' This Vast Enterprise: A New History of Lewis & Clark' by Craig Fehrman

 This Vast Enterprise: A New History of Lewis & Clark, Craig Fehrman (4.0)

I can imagine this will not be a good book for those who are familiar with the Lewis and Clark expedition. It is well written and well researched, and for those less familiar, a good description of how the corps was formed, where they went and who they encountered. The author used diaries from Lewis, Clark and a sergeant. He augmented them with oral histories told by several American Natives met along or part of the journey, this is the ‘new’ in the title. He also gave suppositions for those not recorded (i.e. York, Clark’s slave). The book lagged in a few spots but overall gave an interesting view of why and how the expedition accomplished what it did. My biggest surprise was how the group was met with general interest and little animosity from the native peoples along the way. You could tell they were used to trading with the French and Spanish and didn’t quite realize the long-term goal of the ‘Americans’. 

'Daughters of the Bamboo Grove: From China to America, a True Story of Abduction, Adoption, and Separated Twins' by Barbara Demick; 'Villa Coco' by Sean Greer

 Daughters of the Bamboo Grove: From China to America, a True Story of Abduction, Adoption, and Separated Twins, Barbara Demick (4.5)

China’s one-child policy is well known, but given the size of the country, the effect on the population is not as well understood. The author does a very good job following the history of several families in the countryside as they dealt with the policy. The key story is of a pair of twins born to a family who already had 2 daughters. One is abducted by the local group in charge of family planning and adopted by a US couple. There were many things I had not known: e.g. families could often have a second child if the first is a girl, families could pay a fine to the local authorities for extra children. The common belief in the US was that girl children were aborted and even killed upon birth. The author does not dispute that this happened, but she talks with many families who went to great lengths to hide and keep their girls.

 

Villa Coco, Andrew Sean Greer (3.0)

Cute story of a young man who takes a position to archive the treasures of a ‘Baroness’ in Italy. Nothing is as it seems for him as he drops into the crazy life of Coco. The characters are funny and unique, but the story is rather inconsequential. It does have the flavor of a small Tuscan town – spontaneous, non-linear and warm. Read it for the atmosphere, if not the plot.

'A World Appears: A Journey into Consciousness' by Michael Pollan, 'The Huntress' by Kate Quinn, 'His & Hers' by Alice Feeney

 His & Hers, Alice Feeney (3.0)

Still trying to decide if I liked this book. It is very manipulative, with an unreliable narrator. Not as bad as ‘Gone Girl’, but the whodunnit aspect took the last 20% to unravel with several twists. It was quite compelling and read quickly. Most characters were unlikeable in several ways – which makes it difficult to really enjoy the book. The main premise has a journalist returning to her hometown outside of London where a murder has taken place. Every piece of information we get as she is there is a surprise about her history. Throughout the book 1-2 pages from the killer’s point of view are interspersed between chapters. When there are major twists, I often ask myself: did the author give enough clues for the reader to solve the puzzle? In this case I think the clues were so hidden or intended to distract/divert that it was only possible if you guessed every character did it (which I did at one point!).

The Huntress, Kate Quinn (4.0)

I enjoyed this version of her usual trope of strong women during WWII. Though this one has several strong women: good, bad, and good but broken. All her characters are vibrant in different ways. Much of the story happens once the war is complete, with the focus on finding people who had done particularly bad things. A war journalist is trying to find the woman who killed his brother and we know she has taken up a new identity in the US. The chapters dance back and forth in time to give us the back-story of all the main players. The year changes with each chapter, so you need to pay attention.

 

A World Appears: A Journey into Consciousness, Michael Pollan (4.0)

This book took a lot of concentration to read – mostly due to the thought-provoking concepts. Mr. Pollan writes clearly but it is understandably difficult to investigate consciousness as it is not well defined. He does a good job of reviewing what current experts are doing to define and understand consciousness, though not quite coming to any conclusions, which may be frustrating for some readers. I enjoyed thinking about various living things and how they might think. The section on AI and how some feel that we need to make something that is conscious to understand it was as disturbing as expected. Personally, I’m not sure we need to understand it. The curiosity is apparent, but would it really advance us as a species?