Book Reviews From the Vault: The Summons

The Summons is the very first John Grisham book that I have ever read. Despite its flaws, I actually quite liked it and look forward to reading more of his books.

In the past, I have only heard of John Grisham – an author known for his legal thrillers, but never read any of his books. This all changed when a little book called The Summons came my way. It was published back in 2002, but that did not deter me at all. Since Grisham is one of the most popular authors ever, it only made sense to get to know him as a reader by starting off with The Summons, and it made for a good, not great, introduction to his work.

The Summons is about a lawyer named Ray Atlee, who (along with his drug-addict brother Forrest) receives a summon from his father Judge Atlee to return to his childhood home in Clanton, Mississippi to discuss the will. Upon arrival, Ray discovers that not only the judge is dead, but also over $3 million in cash that was not previously accounted for. While Ray tries to figure out where his dad got the money from, another person knows about the cash and makes veiled threats against Ray because of it.

The book definitely grabbed my attention in the beginning with the main characters’ back stories and the moment that Ray discovers the money. However, my interest varied throughout the novel. For example, Ray spends a good portion of the first half gambling the found cash to see if his father managed to get them that way. This would have made sense if he did this for a chapter or two, but no, this gambling goes on for multiple chapters. Luckily, I became intrigued again when Ray starts receiving the photographs indicating that someone else knows about the money too. But it waned again when Ray was meeting with minor characters to talk about where the money really came from. I realized that whenever something happened, it held my interest, yet when there was a lot of talking, it did not hold it as much. And that depended on what they were talking about. I get that there is a lot of legal speak, which I am not fluent in, but whenever the subject turned to the money, I was all ears.

Speaking of the money, readers and reviewers alike have noticed that everything revolved around it in this novel. Characters – major and minor – can’t stop talking about it, but then again, when someone finds a lot of money, it will weigh heavily on their minds for days, weeks, and even months on end. As a result, I didn’t mind that Grisham made the it the most interesting character in the novel with perfectly good stakes around it.

And yes, there is a twist at the end that definitely threw me for a loop. I will not spoil it, but I will say this: the twist makes the story a cautionary tale about how people use money. Too bad the story had to end abruptly after that.

Overall, The Summons is a good, not fantastic, introduction to John Grisham. It contains characters that people can be intrigued by and a really interesting turn at the end. Also, no one can go wrong with finding tons of cash. At the same time, I can’t help but notice the parts that dragged on and how it ended suddenly. I would recommend it to people who are either John Grisham lovers or want to get into his work. Either way, people will like it for the most part.

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The Paris Architect Book Review

Every now and then, there is a book whose premise is so interesting that I feel the need to read it right there. Sometimes, it is worth it, and other times, it is not. The former was the case for The Paris Architect by Charles Belfoure. 

The Paris Architect involves Lucien Bernard, a gentile architect in Nazi-occupied Paris who is given a commission by a wealthy industrialist to design secret hiding spaces for Jewish people. As someone who is initially not empathetic to their plight, he accepts it to get some money and for the challenge. However, when one of the hideouts goes terribly awry, and when the hidings become personal, Lucian can no longer deny the reality of the situation.

One can easily see how intriguing the plot is. It got me emotionally invested, especially during the episodes when the Jewish people used the spaces that Lucien built. I wanted the Gestapo not to find them just so they could be safe. In addition, the novel brings up the moral ambiguities present during wartime. It depicts most French people as mainly apathetic to the Jewish situation. However, this was not because they were anti-Semitic (even though there was prior). This was mainly because they wanted to survive, and if they were caught hiding Jews, they would have been executed by the Gestapo in one way or another.

The main characters (with the exception of Schlegal who is essentially a cartoon villain) are well developed. All of them have reasons for why they do what they do during the Occupation. During the course of the novel, Lucien takes in a 12-year-old Jewish boy named Pierre. Pierre’s family was taken away from him and feels grateful for the architect being a fatherly figure. Since he feels that Lucien went so much out of his way to protect him, Pierre decides that he should do the same when he finds out that someone has been spying on the architect.

Additionally, one could easily tell how much investment the author put into it. Belfoure is an actual architect. This explains how he goes into much detail about the buildings, rooms, and the hideouts. Even though I am not into architecture, it was still fun to learn. Speaking of detail, Belfoure put a lot of historical ones into the story despite some mistakes like using the word dumbass, which was not identified as a word until the late 1950s – nearly two decades after this book’s events. To be fair, this is not as egregious as One Thousand White Women by Jim Fergus. That took place in 1875, but it used words like abort and phrases like coyote ugly.

