Books Set in North America: United States

Sisters in Law: How Sandra Day O’Connor and Ruth Bader Ginsburg Went to the Supreme Court and Changed the World, by Linda Hirshman (2015)

 

In many ways, Justice Sandra Day O’Connor and Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg couldn’t have been more different.  O’Connor grew up as the only child of a rancher.  She got her start in politics by volunteering for her local Republican committee.  From there, she entered state politics.  She also felt it was important to cook and keep the home tidy for her family.  She held conservative views.  Ginsburg was essentially an older child (an older sister had died when Ruth was 2 years old) and became and ACLU attorney.  She had a husband how cook and was a strong advocate for her advancement to the high Court.  She was far from conservative.

 

O’Connor was the first female Supreme Court Justice.  As such, she had to face 8 male Justices who in their hearts really didn’t want women on the Court.  The author gives the impression that O’Connor, while a trailblazer by being the first woman on the Court, was tentative in her decisions and didn’t make waves.

 

Ginsburg, on the other hand, had a history with the ACLU advocating for equality for men and women long before she joined the Court.  She had argued before the Supreme Court numerous times and suffered only one adverse Court opinion.  In her advocacy, she was taking steps to advance the rights of women.

 

If anyone believes that the High Court is without politics and partisanship, this book will dispel any such beliefs.  The author describes both the politicking behind getting justices on the Court as well as the politics of the Justices during the deliberation process.  Although the title of the book suggests that both O’Connor and Ginsburg “changed the world”, cases following O’Connor’s departure began a slow erosion of the advances that Ginsburg had made as a practicing attorney.  Ginsburg became famous for her dissents, many of which she would read in open Court.  The author suggests that, perhaps in the future, Ginsburg’s dissents will become the law of the land.

 

It was an interesting book, and provides an insight into the workings of the Court.  The author attempts to digest many of the decisions in a comprehensible manner.  (Supreme Court decisions are famously vague to a non-attorney).  I did find parts of the book a bit dry, so had to put in down several times.

 

Read:  December 31, 2020

 

3 Stars

 

Books Set in North America; United States; New York City

Not Our Kind, by Kitty Zeldis (2018)

Not Our Kind is a novel set in the late 1940s in New York City.  Young Eleanor Markowitz was in between jobs when the cab she literally bumped into Patricia Bellamy (their cabs crashed).  Eleanor had left her teaching job and was running late for an interview when the accident happened.  As fate would have it, Patricia had a 13-year old daughter, Margaux, who was recovering from polio and had just lost her tutor.  Margaux formed an instant bond with Eleanor.  Despite her misgivings, wealthy and WASPy Patricia decided to hire Eleanor, provided her friends don’t learn that Eleanor is Jewish.

The book started out with a bang, but lost steam as I continued reading.  I thought it was too cliche.  I got a feel for Eleanor and Margaux, but the other characters were too flat.  Eleanor met and was attracted to Tom, Patricia’s brother.  He was a rich playboy who had seduced at least one of Patricia’s friends in the past.  He still had a bohemian-life style.  What did Eleanor see in Tom?  The anti-Semitism was not really a main theme, other than making a point that Eleanor had to change her name from Moskowitz to Moss to get a job.  Neither she nor her mother, a hat maker, were especially observant.  Eleanor had, however, observed some of the Jewish rituals when her father was alive.  She had no problems eating shellfish and lobster in the beginning of the book, but later the point was made when treyfe was served at a party.  It was a fast and easy read, but not memorable.

Read:  December 9, 2020

3 Stars

Books Set in Africa; Nigeria

Stay with Me, by Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀ (2017)

 

This novel takes place in Nigeria, mostly in the 1980s, against the political upheaval in the country.  Yejide and Akin were university students when they met and fell in love.  In a country where it was not uncommon for men to have multiple marriages, Yejide agreed to marry Akin only if he would not take other wives.  Yejide’ mother had died when she was born and was raised by her father’s several other wives, none of whom were especially kind to her.  In her marriage to Akin, she initially bonds with her mother-in-law.

 

After four years of marriage, the couple have not been able to have a baby.  They seek out fertility doctors and healers, all to no avail.  Akin’s family pressures him into taking another wife.  Finally, Akin is forced to give into family demands. Yejide was furious when she learned after the fact that her beloved husband took another wife.  Under mutual agreement, the new wife has an apartment on the other side of town and Akin only spends weekends with her.

 

Yejide believes that the only way to save her marriage and have life return to the early days of their marriage is to become pregnant.  She will do whatever it takes to become a mother, despite the cost.

 

After Akin’s younger no-good brother, Dotun, lost his job, he briefly moved in with Akin and Yejide.  He seduces her and soon Yejide gives birth to a beautiful little daughter.  Five months after the birth of her daughter, the child died suddenly.  Dotum again seduces Yejide a second time and this time she gives birth to a son.  When he is about 5 years old, he is diagnosed with Sickle Cell Disease.  Dotum was a carrier of the disease, but not Akin.  Akin rages when the doctor tells him that he could not have been the father.

