Killing Floor (Jack Reacher #1) / Lee Child

Some of my favorite moments come from picking up a book or movie with low to no expectations and finding it far more entertaining than I thought I'd be. There's just something very gratifying about experiences like that, the ones that require little investment and yet yield a high rate of a return. It's what happened to me with the third movie in The Fast and the Furious franchise, Tokyo Drift (DVD FAST — hey, don't knock it 'til you've tried it!) and, more recently, Lee Child's Killing Floor (FIC CHILD).

This book, published in 1997, is the first in the bestselling Jack Reacher series. Reacher, an ex-military cop who drifts from town to town, inevitably finds trouble. These scenarios let us see our imposing, 6-foot 5-inch laconic protagonist at his best by showcasing his skills as both an operator and a detective. It's thrilling to follow a character who certainly knows how to handle himself, and who doesn't shirk from danger or mystery. He doesn't necessarily go looking for either of them — they just seem to find him.

Lee Child, the pen name for British writer Jim Grant, spent nearly 20 years as a writer in the television industry before corporate restructuring left him without a job. Child's reaction? To buy $6 worth of pen and paper and sit down and write a novel. Fourteen years later, he's still at it.

Killing Floor introduces us to the 36-year-old Reacher, who's just six months out of the Army. He's been wandering American's highways and byways as a self-described hobo since then. On a whim, he finds himself in the deceptively picturesque town of Margrave, Ga. From the minute he sits down in the town's lone diner, things go rapidly downhill for him. A murder — extremely rare for these parts — took place the night before, and Reacher's the easy suspect. The authorities welcome him by putting him in cuffs and pulling him in for questioning.

I thought: should I be worried? I was under arrest. In a town where I'd never been before. Apparently for murder. But I knew two things. First, they couldn't prove something had happened if it hadn't happened. And second, I hadn't killed anybody.

Not in their town, and not for a long time anyway.

Unfortunately for Reacher, but lucky for action-junkie readers, Killing Floor ratchets him back into the fray. A swath of bodies follows, some by the bad guys' hands and others by Reacher's as he struggles to stay alive while uncovering the town's secrets.

His motivations rely too much on coincidence but if you're willing to set aside your skepticism, the ride will keep you riveted. Child does a great job of pacing the story in a deliberate way, imbuing it with a sense of urgency by mixing slower scenes with moments of explosive action. The brutality of the violence took me by surprise — we're talking Girl-with-the-Dragon-Tattoo-level graphic brutality, so don't expect this to be a cozy mystery.

Once you get over the bloodshed, however, you'll see that Reacher's a pretty likable guy, deadly efficiency aside. He just wants to be left alone to do his own thing. For a loner, he certainly has surprisingly good people skills. He finds partners in two of the officers of the Margrave P.D. and together, the trio race against the clock to thwart the story's antagonists.

As successful as Child has been with the Jack Reacher series, it's no surprise that the character's been picked up for an impending movie. No. 9, One Shot is in development and slated for release in 2013.

The actor playing Reacher? Tom Cruise. Yikes. For now, I think I'll just stick to the books. Lucky for me, there are 15 more of them.

Life is Short But Wide / by J. California Cooper

Author Joan California Cooper, known to readers as J. California Cooper, was born in Berkeley, California and divided much of her younger days between Northern California and rural Texas. She began writing a performing plays as a very young child and even though much of her earlier work was done in private and hidden from public view, she succeeded in quickly gaining esteem for her scripts like "Strangers", "Loners" and "Everytime It Rains" which have been widely performed in a variety of platforms. As well as a playwright Cooper is a successful short story writer and novelist. Her 1986 book Homemade Love won an ABA prize and she's been honored with the American Library Association's Literary Lion and James Baldwin awards. Considered a bit of a recluse who prefers to keep her whereabouts as well as her age a secret, Cooper has been characterized as an author whose deceptively simple style evokes a wide range of deftly portrayed themes and ideas. Among her latest novels is Life Is Short But Wide (2010), about a small rural Oklahoma community whose simple family and generational personalities evoke an often overlooked place and time.

