Stepping in the Write Direction

“He is Frankenstein without conscience,” writes Mary Trump of her uncle in her book Too Much and Never Enough, and she is certainly his Mary Shelley. Mary Trump’s father died of a heart attack caused by alcoholism at the age of 42 when Mary was 16, and her memoir surely serves as a cathartic divesting of a lifetime’s compounding of a 16 year old’s wounded soul from the profound rage and sense of powerlessness triggered by such a loss and the failure of the extended family to safeguard the interests of her immediate family, sacrificial lambs in a perceived deathbed asset grab.  The book is authored in a terse, perfunctory voice, often reading like a clinical report crammed with diagnostic terms written by the clinical psychologist she is. It is largely a final accounting of the high cost of being born into a family that creates great financial wealth, parented by individuals seemingly ill equipped for the job, by virtue of a combination of personal childhood experiences and blind a...

Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi is a genealogical tsunami of a book teeming with life rich in detail, a fecund soil conjuring images of humanity’s best and worst, a crucible fused from trials and anger where a legacy of strength is forged for those who follow in their succession. Quickly and deftly weaving the history of generations back and forth, an indelible pattern emerges from the narrative’s fibers, of men and women suffering, surviving, enduring, taking joy in each other’s company, yearning for freedom and children to love and raise, aspiring to the highest altitudes their gifts, talents, strengths, and ambitions can take them, while overcoming the cruel constructs of others. It is about dreams in a world where the lights have been extinguished, invoking an inner stamina required to prevail against all odds, reaching out to lift others along the path. It is a story of global disparities told in such a way it speaks to the core of humanity’s heart. It is a song of origins extolling power,...

I loved A Star Is Bored because it depicts life like nonfiction, but fills in the soul of moments as only fiction can. This book is not about Carrie Fisher, but it makes you love her more. It’s not an autobiography, but you love the author. In a world fueled by perpetually refreshed candid Instagram moments, recreated and replaced in seconds by the latest Facebook selfies, we learn it’s what’s behind the images that tells the real story, the truth we carry with us into the quiet moments of solitude and peace when we are free to be ourselves. This book is about relationships, families, celebrities, coming to terms with how we define ourselves, healing past hurts, moving on, defining personal purpose and passion, making difficult choices, mental health, addiction, humor, modern life, and not being afraid to embrace our authentic self in an often hostile world. It’s about cherishing the people who matter most, and learning to let go enough to celebrate spontaneity and life’s most indelibl...

I thoroughly enjoyed the audiobook The Guardians by John Grisham, and wish it could become a series, as the dedicated employees of Guardian Ministries are so memorable, it would be a shame to squander such a good ensemble cast on only one novel! I’m partial to legal/murder thrillers that take place in Florida, especially in the “Body Heat” tradition, which may involve flashbacks of steamy summer days, good old boys doing deals and obstructing justice, bars, diners, ice cubes tinkling in glasses of whisky, drug cartels, and a kind of legal insouciance that seems to permeate Florida’s legal history where powerful forces controlled courtroom drama, tipping the scales of justice to suit them, tragically railroading innocents in the process. There is one scene involving crocodiles and zip lines, an unforgettable illustration of the drug trade’s savage moral bankruptcy. I loved the hungry and exhausted lawyer/minister Cullen Post commenting, “Dinner is machine food, which is seriously under...

The 20th Victim by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro (released 5/4/20) was the first I have read of the Women’s Murder Club series. I was excited to read it, having just finished my first James Patterson/Candice Fox book Hush, a Detective Harriet “Harry” Blue book (released 6/2/20) in July, which I loved. My rating reaction to Hush was in line with that of other readers, my opinion of The 20th Victim is not. I started the audiobook July 14, and finished it August 19th, entailing lining up again on the hold list to get it for another 21 days in order to finish it. I found this book excruciatingly difficult to get through on audiobook, my usual format. The book seemed terribly fragmented and disjointed. Unlike Hush, I was not strongly compelled to go to the next chapter, and the storyline was not as gripping for me as I had hoped it would be. I would have classified it as “dnf” except that I have some weird compulsion to finish every book, and I honestly can’t remember not having finish...