 

Later we learn that Akin knew all along that he was impotent and talked his brother into seducing his wife so that they could have children.  Akin, however, couldn’t even admit to himself, that he could not father children.  Finally, Yejide learned the truth about her husband, and leaves him, only to see him years later at his father’s funeral.

 

I loved this book.

 

Read:  December 6, 2020

 

5 Stars

 

Books Set in North America, United States, Washington, D.C.

The Residence: Inside the Private World of The White House, by Kate Andersen Brower (2015)

 

The White House – one of the most iconic symbols of the United States.  It is the temporary home to the American presidents.  It’s 55,000 square feet, 132 rooms, 147 windows, 35 bathrooms, 28 fireplaces, 8 staircases and 3 elevators and kept in tidy order and running smoothly by a full staff of butlers, maids, electricians, florists, chefs, doormen, plumbers, engineers and others.  This staff, or Residents, tend to every need of the President and First Family.  If they don’t perform to the liking of the First Family, they can be fired at the drop of a hat.

 

The staff doesn’t live at the White House, and the often must have two jobs to cover expenses, but they are at the beck and call of the President and First Lady.  The staff is extremely discrete.  This book is not a tell-all and does not expound on the intimate details of the Presidents and their families.  It does, however, provide an intimate account of the staff and how they go about their jobs from the Kennedy family through the Obamas.  Many of the staff work at the White House for years, through the administrations of numerous presidents.

 

The book begins with an account of all the details that must take place on Inauguration Day, as one First Family moves out and the next President moves in.  Due to security issues, on outside movers are permitted on the White House grounds.  The staff must quickly whisk out the out-going family’s belongings; and move in the incoming family’s possessions – all during the Inauguration ceremony!

 

The staff must then quickly learn the new family’s quirks, likes and dislikes.  The book hints that some families, especially First Ladies, were more of a challenge that others.  

 

I found this to be a fascinating read.

 

Read:  December 1, 2020

 

4 Stars

Books Set in North America, United States, New Hampshire

Nineteen Minutes, by Jodi Picoult (2007)

 

All High School students suffer from teenage angst as they struggle to find their true selves.  Many students are bullied and others are complicit in the bullying in an attempt to fit in.  This novel, which is a bit dated, began as an ordinary day in a small town in New Hampshire until Peter Houghton, who had been bullied every day since kindergarden, brought a gun to school and began shooting.

 

There is no denying that Peter was the killer of several students, some of whom had teased and bullied him for years.  Among the injured was Josie Cormier, whose mother was the Judge over the trial, and Josie’s boyfriend, Matt Royston.  Matt was a jock and one of the most popular students at the school.  He was also jealous and possessive of Josie.

 

Josie had been a close friend of Peter’s when they were children, but their friendship was strained after their mothers had a falling out.  Josie still felt some sympathy towards Peter, but was afraid if she showed it, she would be ostracized by the “cool” kids.

 

The book travels between the present and past as we learn of the events leading up to the shooting.  The book is about teenage angst – something that probably all readers can identify with.  Picoult tackles these issues in the bigger drama of school shootings, which have become common events in schools.

 

There are several subplots, including a troubled and difficult relationship between Josie and her single mother, Josie’s abusive boyfriend, reckoning with sexual identity, and pregnancy scares.

 

At the end, we learn that, although Peter shot and killed several students, Josie actually shot her Matt, her abusive boyfriend, and Peter promised to protector her from this carnage.  The jury finds Peter guilty of murder and he is sentenced to life in prison.  He finds and escape through suicide, and Josie was found guilty of manslaughter and sentenced to 5 years.

 

As with most of Picoult’s novels, this examines social issues and is well written and researched.

 

Read:  November 28, 2020

 

4 Stars

Books Set in Europe and North America: Austria and Los Angeles, California

The Lost Letter, by Jillian Cantor (2017)

 

This Holocaust novel alternates between Austria in 1938 and 1989 Los Angeles.  

 

In 1938, young Kristoff, an orphan who had no family life, finds himself an apprentice to Frederick Faber, a Jewish engraver who specialized in making stamps.  Faber was a famous for his engraved stamps.  As an apprentice, Kristoff lives and dines with the family.  Although not a Jew himself, he finds himself attracted to the Shabbat rituals and prayers.  He also has a crush on Faber’s 17-year-old daughter, Elena.

 

In Los Angeles in 1989, Kate Nelson is struggling through a painful divorce and a father suffering from dementia.  She has just placed her father in a nursing home and is going through his belongings.  He had been a stamp collector and Kate had wonderful memories as a child going with her father as he sought out his “gems”.  She takes his stamp collection to be appraised, thinking that there might be something of value that can be sold to help defray the costs of his medical care.

