The Wives of Los Alamos by Tarashea Nesbit

This is fiction, but just barely.  It's a somewhat impressionistic group portrait of the women married to scientists at Los Alamos, New Mexico.  This is the lab where the atomic bomb was developed.

J. Francis Oppenheimer makes an appearance here, viewed through wifely eyes.  Much of this novel is concerned with domestic life and the difficulty of making a life in a new place, far from friends and family, while loved ones are serving in the armed forces, often overseas, and while letters are censored, family visits are forbidden, and security concerns govern everything. The wives were often not told where they were going when they set off for New Mexico; while some wives may have known what "the husbands" were working on, it was never discussed (at least not in the pages of this novel).

I am reading this for my book group and I predict it will not be popular with the group.  One member has already said that it doesn't have any plot.  Of course it does.  Victories in Europe and defeats in the Pacific are the rising action; the climax is the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.  The denounement is packing up and going "home," and realizing the Los Alamos has become home and will be missed.  I didn't really enjoy it very much, but I'm sure that that may be in part because I was compelled to read it for my book group. Compulsion sometimes takes the joy out of things that would otherwise be enjoyable, as any of the Los Alamos wives could very easily point out.

The author writes in her acknowledgment that the idea grew out of a comment from an audience member when she presented some research on Los Alamos and the commenter wanted to know about the lives of the wives.  Many of the wives had bachelor's or even advanced degrees in math and the sciences, but they mostly accepted the mores of their day and accepted their "careers" as wives and mothers.  Nesbit portrays the wives as mildly disliking the few women scientists there, who because of their status, got bathtubs.

I thought of the showers there when I was washing off poison ivy oil today.  Water was not reliable; sometimes women would open the tap to get water for coffee and brown muck would come out. They were advised to take something I think may have been called the "Good Citizen Shower," when, to conserve water, they were advised to soap up before getting into the shower - only to find themselves covered with cold, sticky soap when no water came out of the shower head.

The Things We Save by Joanne Zienty

This novel is a self-published debut novel, and it is also the winner of the 2014 Soon-To-Be-Famous Illinois Author Project.

Claire Sokol is the child of first-generation Polish-American immigrants.  Her father is a WWII veteran and a steel worker on the South Side of Chicago.   Her family is a typical baby boom family until tragedy hits her family, leading to a slow unraveling of family ties and a series of traumatic events that rip the family apart and led Claire first to turn her back on her family and to develop a self-protective coldness, fear of intimacy and inability to commit.  Her situation is one that many of us feel; unable to process our childhood losses and to forgive our parents, we turn our concern to our adult lives, aware or unaware of the way those issues shape us and our actions going forward.

I just finished it on Monday, and I really enjoyed it.  I can't quite separate my feelings about the virtues of the novel from my admiration for the author, or the clever way that she used numerous pop culture references to give the reader a sense of "you are there."

There Was A Little Girl by Ed McBain

Matthew Hope is an attorney from Chicago now living in Florida.  Late one night he visits a bar to meet someone; when he walks out the front door of the bar to see if the person's he's waiting to meet is coming, he's shot, twice.

The shooting deprives Hope's brain of oxygen for several minutes, and after surgery he ramains unresponsive.  His private investigator, a man named Warren Chambers, and his partner, Toots Riley, immediately start an investigation to find out who shot Hope, working in tandem with a police detective who's a friend of Hope's.  Their goal is to retrace Hope's steps in the days leading up to the shooting, believing that they will find a motive for the shooting, and that a motive will lead them to the shooter.

Hope had recently had a tough criminal case and had chosen to focus on civil law for a while.  He'd been  working on a real estate deal.  A circus owner who regularly winters in Florida, had recognized that much of his profit is from his midway operation, and had decided that he'd like to buy a large parcel of land in town to use to set up the circus over the winter.

But there's a hitch:  the owner of the parcel is nearly bankrupt and his property is heavily mortgaged. His creditor is expected to litigate the debt, and this would delay or prevent sale of the property to Hope's client.

