Review: Skeletons at the Feast

Skeletons at the Feast by Chris Bohjalian

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



Mom gave me this book last time I was in Florida - from the receipt inside, it looks like it was actually from Rochelle.

It was a gripping book - hard to put down but also terribly sad. I remember reading several books by Bohjalian, particularly [b:Midwives|5166|Midwives|Chris Bohjalian|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1405281567s/5166.jpg|3221872] followed by a few others when that was popular, but I hadn't read him in at least a decade. I forgot how well he could tell a story and develop characters. Both of which - boy - he can.

This book is about several intersecting stories during WWII. One is about a few women in a concentration camp. One story line is about a Jewish man who survives WWII by pretending to be a German soldier. And the third story is about a German family who, when it becomes obvious that Germany is going to lose the war, begins to walk across the country in the hopes that the Scottish POW they have living with them will be their ticket to safety. I think it's the inclusion of the German family that makes this story unique among Holocaust literature I've read in the past.

One clever thing that Bohjalain does is contrast the trek that the German family is making with that of the women in the concentration camp. You're reading about the Germans, and how they are running out of food, then trading their jewelry for food, and being scared by the bombs and shooting. Then in the next chapter are unspeakable horrors at the camp and you remember that the Germans supported Hitler and don't actually have it so bad.

He does a lot of great character building - the young Jewish man, the POW, the daughter of the Jewish family, one woman at the camp - all of them are central characters, thoroughly described and developed.

I really enjoyed this and will be sure to put him back in my reading rotation soon.



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Review: A Breath of Snow and Ashes

A Breath of Snow and Ashes by Diana Gabaldon

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



I've been enjoying the Outlander series for several years now, treating myself to a new book each time I go on vacation. For the Adirondacks this summer, I was up to #6. Coincidentally. Starz network chose this summer to air a miniseries adaptation of Outlander, so there was a lot of buzz about these books going on this summer.

This was definitely one of my favorites in the series. I thought it was really fascinating to see what was going on just when the Revolutionary War was starting. But was was really special about this book is that several long-running plot threads had some great payoffs - some of Jamie's family history, of Jocasta's relationships, of Lord John's story - many of them that have been building for so many books were resolved.

Unlike the last two books, which I liked but found a little long and far-fetched (yes, in the scope of a time traveler story, things can still be near- or far- fetched), this one kept my attention fully and I enjoyed every page. Can't wait until November when I embark on #7.



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Review: A Sliver of Light: Three Americans Imprisoned in Iran

A Sliver of Light: Three Americans Imprisoned in Iran by Shane Bauer

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



I think I heard about this book on NPR - in any case it is a shared memoir of three friends who were prisoners in Iran for several years. They begin by hiking in Iraq and either accidentally or carelessly end up crossing the border into Iran where they are captured and thrown in prison.

The book alternates in each of their voices telling the story. You can feel their struggles and their joys, and how they are alternatively feeling hopeful and hopeless. They capture the soul-dullingly boredom of prison, the agony of solitary confinement, and the confusing relationships they had with the guards. While they weren't tortured (and in fact were given sufficient food, clothing, and medical care), they were manipulated, tricked, and often played against each other. At times they were allowed to share rooms or free time, but other times they were isolated. The relationships they had with each other were complex and fragile.

Not just a political statement (although it is), this book is about surviving with little to no information. It is about friendship and love, and about persevering through the unimaginable as a team.



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Review: Townie: A Memoir

Townie: A Memoir by Andre Dubus III

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



I really liked this book. It is a memoir by an author whose books like [b:House of Sand and Fog|7944648|House of Sand and Fog|Andre Dubus III|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1348794554s/7944648.jpg|932849] and [b:The Garden of Last Days|2079538|The Garden of Last Days|Andre Dubus III|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1409436719s/2079538.jpg|2084812] riveted me in the past. He is such a great writer, and his telling of his real-life story is no less consuming.

Andre and his three siblings live in New England and when his parents get divorced, they end up with his mom. The five of them struggle in poverty in different towns like Haverhill and Newburyport while his father becomes a professor at a nearby college, seeing the children once a week and either ignoring or not noticing the conditions under which they are growing up.

As he gets older, he turns to anger, and violence, and also forges an unusual relationship with his father. We know the ending - that ultimately he grows into a highly successful novelist - but the book ends long before that happens. How he gets there and what his formative years are like is the real story. What I liked most about this book was the writing - Dubus was able to describe both time and place as well as emotions with great skill.



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Review: A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier

A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



This was a really interesting memoir.

Sierra Leone is bookmarked in my head as an African country with atrocities that have been going on for decades. I have to admit, I sometimes confuse it with Sudan and Rwanda - but this book was a sad education on Sierra Leone itself through the eyes of Beah.

Beah is a young boy - not even a teen - when civil war erupts in SL. He and several of his friends end up on the run, their families killed, trying to figure out how to live in a war zone. It is unclear to the reader and probably the boys who is right and who is wrong in the conflict - there are rebels and a national army and they seem to blend into one military force.

Beah ends up recruited into the army at 13, drugged and manipulated, and becomes a soldier. It is only after several years that NGOs and the UN step in to rescue him and many other boys in his situation (on both sides of the conflict). It is a testament to his core as a person as well as help he receives along the way that he emerges from this trauma as an optimistic functioning human being.



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Review: The Silver Star

The Silver Star by Jeannette Walls

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



This book, by the author of [b:The Glass Castle|7445|The Glass Castle|Jeannette Walls|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1400930557s/7445.jpg|2944133], was great. It follows the story of Bean and Liz, two sisters who go live with an eccentric uncle after their mother abandons them. It was hard not to draw comparisons between this novel and Walls' real childhood, where her parents were benignly neglectful, bordering on abusive with their childrearing style. In both cases, she (or in this case, the narrator, Bean) shies away from blaming her parents, rather, she is optimistic and ultimately perseveres.

This book was eminently readable. The narrator and her sister were very likable characters, strong little girls who tried their best to riddle out how to live in an adult world. The story and plot kept me interested, while the writing itself was easy to absorb and kept my interest.

I'll keep being interested in what Jeannette Walls writes.



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Review: Blowback

Blowback by Valerie Plame

My rating: 2 of 5 stars



I really wanted to like this book. I had read Plame's [b:Fair Game: My Life as a Spy, My Betrayal by the White House|1815529|Fair Game My Life as a Spy, My Betrayal by the White House|Valerie Plame Wilson|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1327869499s/1815529.jpg|1815022] about her life as a CIA spy and figured this would be a really fun novel.

It barely qualifies as a good airport read crossed with a bad episode of Covert Affairs. The story followed spy Vanessa Pierson as she hunts down a known nuclear arms dealer who is otherwise impossible to find. She has assets, a secret boyfriend, and people who don't trust her in the CIA.

While I have a lot of respect for Plame in real life, her novel was not much more than pulp.



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