"The Likeness" by Tana French (audio)

Wow. I feel like I just lived this book...like I just got off a very long carnival ride, and I'm a little dizzy. "The Likeness" is a sequel of sorts to "In the Woods", French's earlier work (which I have not read and know that now I must). This story picks up six months later, after homicide detective Cassie Maddox had her world blown wide open by a disturbing case and an imploded relationship with her partner. She has moved to a desk job to recover physically and mentally, but is dragged back into her old role when a grad student is found stabbed to death. The victim just happens to be Cassie's doppleganger and is carrying the ID of Cassie's old undercover name, Lexie Madison. Cassie is convinced by her old undercover boss to become Lexie, pretend to have recovered from her injuries and return to the home that she shared with four other students, and try to determine who stabbed her. Cassie finds her housemates to be a very eccentric, close-knit group that have many secrets...she also determines that Lexie had a few of her own as well.

There are many beautiful things about this novel that raises it above the common crime story. The dialogue is clever and witty, with the little Irish phrases and slang that really got under my skin, in a good way (after listening to 20 discs of the reader's Irish lilt, I find myself saying "morder" and "shite" and "wanker" in my head!). French does a fabulous job of making the relationships between the five friends seem so rich and real, you feel that you actually know these quirky, damaged people. The development of story-line and character goes a mile deep...French spent over four discs alone on Cassie's preparation for going undercover, for example. The premise of assuming the dead girl's identity is a bit far-fetched, but I was ready to go for the ride and found myself as nervous as if I were doing it myself. It is a complicated yarn, with various side developments and agendas, but I feel is nicely wrapped up by the end, leaving me with no unanswered questions. For those of you that like a mystery crime thriller, this one is a must read!

"New Moon" by Stephenie Meyer

The hook has been set in my subconcious, officially. I must see this through to the end! In this second installment of the Twilight series, we find that Edward and his vampire family has left town, primarily to protect Bella from the dangers of hangin' with bloodsuckers. He has explained his departure to Bella, however, as a good, old-fashioned break-up, and tells her "it will be as if I have never existed". OK, we have all been there, and we know the angst and heartbreak that you go through when your one true love denies you. You feel her pain. Bella goes catatonic for awhile, then is brought back to the land of the living (ha) by her childhood friend Jacob, who is in love with Bella, is quite attractive, and who just happens to be a, uh, werewolf and the numero uno enemy of vampires? Puleeeeease. I just shake my head at the idiocy of it all. To make a long story (to the tune of about 560 pages) short, Edward and Bella meet up in Italy in the presence of the vampire grand poo-bahs, and in order to ensure to them that the vampire secret is safe with Bella, promises to turn her into the walking dead in the near future. They are officially reunited, and promise to never leave each other again.

Again, the story is fairly innocent, with teenage hormones boiling below the surface.
The intensity is still there, with Bella riding motorcycles, cliff-diving and talking to strange men in dark alleys to rebel against Edward's abandonment. Edward tries to commit vampire suicide when he thinks Bella has died from a cliff-diving escapade. I feel that the story line also took a fairly ridiculous turn with the werewolf rival, but what do you want from a book geared towards adolescents? I still read it, didn't I? I was quite entertained actually and look forward to the little treat of the third installment...

"Twilight" by Stephanie Meyer

OK, I'm going to lay all my cards on the table here. This book is not what one would call "literature". It is a guilty pleasure, mind candy, and every pubescent girl's dream (yes I was one of those once upon a time!). So sue me! I had heard so much hype on this series of books (I think there are four in total) that I simply felt left out of the fray, and I also suspected that my daughter would be asking to read it soon and I needed to put my seal of approval or disapproval on it.

To me, this is basically a Harry Potter meets Anne Rice that is dripping with romance and hormones. A teenage girl, Bella, moves to the Pacific Northwest to live with her father, after her mother remarries and starts to travel with the new hubby. At her new school, she immediately hits it off with the devestatingly handsome, well-muscled, mysterious Edward Cullen. Who just happens to be a vampire. He's a vampire with a conscience, though, who feeds on animals and lives with his vampire family on the outskirts of town. He and Bella fall madly in love, despite his fear of accidently hurting her with his brute strength or giving into his basic instinct and sucking her blood. Edward saves Bella's life several times...he is fiercly protective of her. (OK ladies, is there anyone out there that didn't fantasize about a creature such as this??? Be honest!) There is alot of dialogue about Edward's habits and lifestyle, his history, and whether or not Bella should be "converted" so they can be together forever. Their physical relationship is quite chaste (I hear this is not the case in later books!) but intense.