 

She takes the stamps to Benjamin Grossman, a philatelist, for his appraisal.  He discovered among the collection an unopened letter with a unique Austrian stamp.  It was the picture of an Austrian church with a small unauthorized edelweiss on its steeple.  The letter was addressed to one of Faber’s daughters, and the stamp appears to have been a Faber design, but seemed to have been issued after his apparent death.

 

Still thinking that the stamp might be of value, Benjamin and Kate locate Fraulein Faber in hopes of discovering the mystery of the edelweiss on the stamp.

 

I thoroughly enjoyed this novel.

 

Read:  October. 27, 2020

 

4.5 Stars

 

 

Books Set in North America; United States; Kentucky

The Giver of Stars, by Jojo Moyes (2019)

 

Between 1935 and 1943 the Pack Horse Library Project was a program administered through the WPA.  The WPA hired women in Appalachia to ride horses and mules through the rural countryside delivering books to families living in remote areas.  This novel is based on that Project.

 

This novel was based on this Project and focuses on several women who were part of the Horseback Librarians of Baileyville, Kentucky.  Alice Wright, a young British woman, married the handsome Bennett Van Cleve, a wealthy American.  She dreamed of escaping her sheltered life in England and envisioned an exciting life in the United States. Instead, she found herself in rural Kentucky, living with her husband and his father.  The Van Cleve family made their money running a coal mine.  Life in Kentucky was far from what Alice thought life in America would be like, nor was her marriage.

 

When a traveling library was formed in Baileyville, Alice eagerly volunteered.  Margery O’Hare was instrumental in coordinating the traveling librarians and taught Alice to ride a horse through the rural back trails of Kentucky and to shoot a gun.  Margery, however, was a bit of an outcast and from a “bad” family.  Alice and Margery were soon joined by Beth, a renegade; Izzy, a young woman affected with polio; and Sophie, the Black librarian.  The library provided Alice with a sanctuary from her loveless marriage and her cruel father-in-law.  She formed bonds with the other women delivering books to the greater community.

 

After it became known that the women of Baileyville were requesting a factual book on sexual satisfaction, the future of the library became threatened.  The library was further threatened when tragedy befell one of the librarians.

 

I enjoyed this book, however, it only briefly touched upon the treatment of workers in the coal mines.  I thought this would also be a thread of the novel.

 

Read:  Sept. 30, 2020

 

3.5 Stars

 

Books Set in Asia: China, Shanghai

The Last Kings of Shanghai: The Rival Jewish Dynasties that Helped Create Modern China, by Jonathan Kaufman (2020)

 

This book is about the Sassoon family and the Kadoorie family, both from Baghdad, Iraq, who built tremendous business empires in Shanghai, China.  They arrived in Shanghai at a time when was becoming an international city.  Europeans were beginning their colonization of the city.

 

The Sassoons were a wealthy business family in Iraq, but due to political influences in the early 1880s moved their enterprise, first to India, and then to China.  They increased they wealth in the Opium Wars.  This book gave a clear explanation of the origins of the Opium War, and how the Western world help to feed and exploit the opium trade in China.

 

The Kadoorie family arrived in Shanghai a few decades after the Sassoons.  They built their empire from the ground up.  They opened up lavish hotels and began one of the largest electric companies in the country.

 

During World War II, the Kadoories build shelter and fed numerous Jews fleeing from Nazi Germany.  China was one of the very few countries open to Jews during this period.  The city also came under Japanese occupation during the War.  The families survived through this occupation and then sided with Chiang Kai-Shek as the Nationalist and Communist faced each other.  Ultimately, Communism won and the two families lost virtually everything.

 

It was an interesting slice of history.  I wish this book had been published a few years earlier and I could have read it prior to my visit to Shanghai.

 

Read:  September 17, 2020

 

3.5 Stars

Books Set in North America: United States: Mississippi

Pale: A Novel, by Edward A. Farmer (2020)

In 1966, Bernice, a young Black woman whose husband has left her, moved to be closer to her brother, Floyd, who worked in the field at the Kern cotton plantation in Mississippi.  Bernice would work in the plantation house with another Black servant, Silva.  At the house, they would tend to old Mister and his younger, but vindictive wife, Missus.  Neither the old Mister nor his wife seem to care much for each other, or anyone else, for that matter.  Years ago, they lost their young daughter, Elizabeth, an event from which Missus never recovered.

Silva was a widow with two young sons.  One summer, Silva’s sons, Jesse and Fletcher, were hired to work in the field picking cotton.  Missus threw a tantrum when she saw Fletcher and forbid him from working on the property.  She sought out Jesse, however, and began a dangerous flirtation with him.  She convinced Jesse to write her love letters and instructed him what to write.  Bernice tried to warn Jesse, but Missus held a power over him.  And she was trying to get back at her husband, who fathered Fletcher.

Fletcher had plans to go leave Mississippi and obtain an education.  After his first year at school, Missus used the letters Jesse had written to blackmail him into returning to the plantation to work as a field hand.  She insists that being on the plantation is his home and where he belongs.