Despite my praise, I will admit that I did not connect with the story as much as I wanted. This was mostly because of Lucien being a terrible person. He is willing to commit infidelity for a commission and even has a mistress at the beginning of the book. He even assumes at one point that a woman that he is seeing has a lover after she doesn’t immediately come to the door. I somehow could not get past that, which prevented me from being emotionally invested in his transformation. 

Once again, I listened to the audiobook, which was narrated by Mark Bramhall. This is not the first time that Bramhall has voiced a book that I have read. He was Reverend Drew in Secrets of Eden, and he was fantastic as he emoted about doubting his faith and being a possible suspect in the case. In The Paris Architect, he delivers a variety of convincing emotions as Lucien, especially when one of the hideouts goes wrong. Bramhall also puts on French and German accents. He does a good job with making the French dialect believable, but his interpretation of the German one was iffy as it sounded pretty French at times. In addition, I could barely tell the difference when he voiced the female characters. I imagine how hard audiobook narration is, especially when one has to voice several characters and perform a variety of accents. 

All in all, The Paris Architect by Charles Belfoure is a pretty good read. The premise is interesting enough to get people hooked, yet readers might be turned off by how terrible and indifferent Lucien is at the beginning. I would definitely recommend this novel to anyone interested in World War II-based historical fiction and in architecture. In one way or another, it will keep readers on their toes.

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Book Reviews From the Vault: Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine

Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman is part of a series of curmudgeons that have invaded popular books within the last 15 years. Even though its blue print is from A Man Called Ove, Eleanor Oliphant and the book that she is in stand out in more ways than one.

What do you get when you make the title character from A Man Called Ove a 30-year-old woman living and working in Glasgow? You get Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine – the debut novel by Gail Honeyman. These curmudgeons have a lot in common, and readers will remember both for a very long time, but Eleanor Oliphant stands on her own as a character while she learns that life should be better than fine.

The Nicholas Sparks-penned description that I used in my A Man Called Ove review (specifically the “how healing can occur with the unlikeliest of people, in the unlikeliest of ways”) is definitely applicable to Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine. Our young female Ove struggles with social skills, avoids social interactions with almost everybody, and says exactly what she is thinking. Outside of work, her life consists of making pasta during the week, reading books, watching TV, “phone chats” with Mummy, and consuming frozen pizza and vodka during the weekend. All that changes when she and her unhygienic IT co-worker Raymond witness an elderly man named Sammy collapse on the sidewalk. The three become friends that rescue each other from their isolated lives, and it is Raymond’s big heart that helps Eleanor to slowly repair her own damaged one.

I will not lie. When I had first read the description to Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine, I knew that I had to read it immediately, and I am glad that I did. Honeyman flavors with the story with lots of humor, especially when Eleanor learns to laugh at herself, but I was not expecting the dark elements. Luckily, both are fairly balanced. At the same time, A Man Called Ove also has a great balance of humor and sadness.

Speaking of A Man Called Ove, I am pretty convinced that Honeyman used that novel as a blueprint for Eleanor Oliphant. Both title characters can come off as judgmental, contemplate suicide, are given cats, express stubbornness in everyday situations, and have personal demons due to past events. In addition, both find healing with people that they initially did not like. Ove originally did not like Parvenah and her family because they nearly ran over his mailbox; Eleanor initially dismissed Raymond due to his unkempt appearance.

However, they differ in a number of ways. Where the humor comes from in both stories is different. In A Man Called Ove, the humor mainly comes from the fact that his neighbors need his help every time he tries to kill himself. In Eleanor Oliphant, the humor comes from the situations, in which she tries to figure out what to do from getting the right clothes for a concert to getting her bikini area waxed. With Ove, readers will probably laugh since he is forced out of one state of misery into another state of misery. With Eleanor, readers will probably feel sorry for her, yet they are encouraged to laugh at her as well due to her ignorance. Moreover, while Ove’s personal demons were developed by his experiences with being taken advantaged by various people and the loss of his wife, Eleanor’s personal demons were developed by her abusive mother, her experience with the foster system, and having survivor’s guilt. But the main difference is how they heal. Neighbors constantly need Ove’s help, and begrudgingly, he helps. This eventually allows him to open up about the loss of his wife and let him die in peace. As for Eleanor, Raymond and Sammy invite her to parties, and later on, Raymond convinces her to go see a therapist and gives her a cat to show her that she has a purpose in life outside of vodka and “phone chats” with Mummy.