This book is about 500 pages, but I read it in...two days? Three days? I was completely sucked into it, pardon the pun. It is an incredibly easy read, and I fear I must read the series now. I have no choice. It will be a nice break in between the heavier stuff I have on my short list. Interestingly, the movie premiers on November 21st, and am intrigued with the choice of Robert Pattinson (our beloved and doomed Cedric in Harry Potter) for the role of Edward. Is it a good thing I knew the face assigned to the role before I read the book? I'm not sure. Apparently the teeny boppers were not pleased with that choice, but in my mind's eye, it works. As for my seal of approval for the book? I whole-heartedly approve as long as you're not looking for Shakespeare, but not for my fifth grader!

Update: Lately it seems that this series of books have taken my daughter's class by storm. It has become the "in" thing to read. Because of this, I thought it might better clarify why exactly I don't think this books is appropriate for a fifth grader so all the parents out there can make a well-informed decision without reading the book. I am not worried about the occult and the risk that my daughter might join a vampire clan. My main concern is over the sexuality and intensity of the relationship between Edward and Bella. They continually claim they would die without each other, they are the only thing that matters in each other's lives, and Bella wants to become a member of the undead to be with Edward forever. Edward regularly stays the night in Bella's bed (he doesn't sleep however, he just watches her) because she can't stand to be away from him. Comments are made by Bella "which is tempting you more...my blood or my body?". There are suggestive comments about whether vampires can have sex. So I guess even there is no sex between the characters (yet), this type of relationship is not one I want my daughter to think is healthy. There is plenty of time later for all that to run amuck!

"Fathers and Sons" by Ivan Turgenev

First of all, I must say that this book was a significant departure from my modus operandi. However, I have recently vowed to read more quality literature, and I believe "Fathers and Sons" qualifies as such. Turgenev wrote this book in 1861, and at the time, enraged Russians, young and old, for its progressive views. Turgenev is said to have significantly influenced later great writers Tolstoy and Dostoevsky. How could I walk away from such a recommendation? (By the way, thanks John Cole!)

The story follows a young college graduate, Arkady, and his recent acquaintance and hero, Bazarov (who is the central character of the book), who are on their way to visit Arkady's father. Bazarov is a self-proclaimed "nihilist", or one that rejects preconceived ideas and old order. He questions everything, believes in nothing, including the arts and l'amour. Bazarov's appearance in the household is the equivalent of throwing a grenade in the middle of things, flustering the old folks. After visiting Arkady's family, the two friends move on to visit relatives in a nearby town and make the acquaintance of the lovely ice-queen Mme. Anna Odintsov and her sister Katya. Bazarov falls in love with Anna (so much for not believing in love!), but is rejected. The traveling dudes move on to visit Basarov's parents, who are heartsick over the absence of their son in their lives. Basarov is in a foul mood, and he fights with both his friend and his family and they leave to return to Arkady's family. Arkady starts to question what planet Bazarov is from, and they part ways unamiably. There is a tragic and bittersweet ending, of which I will not ruin for you!

The genius in this novel is not the lack of plot (which Turgenev is famous for) but the banter between Bazarov, who I find to be quite the rude, insensitive jerk most of the time, and those he comes in contact with. Turgenev is masterful at letting us know, without overdoing it, what is in each character's soul and what they are thinking. We are the proverbial fly on the wall in these sometimes hilarious, sometimes intimate, sometimes heated exchanges. We see incredible character development and transformation of each person in this novel, primarily due to their interaction with Bazarov. Bazarov himself morphs from the steadfast nihilist to a man, not once, but twice, that falls for a woman. I absolutely loved this book, but would have served myself better to have read it in one or two sittings (I was hopelessly distracted by children and politics here lately). You must not expect what you are probably used to in a fiction read, but just ride the wave of Turgenev's brilliance.

"A Thousand Splendid Suns" by Khaled Hosseini (audio)

If you are one of the two gazzilion people who read "Kite Runner", this follow-up chart-topper will feel familiar. Hosseini has basically followed his successful recipe for the sweeping, epic tale, and let's face it...it works. The story follows the very different lives of two women in Afghanistan...Miriam and Laila. Miriam is raised by an angry single mother who commits suicide when Miriam is only 15. With no other choices available, she is forced to marry an abusive, chauvanistic ass of a man. Laila, who is about twenty years younger than Miriam, lives down the street. When a Taliban missile kills her parents, she is taken in by Miriam and her husband and eventually becomes a second wife to the evil (and smelly, in my mind's eye) bastard. The two women form an unbreakable bond that endures war, spousal and societal abuses, the birth of children and death. Here in America it is easy to view the middle-eastern people as our enemy. We rarely appreciate, however, what it is like for the common folk, and particularly women, to live in a country such as this. A place where every family has lost a loved one to war, women are beaten and imprisoned for laughing out loud or going somewhere without a male escort, or stray bullets take out children playing in the front yard on a daily basis.

