The Red Leather Diary; Reclaiming a Life Through the Pages of a Lost Journal, by Lily Koppel

     This paperback found its way into my hands in a manner somewhat reminiscent of the way Florence Wolfsan’s diary was discovered by New York Times journalist, Lily Koppel. Mine was a last minute addition from a pile of “buy two get one free” books and Florence’s diary was retrieved from a dumpster in Manhattan. Bought as a kind of throw-away read, this book was a pleasant surprise. I enjoyed several days gaining real life, personal insight into what it must have been like to come of age in New York City between 1929 and1934.
     Adolescent angst could have become tiresome in less skilled hands that Koppel’s but, perhaps because she saw so many parallels between her life and Florence’s, the author was able to make five years worth of short diary entries into something vital and interesting. It doesn’t hurt that the protagonist is spirited, creative, privileged and widely traveled, and that she is surprisingly explicit about her sexual exploration, but it is her love of life and her search for the answers of life’s fundamental existential questions that give the book its charm. Who am I, what is the meaning of my life, what makes me happy, where and how do I find love: aren’t these the very questions we ask ourselves at every transition in our lives? Just as rereading her diary restores a sense of wonder and excitement to 92 year old Florence, getting to know Florence as she grew from age 14 to 18 inspired me to pull out my own diaries and to see them through slightly different eyes. Looking back and looking forward thought the eyes of Florence Wolfsen and Lily Koppel provides a nostalgic and enjoyable read.

Winter's Bone: A Novel by Daniel Woodrell

Author Daniel Woodrell creates a memorable heroine in 16 year old Ree Dolly. Ree desparately wants to escape the poverty of her Ozark community and enlist in the Army ("where you got to travel with a gun and they make everybody help keep things clean"), but she feels duty-bound to her family. Her meth-cooking dad has posted the family home as collateral, then jumped bail. To save her younger brothers and mentally ill mother, Ree has to ask some tough questions about her father's fate. The folks with the answers to those questions don't take kindly to being asked. The language of the novel is gritty, genuine and suspenseful. Ree's grim humor and determination are certain to catch you up in her story.

Chronicles (Annals) of the Black Company by Glen Cook

You ever want to spend some time with an old friend or visit a place you've been before? That's the way I felt a week ago or so, and I picked up Glen Cook's, Chronicles (Annals) of the Black Company (the first 3 books in one volume) and sat down to have a rollicking good time. It's a classic sword and sorcery epic tale with love and hate, politics, and maybe just a little romance...

It's a straightforward quick read, but yet, I keep coming back every few years and reading it again and enjoying it every time.

So what's it all about?

A hard-bitten, experienced mercenary company is recruited by "the Lady" to take part in her war to create a new empire. This mercenary company uses mis-direction, trickery and a little sorcery to do everything they can to avoid stand up fights, although when they have them, they show their quality... This is the story of that company.

Other readers who have served in various military organizations say the dialogue is on target for the mentality and way they remembered it really being. There's not a ton of 'battle scenes" or honestly a tremendous amount of sorcery. What the books really do well, are to be outstanding character studies of people and Machiavellian political intrigue twists to keep the reader interested.

If you pick it up, I hope you enjoy... I did, visiting an old friend again.

The Wake of Forgiveness by Bruce Machart

 

     You might look at the cover image, think Western, and pass this one by and, most times, I would be right there with you.  (Forgive me if Westerns are a favorite genre).  What gave me pause were the words of high praise from Tim O'Brien on the back cover of the book. And,  at the time the book cover caught my eye, I was looking for something out of my comfort zone.  I was intrigued with the idea of reading a masculine book, a book about men and the relationship between fathers and sons.
     Set at the turn of the century, this is a harsh story that matches the hardscrabble landscape of a Texas farm owned by an embittered, and, at times, cruel farmer, Vaclev Skala, who drives his sons hard, to the point of harnessing them to the yoke to plow his fields.  Valclev is land hungry and, at heart, a gambler and he therefore accepts a challenge from a wealthy Mexican landowner, Guillermo Villasenor, also avaricious for more land.  Villasenor offers his three daughters in marriage to three of Vaclev's sons, should his horse win, thus laying claim to Valclev's landholdings or ceding over his own considerable land holdings should he be the loser.
     The outcome of this race, ridden by Vaclev's youngest son, Karel, causes a powerful rift between him and his three brothers, from whom he is already alienated and which endures for years until a near tragedy creates the circumstances for forgiveness and a chance to overcome the past.
     The language is perfectly matched to the landscape and the characters are complex and sympathetic. Though completely out of my reading bailiwick, I loved this book.  I was completely transported to another time and place and my heart ached for these men and the circumstances of their lives.  In the words of Tim O'Brien, "The prose is polished and evocative, the physicality of rural Texas in the year 1910 shimmers with loving exactitude, and the story of Karel Skala is a gripping American drama of misplaced guilt, familial struggle, and a search for identity.  What a fine, rich, absorbing book."

When The Killing's Done by T.C. Boyle

      Serendipitously perfect for summer, the locale of T. C. Boyle's newest book is the Channel Islands off the coast of California--a very real place that has been the site of countless assaults over time on the islands' unique animal and plant populations. Ranching, farming, rogue species hitching rides on seafaring ships, which landed on the islands, all wreaked havoc on  the ecology of these isolated bits of land. In 1980, the islands became a national park. These are the facts.
     Boyle's contemporary novel pits Dave LaJoy, a fiery and fanatical animal rights champion against the cool minded academic, Alma Takesue, PhD, a National Park Service spokesperson and protector of the islands' indigenous species. Her agenda includes killing the invasive species, including rats and feral pigs, which are threatening the ecosystem. And, this is where the fun begins.
      Those who have read T. C. Boyle's other books will now be ready to fasten their seat belts and prepare for a wild ride replete with over the top plotlines and an escalating sense of suspense. It's a ripping good story, very beautifully written, and a provocative examination of how we come to value, set priorities and rationalize our regard for other living things. Boyle has woven together a story with a complex history and portrayed two warring characters, who ironically might both have been on the same side but neither of whom fully understands or examines the dimensions of their opposing positions. This is a very timely issue treated by a consummate storyteller.
     No spoilers, but the crowning and most outsized scheme of LaJoy culminates on the very last page of this book and was immensely satisfying to this reader! This is not a perfect book and some will find it too long but I heartily recommend that you give it a try. Another title by Boyle which is shorter and a real page turner is his Tortilla Curtain, which juxtaposes and then brings into direct and explosive contact, the lives of a sushi eating LA couple living in a gated community with a family of illegal Mexican immigrants. You will not be able to put this book down!

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Gretchen Chamberlin