Meanwhile, Hope investigates the freedom the circus owner may or may not have to make the deal, and meets a remarkable woman.  She is a striking young woman with red hair who, though only about 22, has a thriving business as a wigmaker.  Having inherited her mother's half share of the business when her mother died three years earlier, she is now half owner of the circus.  When Hope talks to her, she insists that her mother's suicide was a murder.

It seems to me that the novel has three parts, each with a different mood that gradually turns darker.  I was sincerely surprised by the turn of the plot in the last third of the novel.

The young woman who owns half the circus, her mother and father, and her friends from her time in the circus (which includes the couple who own the parcel the circus owner wishes to acquire) are a colorful cast of characters.

This novel was published in 1994.  Ed McBain was a pen name of the author Evan Hunter, a prolific novelist who died in 2005.

I don't know why I picked up this novel which I've owned for about a year.  It's coincidence that it's also set in Florida.

Cuba Straits by Randy Wayne White

In Cuba Straits, Doc Ford gets involved with the desperate business of an old acquaintance, General Rivera.  Cuba is not exactly wide open, but Rivera has been making money smuggling ballplayers and cultural artifacts from Cuba into the U.S.  Both activities are illegal, but in baseball-mad Cuba going to the "show" on the mainland is a highly regarded activity.  The theft of cultural and historical artifacts, perhaps not so much.

Ford's old friend, Tomlinson, naturally gets involved and ends up as a baby sitter for a very colorful Cuban baseball player.

Ford knows that Rivera has left out a lot in his account of the trouble that he's in, and he strongly suspects he should not get involved.  After Tomlison sets sails for Cuba, Ford feels he's obligated to go but he decides to turn back -- until he rescues two girls, 11 and 13, from a horrible shipwreck

It's not enough for Ford to save the girls from their piece of raft and the sharks that would like to feast on them; after he hears their story and perceives that they are in danger he feels responsible for their welfare and this development drives the rest of the plot.

Once Ford arrives in Cuba, the action  intensifies in pace and interest.  This was the point at which I became hooked and couldn't wait to find out what would happen next.  It's approximately at this point that a serial killer is introduced and this serial killer reminds me a little of the serial killer in True Detective.  I believe it's a sin to waste a really good idea; you should use it over and over because if it's been good once it will be again at least one more time (and maybe more).

This book has a wonderful cover.  And this author has written a lot of books in this series, featuring marine biologist and ex-CIA guy Marion "Doc" Ford.  I believe this is the 22nd book.  (White has recently started a second series featuring Hannah Smith, expert fishing guide and amateur detective, and I'm happy to report that she makes an appearance here.)

I read a review in which the reviewer seemed to see this book as speculative fiction, a vision (or a version?) of what will happen in Cuba in the near future.  Cuba is close enough to us that I think it is of natural interest to many.  The closeness of Cuba to Key West means that Cuba's history is part of Key West's history, as well.  When I saw the Buena Vista Social Club in the theater, the audience loved it so much that they applauded at the end.

Photographs of Cuba I've seen have shown beautiful colonial architecture and wonderful cars from the 1950's with their sensual and organic shapes.

Cuba is alluring.

For all these reasons I decided to take a chance on this novel.

I've noticed that some readers are reluctant to take a chance on jumping into a series well past the beginning.  They suspect, I think, that they will have missed something important (or, perhaps, they enjoy the serial, the repeated visits with known characters).

I was prepared to have that experience, but I think White handled it well.  (Although as I write this, I find myself wondering:  if White had not told us anything about Ford relationship with his old buddy and dear friend Tomlinson, would we not have been able to infer long history and great loyalty? Perhaps - and it might have been more interesting.  I can't help noticing, however, that some readers like to have all the loose ends wrapped up and to have everything explained.)  As the novel progresses, Tomlinson and Ford act in tandem even though they are in different places and are not communicating - not only do they have a deep loyalty to each other but almost a sixth sense about the other.

