Tag Archives: Lisa Boss

On the shelf: New Year, New Books

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By Lisa Boss, Grand Rapids Public Library

 

The Last Men: New Guinea, by Iago Corazza

 

New Guinea is the second-largest island in the world, located north of Australia, from which it was separated after the last ice age. The island has a complicated history, and presently is split into two halves: the west side is divided into two provinces of Indonesia, (Papua and West Papua), and the eastern half is the independent country of Papua New Guinea. Amazingly, the just over 7 million people on the island are divided up into almost 1,000 different tribes, each with its own language. It is the most linguistically diverse spot on the planet. Corazza’s book focuses on the unique photographic depiction of these endangered cultures, with succinct commentary. Some of it just seems truly bizarre, as if the author had dropped in on another planet altogether, but maybe that’s what they would say about us. In any case, Corazza provides unforgettable images for the armchair traveler.

 

 

Caring for Your Parents: The Complete Family Guide,by Hugh Delehanty

 

The title says it all: this is an excellent guide put together from AARP. It covers the full gamut of important areas, from the physical, to emotional, financial, legal, support systems, living arrangements, and more.  This book is a really good one to start with if you are looking ahead, or if you are involved in caregiver issues now.

 

 

The Complete Legal Guide to Senior Care, by Brette McWhorter Sember, ATT

No one wants to deal with legal issues as we or our parents get older, but we need to do it.  Once you’ve taken care of some of these legalities, you’ll feel much better, and this guide will help you to understand in plain English, the best ways to protect yourself and your loved ones as we/they age.

 

 

Essential Do’s and Taboos: The Complete Guide to International Business and Leisure Travel, by Roger E. Axtell

 

Whether you are traveling for business or fun, this is a handy guide. The New Yorker says, “Roger Axtell is an internationalist Emily Post.” He’s written nine other books on this subject, and travels and lectures extensively on up-to-the-minute protocol and civility for other cultures.

 

 

Insects & Flowers: The Art of Maria Sibylla Merian, by Maria Sibylla Merian

 

Born in 1647, in Frankfurt, Maria grew up to become a renowned botanical and entomological artist. When the J. Paul Getty Museum hosted an exhibition of her work last summer, they published a small, delightful book that reproduces some of the color plates in her larger works.  It’s like looking at separate tiny pieces of an amazing world. You’ll want to know all about this unusual woman and her work after taking a peek at this lovely book.

 

 

Wesley the Owl: The Remarkable Love Story of an Owl and His Girl, by Stacey O’Brien

 

Just couldn’t put this one down! Who knew that owls were so interesting to read about? Not just another “me and my pet” story, but filled with insights into animal life and intelligence. When Stacey was working as a student researcher at CalTech, she brought home a four-day owlet to raise, and it turned into a 19-year relationship, as she went on to become a research biologist. Her memoir, written after her own extreme health crisis, and the final, peaceful death of Wesley from very old age, was cathartic and healing for her, and as a completed work is fascinating for us to share. Professional reviewers and Amazon readers gave it 5 stars.

 

 

Deer World, by Dave Taylor

 

The only improvement here would be if this book were even bigger! It really is about a deer’s whole world, and all the other animals in it, for an entire year. For example, in the May 13th entry, Taylor begins, “The name ‘moose’ is an Ojibwa-Cree term meaning ‘twig-eater’, followed by what moose are up to in mid-May, and several photos. The photographs of deer, bear, opossums, foxes, coyotes, wolves, wild hogs (to name just a few) are very good ones, maybe because the author has written 35 books on wildlife, has guided many photo-safaris, and presently works in wildlife education in Ontario. Taylor’s many fans will delight in this new book.

 

 

The Primate Family Tree: The Amazing Diversity of Our Closest Relatives, by Ian Redmond

 

A beautifully illustrated guide to the more than 270 species of primates from the four main groups (prosimians, New World monkeys, Old World monkeys, and apes), and a great starting point to learn more about them. Redmond’s text condenses a lifetime of experience into interesting commentaries on each animal, and it’s place in the ecosystem. His descriptions are accessible and thought provoking.  For instance, he talks about primates as the “gardeners of the forest,” and all that that entails, which was a very new way of looking at primates for me. Don’t be surprised if you find yourself wanting to know a lot more about primates, and getting many more books on them, after reading this one.

 

 

On the shelf: ‘The Miracle at Speedy Motors’ by Alexander McCall Smith

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By Lisa Boss, Grand Rapids Public Library, Main Branch

 

Alexander McCall Smith’s ninth novel in the wildly successful No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency  series. The Miracle at Speedy Motors, revisits the life of Mma Ramotswe. She is a “traditionally built” woman of Botswana, who has created something completely new in the town of Gabarone, and even in all of Botswana: a detective agency led by a woman. Precious Ramotswe was led to do this after her dear, good father died, and she needed a means to support herself, since she had left her terrible marriage.

 

I am not a big fan of the classic mystery genre (hate the whole “red herring” thing), and worse yet, this sub-genre is often termed a “Cozy”, which seems about as appealing as lukewarm oatmeal. Do not be put off by these terms! This series is fascinating, lively, and hilarious: if you start them you will not be able to stop!

 

They are like small snapshots of the lives of some very fascinating characters, in the cultural context of Botswana. These books have had unfailingly great reviews, even receiving two Booker Judges’ Special Recommendations and also being voted one of the International Books of the Year and the Millennium by the Times Literary Supplement. So don’t worry that they will be too enjoyable to be good for your mind.  And don’t be surprised if they lead you into reading more books about Africa, a continent rich in so many different traditions, with unimagined wealth still to be discovered, that may well become the next China or India.

 

Alexander McCall Smith’s biography would make an interesting book in itself. He has lived and taught at universities in different countries, and has written many non-fiction books that are considered definitive in their field. He was born in Zimbabwe (which was then Rhodesia) and went to school near the Botswana border. Later in life, he wanted to write a book that would speak to his admiration for the people of Botswana, and Mma Ramotswe came into being.

 

If you have heard about them but not tried one yet, it is important to begin at the beginning in this series.

  • The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency (1998)
  • Tears of the Giraffe (2000)
  • Morality for Beautiful Girls (2001)
  • The Kalahari Typing School for Men (2002)
  • The Full Cupboard of Life (2004)
  • In the Company of Cheerful Ladies (2004)
  • Blue Shoes and Happiness (2006)
  • The Good Husband of Zebra Drive (2007)
  • The Miracle at Speedy Motors (2008)

On the shelf: ‘A Cup of Christmas Tea’ by Tom Hegg

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By Lisa Boss, Grand Rapids Public Library, Main Branch

 

What a lovely story this is, accompanied by Warren Hanson’s evocative illustrations on each page.

