The Boys from Biloxi by John Grisham

 

"A lawyer in a trial facing a jury has a dozen things on his mind. Getting to trial takes meticulous preparation. There was no time to grieve, fret, fear, to feel sorry for oneself. At the age of twenty-eight, Keith was becoming a good trial lawyer, one his father would be proud of."

                 -from the novel

This is the second of Grisham's works I have read recently that I did not love. The other was Sparring Partners, a collection of novellas, and I only rated it a 3. This one was more of a page turner, so it gets a 4 rating from me. It would be classified a legal thriller involving organized crime with several despicable characters.

Keith Ruby and Hugh Malco grew up together in Biloxi, Mississippi in the 1960's. They were close in their youth, enjoying baseball and scouts together. In adulthood they had moved in totally different directions, on opposite sides of the law! Hugh follows in his mob boss father's footsteps and Keith becomes a lawyer and later a DA like his father. One might predict they would meet in court at some point. 

The writing was adept as usual, and I could easily root for Jesse Ruby and his son Keith.  I wasn't sure what to think about the ending! 

Night Angels by Weina Dai Randal

 "It struck Fengshan, the brazen core of a man's soul, the depth of a man's evil. If a malignant man like Eichmann would dare to declare his intention to annihilate many lives and demolish a consulate that provided a passage to safety, then men, men of able means, men of faith, men of righteousness, must rise to stop him. This was how it had to be, then. As long as he held the fountain pen, the seal, the power to save people, as long as he was the consul general of the Republic of China, he would sit at a desk and sign, one visa at a time, fighting for other people's lives."   

     -from the novel

I selected this as an Amazon First Read novel. I love heroic stories of WWII and the Holocaust. This one is based on a true account of the "Chinese Schindler," Dr. Ho Fengshan.

As consul general of China in Vienna, Fengshan felt great compassion for Viennese Jews after the Anschluss, or annexation of Austria by Nazi Germany in 1938. First, he felt compelled to help a close associate of his and then his wife's friend and her family, all threatened by Eichmann and his henchmen, to leave the country. He realized he could issue visas for them to relocate in Shanghai. As he realized the greater need, he issued thousands of visas over a period of two years, saving many lives. He posthumously received the title Righteous Among the Nations, an honor received by Schindler, as well.

The fictionalized part of the novel was the story of Grace Lee, Fengshan's second wife who is American, as she navigates German culture and language, deals with a workaholic husband and a stepson with whom she has not bonded and faces the horrors of the Nazi occupation. The weaving of the stories of husband and wife makes this a gripping novel. I have rated it a 5 although I am still wondering about the title of the book.

I thought it was interesting, and sad, that when the need for Jews to escape first arose, most countries refused them entry, including our own. Luckily for many, Fengshan did not take a "no" from his superiors for an answer! I was pleased that one of the countries allowing refugees was the Dominican Republic, which we recently visited on a cruise. I learned that the extremely evil Adolf Eichmann was called the "Czar of the Jews" and even more telling, "The Devil's Deputy."

                         

Mad Honey by Jodi Picoult with Jennifer Finney Boylan

 

"There is one type of honey you should avoid at all costs. Mad honey comes from bees that forage on rhododendrons and mountain laurel, and it's full of poisonous grayanotoxanes. It causes dizziness, nausea and vomiting, convulsions, cardiac disorders, and more. Symptoms last for twenty-four hours, and although rarely, if left untreated, can be fatal....The secret weapon of mad honey, of course, is that you expect it to be sweet, not deadly. You're deliberately attracted to it. By the time it messes with your head, with your heart, it's too late."

         -Olivia, from the novel

Mad Honey was highly recommended to me by a friend, but she seemed to think it might not be fitting for my book club. That made me curious. I am a fan of Jodi Picoult and I wondered about the co-writer with whose name I was unfamiliar. The "Authors' Notes" were fascinating, revealing how the collaboration came about. I will try to write this post without spoilers although that will be difficult. 

The story is narrated by two women. The first is Olivia McAfee, a single mother of a teenaged son, Asher. She is involved in apiculture, or beekeeping. The other is Lily Campanello, Asher's girlfriend, who is found dead early in the novel. When Asher is found with Lily's body, he becomes a prime murder suspect.

Much of the novel describes the trial, with Olivia's brother Jordan acting as Asher's defense attorney. Very compelling!

I will say I was liberally educated on an important subject I knew little about, but I probably learned more about beekeeping than I really wanted to know.

A well-written novel, very suspenseful, with likeable characters, Mad Honey rates a 5 from me. It makes me want to look for another Picoult I haven't read! (There are several.)

The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams

"Some words are more than letters on a page, don't you think? They have shape and texture. They are like bullets, full of energy, and when you give one breath you can feel its sharp edge against your lip. It can be quite cathartic in the right context."

