are a few times when I could not tel who was speaking in first person in a chapter and one time it was from a totally different character's perspective with out any introductory explanation.  That threw me off course for quite a few pages before understanding who was speaking.

This is the story of a very dysfunctional family and how as the years pass develop and twist and turn.  The father is a Holocaust survivor with a secret.  The mother is frustrated that her life as not turned out as she had envisioned.  Stuck in a confusing marriage with two daughters, she is not a pleasant person.  The husband dies young leaving the three women  untethered.  The girls leave home as soon as they can.  Each daughter and the mother to figure out their place in the resulting relationship and the larger world.

Following the three characters as they finish school, get jobs and try to create marriages and relationships with others.  They are all burdened by their past and all challenged by their own inadequacies .

A little tedious and difficult to watch as these characters try to negotiate their personal lives and interactions.

Every Tom Dick and Harry

 Elinor Lipman is one of the funniest and best authors .. I would recommend all of her books.  Every Tom Dick and Harry is her newest novel. 

Every Tom, Dick or Harry is an idiom that means a set of nobodies, persons of no note.  So in this book names are kept hidden of the many men woh frequent the local house of ill repute.

Yes you read that correctly.  When Emma Lewis takes over her parents business as estate sale agents she gets more than she planned on.  Her first big sale is going to a large house in an upscale neighborhood of their small town. When she goes to look at the house and its contents she learns that it is not the usual home or homeowners.  Though the house looks like a bed and breakfast on the outside, when you take the "stairs to heaven" you come to the third floor where gentlemen were paying for sex.  

The homeowners are not embarrassed or apologetic. They ran a legitimate business.  Now Emma has to decide if she is comfortable selling the contents of the house and advertising the sale.

A girl's got to make a living ..so she goes forward.  There are all kinds or twists and turns and of course love comes into play also in this entertaining plot.

I Made it Out of Clay

 If you like romantic comedy this is the perfect Chanukah holiday book to add to your list.

I Made it Out of Clay is written by Beth Kander and includes all the perfect holiday details to make this a Chanukah special.    Meet Eve who is about to turn 40 on the second night of Chanukah this year.  But even more distressing is that her younger sister is getting married on the first night of Chanukah.

Eve is still single and has had a very bad year.  That fact is stated multiple times throughout the book.  She is still upset about the loss of her father a year ago. She keeps her phone turned off and misses many text messages and phone calls.  She feels slighted by her family and upset that she and her mother do not have a closer relationship.  She and her sister are not close. 

She works for an advertising agency and her best friends are Sasha and Brian.  But Sasha is just coming out of a serious relationship that took her away from her friends for quite awhile.

Riding the train in Chicago se runs into some anti-semitism and she also has memories of her Bubbe telling her about the Holocaust.  So much trauma.

But at the top of the list this week is the upcoming wedding and she needs a plus one !  Also the company she works for is going to have layoffs.. and no one knows who is on the chopping block.

She comes home one night and asks the cute guy across the hall to be her plus one..but he is busy.

So when she is down in the laundry room late one night, she spots some leftover clay and builds a golem. He is there to take care of her and protect her from all evil. He rides the subway with her and makes her feel safe. He is her plus one for the wedding.  

Of course things go wrong and as it all falls apart it all falls into place and there is a perfect ending.

This was a light entertaining story.  There are of course so many unbelievable parts and I guess if you are going to date a golem, I should not be uncomfortable with a sex scene with the golem, but that was the part I thought was the least well written.  

The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle

 Stuart Turton brings the reader a clever twist in The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle.

This is a complicated and multi leveled plot.  We meet Aiden Bishop as he wakes up in a forest and starts running after Anna.  Though he seems to be lost, someone hands him a compass and points him the direction of manor house. When he arrives he is quite confused and has to learn again who he is and why he is there. 

It turns out that Aiden is caught in a repeating loop that has him repeating the same day over and over until he can find out the answer.  The Plague Doctor visits him and explains what is happening.  He is at a special prison called Blackheath.  He has eight chances to find out who kills Evelyn Hardcastle before he can be released.

Each day he inhabits a new host, or guest at the castle and each night there is a party at which Evelyn will die at 11 pm.  As Aiden inhabits each person's body, he sees the experience from different perspective. Each time he finds out more and more detail that will help him discover the killer.  He is also now trying to also help Anna escape and to prevent the actual murder of Evelyn.  

Each of the guests bodies Aiden inhabits are very different giving him very different experiences, Aiden becomes good at making slight changes to the day each time to alter the outcome.  Even though the book refers to eight days, we are really getting clues though out the novel, if you can piece them together as you go.