 

It’s a short, quickly read tale, told in a flexible rhyme that describes a man’s initial reluctance to go across town and visit his elderly aunt. He remembers her as vibrant and fun, and he doesn’t think he wants to see her after her stroke, going “downhill.” He’s pretty sure it would depress his happy Christmas.

 

He can’t escape a nagging feeling of guilt though, and so he does go, and has quite a surprise waiting for him.

 

I love reading my favorite Christmas poems and stories each year, and this is very high on my short list. Give yourself or a loved one a great gift by checking out A Cup of Christmas Tea.

On the shelf: ‘Animals Make Us Human: Creating the Best Life for Animals’ by Temple Grandin

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By Lisa Boss, Grand Rapids Public Library, Main Branch

 

Fascinating! Someone has finally explained why cats act the way they do. And just in time  too, since the stork delivered two kittens to us recently. The library has an excellent extensive collection of cat care books, and delightful cat memoir books like those by James Herriot, but I went straight to Temple Grandin’s works on the neurophysiology of animal behavior.

 

A cat is just a really different animal than, say, a dog. Their brain organization, the “domestication” path, the communication modes — this was all news to me.

 

Grandin’s works are all wonderfully readable for the non-scientist, from her autobiographical memoirs, Emergence, Labeled Autistic, and  Thinking in Pictures : and Other Reports from My Life with Autism to her works on animal behavior, Animals in Translation: Using the Mysteries of Autism to Decode Animal Behavior, and her latest one: Animals Make Us Human: Creating the Best Life for Animals.

 

We even have the award winning movie, Temple Grandin, starring Clare Danes.

On the shelf: ‘Sailing Grace’ by John Otterbacher

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By M. Christine Byron, Grand Rapids Public Library, Main Branch

 

John Otterbacher’s memoir is his account of  “drowning in heart disease, fighting back to the surface, and sailing on.” It is an engrossing story that I couldn’t put down. John and his wife, Barbara, decide to pursue of dream of sailing across the Atlantic and come up with a plan to pare down their lifestyle. But then John is surprised with a series of heart troubles.

 

The book recounts John’s dealing with his physical struggles, his connections with family and friends, while keeping sight of his dreams. Thus gritty account is well written and inspiring. The reader is drawn into John’s world and feels the pain and fear that he has so clearly portrayed, but also the joy with each small recovery and each sailing success.

 

John’s cardiologist, Richard McNamara, MD, has said of the book, “When hope and heart disease collide, hope sometimes wins.” The book tells the story of one man’s unwillingness to allow his medical condition to restrain him from pursuing his dreams and living the life he wants.

 

Since earning his degree in clinical psychology, John has taught college, served as a State Representative and Senator, and worked as a psychotherapist. Local residents might recognize his name from his years in public service. The book makes several references to places in Grand Rapids, as well as to other familiar Michigan towns. As an advocate of “living out beyond your fears,” John has served as a role model of strength, perseverance and hope.

 

On the shelf: ‘Infection: The Uninvited Universe’ by Gerald Callahan, Ph.D.

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By Lisa Boss, Grand Rapids Public Library, Main Branch

 

Ever wonder about all those anti-bacterial products that are everywhere now? How many microbes are out there anyways? If you are germ-phobic, you might be surprised (unpleasantly!) by Callahan’s book. I had not realized the extent to which microbes inhabit our bodies. According to the author, 90% of the cells in our bodies are not human cells, they are microbial!

 

“Because human cells, like those in our blood and skin and livers and hearts, are about one hundred to one thousand times larger than bacterial cells—by mass and volume—people appear mostly human. But they aren’t.” Who knew!

 

If you enjoy scientific writing for the non-scientist, Gerald Callahan, Ph.D., has an appointment in both pathology and English at Colorado State University. Which means he knows what he’s talking about, and he also presents it in an interesting way, peppered with colorful anecdotes. He covers many topics in this slim volume: one surprising chapter reviews the link between schizophrenia and infection. The really interesting part is his description of the different ways in which infections are linked to changes in thinking and behavior that will benefit the microbe.

 

“Toxoplasma gondii is a one-celled parasite found in several mammals, including humans.  But only inside of cats, most often domestic house cats, does T. gondii complete its life cycle and create newly infectious parasites to unleash on the rest of the world. T. gondii infects a high proportion of people with schizophrenia. The significance of that isn’t entirely clear, but it is clear that T. gondii infections can change the way mammals think, even the ways humans think.”

 

You’ll have to read the book to find out what happens to rats infected with T. gondii, and how this ties in with schizophrenia.

 

On the shelf: ‘Look Me in the Eye: My Life with Asperger’s’ by John Elder Robison

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By Lisa Boss, Grand Rapids Public Library, Main Branch

 

Robison is just a great storyteller — turning some of the weirdest, craziest stuff into a life you almost envy him having. The author is the older brother that Augusten Burroughs wrote about in his memoir, Running With Scissors, in the chapter, ‘He was Raised Without a Diagnosis’.

 

That diagnosis would not come until he was 40. Up to then he was on his own to cope with his genius, his unsociable behavior, his bewilderment, and his loneliness. Robison sums up his early relations with the world: “Everyone thought they understood my behavior. They thought it was simple: I was just no good.”

 

It wasn’t simple though. All his life he had longed to connect with other people, and gradually he figured out how to do that, despite his Asperger’s. But it took awhile, and his alcoholic father and mentally ill mother weren’t much help. Teachers hadn’t heard of Asperger’s yet, and eventually he left school at 16.

 

Following his interests in explosives and electronics led him into the music industry, where eccentric people were the norm (guess who made the exploding guitars for Kiss?), then into electronic toys, and finally — into his own, true life.

 

On the shelf: ‘We Learn Nothing: Essays and Cartoons’ by Tim Kreider

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By Lisa Boss, Grand Rapids Public Library, Main Branch

 

“Fourteen years ago, I was stabbed in the throat. This is kind of a long story and less interesting than it sounds…”

 

Ack! Quite an opening…

 

So, the author’s humor can be a bit dark at times as he illustrates a wide selection of intriguing people, unusual situations, and their moral ambiguities. Cartoons compliment the essays, adding unusual layers. The tone is deeply funny, but in a compassionate way, as he tears into the foibles of human nature. Oddly, with each chapter I felt I liked people more — that in life it isn’t so much “how could this happen?”, but as he wonders, “why doesn’t this happen all the time?”

