Digging to America

By Anne Tyler

In August 1997, two couples arrive at the airport to receive the Korean babies they have adopted. One couple arrives with their relatives in tow and armed with a video camera to capture every precious moment. The other couple, who are Iranian Americans, show up with just themselves and no cameras. Right away we see the culture gap between the two groups. And yet, despite this gap, a bonding and a friendship occur, based on the couples adoption of these two babies.
I liked this book for its insight on what it is like to be a newcomer to the United States. Though the chief character, Maryam, the mother of the son in the Iranian couple, often feels less than kindly toward the Americans in her life, even she comes to a better understanding of the culture she and her family have joined. A worthy read.
The Guardian review:
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2006/may/20/featuresreviews.guardianreview15.

The Pusher

By Ed McBain

So this person was going on about how much she loves the novels of Ed McBain. I had never read him so I decided to check him out at the library. I guess his genre would be called police procedurals. The book I got was The Pusher which was published in the 1950s which gave me pause. Would this book be too dated to appeal 50 years later? Surprisingly it wasn't.

It's a story of the 87th precinct, one of a long series of stories set there. Lieutenant Pete Byrnes & Detective Steve Carella have to investigate the apparent suicide by hanging of the local pusher. But how can it be death by hanging when the autopsy shows he actually died of an overdose of heroin? And what are these threatening calls Byrnes is getting about his own teenage son?

It's an interesting story and still holds up well even after all these years.

Review on James Reasoner's Rough Edges blog:     http://jamesreasoner.blogspot.com/2015/11/forgotten-books-pusher-ed-mcbain-evan.html.

Lover's Lane

By Jill Marie Landis

A young woman finds herself pregnant. The good news, her boyfriend is eager to marry her and raise their baby. The bad news, he dies before that can happen. The worst news, his parents try to buy her baby and their lawyer threatens her with a custody suit. Terrified she will lose the baby to the heartless grandparents, she disappears with her baby.  The rich grandparents hire a detective to find the child. The detective arrives in the small town where the woman and her little boy are now living. He gets to know her and realizes she is not the trashy slut that the grandparents said. He also realizes that he is falling for her and the little town where she lives.

This was a pretty good story, although the premise was a little weak.

Temporary Sanity

By Rose Connors

This novel is a legal thriller or courtroom procedural.
Marty is a former prosecutor who is now a defense attorney. Her first client shot and killed his young son's murder on live TV. Her second client is a woman who stabbed to death the man who attacked and abused her. Marty has her work cut out for her, especially since the judge is a pill and an all
around pain in the ass.

A good story for those who enjoy this type of fiction.

Review from Kirkus Reviews:  https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/rose-connors/temporary-sanity/.

The Last Bus to Woodstock

By Colin Dexter

I first became acquainted with Inspector Morse on PBS. I grew to be very fond of Morse, as played by John Thaw, and didn't much care for it when they killed him off. So now Morse is gone from TV and if I want to spend time with him it has to be in a book. While a book doesn't have the wonderful visual impact that a TV show does, it does give you a better insight to the thoughts and personality of
the character and contains a lot of detail that is just not possible in a one hour TV show. The Last Bus to Woodstock was the first of Colin Dexter's Inspector Morse series. In it Morse has to investigate the murder of a woman who is found dead in a parking lot. It's interesting to meet Morse in his first
appearance and compare him to the Morse from the TV show. If you are a fan of the show, then this novel is a must read.

The Gift of More: Lessons of Faith and Love from a Life Cut Short

By Pamela Yates

I picked up this book hoping to find some comfort and inspiration. All I am going to say, out of respect for this family's loss, is that I found neither.

Daddy's Little Girl

By Mary Higgins Clark

When she was just a little girl, a young woman was the chief witness against the boy who murdered her sister. Now, a boy no longer, the murderer is out on parole and his family is pressing for a new trial to clear his name. The young woman returns to her home town to launch a new investigation against the murderer to prove her previous testimony and to protect an innocent man from being accused of her sister's murder.

