Cartoons for victory

Cartoons for victory / Warren Bernard, 256 p.

A compilation of American newspaper strips, ads, comic book covers, and single-panel cartoons that were published during WWII. Each section has commentary by Bernard giving context on particular topics: what a victory garden was, how scrap metal recycling worked, etc. I personally would have like more text, but the focus of the books is clearly the cartoons, and I can't really argue with that. The large trim size is especially nice when the art is a Sunday cartoon strip, as the reproduction is large and easy to read.

The association of small bombs, by Karan Mahajan

In 1996, three young friends set off on an errand to pick up a repaired television.  A small bomb is detonated in the Delhi market where the repair shop is located.  Only one child comes back.  Among the few dozen killed are the sons of Vikas and Deepa Khurana, who are Hindu.  Their Muslim neighbor’s son, Mansoor Ahmed, survives.  This compelling and timely novel follows the survivors, the Khuranas and the Ahmeds; the Kashmiri bombmaker; and the individual who set the bomb off, over the ensuing years as the detonation echoes through time.   It’s not a big event, or particularly newsworthy to any but those affected, but the author makes in emblematic of our times as he interweaves the stories of the victims and the perpetrators in the complex web of terrorism and its roots.  276 pp.

The Swans of Fifth Avenue

The Swans of Fifth Avenue by Melanie Benjamin, 341 pages

In his heyday, Truman Capote had a fantastic martini-and-gossip-filled relationship with a gaggle of New York socialites. Benjamin's novel explores this high society set, and particularly Capote's oddly close friendship with social queen Babe Paley, through its high points in the 1950s and into the odd falling out between Capote and the society ladies in the 1960s. Benjamin's writing is sumptuous and evocative, and, as similar as these women could be, she does an excellent job of distinguishing them. It's a fascinating story, and as always with this sort of book, I'm left wondering how much is true (particularly when so many of the characters are self-described liars, whether their aim is to create gossip or keep up appearances). Something tells me I'll need to be doing some more research into these people!

The Passenger

The Passenger by Lisa Lutz  320 pp.

Tanya Dubois leaves town while her husband lays dead at the bottom of the stairs. The second sentence of the book says "I didn't do it" so why is she running? Tanya must leave to avoid scrutiny since she is not really Tanya but someone else. She soon sheds the identity of Tanya and becomes another person, then another, and another...you get the idea. While on the run she forms a "friendship" with Blue, another woman with a false identity. Soon, the innocent Tanya/Amelia/Nora... becomes involved in other deaths before finally having the opportunity of turning herself in and having the truth come out about what started her on the run. I wasn't sure I liked this book at first, but in the end I found it worth reading although I had figured out the "big reveal" at the end pretty early on.  

Fall of Man in Wilmslow

Fall of Man in Wilmslow: the Death & Life of Alan Turing by David Lagercrantz  353 pp.

This fictional account of the 1953 death by suicide of mathematician and computer scientist Alan Turing reveals much about the attitudes of that time period. Detective Constable Leonard Corell  suspects the death may have been a murder because of all the secrecy surrounding Turing's work during World War II. In the 1950s England was consumed with the idea of homosexuals in the intelligence divisions for fear that they would succumb to blackmail or were just too unstable to be trusted with top secret information. This fear was exacerbated by two homosexual men who were actually Soviet spies which made Turing guilty by association.  At that time the work at Bletchley Park on the German Enigma Machine was still classified and even the police weren't let in on its secrets. When Corell is ordered to abandon his investigation he continues while off-duty and eventually finds himself in danger for asking too many questions and soliciting information from the "wrong" people. The story is intriguing and the viewpoint on the 1950s Red Scare is well-handled.

Greyfriars Bobby

Greyfriars Bobby by Eleanor Atkinson  242 pp.

This is the fictionalized version of the legend of the Skye Terrier who remained faithful to the elderly shepherd who cared for him, even after the man died of pneumonia. The story goes that this little dog insisted on sleeping on the man's grave in Edinburgh's Greyfriars Cemetery for sixteen years. It's a nice story about the spunky little dog, the pub owner who fed him, the cemetery caretaker who let him stay, and the children of the local tenement who adored him. The true story of Bobby is much less romantic than Atkinson's tale but is less fun to read (once you get used to the Scottish patois). But the legend is important enough to warrant a statue of the little dog outside Greyfriars Cemetery.

The last report on the miracles at Little No Horse

The last report on the miracles at Little No Horse / Louise Erdrich 361 pgs.

This story follows the long life of Father Damien, his origin story, how he came to the reservation and the works he did for the people at Little No Horse.  Without wanting to give away any details, I can say that the colorful characters, the setting and the writing is wonderful in this book.  I leave you with this snippet of dialog between Father Damien and Father Jude who are discussing one of the sisters at Little No Horse who is suspected of not upholding all of her vows:

“And in understanding”—Father Jude looked severely troubled—“to excuse immoral actions?”

“Never those that hurt people.”

“Sex hurts,” said Father Jude, simply.

“Have you seen a doctor?” said Damien.

The two paused, their breathing sharpened, surprised that they had so quickly fallen into such a pleasurable dispute.

Get in trouble

Get in trouble: stories / Kelly Link 335 pgs.

Patrick really liked this book and I can see why.  I started listening to the audio but kept thinking "Wait a minutes...I must have misheard that part." and had to rewind a lot.  After I grabbed the print copy I realized I was hearing it correctly but at times, my brain could not really process what I was hearing. So many of these stories start out in a way that seems very standard...you think you know the next step...but then you trip on that step and end up riding a squiggly slide to a whole new place that you didn't expect.  You might end up on another slide before the end of the story.  Really fabulous stuff.

Flashed

Flashed: sudden stories in comics and prose / edited by Josh Neufeld & Sari Wilson

I can not improve upon Kara's description of this how this book is put together.  The concept is pretty cool.  Three authors collaborate to make a story.  All have three sections made up of comics and writing. Some have two comic sections, some have only one.  Some of these works are more related than others.  I must admit that several of these left me more confused than anything else.  Interesting reading but maybe it is just too smart for me.