 

Like the NASA astronaut who drove cross-country in a diaper to confront and dispatch her rival. Initially, the author’s “unhealthy empathy” for her, seems farfetched. But as he leads us along, revealing more and more similarities to our own lives, we’re willing to agree that in some way, “We’ve all worn the diaper.”

 

Kreider says, “turning pain into laughter is my job, and it’s the best you can do sometimes, but it’s a sad impotent sort of solace…”. He does more though, in these thoughtful essays, by revealing the thinness of the line between us and them.

 

It could be the Mennonite upbringing, but for a man who tries for a secular outlook, he seems grounded in “family values”. Proustian themes of time, community, and family, are the backbone of his writing, and the question of how can we truly “know” anyone, even ourselves.

On the shelf: ‘The Round House’ by Louise Erdrich

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By Lisa Boss, Grand Rapids Public Library, Main Branch

 

Winner of the 2012 National Book Award, Erdrich’s novel works as a mystery, a thriller, and a psychological study.

 

Out in North Dakota in the ’80s, a terrible crime has been committed against the wife of a tribal judge, but she is either unable or unwilling to name her attacker. The husband and her only child are determined to obtain justice, but are blocked at every turn by arcane jurisdictional issues involving non-Indians committing crimes on tribal lands.

 

Unlike much of Erdrich’s earlier, postmodern works, combining anachronistic events and multiple perspectives, this follows a linear path with a single narrator. Joe is a man now, and has followed his father’s path into law; and he is looking back, telling the story as it was seen and felt by him when he was just 13. Joe is one of Erdrich’s most engaging protagonists; striking that unusual chord — the sound of a character coming to life.

 

The author flawlessly weaves the threads of the reservation community into her plot, as many locals provide a crucial piece of the puzzle. I chose the library’s audio version, and the excellent reader, combined with Erdrich’s prose, make for an unforgettable read. I felt like I was listening to a Shakespearean play– beautiful language, lingering images, and hilarious bawdy humor interspersed throughout, (most coming from the geriatric relatives).

 

The loss of innocence is a universal theme, suffered by all, and Erdrich brings a new poignancy to these wounds. Her books always involve the clash of nations, the loss of connections, the devastation of a people’s culture, and the whirlwind that follows. Against these epic traumas, Erdrich brings out her people’s love of family, their strength, and the power to endure.

 

Those who like Amy Tan may love Erdrich, and The Round House offers a wealth of discussion points for book clubs.

On the shelf: ‘Planthropology: The Myths, Mysteries, and Miracles of My Garden Favorites’ by Ken Druse

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By Lisa Boss, Grand Rapids Public Library, Main Branch

 

A coincidence? I think not. In March, before spring begins in Michigan, I was out admiring some Hen & Chicks succulents out in the rock garden, that I’d only planted last year, delighted with their liveliness when everything else was still asleep.

 

Then I opened Planthropology later that day, and the book fell open to page 172, where the author discusses Sempervivum (Semper = “always”, vivum = “live”), thus in Latin, “live forever” plant. Yay! The perfect plant for me, who like the reptilian mother, loves to give birth (or plant) all kinds of trees and perennials, only to then walk away and completely forget about them.

 

Wherever you happen to open this gorgeous book there is something surprising and interesting to read. It’s full of natural history, design, philosophy, myth, and of course plain old growing tips. Reading about Skunk Cabbage alone involves Thoreau, physics, history. It’s one of those odd little facts that Skunk Cabbage (Symplocarpus foetidus) is able to metabolize starch to raise the interior temperature of the spathe up to 70 F., which is why you often see a little melted snow patch around them. Well, who knew? This is just a great book, whether or not you plan on taking shovel in hand this year.

 

And in case you are going to look up the name (as I did)– “Planthropology” is a name that the author made up to reflect a combination of “anthropology” and “plants”. Or, in the author’s own words:

 

Planthropology= plăn’thrə-pŏl’ə-jē, The study of the origin, the behavior, and the physical, social, and cultural development of plants.

 

Ken explains further:

 

“I invented the word Planthropology to tell the stories about the plants we appreciate and even those that people take for granted. I felt that I needed to communicate to both gardeners and non-gardeners just how remarkable plants are. Every plant has a story to tell, and they are often sensational. Stories about plants that were once worth their weight in gold; others that are potential cancer cures; some that were thought to be extinct; and a few plants that gave rise to wars.”

On the shelf: ‘That Went Well: Adventures in Caring for My Sister’ by Terrell Harris Dougan

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By Lisa Boss, Grand Rapids Public Library, Main Branch

 

Just a wonderful read!

 

The cover of That Went Well shows an exuberant little girl in a fancy pink dress and party hat, giving the camera an all-out smile. And the back flap shows two beautiful, gray-haired ladies hugging. Between the covers Dougan lets us in on how life with a sister whom doctors advised “be institutionalized” has gone.

 

Their parents became trailblazers in what was then a new world of rights for people with mental disabilities, and when they died, Irene’s sister took up the call. Terrell invites us to laugh, (because what else can one do?), but we learn a lot about making compassionate care taking decisions along the way.

 

If you liked Riding the Bus with My Sister, by Rachel Simon, you may enjoy this small book by Dougan. I loved both of these books, as examples of important lessons one can learn from others. They’re warm, compassionate, and hilariously funny.

 

 

 

On the shelf: ‘Silken Prey’ by John Sandford

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By Lisa Boss, Grand Rapids Public Library

 

Lucas Davenport and crew have done it again, and the 23rd book in Sandford’s Prey series is a winner. If you like to read in the police/thriller genre, to paraphrase one reviewer, “some of the books are very good and some are great”.  Hey–that’s as good as it gets for that long of a run! They’re well-written and -plotted, with crisp dialogue, and interesting main characters who have just enough humorous side stories going on, to leven the loaf a bit, what with all the grisly murders and all.

 

I was thinking of how I would enjoy reading it on my vacation, but made the mistake of just taking a peek… The tale of political dirty tricks gone wrong, and a Machiavellian narcissist plotting her rise through the senate, and the question of a double or triple cross, was just too interesting to set aside.

 

So, if you are looking for a great travel/vacation read, don’t open it before the trip…

 

 

On the shelf: ‘Excellent Women’ by Barbara Pym

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By Lisa Boss, Grand Rapids Public Library, Main Branch

 

How to explain the soothing yet buoyant effect that Barbara Pym’s two best novels have on one? Excellent Women and Some Tame Gazelle are both wonderfully therapeutic reads for people fed up with modern life. And also for those who just love relationship novels laced with dry humor. I re-read Excellent Women every ten years or so since it is so enjoyable, and I was delighted to see that cutting-edge literary critics have decided that Barbara Pym is once again making a comeback. She’s made a couple of comebacks since her books were published in the ’50s, as new generations discover her subtle charm.