What does this book have?  Boats!  Two, and one of them is called No Mas, which I think is a good name.   (No explosions, however, but I am not disappointed.)  Also, guns.  If you like guns, there are at least three here .. no, four, if you count the beretta.  Lots of cool technology on Ford's boat, like an anti-radar cover.  How cool is that?

There's a scene where Tomlinson (if I remember correctly) meets a man in a bar who feels him out and then shows him photographs of Castro taken by his father back in the fifties and sixties.  Sometime recently I saw a news report about Cuba in which I thought the reporter said that Cubans remember the fifties and sixties vividly, and that certainly is conveyed in this scene.

Doc Ford is a marine biologist and so there's quite a bit about turtles.  There's quite a lot about Florida, which was mostly lost on me as I'm not a Florida person.  But I love Carl Hiassen, and he, White and Ed McBain share a love of Florida's flora, fauna and geography which I'm sure  readers enjoy and which I respect.

For me, the pace and narrative of the book really picked up after Doc and Tomlinson arrive in Cuba.

I've just heard that the U.S. and Cuba are going to establish a ferry which will permit you to take your car to Cuba.  Where does the line form?  Do they take dogs, too?

After I'm Gone by Laura Lippman

Felix Brewer is a successful bookmaker until he's convicted by the Feds.  Unable to face imprisonment, he leaves his wife, three daughters and a mistress behind.

When his girlfriend, Julie Saxony, disappears ten years later, it's widely assumed that  she's left town to join him.

When her decomposed body is found in a local park, it's obvious that she hasn't left to join her lover. The police work the case, but are unable to close it.

A retired detective, bereft by the loss of his wife to cancer, goes to work as an independent contractor for Baltimore's police department, working cold cases.  He chooses his own hours and chooses his own cases.

One day he opens the Julie Saxony file, and the picture he sees there, of a beautiful blonde woman with breatakingly beautiful blue eyes, makes him choose her for his next cold case investigation.

I really enjoyed this book.  It was certainly suspenseful - it's a murder mystery, after all - but what was really interesting about this novel was Lippman's exploration of the lives, burdens and conflicts of the wife, daughters and mistress left behind.

Her characters are well delineated and they behave in unpredictable ways that seem fresh and original,

This is the rare suspense novel with fully developed characters struggling with real lives.  This is not a Tess Monaghan novel, but she makes an appearance at the end of the story.

I talked to a friend of mine about whether or not this novel was enjoyed by her mystery book group. She said the folks in her mystery book group liked the novel well enough, but that they thought it was not a mystery.  I said,  "How can they say that?  There's a body and there's a detective."  She said, "Well, they said that what the novel was really about was the lives of the women left behind." That's true:  that is what this novel is really about.  It is a very suspenseful novel, however, and I think many mystery readers will still enjoy it,

The Miniaturist by Jessie Burton

Petronella Oortman's father has died, leaving their family broke.  Her mother thinks that marrying Petronella to a rich man will save Petronella from poverty and assure her future.  She writes to all of her contacts, and a man from Amsterdam responds.

He comes to visit Petronella in her small town, and she plays the lute for him.  They marry, he departs, and she leaves some time later to join him in Amsterdam.

She's surprised and disappointed that he's not there to meet her.  She meets instead his sister and his two servants.  She feels unwelcome.

He finally returns home, but he seems never to have any time for her.  He surprises her one day with a very large cabinet, a miniature replica of his house on the Golden Bend in Amsterdam.

She's disappointed by the gift but she eventually resolves to furnish it by writing to a miniaturist advertised in Smit's List, the local list of merchants.  Soon, the miniaturist begins to send her miniatures she has not requested, and she is mystified and fearful about what they may mean.

At the same time, tensions between her husband and his sister seem to rise, and they also make her feel uneasy.

This book has a number of surprises and a supernatural element.  Because it's set in 17th century Amsterdam, I expected "Girl with a Pearl Earring," and that is not this book.