In early twentieth century America, rural Wideland, Oklahoma is home to a handfull of hard-working African American families struggling to eke out a living and live out their dreams. With the railroad station has come some prosperity and a few newcomers, but very little has changed from how Hattie B. Brown, the local octogenarian and storyteller, remembers it. Though at a loss for memory some times and never quite as surefooted as she used to be, Hattie relates the comings and goings of the folks of Wideland. Among the new residents, Hattie introduces the gregarious cowboy Val Strong and his part-Cherokee friend Wings, both of whom work to keep their head of cattle well-fed and well-stocked. Then there's Val's beautiful but less-friendly and sometimes bitter wife Irene who takes care of the couple's two daughters Rose and Tante, both of them stubborn and often bickering but not without their joy and good times. Alongside the Strongs are Joseph and Bertha, another couple and their daughter Myra. As the families cope with the hardships that come with changing times and fortunes, and people are born and pass away, the characters learn the importance of living boldly and squeezing out every possible moment of life, love and ambition.

Cooper is very good. Her portrait of American life, at once tender-hearted and down-to-earth is as heartwarming as it is poignant, is every bit as truthful to life as Willa Cather, Jane Smiley, Larry McMurtry or even Ernest Gaines (Life is Short But Wide will remind more than a few readers of Gaines' The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman). The trials and hardships, ambitions and setbacks of each of the characters in the novel can't help but captivate the reader as they share lessons and sidenotes on living life to the fullest and appreciating those who make you what you are. Those who've read Cooper's work before will recognize familiar voices in this book. The characters don't differ too much from previous protagonists and supporting cast where the actions and reactions to the changing times and new challenges offer a coherent blend of sage-like endearments and charming authenticity. (FIC COOPER)

Coal Run / by Tawni O'Dell

There isn't much to Coal Run. It's always been a thoroughly forgettable place. Even back during its relatively prosperous days, and even before a mine explosion killed 96 men (half the entire male population), it was just another dying Pennsylvania coal town. But a generation later, the fierce pride of its people still resonates even as the physical evidence of wrecked lives and abandoned homes can kill the mood of observers. In its citizens, nearly all still feeling the effects of the disaster, flickers of the hardworking, blue collar spirit are still alive, it's women and (remaining) men holding on to what's left. This mentality of hardscrabble gumption is something Ivan Zoshchenko knows well as anyone. A former gridiron legend who left the town for further glory, the man known by all as "The Great Ivan Z" is back home after almost 20 years of drifting nomadically from one place to another. A sheriff's deputy, he now spends his days dealing with domestic disputes and high strung rednecks in a job--the only one he could get--which at least leaves his nights free to drink away his sorrows.

Anyway, it's the more personal matters that seem to occupy his time these days. With his father killed in the explosion, the only remaining family Ivan has are his stubborn mother, a hospital administrator still suppressing the past, and his staunchly independent sister, a single mom who despite her squalid living conditions, won't take any help from Ivan or her ex and never misses an opportunity to rail against the men in her life. There's also a little matter concerning two people he was once very close to--a friend and old girlfriend with whom he's lost touch. Only days away is the prison release of Reese Raynor, a onetime friend and teammate who's been serving time for beating his wife, (Ivan's ex) Crystal, into a coma. It's got Ivan thinking about the past more than ever and, as the release date lingers, he feels compelled to confront Reese, about his wife, sure, but also about a long-ago hidden secret the two men share and a regretful past that binds them both to the town.