 

Set in post World War II England, Excellent Women lets us share in the joys and disappointments of one Mildred Lathbury, who leads a mild-mannered life, as one of those “excellent women” who is always helping out in the parish. There are many uncomfortable life situations that Mildred is drawn into that she believes exceed her experience of men and relationships, but she carries on admirably, much to her surprise.

 

From the gently mysterious beginning to the satisfyingly concluded ending Excellent Women is a wonderful throw-back of a story.

 

 

On the shelf: ‘Boy 30529: A Memoir’ by Felix Weinberg

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By Lisa Boss, Grand Rapids Public Library, Main Branch

 

At age 82 Felix Weinberg started writing down the history that he had tried to forget for 65 years.

 

“Anyone who survived the extermination camps must have an untypical story to tell. The typical camp story of the millions ended in death…”

 

The writing is simple and eloquent, and the story unfolds with a detachment that lends it a somber power, as if he is describing events from a hellish dream world.

 

Weinberg explains, “In the camps I tried to acquire the ability to look without seeing, listen without hearing and smell without taking in what was around me. I cultivated a kind of self-induced amnesia. I feared that being made to look at hangings, seeing piles of corpses on a daily basis, would somehow contaminate my mind permanently.”

 

In a reversal of our usual consciousness, he credits his night-time dreams of his beloved childhood in Czechoslovakia, with sustaining him during the bizarre waking hours.

 

The democratic republic of Czechoslovakia was short lived, and Weinberg’s happy life, along with the whole Czech Jewish community, came to an end with Hitler’s invasion of the Sudeten. His father was able to get out to England, but the rest of the family was detained, and the author’s teenage years from 12 to 17 follow the terrible road from the relocation to local Jewish ghettos, to the camps, and finally to the Nazi’s insane “final solution”.

 

The cover of the book speaks of depths of emotion that could never be adequately expressed. A beaming little boy, gazes admiringly, lovingly, at his older brother, as they stand together holding hands. Neither his brother nor his mother survived the camps.

 

“My brother was too young to work. I am convinced that, given the choice, my mother would have gone to the gas chambers with him but I doubt that was an option. I believe she died in some other slave labour camp. All my attempts to trace her, all my searches of archives for further information, have proved futile. It does not do to dwell on these thoughts if one wants to live the semblance of a normal life, but I invite anyone who wishes to share my nightmares to picture that group of children, including my terrified little brother, being herded into the gas chamber.”

 

Felix’s youth and strength aided him, and a large amount of luck, when so many died at every turn, going from Terezin, to Auschwitz-Birkenau, to Blechhammer, and the final death march to Gross-Rosen. He takes no credit for his survival, and often thanks others for every small kindness. There are many different kinds of holocaust stories, and all are deeply effecting.  Felix Weinberg’s tale is one that no one should miss.

On the shelf: ‘Let’s Explore Diabetes With Owls’ By David Sedaris

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By Lisa Boss, Grand Rapids Public Library, Main Branch

 

I love any writer that can make me laugh — it’s a difficult skill to master, and without it, a writer can’t hold my attention. I recently tried to read a book combining three of my favorite subjects, touted as “hilarious”, but the humor was so poorly written that I could label each remark as to category, and why it fell flat.

 

This made me all the more grateful that David Sedaris is still writing books. Let’s Explore Diabetes With Owls is wonderful, making me think of him as some sort of wine or cheese,  mellowing out over time, and developing more complex flavors.

 

Great humorists are often philosophers at heart. Surprised and pained by the outrages of life, they offer us a way to carry on. Some, like Sedaris, give vent to our worst thoughts, while also demonstrating restraint in action, which serves for a convoluted moral instruction. Something about his style, combining a self-deprecating narrator, with a wishful homicidal one, rings true. He writes about long lines at the airport, his take on the European healthcare system,  picking up trash along the road…

 

This book is a better, more even read than his previous Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk, perhaps because there’s no need to use animals to illustrate human quirks and conceits — we can do that well enough by ourselves.

 

I liked the fact that Sedaris doesn’t try to go after a younger audience per se, he writes about his life now, but also dips back into the past, where his family has always provided plenty of material. And O magazine still calls him, “the funniest man in America”.

On the shelf: ‘Uncle Tungsten: Memories of a Chemical Boyhood’ by Oliver Sacks

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By Lisa Boss, Grand Rapids Public Library, Main Branch

 

“Many of my childhood memories are of metals…”.  Has there ever been a better first sentence since, “Call me Ishmael.”? The opening line from Dr. Sacks’ childhood memoir boils down everything I love about his books. They’re so open, honest– written in prose that’s a pure joy to read, and yet mysterious, suggesting a mind that operates on a whole different level than mine. His books are often enlightening and captivating, as he works with patients with complex neurological conditions. There’s also a certain emotional and personal connection forged, since he doesn’t hesitate to use his own experiences to illustrate some of the conditions.

 

So I was very excited to see what a book of his boyhood memories would be. Published in 2001, it’s the type of memoir that I can re-read every few years, without any decrease in enjoyment. From the opening sentence to the last chapter, the author demonstrates the unusual personality and creativity that one discovers in all his books.

 

Born in London in 1933, to parents who were both doctors, Oliver was the youngest of four, and he grew up surrounded by an extraordinary extended family. Life was paradise until the war,  when he was sent away (at six!) to an unbelievably cruel boarding school for four years. When he returned home at ten, the deprivation and abuse had changed him.  Recognizing this, his family encouraged his passion for chemistry, and his “Uncle Tungsten” became his mentor.

 

To read about his passion for re-creating the historical discoveries in chemistry, the incredible leeway that his family afforded him in his pursuits, and the odd and beautiful discoveries that he made; it’s not just a book about the author, it’s illuminating the joy that learning can bring. Thoughtful, caring, funny, and one of the most entertaining memoirs I’ve yet to read.

On the shelf: ‘Tiger, Tiger: A Memoir’ by Margaux Fragoso

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By Lisa Boss, Grand Rapids Public Library, Main Branch

 

There are many different varieties of stolen childhood: through war, deprivation, poverty, drugs, abuse. There’s something of a subtler, terrible sadness when the loss is from an experienced sexual predator of young girls.

