Books Set in the United States: New York City

The Golem and the Jinni, by Helene Wecker (2013)

The Golem and the Jinni, by Helene Wecker, is a debut novel, and what a debut it is!  As implied by the title, it is about a Golem, a creature in Jewish folklore, and a Jinni, a mythical creature in the Arab world.  The most famous golem was created by Rabbi Loew of Prague in the 1500s to protect the Jews of the city from attacks by their neighbors.  In Jewish folklore, a golem is made of clay, becomes animated and has supreme strength.

This novel is set at the beginning of the 1900s and is mostly set in New York City.  Otto Rotfeld is a failed Polish businessman who wishes to seek his fortune in the New World.  He approaches a man he believes to be a mystic and asks him to create an obedient, but curious wife to accompany him in New York.  The mystic complies, but warns Otto not to utter the words to awaken the woman until after he arrives in the New World.  Otto, of course, cannot wait that long and utters the word to bring his golem-wife to life while about the ship crossing the Atlantic.  Otto then promptly dies, leaving the Golem to fend for herself in New York.

The Golem has the ability to hear the thoughts of the people around her.  Shortly after arriving in New York, she encounters a rabbi who recognizes her for what she is.  He takes her under his wing in an attempt to protect her.

Around the same time, a tinsmith working in New York is repairing a flask, when suddenly the Jinni, who had been trapped in the flask for centuries is suddenly freed.

Eventually the two meet.  Both appear to be human, but have powers beyond human capability.  The golem is made of clay and is cold.  The jinni is of a spark of fire and knows that water can destroy him.  Both have to constantly remind themselves to behave as humans ~ the golem must remember to appear to breathe; the jinni must remember that he can cause burns with his touch.

The two lead separate, but intwined, lives.  Each interact with the people of New York.  The jinni meets the beautiful and rich Sarah Winston and sneaks into her house at night.  The golem gets restless at night and wanders the streets, even though for a mortal woman, such wanderings would be dangerous.  The jinni is sly with little moral guidance; the golem must obey her nature, although she has no master.

We meet the real people who encounter the Golem and the Jinni.  All these characters truly come to life.

This is one of my all time favorite books.  It held up upon a second reading several years after the first time I read it.

5 Stars

Read: December 27, 2018; June 8, 2013

Books Set in a Global Environment: United States and USSR

Bridge of Spies: A True Story of the Cold War, by Giles Whittell (2010)

This book of non-fiction delves into the events leading up to the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union, and the Berlin Wall.  In the 1950s, Willie Fisher, also known as Rudolf Abel, was in the United States as an undercover agent for the USSR.  Through a comedy of errors, he was captured by the FBI, tried and sent to Federal Prison.

Francis Gary Powers was an American pilot hired by the CIA to fly reconnaissance missions over the Soviet Union to look for Soviet missile sites.  He piloted a U-2, which could fly at unimaginable heights.  It was believed that the plane was shot down, survival of the pilot was not possible.  All that changed on May 1, 1960, when the U-2 Powers was flying was, indeed, shot down over the USSR and Powers survived the crash.  He was immediately captured, tried as a spy and imprisoned.

Around the same time, wanderlust Frederic Pryor, was studying communist economics at the Free University in West Berlin.  Until the Berlin Wall was constructed, he freely crossed between East and West Berlin.  A fact not unnoticed by the East German police.  He was arrested on suspicion of spying and imprisoned.  He had no connections with the US Government, but his parents were wealthy and were acquainted with some powerful men in Washington.

Bridge of Spies sets the foundation of the nuclear missile discussions, or lack thereof, between the two superpowers.  Shortly before Powers was shot down, US President Eisenhower and Soviet leader Khrushechv were poised to meet in Paris to discuss a nuclear test ban treaty.  The U-2 incident derailed the meeting with a growing distrust evident between the US and the Soviet Union.  The author details the tensions and misunderstandings of both leaders.

Two years later, however, tempers had cooled somewhat, and each country recognized the benefits of holding a prisoner exchange.  The details of the exchange were carefully planned.  Abel had an inkling that an exchange might be possible, but Powers and Pryor were completely unprepared.

This is a very readable history of the events leading up to, and surrounding the U-2 incident and its impact on relations between the United States and the Soviet Union.

Read: December 19, 2018

5 Stars

Books Set in North America: New England

True Crime Addict, by James Renner (2016)

In the evening of February 9, 2004, U Mass student Maura Murray simply disappeared after a minor car crash on Route 112 in Woodsville, New Hampshire.  A passing motorist (who lived within sight of the accident) stopped to offer assistance.  Maura declined his help.  The motorist then went home and called the police to report the accident. By the time police arrived, the car was still at the scene, but Maura was gone.

Enter the author, James Renner.  Renner is an investigative journalist, with a special interest in crime.  After having been fired from his job at a newspaper (for unspecified reasons), he became obsessed with Maura Murray’s disappearance. He decided to investigate the disappearance.

On the surface, Maura seemed to live a charmed life.  She had been a Cadet at West Point, until she decided to change universities and enroll as a nursing student at the University of Massachusetts. She was engaged to be married to Billy, who was the All-American boy.  Sadly, behind the façade, thing couldn’t be more different.