The book opens with student Jivan witnessing a passenger filled train burning after a terrorist bomb explodes, while on scene police seemed unable or unwilling to help the victims. She later writes in a Facebook post, “If the police didn’t help ordinary people like you and me, if the police watched them die, doesn’t that mean, that the government is also a terrorist?” The book deftly answers that question. Jivan is correct. Governments do become terrorists when innocent lives are lost at their behest, collateral damage for those occupying chairs in the seat of power. The true horror is such betrayal is not the crime of a faceless monolith exerting it’s will. It is a political Ponzi scheme, where power at the top is supported and perpetuated by a vast cadre of individuals beneath, receiving trickle down benefits ensuring their continued allegiance to a corrupted organism. This insidious ideological food chain, cannibalizes the most vulnerable, served up by the very people surrounding ...

Hidden Valley Road by Robert Kolker, is a riveting, engrossing account of one extraordinary family’s struggle with schizophrenia, and how they’ve lived with it for more than half a century. It’s about attitudes toward schizophrenia, evolving over decades in the medical and psychological sciences. It’s a story about superheroes in science labs seeking a schizophrenic Rosetta Stone, tirelessly investigating genetic clues from tissue and blood samples, building vast data repositories for future generations of scientists to tap. It’s about unthinkable trauma, survival, coping, and healing. Imagine you are the mother of a college student, a handsome gifted athlete, a golden boy, and you wake up one day to learn he’s hallucinating, and may be a danger to himself and others. You discover, after his diagnosis as a schizophrenic, that you are the cause of his illness. According to psychiatric professionals, you are a “schizophrenogenic mother.” While processing the fear, horror, and shame of y...

My 25 year old daughter bought a copy of Ghosted by Rosie Walsh and was reading it. I was in the early stages of listening to The Guest List, was weary of the narrator’s voice, and the confusion of many characters I was trying to get up to speed with, so on a whim checked to see if my library had Ghosted on audio book. It did, I borrowed it, and started listening without knowing much about it. I found it very interesting, and the story intriguing. It flowed so well and suspense built to the point that in the last half of the book I hated leaving it to go back to real life duties.  Ghosting is a new phenomenon, dating back to the advent of cell phones and social media, but there is nothing more devastating for a tween or teen to think someone likes them, engaging frequently, only to be slammed by a sudden wall of silence, as their supposed friend goes incommunicado. It’s not pleasant for anyone, and in this story 37 year old Sarah recently divorced and temporarily returned from Amer...

Scott Turow’s novel The Last Trial deals with the federal prosecution of a Nobel Prize winning doctor, Kiril Pafco, for murder and securities fraud (insider trading). The title of this book could have been Hell Hath No Fury as three key players, Innis (the defendant’s ex-lover of 32 years), Donatella (the defendant’s current wife), and Olga (the defendant’s current lover) all seem to hold defendant Dr. Kirro Pafco’s past, present, and future in their immaculately manicured, well tended hands. I love a book where the female cast of characters gives the male ones a run for their money, and often that’s true in the literal sense here as well. I loved Turow’s description of Donatella: “Her diamonds are large and worn unapologetically, like merit badges.” Is there more to the story than meets the eye? There always is, thank God, and in Turow’s capable hands we love the journey of discovery as much as the brilliant courtroom maneuvers by attorneys graced with instinct, elocution, street smar...

In the earliest years of Disney theme parks, ride attraction tickets were designated for “A rides” through “E rides,” with “E rides” the most coveted of all, garnering holders of such tickets passage to Space Mountain, Big Thunder Mountain, Haunted Mansion, and the Matterhorn Bobsleds, among others. The Woman in the Window pulls out of the gate with a slow, deliberate ascent, carrying the reader forward on a convoluted track of discovery. Chapters 1-18 languish in intriguing detail and character development, building steam slowly, like a roller coaster chugging up hill, until momentum and motion seem suddenly suspended precariously on a tipping point of no return. There is a brief moment on top to catch your breath, the anticipation of an imminent change of direction tantalizes, becoming a grab the rails ride where plot switchbacks madden and mystify, as readers plummet headlong into accelerating action, and almost excruciatingly unbearable twisting and turning tension into the climax ...