'A Handmaid's Tale' by Margaret Atwood

A Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood (5.0)

I had forgotten how powerful this ‘Tale’ was – rereading it was a delight. In the same genre and league as Orwell’s ‘1984’, it is the story of a possible future of which the religious zealots have managed to take over a part of the world in order to reshape it more like the ‘good old days’. At first introduction, the state of society does not seem credible (you will tell yourself ‘that could never happen’), but the narrator uses flashbacks to fill in the blanks as to how the transition came about and eventually you are shocked into believing the unbelievable is possible. Written in 1998, Atwood’s prescience is frightening. The combination of environmental stresses and societal declines has given us a reactionary culture determined to do something about the lack of pregnancies and successful births. Women need to focus on their main job: having healthy babies. Our narrator is one chosen for this duty, a Handmaid. I don’t want to give too much away, but the ends to which this society goes to manufacture a process in which to do that is chilling. I particularly liked the ending – not a fairy tale ending, but a unique way to add a bit more light on the subject. Margaret Atwood is one of my favorite authors and here she is at her best.

'Wild Bill Wellman' by William Wellman Jr.

Wild Bill Wellman, William Wellman Jr. (3.0)

I met Bill Wellman Jr. at the SLO film festival. He was introducing two of his father’s movies (‘Public Enemy’ and ‘Westward the Women’’) that were screening at the festival and I was assigned to be his concierge, someone who helps the ‘talent’ navigate their way in SLO and at the festival. Bill was also selling his book, a history of his father’s life – from birth to death. Wild Bill was a prolific Hollywood director from the 20’s till the 60’s. His movie, ‘Wing’s’, a silent film about pilots in WWI, won the first Academy Award for best picture. His other famous films were ‘A Star is Born’ (the original one in 1937), ‘Beau Geste’ (1939), ‘The Ox-Bow Incident’ (1943) and ‘Buffalo Bill’ (1944). This book highlights the large and varied life that Mr. Wellman led. It is filled with the characters of old films – both silent and ‘talkies’. While Wild Bill’s life is fascinating, he is not a particularly likable character. I was really put-off by how much he fought his way through life. While I realize it was a different era – every opposition was literally met with fist-to-cuffs. The man never learned how to finesse a situation. It also came across as a bit disingenuous that he was married 5 times – but was a real ‘family man’. He did seem to settle down once meeting his last wife (with whom he had his many children) and his first wife died tragically in WWI. The other 3 came across as diversions. The personal connection made this book interesting for me to read, but I would only recommend it if you are a real movie buff of the 1930’s and 40’s.

'Between the World and Me' by Ta-Nehisi Coates

Between the World and Me, Ta-Nehisi Coates (4.0)

This book may likely become required reading for future high-schoolers to understand the experiences and feelings of a typical young black man growing up in the late 1900’s. Mr. Coates has written a small, but powerful book to his son trying to explain, using a few main events in his life, how his formative years defined him. Throughout the book he struggles with sharing the hard truths and protecting the innocence his son currently enjoys. While he knows his son lives in a different time and place, he also knows in reality enough has not changed for a young black man growing up in the US today. One of the most powerful lines in the book to me was: ‘You have been caste into a race in which the wind is always at your face and the hounds are always at your heels. And to varying degrees this is true of all life. The difference is that you do not have the privilege of living in ignorance of this essential fact.’  This book is not long and not preachy. It does a very good job of highlighting the challenges facing every black person today. As many studies have proven, we all have biases- some obvious and some not. While we can never truly walk in someone’s shoes, this book does a good job of describing what that experience is like.

'The Expatriates' by Janice Y. K. Lee

The Expatriates, Janice Y. K. Lee (3.0)

The premise of this book interested me: a novel about 3 women who are living temporarily in Hong Kong. Two are there for as ‘trailing spouses’ on their husband’s expatriate package (usually very sweet deals put together to entice US executives to move their families to another country for a couple of years), the third is a Korean American who overstays her tourist visa after college. I have met several expatriate families working in Asia, so I was curious how this writer would portray them. There are usually two types: those who embrace the culture and try to fit in, and those who join the American club and use the expat package (there to make up for any hardship) to live a very entitled lifestyle. Ms. Lee addresses both types in this story. In addition to portraying the general lifestyle, the plot of the book describes a tragedy that affects two of the women and how they deal with the healing afterward. It was not exactly an uplifting book, but the writing was good and the locations and people were satisfyingly recognizable to me. While I didn’t love the book, I find myself hoping someone else will read it so that I can discuss it in more detail.

'The 5th Wave' by Rick Yancey

The 5^th Wave, Rick Yancey (2.0)

I normally don’t read other reviews after reading a book, prior to writing my own so as not to be swayed by their opinions. I broke that habit for this book, as I was curious. Interestingly, the reviews are very polar – either this book is great or the worst Sci-Fi ever written. In the end of the day, I’ll have to side with my tried and true Sci-Fiers and not recommend it. The book was highly anticipated and had great ‘press’. At the beginning I was generally ok with the premise: aliens seem to be trying to take over Earth starting with an EMP that takes out all technology (wave #1). Then they drop a really heavy object on a couple major faults and create large earthquakes and tidal waves that take out millions more (really? Seems pretty unique, but unnecessary). The third wave is pestilence – an ebola-like disease spread by birds (pooping everywhere) – at least that one makes some sense. This is all told in flashbacks by our protagonist, a scrappy teenage girl. So, forgiving the unlikelihood that really smart aliens who have been watching Earth for thousands of years would use these methods, the beginning of the book has some charm. Where it goes wrong is when the book starts to read like a harlequin romance series – when our scrappy heroine, who has been ruthless to this point on her rules of survival, goes googly-eyed over the first guy who helps her [spoiler alert – he is OBVIOUSLY one of the humans-taken-over by aliens who HAS JUST SHOT HER]. Ick. Give the girl some backbone Mr. Yancey. Oh, and then there’s the whole side story of the children being trained as soldiers (basic training a la ‘Storm ship Troopers’)– just to kill more humans. Yeah, that makes sense and much easier than just introducing another strain of pestilence that takes out the remaining 3%. Hmmmm, and I heard the movie was a flop.

'H is for Hawk' by Helen Macdonald

H is for Hawk, Helen Macdonald (4.0)

I recommend this book for some readers, but not for all. It is not plot driven, fast paced, nor action packed. That being said it is thoughtful and touching with beautiful writing. The book is a non-fiction account of Ms. Macdonald’s time coping with the sudden death of her beloved father. She turns to a hobby that brings her closer to him and mirrors her feelings during the mourning: training a wild goshawk for the sport of falconry.  As she describes the training of her hawk, Mabel, you feel her bonding with the bird based on the wildness of her grief. As she works through the training and her stages of mourning, the hawk’s progress is like a metaphor for her progress. At times I found her grief to be almost melodramatic, but I was assuming she was a middle-aged person. When I saw her picture later on a book jacket, I realized she is relatively young and she suffered both grief and shock, given the age of her father. If you have recently lost a loved one, this book may be cathartic. But my worry would be that the distinctive and haunting writing could open the wounds of your loss.