What truly works in both stories is that their healings are not snap-out mentalities. Both characters are still themselves, yet they are willing to open up to others. This is especially true with Eleanor, who by the end of the novel is more empathetic and willing to mend the past, yet she acknowledges that it is a long road to recovery. With Raymond helping her out, readers might assume that they might fall in love, but that never happens. Thank god! Eleanor constantly asserts that she is fine with nobody else in her life (even though there is a subplot involving her trying to meet her crush – a musician – to help fight off her mother). Having her and Raymond hook up would have reaffirmed the notion that romance always rescues people from self-destruction, which is not always true. With the tools that Raymond, the therapist, and Sammy’s relatives provide, Eleanor learns to save herself by opening herself up more.

Listening to the audiobook also makes Eleanor’s story all the more entertaining. Kathleen McCarron narrates the audiobook with finesse. McCarron voices Eleanor perfectly, whether she is trying to be formal, assertive, scared, or depressed with an accent that blends both English and Scottish dialects. She gives Raymond a thicker Scottish accent with a bumbling and laid-back attitude – a complete complementary opposite of Eleanor’s. McCarron voices other characters with great distinctions, but it is with Eleanor and Raymond that stood out the most.

Overall, even though Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine uses A Man Called Ove’s design, the title character of the former stands on her own because of how wonderfully developed she is. Readers will laugh, cry, and desire to put her mother in her place alongside Eleanor as she opens herself up to other people that truly care about her. I recommend this book to everybody, especially to people who loved A Man Called Ove.

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The Child Book Review

One of the things that I didn’t realize when I was working on my review of The Widow by Fiona Barton was that it was the first in the Kate Waters trilogy. Since I liked Kate very much, it made me want to read the next book in the series, which has the most generic title in recent book history – The Child. Despite its bland and somewhat misleading title, I enjoyed this one more than The Widow because of its greater emphasis on Kate Waters and how gripping it was.

In The Child, a paragraph in a newspaper article reveals that the bones of a baby were found in the grounds of a house being demolished. Sensing an interesting story, Kate Waters gets on the case to find out who it was. As she digs deeper, she finds out that a baby was stolen from a maternity ward at a local hospital decades ago. There is more to the story, as she discovers the pasts of the people who lived in the area where the baby was found. She then finds herself as the keeper of unexpected secrets that disrupt the lives of three women – Emma, a book editor who was pregnant at age 15; Jude, her mom; and Angela, the mother of the missing child.

The reason that I didn’t recognize that The Widow was the first in the trilogy was that Kate Waters felt like an overemphasized side character. Since it is her series, it makes sense to put her front and center, and The Child does that effectively. Kate Waters is a wonderful protagonist as she is active in what she wants while displaying empathy for her interviewees. In fact, I felt that Kate is more humanized in this one than in the last. I’m not saying that she was a one-dimensional character; I’m only saying that she is given more situations to display her compassionate side in this one. For example, when Emma reveals her secret to Kate, she sits and listens. Afterwards, Kate drives Emma home knowing what a night she has had. 

While the book mostly focuses on Kate, I found the new characters – Emma, Jude, and Angela – to be just as compelling. At age 15, Emma gave birth to a baby and later buried it in her backyard. She spends a good chunk of the novel feeling guilty for what she had done and thinking if that was revealed, she would go to jail. Jude – her mother – is a woman, who wants to do things her way, including having a child so she could keep her man. When that does not work out, she starts dating Will – a professor that she knew when they were students at the same university. Jude loves Will so much that she is willing to kick Emma out of the house to retain him. Angela never forgot her missing baby even when she had other children. Her feelings for the lost child are so strong that it even affects the family dynamic. All of these characters are fleshed out, thus making their stories far more fascinating.

Much like The Widow, The Child follows a similar structure. For starters, both plots involve a child who has disappeared. In fact, my initial thought was that the latter was a continuation of the former since that one ends with a buried child. However, both are fairly standalone pieces. Second, one male main character in both novels is a horrible person, and they are both voiced by Steve West (I will get to that soon). Granted, they are terrible in different ways, but awful, nonetheless. And, they are given one chapter to explain their side. Third, both stories contain the multiple-narrator structure for different reasons. In The Widow, it becomes very clear that Jean Taylor is not reliable, hence the perspectives from characters like Kate and Detective Bob Sparkes. On the other hand, in The Child, that structure is used to create a bigger picture of the events that led to the baby being buried, and how it affected the main characters. Finally, both have endings that many readers (including me) predicted early on. However, the difference with that one is that even though I figured out who the child was a third of the way in, The Child contains some red herrings, which made me doubt my initial conviction at times. It is a nice improvement over The Widow.