Dark and twisted secrets hold the servants and owners to the land.

Read:  September 3, 2020

4 Stars

Books Set in Europe; Italy and England

Mapping the Edge, by Sarah Dunant (1999)

This was a very strange novel.  It follows Anna Franklin, a single mother, who left her 6-year-old daughter, Lily in the care of her housekeeper to take a brief trip to Italy.  Anna was writing an article about dating through the want ads.  (Remember, this book was written over 20 years ago.)  When Anna failed to return home, her two closest friends gather ponder what could have detained Anna.

The novel alternates between two different scenarios.  Was Anna kidnapped by a man who wants her to be his dead wife, or has she found a companion who fulfills her sexual fantasies?

Sarah Dunant has also written several historical fiction novels, including The Birth of Venus.  I liked those novels much better.

Read:  August 25, 2020

3 Stars

Books Set in North America: United States: Maine

The Guest Book, by Sarah Blake (2019)

The Miltons were an old WASP family to whom the word “summer” was a verb.  One summer afternoon in 1936, while sailing in Penobscot Bay, Ogden Milton and his wife Kitty decided on a whim to buy Crockett’s Island.  This Island became the family’s rock and anchor for the next several decades.  The novel follows three generations of Ogden women, and the story goes back and forth between Kitty the matriarch, her daughter Joan, and granddaughter Evie.

A year earlier, the Milton’s had lost their 5-year old son when he fell from a window.  Thus, when Elsa, a German Jew who was an acquaintance of Ogden’s, asked Kitty if she would take care of her young son to protect him from the War, Kitty declined.

The Milton’s were known for hosting elaborate parties on their summer island, but the guest were all old money.  The next generation began mixing with people who were NOKD (not our kind, dear).

Ogden was head of a family investment firm and all his employees were of moneyed families.  When he hired Len Levy, a Jew, everyone was wary of him and the stereotypes of Jews and money was not far from their minds.  Len was assigned a somewhat menial task of reviewing documents.  In the process, he uncovered the firm’s investment with Nazis.

The surviving Milton son, Moss, was expected to join the firm and take over from his father.  Moss, however, was artistic and wasn’t interested in his family’s firm.  He befriended Reg Pauling, an African-American writer.  On a whim, he off-handedly invited both Reg and Len to his family’s island.  When they decided to take him up on the offer, the Milton’s were caught off guard.

Kitty spent the rest of her life trying to atone for the decisions she made in her life.

I felt this book tried to take on too much by mixing race and religious stereotypes into this novel.

It was a fast read.

Read:  August 7, 2020

3 Stars

Books Sent in Asia: Middle East: Israel and Lebanon

Pumpkinflowers: A Soldier’s Story of a Forgotten War, by Matti Friedman (2016)

In the Israeli military language, casualties in war are called flowers, and deaths are known as oleanders.  These euphemisms are deemed to take away some of the ugliness of war.

Pumpkinflowers describes the author’s involvement in Israel’s military presence in southern Lebanon during the late 1990s.  Pumpkin was the name of the Israeli outpost in the Lebanon Security Zone.  During the period that Israel maintained these outposts to protect the communities in northern Israel from Hezbollah’s growing presence in the area.

In the late 1990s, the author was drafted into the Israeli army and sent to Outpost Pumpkin (it was never referred to as The Pumpkin).  Shortly before the author was sent to Pumpkin, two Israel helicopters, filled with young soldiers, collided on their way to Pumpkin.  There were 73 oleanders.  Israel’s support for continuing these outpost began to wane after this event.  It was about this time that Friedman arrived at Pumpkin.  Brief skirmishes continued unto 2000, when Israel withdrew from the security zone.

The soldiers could look down on the Lebanese village of Nabatieh.  In particular, they observed a small restaurant.  They would joke about how they would like to have a meal at the restaurant someday.

The First section of the book focuses on a young soldier, Avi, who was a bit of a rebel.  He was also a talented writer, who served at Pumpkin before the author’s arrival.  The Second section describes Friedman’s days at Pumpkin.

The final sections of the book describe life after Pumpkin.  Years later, Friedman traveled to Lebanon as a tourist.  After traveling throughout the country, he hired a cab to take him to the southern part of the country.  He stopped at the restaurant he had observed as a young soldier from the Pumpkin and enjoyed a meal.  He convinced his driver to take him up the hill where the outpost had been, ostensibly to take photos, but to feel the place again where he has spent 3 years in a forgotten military command.

Read:  August 6, 2020

4 Stars

Books Set in North America, United States, Philadelphia and New York City

Oreo, by Fran Ross (1974)

 

What’s not to love about a novel that, within its first few pages contains the following: 

 

There is no weather per se in this book.  …  Assume whatever season you like throughout.  Summer makes the most sense …  That way pages do not have to be used up describing people taking off and putting on overcoats.