             -Sarah Brooks, from the novel

In the late 1800's/early 19's, Esme Nicoll is growing up at the Scriptorium in Oxford. Her father is a lexicographer working on the development of the Oxford English Dictionary under the leadership of Dr. James Murray, an actual historic figure. Esme's "job" as a child is to sit under the worktable and collect lost words. A very curious and precocious youngster, she soon discovers that some words are neglected or disposed of by the all-male team, especially those pertaining to women. She undertakes the project of collecting such words in a trunk which she labels The Dictionary of Lost Words.

The author adds historical context by having Esme become involved in the suffragist movement and the lead up to WWI. I very much enjoyed the Author's Note where Ms.Williams describes the facts that inspire this historical fiction. Amazon says the novel is "a deeply thought-provoking celebration of the power of words to shape the world." I agree and rate the book a 3. I look forward to the discussion by our Page Turners group in a few weeks.

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Sixteen Page Turners met to discuss this, our January selection. The average rating was 3.3, with most members finding something to like and not much to love. It was agreed there were likeable characters, especially Esme, Lizzie and Gareth. There were substantial references to historical events, making it a worthwhile read although some participants found it tedious and/or depressing. A significant amount of discussion centered on the question of words included or excluded from a dictionary and how they have changed over time. I remembered a wedding gift from one of my husband's friends was a dictionary with the inscription "If you must have words, use these." What a unique gift!

Tamarack County by William Kent Krueger

 

"Anger blinds, Corcoran O'Connor. To hunt, if that is what is in your heart, you will need a clear eye. For that you will need a clear mind. The animal you hunt does not act out of anger. It acts in the way it does because that is its nature.... Your nature is different."

        -Henry Meloux's sage advice

Wow! I practically inhaled this one. Hard to put down! Definitely a 5 rating.

Tamarack County is Number 13 in the Cork O'Connor series and I have enjoyed them all on my Kindle. The next one is Windigo Island which I have in hard copy purchased at a used bookstore months ago and awaiting its turn. 

This one was timely, set at Christmas time in Tamarack County, and I was reading it a few days before that holiday. It involved a missing elderly woman, a brutally murdered pet dog, an innocent man falsely imprisoned, someone set on vigilante justice and a grave danger to Cork's family.

The novel held a gripping plot, characters I've become very fond of and even a bit of romantic intrigue. I look forward to #14!

Dinners with Ruth by Nina Totenberg

 

"A Jewish teaching says those who die just before the Jewish new year are the ones God has held back until the last moment because they were needed most and were the most righteous. And so it was that #RBG died as the sun was setting last night marking the beginning of Rosh Hashanah."

           -Nina Totenberg, after the death of her dear friend, Ruth Bader Ginsberg

Not having been an NPR listener, I hadn't heard of Nina Totenberg. This book, subtitled A Memoir on the Power of Friendships, highlights her friendship with Ruth Bader Ginsberg and others in high places. I selected the book because of my great admiration for the "notorious RBG" as Justice Ginsberg came to be affectionately called.

Nina and Ruth shared a near 50-year friendship, helping each other through some extremely difficult times in their lives, including the deaths of each of their husbands and Ruth's own monumental battles with cancer.

I learned so much about RBG's early career and her efforts to break the glass ceiling. I was so impressed with her devoted husband Marty who in many ways was the "wind beneath her wings." It was so interesting to know about other Supreme Court Justices who had only been names in the news, like Justice Scalia---highly respected but seemingly the life of any party, as well.

Totenberg also writes of her friendship with Cokie Roberts, a coworker at NPR. Hers was a name I was familiar with having read her nonfiction Founding Mothers a few years ago.

I am glad I read Dinners with Ruth; it was both educational and entertaining. My rating is 4.

A Castle in Brooklyn: A Novel by Shirley Russak Wachtel

 

"All in all, it was a sweet little home that was always, it seemed, filled with laughter and warmth and light. Not a big ostentatious home with ornate crystal bowls and fancy engravings, and, in fact, not really very big at all. But for Jacob, it was everything----a castle."

            -Jacob's vision, from the Prologue

This Amazon First Reads selection was a disappointment. I normally enjoy historical fiction and I thought this one was centered around the Holocaust. I almost always find such survival stories compelling and inspiring. Although a part of the background of this novel is 1944 Poland, very little involves that setting; it is used more in a few flashbacks. Main character Jacob, a Jew, escapes the Nazis as a young man and helps a fellow refugee, Zalman, to make it out, as well. The two become very close friends, almost like brothers. They end up in Brooklyn where Jacob enlists Zalman's design expertise to build his "castle." (See quote.)

Jacob marries Esther who, even in the face of tragedy, is a rock.

I have rated A Castle in Brooklyn a 3 but was thinking more like a 2+ or 3-. The story was a lot of talk and not much action and the last part left me wondering if the author just needed extra pages to satisfy the publisher. After Jacob's death, Esther moves to Florida (I don't remember why) and leaves her friend and neighbor Florrie to handle the rental of Jacob's "castle." Two rentals work out poorly and the final potential tenant is connected to Zalman. The ending was interesting but the other two rentals seemed pointless.

This one I would not recommend.