Books Set in the United States: Massachusetts

The Heretic's Daughter, by Kathleen Kent (2008)

4 Stars

Read: March 25, 2016

Books Set in the United States: New Hampshire

The Death of the USS Thresher: The Story Behind History’s Deadliest Submarine Disaster, by Norman Polmar (2004)

As a young child, I lived in the Portsmouth, New Hampshire area.  I was in second grade when a new girl joined our class.  Then as suddenly as she appeared, she was gone; her family moved away.  Her father had been on the Thresher.  It is one of my earliest memories of a news event.  I was too young to fully appreciate the significance of the sinking of the Thresher, but because of my classmate, I often think of the event.

The USS Thresher was a new class of nuclear-powered submarines.  It was build during the Cold War era and the Thresher was to be a new killer submarine, specifically designed to seek and destroy Soviet submarines.  Construction on the submarine began in 1958 at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery, Maine.  It was originally launched in 1960 and formally commissioned in August 1961.  After some trial operations in 1961 and 1962, the submarine underwent a major overhaul that took several months from 1962 to 1963.

In early April 1963, the submarine was ready again for deep-diving tests.  On April 1963, during deep sea dives off the New England coast, the Thresher lost contact with its rescue ship, the Skylark.  The last garbled communication may have indicated some minor problems, followed by eerie sounds that were compared to a ship collapsing.  The Thresher was officially lost at sea.  Aboard the submarine were 129 crew members and shipyard personnel, making the sinking of the Thresher the first nuclear submarine disaster and the deadliest to date.

An inquiry was conducted to determine the cause of the disaster.  The formal briefing, issued in June 1963 concluded that, based on current information, it was impossible to determine the cause of the event.  Subsequent investigation have led to various theories of the cause, but the actual cause will never be known.

Although the book did not go into detail about the lives of the 129 aboard the submarine, I cried when I got to the part where the families were informed of the disaster.

This book goes into detail about the construction of submarines, but is a quick read. 

3 Stars

Read: March 19, 2016 

Books set in the Untied States: New Hampshire

Leaving Time, by Jodi Picoult (2014)  5 Stars

Leaving Time is told through the eyes of several characters:  There is Jenna, a thirteen-year old girl, who has spent the past 10 years wondering why her mother left her when she was three-years old.  There is Alice Metcalf, Jenna’s mother who has spent her entire professional life studying elephants, specifically how elephants experience grief.  There is Serenity Jones, a washed up psychic.  There is Virgil Stanhope, a former cop who investigated the tragedy at the elephant sanctuary 10 years earlier.  Ostensibly he committed suicide on the day of his promotion, only to reappear as Victor, a private investigator.  And finally, there are the elephants residing in an elephant sanctuary in New Hampshire.

Alice had been studying elephants in Africa when she meets Thomas Metcalf, who ran an elephant sanctuary in the States.  They have a brief night of passion, before he returns to New Hampshire.  They stay in touch, but when Alice discovers she is pregnant, she visits Thomas in New Hampshire.  They wed before they really know each other and she learns of his mental illness.  She stays with Thomas working at the elephant sanctuary while trying to continue her research.

The novel unwinds between the present and the past, and slowly the reader begins to piece together the tragedy that occurred at the elephant sanctuary 10 years earlier, leaving Jenna motherless with the mysterious disappearance of her mother.  Virgil was one of the cops who investigated the original events, but realized at the time the case was handled badly.  He hopes to redeem himself by helping Jenna search for her mother.

Through Alice’s voice, we learn about elephant behavior.  Elephants grieve for lost members of the herd, and when a mother loses a calf, it will stay with the body for days as it grieves. Picoult did her research, and as noted in the Afterwards, the bits about the elephants are based on real elephants at the Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee, an actual sanctuary for elephants in captivity.

The ending, while fitting for the novel, requires a bit of magical thinking.  It does explain, however, some of the seemingly inconsistence in Jenna’s life.  I enjoyed this novel and read it in two days.

Read:  March 12, 2016 

Books Set Anywhere in the World

Noah's Wife, by Lindsey Starck (2016)

Noah’s Wife is a twist on the Biblical tale of Noah and the Flood.  Noah’s wife, who is never given a name, is married to Noah, a minister.  Although Noah is a minister, this is not a religious book.  Rather, it is a modern day parable.

Noah, facing a crisis of faith, decides to leave his post in the city and take over a church in a small, remote town.  Noah and his wife move into a new town that has been experiencing endless rain for months on end.  The previous minister drowned in the river.  Was it an accident or was he, too, experiencing a crisis?  Noah believes that he can revive the congregation.  He soon learns, however, that that the townspeople have their own ideas.

The rains have caused the towns people to fall into various states of depression and denial.  As the waters rise, some people flee the town.  Others are determined to stay.  The zookeeper refused to leave because he loves the town and who will tend to the exotic animals if he leaves?  His fiancée agreed to marry him thinking that they would leave the town to a drier place.

When the zoo floods, the town folk are called upon to tend the exotic, wild animals 

Noah’s wife, who had always relied on those near to her, finds herself struggling with the townspeople.  In addition to the zookeeper, there is the much-married Mrs. McGinn and her daughter.  The daughter has been engaged to the zookeeper for several years, waiting to get married until they can leave the town.  Then there is the mysterious weatherman who comes to town to warn the villages of impending doom.  Will they listen to him?  Who leaves and who will stay?

This is a debut novel.  It was interesting, but not a favorite.

3 Stars.

Read:  March 6, 2016