The title, Daddy's Little Girl, refers to the dead girl. She was, in the eyes of her young sister, Daddy's favorite. After her death and the parents later divorce, the father dropped of out the little girl's life, leaving her angry and feeling abandoned. Part of the story is that of the woman dealing with her feelings of guilt about her sister's death and of abandonment. It was a good story. It was a good read.

Review from Publishers  Weekly:   https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-7432-0604-4.

The Forever Year

By Ronald Anthony

An elderly man is no longer able to live on his own so his younger son, Jesse, moves him in to stay with him. Jesse has a bit of a chip on his shoulder towards romantic love. It seems to him, after observing his parents staid and passionless marriage and from his own failed love affairs, that love is an illusion. It burns briefly and goes out. So Jesse treats his current girlfriend kind of cool and casual. His dad, Mickey, sees this and decides to tell Jesse about the great love of his life, a story he has never shared with anyone in the family.

This book was a good story, an uplifting story.

Review from Kirkus Reviews:    https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/ronald-anthony/the-forever-year/.

Mockingbird

By Charles J. Shields

I first saw the movie, "To Kill a Mockingbird," on TV when I was a kid. I liked it even though I doubt now that I understood what it was about. I later read the novel by Harper Lee, which I also liked. It was one of those stories that stick with you even after decades have gone by. So when I saw this biography of Harper Lee, I decided to give it a go. Harper Lee has become a recluse and doesn't give interviews, but still Shields' biography of her might give some insight into the woman and her famous, prize-winning (Pulitzer in 1961) novel.
I did enjoy the book. It gives a lot of info about Nelle Harper Lee. It gives the background of the novel and talks about her years in New York City and of her work with Truman Capote on his book, In Cold Blood. I found it worth reading even though Shields was not able to interview Lee. The main thing I got out of the book was that when Lee wrote To Kill a Mockingbird she was basically writing the story of her childhood in the small town where she grew up.

Review from BookPage:  https://bookpage.com/reviews/4701-charles-j-shields-mockingbird-portrait-harper-lee#.Wk3acvCnFtQ.

Cold Pursuit

By T. Jefferson Parker

Homicide cop Tom McMichael has to investigate the murder of one Pete Braga. Trouble is the McMichaels and the Bragas have been feuding for decades. Braga shot Tom's grandfather is a dispute over money. Shortly after, Braga's young son was beaten so severly that he was left mentally challenged. The McMichaels were suspected but it was never proved.
So now Braga is dead, bashed in the head and Tom is the investigating officer and Braga's beautiful (naturally) nurse is the main suspect.

This novel has lots of plot twists and characters and I found the story hard to follow at times.
Publishers Weekly review:  https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-7868-6805-6.

A Bell for Adano

By John Hersey

Winner Pulitzer Prize in Novels, 1945.

I'm puzzled as to why this novel won the Pulitzer. It just doesn't seem to have that much substance to it. Plus the attitude of the novel to the Italians is patronizing and condescending. The main character is Victor Joppolo, who has been put in charge of the town of Adano during WW II as the allies are moving through Italy. This is what Joppolo says

to the local people who he is hiring to help him run the city:

"What makes a man master of another man? It is that he pays him for his work. Who pays the men in the government? The people do, for they pay the taxes out of which you are paid… Remember: you are servants now. You are servants of the people of Adano. And watch: this thing will make you happier than you have ever been in your lives."

Sounds like he thinks he is talking to a bunch of  grade school kids, not to grown men who have more years and more experience in government than he. And the story is kind of lame. The town lost its bell when it was taken to support the war effort by the Italian government. So Joppolo tries his best to find the town a new bell. The Americans in the story were all a bunch of jerks. The old term "ugly American" comes to mind. I just didn't care for this story. Although I fear that the attitude portrayed in it was probably very much true to life.

Review by The Millions.

True Lies of a Drama Queen

By Lee Nichols

First off, just a small quibble. To me a drama queen is someone who over-dramatizes the little mishaps that plague us all. Like having a screaming hissy fit because you stepped in gum in the parking lot. So I really don't feel that Elle is a drama queen. I mean she gets videoed by a voyeur and she doesn't have a melt down about that or even a screaming temper tantrum at what is a legitimately dramatic event.
OK, other than that, this was a good story. Elle is a good, sweet, caring person who deserves the happy ending she gets. She may be a phony psychic but she treats her friends well, her lover well, her dog well; she even treats her shitty new neighbors well. Yes, she is obsessed with fashion and she isn't exactly ambitious, but at least she knows her own mind. I liked Elle and wouldn't mind having her as a friend myself. I did enjoy reading about her life.

