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