As alluded to earlier, I listened to the audiobook, which was compelling and contained fairly good performances from its narrators. Mandy Williams, who voiced Kate in The Widow, is back, and she performs with determination and empathy. She has a tendency to read very slowly, which annoyed some listeners, but I didn’t have much of a problem. Steve West is also back, but this time, he voices Will – Jude’s on-again off-again boyfriend. His performance is just as eerie as when he narrated as Glen Taylor, but as Will, he delivers his lines with such suave that I see how the character was seen as a charmer. Now, let’s move on to the newcomers! Rosalyn Landor – English actress and audiobook narrator, who has made guest appearances in shows like Star Trek: The Next Generation and Matlock, plays Emma. At first, I thought Landor was miscast because she sounds older than Emma (even older than Jude), who is supposed to be 42, but then I realized that Cate Blanchett has a deep voice too. After imagining Emma as Blanchett, Landor’s performance made all the more sense, especially during the scenes, in which she tells her secret to Kate. Jean Gilpin – an actress who is known for voicing characters from video games like James Bond 007: Nightfire, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, and Halo 5: Guardians – takes on the role of Jude. She does a good job in voicing an older character, who is self-entitled and wants things done her way. Actress and audiobook narrator Katherine McEwan voices Angela. She too does a credible job on taking on what Angela has felt ever since her child disappeared. However, I could not imagine Angela as a 60-year-old woman because I felt that McEwan sounded too young for the role. 

While The Child by Fiona Barton is similar in style to its predecessor, it is a slight improvement. Having Kate as the protagonist creates a drive in the story, which mainly existed in flashbacks in The Widow. It also helps that the new characters are fleshed out and interesting in their own ways. I would recommend this one to anybody who has read The Widow and likes stories about missing people. While it may not have the exciting twists and turns like The Girl on the Train or Gone Girl, The Child is a very good follow up.

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Book Reviews From the Vault: Caterham Sevens, The Official Story of a Unique British Sportscar From Conception to CSR

Reading Caterham Sevens, The Official Story of a Unique British Sportscar From Conception to CSR by Chris Rees was one of the first challenges I encountered while reviewing books. I rarely read books about cars, but I can definitely see its appeal to car fanatics.

Full disclosure: I was challenged by Car-Revs-Daily.com to review this book.

Ever since I started this page, people have encouraged me to read novels that I would not normally read in my spare time. So, when I was approached by Car-Revs-Daily.com to review a book from their Metro Detroit archives, I was eager to accept the challenge head on. Caterham Sevens, The Official Story of a Unique British Sportscar From Conception to CSR by Chris Rees is so out of the ordinary for me, that I needed to read it in order to maintain my status as a person who reads everything. The book itself details the history of the Caterham Seven – a British car that people can drive both leisurely as well as on the race track. Even though the book possesses clear appeal to car fanatics, I am not sure that it attracts all readers.

A common description of this book as seen on many book seller websites is that it is the standard book on the history of Caterham, and it is not hard to see why. Rees discusses the history of the Caterham Seven from its inception as the Lotus Seven by owner and engineer Colin Chapman in 1957 to when former Lotus dealer Graham Nearn of Caterham Cars bought its manufacturing rights in 1973 up to when Caterham Cars got sold to the Corven Ventures in 2005. Along with this history, Rees covers how to buy and restore a Seven as well as the popularity of the Seven in international markets like France and Japan. In addition, Rees talks about the various Caterham Seven models, but reviewers have noted that his other book The Magnificent 7: The enthusiasts’ guide to all models of Lotus and Caterham Seven goes into more detail about those models. He also provides both black and white as well as color pictures all across the book even though their descriptions can be a bit too wordy at times. I can definitely see the research and care that Rees put into this in order to make the history feel complete.

However, since I would not describe myself as a car enthusiast, I could not connect to it as much as I had hoped. This is because Rees uses a more car-oriented language for his readers. For example, here is an excerpt about a Supersport engine package (as imagined with a Jeremy Clarkson voice):

“As a £998 aftermarket option, there was once again a Supersport engine package, developed by Rover especially for Caterham. The Supersport’s revised engine management control and uprated camshafts provided high-revving extra power – now rated at 138bhp at 7,000 rpm (10bhp more than the 1.4 Supersport). The 138bhp output was in race spec without catalyst; the road-going figure with catalyst was 133bhp.  As with the 1.4 Supersport, there was a gearchange warning light that came on at 7,400rpm, 200 rpm below the rev-limiter” (104).

At this point, I am sure that someone reading this will say that well bhp is brake horse power, rpm is revolutions per minute, and explain what camshafts are, but the point is, I could not have figured those out on my own. 