Review from Dear Author:   http://dearauthor.com/book-reviews/overall-c-reviews/c-minus-reviews/true-lies-of-a-drama-queen-by-lee-nichols/.

Lost and Found

By Carolyn Parkhurst

Dang, it really gripes me when a novel is packaged to look cute and amusing but when you read it it turns out to be anything but. This is the case with Lost and Found. It has a bright, cheerful cover featuring parrots peaking out at you and bright, cheerful blurbs like this one: "Thoroughly original and inventive, peopled with engaging characters, and just plain fun, this second novel deserves to be as big a hit as the reality shows it genially pokes fun at." -Booklist

So one would assume this is a bright, cheerful and funny look at reality/adventure TV.
Well, one would be wrong. It is neither bright, nor cheerful. Turns out all the couples in the game show are bogged down with personal problems, two of the worst being the mother and daughter team and the Christian ex-homosexual married couple. Turns out the daughter was pregnant and her mom didn't even notice until the night her daughter gave birth in her bedroom. And the married couple turn out to be not so ex-homosexual after all.
The denouement comes when the players are asked by the show, "What have you found?" What the show is looking for is some big breakthrough moment, like, "I found that there is no one I'd rather be with through good times and bad than my wonderful boyfriend (or husband, wife, girlfriend, whatever)." So they ask the main character, the unobservant mom, "What have you found?" This is the big moment of the whole book. What has this character, who managed to miss her teen daughter's entire pregnancy, found out about herself and her sullen daughter? And you know what? I can't even remember what it was, that's how big of an impression it made on me.
OK, I'm not saying this is a sucky book. It's not. It was OK. You might enjoy it. What I am saying is it is not really a funny book and it shouldn't be promoted as a funny book.

Review from Kirkus Reviews:   https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/carolyn-parkhurst/lost-and-found-8/.

Fifty Degrees Below

By Kim Stanley Robinson

First, you might want to read Forty Signs of Rain. It is the first in this series. However, you don't need to read it to understand and enjoy this novel.
This is an environmental/science fiction novel about climate change. In the first novel, climate change is just starting to affect the world. In Washington DC several days of record breaking rain causes flooding throughout most of the city. In the second novel, things begin to cool down, ocean currents shut down and DC experiences the coldest winter on record.
In this second novel, the story centers on Frank Vanderwalh, a scientist who works at the National Science Foundation. Frank ends up living in a tree during this brutally cold winter in Rock Creek Park even though he has a good job and a van. Frank is a bit of a strange bird to say the least. He is a scientist who is trying to live what he perceives as an authentic primate life in Washington DC. Plus he saves a lot of money on rent.

I really enjoyed this book about Frank's personal struggles and about the NSF's struggles with a Presidential administration that is in deep denial about climate change. I am looking forward to the next book in the group.

Review by Greg L. Johnson on The SF Site:   https://www.sfsite.com/11b/fd212.htm.

A Separate Peace

By John Knowles

This story is a man's story for men. It totally left me cold.
These boys are at a private school in New England. It's WWII. The two main characters are Gene and Finny. Gene is more brainy and Finny is more athletic. Finny invents this dumb game where these fools climb up this tree and jump off the tree and out into the water below. This is a dangerous stunt because if they miscalculate, they could end up smashed on the ground below. Finny is one of those guys who don't seem to have much physical fear. But Gene isn't. Every time he has to do the jump, it bothers him.
After awhile, he starts to resent his friend's easy prowess. And he begins to think Finny in turn resents his intelligence and that Finny is trying to sabotage him. But maybe Finny really is a good guy who only wants Gene to succeed.
I don't know. All I know is that the next time he and Gene are up in the tree preparing to jump, Gene jiggles the branch, and Finny falls and shatters his leg on the ground, ending his career as an athlete. And also ending his chance of being a soldier.
This leaves Gene having to cope with his own lack of character and with his friend's blighted hopes.

