People Who Eat Darkness

People Who Eat Darkness (2011) by Richard Lloyd Parry. In 2000, Lucie Blackman, a young British woman who was working as a hostess at a Tokyo night club, disappeared. This book is the true-crime retelling of the agony Lucie's family went through, the long delays of the Japanese justice system, and the eventual discovery of Lucie's fate. The striking thing about this book is that it grows progressively more absorbing the more you read. At first it seems to shilly-shally, as Lucie's fate is unknown and all we have are stories about her family's desperate efforts to appeal to Japanese public opinion to find a clue as to what happened to her. But once a suspect is found and her murder goes to trial, the book becomes riveting, if a bit depressing. The interplay of personalities of Lucie's family is almost as interesting as the crime itself. A gruesome, fascinating book. Grade: B+

Diary of a Stage Mother's Daughter

Diary of a Stage Mother's Daughter (2012) by Melissa Francis. Melissa Francis played the darling little girl named Cassandra that Michael Landon adopted in the TV series Little House on the Prairie. Unfortunately for her, this was probably the peak of her acting career. What is more significant for the book is her relationship with her mother, who is a stage mother of the worst kind -- investing her own worth in the success of her daughters, and relentlessly promoting her daughters' acting careers, then spending all the money they had earned instead of saving it for them when they became adults. In Melissa's case, she earned, as a child actor, a minimum of $250,000, none of which she ever saw. One of her mother's favorite abusive tricks was to push one of the girls (Melissa had an older sister named Tiffany) out of the car onto the side of the road, and then to drive off and leave her. The girls frequently had no idea what infraction they had committed to incur their mother's wrath, and ultimately, as an adult, Melissa cut off all ties to her mother. This is an interesting book, although it is a bit sketchy and lacking in depth. Francis' writing style is simplistic and not overly sophisticated, but it is clear and precise. I read this book with great interest, although it got less interesting after Melissa's acting career petered out and she went off to college. Still, a good book. Grade: B+  

The Child's Child

The Child's Child (2012) by Ruth Rendell writing as Barbara Vine. A fairly affecting novel about women's roles in society, in particular in their child-bearing role. In a novel-within-the-novel, a fifteen-year-old girl becomes pregnant during the early 20th century -- a time when such things just weren't done. To compound her misery, the father of her child refuses to marry her and doesn't acknowledge the child. In an interesting twist, her gay brother volunteers to move with her to a remote village and live with her as husband and wife, so that her shame can be concealed. Framing this tale is the story of a woman who lives in 2011 London, and is researching a PhD. thesis on unmarried mothers. It makes for an interesting, if not earth-shaking book. I certainly read it with interest, and it's an entertaining novel. The problem I had with it is that I lost track of the characters in the framing novel while I was reading the novel-within-a-novel. When they recurred at the end of the book, I was fairly lost. Altogether, a worthwhile read. Grade: B

Seabiscuit

Seabiscuit (2004) by Laura Hillenbrand. This book, from the author of Unbroken, is just as good. Hillenbrand has thoroughly researched the subject, then assembled all the data-bits into a smoothly flowing narrative that thrills and delights the reader. It's no exaggeration to say that this is one of the best books I have ever read, and I loved every page of it. The characters are so vivid, the events are so interesting, the book takes place in such a crucial period of history -- fantastic. And Seabiscuit himself is painted in such stirring colors, you feel that you know the horse, and you cheer for him in every race. This is a truly moving book, and what's more, it's not fiction, it's a reconstruction of historical facts. A great achievement, it was made into a semi-successful motion picture. Grade: A 

Too Bright to Hear Too Loud to See

Too Bright to Hear Too Loud to See (2012) by Juliann Garey. Greyson Todd, a successful Hollywood executive, leaves his wife and young daughter for a decade to travel the world, giving free reign to the bipolar disorder that he has heretofore been able to conceal. Apparently, Garey has made a career of bipolar disorder, as she is also the editor of Voices of Bipolar Disorder: The Healing Companion. At any rate, she seems to have an intimate knowledge of bipolar disorder and what it can do to a person. The novel unreels in three threads -- Todd's life after he flees his family in 1984, his childhood in late-'50s-early-'60s Los Angeles, and a stint in a psychiatric hospital in 1994. The narrative proceeds in fragments because Todd is undergoing a series of shock treatments which fragment his memory. I found this book harrowing, disturbing to read, as I suffer from mental illness myself, and some of the writing hit too close to home. However, it's a good book and I would like to read it again sometime. Grade: B+ 

The Testament of Mary

The Testament of Mary (2012) by Colm Toibin. The author has taken a hypothetical -- what if Mary, mother of Jesus, told her own story in her own words -- and turned it into a book. It's a short book (81 pages), and it covers a short period of time. Mary, now an old woman, has no interest in collaborating with the authors of the Gospel. She does not agree that her son was the son of God, nor that his death was "worth it." She is merely a grieving mother who has witnessed perhaps the worst that a parent can see -- her own child executed before her eyes. I am not a believer, nor am I a Bible scholar, so maybe something escaped me as I read this book. I found it curiously unmoving and disappointing. It was readable, but not inspiring. Grade: B 

My Friend Dahmer

My Friend Dahmer (2012) by Derf Backderf. This is a graphic novel by someone who was a high-school friend of Jeffrey Dahmer, the notorious serial killer who was arrested in 1991. Dahmer was a strange kid in the 1970s, when he attended junior high and high school with Backderf. He was also a tortured soul and an alcoholic. Backderf shows, in this comic-style book, what it was like to know Dahmer during this time period. The strangest thing is that so few people had any inkling during his junior high and high school years of what Dahmer would become. His teachers all later described him as a "normal kid," but Backderf, who saw him outside class, knew there was something wrong. His book nicely illustrates and clearly delineates what is undeniably a creepy subject. Grade: B 

The Entertainer

The Entertainer: Movies, Magic and My Father's Twentieth Century (2012) by Margaret Talbot. This is a charming book about the entertainment industry as scene through the lens of Lyle Talbot, the author's father and a man who worked in the entertainment industry through the 20th century. Lyle Talbot, born in 1902, started out as a hypnotist's assistant in the teens, then managed to work his way into stage acting, and later became a B-movie actor and television actor who worked more-or-less steadily for his entire career. His zenith probably came as a movie actor in the 1930s, when he was in his 30s and lived in the movie colony in California. Later, he had a recurring role in The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet, a TV show, and in Leave It to Beaver. He never quite reached the pantheon of Movie Stars, but he was a presence on the entertainment landscape from his own coming of age until late in the 2nd half of the century. Margaret Talbot, his daughter, writes with warmth and nostalgia about Hollywood history, social history, and her own family history. It's a cozy book, one I looked forward to reading each night upon going to bed. Grade: B+    

Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power

Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power (2013) by Jon Meacham. This fine new biography of Jefferson shows him, warts and all, and attempts to show that he was a flawed man, but a great man. I think it succeeds admirably. A philosopher and a scientist, a naturalist and a historian, Jefferson was a man of the Enlightenment, always looking forward, consumed by the quest for knowledge. These proclivities were reflected in his public actions -- author of the Declaration of Independence, third President of the United States, he forever left his stamp on our republic. He was also a man who owned slaves, and who had children by one of these slaves, Sally Hemings. Meacham makes no excuses for Jefferson, merely tries to place him in historical context and help the reader understand, if not forgive, his actions. This is a marvelous book, and I don't hesitate to give it the highest marks. Grade: A