'The Constant Gardener' by John Le Carre

The Constant Gardener, John Le Carre (4.0)

I enjoy the detail in Le Carre’s writing. While it requires closer reading, the stories feel real and complex, like life. In this story, he moves away from his usual spy fare, though the British government bureaucracy that frustrates his MI6 characters looms large here. It centers on a British foreign serviceman stationed in Kenya. At the beginning his wife has been murdered while working with an NGO doctor to uncover a potential pharma scandal. He tries to sift through the gossip by the media and obfuscation by his office as he learns how deeply his wife was engaged in discovering the truth. Like his other books, here the main character’s feelings are deep while he shows little in typical English fashion. I also watched the movie and found it to lack the emotion of the book, though had moving scenes of Africa.

'The Warmth of Other Suns' by Isabel Wilkerson

The Warmth of Other Suns: the Epic Story of America’s Great Migration, Isabel Wilkerson (3.5)

The book spans the migration of African Americans from the Jim Crow south to the north from the early 1910’s to the 1990’s. This was a difficult book to read. Not only long but reading through the details of the many years of racism made one so disappointed in our history. That said, it was worth reading to acquaint oneself with the details of the three representative people who moved from the South LA, Chicago and NYC. Getting to know these people made their stories that much more real. Humans can distance themselves from generic groups, it is much harder from actual people. Ms. Wilkerson did a very good job of attempting to get empathy from her readers, if possible, sympathy at a minimum. She also addresses many fallacies attributed to the new migrants in their northern homes (such as negative things they brought with them).  I wasn’t thrilled with the degree of repetition and had to stop at times as my disappointment with people, in general, was overwhelming. 

'The Scarlet Pimpernel' by Baroness E. Orczy

The Scarlet Pimpernel, Baroness Emmuska Orczy (4.0)

This book has a soft spot in my heart as it was given to me by my parents in junior high. I’ve always enjoyed the history, love story and good twists. So, I will say it’s hard for me to be objective. I would also call it a softer version of one of my favorite books, ‘A Tale of Two Cities’. Both are set during the French Revolution and bounce between London and Paris. The eponymous character is an anonymous Englishman who leads a troupe who extract French noble families from the jaws of Madame Guillotine. Given the author’s title, you can assume all sympathies are with the Pimpernel and the people he is saving, not the revolutionaries. Therein lies my only issue with the book – the ‘bad guys’ are rather cookie-cutter and some prejudices are too obvious. But it is true to the era when it was written and a thoroughly charming little book!

'Project Hail Mary' by Andy Weir

Project Hail Mary, Andy Weir (4.5)

Another riveting book by Andy Weir. At first, I was hesitant to read this as it seemed like it was too similar to ‘The Martian’ (man is stranded somewhere in space and must MacGyver his way to survival) but found this to be much more speculative in nature. Yes, you first meet the protagonist, Ryland Grace, as he finds out he is stranded in space and has no recollection of who he is, where he is or how he got there. But where the story goes is much more than just a tale of survival. Throughout the reader discovers things as he does, with flashbacks as events trigger his memory. Some may find the science explanations long and uninteresting- it is very similar to ‘The Martian’ – and in both cases quite necessary to help explain much of what is happening. I don’t want to say more as I found the enjoyment of this book had a lot to do with going into the unknown with Grace.

'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.