'The Manchurian Candidate' by Richard Condon

The Manchurian Candidate, Richard Condon (4.5)

One of the best books I’ve read in a long time! While the start of the book is creepy and hard to read (when is brain-washing easy?), the middle and end are riveting. After seeing the movie years ago (Frank Sinatra/Angela Lansbury version, of course), I had forgotten many of the twists and turns that make the book so enjoyable. Without giving too much away, the story follows a hero from the Korean War who has returned to his extremely dysfunctional family. Quickly the story flashes back to his patrol and how the troops were really were kidnapped and brainwashed by Chinese and Russian agents. The reader is not sure what the end game is for the spies, but it seems clear that the hero is being set-up to murder someone important at their behest. The tension and intrigue are thick as you follow his interactions. One of the interesting bits of writing is how dislikable the main character is – normally a turn-off for most readers. Condon did a good job of having a character (i.e. horrible mother) to blame for his lack of empathy and a real hero (Major Marco) to follow.

'Killers of the Flower Moon' by David Grann

Killers of the Flower Moon, The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI, David Grann  (3.0)

While I am glad I read this book, I was somewhat disappointed in it.  The subject was new to me – the FBI’s investigation of the systematic deaths of a tribe of American Indians in the 1920’s- and quite intriguing. The common emotion when reading the history is outrage and disbelief. It’s hard to imagine such obvious murders being ignored, regardless of their ethnicity. Unfortunately the way the book flows; it was not nearly as riveting as it should have been. The author seems to draw out some elements and move too quickly through others. Additional murders are briefly discussed in the last chapters that would have added to the reader’s anxiety during the main investigation. Oddly, even the title seems misleading. This investigation was obviously not the ‘birth of the FBI’ and the ‘killers of the flower moon’ seems like a forced description. Overall I wanted to like this book more than I did – it felt like a New Yorker article more than a book.

'The Invisible Library' by Genevieve Cogman

The Invisible Library, Genevieve Cogman (3.0)

It was hard to pass up a book about spy librarians who can travel to different time/worlds – great potential, but oddly not as compelling as one would hope. After reading it, I found out it was categorized as Young Adult and that makes a bit more sense. The basic idea is that librarians collect valuable books from various alternate realities, returning them to a time agnostic main library where they can live without growing older. They utilize a magical Language as a power and meet many magical creatures in the alternate realities. This volume follows Irene, an experienced Librarian, and her trainee to an alternate London to find a Grimm’s Fairy Tales. While there, they find their task is far more complicated and dangerous than first assumed. I found the book generally interesting to read, but I was hoping for more depth of character and more logic in the world building (magic is fine, but consistency is still needed). This is supposed to be the first in a series and I not particularly compelled to read on.

'Sick Puppy' by Carl Hiaasen

Sick Puppy, Carl Hiaasen (3.5)

Carl Hiassen’s books are not grand literature, but they tend to be fast, funny books to read. This one blends it’s funny with the somewhat gruesome. Set in Florida, as usual, the main character is a trust fund eco-terrorist (of sorts) who angers quickly and who spends the majority of his time chasing down those who are not showing due respect to the earth with the goal of highlighting the error of their ways. Unfortunately, he tends to go to extremes as his targets rarely get the point right away. Enter the next character, a serial litterbug state lobbyist who also happens to be working to destroy one of Florida’s remaining unspoiled islands. Hiaasen weaves crazy characters (including a wonderful black lab), current political issues and Florida’s culture. If anything, the lobbyist is too horrible and unredeemable and the ‘good guys’ are too cheer worthy. I found some of the book to be hard to read and it certainly didn’t put me in a good political mood-I’m a big fan for outlawing lobbyists!

'A Moveable Feast' by Ernest Hemingway

A Moveable Feast, Ernest Hemingway (3.5)

Hemingway’s famous memoir/not-memoir takes us back to a simpler time to the City of Light in the 1920’s where he and his (first) wife lived before his first novel was published. While I don’t love Hemingway’s writing style, I did enjoy his simple stories of the places and peoples that make up the starving artist’s life in Paris after WWI. From the neighborhood cafes to the bookshops, it’s a city that feels much more approachable than the one found today. I particularly enjoyed his interactions with Gertrude Stein and F. Scott Fitzgerald, though he cleverly starts the book with a question mark over whether it is a memoir or not. It is left up to the reader to determine how true he has been to the real characters. Overall, he comes across more likeable as a young writer than old, but that may be because this tale covers good times with his first wife. Only at the end does he gloss over the events that ended that marriage – the affair- and you remember his large reputation as a egotistical lout. I found it interesting that he wrote these remembrances at the end of his life and it was published posthumously. In some ways it seems like a love letter to his first wife and the city they enjoyed.