Shortly before Maura left the University on February 9, she told her colleagues that she needed to attend a family emergency.  This proved to be false.  There was no family emergency, nor was there any perceivable reason for her to be in New Hampshire on that evening.

Renner follows the threads of Maura’s life.  Because this is still an “open investigation”, law enforcement officials could give Renner very little information.  Still, Renner dogged Maura’s friends and family in hopes of uncovering the truth of her disappearance.  Interestingly, Maura’s family virtually shut down all communication channels and her closest friends were also unwilling to open up to the author.

In the process, Renner describes his own life in a remarkable candid fashion to explain his obsession with crime and criminal investigations.  He also is very candid about his own use of drugs, some prescribed and other not, his history with his family’s skeletons, and his trouble child, and his self-destructive behavior.

Renner pursued this case for years, even setting up a blog inviting others to provide him with clues as to Maura’s whereabouts.  This book, part crime story, part memoir, recounts Renners research efforts and he offers a possible solution to the disappearance of Maura Murray.

The author has a skill with words.  This book was very readable and enjoyable despite the sad subject of a possible abduction of a young woman with a full life ahead of her.

Read: December 2, 2018

4.5 Stars 

Books Set in North America; New York City, New York

Death Dance, by Linda Fairstein (2006)

I have been distracted this month, thus I found it difficult to get interested and through this mystery.  It is the eight novel in which Alexandra Cooper, the Assistant District Attorney, is involved in a mystery.

The novel begins with the mysterious disappearance and death of ballet prima donna Natalya Galivova during a performance at New York’s Metropolitan Opera House.  Alex Cooper meets up with Police Detective Mike Chapman as they attempt to solve the murder.

I couldn’t get into the mystery itself, but I did find the description of the intricacies of the backstage working of putting on a major theater production fascinating.  While watching a live show in a theater, who thinks of all the staff needed to ensure that scenery, music, etc., all falls into place.  Hundreds of people work behind the scenes for a show to run seamlessly.

I was also intrigued to learn that the New York City Center was formerly known as the Mecca Temple and was originally designed for the Shriners.

I am not going to rate this book, because I know that my distractions wouldn’t be fair to the author.  I have read and enjoyed other Alex Cooper novels by Linda Fairstein.

Read:  November 27, 2017

Books Set in North America; Cuba

Next Year in Havana, by Chanel Cleeton (2018)

Next Year in Havana is a novel about Cuba from the Cuban revolution to present day, after relations opened up between Cuba and the United States.  The novel is the history of Cuba as seen through the eyes of Elisa Perez, the sheltered and wealthy young daughter of a sugar baron, and her granddaughter, Marisol Perez, 60 years after the revolution.

After her grandmother died, Marisol, a journalist, went to Cuba ostensibly to write about the country, but also to return her grandmother’s ashes to the country of her birth.  She stays with Ana, her grandmother’s best friend from childhood.  She observes first-hand what Cuban life is like post-Fidel Castro.  It is still a life filled with terror.

Ana makes a living by hosting a restaurant in her home.  Her family chose not to leave Cuba following the revolution and, although they were able to save their house, live was not easy.

As a young girl, Eliza, was sheltered from the events leading up to the revolution. Her brother joined the revolution, and her father disowned him.  The family would sneak out to meet with him and give him money.  Eliza attended a party where she know her brother would be a met Pablo ~ a medical student who had joined the revolution.  They are both instantly smitten.

Eliza kept Pablo a secret from her family and even her best friend Ana.  Through Pablo, however, Eliza begins to learn of the horrors of the revolution.  She and Pablo exchange letters, which Eliza entrusted to Ana when she and her family left for Miami.

The author does an excellent job in providing a great deal of background leading up to the Cuban Revolution and life in Cuba post-revolution.  She also explains why many people chose to live in Cuba when they may have had an opportunity to leave the country.  In addition, she discussed the tension between Cubans and Cuban-Americans in a fresh way.

In addition to being a beautiful story, this novel provided the reader with a great history of Cuba.

Read: November 3, 2018

4 Stars

Books Set in North America: Minneapolis, Missouri, USA

First Case of Beers, by P.M. LaRose (2014)

This mystery novel is narrated by James Biersovich, a former sports writer turned security chief at a high-scale department store in Minneapolis.  It is just weeks before Christmas and Jim, known as Beers by his friends, is doing double-duty as Santa at the department store.  The year is 1999 and Y2K looms in the near future.

While on Santa duty, he is called to investigate strange going’s on at the store ~ the window display manikins have been reposed into suggestive poses, as is a manikin in women’s lingerie.  When a customer may have been poisoned tasting a candy sample in the confectionary department, Beers thinks the mischief may be more destructive.

I am not a fan of this genre.  It was written in the noir style of the 1940s detective novel.  I read it only because it was selected by one of my book groups and was written by the spouse of an acquaintance.  This is the first book in a series.  I doubt I will read any other books in this series.

Read:  October 20, 2018

2.5 Stars

Books Set in North America: Texas, USA

Isaac’s Storm, by Erik Larson (1999)

Isaac’s Storm has been on my “to be read” list for a long time.  I finally picked it up to read just as Hurricane Michael stormed through the Florida panhandle.  In September 1900, when a massive hurricane demolished Galveston, Texas, the art of predicting storms was in its infancy.  Somewhere between 8,000 to 10,000 people were killed in the storm. Weather forecasting has advanced in the past 118 years, and as I write this review, the death toll in Hurricane Michael is still in the single digits.