 

Margaux writes about her 15-year relationship with a man whom she felt she came to love, wanted to marry, and defended against all attackers who tried to keep them apart. The man was 51 when they met, and she was only 7. The event that finally broke them apart was his suicide at 66.

 

Fragoso writes so eloquently that we see him through her young non-judgmental eyes at the same time as we experience the disgust of what his “love” is doing to her. Sexually graphic, and yet, not at all titillating, Fragoso’s book is a reminder of the pathologies of the spirit that are often hidden in plain sight.

On the shelf — ‘A Mind Apart: Travels in a Neurodiverse World’ by Susanne Antonetta

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By Lisa Boss, Grand Rapids Public Library, Main Branch

 

How would you experience the world if you were N’Lili, with multiple personalities — all of whom are young girls, though N’Lili herself is a physically large, tattooed male? What kind of teenager would plan very carefully to kill a young boy in a bizarre way, while making almost no attempt to disguise his guilt? How does someone go from being a suicidal heroin addict, labeled a hopeless schizophrenic at one point, to being a good wife, a gentle mom and a successful university professor?

 

These are the types of questions Antonetta raises in A Mind Apart, an extremely readable book which draws on a number of disciplines and sources to delve into the conundrum of human consciousness, especially the minds that seem alien to us. A great book for anyone who loves poetry and philosophy with their neuroscience.

 

 

On the shelf: ‘Until Tuesday’ by Fmr. Capt. Luis Carlos Montalvan

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By Lisa Boss, Grand Rapids Public Library, Main Branch

 

How does a dog, partially raised in a U.S. prison, save the life of a 17-yr. Army veteran?  Well–it’s a great story!

 

Luis Carlos Montalvan is a veteran and former captain in the army, with two Bronze Stars and the Purple Heart. But after two tours in Iraq, and the war wounds received there, he found his life unrecognizable. Traumatic Brain Injury and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, along with other severe injuries, had turned his life into agony, and it stayed that way for a long time.

 

Meanwhile, Tuesday was a pup in a litter of Golden Retrievers, destined to become a Service Dog for the severely disabled, and tweaked to help veterans with TBI and PTSD. The day they met changed both of their lives.

 

This is not so much a book about a dog, as how a life that is almost destroyed, can be painstakingly put back together. Montalvan’s writing is powerful and engaging, and Until Tuesday packs a wallop in its slim 252 pages.

 

 

 

On the shelf: ‘The Wolf in the Parlor: The Eternal Connection between Humans and Dogs’ by Jon Franklin

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By Lisa Boss, Grand Rapids Public Library, Main Branch

 

A man is haunted by a photograph. Taken at an archeological dig, at Ein Mallaha, in the Jordan Valley, it presents a puzzling tableau. Looking down into a grave site formed 12,000 years ago, the photo reveals the skeleton of a man reaching out to another, much smaller skeleton — a puppy.

 

The author can’t seem to push the question out of his mind.  Why is the old man reaching out to the puppy in his burial site, so long ago?  And why is he so interested in this particular question, when he isn’t all that taken with dogs anyways…

 

Being a Pulitzer Prize-winning science journalist, when a question really gets under his skin, Jon Franklin often ends up turning it into an article, a series, or in some cases, an entire book. And so it was that almost 20 years after contemplating the press release photo of the Jordan Valley excavation, The Wolf in the Parlor was published.

 

This is a great book for any dog lover, but it’s much more. Franklin ranges widely, and the book is like an evolutionary drama, a pre-historical mystery, and a neurobiological puzzle — all forming a Gordian Knot, unraveled by a master storyteller.

 

There is a delicious irony in the book, in that the man pursuing his scientific research ultimately ends up forming his hypothesis, through the quality time that he spends with his wife’s dog. A relationship that he had considered inconsequential at first becomes a key to not only his research, but to the very question that bothered him so much in the first place.

 

Why was the man in the grave reaching out to the puppy, as if his spirit needed the animal to complete him?

 

 

 

 

On the shelf: ‘The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid: A Memoir’ by Bill Bryson

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By Lisa Boss, Grand Rapids Public Library, Main

 

Not since Gahan Wilson’s masterful creation of, “The Kid”, who inhabited the comic strip Nuts, has the childhood of the ’50s been so horribly and hilariously portrayed. I laughed so hard, I was wiping tears away as I drove down the road listening to the author read his memoir with just the right pitch of nostalgia and incredulity over life in the 1950s.

 

If you were alive at any age back then, you’ve got to read this book. Not only for the unique history of an unusual age, but for your health! New studies have proven beyond a doubt that humor can be as good as medicine in some respects, thus putting the Thunderbolt Kid in the “extra strength” category.

 

Who was the Thunderbolt Kid you say? And were his powers used for good or ill?

 

He came out of the heartland: Des Moines, Iowa, conceived by a couple that he suspected were not his true parents for a time. He evolved at the “Kiddie Corral”,  (a haven piled high with the latest comics at the local grocery), where young Bill would be dropped off while his mom shopped. Nurtured at this comic book heaven, with its trove of amazing tales, one afternoon, while down in the basement, Bill discovered an old sweater with a Thunderbolt stitched across it, and the Thunderbolt Kid was born.

 

The heroes of the day were an eccentric bunch: “the Lone Ranger, who was already not the kind of fellow you would want to share a pup tent with, was made odder still by the fact that the part was played on television by two different actors… but the programs were rerun randomly on local TV, giving the impression that the Lone Ranger not only wore a tiny mask that fooled no one, but changed bodies from time to time.”

 

Bill’s super powers were not as awe-inspiring as most, but then, time and chance come to us in different ways. Just as other superheroes took a while to discover the scope and extent of their new powers, young Bryson finally uncovered the fact that his “Thundervision” was useful, but in modest ways: “…my superpowers were not actually about capturing bad people or doing good for the common man but primarily about using my X-ray vision to peer beneath the clothes of attractive women and to carbonize and eliminate people—teachers, babysitters, old ladies who wanted a kiss–who were an impediment to my happiness.”

 

There were many such impediments–but much exhilaration also.

 

It was an age of exotic inventions and everyday solutions: the cafeteria with atomic toilets, the totally cement nuclear bomb proof house, movie theaters with aw- inspiring Egyptian decor, rocket mail, toity jars, the zenith of the comic book, among others. A time when doctors lauded cigarettes for their “calming effects”, and a good squirt of DDT might be beneficial.

 

Who knew?  Anything seemed possible . . .

