The Rescue by Steven Konkoly

This book was free from Amazon Prime First Reads. I am sure glad I didn't pay for it!

As a rule I finish a book even if I don't love it. This one is an exception! I read 12 chapters and was still confused as to the plot and characters. I decided there are too many books in my to-be-read queue to waste time on one that failed to grab me. It has a 4.19 rating from Goodreads.com so maybe there is an attraction that escaped me. And maybe I will go back and try again sometime...but I doubt it. You may have noticed, I didn't even search out a quote with which to begin the post.

The Rescue is the first in a series, apparently. For me, first and last!

The Reckoning by John Grisham

"He, deserved to die, Joel. You'll never understand it, and I suppose you'll learn one day that life is filled with things we can never understand. There's no guarantee that you are allowed to live with the full knowledge of everything. There are a lot of mysteries out there. Accept them and move on."
               -Pete Banning, from the novel

I must admit I was disappointed in this latest Grisham offering. I've read and loved many of his earlier novels, particularly A Time to Kill, his first, The Firm, The Pelican Brief, The Client, Skipping Christmas and A Painted House. (The last two were departures from the regular legal thrillers.) Many were adapted for the screen and became popular films. I found this one's 400+ pages tedious at times. A 3 is the best rating I can give.

In the very first chapter, Pete Banning, well-to-do landowner and hometown war hero, shoots the Methodist pastor at point-blank range. When he is quickly arrested he makes no denial, no excuses and gives no reason for his actions. In fact, he will not explain even to his family---sister Florry, son Joel, daughter Stella, nor his lawyers. One would rightly guess it to be an open-and-shut case under the circumstances. Pete's estranged wife is in a mental facility so she's in no position to help in his defense.

After this shocking beginning, the author flashes back to Pete's past---as a West Point grad, to his meeting Liza, his future wife, and his experiences as a soldier and POW  in the Philippines during WWII. I didn't know much about the Bataan Death March and from this story I learned MORE than I wanted to know. Such unspeakable cruelty of the Japanese! Pete suffers such extreme torture, the reader starts to wonder if he returned home with PTSD and something caused him to snap and commit this crime. I can tell you not to expect resolution until late in the novel.

Much of the novel features Pete's son, Joel, a law student who spends a great deal of time wandering and wondering just how his family and home have fallen apart. There have been too many secrets and deceptions! I wonder if YOU will successfully predict the ending.

Becoming by Michelle Obama

"For me, becoming isn't about arriving somewhere or achieving a certain aim. I see it instead as forward motion, a means of evolving, a way to reach continuously toward a better self. The journey doesn't end. I became a mother, but I still have a lot to learn from and give to my children. I became a wife, but I continue to adapt to and be humbled by what it means to truly love and make a life with another person. I have become, by certain measures, a person of power, and yet there are moments still when I feel insecure or unheard. It's all a process, steps along a path. Becoming requires equal parts patience and rigor. Becoming is never giving up on the idea that there's more growing to be done."
                 -Michelle Obama, from the Epilogue

I have admired Michelle Obama since she came upon the national scene as her husband was campaigning for president. She impressed me then with her intelligence and poise and after becoming the First Lady of the United States, I liked her even more. It was only natural I would want to read her book.

After reading Becoming, I almost feel as if I know Mrs. Obama now, as a person, not just a celebrity. She did a wonderful job of sharing her life as a young girl growing up in a modest, but loving South Side Chicago home. She makes it clear that her parents, the Robinsons, instilled strong values in both her brother and her, along with working very hard and sacrificing much to help establish a bright future for their two children. She says her parents appreciated her feistiness.

As Michelle moved up in school, she experienced her minority status more dramatically. Even though she was an excellent student in high school, a counselor told her she wasn't "Princeton material." I think that made her more determined to attend there and succeed, which she did! She said the relatively few students of color at Princeton felt "like poppy seeds in a bowl of rice."

At Princeton she says, "Beneath my laid-back college-kid demeanor, I lived like a half-closeted CEO, quietly but unswervingly focused on achievement, bent on checking every box. My to-do list lived in my head and went with me everywhere. I assessed my goals, analyzed my outcomes, counted my wins. If there was a challenge to vault, I'd vault it. One proving ground only opened onto the next. Such is the life of a girl who can't stop wondering, 'Am I good enough?' and is still trying to show herself the answer." I was amazed she often questioned whether she was good enough.

