The End of the River

The End of the River by Simon Winchester
Scribd: 4/14/20
eBook review copy; 44 pages 

The End of the River by Simon Winchester is a recommended short treatise on the seemingly impossible future challenge of controlling the path of the Mississippi River as it rolls to the Gulf by New Orleans.

The Mississippi is the third largest river in the world and ends up moving two-thirds of the watershed of the continental USA down to the Gulf. It is the most commercially active river on the planet. The struggle to control and tame the mighty Mississippi has been an ongoing effort for years and, in many ways is an impossible herculean task that never should have been undertaken. At this point in history the structures built to contain and control the river were made half a century ago and are inadequate to deal with a river that no longer resembles the one from years past.

Winchester covers the history of the methods of control, the structures built, and the looming environmental and human disaster that awaits due to changing weather patterns. "The ultimate problem for these structures relates not so much to their engineering shortcomings as to one simple reality: They were designed half a century ago, and were made to try to deal with a river that barely resembles its current incarnation, and to function in an environment that is also now drastically and unrecognizably different."
 
Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of Scribd.

What We Forgot to Bury

What We Forgot to Bury by Marin Montgomery
Thomas & Mercer: 5/1/20
eBook review copy; 439 pages 

What We Forgot to Bury by Marin Montgomery is a highly recommended psychological thriller.

Due to a dark incident in her past, Charlotte Coburn doesn't trust anyone and is overly cautious about everything so when a teenager, Elle, knocks at her door during a severe storm, she is hesitant to help the girl. But the girl is clearly soaked through and the storm is severe, so she relents and allows the girl to enter her home. While Elle seems to be a typical friendly teen who truly just needed a place to shelter, that's not the truth. Elle chose Charlotte's house on purpose and planned the whole meeting. Elle's father is in prison and he blames Charlotte's lies for his unjust incarceration and claims she is the one who ruined Elle's family.

As the plot unfolds through the alternating points-of-view of Charlotte and Elle, both of them are unreliable narrators and both of them have their own dark schemes that require having a relationship with the other. Readers will catch both characters in lies and deceptions. It is unclear if you can trust either of them over anything. With both characters basically unlikable, what will keep you reading is trying to figure out the long con, what do each of the characters have planned have planned for the other. The characters are well-developed, but you won't know what you can trust, especially with Charlotte.

The back and forth narrative will hold your attention simple due to the calculating and duplicitous behavior you know is going on but is left unspoken.  While the novel does run on a little long and could be tightened up, it is still engaging. There are so many actions the characters take that will have you asking, "Why? That doesn't make sense." This alone kept me reading. I didn't suspect, however, where the ending would go until we were there. The final denouement is a little over the top, but What We Forgot to Bury is entertaining.
 

Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of Thomas & Mercer.

The Imperfects

The Imperfects by Amy Meyerson
Harlequin/Park Row Books: 5/5/20
eBook review copy; 384 pages 

The Imperfects by Amy Meyerson is a highly recommended drama about a dysfunctional family and a unbelievable inheritance.

When their grandmother, Helen Auerbach, passes away, estranged siblings Beck, Ashley and Jake and their mother, Deborah Miller, must come together to face old resentments and betrayals. Helen's will leaves her house to Deborah, which all three of her children resent. It also leaves a brooch to Beck, which also causes friction, especially when they learn that the large yellow stone in it is very likely the Florentine Diamond, a 137-carat yellow gemstone that went missing from the Austrian Empire a century ago. It is worth millions and Becks two siblings and her mother are all eyeing the monetary value. The inheritance problem, among so many other issues they have individually, is that the diamond needs to be authenticated and the ownership of it, the provenance, needs to be proven. 

If you think your family has issues, then meet the Millers. Deborah has let her children down for years and did little to care for her mother. Beck made sure her Grandmother Helen was doing alright, so it seems natural that Helen's most valuable possession would be bequeathed to her. Naturally, if you need money because your part time job isn't cutting it and your girlfriend is pregnant (Jake) or if your husband is involved in some illegal shenanigans (Ashley), you are going to resent your younger sister for the inheritance. Oh, this is a motley crew of dissatisfied people who must now work together to prove their legal ownership of the Florentine Diamond. It gets even more complicated when news of the diamond gets out and various countries and estates file a claim to it.

The well-plotted narrative is told through the alternating points of view of all four Millers, who are portrayed as flawed, but well-developed characters. They struggle to work together to uncover the secrets of Helen's past even while their personal resentments keep rising to the surface. The family's interpersonal struggles almost overshadow the investigation into Helen's past and the mystery of how she came into possession of the diamond. It will become clear to the reader early on that even if they get a 10 million dollar payoff from selling the diamond, it is doubtful they'll be happy. The ending is somehow right and wrong at the same time in this entertaining but sometimes exhausting novel. 3.5 rounded up

Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of Harlequin/Park Row Books.

Hard Cash Valley

Hard Cash Valley by Brian Panowich
Macmillian/St. Martin's; 5/5/20
eBook review copy; 304 pages

Hard Cash Valley by Brian Panowich is a very highly recommended gritty Southern noir procedural.

Arnie Blackwell, a petty criminal who made a huge score, is viciously murdered in Jacksonville, Florida. Dane Kirby, Georgia Bureau of Investigation freelancer, is surprised when he is called to fly down to Florida, view the crime scene and then assigned to work with FBI Special Agent Roselita Velasquez, replacing her partner. After reviewing what is known about the victim, he quickly realizes that the case will lead them back to the criminal circles in his own backyard of McFalls County, Georgia. Arnie was recently in McFalls County at the Slasher, the largest cockfighting tournament in the U.S., and he won big - too big. Complicating the case is that Arnie's younger brother William is missing and the boy may have an unusual ability that others want to take advantage of.