 

Bryson concludes, “What a wonderful world it was. We won’t see its like again…”

 

 

On the shelf: ‘Where Men Win Glory: The Odyssey of Pat Tillman’ by Jon Krakauer

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By Lisa Boss, Grand Rapids Public Library, Main Branch

 

Krakauer’s book is just what we expect from him and more, as he tackles another of his “enigma wrapped in a mystery” stories of the human heart going up against timeless, unforgiving odds. He’s the perfect author to tell Pat Tillman’s tale, weaving the personal story of the man, alongside the history of Afghanistan, and how the U.S. came to play a part in their politics, and the ensuing historical and political ramifications.

 

The book sorts through mountains of information, all indexed with their sources, distilling it into an intensely readable story with a Greek tragedy feel, where the characteristic that brings Tillman down is his heroic virtue. Krakauer gives us a “warts and all” portrait of Tillman, because that is what the man would have wanted above all. A man who was good, honest, patriotic and loathed deception.

 

But, “In war, truth is the first casualty.” The night of Tillman’s death, against standard operating procedure, his clothes, body armor, and his private journal were all ordered burned, “to prevent security violations, leaks, and rumors”. The two chief medical examiners refused to sign the completed autopsy, due to the fact that the missing uniform was considered crucial forensic evidence. This was just the beginning of a complex cover-up.   Tillman’s family was incensed at their treatment and determined to learn the facts, despite the additional pain and suffering it caused them.

 

“Where Men Win Glory:” reveals why that would have been so important to Pat.

 

 

 

On the shelf: ‘Can’t We Talk About Something More Pleasant? A Memoir’ by Roz Chast

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By Lisa Boss, Grand Rapids Public Library, Main Branch

 

Chast’s graphic memoir focuses on a time in her parents’ lives, when, after living in the same apartment in Brooklyn for 48 years (not hip Brooklyn, but Deep Brooklyn), they have come to the point where they are, “slowly leaving the sphere of TV commercial old age … and moving into the part of old age that was scarier, harder to talk about, and not a part of this culture.” 

 

Going into their nineties, the trip they’ve shared together is about to hit rough seas. And reality wallops their only daughter in the form of an after-midnight phone call. From the hospital.

 

Fans of Roz Chast (I’m in the “rabid” category) will recognize the skewed wit and unique, pulsating, line style from her cartoons that have been featured in the New Yorker since the ’70s. But the depth of conflicting emotions, and the insights into human hope, love, and frailty are simply breathtaking, as she has taken her work to a whole new level.

 

The first few pages contain the clues to the Gordion’s Knot underlying the psychological gestalt of this family. No wonder people have been so anxious in Chast’s cartoons in the New Yorker for over 30 years.

 

The book’s scope  is daunting: one’s identity vis-a-vis one’s parents, the hopes and dreams that were not–could not–be met, and then, suddenly, the role-reversal of the child-parent relationship. It’s a pretty deep look at some of the toughest challenges of the human condition, and Chast handles the material straight on. The humor she finds in these situations (I often laughed out loud) is painful, but kind of therapeutic. Because despite the constant deluge from the self-help industry, a resonant theme in literature continues to involve our issues with the past.

 

Why do things happen? What could I have done differently? Why won’t the dead leave us alone?

 

Deeply moving, absurdly funny, it’s a book you just can’t forget.

 

 

 

On the shelf: ‘Romeo: The Story of an Alaskan Wolf’ by John Hyde

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By Lisa Boss, Grand Rapids Public Library, Main

 

Breathtakingly beautiful photos of Alaska, and of a lone black wolf that made his home below the Mendenhall Glacier for almost a decade–John Hyde tracked and recorded the activities of Romeo, a very unusual wolf. Orphaned, but able to live in the wild (the author’s scat analysis showed a diet of mostly deer, lemming and beaver), he was very fond of dogs–as in “playing with dogs”. 

 

An Alaskan Wolf is a very large, powerful creature, with jaws twice the strength of a German Shepherd, yet Romeo became accepted by the townspeople as a winter visitor each year, enamored of their dogs. His canine dominant status is clearly apparent in shots of his romping with the town’s pets, and yet he’s acting as silly as a puppy, getting them to chase him. He towers over the Labs and Boxers he’s shown scampering  with, and you almost feel like yelling to the unseen  dog owners “no, no–this won’t end well!”,  but of course Hyde wouldn’t have produced “Romeo” if there wasn’t an exceptional story to tell. 

 

Kim Elton, Dir. Of Alaska Affairs, U.S.D.I., says of the book, “If wolves can’t inspire awe, what wild creature can?”, and Farley Mowat adds, “I envy John Hyde as I have never envied another human being.”   

 

Over 80 amazing photos will tempt you to book that cruise to Alaska.

 

Nice commentary too, with echoes of Aldo Leopold, and other naturalists, who continue to share their vision of the necessity of wilderness for all of us.

On the shelf: ‘Here Comes Trouble: Stories From My Life’ by Michael Moore

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By  Lisa Boss, Grand Rapids Library, Main

 

Love him or hate him — people aren’t usually lukewarm about Michael Moore. This is an “almost memoir” that leaves out all of the dull stuff and serves up anecdotal bites of Moore’s life.

 

Growing up in Flint in the post-war 1950s, Moore was a good Catholic boy who had planned to become a priest. Moore’s life trajectory is fascinating to follow, prompting one reviewer to comment that “Michael Moore is Michigan’s own Forrest Gump.”

 

Moore can be a tad self-serving (who isn’t), but he makes up for that by also being self-effacing, thoughtful, and funny. The portraits of his parents are poignant and especially well done. It’s also a great memoir from the ’50s, when things were a lot different for the average kid. This is a quieter, more thoughtful book than some of his previous works, and I totally enjoyed the audio version, which is read by the author.

On the shelf: ‘Willie & Joe: Back Home’ by Bill Mauldin

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By Lisa Boss, Grand Rapids Public Library, Main

 

Bill Mauldin was maybe the only regular infantry man to go up against General George Patton and win — twice. Mauldin was little and scrappy; part Apache, left a broken home at 14, and never graduated from high school– all of which may have contributed to his lifelong passion for the underdog. He fought in the Sicilian and Italian campaigns, receiving the Purple Heart.

 

His artistic talent was put to work for the armed services paper, Stars and Stripes, where he developed his iconic characters, Willie and Joe. Loved by the “dogfaces” at the front, the irreverent sketches were not as popular with the top brass. They so infuriated Patton, that he went after Mauldin, only to be told “hands off!” by Eisenhower.

 

America is experiencing the return of our armed forces personnel from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, which set me thinking about the veterans of other American wars. Today’s consensus is that the WWII Vets were revered upon return, but Mauldin also shows the sometimes bitter reality that could await them.

