'Listening Well: Bringing Stories of Hope to Life' by Heather Morris

Listening Well: Bringing Stories of Hope to Life, Heather Morris (2.5)

I was a bit disappointed in this book. Given the author’s previous books (novels based on interviews with Holocaust survivors), I thought she was well suited to write about how to listen well in order to bring those touching and tragic stories forward. The best parts of the book are when she discusses specific parts of those books and how the subjects open up to her. Unfortunately, the writing and/or editing is not very good. Items are repeated, which interrupts the flow; and often the sentence structure seemed lazy (e.g. the word ‘extraordinary’ is used twice in one short sentence). I did get some pointers on how she was able to bring out some of the most difficult stories from her subjects, but the writing was too distracting to enjoy reading.

'Beggars in Spain' by Nancy Kress

 

Beggars in Spain, Nancy Kress (4.0)

A unique and interesting speculative fiction story having to do with ‘otherness’, this story posits what would happen if we were able to alter a baby’s genes so that it didn’t have to sleep. It looks at both the type of parent who would want this and the culture of the kids that are ‘sleepless’. This idea of otherness is pertinent given our current social issues, though flipped as the ‘others’ have an assumed advantage. Would those few who are perceived to have an advantage be persecuted as immigrants of our day? The author mentions in the forward that she came up with the idea based on her jealousy of those who can function on less sleep – what would happen if you needed no sleep? Do you become more efficient, smarter? I enjoyed her exploration of both the subtle and major changes. While this book has gotten many awards, the next in the series is even more lauded. I look forward to it

'The Gray Man' by Mark Greaney

The Gray Man, Mark Greaney (3.0)

Spy stories can vary in terms of action, violence, skills, gadgets and spy-craft, which ultimately determine believability. Having watched the new movie based on this series, I was expecting a lot of action and violence. This was certainly the case – and the skills were so over the top that one’s skepticism needed to be suspended throughout the read (can someone with a deep stomach knife wound really keep assaulting others for hours?). I’m not giving away much as the front cover indicated this was ‘Gray Man 1’ so it was more curiosity to see how someone would survive the onslaught of 100 assassins after him. I could somewhat overlook the unbelievability, given the genre, but about 60% into the book more information is given about the motive of the bad guys and the whole plot falls apart - the reason for all the action becomes contrived.

'Vanderbilt: The Rise and Fall of an American Dynasty' by Anderson Cooper and Katherine Howe

Vanderbilt: The Rise and Fall of an American Dynasty, Anderson Cooper and Katherine Howe (2.5)

One of standard recommendation in writing is ‘show, don’t tell’. I found this book had an inordinate amount of telling. I skipped large paragraphs describing a ball (furniture, flowers, wall hangings, food and list of attendees), as I did not find the best way to show opulence to be long lists of items. Mr. Cooper gives a history of his family by highlighting specific people in the tree. He had a lot to choose from and it was not clear why he chose some over others or the detail some family members warranted (the chapter detailing the America’s Cup was interesting to me as someone who sails, not quite sure what its point was). This was a good partner to my last book as ‘The Age of Innocence’ was mentioned several times. While I found a few things interesting, overall, I was disappointed in the flow and writing.