The River We Remember by William Kent Krueger

 

"Our lives and the lives of those we love merge to create a river whose current carries us forward from our beginning to our end. Because we are only one part of the whole, the river each of us remembers is different, and there are many versions of the stories we tell about the past. In all of them there is truth, and in all of them a good deal of innocent misremembering."

                               -from Epilogue in the novel

This is a novel by my favorite author! I could hardly wait to read it, but I was a little disappointed at first because right away I started missing Cork O'Connor and family of Aurora, Minnesota. (Main characters in the Cork O'Connor mystery series of which I have read 17!) Within 100 pages, I was involved with new characters especially Brody Dern, the sheriff of Jewel, Minnesota, and Charlie, a very assertive female defense attorney. By the last 100 pages when the plot had thickened, I could barely put it down. Another 5 rating for Krueger!

The Prologue hints that a local man, Jimmy Quinn, has been eaten by catfish in the Alabaster River! Who wouldn't want to keep reading to find out how THAT happened? Of course, Sheriff Brody Dern is on the case, hoping the death was suicide or accidental. but that was not to be. 

The main suspect ends up being a Native American man, WWII vet with a Japanese wife, Noah Bluestone. Many locals believe there was no way Bluestone could have committed murder but sadly there are a few bigoted people ready to see him hang, so to speak. 

I really appreciate Krueger's powers of description. I can often visualize the natural environment of the setting and it makes me want to visit the area. I like how he advocates for Native Americans and other outsiders. The Epilogue is interesting in Charlie's point of view. I may recommend this one for Page Turners next year.

Pesos: The Rise and Fall of a Border Family by Pietro La Greca Jr. with Rebecca Paley

"Mexico's real-life Don Corleone, Pietro La Greca, just celebrated his seventieth birthday. So notorious and powerful is La Greca that Mexican newspapers openly talk about his involvement in fraud, smuggling, and money-laundering activities that he conducts with impunity."     

                -from an article the author found in 1994 regarding his father

This book was a free one from Amazon First Reads. Interesting memoir from the son of a guy described above. I rated it a 3. It was very different from anything I have read lately! I was thankful it was pretty short.

The author's father, el jefe, is sometimes called "King of the Peso" along with the reference in the quote. The apple obviously fell far from the tree as Pietro Jr. relates growing up in the shadow of a man he could not respect.  I feel like the subtitle of this book pretty much gives a down and dirty summary, so I don't need to say much more.

 

The Pearl that Broke Its Shell by Nadia Hashimi

 

"I knew nothing of that kind of love. I knew nothing about pearls and shells except that one had to free itself from the other. We were both calmer than we should have been, Benafsha because she had lived her love, and me because I had never known it."

                   -Shekib, from the novel

This novel was suggested by one of our Page Turners. It was difficult to read because of the extreme mistreatment of women in Afghanistan. And the addition of foreign phrases made the story more authentic but challenging. I rate it a 3.

Rahima has a difficult family life with an addicted father and is forced to become a bacha posh, or to present herself as a boy in order to help provide. Her aunt Khala Shaima tells her stories of her great-great-grandmother, Shekiba, who also had to survive a harsh life. These stories inspire her to "break her shell."

Novels like this showing the life of women in other cultures make me even more grateful to be an American!

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The Page Turners liked the book, rating it 3.8. Most agreed that it was disturbing to read of such cruelty. Some found the transitions of time setting confusing, as well as the unusual character names. In discussing how Khala Shaima got away with so much more than the other women, one member said, "her disability led to her invisibility." Very interesting!

The extreme oppression of women led to some discussion of our own experiences with being undervalued and underestimated as women back in the day!

The Lost Bookshop by Evie Woods

 

"Lost is not a hopeless place to be. It is a place of patience, of waiting. Lost does not mean gone forever. Lost is a bridge between worlds, where the pain of our past can be transformed into power. You have always held the key to this special place, but now you are ready to unlock the door.             -from the novel

The title of this book seemed to call my name. 

Its dual timeline runs between 1921 and the 1940's with settings of London and Dublin. Opaline Carlisle (later Gray) at age 21 is trying to escape her brother who wants to force her into marriage when she finds work as an assistant in a bookshop. At the later time period Martha Winter is running away from an abusive marriage when she meets Henry Field, a scholar/researcher specializing in antiquarian books. These three strangers are connected over a mysterious vanishing bookshop.

Mentions of a lost manuscript of Emily Bronte made me curious as I'm not sure I've ever read any of her work.

I am not a fan of magical realism but in this novel, I found it intriguing along with various hints of family secrets waiting to be discovered. I liked The Lost Bookshop but didn't love it---a 3 rating.