Despite his car language, Rees fortunately tries to connect to wider audiences with effective results. A good example of this would be the Lotus Seven S2’s appearance in the cult 1960s British Television series The Prisoner starting Patrick McGoohan. It was the car that McGoohan’s character drove, specifically in the opening credit sequence. Rees hammers in the point of its pop culture significance, especially when he gives a few pages to when Caterham launched a limited-edition Seven called the Prisoner in 1989. And yes, McGoohan endorsed it. Although I have never heard of that show, I could understand the car’s widespread popularity because of it. This was easily the best part of the book.

Overall, I can see why car aficionados – both general and of Caterham Sevens – would enjoy Caterham Sevens, The Official Story of a Unique British Sportscar From Conception to CSR. It provides a breadth history of this particular automobile while also covering its various iterations and international popularity. On the other hand, it can alienate readers who are not well-versed in car lingo. If anything, I would recommend it to car lovers who are interested in learning more about the Caterham Seven and its uniqueness as a British sportscar or to an owner looking to learn more in-depth facts about their Caterham Seven.

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To see it on the Car-Revs-Daily website and more, go to this link: https://www.car-revs-daily.com/2019/04/14/caterham-sevens-the-official-story-of-a-unique-british-sportscar-from-conception-to-csr-book-review/

Divan of Shah Book Review

Full disclosure: I was given a free PDF copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Since April is National Poetry Month, I wanted to try my hand reading and reviewing poetry. I oversee the poetry collection at the one of the libraries I work at, so it makes sense to get to know that specific genre even more. Luckily, Divan of Shah by Shah Asah Rizvi – a collection of 106 poems that mainly tackle the topics of love and dance – is a good gateway into this category.

I don’t know a whole lot in what makes good poetry from a technical standpoint (like the rhythm), so a lot of this review is going to focus on its format, how comprehensible it is, and how much it held my interest. The collection consists not only of poems, but also of quotes. The quotes are usually inspirational and relate to the poems in one way or another. I say that because some are pretty obvious like how the quote “Life has meaning until the weight of moments is carried by the protection, encouragement, nurturing, presence and love of a mother” leads into an ode about mothers, yet some are a little more tricky to connect like “Dance to inspire, dance to freedom, life is about experiences so, dance and let yourself become free” to a poem about wondering where someone has gone. It is up to the reader to make those correlations.

In addition, it would have been nice for the poems to have sections that indicated the theme because it seems to jump all over the place. While this does make the collection more interesting because one wouldn’t know what the poem will discuss, organizing them by topic would have been better structure wise.

A lot of the language that Asah Rizvi uses is simple and non-rhyming. These poems are like pop songs in their lyrical simplicity, but with the tone of a sonnet. In other words, they are easy to understand, but they are also elegant. This kind of language makes it clear of what emotion or topic each of the poems convey without being excruciatingly obvious. Additionally, the non-rhyming aspect allows the author to say what he wants more outright. I bet he did it those ways, so people, including those who don’t usually read poetry like me, could appreciate the effort that he put into the work. And, it shows.

As I mentioned earlier, these poems were about love and dance, and at first, they seem to be about different aspects of the former like longing and sensations as well as about the feelings related to the latter. Some of my favorites were “Foreplay”, “Mother”, “Let Us Dance”, and “Disappear”. However, as I read on, I noticed that a lot of the poems became more about the same aspects but said differently. This lessened my interest, but not by much. I really like the illustrations that accompany each of the poems like “Limitless Love” has the infinity symbol and the “Venom Passion” has a burning heart icon.

All in all, Divan of Shah by Shah Asad Rizvi is a very accessible poetry collection that centers on the topics of love and dance. He definitely has the passion, which undoubtedly fuels his drive to write poems. Even though I had some minor complaints about it, I would definitely recommend it to anyone who is looking to get into poetry as well as to those who have loved the genre for a long time. I look forward to how he expands his horizons, and ventures into other topics.

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Book Reviews From the Vault: The Flight Attendant

A television series based on The Flight Attendant by Chris Bohjalian is in the process of being filmed, and it will air on HBO Max. However, the production has been halted because of COVID-19. Have no fear, I have a review of the novel here, and despite some flaws, it is worth the adaptation.

I have never read anything by Chris Bohjalian up until this point. Apparently, he has authored twenty books including Midwives, The Sandcastle Girls, and Secrets of Eden. Even the ladies from the book club that I facilitate enjoy his work (I swear one of them has a crush on him). As a result, I decided that I needed to get to know this author, and I am doing so with his latest novel, The Flight Attendant.