 

This novel is a very funny novel about relations between African-Americans and Jews.  Fran Ross (1935 ~ 1985) was the daughter of a Jewish father and an African-American mother.  She had also been a comedy writer for Richard Pryor, hence, her humor in this book.

 

The heroine of the novel is also the daughter of a Jewish father and Black mother.  Although her given name was Christine Clark, she was known by family and friends as Oreo.  Ostensibly, it was because her grandmother called her Oriole after the bird.  But, of course, this is a nod to the fact that the name is also a racial slur.

 

Her parent’s marriage causes concern on both sides of the family.  Oreo is raised by her maternal grandmother after her father deserts the family, but not before he leaves his legacy of Yiddish words and phrases, and her mother travels with a theater troupe.

 

When she reaches of age, Oreo sets off for New York City to find her father and his new family.  This book is hard to describe, as it is written in such a humorous manner, complete with graphs, tables and mathematical equations.  It addresses heavy issues on race relations and is quite relevant in todays atmosphere.

 

Read:  August 3, 2020

 

5 Stars

Books Set in Europe: The Netherlands, Amsterdam

House on Endless Waters, by Emuna Elon (2016)

The novel begins when the well-known Israeli author, Yoel Blum, is boarding an airplane.  Right from the beginning, we realize that his is not really a likable character.  He is a bit of a snob, and he has trouble interacting well with people.  At some point in the novel, he acknowledges that he is not sure that he married for love, rather than convenience.

Regardless, his latest book is being published in the Netherlands and he is traveling to Amsterdam to promote his book.  He has mixed feelings about this trip because his mother had always told him he should never, ever go to Amsterdam.  Although he was born in Amsterdam during World War II, he and his family never returned.  His mother is now deceased, but he wants to keep his promise to her not to go.

While in Amsterdam, he goes to one of the Jewish museums and observes a movie clip that shows his mother holding a baby, along with his father (who perished in the War) and his older sister, Nettie.  Upon his return to Israel, he discussed what he had seen with his sister.  He tells her that he recognized his family, but the baby doesn’t look like him.  Soon after, he feels compelled to return to Amsterdam to search out his background.

The novel mixes the past and present as Yoel seeks out information of his family.  He decides to use his search for his identity as the basis for his next novel.  At times the past and present blur.  He seeks out the building where his family once had a small apartment.  The building is now a rather seedy hotel, but Yoel decides to rent a room.  He decides to use his search for identity as his next 

Yoel visits the local synagogue and eventually meets a man about his age who confides that he was a child of Jewish parents who were hidden by a Christian family during the War.  This man has only recently confronted his past with the life he lived for most of his life.

As Blum takes notes for his next novel, he imagines his family life in the building of a wealthy Jewish banker, and the banker’s daughter and her family.  All are in denial of what is happening during the War until it is nearly too late.

This novel also reads like a travel map of Amsterdam.  Streets and buildings are vividly described.

The reader can easily guess early on the punchline of the novel, but the payoff comes too late.  SPOILER ALERT:  Yoel is not the biological child of his mother.  Their neighbors switched their son with Yoel’s mother on the pretext that they would soon be following them to Palestine.  Still, it was a fast read, and not many Holocaust novels address the non-Jewish Dutch families who were willing to hide and safe Jewish children.

Read: August 3, 2020

3 Stars

Books Set in the United States

The Book of V., by Anna Solomon (2020)

The Book of V. is a novel of three women, loosely related, in three different time periods, each of which has a miserable life with the men in their lives.  The book is a re-imagination of the Biblical Esther and her life as Queen of Persia.  Jump forward to the 1970s and the beginning of the Women’s Movement and we meet Vivian Kent.  She is the 2^nd wife of a United States Senator.  On the surface, she would seem to have the perfect life, but for her cruel husband.  When she leaves him, she goes to stay for a while with her friend, Rosemary.  Rosemary has 3 children and a husband.  The husband wants Vivian out of the house.  Finally, we see Lily, a young stay-at-home mother struggling to raise her young daughters.

I didn’t care for any of the characters.  All seemed so self-centered.  The only reason I can give this 3 stars is for the final 3^rd of the book, which brings together a moment of clarity.

Read:  July 30, 2020

3 Stars

Books Set in Africa: Burundi

Small Country, by Gaël Faye (2018)

Small Country is a semi-autobiographical novel of Gabriel, a young boy growing up in Burundi in the 1990s.  He had an idyllic childhood, living in Bujumbura, the capital city of Burundi to a French diplomat father and a Tutsi Rwandan mother.  Most of his closest young friends also had white fathers and Black mothers.  His life is sheltered from the politics brewing in his country.

As a 10-year old boy, he spent his days stealing mangos from neighbors’ trees and selling them back to tree’s owners.  He is oblivious to the rising tensions erupting in Rwanda, other than the whispers he hears from his parents.

