Where'd You Go, Bernadette

Where'd You Go, Bernadette (2012) by Maria Semple. The Bernadette of the title is Bernadette Fox, a once-famous architect who now lives with her husband and daughter in Seattle. She seems half-crazed throughout most of this novel, and pulls off a disappearing act in the second half that has her husband and daughter puzzled. It's all explained in the end, but the explanation is quite circuitous. The book is told mostly in epistolary form, but the form works OK for the most part, and contributes to the funniness of the novel. Did I mention that it's funny? This is one of the most amusing books I've read in quite a while, and the characters are vividly drawn and piquant. Plus, it's an easy read. Pretty good, huh? Grade: B+

Triburbia

Triburbia (2012) by Karl Taro Greenfeld. This novel takes a variety of different points of view as it tells the stories of a group of disparate people who live in the Tribeca borough of New York City. Each character is identified by his or her address, and a handy map at the beginning of the book shows where all the addresses are in relation to each other. The characters include a sound engineer, a photographer, a sculptor, a puppeteer, a gangster, a chef, a playwright and a memoirist. Some of their stories are interesting; some are less so. All of them are fully developed in their given section of the book, and many of them are interconnected (the sculptor's wife is having an affair with the chef, etc.). I found the book intermittently engaging, although in the end I just couldn't keep all the characters straight. When I got to the end of the book, the author was referring to various characters by name, and I couldn't remember who was who. This is a pretty interesting novel about the kind of people who live (or lived) in Tribeca, but that's about it for me. It wasn't hard to get through this book, but in the end I felt that I came away with little increase in my knowledge or wisdom. Just OK. Grade: B

Dare Me

Dare Me (2012) by Megan Abbott. This is a novel about high-school cheerleaders, and the drama tends to be very school-girlish. Addy Hanlon is the book's narrator and the pivot around which the action revolves. Addy becomes immediately attached to the new cheer leading coach, Collette French, which does not sit too well with Addy's best friend Beth, who is abruptly demoted from cheerleader captain by the new coach. It's hard to write about this book because I never could get very interested in it. Suffice it to say that there is a suicide (or is it murder?) involved and Addy, Beth and Coach all get pulled into the vortex of the police investigation. I found Abbott's powers of description to be lacking, and I found this book to be disappointing. Grade: B-

Between Shades of Gray

Between Shades of Gray (2011) by Ruta Sepetys. Between Shades of Gray tells the previously untold story of Stalin's invasion and dispersion of the population of Lithuania in 1939, just before Hitler came to kill all the Jews. The story is told through the tale of Lina, a Lithuanian girl of 15, who with her family is forced to leave her comfortable home and travel by filthy box car to Siberia, where she is imprisoned and very nearly dies. This book is targeted at the youth audience, and there are some elements which might leave an adult feeling slightly unsatisfied, but in general I found it to be good reading and very moving. It is one of the saddest books I have read. The most amazing thing about it is that it is largely true, and is based on the Odyssey of Sepetys' ancestors. It has a satisfying ending, and the Epilogue and Author's Note at the end provide a much needed and very useful summing up of the historical events that surrounded the events in the book. Very, very good. Grade: B+  

Tigers in Red Weather

Tigers in Red Weather (2012) by Lisa Klaussmann. Tigers in Red Weather captures a time and place long gone but clearly not forgotten. Nick and Helena are cousins who grew up in a world of sun-bleached boat docks, tennis whites and midnight gin parties at Tiger House, the family home on Martha's Vineyard. In the wake of World War II, they seem ready to settle into "real life," with both their husbands mustering out of the service and seemingly ready to get on with their careers. But things are not as they seem, and the beautiful cousins have troubles which slowly but surely work their way to the surface of their lives. The crux of the novel comes when their children, Ed and Daisy, discover a dead body on the island. The rest of the book is taken up with the story of how the body got there and who committed the murder. It's really quite good reading, and I enjoyed it very much. Very well written and beautifully composed. Grade: A-

Double Cross

Double Cross: The True Story of the D-Day Spies (2012) by Ben Macintyre. This book tells the interesting story of a group of British double spies in the 1940s who were intended to fool the Nazis into thinking the D-Day landings would take place at the  Pas de Calais instead of on the beaches of Normandy. The author is fond of using the spies' code names at times, their real names at other times, and I found this a bit confusing; it detracted from my pleasure in reading the book. At the end, I was not convinced that the group of spies had really done their job. Hitler was indeed convinced that the landings would take place at the Pas de Calais, but whether these spies were instrumental in making him believe this is an open question. Still, a moderately interesting book. Grade: B

The Great Escape

The Great Escape: Nine Jews Who Fled Hitler and Changed the World (2006) by Kati Marton. I won't list the nine Jews of the title, but suffice it to say that they were all Hungarian Jews from Budapest, and not coincidentally, the author is also a Hungarian Jew from Budapest. This is a fairly interesting book, although it has kind of a scattershot quality. Of the nine Jews mentioned, four were physicists who played important roles in the development of the American atomic bomb, two became important in the movie industry, two became famous and/or important photographers, and one was an important author. It made for a pretty good read. Grade: B+

The Perfect American

The Perfect American (2004) by Peter Stephan Jungk. The final years of Walt Disney are chronicled in this fictionalized account. After reading this book, I couldn't really think of any reason why it needed to be written or read. Very unenlightening, and not very entertaining. Grade: B-

The Sandcastle Girls

The Sandcastle Girls (2012) by Chris Bohjalian. The Sandcastle Girls tells the story of some historical events mixed in with fictional characters. At its core, the story is about the Armenian genocide of the early 20th century, a cataclysmic event that not many people are aware of. One and a half million Armenians were systematically murdered by Turkey, or at least by the remnants of the Ottoman Empire. The novel dramatizes those events, with a long-ago love affair between a Boston American woman and an Armenian man forming the axis of the book. While World War I forms the backdrop of the novel, little-known events are brought to the fore. The book takes place largely in Aleppo, Syria, where Americans have come to try and alleviate the suffering of the Armenians. Their efforts are to little avail, however, because they are stymied by the Turks at every turn. I found this to be an interesting book, and would recommend it to anyone with an inclination toward reading an historical novel. Grade: B+ 

Paris: A Love Story

Paris: A Love Story (2012) by Kati Marton. Marton is in love with Paris. She is also in love with herself. That doesn't stop this from being a moving account of the year after her husband, diplomat Richard Holbrooke, died. It just makes it a little more irritating to read. Marton has lived a charmed life -- she's multilingual, went to the best schools, grew up in several different countries. She was married to the ABC News anchor Peter Jennings for 15 years before her marriage to Holbrooke, which lasted 18 years. She's an internationally famous journalist, having worked for NPR and ABC as a field reporter. Her sentimental self-pity seems a bit much, under the circumstances. So to conclude, this was not one of my favorite books. It was well written, and Marton's command of French is impressive, but it wasn't really an enjoyable read. Grade: B