The Flight Attendant circles around an air hostess named Cassandra (Cassie) Bowden. Cassie is a 38-year-old self-loathing binge drinker. One day, she wakes up in a Dubai hotel room that is not hers and with a man named Alex Sokolov whom she had spent the night with. It turns out that he is dead. I wish it was an April Fool’s Day prank, but alas, it is not. She tries to piece together what happened the night before, but instead of calling the police, she returns to her flight attendant duties and lies about what happened. She lies to pretty much everybody like the other flight attendants, the men whom she would have one-night stands with, and the FBI agents. Eventually, it becomes too late for her to face what actually happened.

Bohjalian wastes no time getting into the story as it literally begins with Cassie waking up and discovering Alex’s dead body right next to her. I will not lie; that immediately grabbed my attention. However, soon after, the novel becomes more slow-paced as not much happens elsewhere until the second half. I did not have much of a problem with this as the book itself focuses more on its protagonist, specifically how she attempts to clear her name.

As a result, the big selling point of this book is its main character, Cassie. Bohjalian develops her with so much backstory and insight that readers will quickly empathize with her. This is especially true when it is revealed that Cassie’s father was an alcoholic and that he had caused a lot of heartache and burden in her family. She vowed not to drink until she had some alcohol at age 23. Right then, she realized how it could smooth out her rough edges and even make her look prettier. She struggles with her self-esteem and who exactly she wants to be. At the same time, Cassie is so flawed that readers will also be testing their patience with how much sympathy they can express towards her, especially as she continues to lie and dig herself into a deeper hole. I can see why Kaley Cuoco from The Big Bang Theory wanted to adapt this book into a limited series and star in it: https://www.bleedingcool.com/2017/10/28/big-bang-kaley-cuoco-flight-attendant/

If there is one complaint that I had with this novel, it would be the ending. I will not spoil it. All I will say are two things: 1. Even though part of it effectively surprised me, parts of it left me confused to the point that I had to ponder the logistics and if that was even discussed earlier. 2. I also think that it was rushed and contrived to a certain degree. I have a feeling that this is the reason why Bohjalian fans say that this book is not one of his best, but still good regardless.

I listened to the audiobook, which contains three narrators: Erin Spencer, Grace Experience, and Mark Deakins. Spencer is an actress known from shows like Prison Break, True Detective, and the Broadway tour of Chicago; she voices Cassie. She does a great job of handling Cassie’s character, whether she is professional, self-loathing, or downright scared, as well as other characters like Cassie’s teetotaler sister Rosemary and Cassie’s lawyer Ani. Experience is an audiobook narrator, who has previously recorded many of Bohjalian’s novels because she is his daughter! Nevertheless, in this book, she effectively voices the missing woman, who was in the same room as Cassie and Alex the night that he died, with competence and doubt at the same time. Deakins – known for his appearances on Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Star Trek: Voyager – reads the FBI transcripts with a nice mixture of neutrality and formality without spoiling anything.

The Flight Attendant is an interesting read, yet it may not be for everybody. Some readers might get bored with its slowness, and others might bark at its ending.  But, if readers are interested in deeply flawed characters and how they deal with literally life or death situations, they will be pleased. Although it may not in my top 10, it is certainly a book that I will not forget.

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Tesla: Inventor of the Modern Book Review

It has occurred to me that I have never reviewed a biography on this website. I am going to remedy this with analyzing Tesla: Inventor of the Modern by Richard Munson – a great level-headed biography of the inventor Nikola Tesla.

What makes a great biography? I will tell you. Since a biography is a detailed description of one’s life not written by that person, it requires the author to look at a variety of sources to piece together a complete (or almost complete) and unbiased image of the person in focus. Munson does just that with his subject Nikola Tesla.

Munson provides a whole load of sources like newspapers; Tesla’s diary entries; and correspondence with friends, family, and various businessmen. He likes those resources so much that he would even quote the more mundane aspects of Tesla’s life like dinner parties at his friends Robert and Catherine Johnson’s home in the book. While others might see this as unnecessary, I don’t mind it a whole lot because it shows that the Serbian inventor was more charming than what we are usually led to believe and had more friends than just his pigeons. In addition, Munson cites his sources! Normally, I would not make a big deal out of this, but after reading The Biggest Lie in the History of Christianity by Matthew Kelly, I have a newfound appreciation for citing sources, especially if one wants to know how credible the author is.

In addition, Munson keeps his head leveled as he writes about Tesla and the people that he interacted with. With the main subject, Munson proclaims that Tesla was a man ahead of his time, for he was born at midnight in the midst of a thunderstorm. At the same time, he acknowledges that Tesla could be quite stubborn and was not business savvy. For instance, Tesla turned down lucrative offers from various companies in order to focus on inventing stuff that he wanted to create. Unfortunately, this eventually led to him becoming almost penniless even though he still lived in a luxurious manner. He was so desperate that he wrote letters to people like J.P. Morgan, asking for money for his projects, but they turned him down. 