His mother is a Rwandan refugee and has family still living in her home country.  She worries about her native country.  Her younger brother decided to return to Rwanda to fight for the Tutsi, who are being slaughtered by the Hutus.  Gabriel becomes aware of conflict when his family visits their Rwandan family to attend his uncle’s wedding.  While there, he eavesdrops and hears his aunt describing the violence and genocide of Tutsis.

The violence knows no borders and erupts in Burundi, too.  Gabriel recalls the first democratic election of the country’s president in June 1993.  He was the country’s first Hutu president and had hoped to smooth relations between the Hutus and Tutsi in the country.  When he was assassinated 3 months later, the country erupted into a civil war.  The political climate had a profound impact on Gabriel.  His young friends are anxious to take up the “cause” and defend their neighborhood.  Gabriel retreats into books and befriends and elderly Greek widow who has a house filled with books.

The civil war forced its citizens to choose sides.  Violence and death are all around and curfews are in place.  Young Gabriel is suddenly faced with a terrible choice that will end his childhood with which ever option he selects.

This is a small novel, but very powerful.

Read:  July 25, 2020

5 Stars

Books Set in Asia: Israel

Waking Lions, by Ayelet Gundar-Goshen (2014)

Dr. Eitan Green is a young neurosurgeon who had been transferred to a remote hospital in the Negev because he refused to participate in a bribery scheme in his hospital in the city.  While driving home one evening after a long day at the hospital, he ran over and killed an Eritrean immigrant on a lonely stretch of the desert road.  He got out of his SUV to investigate, and, although the man was still alive, it was clear that the man was fatally injured.  Eitan got back in his vehicle and drove home to his wife and two young sons.

The next morning, the dead man’s widow, Sirket, knocked on Eitan’s door and handed him his wallet.  She told him to meet her late in the evening in a garage nearby.  Thinking that she wanted money, Eitan withdrew a large sum of money to bring to their rendezvous.  Sirket took the money, but she wanted so much more.

Illegal immigrants from Eritrea have been flooding into Israel and are in need of medical care.  Sirket quickly saw that she could blackmail Eitan into treating these people in return for his silence.  She demanded that he go to the garage each night after his daily rounds are over.  In order to do this, Eitan must begin a web of lies with his wife and with his boss at the hospital.

Meanwhile, Eitan’s wife, Liat, is a police detective.  She was assigned to investigate the hit-and-run.  Her fellow officers, however, were disinterested in tracking down the driver, since the victim was “just” an illegal.  Furthermore, they blamed the hit-and-run on young Bedouin boy, who refused to participate in his defense after he was arrested.

This is a novel of secrets.  As the layers of the characters are peeled back, the reader learns of the secrets each one carries and the price of those burdens.  The novel also investigates the complex relations between the Israeli, Bedouins and Eritreans.

The title of the book comes from an Eritrean proverb that says once a lion has woken up and tastes human flesh, it will never eat anything else again.  As we learn more about Sirket, we realize that she has become the woken lion.

Because Eitan is a neurosurgeon, the first few pages describe medical conditions.  I was struck by the description of the hit-and-run victim because my mother was also struck and killed by a car (although not a hit-and-run) and suffered a similar injury.

This is the best book I have read this year.

Read:  July 21, 2020

5 Stars

Books Set in the United States: Louisiana

The Book of Lost Friends, by Lisa Wingate (2020)

The Book of Lost Friends follows two stories:  One story takes place in the 1870 in post-Civil War Louisiana, and is told from the voice of young Hannie, a recently freed slave from the Gossett Plantation.  The other story takes place nearly 100 years later, in 1987, and is told in the voice of a first-year English teacher who finds herself in South Louisiana and living in a house on the former Gossett Plantation.

After the Civil War ended, many of the freed slaved stayed on the Plantations working as share-croppers hoping to earn enough money to acquire some land.  That was Hannie’s position in 1875.  She had a strong memory, however, of having been separated from her mother as a young girl.  She had dreams of reuniting with her family.  Before the Civil War, Gossett Plantation had been a thriving and wealthy place.  The owner, William Gossett, kept his (white) family on the plantation, but kept a secret Creole mistress in New Orleans, with whom he had a free-born daughter, Juneau Jane.  William Gossett favored Juneau Jane, and she was highly educated.  His white children were spoiled and self-centered.

After the Civil War, William Gossett left the family in search of his wayward son.  His daughter, Lavinia, got it into her head to seek her father, and dragged Juneau Jane along with her.  Juneau Jane had her own reason for seeking out William Gossett.  She wanted to be sure that she would receive her promised inheritance.  Hannie disguised herself as their male driver and the three of them took off for Texas.  Along their journey, they discover the list of Lost Friends, where former slaves would have their story seeking their family members published in a newspaper.  The stories would be read and posted in black churches throughout the South.

Jump to 1987.  Benedetta “Benny” Silva found herself in the small rural town of (fictional) Augustine, Louisiana to teach English.  She was running from her own past.  Augustine was the home of the Gossett Plantation.  The Gossetts still hold sway in the town.  They own a major industry in the area and have a lot of political influence.  They send their children to the school across the lake.  Most of the students in Benny’s class were impoverished black students.  They were disinterested in learning until Benny got them interested in researching the town’s history.

