August Mini-Reviews

Well I’m on my way soon to play in the national age-group tennis tournament in Montreal, Yikes.  I hope it will be fun and that my husband and I will get to explore the city too.  I’m a bit glad to leave Alberta behind right now as it is still very smoky here from all the fires burning in neighboring British Columbia. Instead of the gray skies, I will post this photo from early July, at left, which I took of canola fields in bloom in southern Alberta. Hope you like the yellow. 🙂 Also since I’ve been on the run lately, I will leave you with five mini-reviews of books I’ve completed over the past two months or so but haven’t written about yet. Although just short spins, I hope they will give you a flavor for each of them. 

Bearskin by James A. McLaughlin / June 2018, Ecco, 340 pgs

Shortened Publisher Synopsis:  When a fugitive from a Mexican cartel takes refuge as a caretaker for a nature preserve in the wilds of Virginia, he thinks his troubles might be behind him, only to find his quiet is soon upended when bear carcasses start turning up on the preserve’s lands.   

My Thoughts: I enjoyed this eco-thriller and its protagonist Rice Moore, who, despite being in hiding, tries to find out and stop the bear poaching going on at the preserve. It’s an enticing mystery as Rice begins to piece together who’s responsible and takes to the woods to catch those in the act. The plot is intriguing and suspenseful — both bear poachers and the cartel are eventually zeroed in on getting Rice — and the descriptions of nature and the land are superb. 

I just wish at the end that the book’s denouement had come down harder on the bear poaching and trophy hunting going on. It seems to have prohibited it more overtly at the preserve and halted it somewhat, but I was hoping for more punishment for the perpetrators, and for it to be more of a game changer on poaching. Still the novel brings awareness to it, and builds a compelling story of a flawed protagonist trying to do what’s right to protect wildlife on private lands.   

The Female Persuasion by Meg Wolitzer / April 2018, Riverhead, 454 pages

Shortened Amazon Synopsis: The story follows a decade in the life of a young woman coming of age who finds inspiration in a feminist icon who pushes her to confront reality.

My Thoughts: I found I liked the story, which I listened to as an audiobook, much better than I initially thought I would. Greer is the girl who attends her fallback college while her high school boyfriend Cory attends Yale. It picks up then after she’s been groped at a frat party and later becomes inspired to stand up for herself after attending a lecture by feminist icon Faith Frank, who in later life becomes Greer’s employer and mentor.  

The four main characters who tell the story (Greer, her boyfriend Cory, her friend Zee, and employer Faith Frank) all have complications to their lives that play out in the story over a decade or more that make them evolve in various directions. There’s betrayals and fall-outs and tragedies and jobs that are quit among them that felt real to me.  They aren’t completely likable people, but I found their lives kept me quite engaged. Essentially I think the story explores how feminism is passed on through generations and how — as as Amazon’s Al Woodworth puts it — “complicated female support can be in a world that does not always champion women.” Uh-oh. 

Overall I was impressed by Wolitzer’s tale-telling though the novel is not without flaws. The Faith character reminded me of a Gloria Steinem-type, though her talks don’t come off being all that brilliant, and I agree with others that Cory’s life at times stole a bit of the show. There were times too when years of their lives seem summed up in large swaths, which made it feel a bit passive action-wise in its telling. Still despite these qualms, I enjoyed the story quite a bit. Greer turns into a little Sheryl Sandberg by the end, writing a book about women needing to find their “outside voice” and be assertive. 

So while “The Female Persuasion” might not seem too earthshaking in its look at feminism, I thought — along with being entertaining — it put the spotlight in the right places and complimented well these #MeToo times.

Sunburn by Laura Lippman / February 2018, Morrow, 292 pages

What kind of mother leaves her 3-year-old daughter with her husband and skips town? So begins this psychological thriller that I found quite enticing. Lippman writes well and gets into the heads and dialogue of this damaged woman with a jail record, and her new lover Adam, who, it turns out unbeknownst to her, is hired to find her. Uh-oh. Red-headed Polly has quite the backstory.  She’s one rough chick who can take care of herself and see other’s people motives from a mile away. 

I was quite into the story, which I listened to as an audiobook, around the beginning and middle but then started to peter out a bit towards the end. There’s something so cynical about the story and character! And the cat and mouse game with Adam goes on a bit too long. Yet parts of it are intriguing and make for a speedy page-turner. Lippman, too, seems to be at the top of her game. “Sunburn” would be perfect at the beach … the book I mean — not too much the condition.

Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks / 1993, Vintage,  483 pages

Shortened Wiki Synopsis:  The plot follows two main characters living at different times. The first is Stephen Wraysford, a British soldier on the front line in Amiens during the First World War, and the second is his granddaughter, Elizabeth Benson, who in the 1970s is trying to find out more about her grandfather’s experience during the war.

My Thoughts:  Ahh this is a World War I saga on a grand scale — part love story, involving Stephen Wraysford and the passionate affair he has with a French woman in Amiens before the war, and part war novel, involving Stephen’s days fighting on the horrific frontlines during WWI. I first read it in the early 2000s and was inspired to revisit the novel, which I had forgotten parts of, after visiting WWI battle sites in France in June. 

I’m pleased to say in many ways, the novel still holds up from its days as a bestseller. The trench warfare and gritty battle scenes are intense and vividly played out and the soldiers’ feelings about the war seem right on. The affair Stephen has, too, with Isabelle is intense and haunts him throughout his days at the front. Oh how he loves and longs for Isabelle … but things don’t always go the way we want them to — do they? Uh-oh.   

I debated whether I thought some of the love or dramatic scenes seemed a bit schmaltzy and maybe they were somewhat. The author renders scenes of sex, childbirth, war and death all in one book, which is pretty brave … not too sure if he pulls out all of them but he is quite an engaging storyteller who kept my rapt attention in a saga that spans generations. I enjoyed both the 1910-18 parts of the book with British officer Stephen Wraysford and his soldier unit, and the 1970s chapters with his granddaughter Elizabeth Benson who is sifting through his life. All in all, it’s a story that still captures the agony and particular circumstances of the First World War better than most and brings it and the times vividly to life. 

The Outsider by Jimmy Connors / 2013, Harper, 416 pages

I found this memoir, which I listened to as an audiobook, quite candid and exactly as I remember tennis player Jimmy Connors being … brash, unapologetic, competitive, driven, conceited, etc. I loved tennis during Connors’s era (with Borg and McEnroe too), who was at his peak in the 1970s, and this book is a highly entertaining look at those times and at Jimmy’s life and career on and off the pro tennis tour. 

I wasn’t an avid fan of Connors back then (his behavior on the court was often terrible), but after listening to his memoir I actually give him more credit than I did back then — he wasn’t solely a jerk but behind the scenes cared for his group of friends and family and the game too. And as a player he was quite inspiring how he fought so hard during tennis matches, won a lot, and how long he played and contributed to the game. 

Being a fan of the sport, I’m glad I ended up listening to it. Sure he had his demons and problems: his language, his vices, his engagement to a young Chris Evert (ohh there’s dirt revealed here), his gambling and adultery … egads it’s all here in the book…. but he has some endearing moments as well: with his parents and wife Patti, who was once a Playboy model, and with some of the other players as well. Even his chapter on fellow player Vitas Gerulaitis, whose life ended tragically, hit me quite a bit. So pick it up if you’re a tennis fan.

That’s all for now.  Have you read any of these books — and if so, what did you think?