After completing law school, she was working as an attorney in a respected law firm. She was asked to mentor a law student named Barack Obama and they slowly fell in love. This was surprising to me.
He earned his law degree and pretty quickly became involved in politics. It was clear that he was a rising star in that field. I didn't know Barack actually lost an election before he won a few. Michelle was reluctant about his running for president at first but then, I believe, realized the country needed him and he had much to give.

As First Lady, Michelle was not always treated well by some media and political foes and I felt bad about that. I really liked how she made her role as a mother a priority and her initiatives on children's health like "Let's Move." As a former teacher, I appreciated her efforts to encourage education for girls internationally.

I would imagine you want to read Becoming yourself, so I don't need to go on. Suffice it to say, it is an intimate look into the life of America's first black First Lady, a position with no job description, and she pulled it off with intelligence, grace and humor! My rating is 5.

A Spark of Light by Jodi Picoult

"We're all entitled to our religious beliefs, right?...But we can't make policies based on religion when religion means different things to different people. Which leaves science. The science of reproduction is what it is. Conception is conception. You can decide the ethical value that has for you, based on your own relationship with God...but the policies around basic human rights with regard to reproduction shouldn't be up for interpretation."
      -Dr. Louie Ward, from the novel

I can't recall that I have ever read one of Picoult's novels that wasn't a page turner. This one was so much so I could hardly put it down! I will just go ahead and rate it a 5.

The story begins in an abortion center at 5 PM on a given day when a pro-life extremist has killed two people and is holding several hostages at gunpoint. Hugh McElroy, the police hostage negotiator, is doing his best to convince the gunman to release the hostages. The situation has become extremely compelling for Hugh after finding out his teenage daughter and aunt are two being held.

The narrative is unusual in its structure as it goes backward in time---all the way back to 8 AM---to gradually reveal what has happened up to that point and allow the reader to discover what brought each of these victims to this point. (This reminded me of Nineteen Minutes, another novel by this author which is just as compelling.) One is the doctor, another is a nurse who has come for an abortion and ends up helping the injured. Joy is a young woman who has just had an abortion, Olive is an older woman who needs consultation, and Janine has more than one secret which I will not tell. Aunt Bex has accompanied Hugh's daughter, Wren, but I'll let you find out the reason. Little by little, we learn the story of George Goddard, a domestic terrorist, the way I see it.

The book is fiction but it is obvious from the extensive bibliography and the Author's Note that
Ms. Picoult thoroughly researched the topic of abortion. She  interviewed women who had experienced the procedure and pro-life proponents. She shadowed a doctor and even observed three abortions. I believe the author worked hard to make the novel believable, to show both sides of a complicated issue and to tell a thought-provoking and engrossing story. I highly recommend it!

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A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles

"Yes, thought the Count, the world does spin. In fact, it spins on its axis even as it revolves around the sun. And the galaxy turns as well, a wheel within a greater wheel producing a chime of an entirely different nature than that of a tiny hammer in a clock. And when the celestial chime sounds, perhaps a mirror will suddenly serve its truer purpose---revealing to a man not who imagines himself to be, but who he has become."
        -from the novel

One of our members suggested this book in November for our first book of the new year. I am very glad because it was quite unique and memorable. It took a while to get through its near-500 pages but I enjoyed the journey.

Count Alexander Ilyich Rostov is a Russian aristocrat in 1922, a very bad time to be labelled as such.
He is put under house arrest by the Bolsheviks but his "prison" is the very elegant Metropol Hotel across the street from the Kremlin. He had been living in a lovely suite in the hotel for 4 years but is banished to a tiny, humble attic space. His life sentence ends up being more blessing than curse, it seems to me, as he meets and befriends many fascinating characters including a beautiful actress, a precocious little girl, a former colonel of the Red Army and officer of the Party, an American who wants to recruit Rostov as a spy and various members of the hotel staff. All are very interesting characters, especially Rostov himself, who is quite charming. Rostov's outlook on the world ends up being enhanced by living in its microcosm, the Metropol.

I had recently visited St. Petersburg in Russia and wished it had been more prominent in the story. Only mentions that Rostov, called Alex, and Mishka, his friend, had attended university there. At one point in the story nesting dolls, a souvenir I purchased for my granddaughter, was used as a hiding place.

Towles has a sophisticated writing style, both philosophizing (e.g. the quote above) and educating the reader in a not-so-pretty period of Russian history while using humor to weave an engaging tale. I rated this one a 4, almost a 5.