 

Once I started reading all of Maudlin’s work, I was mesmerized by the man’s genius. Willie & Joe vols. I and II are essential, but go ahead and read them all — you’ll be glad you did!

 

On the shelf: ‘Deadline: [A Virgil Flowers Novel]’ by John Sandford

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By Lisa Boss, Grand Rapids Public Library, Main

“D. Wayne Sharf slid across Winky Butterfield’s pasture like a greased weasel headed for a chicken house.” Criminal stealth and practice have readied D. Wayne with a center cut pork chop as part of his kit, and soon he is on the run with his victims. A hail of bullets from their frantic owner suggests to D. Wayne that there has to be a better way to make a living, but — what? “There was stealing dogs, cooking meth, and stripping copper wire and pipes out of unoccupied summer cabins. That was about it in D. Wayne’s world.”

Thus begins the newest Virgil Flowers thriller, and no sooner had I brought it home, than my husband nabbed it. Putting aside his historical studies, he decided he needed a break with some less taxing reading. Soon he was chortling away, as detective Flowers steps in to help a close friend find some missing dogs. All this is on the QT, since Flowers can’t tell his boss he’s working a dog-napping case. But soon after the BCA agent arrives, the quiet southern Minnesota town of Trippton is struck by a murder. And then another murder—

Flowers is soon on the trail of a very, very, bad school board, meth makers, killers, and worst of all, cold-hearted dog-nappers. If you are already a Sandford fan, you’ve already read this book (pre-ordered possibly!), but if you haven’t tried him yet, he writes a meanly humorous thriller. This one is just a little lighter than usual, but it was just as much fun.

 

 

On the shelf: ‘Oogy: The Dog Only a Family Could Love’ by Larry Levin

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By Lisa Boss, Grand Rapids Public Library, Main

How did an upper middle-class family who went to the vet to euthanize their beloved elderly cat, end up taking home one of the newer “super-pit” breeds cropping up? Well- you’ll have to read the book to find out, and it makes for a fairly unusual tale, as Eli (Oogy) returns from an almost Biblical destruction to prove that ultimately “living well is the best revenge”.

Caution: dog lovers will not be able to resist this dog or this book.

 

On the shelf: ‘Bring Up the Bodies’ by Hilary Mantel

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By Lisa Boss, GRPL Main

Heavens, this woman can write! I enjoyed the second book in her Cromwell trilogy as much as the first, and she has taken the coveted Man Booker Prize for each of them — in 2009 for Wolf Hall, and in 2012 for Bring Up the Bodies.

History is always written from someone’s point of view, and the story of Henry VIII has gotten plenty of ink and film credits. Mantel relished the challenge of writing about that tumultuous time from the imagined perspective of Thomas Cromwell, the notorious counselor to the king.

As always in politics, terrible crimes were committed to forward national and personal interest. Mantel is sparring with the gore, and her focus is on drawing one into the inner life and times of a fascinating man in a very dangerous job. It’s as if the author kept going deeper and deeper into the Hans Holbein portrait of Cromwell, to unearth the heart and soul beneath the butcher’s image.

One English reviewer concluded that Bring Up the Bodies was a “cracking good book”. I’m not an anglophile, but I agree — don’t miss it, it’s a cracking good read!

On the shelf: ‘Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk’ by Ben Fountain

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By Lisa Boss, GRPL Main

I had been coming to this realization for a couple of years that I didn’t understand my country. I felt there was this huge gap between the reality of what we were engaged in, in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the way it was being sold to the American public. I thought there was a story there. ~ Ben Fountain

And it’s a great story! A finalist for the National Book Award, there’s enough craziness, extreme masculine humor, power struggles, fighting, money, and sex to cover all the raw major drives. It’s Fountain’s gift to take these unconscious forces and show how they can easily be dressed up and marketed to serve political ends. But he’s also given us a protagonist that we deeply care about, with Specialist Lynn.

Billy is an army private who’s just come out of a fire fight in Iraq, where his team took grievous casualties. Filmed by an embedded Fox News reporter, Bravo squad became instantly famous. Sensing that Americans need a self-esteem boost concerning the war, the Bush administration has brought the remaining Bravos back to the U.S. for a two-week Victory Tour. After the funeral of their sergeant, the Bravos are taken across the country, where they are endlessly lauded, feted and thanked. Now it’s down to the last day before going back to Iraq, and they are guests of the Dallas Cowboys for the big Thanksgiving Day game, where they will also participate in the halftime festivities, and hope to meet Beyonce.

A Hollywood producer is with them, pushing all the buttons for their big movie deal. The alcohol is flowing, and they are meeting the fans, the players, the cheerleaders, the owner’s cabal . . .

Dude, what could go wrong?

Fountain’s novel expresses hard and horrible truths about human nature, but he folds in so many more truths about love, loyalty, and incomprehensible bravery that we swallow the pill. The humor and warmth of the novel carry us along, even as Fountain holds up an often unflattering mirror to our collective narcissism.

On the shelf: ‘Asleep: The Forgotten Epidemic …’ by Molly Caldwell Crosby

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By Lisa Boss, Grand Rapids Public Library, Main

 

The uncanny illness seemed to arise out of the WWI battlefields. In 1916, soldiers were evacuated from the trenches at Verdun, and in the field hospitals some were stricken with flu like symptoms just before they fell into a deep sleep. Some would eventually wake, and some would not. Those that did not die often awoke to a living nightmare of disability and/or psychosis.

As the “Sleeping Sickness” entered the general population, an increasingly frantic medical community strove to find a cause or a treatment. Five million people are estimated to have contracted it, and over nine thousand articles were published in the medical literature during its reign. But then the pandemic suddenly disappeared in the late 1920s, and it was forgotten. Encephalitis Lethargica had vanished into history again.

Crosby’s book, Asleep: The Forgotten Epidemic that Remains One of Medicine’s Greatest Mysteries, is a multi-layered medical mystery that re-creates the people, the times, and the newly developing science of neurology. It’s written in an engrossing lyrical style, as we trace the epidemic’s stages.

Dr. Oliver Sacks wrote his fascinating book Awakenings, (also a movie), about a group of patients that he treated in the sixties, who were all victims of that twenties epidemic, and he highly recommends Crosby’s work, calling it “A brilliant, deeply moving account.”