Erik Larson outlines the history of weather and hurricane forecasting.  He suggests that Christopher Columbus was the first European to have observed hurricanes on his many voyages across the Atlantic.

Isaac Cline wanted to make his mark in the scientific field.  He joined the Signal Corps Weather Service, a precursor to the national Weather Bureau.  He observed weather patterns.  When he was assigned to Galveston, he was still a young man, with a wife and young children.

Very little was known about the dynamics of hurricanes.  Isaac had seen only one hurricane and the common idea was that no major storm would ever hit the coastline of Texas.

By 1900, Galveston was an up-and-coming city with a rivalry with Houston.  It was a very cosmopolitan city with an opera house, public gardens and a lot of wealth.  Nothing could damage its reputation.  A storm was unthinkable.

Isaac loved his job and took meticulous notes on weather patterns that he telegraphed to Washington.  Unbeknownst to him, however, was the bureaucratic snarl and egos that directed the course of the weather service.  Washington was convinced that the “natives” in Cuba did not understand proper weather forecasting, thus imposed a ban on all Cuban communications with respect to a growing storm in late August 1900.  The Cubans believed the storm was headed across the Gulf of Mexico towards Texas.  The weather services’ employees in Cuba pooh-poohed this idea and assured Washington that the pending storm was insignificant.

As a result, no warnings were issued to Isaac in his Galveston post. Additionally, Washington had explicitly forbade use of the word “hurricane” so as not to falsely alarm the citizens of coastal areas.

When the hurricane struck on September 8, 1900 the city was almost completely destroyed. The after effects of the hurricane’s remnants were felt as far as Chicago, New England and the Maritime Provinces.

This book follows the days before the storm, describes the horrors of living through the storm and the days immediately following.  So many people were killed that the streets were literally covered in corpses.  There were so many bodies that many were simply burned for quick disposal.  The heat following the storm accelerated the decomposition of bodies, adding to the horrendous remains of the city.

The city tried to rebuild, but in 1901, oil was discovered just outside of Houston, making that city outshine Galveston.

As with many of Erik Larson’s books, I found this to be a fascinating insight into a this period of American history.

Read: October 12, 2018

4 Stars

Books Set in North America: United States

The Abstinence Teacher, by Tom Perrotta (2007)

Ruth Ramsey is the sex education teacher in a small town somewhere in the northeast. She believes in teaching the high school students the truth about sex.  All was going well until the growing and ultra-fundamentalist church in the community objected.  Suddenly, the lines between church and state became blurred.  The Tabernacle of the Gospel Truth convinced the school board to institute an abstinence curriculum.

Ruth is sent to re-training seminars to learn this new focus on sex-ed.  Although she tries to teach the new course, she makes known to the students that her heart isn’t into the new curriculum.

Ruth is divorced with two young daughters.  One of her daughters, Maggie, is on the soccer team, which is coached by Tim Mason.

Tim is a former rock musician, alcoholic and had serious drug problems.  He, too, is divorced, with a daughter, who lives with her mother and wealthy step-father.  Tim joined the Tabernacle and believes that it turned his life around. At the behest of Pastor Dennis, Tim married Carrie, a fellow church member, who is much younger.  Thus, Tim entered into a “good Christian marriage”, albeit one with an unsatisfactory sex life.

All seems to be going well with Tim until after a big soccer game, he leads all the girls on the team into a Tabernacle prayer.  This was the last straw for Ruth, who was dealing with the Tabernacle’s interference in her sex-ed class.  Ruth is also struggling with young teen daughters, who are ready to rebel against their mother.  When Maggie begins to show an interest in joining the Tabernacle Church, Ruth really becomes concerned.

Ruth confronts Tim with the issue of his proselytizing.  Although they have an initial mistrust, they have an unmistakable attraction.  Tim begins to re-evaluate his life and question the structure of his life within the Tabernacle.

In one scene, Ruth’s daughter was required to write an essay on the woman and man who made an impression on her.  When Ruth asked her daughter who the man she wrote about, the daughter answered “Donald Trump.”  Remember this book was written in 2007!

I’m not sure what to make of this novel.  His description of JoAnn Marlow, the “virginity consultant”, seemed like a caricature.  The descriptions of the pastor at the Tabernacle Church was always reminding Tim not to slip back into sin, thus Tim was constantly worrying about whether or not he was a good Christian.

It was a quick read, but will not be added to my top favorites.

Read: September 25, 2018

3 Stars

Books Set in Europe; Spain

By Fire, By Water, by Mitchell James Kaplan (2010)

By Fire, By Water is a historical novel about the Spanish Inquisition.  Many of the characters in the novel, including the main character, Luis de Santágel, Hernando de Talavera, and Cristóbal Colón, were real people.

Luis de Santágel was the royal chancellor of Aragon, and a converso, a Jew forced to convert to Christianity.  De Santágel retained an interest in his Jewish heritage, although that was becoming more dangerous with Tomás de Torquemada’s views on anyone not believing in the “true faith.”

