The Sunshine When She's Gone

The Sunshine When She's Gone (2013) by Thea Goodman. This novel, set in the present, tells the improbable story of how John sneaks out of his apartment one day with his baby daughter Clara in his arms, his wife Veronica still in bed, and cavalierly decides to take Clara on an outing -- to Barbados. He goes poorly prepared, taking only two bottles of Clara's special goat's milk baby formula and a few disposable diapers. Most telling of all, he fails to tell Veronica that he has taken her daughter out of the country. For her part, Veronica is so happy to be relieved of her parental duties for a day that she fails to become alarmed and uses the day to rest and relax. Although she does try to call John, she does not become overly upset when she can't reach him. I found this book to be lacking in verisimilitude, and while reading it I found myself constantly thinking, "Two adults with a baby would not act this way." Well, maybe some people would, but I had trouble buying it -- or caring about the characters. Grade: C+ 

Z

Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald (2013) by Therese Anne Fowler. Told from Zelda's point of view in the first person, this novel paints a rather unflattering portrait of F. Scott Fitzgerald. Some scholars hold that Zelda ruined Scott, others that Scott abused Zelda. This book takes a fairly balanced view, although Scott comes out looking like a misogynistic bully and petty tyrant, while Zelda just looks weak and selfish. Both were prone to overindulging in alcohol, and were famously immature. It makes for an interesting read no matter how you slice it, and it certainly name-checks plenty of famous artists and writers of the 20th century. In particular, Ernest Hemingway is portrayed as a manipulative friend of F. Scott Fitzgerald, and an enemy to Zelda. This book deserves to be added to the canon of Scott-and-Zelda literature. Grade: B 

Those Angry Days

Those Angry Days: Roosevelt, Lindbergh, and America's Fight over World War II, 1939-1941 (2013) by Lynne Olson. A great history book, Those Angry Days covers the dispute between isolationists and interventionists after Hitler invaded Poland and before Japan attacked Pearl Harbor. There was a surprisingly large number of Americans who favored peace at any price. Of course, they didn't have the benefit of hindsight, which we have. Charles Lindbergh was chief among the isolationists, mainly because he had been such a big hero to so many Americans after his ground-breaking solo flight across the Atlantic in 1927. This book gives a balanced look at both the isolationists and the interventionists, and presents an unflattering portrait of FDR and his dithering before the Japanese forced war upon us. To his credit, once the war was declared he was vigorous in prosecuting it. This was a very satisfying book to read, especially since I had just read The Last Lion, a book about Churchill from 1940 to 1965. Grade: B+ 

A Not So Dolce Vita

A Not So Dolce Vita (2012) by Julia Falkner-Tompkins. This is a not-so-interesting memoir about a fairly interesting life. Falkner-Tompkins and her little sister were sent to the United States from England during World War II. They lived in this country for four years before rejoining their parents for a life of traveling around Europe and the world, due to their parents' musical careers. Falkner-Tompkins is engaging at times, but this book is so poorly written (her grammar is atrocious) that it suffers in the process. Of interest to me is that she lived in Italy for several years as a girl and attended Italian schools, thus becoming fluent in Italian. There's no telling what other languages she learned, because the book skirts the issue. This memoir only covers her life up until her marriage at age 18, and I was very curious to know what happened to her after that. But it was not to be. The book abruptly ends, leaving the reader feeling dissatisfied. Grade: C+ 

The Burgess Boys

The Burgess Boys (2013) by Elizabeth Strout. Two brothers, the Burgess boys of the title, are estranged but must work together when their nephew (their sister's son) gets in trouble with the law. I found this book readable but uninspiring, and I never felt involved in the Burgess boys' lives or much cared what happened to them. A decidedly "blah" book. Grade: B

Night

Night (1958) by Elie Wiesel. This is Wiesel's slender, harrowing account of his experience as a teenager of being picked up by the Nazis and transported to a concentration camp. It is a vision of insanity, the insanity of the evil fascist, anti-Jew regime of Adolph Hitler, taken near to its extreme. Wiesel and his family were uprooted from their home and transported by rail to Auschwitz, then Birkenau. By some miracle -- it was near the end of the war -- Wiesel survived to tell the story. It has been told by others, but Wiesel tells it with immediacy and vividness that bring us as close as possible to actually experiencing itself ourselves. And it is horrible. Grade: A

The Last Lion

The Last Lion: Winston Spencer Churchill, Defender of the Realm, 1940-1965 (2012) by William Manchester and Paul Reid. This is a monumental book, covering a larger-than-life figure, Winston Churchill, during the years 1940 to 1965. In 1940, of course, he experienced his finest hour -- standing up to Nazi Germany and defiantly declaring that England would "never surrender." But the scope and breadth of this book is even greater than one man's life, for it frequently digresses and goes into fascinating detail about other people, both major and minor, who were involved in the struggle. I found it to be one of the best, most entertaining and informative books I have read. I would recommend it to anyone who has the reading speed and fortitude to get through it (it comprises over 1,000 pages of text). I only wish I could read it again, and soon. Grade: A