On the back of my copy of The Miniaturist, there is a blurb from the UK newspaper Observer review: "A fabulously gripping read that will appeal to fans of Girl with a Pearl Earring and The Goldfinch, but Burton is a genuinely new voice with her visceral take on sex, race and class."  Sex, race and class are central to this novel.  It won't surprise you, I'm sure, that I didn't expect that focus on sex, race and class in a novel set in the 17th century.  While that focus reflects the concerns of our own time, I found myself feeling that the novel's voice was authentic rather than a vehicle for exploring the issues of our time.

I found Jessie Burton's writing style surprising:  she regularly used words with which I was not familiar and her prose was often more poetic than concrete.  This did not affect (I don't think, anyway) my ability to understand the story (and there was a lot of plot in this book).

It appears to me that she did a great deal of research; I know little of 17th century Dutch society, or how it may have differed from city to country, etc.  I was under the impression that Vermeer and his family were hidden Catholics and that their Catholicism was an open secret that was tolerated by their neighbors.

I mention this because the neighbors in this novel are not tolerant, and I was surprised.

This novel's conflict is between the private and the public sphere.  At the beginning of the novel, I thought, "This is Rebecca," the novel by Daphne du Maurier.  But, by the end of the novel, I felt that the plot was very different from that novel and that a great deal of focus was on private actions and private values being in conflict with the larger world.

Above all, it was a very suspenseful novel.  I have the feeling that a lot of people will enjoy the suspense, and some people will feel that not all questions have been tidily answered by the end of the novel.

Me Before You by JoJo Moyes

I was drawn to this book because I'd liked another book by JoJo Moyes, One Plus One, and because I'd seen that it was chosen by a couple of book clubs.  I found that somewhat remarkable, because Me Before You had been portayed in such a way that I thought it was a romance (and certainly there is a romance in the story).

I enjoyed it very much.

Lou is a waitress in her mid-'20's.  She loves her job, but is shattered one day when her boss tells her that he's closing the cafe where she works.  She lives in a small town where job opportunities are limited, and what follows is a series of depressing and unproductive visits to the local employment center.

Reluctantly, she accepts a position as a caregiver to a quadriplegic man.

Her first surprise occurs when she discovers that the man she is to care for, Will Traynor, is only about ten years older than herself.  She also learns quickly that he is  bitter, sarcastic, unfriendly and withdrawn.  She wants to quit the job but is persuaded by her sister, Treena, to stay because Treena's leaving home to return to school and their family will then depend on Lou's income.

Lou perseveres and begins to be able to relate to her charge, and then intensely shocking complicatinos in her work arise.  At the same time, her father loses his job, her boyfriend becomes threatened by her relationship with Will, and Will finally forces her to confront a traumatic episode from her past.

The book's ending is satisfying but it did surprise me.  I now understand this book's popularity with book clubs because I can see that the issues raised here make this a perfect book for a book group: there's plenty to discuss!

Here, as in One Plus One, Moyes reminds us of the class differences of the characters.  She also has quite a bit to say about how society treats the disabled, described recently as the largest, and mostly invisible, minority.

I think part of what I enjoyed the most about the book was the character of Lou.  She's young and naive, but sweet, energetic and passionate. Her family seemed like a family out of a 1950s situation comedy.  Her mother and father, despite their limitations, are steadfastly warm and loyal to their daughters.  This book reminded me of the film "Getting It Right," about a young hairdresser coming of age and finding love.  The sweetness of the story made it feel like a guilty pleasure.

On Saturday morning I went to the library.  I think I probably hadn't been in there since I was at school--quite possibly out of fear that they would remember the Judy Blume I had lost in Year 7, and that clammy, official hand would reach out as I passed through the building's Victorian pillared doors, demanding L3,853 in fines.

Mr. Churchill's Secretary by Susan Elia MacNeal

This is an historical fiction mystery, with spy intrigue thrown in - another genre blender.  The title refers to Miss Maggie Hope, a young American woman, just a year out of college, who goes to work at the famous War Rooms, working for Winston Churchill at the start of the Second World War.