De Santágel was influential in the court of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella, however, he knew that his role in the court was tenuous due to his Jewish background. After the murder of the Inquisition’s Chief Inquisitor, Pedro de Arbués, de Santágel realizes that Torquemada’s tactics are much more horrific than previously encountered.  After the Inquisitors arrest both Luis’ son, Gabriel, and his brother, Estefan, Luis sees just how far Torquemada will take his pursuit to extract confessions of faith from non-Christians.

Religious issues become even more complicated when the Catholic monarchs descend into Granada and force out the Moors, who had built a large and peaceful society.  Spurred on by religious fervor, Queen Isabella issued an edict expelling all Jews from the kingdom.

In the meantime, Cristóbal Colón, has De Santágel ear and needs an advocate to convince the Court to help fund an exploration to India across the expanse of the ocean.

No story would be complete without a love story.  De Santágel met the beautiful Judith Midgel, and her nephew, Levi, who are secret Jews.  All of this leads him to explore his abandoned Jewish faith.

This novel brings this period of history to life and the characters are seem very real.

As a side note, in the novel, Levi accompanied Cristóbal Colón on his voyage to be a translator.  He was the only non-sailor on the voyage.  In fact, there was a non-sailor translator listed in Colón’s logs whose name was listed as Luis de Torres, a transliteration of the Hebrew name, Levi Midgel.

Read: September 16, 2018

4 Stars

Books Set in Europe and the United States

The Fortunate Ones, by Ellen Umansky (2017)

This novel travels back in time between the life of young Rose Zimmer, who was a young girl living in Vienna at the beginning of World War II, and the mid-2000s, when she is an old woman living in Los Angeles.  One of her earliest memories is of her mother, who, after suffering a miscarriage, asked that the painting The Bellhop, by Chain Soutine, be brought to her room.

At the time, young Rose thought the painting was ugly and couldn’t understand her mother’s attracting to the painting.  The image of her mother and the painting, however, stayed with her.  By 1939, it was dangerous for Jews living in Austria.  Although her parents couldn’t leave the country, they were able to get their children, Rose and her older brother, out via the Kindertransportto England.

After the War, Rose married and moved to Los Angeles.  The painting, however, was lost.  

Enter Liz Goldstein.  She came from a broken family and lived part time her mother until her death.  Then she moved to Los Angeles to live with her father.  Hanging in his elaborate home was the Soutine.  One night, when Liz’s father was out of town, the teenage Liz decided to take advantage of his absence and threw a wild party in his house.  Come morning, the Soutine was missing.  Liz held herself personally responsible for this loss.

Liz grew up and was living in New York when she learned her father had passed away. She returned to Los Angeles for the funeral, where she met Rose.  Rose was an acquaintance of Liz’s father.  They became friends over the lost Soutine, which each had lost in their own way.  Liz decided to reopen the case of the lost painting and promised to help Rose get restitution for the loss.

The lost painting causes both Rose and Liz to feel guilt over the lost painting and reminisce about their dead parents.  Is there a mystery over the second theft of the painting?

The book started out strong, but lost steam mid-way.  I wanted to know more about Rose’s life after arriving in England. We learn that she and her brother are separated, and get the feeling that she didn’t fit into her new family very well.  This wasn’t well developed, however, and later in the book, we learn that her adopted family took pains to see that she was well educated.  Liz’s relationship with Max, her father’s former business partner fell flat.

This was a quick read, but ultimately, I was left unsatisfied.

Read: September 8, 2018

3 Stars

Books Set in the United States: New York City

Rules of Civility, by Amor Towles (2011)

Rules of Civility begins when a middle-aged couple are viewing a retrospective exhibition of Walker Evans photographs, taken during the 1930s.  They come across two portraits of a man taken years apart.  The first shows a handsome young man who appears as a man of wealth. In the second photograph, he appears down on his luck.  The man, whom the wife recognizes as Tinker Gray, was once an important figure in the her past.  Seeing the photographs causes the woman to reminisce of her life back as a young woman making her way in New York City.

Katey Kontent is the narrator.  She remembers back when she first moved from Brooklyn to Manhattan and worked as a secretary in a law firm and lived in a boarding house.  On New Year’s Eve 1937, she and her friend Eve, went out on the town and in a chance encounter met Tinker Grey.  He was a handsome young banker, and both Eve and Katey fall in love with him.  Soon the three of them were inseparable until a car accident occurred and Eve was seriously injured.  She recovered, and soon after she and Tinker set off for Europe.

Through Tinker, Katey was able to rub elbows with the wealthy and highly connected in New York society.  She landed a plum job as an assistant to the publisher of a hot new magazine, which allowed her to further enter the world of the rich and famous.  Tinker and Eve were always on her mind, however.  When Eve suddenly returned to New York, having become bored with Tinker, Katey looked to renew her relationship with Tinker. But was he who she thought he was.

There is a mystery surrounding Tinker and there were vague hints to his “situation”, which Katey had never explored before.

I enjoyed this book, but found it a bit hard to get into at first.  The author certainly painted a vivid picture of life amount the young inherited wealth in New York in the 1930s.