I do have to say that I felt Hosseini was attempting to manipulate my emotions...I felt the same way with Kite Runner. But I still have to give him credit for a great book. A book that drives home messages of love, sacrifice, and the power of sisterhood. It is hard to argue with that!

"Into That Darkness" by Gitta Sereny

This is another book that I read some time ago but wanted to share with you. This was a recommendation by Robert's company's chairman, Dick Shura, who told me this book would change my life. And he was right.

Sereny is a reporter who spent over 70 hours of interview time with Franz Stangl, the Kommandant of Treblinka, the largest death camp in WWII. At the time of the interviews, Stangl was in his 60s and awaiting an appeal to his death sentence in prison. Sereny's agenda was not what you would think. She was not after horror stories. She posed to Stangl a question that has haunted every human being since the Holocaust...how does a smart, upstanding citizen, a husband, a father, justify what he has done? How did he rationalize his actions so that he could sleep at night? She digs deep, asking very tough, perceptive questions. But she doesn't take his answers at face value. She follows up and cross-checks nearly every statement Stangl makes (it started to wear me out thinking about the exhaustive research this woman did!). She spoke with Stangl's wife, his friends, survivors of the camp, other officers of the Third Reich. If stories didn't match up, she went after it like a dog with a bone.

There is a point in the book when it all starts to become clear. Even now, my heart is starting to race thinking about it. How the extermination of millions all started so small, with euthanizing invalids, and the rationalization by even priests that is was the humane thing to do. The list expanded to the mentally ill, and with the loose definition of what constituted "mentally ill", the list expanded further to include homosexuals, people with various diseases, and anyone else that just happened to piss off those in charge. Through the justification of each tiny step, and ultimately through the fear of ending up on the list, so many people like you and me stepped aside and let it all happen.

Ultimately, this book is about an examination of conscience...for Stangl, for everyone involved, and even ourselves. Would you and I have reacted any differently, had we witnessed these events? What is the value of a life? Are some worth more than others? These are not pleasant ponderings, and this book is not for the faint of heart. It is not an easy book to read, but I think every person on this earth should be required to read it.

"The Post-Birthday World" by Lionel Shriver

I actually read this book a year and a half ago, but is one that needs to be acknowledged here. It is one that has stuck with me, and has been scribbled down and e-mailed countless times to my friends. Have you ever allowed yourself to wonder "what if"...if you'd made this decision over that one, married this person instead of that one...how would your life had changed? This book allows a delightful opportunity to peer into a parrallel life of Irina, our protagonist, and actually see the "what if".

Irina has lived in London with Lawrence, an intellectual think-tank manager, for a decade. Their relationship is comfortable and maybe a little boring. Every year they get together with their friend, Ramsey, a devil-may-care snooker champion, to celebrate his birthday. One year, Lawrence is out of town and Irina decides to continue with the tradition by herself. Irina and Ramsey proceed to get hammered (or in London, "pissed") and approach the fork in the road. You see this coming, right? At this point in the book, there are two "Chapter 2's", "two Chapter 3's", etc. In the first of the two chapters, Irina falls for the dashing Ramsey, ultimately leaves Lawrence, and lives the unpredictable and non-stop life of a snooker wife (or more appropriately a snooker widow). In the second of the two chapters, Irina resists temptation and stays with Lawrence, steadfastly loyal but bored out of her skull. Each outcome is so completely different, and unexpected, and I won't ruin it for you.

Shriver is a very talented writer and is a joy and a hoot to read. This book is FULL of ironies, some absolutely hilarious. The two story lines intertwine fabulously. For example, in one parallel life, Irina and Ramsey visit Irina's family for Christmas, Ramsey gets toasted and trashes the place, and Irina is left apologizing. In the other life, it is Irina that drinks too much and makes a mess, and Lawrence has to pick up the pieces. These clever little slights of hand had me laughing out loud. It was rated in the top 5 must reads of 2007 by Entertainment Weekly, and I know that I will read it again.