O'Dell grounds her story in a starkly familiar world which no one will have difficulty engaging. Even readers who have no connection to the region and are unacquainted with the plight of its people, Coal Run communicates a common theme of grief, loss and regret with frightening realism. And while the character of Ivan, a figure mirroring the town's plight perfectly, can seem a bit unoriginal (the fallen athletic hero forced to come to terms with his shattered dreams) and O'Dell has a tendency to distort or oversentimentalize about his suffering, it's a story which moves along well enough. The book isn't really about individuals anyway. It's more of an acutely realistic case study of how past mistakes can reverberate, of how tragedy sometimes marks its survivors more than its victims and how the despair of dead-end lives exists right here in America, something which, as O'Dell tells it, is a story worth hearing. (FIC ODELL)

These Things Hidden / by Heather Gudenkauf

"I have no money, no job, no friends and my family has disowned me, but I'm ready. I have to be."

There aren't many secrets in tiny Linden Falls. So when 

popular teenager Allison Glenn is sent to prison for an unspeakable crime, it's not just her previously flawless reputation that gets tarnished. Her family suffers too, so much so that they want nothing to do with her after her release five years later. Her parents even deny Alison's existence, cutting ties with their daughter in abrupt fashion and doing the whole "never mention her name" bit. No one seems to pity Allison: her former friends whisper maliciously about her, classmates jealous of her beauty and talent glory in her downfall and others join in the constant mocking of her younger sister Brynn in the school hallways. Brynn herself mirrors her parents disdaining attitude but can't help be drawn back to the night of the incident and the real truth about what took place. It may seem like Brynn's burden to bare, and her parents to a lesser extent, but others are involved.

Others like Charm Tullia who seems removed from the Glenn family's circumstances but perhaps not so far as she'd like. Currently caring for her ailing stepfather while going to school to become a nurse, Charm would like to forget the past but also can't hide from the truth and what she knows. Also involved are Claire and her husband Johnathan, the local booksellers who've recently adopted a little boy, Joshua, who was found abandoned near the town's firestation. Knowing little about the Allison incident yet drawn in all the same by the web of secrets steadily permeating through the town, the young couple and their young son soon find that they too are a part of the past, a very big part indeed. Gudenknauf's The Weight of Silences was a dazzling debut. And while These Things Hidden doesn't carry the same allure and novelty, it's no slouch either. A literary thriller of sorts in which the oh-so-horribly scandalous incident driving the narrative isn't revealed until much later, the author paints a vivid portrait of interconnected lives and how even the smallest choices matter. With tidily hinted clues implanted throughout, the story is one which will peak reader interest all the way until the final penultimate revelation sets everything anew and changes everyone's lives forever. (FIC GUDENKAU)

Just Shy of Harmony / by Philip Gulley

Things could be better for Sam Gardner. The pastor of the Harmony Friends Church in Harmony, Indiana, Sam is tired of writing sermons that seem to fall on deaf ears. The success of the burgeoning megachurch down the road, which can't fail to win members with message series like "Ten Mutual Funds Jesus Would Die For", has him stressing as well. He has faith that things will go better. But so do certain quirky elders of his congregation who have their own ideas about how to run things. Dale Hinshaw for instance, who's never shy about mentioning Sam's salary or reminding people of how he "felt the call" toward ministry once upon a time himself, just knows that his idea for scripture egg project (in which bible verses would literally be implanted in the yokes of hatched eggs) could help win back Sam's diminishing congregation.
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Another idea, to plant lottery tickets in the church hymnals, this notion reluctantly agreed upon by everyone a while back, has actually born fruit. Lifelong member Jessie Peacock has hit the jackpot after her pew's hymn book was found to contain the winning ticket. Now if she could only be persuaded to accept the money. Elsewhere in Harmony, mechanic Wayne Fleming has recently been deserted by his wife of ten years for reasons unknown to him or anyone else. He and his three children are alone but things seem to be looking up at the moment with his new friendship with local single lawyer Deena Morrison who's had her own issues with caring for her ailing mother. The pair, having met at Harmony Friends Church where special things seem to happen in spite of adversity, share a growing fondness for each other and for Sam's gospel-based preaching.
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Much like Jan Karon's Mitford series, Philip Gulley's Harmony is a cozy small town where the church is the center of the action. Of course nobody's perfect, even among church folk, and there are those Dale Hinshaws of the world who maintain spectacularly self-centered viewpoints. Gulley is good at humorously depicting scenes of narrow-minded squabbling about petty grievances and untethered ideas, but he's also adept at showing the compassion of those who graciously suffer the fool and reach out in unexpected ways to help others. Sam's honest struggles with life and faith (i.e., bemoaning the fact that his most commonly communicated words to his two sons are "can't afford it") are well laid out and readers will appreciate the book's subtle message of generosity, kindness and constancy of faith. Plus there's a genuinely good-hearted humor which can't fail to interject comic relief into the mutliple character narrative. (FIC GULLEY)