Read: September 2, 2018

3 Stars

Books Set in Europe: London, England

The Secret Keeper, by Kate Morton (2012)

The Secret Keeper is a mystery with all sorts of twists and turns.  The novel begins when 16-year old Laurel sees her mother, Dorothy, stab a strange man to death at their country estate.  The murder is deemed have been in self-defense, and, with one exception, the family never discusses the matter again.  Laurel, however, her the man address her mother by her first name. Who was this man and what was his relation to her mother?

Laurel has never forgotten the murder.  Now, 50 years later, Dorothy is nearing the end of her life and Laurel hopes to learn of her mother’s past.  Dorothy’s children have gathered around to care for her.  Laurel goes over old photograph albums with her mother and comes across a mysterious photograph taken during London during World War II. She also finds Peter Pan book with an inscription to Dorothy from Vivian.

The story is told between the present (2011) and London in 1941.  We learn early on that Dorothy may have had a checkered past.  Laurel seeks to learn about her mother’s past.  Dorothy lives across the street from the wealthy and beautiful Vivien Jenkins. They both do volunteer work for the War effort.  Dorothy has a vivid imagination and attempts to befriend Vivian.  Dorothy’s boyfriend is Jimmy, a young man from a working class background, making a living as a war photographer.  Although Dorothy loves him, she doesn’t want him to come in contact with the wealthy Vivian.

Somehow, thought, Laurel knows that there is a relationship between her mother, Vivian and Dorothy.

The characters really come alive.  There were twists in this novel that I never saw coming.  It held my interest from page one to the end.

Read: August 21, 2018

5 Stars

Books Set Globally: Dubai, America and Italy

The Flight Attendant, by Chris Bohjalian (2018)

The novel begins when Cassie Bowden, a flight attendant in her light 30s, awoke in a strange hotel room in Dubai next to the bloody body of Alex Sokolov. Cassie was a binge drinker who experienced frequent black-outs whenever she drank.  Upon seeing the dead Alex, she briefly wondered whether or not she killed him during one of her black-outs.  She tried to recall the events of the previous evening, but remembered only that she had dinner with Alex and returned with him to his hotel instead of the hotel where the other flight attendants were housed.  She vaguely recalled that a woman named Miranda joined them briefly in Alex’s hotel room.

Instead of contacting the authorities, she quickly dressed and returned to her hotel, discarding any potential evidence of the night along the way. Upon joining her flight crew, she began her series of lies.  Alex had been on the flight from New York to Dubai, which is where Cassie first met him. By the time the return flight arrived in New York, his body had been discovered, and because Alex was an American, the FBI wanted to interview the crew members on his original flight.

Cassie realized that she could be in legal trouble so contacts a lawyer recommended by the flight crew’s union.  When interviewed by the FBI, Cassie blurted out that she had spent the night with Alex, but lied saying that he had been alive when she left his room.  

Alex was a hedge fund manager, with ties to Russia.  Could there be more to his story that Cassie knew?  Why was the FBI so interested in Alex?  And what of Miranda?  What was her relationship with Alex?

This was a very quick read and entertaining until the last couple of chapters. The novel then went off the rails with a very bizarre ending that seemed to come out of nowhere.

Read: August 15, 2018

3.5 Stars

Books Set in Africa: Cairo, Egypt

The Last Watchman of Old Cairo, by Michael David Lukas (2018)

The Last Watchman of Old Cairo takes place over a millennium, from 1000 years ago when Ali became the night watchman of the Ibn Ezra Synagogue in Cairo, to the late 1890s, when Solomon Schechter and the Smith twins, Agnes and Margaret, “discovered” and saved the documents stored in the synagogue’s geniza, to present day Joseph al-Raqb, who traveled to Cairo, Egypt to learn about his father.  The synagogue is said to house the legendary Ezra Torah Scroll, which was written centuries before the birth of Christ.

In alternating chapters, we learn Cairo during three periods of history.  Ali’s story takes place around the year 1000.  He was a young Muslim orphan who was hired by the synagogue council to be its night watchman.  As he learned his job, he also became fascinated by Jewish traditions, while maintaining his own religious beliefs.  In the late 1890s, Solomon Schechter (1847 ~ 1915) was in Cairo to search for the Ezra Torah Scroll.  With him were the middle-aged widowed twins Agnes Smith Lewis (1843 ~ 1926) and Margaret Smith Gibson (1843 ~ 1920), who were real people (although probably did not join Schechter on this quest).  The sisters were known for having discovered the Syraic Sinaiticus and were Biblical scholars in the Presbyterian Church.  In present day, Joseph al-Raqb, is a young American graduate student, raised by his Jewish mother, but whose father is Muslim.  A few months after his father’s death, Joseph received a mysterious package from his father.  This led him back to Cairo to find out why the object was sent to him.

In alternating chapters, the focus is on one of the above periods of history.  In Jewish tradition, texts with G~d’s name are sacred.  When such texts become worn or unusable, they must be treated with respect and not just thrown out.  Traditionally such texts are either buried or stored in a geniza.  The geniza in the Ibn Ezra Synagogue is a small room in the attic.

When portions of sacred texts are found being sold on the black market, Solomon Schechter traveled to Cairo to seek out the documents.  He had the documents saved and sent to Cambridge University, where they are still held.  [This is true.]