I look forward to hearing the group's reactions to the book this week.
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Page Turners met today, our first meeting in a restaurant. It was very enjoyable although we were not able to discuss the book as much as we normally do. The group average was 3.7 with 17 of 22 votes being 4 or 5. Many of us found the Count to be an appealing, memorable character although at least one person found him to be rather unbelievable noting that he was just a little too perfect or a little too lucky. We could pretty much agree that the Count's banishment changed his personality as he was affected by the people he met and the incidents that occurred.

Some of us were curious about the movie "Casablanca," the Count's favorite film and one he shared with Osip. What was it about the film that resonated with the Count? I wonder how many of us will find and watch the movie.

The group agreed that there was much humor in the story, even some laugh-out-loud parts like when he ripped his trousers numerous times as he ran around the hotel trying to eavesdrop with 9-year-old Nina and a description of the ideal duel (page 47).

Turns out A Gentleman in Moscow was a good selection with which to begin 2019.

Three Beautiful Books by Patricia Polacco

"Master storyteller and artist Patricia Polacco has outdone herself in this poignant holiday tale of two families, two faiths and two lonely people united by a beautiful twist of fate."
          -from the book jacket of Christmas Tapestry

My love for this author/artist goes back to my teaching days when I discovered her amazing stories, mostly originating from within her family, and her wonderful illustrations. All of her books are picture books which appear to be for young children but many contain stories of multigenerational interest and appeal. I believe all 3 of these, some of my very favorites, are examples of such.

Christmas Tapestry (see quote)
A story of nothing short of a Christmas miracle, this one touches me deeply every time I hear or read it. I loved it so much I adapted it for the stage and produced it at my church as a live radio play, giving complete credit to Polacco for the story. The audience thought it was outstanding. I conducted a talk-back after the show and the cast enjoyed sharing what the story had meant to them.

Pink and Say
I shared this Civil War story with my 5th graders when we were studying that time period. I had not read it in a number of years and when I reread it recently, it brought tears to my eyes once again. It is the story of two very young Union soldiers brought together when one helps the other who has been wounded. Sheldon Russell Curtis, nicknamed Say, is the injured soldier who happens to be white. Pinkus Aylee, Pink for short, is the black soldier who rescues him after a battle in Georgia. It is a beautiful story of friendship and heroism which sheds light on the horrors of war. I bet you cannot read it without goosebumps or a lump in the throat.

The Trees of the Dancing Goats
Another December holiday story involves two families who are neighbors---one Christian, the other Jewish. While the Jewish family is preparing for Hanukkah, they find out their Christian neighbors, the Kremmels, are sick with scarlet fever and will not be able to make Christmas preparations. The Jewish family then sets about organizing Christmas for them---with very special decorations and food. A touching story of brotherly love!

Ms. Polacco is so very talented and prolific, with many other books to her credit. Some involve teachers, which are near and dear to my heart, and two others I really love are The Keeping Quilt and The Butterfly. I would insist that most of Polacco's books are not just for children!

Lilac Girls by Martha Hall Kelly

"He [father] loved these [lilac bushes]. It's a lovely reminder of him, but terribly sad too, to see his favorite Abraham Lincoln lilacs blossom without him.....But it's fitting in a way---Father loved the fact that a lilac only blossoms after a harsh winter....It's a miracle all this beauty emerges after such a hardship, don't you think?"
                -Caroline Ferriday, from the novel

At close to 500 pages, this one took a while to get through but it was well worth the time spent! Kelly weaves a tale of three women of the WWII era, two of them based on real people. The stories proceed chronologically from 1939 to an epilogue of sorts set in 1959. The narration alternates between the three women: Caroline Ferriday, a volunteer at the French consulate in New York; Kasia Kuzmerick, a teenager in Lublin, Poland who becomes involved in the underground resistance after the Nazi takeover; and Herta Oberheuser, a female German doctor at the infamous Ravensbruck concentration camp. Many cliffhangers inspire you to read on.

This reader found herself immediately predicting how the stories would collide and trying to guess the significance of the title. Caroline is an admirable activist trying to help French orphans and victims of the war and one feels deep sympathy for Kasia who experiences unspeakable horrors of Nazi occupation, even undergoing the "experimental surgery" at Ravensbruck. But Herta is the one you love to hate, going against her conscience in blind subservience to the Reich. Lilac Girls is a story of bravery, determination, survival and single-minded loyalty leading to extreme cruelty.

There is only a bit of humor in this captivating story but a couple of love stories woven into the plot do relieve the intensity. If you enjoy historical fiction, I recommend Lilac Girls. I give it a 5 rating.