Amarcord (DVD) 1973 / a film by Frederico Fellini; starring Bruno Zanin, Armando Brancia & Magali Noel

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In the Italian coastal village of Borgo, schoolboys play in the streets of the square, snatching at puffballs which float in the air. In the barbershop Gradisca, the town beauty, prances around in her fancy clothes doing her best to visually engage the leering male audience. As evening nears in the village square, a blind accordion player peddles for petty change while Volpina the prostitute, another of the town's pathetic down-and-outers, vamps about in the shadows. 12-year-old Titta Biondi observes it all from beginning to end--all of the bawdy shenanigans, the simple mundane patterns and sad but curious spectacles which are always on parade in his little corner of the world. It is the 1930's and the age of Fascism in Italy where the government has pledged to revive the country's prestige through strict authoritarianism and collectivist slogans. But despite the seeming enthusiasm with which directives of the regime are undertaken, the movement accomplishes little aside from providing a few small-minded men with the chance to wear stuffy-looking uniforms. The few Borgo residents who are wealthy or powerful enough to care about politics try to follow suit. They've been instructed to root out any signs of anarchy and so they do their best to follow-up on any petty squabbles or tomfoolery, even if it's merely a phonograph recording of an anarchist melody. For Titta and his family, nothing really changes. Titta still gets in trouble, his father is still easily angered, always griping at his wife. As a year passes and the seasons change, their simple lives remain much the same as the generations before them. But it's a sameness in which the magic of everyday is sharply revealed.
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Amarcord, loosely translated as "I remember", is just that--a life's journey brought to the screen. With Fellini, one can always expect a world of quasi-fantasy mixed with archetypal images from the mind's eye. Yet Amarcord might be the director's most indelible portrait of just what that vision embodies: a starkly personal and illuminating ode to his youth and memory. Nothing compares with the beauty of Fellini's imagery; he is a master of aesthetic exposition. A peacock in the middle of the snow, the tragic splendor of a deserted seaside hotel, even the colorful procession of the new prostitutes arriving at the local brothel all absorb the viewer's senses, each a mesmerizing portrait of artistic clarity. With Amarcord, a true pinnacle of Italian art film, Fellini encapsulates his deepest convictions, exploring the subtle if contradictory truths behind memory, experience and conscious awareness. And though the content can seem perplexing and distant, the narrative at times enigmatic and confusing, the central concept remains grounded as one in which a profound insight can be expressed through the simplest of actions. Life is renewed daily, even instantaneously in Fellini's world. But just as life continues, its composition changed, even altered forever at times, memories are always being preserved in the most incandescent of ways--at times tragically, at others beautifully but always magically. (DVD AMARCORD)

