Fifty Grand

Fifty Grand by Adrian McKinty, 308 pages.

I got to know this excellent author through his Detective Sean Duffy novels, set in Northern Ireland. They are great books and a joy to listen to, especially with the outstanding narration of Gerard Doyle. In this earlier work, McKinty gives us Havana Detective Mercado. She takes time off from a government sanctioned visit to Mexico City and hires a coyote to smuggle her into the United States, heading for Colorado to quietly investigate the death of her father. Her father had defected in a colorful manner decades back, and was far, far out of favor with Raul Castro and the security apparatus of the state. Mercado must travel carefully, staying under the radar of US immigration, local police, and Cuban Intelligence. Well-paced and tightly written with compelling characters.

The Reason You're Alive

The Reason You're Alive by Matthew Quick, 226 pages.

David Granger, a crusty, profane, and un-apologetically non-pc Vietnam Vet tries to forge a better relationship with his son after he, Granger, has surgery to remove a brain tumor. Somehow his relationship with his son is the least interesting and believable part of the book. It seems to me that if someone who has known you for their whole life thinks your a racist and an asshole, it's probably not just because of your colorful language; they would have seen your sensitive side at some point.  Quick, author of The Silver Linings Playbook, among other novels, has created a complex character in Granger. He's quick to anger, prone to violence, and though demonstrably (ehhh) not a racist, uses racially charged language. Quick shows him to be, as the story unravels, at his core a kind and loving man..It was a very enjoyable book, especially so in audio format; R.C. Bray does a great job reading this. He really became the character for me, so much so that when I started another audiobook immediately after this one and found that Bray was the narrator, it was so jarring that I had to put that book aside for later. Granger has to work on some other relationships besides the one with his son, and these subplots are more satisfying, making this a book worth reading.

The Storied Life of AJ Fikry

The Storied Life of AJ Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin, 270 pages.

Our book group choice for November. A. J. Fikry is busy running his bookstore on Alice Island, Island Books, and drinking himself to death. Opening the bookstore had been his wife's idea, but since she died in a traffic accident the joy of it all has gone out of A. J.'s life. As the book begins, A. J. yells at a publisher's rep and his treasured copy of Poe's Tamerlane is stolen.  Everything is going down the drain. He is saved when a small child is left in his care, and when he is given a chance to apologize to and reconnect with the publisher's rep.
This is a sweet and wonderful sort of book, reminiscent of A Man Called Ove, Major Pettigrew's Last Stand and others showing a live saved by unexpected love. The Police Chief's book group and the character of  the local chief Lambiase, are great, as is the series of chapter-beginning book reviews. And the characters of Maya and Amelia add a lot to this enjoyable book. Some twists and turns and more deaths than expected.

Unbelievable: My Front-Row Seat to the Craziest Campaign in American History

Unbelievable: My Front-Row Seat to the Craziest Campaign in American History by Katy Tur, 291 pages.

Katy Tur was assigned to the Trump campaign by NBC News in early 2015. She followed the candidate around the country until November of 2016, reporting on Trump's angry, crazy, and improbable rise to the Presidency. Along the way she got to be attacked and praised personally by the candidate, depending on his mood. She was able to see and hear all of the headline grabbing antics of the candidate, from talking about his penis size at a debate, to veiled threats from the candidate towards the press-corp, so frequent and so effective at riling up the campaign crowds that Tur and many of the press following Trump around resorted to private security.  An interesting read about an extraordinary time.

Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body

Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body by Roxane Gay, 306 pages.

Gay, who writes intriguing, humorous, and fascinating essays on a wide variety of subjects, talks about her own past in her newest book. The daughter of Haitian immigrants who insisted that she work hard and do well at school, Gay was a good daughter and did as well as she could; she was a good student. When she was twelve and started seeing a boy she thought cared about her, she couldn't tell her parents, and when that boy; a nice boy from a good family, raped her and let his friends rape her, and her world crumbled, she couldn't tell her family about that either. Twelve-year-old Roxane turned to food for comfort and protection. Having decided after the brutal attack on her that being obese would make her undesirable, and that being undesirable could keep the pain away, Gay's relationship with food and with her body was altered in a way that would continue to vex her into her adult life. Gay talks about her time at high-school, college and graduate school. She talks about her relationships with her students, and her relationships with a series of lovers over the years. Though there is a fair amount of pain in the book, it is a strange sort of joy to read this; the writing is so good and the writer is so strong.

The Netanyahu Years

The Netanyahu Years by Ben Kaspit, 506 pages.
Benjamin Netanyahu's grandfather, Nathan Milekowsky, was born in Lithuania in the 1880s. At first an admirer of Herzl, Milekowsky later joined the Jewish Revisionist Movement and spoke to Jews throughout Europe about reclaiming Israel. He also changed his last name.His son, Benzion, became a something of an academic and something of a right-wing political activist. Living in Israel, New York, Philadelphia, and then back in Israel, Benzion and his wife Cela had three sons, their oldest, Yoni; their youngest, Iddo; and their middle child, the subject of this strange book, Benjamin Netanyahu. Okay, it's an interesting book, with lots of interesting "facts," and comments. There's an engaging arc presented, Bibi's stint as a soldier, his time in New York, and then his complicated political career. It's just when you check the back of the book there's not a lot in the way of sources, so it seems possible that it's just a big gossip fest. I didn't like what the author had to say about Obama, anyway, so I was okay dismissing the book overall.

It's Okay To Laugh (Crying Is Cool Too): A Memoir

It's Okay To Laugh (Crying Is Cool Too): A Memoir by Nora McInerny Purmort, 274 pages.

Purmort, who has written for the Huffington Post, Elle.com, and Cosmopolitan.com, among others, tells a devastatingly sad story in a devastatingly funny way. She is hilarious in recounting her life, despite a miscarriage and the loss of both her father and her husband, all within a matter of weeks. She describes her relationship with Aaron, the man she married after he discovered that he had a brain tumor, in very loving terms. They shared an outlook on life that was a bit absurd and they did their best to enjoy the time that had together, all the while hoping that they would catch a few breaks and have a little bit more time. Especially after their son, Ralph, was born. Purmort is seemingly aware of every one of her own flaws, but she does her best to forgive herself for them and use those faults as grist for her humor mill. She takes a perverse pleasure in the skewering of  her problems; with alcohol, with her parents, with every relationship she had before her relationship with Aaron, and with every bit of her tall, self-conscious, gawky self.  This book is a sad sort of joy to read or to listen to. The audiobook is narrated by the author.

Black Panther: A Nation under Our Feet, Vol. 1

Black Panther: A Nation under Our Feet, Vol. 1 by Ta'Nehisi Coates, 144 pages.

I read this because Coates wrote it. I am not into super-hero comics all that much, but this was better than almost all that I have read. I look forward to reading the rest of the series. I read this a while ago and don't remember anything about it really, though I blame myself and my total lack of interest in the whole superhero comic book thing. I checked volume one and volume two out for my kids, hoping that they would read them, but I don't think they did.