In family tradition, the eldest son of the al-Raqb family (with Ali being the original night watchman).  Joseph’s father was the eldest son, hence was the night watchman.  He held this position until after the Yom Kippur War when an event occurred in which he was unable to keep a mob from the synagogue.  Joseph became fascinated in his quest to determine the fate of the Ezra Scroll.

The novel doesn’t take a position on the religious tradition per se, but does raise issued confronted by religious scholars in studying ancient documents.

I was totally absorbed by this novel.  Michael David Lukas also wrote The Oracle of Stamboul, which is a historical novel about the last days of the Ottoman Empire.  I read this book about 7 years ago and very much enjoyed that as well.

Read:  August 8, 2018

5 Stars

Books Set in Europe: Budapest, Hungary

Strangers in Budapest, by Jessica Keener (2017)

In the summer of 1995, soon after the collapse of Communism in Hungary, Annie and Will moved to Budapest, Hungary.  Will believed that Hungary would be an ideal country for him to exploit a business opportunity.  They arrive with their young son, Leo.  Leo was recently adopted, but this story thread seem to have no bearing on the rest of the book.

Before leaving for Hungary, Will and Annie’s elderly neighbors, Rose and Jozef, put them in touch with Edward, another elderly man who is living Jozef’s apartment in Budapest.  Edward is a crotchety old may who insists on secrecy.  He is in Budapest to hunt down the man he believes killed his daughter.  The evidence he presents to Annie is thin.  Is Edward just grieving for his dead daughter?

While Will is out making potential business contacts, he meets Stephen.  Stephen acts as translator.  He is of Hungarian background, but lived most of his life in America.  After meeting Will and Annie, Stephen just happens to run into the young couple.  Is this a coincidence?

Annie has a need to help people.  She encounters young Gypsy girls, or as she quickly learns, should be called Roma, and wants to help them.  They offer her flowers, then demand money.  Because the American dollar goes far in post-Communist Hungary, she gives them what is actually tons of money.  Will is robbed of his wallet, which contained $900.  Other than reporting the theft, and encountering Stephen at the police station, nothing further comes of this event.

This novel was way too busy.  There are too many story threads and too many people.  The novel provide a clear depiction of Budapest, and having visited the city several times, I could visualize the places described.  Still, I got bored with the characters and the final resolution of the novel stretched credibility.

Read: August 4, 2018

3 Stars

Books Set in the United States: North Dakota

The Round House, by Louise Erdrich (2012)

This novel is narrated by the adult Joe, recounting the events of the summer of 1988, when he was 13 years old.  Joe’s father is a judge on an Ojibwe reservation in North Dakota.  He imagines his father presiding over, and deciding, cases of immense importance.  During the summer, he comes to understand that a tribal judge actually has very little jurisdiction over matters involving Native Americans and non-Natives.

Joe’s mother, Geraldine, was brutally beaten and raped.  For weeks after the rape, Geraldine refused to speak of the assault.  Slowly, we learn that it occurred near the Round House ~ a sacred ceremonial spot of the tribe.  The exact location of the assault is not so clear.  Near the round house are state, federal and tribal lands.  Each have differing laws and officials.  Thus, determining the exact location is important if justice is to be had.

Joe wants justice for his mother.  He and his three closest friends seek ways to find evidence to help his mother.  Joe goes to the Round House to search for evidence. When the rapist is finally caught, Joe and his family breathe easy, until he is set free over jurisdictional issues.

In between seeking justice for his mother, Joe interacts with various extended family members, including his old grandfather who recounts tribal lore, and Sonja, the former stripper who lives with his uncle Whitey.

The story got bogged down in the middle.  The boys spy on the new Catholic priest.  When the priest catches the boys spying, the encounter seems off.  One of Joe’s friends, Cappy, has a relationship with a young girl.  When Cappy confesses to the priest, the priest’s reaction, again seems off.

In the afterward, the author notes that the laws in effect in 1988, did not grant much relief for Native-American women who were raped, and 86% of rapes and assaults on Native-American women were perpetrated by non-Natives.  The Tribal Law and Order Act was signed into law in 2010, which seeks to restore sovereign justice.

Read: July 29, 2018

3 Stars

Books Set in the United States: Wyoming

The Cold Dish (#1), by Craig Johnson (2005)

This is the first book in the Longmire mystery series.  We are introduced to the characters ~ Sheriff Walt Longmire; Deputy Victoria “Vic” Moretti; Deputy Jim “Ferg” Ferguson; Henry Standing Bear, Walt’s close friend; and Cady Longmire, Longmire’s daughter.

Several years before the novel began, a young Cheyenne girl named Melissa Little Bird was brutally raped by four white boys.  Melissa Little Bird had fetal alcohol syndrome and was unable to provide a lot of help in the prosecution of her attackers.  Although the boys were found guilty, they got off lightly for the crime with suspended sentences.  Now a few years later, one of the rapists, Cody Prichard was found shot dead in a sheep field.

Prichard’s death was initially believed to be a hunting accident, however, the evidence begins to point to foul play.  As the evidence mounts, it seems that Prichard’s death was related to Melissa Little Bird’s rape.  Longmire must protect the other three boys from also being killed.