Every other chapter was in the voice of either Hennie or Benny.  I found Hennie’s story to be a bit too disjointed.  Her chapter would end in a cliff-hanger, but then, when the her story picked up again, the author would have moved on.

I moved to south Louisiana in 1987.  Later in my career, I did a lot of real estate title work, and researched the lands that were former plantations.  Her depiction of the town of Augustine rang true.  Her brief description of the town’s plans for the unmarked cemetery, however, would not have been permitted under Louisiana law.

As I read the novel, I thought I knew where the author was leading us with respect to Benny.  I did not, however, see the ending as it was written.

The author of this book also wrote the historical novel, Before We Were Yours, which I also read.

Read:  July 15, 2020

4 Stars

Books Set in Europe: Paris, France

The Room on Rue Amélie, by Kristin Harmel (2018)

The Room on Rue Amélie reads like a young adult sanitized version of Nazi occupation of Paris during World War II.

The novel focuses on Ruby Henderson Benoit, a young American woman who meets the French Marcel Benoit in a coffee shop in New York and marries him 6 months later.  They move to Paris in the late 1930s against her parent’s objections.  She is determined to become a true Parisian.  (She had learned French in school and can apparently speak a passable version of the language, albeit with an accent.)

Her marriage soon sours.  Marcel spends long hours away from their apartment and never explains his absences.  Since his character was not developed, we don’t know why Ruby fell for him in the first place, other than he was very handsome.  We do learn, however, that he is involved in the French resistance and has been hiding downed Allied pilots in a secret room in the hallway of their apartment building.  Marcel doesn’t want his wife to be involved in the Resistance, she wants to feel useful in the War effort.  She learns of the secret room and becomes involved in the escape line for downed pilots.

When the RAF pilot, Thomas, appears at her door, she falls head-over-heels in love.  The author doesn’t explain the attraction.  Why this pilot?  She harbors numerous downed soldiers.  We learn as much of some of the other soldiers as we do Thomas.

A Jewish family lives in the apartment next door.  Young Charlotte befriends Ruby.  When the French police round up Jewish families, Ruby promises Charlotte’s parents she will take care of her should anything happen.  Soon young Charlotte, who is forced to grow up very quickly, becomes involved in the resistance as well.

This was a very quick read, and something that I could see myself enjoying when I was about 12 years old.  The characters were not fully developed and the book did not depict the actual horrors and fears of living in Paris during the Nazi occupation.

Read:  July 6, 2020

3 Stars

Books Set in North America; United States; New York

The Color of Water: A Black Man’s Tribute to His White Mother, by James McBride (1995)

The Color of Water is a touching memoir of James McBride’s mother.  The book alternates between McBride, in his voice, telling about his life growing up and his mother’s voice recounting her life.  The author was an adult before he learned of his mother’s background.

Ruth McBride Jordon was born on April Fool’s Day in 1921 in Poland to an Orthodox Jewish family.  Her given name was Ruchel Dwajra Zylska.  When she was 2 years old, she immigrated to the United States with her mother and older brother.  Her father had already settled in the United States.  She became known as Rachel once in America, but later changed her name to Ruth because she thought it sounded more “American.”  Ruth is an interesting choice, since there is a Biblical Ruth who is known for converting to Judaism.  Ruth McBride, however, tried to hide her Jewish roots and converted to Christianity.

When the author finally confronts his mother about her past, she acknowledges that they sat shiva for her 50 years earlier, as she became dead to them when she left her Jewish background and married a Black man.  We slowly learn of her childhood.  Her parents were in an arranged marriage and there was no love between her father and mother.

As a child, he would sometimes ask his mother why she looked different from the mothers of his friends, but her response was simply that she was “light-skinned.”

Life in the McBride home was not easy, but it was filled with love.  The author was one of 12 children.  The author never knew his father who died of cancer shortly before his birth.  Sometime after the death of her first husband, Ruth remarried Hunter Jordan, another Black man, who became a loving stepfather to James and 7 older siblings.  Ruth and Hunter would have another 4 children.  Jordan did like the chaos of so many children, so lived apart from the family except for weekends.

Ruth was a formidable woman and saw to it that all of her children went to college, and many went on to earn graduate degrees.  All the while, James, as a bi-racial child coming of age in the 1970s faced questions of his identity and race.  The author’s initial impression of the Jewish community seems harsh, but he was initially learning of Judaism through the eyes of his mother, who left an abusive and unloving childhood home.  Through his mother and his stepfather, whom he called Daddy, he learns a life of love and the important things in life.

I loved this book and look forward to reading other books by James McBride.