The best example of Munson’s neutrality towards his characters was when he addressed the bitter rivalry between Tesla and Thomas Edison. Because of the War of the Currents, people have always seen these two inventors as polar opposites. Munson acknowledges this as he points out that Edison worked best in teams, was an entrepreneur, invented various items mainly to make money (even if it meant taking other people’s patents and calling it his own), and “could be downright crass” (p. 50-53). 

However, the author asserts similarities between the two inventors. These include thriving on work, only needing a little rest, attracting skeptics, battling legal challenges with competitors, and “their capacity for showmanship and boastfulness” (p.51-52). 

Consider that when thinking about the War of the Currents.

Overall, Tesla: Inventor of the Modern by Richard Munson is a fabulous biography of Nikola Tesla. Although the research can be a bit mundane and dry at times, it is extensive and varied. It is definitely clear that Munson admires Tesla, but he is also very much aware of the Serbian inventor’s faults, thus making the biography a great level-headed one. Recommending this to people interested in the inventor ‘s life goes without saying, but I would also suggest it to anyone who likes science and inventors in general to read it. One will definitely learn a lot about a man who was indeed ahead of his time.

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Book Reviews From the Vault: The Vampire of Maple Town

Fairy tales are some of the most timeless stories that we hear in our lifetimes. This explains why various media still revamp them into modern adaptations. The Vampire of Maple Town by Kane McLoughlin continues this tribute, but does it stand out? Let’s find out!

Full disclosure: The author of the book that I am about to review is someone that I knew from college. All of the opinions stated in this review are solely mine.

One of the first set of stories that readers are exposed to are fairy tales. These stories are usually set in faraway lands, are full of magic, and offer ways to survive in order to obtain that happily ever after. Various media still pay homage to these timeless tales through their modern adaptations. The Vampire of Maple Town by Kane McLoughlin continues this ever-lengthy tribute to these yarns, but it stands out by combining elements of both western and Japanese fairy tales and containing in-depth characters.

The Vampire of Maple Town tells the story of a 15-year vampire named Charlie. He is raised by the doctor and vampire widower, Vincent Prowl. After Charlie becomes a vampire, he is forced to sign a contact, stating that he has killed someone in their provincial home of Maple Town. Vincent keeps Charlie inside his mansion on Chiaroscuro Lane all day, yet when Charlie escapes one day, Vincent realizes that he will do anything to save him, even if that means destroying the entire town. McLoughlin has stated that this book is the first in a trilogy.

One thing that readers will notice while reading this book is that it gives nods to a lot of fairy tales. One can easily find elements of Little Red Riding Hood, Cinderella, Beauty and the Beast, and most notably, Alice in Wonderland (I realize that that is technically not a fairytale, but for the sake of this story, it is). I cannot tell how many times that I found elements of that tale in it like the Mad Hatter Festival and stay with me, one of the main characters is named Alice! In addition, McLoughlin makes allusions to Japanese folk tales since he himself is half Japanese. These include Momotaro, or the Story of the Son of a Peach (the protagonists of both stories are 15-year old boys), The Goblin of Adachigahara (the protagonists are forbidden to go somewhere, but do so and experience consequences), The Mirror of Matsuyama (magical mirrors that reflect the past are involved in both stories), and The Story of the Man Who Did Not Wish to Die (both stories contain characters trying to avoid death and paper cranes that come to life) (Ozaki, 2019). I am sure that they are more tributes, but these are the ones that came up while I was doing my research. Both incorporations add more varied flavors to the story.

Another strong point of this novel is that the characters are well-developed. When reading, I knew exactly the motivations of the characters even if their actions can be reprehensible. For example, Vincent can come off as strict and violent at times (he even aggressively grabs Charlie’s neck at one point). On the other hand, he keeps Charlie in the mansion to protect him from the hate that the townspeople will express once they find out that the boy is a vampire. This allows the story to have more depth than the average fairytale.

The only thing that I would complain about is that I found the ending to be predictable. I will not spoil it, but it falls under the Cinema Sins quote, “’Character says he’s not going to do something before immediately doing that thing’ cliché” (2018).

Overall, The Vampire of Maple Town is a good debut. I would recommend this book to people who like vampires and in-depth characters as well as to the fairytale lovers. Readers will definitely get a kick out of the fairytale references and find themselves understanding characters even if they do not agree with their actions. I personally look forward to seeing what happens with Charlie in the subsequent novels.