If you like these sort of psychological studies, you might enjoy this book. I didn't. I really don't care for books where the main character turns out to be a creep and a coward.

Review from the Independent:   http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/a-separate-peace-by-john-knowles-book-review-a-forgotten-gem-of-the-us-in-wartime-9669357.html.

Without Fail

By Lee Child

Jack Reacher is this weird guy who doesn't have a place to live or own a car or have a driver's license (I think) or credit cards. He doesn't even own a suitcase. He lives off a bank account and if his clothes get dirty he goes and buys new ones and tosses the dirty ones away. I'm not sure what his background is. I think he is some kind of ex-military, special ops kind of guy. This is only the second Reacher novel I have read. The other one was One Shot. Anyway, Reacher is this loner, highly competent fellow who takes on the bad guys and wins.
In this story, Jack Reacher briefly joins the Secret Service to become part of the team that is protecting the Vice President-elect from assassins. There is the usual guns and shootings and car chases associated with this type of story.

Jack Reacher is a very likable and upstanding man. One wishes such a good guy could have a happier life. But I guess that would spoil the story. Jack Reacher is what makes these stories worth reading. He is heroic. I enjoyed this story. Not because I like the genre. But because I like Jack Reacher.

Review from BookPage:   https://bookpage.com/reviews/2386-lee-child-without-fail#.Wk8XRPCnFtQ.

Flight Lessons

By Patricia Gaffney

The main character, Anna, returns home after being betrayed by her current loser boyfriend. She agrees to help her aunt, Rose, run the family restaurant, even though she is angry at Rose for becoming involved with her father when her mother was dying.
Anna mets an ex-lawyer now bird photographer who has lots of problems of his own to deal with due to his own traumatic past.
Anna is a bit of a pill, judgmental and unforgiving. But things worked out in the end and Anna gets her guy and she and Rose deal with the past and come out better and closer.

This romance/family drama was an OK read.

Review from Curled Up:   http://www.curledup.com/flight.htm.

The Dilbert Future

By Scott Adams

Another of Scott's funny Dilbert books, worth reading for the cartoons alone. I enjoyed it very much.
At the end of the book, as in the previous Scott Adams book I read, Adams mentions his theory of the universe and that one can access alternate universes that have better outcomes that the one we currently live in. He says that by using a certain method one can alter destiny. As in cure disease and get that dream job. Take it with a grain of salt, is my advice.

Three Weeks in Paris

By Barbara Taylor Bradford

It is about four women who went to design school together in Paris. Something happened at that school and now the women all hate each other. But it is their teacher's 85th birthday and they are all going back to Paris to celebrate it with her.
The four women are all talented and successful but unfulfilled. None of them have managed to find true love. They are all gorgeous (naturally). Even the fat one is gorgeous and she manages to
lose all her excess weight before the big birthday reunion.
They also all manage to find their true loves by the time of the party and all is forgiven when they discover that their big blowup was all just a mistaken impression.

You know, it is bad enough that in romance novels there is always at least one gorgeous woman. But this one had four of the blighted things. And if there was any way Bradford could have made it believable, even the 85-year-old would have been gorgeous! But her gorgeousness is just hinted at.
This romance story was pretty dull. I skipped a lot of it and I was reading the condensed version from Reader's Digest.

Publishers Weekly review:   https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-385-50141-5.

Advise and Consent

By Allen Drury

Pulitzer Prize winner in fiction, 1960.

This prize winning novel is an interesting inside look at U.S. Senate. Set in the 1950s, this is the story of the struggle between the majority and the minority parties in the nomination of a liberal, pro-Soviet man as Secretary of State. Allegations are made that the nominee was a member of the Communist Party. In order to push the nomination through, a subcommittee chairman is threatened with exposure of his homosexual experiences during the war.

First off, this is a really long book. I had a struggle to get through the whole thing. But in the end, it was worth reading.  If you are interested in politics and politicians, then you will enjoy this novel.

For more information, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advise_and_Consent.