Read:  June 17, 2020

5 Stars

Books Set in Asia: Israel

The 188th Crybaby Brigade: A Skinny Kid from Chicago Fights Hezbollah, by Joel Chasnoff (2010)

Joel Chasnoff, the author of this memoir is a stand-up comedian, who, at the age of 24 decided that he wanted to join the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF).  Chasnoff grew up in a Conservative home in the United States, but felt a strong connection to Israel.  He had made a couple of visits to Israel, and as he explored his Jewishness, he decided he wanted to fulfill his long desire to serve in the IDF.  He describes his entry into the IDF, where he was assigned to the Armored Corps.

This book describes the rigors of the basic training and the bonds formed with his fellow soldiers.  At age 24, he was years older than his fellow recruits, who were all still in their teens.  His superior officers were barely in their 20s.  He is trained as a tank gunner, and after initial training, finds himself in the Golan on the Israel-Lebanon border.

On his rare days off, he visits his Israeli girlfriend and her family in Tel Aviv.  His training schedule is exhausting and on his time off, he only wants to veg.  His girlfriend, however, wants to party.  Maintaining a relationship is not easy.

When Chasnoff and his girlfriend decide to get married, he also learns just what it means to be a Jew in Israel.  Parts of this book were laugh-out-loud funny.  Other parts certainly provide food for thought.

This book was an easy and enjoyable read.

Read:  June 11, 2020

4 Stars

Books Set in North America and Europe

The Secrets We Kept, by Lara Prescot (2019)

The Secrets We Kept is a fascinating historical fiction about how the novel Dr. Zhivago made its way out of the Soviet Union and earned Boris Pasternak the 1958 Nobel Prize in Literature.  The CIA played a role in that endeavor.  The novel is told through many voices, including that of Olga Ivinslaya, Pasternak’s long-term lover, and the women in the CIA’s typing pool.

Pasternak’s manuscript had been banned from publication in the Soviet Union on grounds that it shed a bad light on the political situation in that country.  The manuscript was spirited out of the Soviet Union and the Italian publisher, Giangiacomo Feltrinelli, had the novel translated into Italian where is was first published.  

The 1950s were marked by the Cold War.  The CIA believed that freedom produced great art, thus initiated its “cultural diplomacy”, designed to expose the non-free world with music and literature of the West.  Russia was known for its great authors and literature.  When rumors abounded that Russian author, Boris Pasternak, had written a sweeping historical epic, interest in the West was piqued.

Once the CIA learned that the manuscript had reached beyond the Iron Curtain, it took steps to publish the novel in Russian and secretly slip it back into its home of origin.  In the 1950s, women had very few employment opportunities.  This novel focuses on several women who were employed by the CIA, ostensibly in the typing pool, but who were also recruited as carriers or swallows for spying on the Soviet Union.  While the women depicted in the novel are fictional, many of the other characters in the novel are real.

This was a fun novel and it has inspired me to find a copy of Dr. Zhivago to re-read.

Read: June 6, 2020

4 Stars

Books Set in Australia and Asia; China

The Song of the Jade Lily, by Kirsty Manning (2019)

This historical novel jumps back and forth between the present (2016) and the late 1930s’ through the end of World War II.  In the present, Alexandra Laird has a high-powered job with a financial company in London and has sought a transfer to Shanghai.  The transfer request was for three reasons: to escape part escape from a bad break-up; to be closer to her grandparents who live in Australia; and to learn about her birth mother who had been born in Shanghai.  Alexandra’s parents were killed when she was very young had had been raised by her grandparents, Romy and Wilhem Cohen.  Alexandra’s mother was ostensibly adopted and was of Chinese ancestry.  She is curious about her mother’s origins, but her grandparents have been very secretive about her past.

In flashbacks, we meet Alexandra’s grandmother, Romy.  Twelve-year-old Romy and her parents, who were Jews, fled Vienna shortly after Kristallnacht and made their way to Shanghai.  China was one of the few countries in the 1930 that was accepting Jewish immigrants.  They were not, apparently, practicing Jews in China, but their religious affiliation was not a problem in China.

In Shanghai, Romy met Li Ho, a beautiful young girl who is Romy’s age and the two become fast friends.  Li Ho’s father was a doctor in Eastern medicine, which intrigued Romy.  She picked up some herbal treatment methods, which she employed throughout her life.

Initially, Shanghai was safe.  In the 1930s it was a major international city.  Late in World War II, however, Shanghai fell under Japanese control and the city became very dangerous.  There are parallels between the brutish treatment of the Nazi’s towards the Jews and the Japanese soldiers’ treatment of the Chinese.  Li’s parents were active in the resistance, which lead to a tragic result.  Li and her brother then had to take whatever steps necessary to survive.

The description so Shanghai bring the city to life with its sight and smells.  Unfortunately, the characters are lacking and are not fully developed.  Alexandra too quickly falls into a new relationship that doesn’t quite fit as described in the novel.

The novel was a very quick read, although it could have used a better editor.  There were several places where the author repeated herself.  The twist at the end, however, made the book a worthwhile read.

Read:  May 25, 2020

3 Stars