References

CinemaSins. (2018, September 25). Everything Wrong With Shrek The Third In 16

Minutes Or Less [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ONNEvjH6iA

Ozaki, Yei Theodora. (2019). Retrieved from

https://etc.usf.edu/lit2go/72/japanese-fairy-tales/

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The Great Alone Book Review

I rarely watch soap operas on a voluntary basis because they rely on over-the-top dramatics, dialogue, and acting, and there is only so much that I can take. This excessiveness can also be seen in books like the Twilight series. However, since novels allow extensive insight into the characters’ mindsets as they deal with the chaos thrown at them, they permit more depth than the average soap opera. Having soap-opera related devices in books is not bad as long as one uses them to serve the story well. An effective example of this is The Great Alone by Kristen Hannah.

The Great Alone focuses on the Albright family, particularly on the daughter Leni. In 1974, after the dad and former Vietnam Prisoner of War Ernt loses another job, he impulsively decides that the family should move up to Cognac, Alaska to live off the fat of the land in the nation’s last frontier. Leni hopes that the move will be the final one as she strides for a place to belong. At first, things are great as the sun is up until midnight, and the community full of colorful characters provides them with the resources needed to survive the oncoming winter. However, as winter and darkness approach, Ernt’s mental state deteriorates with frequent nightmares, and it tears the family apart. The danger outside of the cabin is nothing compared to one growing inside as Leni and her mother Cora realize that they are on their own, and they can only save themselves.

What makes the soap opera elements work in the novel is that danger is already present in 1970s Alaska. Hannah acknowledges the beauty and peril of Alaska constantly through rich and detailed descriptions as well as through the mouths of the locals. Anything can happen, like Geneva Walker – an Alaskan all her life – falling through thin ice and drowning. This deeply impacts Matthew – Geneva’s son – so much that he moves to Anchorage to live with his aunt. Up until that point, Matthew and Leni were becoming friends, and afterwards, they maintained their relationship through letters. This eventually led to them becoming lovers, a source of comfort for Leni.

Hannah also reminds readers of the events that occurred in the 1970s like plane hijackings, political unrest, and kidnapping of girls Leni’s age. Ernt continually reminds Leni that there is danger everywhere one looks because of those events. At first, this makes Leni be extra careful. However, she later realizes that the real peril is inside her home.

This leads into the book’s main topic: domestic abuse. Throughout the novel, Ernt becomes more dominant and threatening as winter prevails. He even tries to build a wall around the cabin to keep those who disagree with him out. Readers find out that Ernt suffered from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) at a time when it was not called that, yet this only occurs at the end of the novel. In fact, readers never find out what goes on in the nightmares that Ernt suffers from. This could have been better handled if readers knew, so this could show what kind of trauma he suffered during the war. This is not much of a problem since the 1970s were a time when nobody really knew what to do with PTSD-inflicted soldiers, so it makes sense that his family and friends would not understand what he went through. Even though people will not agree with Ernt’s actions, they can at least see somewhat where he is coming from. 

In the meantime, Cora – Leni’s mother – claims that she loves him so much that she will never leave him, yet the truth is that she does not have a strong sense of self because she got pregnant and married at 16. The book also asserts that the law did not do much for battered women in the 1970s even if they fought back. In addition, Cora is afraid to leave Ernt because he may find and possibly kill her. This all hugely impacts Leni as she has to be the caretaker and deals with her parents’ toxic relationship. As a result, this allows readers to root for her as she tries to get away from all of that to live her own life with Matthew.

Julia Whelan narrates the audiobook. She has recorded the audiobook for Gone Girl and for novels written by Nora Roberts, and she has won awards for her narration of Educated. For a voiceover artist who has gotten accolades, her performance in this one was ok. She voices the female characters with enough differences among them. My personal favorite is Large Marge as Whelan performs her with a lot of sass and no nonsense. My problem was with her vocal performances of the male characters. A lot of them have a gruffness to their voices. This can work with characters like Ernt, but it doesn’t quite work with ones like Matthew, who can be sweet and adventurous as he deals with his own demons. I had a similar problem with the narration of Midnight at the Bright Idea Bookstore. Voicing different characters, especially of the opposite gender of the narrator, can be tough, but for someone who had received a lot of awards for her work, I expected more from Whelan.

The Great Alone by Kristen Hannah is a well-written book that takes readers on one heck of a rollercoaster ride. It incorporates soap opera elements efficiently as it permits characters’ complicated reactions to various overly dramatic events. However, this book is not for the faint-hearted. One must be prepared to take breaks while reading it and be patient, for it is absolutely worth it in the end.

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