I read this book with a book group, and everybody loved it.  I enjoyed it, too.  There's something for everyone .. murder mystery, spy intrigue, false identities, romance, coming of age, family secrets, characters based on historical personages (something I like) - no wonder it's such a crowd pleaser.

Something I admire about this book, which I think contributes greatly to its success, it that the plotting and storytelling is truly suspenseful.

The Drop by Dennis Lehane

This is the second Dennis Lehane book I've read; I first became interested in him when Mystic River came out and he did a radio interview in which he talked about his experiences working in the child welfare system.

But everyone's a grown-up in this book.  I really did enjoy it, although I found the violence surprising and somewhat unsettling, as I did when I read A Drink Before the War (although not as much).

But for all its grit, this novel has a great happy ending payoff that includes a dog.  What more could you ask for?  Good writing, deft characterization, suspense, happy ending and a dog!

This is an easy, quick read.  I think it took me three to four hours.  It has something for everyone: suspense, a heist, a mystery, a romance and a dog!  Oh, and it starts over Christmas!  If you like suspense in an urban setting, and you don't mind a happy ending, I would definitely recommend this novel.  

Five Days at Memorial: Life and Death in a Storm-Ravaged Hospital

I've just begun this Pulitzer Prize-wining nonfiction account of Memorial Hospital in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans.

It's already easy to see that the health professionals inside the hospital went from feeling confident about their ability to ride out the storm to being frightened and stressed by the heat and other factors due to the loss of electricity for several days.

It seems that there are some obvious policy recommendations.  Hospital generators need to be reliable for at least four days rather than hours.  Hospitals need to designate on-site decision makers, and need to prepare them for making major administrative decisions if they are not hospital administrators.  Perhaps hospital administrators should be required to remain on-site during hurricanes and other storms than can remove electricity, and should be required to try to get to the hospital if the electricity goes out.

White Princess by Philippa Gregory

I read this title for a book group, and I didn't expect to like it since I know quite a bit already about Tudor history and thought I would not enjoy a fictionalized account, especially one with elements of the supernatural.

However, I was very pleasantly surprised.  I found the story interesting.  As some reviewer of The White Queen said, Gregory makes The War of the Roses/Tudor history interesting despite the fact that we know how it ends.

I was a little disconcerted by the point of view of Elizabeth of York:  her view of Richard III as a tragically lost lover and her view of Perkin Warbeck, which really surprised me (she views Perkin Warbeck as being, possibly, her brother Richard, the Duke of York (presumed lost/murdered in the Tower of London).  For one thing, I had not thought that there was any uncertainty about whether Richard, Duke of York had perished in the Tower.  I do remember reading somewhere, with some incredulity, that there is some thought that Richard III had an illegitimate son who succeeded in escaping notice.

Gregory's characterization of Margaret of Beaufort as an old battle ax may not be far off the mark although it does not quite answer the question I've always had, which is, how did Margaret Beaufort think that she could put her son on the throne given that the Beauforts were expressly excluded from the succession by an act of parliament.  Perhaps the answer is simply "that was then, this is now."

Her portrait of Henry VII as a man obsessed with keeping his crown perhaps explains the "bloody" nature of the Tudors.

I was a little disappointed by the ending, which seemed to me to trail off without conclusion.  However, it occurred to me that no ending is perhaps needed when you know that another chapter in the saga will appear in a year's time.

Given that this story is the basis for Games of Thrones and many other books, I perhaps should not be so surprised that Gregory has been able to mine it for much more drama.

Miss Dimple Rallies to the Cause by Mignon Ballard

Just finished this novel.  I liked it.  It's not necessarily the sort of thing I would be most interested in reading given my own inclinations (I read it for a book group), but I think it's very well done.   It's a historical mystery.

The year is 1943, and Miss Dimple is a middle-aged (oh, well, perhaps a little bit past) first-grade teacher in a small town in Alabama.  She has taught first-grade, and lived in Phoebe Chadwick's boarding house, for decades.