Catch 22

 Joseph Heller never won an award for hihs book, Catch 22, but since its publication it has become a classic.  It is one of the most popular books of our time.  Even his made up "catch 22" has become part of our lexicon.  

Ok so I will honestly admit ..I did not enjoy the book.  I reread it now as an adult for a book discussion and it was hard to plow through.  After getting the general idea of the writing style and seeing the important references to catch 22 an "minor minor" some of the rest of the book was hard to read.  Especially the scenes of fighting, sex assault and other negative behaviors.

I will say that it is incredibly written.  The detail, the in-depth character development, the absurdity.  It is amazing that someone could think that way and write such a wild story with so many quirky ideas.

I was the person who picked the book for the discussion group, as a banned book.  I was a little worried that I would get some pushback when we met, but interestingly most of the group was glad I had suggested it.  Some even really enjoyed it.  Some were as lost as I was and watched the movie or listened to the audio book.. 

Everyone This Christmas Has a Secret

 Benjamin Stevenson brings us another in his "Everyone..." mystery series, this time, Everyone This Christmas Has A Secret.

Stevenson has created an entertaining mystery detective voice in the character of Ernest Cunningham, a amateur private investigator, who promises in every novel to make sure the reader is informed of all the clues, no surprises and no secrets.  So as Stevenson moves his detective through the case discovering clues he says he is sharing everything with the reader.  

This time we are meeting Cunningham the week leading up to Christmas. His ex-wife is accused of murder and Ernest will do whatever is necessary to find the real killer.  He is to attend a magic show to find out why the director of the charity sponsoring the show was killed. So armed with a list of suspects, Ernest starts interviewing the potential murderers, among them the magician, his assistant, and an illusionist, all masters of the art of misdirection.

Using the clever prop of an advent calendar, each clue is behind a different window.  Cunningham is sure that he can solve the crime and reveal the true killer, because he says, being a detective is just like being a magician, because "any good murder is just like a magic trick".

The Old Woman With a Knife

 Gu Byeong-mo is the author of The Old Woman With a Knife.  A novel about an older woman who has been an assassin for her career.  She has been doing this for many years and can see she is starting to slow down.  Her reflexes are still quick, and still can move quickly but she is getting tired and maybe a little forgetful. 

Now as Hornclaw contemplates coming to the end of her career and wondering when to retire, we learn about her life and how she came to be an assassin.  In an unusual turn of events for her, it seems, that someone has made her the target.  Hornclaw lives with her rescue dog, Deadweight, in a small understated apartment keeping a very low profile and no personal relationships.  It is easier for a assassin to not make emotional connections.

But after a lifetime of careful withdrawal, she seems to be getting distracted and may be becoming attached to a family in her neighborhood.  As she tries to protect he family and find out who knos too much about her and her personal life, she is encountering the most deadly of all her assignments.  This time the victim could be her.

The English Teacher

 The Engish Teacher by Yiftach Reicher Atir is a fascinating novel about the Mossad and the secret agents. Written by Atir who was a military intelligence officer in Israeli Defense Forces has written this book telling the story of what it is like to be apart of the secret intelligence for a country.  

“The book you are hold­ing in your hands is the true sto­ry of what nev­er hap­pened,”  A story based on facts and strictly reviewed by the Mossad to make sure there were no real facts given away.

This is the story of a young woman, Rachel Goldschmitt who left home to become an undercover operative for Israel.  She works as an English teacher in a small Arab town, leaving every now then to go on a mission.  Her mentor and handler, Ehud watches over her and makes sure she is safe.  But it is a lonely life, not being able to set down roots, make real friends, always lying and keeping to yourself.

Does this life style begin to take a toll on Rachel?  She sends a message to Ehud that her father has died and she is returning to England for the funeral and shiva.  But soon they realize that she is not coming back and she has disappeared.  Ehud and his direct boss Joe go over the facts Ehud remembers of his time working with Rachel as they try to figure out where she could be.  Oncee you are a operative for Mossad, you can never go back to the outside world.  You know too much and must stay within the organization.

This was a fascinating book,  the suspense building as Ehud and Joe are slowly revealing Rachel story and the conflicts she was shouldering.  The risks she was taking and the dangerous life she was living.

American Spy

 American Spy is an exciting suspenseful debut novel written by Lauren Wilkenson.  It has won many awards and was published at a very tense time in American life.  