 

On the shelf: ‘Mrs. Greenthumbs Plows Ahead’ by Cassandra Danz

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Mrs. Greenthumbs Plows Ahead: 5 Steps to the Drop-Dead Gorgeous Garden of Your Dreams by Cassandra Danz

 

By Lisa Boss, Grand Rapids Public Library

 

Cassandra Dietz, alias Mrs. Greenthumbs, is one of a small number authors of gardening books that are actually fun and enlightening to read. Most gardening books are a lot like cookbooks — if you like the picture, you might want to try and reproduce the item. Mrs. Greenthumbs is more along the line of the PBS radio show, Car Talk with Tom and Ray Magliozzi — it’s very interesting, whether you know much about cars or not. She teaches gardening, designs gardens professionally, has a weekly radio show on gardening and even tours nationally as a gardening speaker.

 

With Mrs. Greenthumbs also, you can travel along as an armchair gardener, learning the odd fact about famous historical gardener greats, (Gertrude Jekyll was very short, very rotund, and also legally blind the last 40 years of her life), or about how much gardening can do for your sex life (after cutting through an acre of bamboo she remembers her husband with, “sweat glistening on his torso. I felt like Ava Gardener in Mogambo“). You learn many things to enrich your life that are related to gardening, but perhaps not in the usual Thoreau-type sense.

 

I still am amazed that with all the gardening books I check out every year; my favorite one, Mrs. Greenthumbs: How I Turned a Boring Yard into a Glorious Garden and How You Can, Too, has no photographs at all. Just very minimalist sketches by Merle Nacht, who has a sly style, somewhere between Thurber and Gorey  that perfectly matches the text. Maybe it is the fact that with Mrs. Greenthumbs, one is led along with her as she tackles projects that are easily imagined and accomplished. Or it could be that she makes it sound like so much fun, or even if one does not ever plan to garden ever, it’s a hoot to hear about her descriptions of the New York Flower Show, or reading her 10 rules of design.

 

On the shelf: ‘Salvage the Bones’ by Jesmyn Ward

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By Lisa Boss, Grand Rapids Public Library, Main

 

Winner of the National Book Award in 2011, Ward’s second novel is beautifully written and disturbing, with many “moral ambiguities” to consider. It would be a strong choice for book discussion groups and mature Young Adult readers.

 

The story begins and ends with a character as real as any of the humans — the pitbull China. China White, a loving, fighting dog, known for being a killer in the local pits of Bois Sauvage, Mississippi, is in whelp for the first time, body convulsing, as she gifts her owner, 16-year-old Skeetah, with the new lives.

 

Esch, the only girl in a family without living women, will come to see China as a totem and an example of what being a female and a mother involves. Because even though Esch is only 15, she’s been having sex since she was 12, and nature has finally taken its natural course. Will her pregnancy go like China’s or take the darker path her mother walked?

 

With Mama nine years gone and no female relatives or friends, Esch tries to find guidance where she can. Lately, she has been framing things through the filter of the ancient Greek myths, where men and women, egged on by unseen forces, are tossed about by fate. In Esch’s life now, she’s longing for love but instead she’s visited with an obsession for an older boy almost as humiliating as Pasiphae’s or Medea’s. It’s telling that Esch is jealous, not of her man’s steady girlfriend, but of the care and devotion her brother and China share.

 

The author lets us in on a small world with unwasted, poetic prose. If you skip one sentence, you might miss the whole key to a character, and each member of this family is well worth knowing.

 

But it’s not a good time for men or dogs along the Gulf Coast now, twelve days out before the hurricane hits. Only Daddy Batiste senses the strength of the coming storm in his alcoholic bones and pushes his children to prepare. When Katrina finally arrives like Yaweh’s answer to Job or Krishna’s revelation to Arjuna, it’s with an incomprehensible power that leaves Bois Sauvage dumbstruck.

 

My only caveat with this excellent book is that while Ward’s style is unsparing about the most painful aspects of being human, there’s a terrible irony in the way that dog fighting is whitewashed as a cultural sport, almost like boxing.

 

Men We Reaped: A Memoir, is another not-to-be-missed read by Jesmyn Ward.

 

On the shelf: ‘The Pain Chronicles’ by Melanie Thernstrom

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Full title: The Pain Chronicles: Cures, Myths, Mysteries, Prayers, Diaries, Brain Scans, Healing, and the Science of Suffering 

 

By Lisa Boss, Grand Rapids Public Library, Main

 

Most of us know someone with chronic pain, but we don’t really know much about the disease itself.

 

Why and how can it develop and how do doctors treat it? It’s a surprisingly intriguing subject, full of paradoxes and hope.

 

One day, after a long swim, Melanie’s life would change when she developed a severe pain in her neck, and it did not go away. Not after weeks, not after months; and thus began the journey into the labyrinth of chronic pain and its defeat. A  writer by profession,  she spent eight years of research visiting doctors and patients at our country’s best pain clinics. A fascinating and exceptionally readable book that seeks to answer the question, “What made the difference? Why did some people become better?”

 

Thernstrom’s book is a cultural, historic and neurological tour of this mysterious and misunderstood disease. Also a validating work for pain patients and their supporters, who are often dismayed as much by their treatments as their conditions. For instance, it isn’t your imagination — minorities and women often do receive quite different medical care from doctors.

 

Two other excellent memoirs are Paula Kamen’s, All in My Head : An Epic Quest to Cure an Unrelenting, Totally Unreasonable, and Only Slightly Enlightening Headache, and Lynne Greenberg’s, The Body Broken: A Memoir.

 

The message is always, “Never give up!”.

On the shelf: ‘Bloodmoney: A Novel of Espionage’ by David Ignatius

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By Lisa Boss, Grand Rapids Public Library, Main

 

When is revenge fulfilled?

 

Bloodmoney is a masterful spy thriller that zips along like a bullet train. Although fiction, the plot eerily echoes several recent news stories involving the CIA in Pakistan. The authentic touch comes from the author’s in-depth knowledge garnered as a journalist covering foreign affairs for decades.

 

Interesting characters inhabit his novel, and we are never sure till the end how many sides they are playing. Their moral ambiguities, woven into the plot, often reflect back our own conflicted foreign policy. A key player, the duplicitous General Malik, head of Pakistan’s ISI, articulates an ongoing thread when he remarks, “Americans did not like lying to others. It made them uncomfortable. Their specialty was lying to themselves.” 

 

The story is modeled on the archetypical Death Wish/Mad Max type. A good man, who does everything right, suffers an unspeakable loss, and out of his despair and outrage a new creature is born; one who will avenge his family. This man becomes known to his friends and enemies alike as “the ghost”.

 

By the end, I found myself wondering, as the ghost does, “When is revenge fulfilled?”