Breaker's Reef / by Terri Blackstock

When the body of well-liked teenager Emily Lawrence is murdered in the quaint coastal village of Cape Refuge, GA, it sets the whole town aghast. Virtually everyone was connected to the Lawrence family in one way or another and all feel the brunt of the shock. Police Chief Matthew Cade tries to handle things as best he can, going on the few leads he's got while trying to keep his overeager deputy Scott Crown from bumbling things up. But when another murdered body--a second girl--turns up, everyone in Cape Refuge including Cade and his amateurish squad comes to the solemn conclusion that it's the same perpetrator--a serial murderer who's likely to kill again. Several suspects emerge including a newly arrived novelist named Marcus Gibson whose eccentricities, including skulking around town in the middle of the night, odd former relationships and scatterbrained thoughts, lend many to pin him as the culprit.
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Another thing tying Gibson to the case is Sheila Caruso. An ex-con and single mother of two teenagers, Sheila has been working as a secretary for the Gibson when she suddenly makes a startling discovery about author and his selective subject matter which includes an scenario from one of his earlier novels which matches the circumstances of the second murder almost exactly. A close friend of Chief Cade, Sheila lets him in on the details only for new evidence to turn up targeting Cade himself as the murderer. Someone seems to have it in for both Cade and Sheila, a notion confirmed when Sheila's daughter Sadie goes missing. Soon things in Cape Refuge escalate to an almost unbearable pitch with the tension testing Sheila's faith in a way she never could have imagined.
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This is the fourth and final installment in Blackstock's Cape Refuge series and is a good testament as to why she's been such a unique success. Christian fiction isn't always this multi-dimensional; many associate the genre almost solely with sentimental love stories and prairie sagas. But Blackstock isn't afraid to explore darker material of vice and violence or depict life's less pleasant or downright awful situations while mixing in the themes of grace and redemption. And while the content surrounding the two grisly murders is nowhere near as explicit as other more mainstream thrillers are apt to describe it, the book is nonetheless an exciting tale of mystery and suspense, its fast-paced narrative as well as its emotional and spiritual conflicts making for a good read. Readers unfamiliar with the author or the series shouldn't worry about catching up on things as Blackstock does a good job to ease the backstory along as she's providing the details of the present situation. (FIC BLACKSTO)

Insomnia / by Stephen King

Something is definitely wrong with Ralph Roberts. He keeps waking up earlier and earlier, unable to fall back asleep. He first noticed he'd get up around 5:30, progressively finding himself awake at an earlier time until he now routinely stops sleeping anywhere between 2 and 4 AM. The clinical term is insomnia, or, in some of the books premature waking. Whatever it's called, it keeps getting worse for Ralph, a retired widower who's lived all his life in Derry, Maine. The constant wakefulness isn't the only oddity in Ralph's life. There's something strange going on with his neighbors, specifically Ed Deepneau, a once endearing, mild-mannered soul whose pretty wife and young daughter had been such a comfort to Ralph's late wife Martha during the last months of her cancer. But now Ed is someone entirely different. The gentle-hearted Ed has turned into a ranting, raving hate-monger, a man who's become enraged with malevolence at the new abortion clinic in town and has, on a recent occasion (though it's likely not the only time), beaten his wife nearly to death, something Ralph still can't get over.

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Still not sleeping, Ralph becomes aware of some even stranger occurrences like eerie sounds at night accompanied by an odd, unexplained glow hovering near certain people and places. It's evident that there's something wicked and inhuman concentrated in Derry. When the situation with Ed reaches a climax, an event sparking a tirade of violence and destruction, Ralph knows that it's only a matter of time before the evil presence inhabiting Derry dooms everyone. He also knows that he, along with his loyal friend Lois Chasse, another neighbor (and widow), are the only ones who can, and must find a way to stop the horror overtaking the town.

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King returns to Derry in this admirable novel of good vs. evil. The setting of such other of his works as It, Bag of Bones and The Tommynockers, Derry is one place in King's universe where you can always count on a good tale. Characterization is the real draw with King's novels and Ralph represents another of the author's most fully developed characters, a man preselected for doing battle with the forces of evil. Recurring themes of dualism and moral relativism are prevalent and readers will recognize many of the same conditions existing in King's previous horror classics are present here. (FIC KING)

The Bright Forever / by Lee Martin

On a summer evening in a small midwestern town, nine-year-old Katie Mackey rides her bike to the library and doesn't come back. Katie being the darling daughter of town magnate Junior Mackey, everything is immediately committed to searching for the missing girl. But with few leads, fewer suspects and only marginal circumstantial evidence, the investigation soon grows cold, unable to net even the smallest details as the days go by. Yet while the authorities know very little, certain key individuals know all too much about the disappearance.