Longmire, a widower, also begins a relationship with Vonnie Hayes, a woman he has known since they were school children, although he knows little of her life.

As Longmire investigates the murder, tensions mount between the Native American and white communities.  The author mixes in bits of history of the between the two communities, which adds to the narrative.

I enjoyed this novel, although at times I got lost in the prose and had to go back an re-read portions.

Read: July 26, 2018

3 stars

Books Set in the United States: South Carolina and Chicago

By Invitation Only, by Dorothea Benton Frank (2018)

A quick beach read.  Frederick was born and raised on a farm in South Carolina.  His family ekes out a living, but doesn't have a lot of money.  Shelby is his rich fiancée, who grew up in Chicago.  She had everything growing up.

When the families meet, Shelby's mother, Susan, looks down on Frederick's family.  She is intrigued by Frederick's uncle Floyd, however.  Her husband is too busy on conference calls to pay much attention to her.

It is Susan's dream to have the wedding of the century for her daughter.  She plans to pull out all stops and spare no expense ~ including $40K worth of butterflies to be released at the climax of the wedding.  She even wants Frederick's family to host a rehearsal dinner for over 200 guests.  This is something that Frederick's family can clearly not afford.

Shelby and Frederick, however, decide to plan the wedding their way, which upsets the superficial Susan.  Will the families be able to reconcile their differences?

This book was by the same author who wrote The Hurricane Sisters, which I read four years ago.  I wasn't crazy about that book, either.

Read:  July 22, 2018

3 Stars

Books Set in Asia: Singapore

Crazy Rich Asians, by Kevin Kwan (2013)

I picked up this book because I know that is a soon-to-be released movie.  

This is an amusing book about the adult children of very, very rich families. The rich families in the novel are Chinese living in Singapore, but probably the children of the very, very rich families anywhere would be essentially the same.  The novel essentially follows the lives of three intertwined ultra-wealthy families.

Rachel Chu and Nicholas Young are professors at a university in New York City. Rachel is 29 and Nicholas is in his early 30s.  They have been living together for the past two years.  When Nicholas invites Rachel to spend the summer with him in Singapore, she jumps at the chance to meet his family.  Little does she know, however, that he is of THE Young Family.  She gets her first hint when the plane tickets are in a suite on the flight to Asia.

Upon arriving in Singapore, Rachel and Nicholas attend a gathering at the palace of Nicholas’s grandmother.  She is in awe of the magnificent surroundings.  Nicholas’s mother, however, is certain that Rachel a gold-digger and out to snare her son, so she leaves the country so isn’t present to welcome her son and his girlfriend.  She also hires a private eye to investigate Rachel’s background. 

Rachel is introduced to Nicholas’s friends.  Nicholas is to be the best man at his close friend’s wedding.  Rachel is invited to a bachelorette party with the bride and her friends.  The bridal party quickly recognized that Rachel is not of their social class, and treat her very poorly.  Rachel soon sees how competitive and catty the other young women.

We are also introduced to Astrid, Nicholas’s cousin, who is married to Michael. They try to live on Michael’s salary, but Astrid still sneaks off to Paris twice a year to spend literally millions on clothing. 

Also, very amusingly in this novel, the author includes footnotes to explain translations of Chinese words and phrases, or to provide details into the lives of such high-culture and society.  His explanations are often very funny.

What will the detective find out about Rachel’s past?  Does so much money really make the families happy?  How do marriages work when one partner is so wealthy and the other is from a more modest background?

This is a very entertaining novel about the extravagances of the super rich.

Read: July 19, 2018

4 Stars

Books Set in the United States: Wyoming

Any Other Name (#10), by Craig Johnson (2015)

I picked up a Walt Longmire mystery because we have been watching Longmire on CD for the past few weeks.  I wanted to see what the books were like.

Walt Longmire is the Sheriff of Absaroka County, Wyoming.  This novel takes place in late December.  His daughter, Cady, is in Philadelphia and is about to give birth. She expects her father to be with he when the baby is born.  He plans to be there, but first he agrees to look into the suicide of Gerald Holman, a fellow law enforcement in an adjacent county.  Gerald was a by-the-book officer and his suicide seems suspicious.

Before Gerald died, he was investigating cold cases involving missing women.  Walt wonders if the cases are related.  His investigation takes him into South Dakota, and it seems that someone isn’t happy that the missing women are being tracked down.

While he is on the case, Cady is trying to get her father to Philadelphia before her baby arrives.

This was a quick fun read.  Nothing heavy, but the writing was good and I will likely pick up some other Longmire mysteries ~ starting at the beginning.  This was mystery #10, and made references to occurrences in previous books in the series.

Read: July 14, 2018

3 Stars

Books Set in the United States: Washington State

The Girl Who Wrote in Silk, by Kelli Estes (2015)

The Girl Who Wrote in Silk is a historical novel of a slice of Chinese live in the United States in the late 1800s in the Northwest.  The novel follows two young women ~ present day Inara Erickson, who’s family owns a large shipping company out of Seattle and Mei Lien, a young Chinese woman who lived in the late 1800s.  The novel goes back and forth between the lives of these two woman.

