Books Set in the United States: Seattle, Washington

Girl Last Seen, by Nina Lauren (2017)

Billed as a psychological thriller, Girl Last Seen was based on a very odd premise.  The novel opens when 13-year old Ella Santos was found by Office Sean Ortiz after having been abducted three years earlier.  She had been sexually abused during her abduction, and when she was finally freed, she was pregnant.

The abduction destroyed her, and 10 years later, she has changed her name to Laine Moreno, and is working as a bartender in a seedy bar.  She watches for abductions similar to hers.  When Olivia Shaw is abducted, Laine realized that this young girl has been stolen by the same person who captured her years ago.  Laine seeks to assist the police in finding Olivia.  What happens next defies logic.

The same police officer, Sean Ortiz, is involved in the Olivia Shaw kidnapping.  We also learn that  Olivia is Laine's daughter, who was taken from her immediately after her birth.  Laine then becomes friends with Olivia's adopted mother, although the adoptive father is distant.  The ending was not very satisfactory.

Read: April 30, 2018

2 Stars

Books Set in the United States: Brooklyn

The Two-Family House, by Lynda Cohen Loigman (2016)

Two brothers own a house together in Brooklyn in the late 1940s and run the family business.  The brothers couldn’t be more different.  Abe is out-going, and Mort is resentful that he was unable to complete his studies in mathematics.

Abe, his wife and three sons live upstairs in the shared house.  Mort, his wife, and three daughters live downstairs.  The wives get along like sisters, sharing recipes and take care of the children.  What happens when both are pregnant and give birth at home on the same night as a frightful storm with only a midwife available to assist with the birth.

Although the reader knows within the first few chapters what happens, the family members are kept in the dark about the events. The novel focuses on how events can radically change family dynamics.  The characters really come alive leading the reader to have an interest in how the family secrets can be resolved.

I really enjoyed this novel.

Read:  April 25, 2018

5 Stars

Read: April 25, 2018

5 Stars

Books Set in the United States: New Hampshire

Change of Heart, by Jodi Picoult (2008)

Jodi Picoult’s novels tackle controversial topics. Change of Heart examines restorative justice and the death penalty.  As we begin this book, we learn that June has just lost her husband in a car accident. The policeman who tells her about the accident later becomes her husband.  When June is pregnant with her second child, an itinerant carpenter, Shay Bourne, appears offers to do some repairs the home.  Before the baby is born, Shay has murdered June’s second husband and daughter.  He is convicted and given the death penalty.  A young man named Michael Wright is the last hold-out on the jury to condemn Shay to the death penalty.

Fast forward 11 years, and Shay has exhausted all of his appeals and a date for his execution by lethal injection has been set.  Shay has been moved to a portion of the State prison for dangerous prisoners.  Michael is now a Catholic priest and June and her daughter, Claire, with her policeman husband is now 11 years old.  Claire has a medical condition and needs a heart transplant.

Shay wants to donate his heart to Claire believing that it will bring him redemption.  Lethal injection, however, will render the heart unusable.  Enter Maggie, an ACLU attorney, who determines that the law will allow the State to execute Shay by hanging, thus preserve the heart for transplant.

The novel it told through many voices ~ Michael, the priest, Maggie, the attorney, June, and Lucius, a fellow prisoner. While Shay is spending his final months before his execution, a number of “miracles” seemingly occur.  Is Shay the messiah?  The book is a discussion of the death penalty in theological terms.

I really enjoyed the debate of this novel.

5 Stars

Read:  April 22, 2018

Books Set in Asia: the Middle East: Asia

The Waiting Room, by Leah Kaminsky (2016)

Dr. Dina Ronen is the daughter of Holocaust survivors.  As a young girl, she over heard a conversation and learned that her father had been married before and lost his wife and daughter in the Holocaust ~ that she and her mother were the replacement family.

After the War, her parents moved to Australia, where Dina grew up.  As an adult, Dina while traveling she met and married Eitan, and Israeli, and settled down in Haifa.  She believed that Haifa was a safe city in Israel and would be spared terrorist attacks.

When the novel opens it is 2001 and Dina has a six-year old son, is eight months pregnant and is beginning to question her marriage.  She is unsettled by the terror attacks that are occurring throughout the country. She wants to return to her home in Australia.

Dina’s mother, who died when Dina was 18, is always in her mind.  She “sees” her mother through a ghost whenever her mind is especially troubled. Her mother appears to her throughout the day conversing arguing and nagging her.