The real story is steadily revealed by a handful of loosely connected individuals, each offering their collective input, regrets, suspicions and secrets about the night in question. Gilley is Katie's sensitive older brother, so filled with remorse over his inability to keep his sister safe that he's willing to do anything (well, almost anything) to see things righted. Then there's Henry Dees. Welcomed into the Mackey home as Katie's tutor, Mister Dees may be a respected high school math teacher, but he's also a bit of a creepy loner whose voyeuristic habits haven't been so discrete as to go unnoticed. Lonely simpleton Claire Mains may not be a suspect, but her own suspicions about her n'er do-well husband Raymond R. can't be quelled, sentiments strongly echoed by more than a few others. Ultimately the fact that Raymond R. looks the part is enough to convince an indignant Junior Mackey who, ignoring all due process of law, subsequently takes justice into his own hands.

Readers will enjoy how Martin, author of River of Heaven, combines an omniscient narrative with multiple first-person perspectives, able to reveal the most intimate of intimate details about the story and surrounding context. The characters aren't so appealing though. Dees, with whom the most confidences are exchanged, is an irritatingly sensitive guy with little to do but mope about his lot as an outcast amid the splendor of the Mackeys, their charming home and vibrant children. Gilley is totally one-dimensional as the all-american older brother, never quite real enough to express anything but sentimental fondness for the world around him. And while the two villains, Raymond R and Junior Mackey, bring welcomed attitude and action, they do so in predictably flagrant fashion providing the story with little depth or substance. (FIC MARTIN)

Jaws / by Peter Benchley

Amity Island is a tourist town. Year-long residents number out at approximately 1,000 while its summer population is annually 15,000 mostly native New Yorkers--"summer people"--vacationing at their Long Island beach homes. Despite this yearly swell, year-rounders have it hard financially, often barely breaking even and finding themselves desperately dependent on tourist season. So when, over the course of three days, 5 people are attacked and killed by a shark, the unthinkable happens: the authorities close the beaches indefinitely. Though mayhem over the situation on land ensues, Police Chief Martin Brody knows that it's nothing compared to the savage fury and carnage the shark, a Great White, would continue to perpetrate if the beaches were left open because even as no one's actually seen the beast, few doubt its ferocity and the un-likelihood of its departure from Amity's shore while food is still 'provided'. Left with few alternatives, Brody and two other men, both well-aware of the shark's destructive capacities, embark on seemingly their only other option: hunt down the beast down and kill it.

Already respected for several previous novels, Peter Benchley's Jaws was a best-seller upon publication, meriting even further approval after Stephen Spielberg brought his own personalized version to the screen. While perhaps not as visually dynamic as the movie, its a book recognizable for its vivid descriptions of a small town, its residents and a monster of indescribable power. Benchley manages to generate a very viable and imminent threat while maintaining a genuine realism amid a frenzy of panic and upheaval. Subtly he shows how an inhuman presence deftly seeps through into the human conscience, culminating in a fatal conclusion on both literal and figurative levels. Subplots and side stories like the tenuous relationship of year-rounders vs. "summer people", the town chairman's dubious dealings with loan 'sharks' and the love triangle between Chief Brody, his wife and scientist Matt Hooper give the book a well-rounded sense of just how volatile the situation is. (FIC BENCHLEY)

Winesburg, Ohio / by Sherwood Anderson

Few writers have captured the conscious of small town America as uniquely as Sherwood Anderson. His 1916 novel Winesburg, Ohio was described by John Updike as “feverish, phantasmal and dreamlike . . . a veritable cross-section of Midwestern life”. Similar in scope to Thornton Wilder’s "Our Town" or even Joyce’s Dubliners, Anderson’s fictional Winesburg is a string of loosely interconnected short stories centering on several of the community’s more prominent (and not-so-prominent) figures.


