Carry the One

Carry the One (2012) by Carol Anshaw. This book tells the story of a group of friends and how their lives are impacted by the fact that the car they are driving in runs over and kills a girl one day. There are five people in the car, and we follow each of them in alternating chapters as, down through the years, they interact with each other and with others. I found the book mildly interesting, but by no means compelling. It was a pretty good read, but I never quite felt fully invested in the characters' lives. Grade: B

You're Not Doing It Right

You're Not Doing It Right (2012) by Michael Ian Black. Black offers a collection of "humorous" essays on his life and things that are on his mind. Only problem is, most of the essays are neither very funny nor very original. I have to give him props though for admitting that in high school he ran away from a fight with a bully until he eventually was cornered and lost. Black has a successful career as a celebrity/actor/writer, so I don't think my criticism will hurt him much, I was just slightly disappointed in this book. Grade: B-

Nights of Rain and Stars

Nights of Rain and Stars (2004) by Maeve Binchy. Four westerners -- an American man, and Irish lass, an English man and a German woman -- meet on a Greek island. Thrown together by chance, they find that they get on famously and -- could it be? -- romance blooms between at least two of them. With her trademark ability to draw characters and depict the action from their different points of view, Binchy has written a very readable, entertaining novel in which everything works out for the best in the end. Writing such a book is no easy task, and the late Binchy has written quite a few. It's not great literature, but this one is certainly worth reading. Grade: B

The Long Road to Antietam

The Long Road to Antietam (How the Civil War Became a Revolution) (2012) by Richard Slotkin. The Civil War was a long slog, and so is this book. In fact, I became so weary of it that I quit half way through. It just wasn't compelling. For Civil War buffs it would probably be a treat, as the book goes into great detail concerning the maneuvering, both military and political, in 1862 -- when McClellan was still in charge of the Union Army of the Potomac. The day-by-day, almost hour-by-hour descriptions of military movements was less than compelling to me, especially as the book lacks adequate maps to give the reader a real feel for the terrain being fought over. This book has garnered some high praise, but it just didn't do the trick for me. Grade: B-

Unbroken

Unbroken (2010) by Laura Hillenbrand. Quite simply one of the best books I have ever read. Hillenbrand tells the true story of Louie Zamperini -- world-class runner, World War II bombardier, POW, youth leader after the war. Zamperini, or Louie as she refers to him, had a somewhat misguided youth, but emerged as a near-four minute miler and participated in the Olympics in 1936. When World War II broke out, he ended up in the Army Air Force, serving in the Pacific theater. His plane goes down and he drifts in a lifeboat for some ungodly length of time, then is captured by the Japanese. He spends the rest of the war as a Prisoner of War, and is horribly abused by a camp guard known as the Bird. But he survives and is eventually redeemed. Hillenbrand, the author of Seabiscuit, has a talent for writing so that each sentence seems to count, so that every paragraph contains a telling detail. I was reading two books when I started this one, but the other book went by the wayside as I could hardly put Unbroken down. The later chapters, when Louie and his fellow POWs are finally freed at the end of the war, brought tears of joy to my eyes. Truly an outstanding book. Grade: A

The Collective

The Collective (2012) by Don Lee. The Collective is about Asians in America. More precisely, it is about young Asian artists who try to adjust to life in a predominantly Anglo culture, not always with success. The narrator, Eric Cho, is an aspiring writer, and together with Joshua Yoon and Jessica Tsai, he forms the 3AC -- the Asian American Artists' Collective. The collective grows over the years until there are something like 20 members, and later it falls apart. Members fall in love, take trips together, critique each other's art, and make art together. The action is always filtered through an Asian perspective, and it's amazing how many ways you can say "Asian" that are not complimentary. Apparently Lee has heard them all at some point. Anyway, this is a pretty good book -- not great, but good. I stayed with it all the way to the end, which is saying something. Grade: B

Whitethorn Woods

Whitethorn Woods by Maeve Binchy. Whitethorn Woods is a complex series of interlocking vignettes, each of which takes on the voice of a narrator, and all of which revolve around a small town in Ireland, the nearby woods, and the Well of St. Ann, which resides in the woods and is thought by the superstitious to grant prayers. Some of the characters are recurring, and many appear in others' stories. It's a rather brilliant and moving bit of storytelling, and it all comes to a satisfactory conclusion that leaves the reader feeling content. It's a unique form of writing, one that Binchy is famous for. She entertained readers from 1982 until this year, when she died. It was only on the occasion of her death that I heard of her, and I'm glad I did. Grade: B+

All There Is

All There Is: Love Stories from Storycorps (2012) by Dave Isay. True stories from a wide variety of Americans on love Found, Lost, and Found at Last. Some of the stories, which were originally told verbally and recorded, are truly touching. Mostly this book made me really sad, because I have never found love in this lifetime, and probably never will. To the book I give a Grade: B.

Immortal Bird

Immortal Bird (2012) by Doron Weber. This is one long cry of anguish from Weber, whose son Damon was lost to heart disease in 2005 at the young age of 16. Weber blames the medical system, and one doctor in particular, for his son's death, which might have been avoided had he received top-notch care and attention from medical personnel. One certainly can't blame Weber for feeling as he does, but I found his writing to be somewhat tedious and repetitive. The book only really comes alive in the last third, after Damon gets his heart transplant and the struggle is joined in earnest. This book was somewhat of a chore to read, but ultimately was rewarding. Grade: B

What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank

What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank (2012) by Nathan Englander. This is a slim collection of short stories, linked only by the fact that they are all about Jews. I must admit that I can scarcely do justice to it, because I am a slow reader and I seldom managed to get all the way through a short story at one sitting. So the stories were, for me, broken up into discrete chunks, and I would frequently end up reading the end of a story a day after reading the beginning. I got the impression, however, that these stories would be more relatable to a Jewish reader than to a Gentile like myself. I found them interesting, but not always involving, especially the stories about Israeli settlers in the West Bank. Grade: B

Behind the Beautiful Forevers

Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity (2012) by Katherine Boo. The most startling thing about this story of life in a slum in India is that it is largely true. Boo lived in India after marrying an Indian man, and did hundreds of hours of research in the very slum in which the book takes place. The lives of these slumdwellers are remarkable in their tawdriness, verging on incomprehensible for an American who doesn't live in a hut near a sewage lagoon. The detail is fascinating, and at the same time repellent. The people who live here are driven to near-madness by the conditions they are forced to endure. It's a good book, perhaps even a necessary one, but it sure is depressing. Grade: A-