Possibly due to her pregnancy, the terrors of Israel are haunting her and causing her to wonder how she can protect her family. Her medical practice is an array of varied people of all religions and ages.  Her office manager, Yael, is a young woman who tries to keep Dina on schedule with her patients.

News reports that there may be an attack in Haifa. This sets Dina on edge and she can barely keep herself together while tending to her patients.  While dealing with a possible terror attack, she must also face her parent’s history and decide whether she should try to keep her marriage in tact or return to a perceived safety net of Australia.

I enjoyed the first part of this book, but the last quarter got a bit tiresome.

Read:  April 18, 2018

3 Stars

Books Set in the United States: Washington, D.C.

Upstairs at the White House: My Life with the First Ladies, by J.B. West (1973)

The author, J.B. West, entered the White House on March 1, 1941 as an assistant Usher to the White House.  He left the White House exactly 28 years later as the Chief Usher.  During those 28 years, he served six Presidents, or more precisely, the needs and demands of the First Ladies.

During those 28 years, the duties of the White House evolved from being somewhat quaint (Eleanor Roosevelt could run all over town without Secret Service on her tail), to one under a fishbowl with the advent of the television age.

The Chief Usher is responsible for running the White House, from its personnel, its budget, and all guests and visitors of the First Family.  Each First Lady had her own whims and tastes.  The White House staff must adjust.

Since the Chief Usher deals mostly with the First Lady, the book did not go into the politics of each of the six Presidents.  Instead, the book provides an insight into the inner working of the White House under the control of the First Lady.  Each presidential family had its own stamp that it incorporated into the White House.  Each family is given a budget within which to use to refurbish the home.

The White House, while sturdy on the outside, was crumbling on the inside. During a tea that Bess Truman was hosting, the chandelier nearly came crashing down on her guests.  It was soon discovered that a butler walking across the floor on the room above caused the swaying chandelier.  Engineers examined the building and discovered that it was very unstable.  During the Truman administration, the White House was gutted and all the internal rooms were rebuilt.  In addition, the iconic balcony on the White House was a Truman addition.

The author details the tastes of each First Lady.  Eleanor Roosevelt was a whirlwind, always on the go.  Bess Truman was a frugal Midwesterner.  Mamie Eisenhower, was a military wife through and through.  She came across as the least likable of all the First Ladies in the book.  She seemed to laughingly scold everyone.  Jackie Kennedy was a devoted mother with a keen sense of style.  She brought the White House to the public.  Lady Bird Johnson bowed to the wishes of her husband and children.  The author left during the Nixon Administration, and his portrait of Pat Nixon is short.

I found the book to be interesting.  It is a quick and easy read.

Read:  April 7, 2018

4 Stars

Books Set in Europe: Poland

We Were the Lucky Ones, by Georgia Hunter (2017)

Only after her grandfather died did author Georgia Hunter learn that he was originally from Poland and had survived the Holocaust.  He never talked about his experiences, nor did anyone else in the family.  Later, when the author and her cousins would gather, she slowly learned how her family managed to survive the horror.  This book is based on their stories.

Sol and Nechuma Kurc were affluent Jews from Radom, Poland.  By the time the war broke out, their five children were young adults, some with families of their own.  The book begins in March 1939.  The middle son, Addie, is living in Parish hopes to return to Poland for Passover.  Letters from his mother, however, convince him to remain in Paris.  Soon all communications with his family back in Poland ceases.  For the duration of the War, neither Addy nor his family know each other’s fate.  He manages to leave Europe on one of the last passenger ships and ends up in Brazil.

The other children in the family are not so lucky.  Much of the family was set upon remaining in their home in Poland.  During the War, the family members become separated and are exposed to numerous horrors.  They are forced to leave their home and sent to live in a ghetto.  Two of the sons are sent off to fight in the War.

After the Russians entered Poland, the oldest son, Genek, was arrested by the Soviet secret police.  He and his wife, Halina, wound up in Siberia.  Other family members join the Polish resistance and are forced into hiding.  Mila survives with her young daughter, teaching her to hide and be quiet whenever the Nazi’s burst into their home.

From the title, the reader knows that the family survives the war.  They are not immune to the death and horror that surrounds them, however.  Each member suffers through the fear, the hiding from the Nazi’s or Poles who would be quick to turn them in.  Some of the narrow escapes described seem to defy logic.  Still, I enjoyed this book.

Read:  April 2, 2018

5 Stars