The children are given time off of school to pick cotton because so many of the men who worked as farm laborers are in the military.  Miss Dimple and the other teachers go along to supervise.  At the end of the day, a horrible event occurs.  As a teacher goes to a creekside to retrive some wandering children, she glimpses a skelton which has been exposed by receding flood waters.

Miss Dimple is haunted by a feeling that things are not quite right.  And many folks in this close-knit town are in some kind of distress:  Buddy Oglesby is trying to recover from another job loss and find his place in the world; Charlie Carr, her sister Delia, and her best friend Annie are all troubled by their beaus' absence as they serve in the military; Phoebe Chadwick seems to be being blackmailed; and there's something "not quite right" about the new football coach.

All is revealed, but not before a bond rally and local pageant is held, and not before at least one lovelorn lass gets engaged, and not before there is a second death and a shooting.  And not before a whole lot of visiting and going to dinner at each other's houses, and much baking and gifting of said baking.

That's a lot of action for one little town.

Although Miss Dimple is probably not familiar with the term, she is a feminist.  Although has no children of her own, she loves her students.  She is a member of a close community, knows everyone, and participates in all the community's events.

Some of the strains of small town life are present and some are absent.

But the portrait of a community's response to the war effort, the home front, from collecting grease to ration stamps and margarine and going without butter, all feel pretty accurate.

        "Dimple Kilpatrick seldom worried.  It did no good to dwell on conditions one could not      change, but if there was something she could do to improve a situation, she believed in doing what her father had referred to as "stepping up to the plate."

      When the other teachers left for school af ter the midday meal that day, Miss Dimle gathered up her leather handbag decorated with colorful yarn flowers, along with her umbrella, just in case she spied litter along the way, and left them in Phoebe's front parlor.  According to the porcelain clock on the mantel, she had more than enough time to get back to school before the first bell rang.

     And then she made her way down the long hallway, knocked on Phoebe Chadwick's bedroom door, and "stepped up to the plate."

This book is part of a series.  The first title is Miss Dimple Disappears, the second is Miss Dimple Rallies to the Cause, the third is Miss Dimple Suspects, and the last is Miss Dimple Picks a Peck of Trouble.

The Heist by Janet Evanovich and Lee Goldberg

I'm reading The Heist, and it's my first Janet Evanovich novel.  I've been told that the novels that she write in collaboration with others are not as good as those in the series "starring" Stephanie Plum.  Of course, I haven't read any of those so I can't make any comparison.

I can say that The Heist, like the Rosie Project, feels like "reading" a movie.  So many of the ideas are very cinematic, from decked out yachts to massive explosions caused by rocket launchers.

I found myself wondering if Goldberg came up with the plot, the setting, the pacing and Evanovich came up with the jokes.  I wonder because the jokes tend to be very woman-centric.  Even so, some of them just don't feel quite right, like the one in which the protagonist, Kate O'Hara, lists wearing a push-up bra to her sister's wedding as a deception about which she feels guilty.  I thought and thought about that one; it definitely did not immediately ring true that wearing a garment of clothing, no matter which garment of clothing, could be thought of as a deception,  Maybe Lee Goldberg wrote that joke.

I read this book for a book group and some of the Evanovich fans present said that they preferred the Plum series.

I find myself wondering about books written by screenwriters.  To me, one of the virtues of this book is its quick pace.  I didn't feel that I had to wade through a lot of exposition to get to the action.  In fact, the episode of the exploding yacht takes place in the first half of the book (which surprised me).
On the other hand, Kate and Nick or whatever their names are, are stock characters.  I do feel like I'm reading an episode of "The Mentalist," or "White Collar," or  any one of a number of other shows that feature sexy con men teaming up with strait-laced FBI agents, whether male or female.

This book is entertaining:  funny and fast-paced and a lot like TV.  It's hard to care about the characters, because they aren't very well-developed (although Kate's ex-military dad is an interesting and entertaining character, and his ability to help her in her work is exciting).  It seems to me that this is a great book to read on a plane, a train, a bus or when you're sick - i,e., when you want to be entertained and you don't want to work so hard.