Goodbye Summer Reading List

Not as many books this time, but I suppose at least as many pages.

Palace Council, by Stephen L. Carter. Carter ratchets up the "first families of old Harlem" motif that made non-central appearances in his other books, crossing it with a central political conspiracy theory in this case. As usual, my ability to enjoy the book was dependent on buying into the plausibility of the conspiracy theory, and for me that was just too hard to do. Can you really believe there is a secret cabal of politically well-connected black conspirators working over the generations? If so, this is your book!

The Terror, by Dan Simmons. And speaking of having to buy into plausibility, Dan Simmons stretches the frozen bozo genre to include a mysterious arctic beast (or is it?) stalking the Erebus and Terror in the ill-fated Franklin expedition. Since nobody survived, who's not to say he's right? I enjoyed the frozen bozo-ness, but the (lowercase) terror and occasionally mystical aspects of this novel made it a bit of a slog. Reading it wasn't the Worst Journey in the World, but it wasn't a luxury cruise either.

Nixonland, by Rick Perlstein. Subtitled "The rise of a president and the fracturing of America", I believe this is the definitive examination of what has led us to the polarized political discourse we have today. Well worth the 800 pages. Nixon comes out as the conniving political scumball history has conclusively proven him to be. That's not the point, though. The book examines the political calculus behind Nixon's rise, fall, and subsequent winning presidential elections. The game plan adopted by Nixon certainly left a long-lasting imprint on today's political alignments, as Democrats lost their stronghold in the south, and Republicans latched on to identity politics in ways that continue to reverberate in our elections.

The Story of Edgar Sawtelle, by David Wroblewski. Oprah doesn't disappoint with this selection. I enjoyed the story of Edgar, a boy whose family breeds and trains a special kind of dog. Good dog book! This was not the feel-good happily-ever-after book I had imagined. Instead, it is full of crises and bad guys, all of which Edgar must overcome. Oh, and he was born mute. The whole muteness thing, and a bit of mysticism along the way, was in my opinion not needed, but still highly recommended.

The Girl with the Dragon Tatoo, by Stieg Larsson. Terrific mystery with lots of action. Avoiding exposure after a libel case, a Swedish investigative journalist agrees to re-examine the disappearance of a young girl from forty years ago. He teams up with a quirky but brilliant female investigator, and they turn up all kinds of ugly stuff within the family that hired him. It all takes place on an island that is privately owned, a kind of modern Wilkie Collins in Scandinavia. Check it out. I'll be reading the next book of Larsson's when it arrives in paperback. Too bad he died after finishing this trilogy!

Errors and Omissions, by Paul Goldstein. A strange little mystery that I picked up because of the legal angle. The main character is a tortured attorney specializing in intellectual property for the entertainment industry. He's brought in to secure an assignment of ownership for the story on a famous film from the blacklisting McCarthy era. His efforts uncover a hornet's nest of problems, a murder, and some long-buried and well-hidden relationships in the film industry. It was a different kind of mystery with a different topic than I'm used to. Not exactly John Grisham when it comes to cheap thrills, but I learned some things and enjoyed the ride.

Sacred Hunger, by Barry Unsworth. Another Booker Prize book. I enjoyed this story, but I wish it had weighed in at several hundred less than its 600 pages. The book follows the fictional Kemp family. The patriarch builds a slave ship so as to make some money off of the hot triangle trade route. A cousin joins the ship as its doctor, so we see a lot of the story through him as the ship goes down the African coast and gathers its cargo. When the ship meets its ill-fated end, the patriarch loses his fortune and his son has to adapt to his newfound penniless circumstances. Eventually these two stories converge. I enjoyed the details on how the slave trade worked, and the details of how it affected the various interesting characters. The last third of the book, when the stories converge, was a voyage too far for me, although I suspect the Booker Prize committee would disagree with me on that one.

Obedience, by Will Lavender. A Kyla recommendation that I would recommend to you. What seems like a preposterous premise -- a college class being asked to find a missing girl based on clues the professor will hand out over the semester -- turns out to be more real than the students imagined. As readers, we think the whole thing must have some kind of hole-filled explanation, but the author pulls it together and pretty much fills every chink quite neatly. I am not the best at solving mysteries while reading them, but my wife and daughter are notorious for doing just that. Dara did actually figure out what was happening, but I think that was only because I kept telling her it would all make sense in the end.

The Chameleon's Shadow, by Minette Walters. What seems like another in a line of decreasing quality semi-mysteries by Minette Walters. Or it could just be that they all seem to be the same approach recycled with different characters and story line, so maybe I'm just weary of her. In this story, a recovering and deeply troubled Iraq war hero is suspected of killing people. Of course, it couldn't be him; but, as one after another of suspects are draped past you but don't end up fitting the bill, maybe it could be him after all.