Inara inherited the estate of her single aunt who owned a home on an island off the coast of Seattle.  The estate brought back memories of her childhood, as she and her family summered there.  Initially, she sought to sell the estate, but decided to turn it into a boutique hotel. During the construction, she discovered an elaborately embroidered silk sleeve to a garment hidden in a staircase.  The sleeve depicted a strange story of a ship and people floating in the water.  She takes the sleeve to a Chinese professor at a university to inquire about its authenticity.

The late 1800s were terrible times for the Chinese living in the United States. The Chinese Exclusion Act had been signed in 1882, forbidding the immigration of Chinese laborers.  Mobs in various west-coast towns literally forced the Chinese from their homes.  Mei Lien and her father were forced onto a boat, ostensibly sending them back to China. When Mei Lien learned of their actual destination, she was literally thrown overboard and was rescued by Joseph McElroy, a farmer on one of the Orcas Island.

In the course of Inara’s research on the sleeve, she discovers a terrible family secret that has been in her family for years.  When she tells her father, he warns her to continue to keep the secret because it could destroy his shipping business.

The chapters of Mei Lien are very fascinating.  We see a young girl exposed to the prejudices of the whites, and how she learns to cope.  After she married a white man, his family refused to accept her.

The chapters on Inara are initially interesting, however, her renovation of the estate into a hotel do not ring true, nor does her budding romance with the professor.

Still, this was a good book and provided an insight into a piece of history that is not often addressed.

Read: July 11, 2018

4 Stars

Books Set in Europe: France

The Baker’s Secret, by Stephen P. Kiernan (2017)

The Baker’s Secret takes place in the small coastal town of Vergers in Normandy during World War II in the years before D-Day.  The novel focuses on Emmanuelle, known as Emma, who learned how to bake as an apprentice to “Uncle” Ezra.  After the town came under Nazi occupation, Ezra was shot and killed for being a Jew.

Emma was then ordered to bake 12 loaves of bread each day for the Nazi soldiers occupying the town.  Food for the villagers was scarce, but Emma was given an extra ration of flour for her bread.  Emma found that, with her extra rations, and by stretching the dough with ground straw, she could meet her daily quotient for the occupiers, with extra loaves to share with the villagers.  By doing this, she also set up a secret network of bartering and exchange with the other villagers for supplies each needed for survival.  She siphons off fuel from a Nazi officer’s motorcycle to provide additional fuel to the fishermen for supplying fish.

After Captain Thalheim commandeers her home, Emma and her grandmother find ways to adapt, while still quietly rebelling against the Nazi’s orders. While the town people continue to be optimistic that the Allies will come and save then, Emma feels no such hope. Still, she preservers and continues to do what she can to help her fellow townspeople.

As D-Day draws near, hope in the village seems to fade.  This novel described the horrors of war, but also focused on the strength that keeps people alive when all seems lost.

This book was very well written.

Read: July 8, 2018

5 Stars

Books Set in Europe

Tell Tale, by Jeffrey Archer (2017)

Jeffrey Archer write wonderful short stories with a twist.  This book was no exception.  Tell Tale is a collection of 14 short stories.  (Two of which are only 100 words long!)

Several of the stories were inspired by real life events.  One story, A Gentleman and a Scholar, describes the trials of one of Yale University’s first female professor in Shakespeare.  As she began, her students gave her a hard time.  Forty years later, at her retirement, many of those same students returned to wish her well, and how she responded.

A Wasted Hour, had a lovely twist.  A young college girl with dreams of being a writer hitches at ride with an elderly man.  He tells her his life story, which is full of lost job and heartache. She tells him of her favorite novelist and her aspirations to write the Great American Novel.

The Road to Damascustouched upon young British school boys, then followed up on their careers years later in the aftermath of World War II.  This story made me cry.

My favorite story was The Holiday of a Lifetime.  Archer gave the reader three different endings so the reader can make up his mind as to what makes the best holiday.

The stories in this book are all very satisfying.  I enjoyed this book very much.

Read: July 6, 2018

4 Stars

Books Set in Europe: United Kingdom, England

A Banquet of Consequences, by Elizabeth George (2015)  //  Thomas Lynley # 19

I generally like Elizabeth George’s novels with Detective Thomas Lynley and Barbara Havers.  I have missed a few books in the series, however, thus missed some of the references in this mystery novel regarding their personal lives.

This novel is less a mystery to be solved by Lynley and Havers and more a look into the lives of too many damaged people with too problems.

The book begins with the suicide of Will Goldacre.  Not a spoiler, as he kills himself in the first few pages of this nearly 600 page tome.  His mother, Caroline Goldacre, can’t get over his death, and years later, when most of the action takes place, she is still grieving.

Caroline is a busybody who meddled into Will’s life and now is trying to save her other son, Charlie’s marriage.  She is also the personal assistant to militant feminist Clare Adley.  When Clare is found dead, Lynley and Havers become involved.  Havers has apparently (in a previous Lynley mystery), come sideways with the big boss, so is on a short leash to solve Clare’s murder.

There were just too many people and too many threads, many of which had nothing to do with the murder of Clare, but not significant enough to make they “red herrings.”

I found this book to be less than satisfying as a good murder mystery.

Read: July 4, 2018

2.5 Stars