This is the story of a young woman, Marie Mitchell,  who is looking forward to being a Federal employee, a member of the FBI.  It has been the dream of her sister and herself since childhood, when her sister sid she wanted to be a spy.  Brought up by their policeman father after their mother leaves the family and retreats to her home on Martinique.  Marie looks up to her sister and when her sister is killed while working as a spy, Marie joins the FBI.

Now she is hired by the FBI but is given a position she feels is beneath her.  She is sure she is being overlooked because she is a young woman of color.

In her frustration she is approached by someone recruiting her to the CIA.  He has a special assignment he says she alone can do. Appealing to her pride and seeing that he can use her to his advantage.  Marie takes on the assignment.  She is supposed to try and attract the new young Thomas Sankara, the leftist president of Burkina Faso.  This is a real figure in history, that the CIA was interested in overthrowing.

Marie must decide if she wants to follow through with what the CIA assigned her to do.  Things get heated when Marie starts to feel that the requests being made of her are not morally acceptable.  She must weigh her feelings about right and wrong,  her personal feelings about Sankara as she gets to know him better and her feeling that the CIA and its agents are immoral.

This novel is told in reverse, starting with Marie as a mother to two sons, running to hide in Martinique with her mother after years of separation.  Some of the decisions she has made in her life are starting to catch up to her.  As she decides her next move she writes this book as a letter to her sons telling the story of her life.  

Everyone Knows Your Mother is a Witch

 Written by Rivka Galchen, an award winning Canadian American author, Everyone Knows Your Mother is a Witch is an amazing retelling of an historic story of an old "cantankerous, nosy" woman accused of being a witch.

The year is 1610 and the place is a small village in Germany.  The accused witch is Katarina, who in real life was the mother of Johannes Kepler, who was along with Galileo and Newton was a philosopher and scientist.  Interesting though not really relevant to the book, Kepler was laws of planetary motion would pave the way to Newton's revolutionary celestial physics.  Kepler thought the planets move in elliptical orbits not circular ones.  This in itself could get a person hanged at the stake at that time...

But back to the novel..it gets very mixed reviews some people loved it and some found it difficult to follow and confusing.  It is written in an unusual style, in one place described as choral narrative, where there are multiple voices speaking in concert without identifying who is speaking at anyone time.  

So with a plethora of characters all staking turns speaking you must follow the plot carefully.  If you do you will find a jewel of a story comes through.  This book is presented as a trial of a witch but it is really about love, family and allegiance.  It is about mass hysteria and how it can pull people along with the growing tide.  About fear and misunderstanding.

One woman accuses Katarina of making her ill and calls her out as a witch.  The Governor announces that a trial date will be set and starts to gather confessions.  The townspeople come forward and state their grievances with Katarina building a case that she is a witch.  Her family stands by her along with her friend Simon.  We also learn what happens to them.  How their lives are affected by the turn of events.

This is a story of an ancient time but it is still in many ways relevant today.  So many parallels can be drawn between the negative call of witchcraft and the modern calling out of racism and anti-semitism.  All ways of making someone the other, blaming someone else for your problems and short comings. 

Hopefully today we can recognize the untruthfulness of those who try to malign others and stand up for  the rights of those who are accused unjustly.  This book will remind us of how important that can be.

The Grey Wolf

 The Grey Wolf the newest novel in the mystery series by the fabulous author Louise Penny.

I have written here multiply times how much I love Louise Penny and this series about the Canadian Surete Superintendent of Homicide, Armand Gamache.  The writing style is what makes her novels stand out.  These novels are written with beautiful prose and character development.  The mystery is always complicated and in depth keeping the reader guessing as the facts are being revealed.  

It is the characters; their feelings, their needs, likes and dislikes and interrelationships that are intriguing and very well developed that make these novels so compelling.  Jean-Guy Beauvoir, the second in command, who was a broken, angry young man who Armand took under his wing and nurtured, who is now not only his trusted employee, b ut also his son-in-law.  There is Isabelle Lacoste another trusted police officer whoh shares the leadership with Jean-Guy.  

But mostly there are the neighbors who live in Three Pines with Armand and his wife Reine-Marie.  The descriptions of Three Pines is what makes every reader of this series wish they also lived there.  It is serene and quiet.  It is cosy and warm, where everyone is friends and there is safety in their closeness. There is also a bookstore and the inn with an inviting restaurant where the food sounds delicious and the fire is always burning in the fireplace.

All of this works together to create the magic that makes readers wait so patiently for another nmystery novel to arrive on bookshelves.