October 2015 Reading List

A bumper crop of excellent books this month:

1. The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt
2. Revised Fundamentals of Caregiving by Jonathan Evison
3. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
4. The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker
5. The Mad Scientist's Daughter by Cassandra Rose Clarke
6. War Brides by Helen Bryan

There is no doubt that The Goldfinch is a well constructed and well written book.  Tartt's use of metaphor is at times beautiful.  However, I, like many other readers found the pace of the story a little ponderous.  Perhaps less would be more.  The character development is awesome -- all of them being flawed in some way, especially the protagonist whose entire life is turned upside down within the opening pages of the book.  Overall I didn't mind the length of the story because the rest is so good.

Revised Fundamentals is one of those stories that examines how someone's down-and-out life is transformed by another person's whose is even worse.  Evison manages this transition well however.  The "real story" behind the protagonist's history is gradually, almost painfully teased out.  At times I found myself asking: "C'mon what did you do?!".  He isn't conveniently "fixed' by the end of the story but he is definitely headed in the right direction.  Nice job Mr Evison.

I haven't seen the Book Thief movie yet.  I've been waiting to get the book read first.  Though the style and difficulty of the book makes this a children's story the length and the nature of the content is challenging that notion.  The horror of what happened to the Jewish people during WWII is not as graphic in this story as it could be and that is a good thing.  What makes this story stand out however is the hope and defiance brought about by the unselfish act of making a difference in one man's life.

The Golem and the Jinni would have to be my favorite book this month and possibly for the year (we'll have to see).  I think everyone has heard about genies and magic lamps but how many have heard of a golem? Certainly not me.  And yet Wecker takes these two mythical beings and brings them together in New York City around about 100 years ago.  Both beings are broken is some way and demoralized with their situations but together they make a difference to each other.  Their redemption is bound up with the same evil source across a thousand years of history.  Ah yes, this one was a good one.

Mad Scientist's Daughter is a straightforward tale of a forbidden romance between a human woman and an android.  I guess "straightforward" is a bit harsh and I mention this only because, yet again, I made a poor choice in selecting a story for its premise rather than its genre.  Romance in a scifi setting is what this should be labeled as.  Well at least it wasn't YA fiction.  One aspect of the story I did like was Clarke's handling of the consequences of global warming.  This background to the narrative doesn't get emphasized but is more of an unobtrusive backdrop.  Summers get hotter each year.  Freak winter storms occur randomly.  Even the Midwest is a dust bowl.  But these events play (appropriately) second fiddle to the main romantic conundrum.

War Brides.  Again what was I thinking when I bought this?  More chicklit?  But I was pleasantly surprised.  Bryan captures that English attitude of getting on with it when times are hard just perfectly when she brings together the lives of a group of women from different places and backgrounds.  The one thing they all have in common is getting married during WWII.  Parts of the story seem contrived such as the German sympathizers and the reporter summarizing 50 years of history at the end of the story but all in all Bryan does a good job.  Even if it really wasn't my thing.

(19889[49])