“That’s how it’ll be. That’s how everything’ll turn out.”

20-year-old George Willard wants to write. Louise Drunnion wants a husband. Farmer Jesse Bentley wants his grandson to see things his way. Tom Foster wants another drink and Seth Richmond just wants to be left alone. All want something other than what their quiet Midwestern town of Winesburg, Ohio has to offer. Because in 1890’s America, Winesburg is still an agrarian society, a world of farming and dependence on the soil far removed from the progressive industry and accelerated pace of cosmopolitan metropolises. Little in the way of lifestyle has changed in the last 150 years. How each person manifests his and her own destiny is not just a personalized endeavor, but an enterprise reflecting the conscious and collective temperament of the entire town. Quiet desperation looms like a fog over everything, giving rise to indiscretions, misunderstandings and personal tragedies; unintended for the most part, but disheartening all the same.

Seamlessly does Anderson weave together his microcosm of 19th century American life and yet his world is one which could exist anywhere at anytime. Because, as Anderson demonstrates, all persons must encounter the human condition in one form or another. In Winesburg, though honorable and even noble ambitions aspire within each character, misfortune and disillusionment are realized as the common fate, an inevitable conclusion for anyone mercilessly thrown underfoot of carnal temptations and personal passions. (FIC ANDERSON)

Needful Things / by Stephen King

All is well in the town of Castle Rock until a storm comes bringing with it a strange individual and his curious boutique shop--"Needful Things". The store has something for everyone; in fact, it has just the right thing for anyone. No one entering the shop leaves empty-handed as Leland Gaunt's assortment of items satisfy even the deepest desires; a cherished baseball card, sunglasses worn by Elvis, even beauty tablets all purchased for a convenient price. But sinister motives conceal the shop’s true enterprise as Leland Gaunt is more than he seems and he trades in more than earthly wares. What makes you pick up a book (even really thick ones), read the first page and keep going? Try to pin it down. So, to say King is a master of macabre is almost to neglect his real strength at storytelling; a literary magnetism worthy of Harry Potter. The intangible quality of his characters, emotional intrigue and plot structure seem to make his stories almost addictive. Needful Things is one of those books; one in which it doesn’t matter what genre you like, you just enjoy it. (FIC KING)

October Reader's Rants

An Unquiet Mind: A Memoir of Moods and Madness /
by Kay Redfield Jamison, M.D.
Dr. Jamison is Chief of the Psychiatry Department at Johns Hopkins. She is also a life long manic-depressive making her a leading authority on this brand of bipolar disorder. Extreme despair and hyperactivity accompany Jamison from adolescence into her 40’s as she struggles through tattered relationships, spending spree manias, even a near fatal suicide attempt—all resulting from her condition. An acute perspective in the realm of depressive illnesses, her memoir is extremely insightful for anyone involved with someone suffering from a disease of this type.

The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid / by Bill Bryson
Think of Beaver Cleaver in his cuffed jeans and buzz cut eating dinner with his family. Now picture him sneaking in to a strip club. Such is the dichotomy of this authentic, humorous, and openly lascivious memoir by Bill Bryson who somehow embraces the 1950's America without censoring human nature. Bryson uproots his own Iowa childhood reminiscing on a wide spectrum of nuances like grade school drama, red scare follies, and Sunday morning TV. An easy read perhaps most aimed at baby boomers, this is for anyone wanting a laugh with a dose of nostalgia.

The Lost: A Search for Six of the Six Million / by Daniel Mendolshon

All or most of Holocaust literature is retrospective in nature. And while this book deals heavily with the past, it closes the gap between living history and the present day via Mendelshon’s passionate journey of discovery. Almost like true crime or forensic literature, we see a heavily involved man—Mendolsohn—seeking the truth behind his holocaust era Jewish relatives who vanished during the final solution. Plodding at times, readers may get too bogged down with details to appreciate the mystery.