There is a whole lot of interesting well-developed characters present in Hard Cash Valley. Dane Kirby is a wounded man, haunted by the death of his family, and he carries his anguish and pain with him every day. But he also understands the locals and has an insight into the area's criminal activity and the connections between people. I'll admit an immediate dislike for Misty as well as some other characters that you were set up to dislike right from the start. William is a great character. The locals are interesting and there are a whole lot of backstories and alliances between them.

 

The writing is incredible and perfectly depicts and captures the place and people. This is a well-crafted dark and gritty story, with an overabundance of violence and cruelty, but it all pertains to the case in some way. The plot is compelling and you will be reading as fast as you can to see what happens next. Even though this is the third thriller Panowich has set in Georgia’s McFalls County, you can read it as a standalone. 4.5

Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of Macmillian/St. Martin's.

Queenie Malone's Paradise Hotel

Queenie Malone's Paradise Hotel by Ruth Hogan
HarperCollins: 4/14/20
P.S. paperback; 352 pages

Queenie Malone's Paradise Hotel by Ruth Hogan is a highly recommended examination of the complicated relationship between a daughter and her mother.

Thirty-nine-year-old Tilda's mother, Grace, has died and she has returned to Brighton for the first time since her mother sent her away to boarding school. Tilda considered living at Queenie Malone's Paradise Hotel in Brighton with her mom to be the best family she ever had so being sent away to boarding school opened up a fissure that never closed. Life with her mother was always a struggle after her father disappeared and her mother told her he died. As she sorts through her mother's things, she reflects on her relationship with her mother and examines what happened many years ago when Tilda went by the nickname Tilly.

The narrative in alternating chapters by Tilly (approximately age 7) and adult Tilda, with excerpts from Grace's journals included as Tilda reads them. The chapter headings tell you who is narrating them, but it is easy to distinguish between the point-of-view of a child and an adult. Additionally, Tilly's chapters are all told in third person while Tilda's are in first person. Tilda/Tilly has the gift of "sight" and she see things other people can't see, ghosts or spirits, so every character introduced may not be exactly what you initially think. When you read Tilda's chapters you immediately know that she is a damaged woman who needs her rituals to feel safe.

The writing is descriptive and insightful. As this is a character driven novel, the plot is more introspective as Tilda tries to figure out why her mother did what she did. Hogan does a good job handling the thoughts and feelings of a child in the Tilly chapters, which contrast greatly with the adult Tilda chapters. In Tilly's chapters you can see the root of the OCD rituals that Tilda must do to feel safe. Clearly readers will know that Grace had some mental health issues which influenced her relationship with Tilly. Tilly's father, Stevie, is clearly adored by his daughter, but he is not well-developed for us to know why Grace felt she had to tell Tilly he died.

My feelings are all over the place on this novel. It started out strong enough to capture my attention. I enjoyed the Tilly chapters as a young child struggled to understand why her world had changed so much and why her beloved father was gone. Tilda is harder to warm up to but then the cause of her issues comes out through Tilly's chapters and Grace's journals. Then it became a bit bogged down in the middle and I became a wee bit weary of all the use of the "sightings." Hogan does leave us on a positive note with closure for Tilda and hope for a future, which helped set my misgivings aside.

Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of HarperCollins.

The Motion of the Body Through Space

The Motion of the Body Through Space by Lionel Shriver
HarperCollins: 5/19/20
eBook review copy; 352 pages 

The Motion of the Body Through Space by Lionel Shriver is a very highly recommended novel confronting exercise obsession, aging, and the expectations to conform to ever changing arbitrary  societal views.

Serenata Terpsichore and Remington Alabaster have been married for 32 years and have two children that have been a disappointment. They recently moved to Hudson, N.Y., after Reminton lost his DOT civil engineering job in Albany. Much to Serenata's surprise, Remington, at age 64, decides to take up running and plans to enter a marathon. Serenata, 60, has always been the runner, the one with an obsessive fitness routine in the family but, after years of use, her knees are now arthritic, ruined, and she's looking at joint replacement surgery. Remington embraces his new exercise routine with a cult-like fanaticism that eventually results in his hiring a trainer named Bambi to help him train for the Lake Placid MettleMan Triathlon. Bambi treats Serenata with disdain - and the feeling is very mutual.

We should probably get one fact out in the open right at the start. I admire Lionel Shriver for her incredible talent and for her stating her unabashed opinion on any and all of the absurd cultural phenomena raging about us. For me she was, as usual, right on topic, observant, clever, and fearless while tackling the opinions that are often suppressed or labeled with some derogatory term now. She is mainly focused on aging and the current cult of exercise, but she also covers long-term relationships, wokeness, offense culture, cultural misappropriation, identity politics, the Me-Too movement, marginalized people, virtue signaling, group-think, and the victim-hood culture.

Serenata and Remington are both well-developed characters that come to life in this novel. No, neither of them is depicted as a saint, but they are definitely realistic individuals with all their faults and foibles clearly on display. Both are succinct and outspoken with each other regarding their opinions. Although my knees are fine, I understand hitting the road block that aging can set before you, so it was clear that they were at odds with their approach to facing it. After exercising on her own with her own routines for years, Serenata had little choice but to accept a more sedentary life, while Remington obsessively took on a monumentous goal that was at odds with her current situation.

The writing is incredible, both precise and flawless. Shriver always uses the absolutely perfect word to describe what she means. She also manages to capture the absurdity of situations and encounters with humor and sarcasm mixed in to the reality. All of the characters may be slightly exaggerated but this is much better to compare and contrast them. They also serve as the perfect vehicle for Shivers prose and opinions. This is an absolutely wonderful novel that could spark some intense discussions at any book club.
 

I personally saved many quotes from The Motion of the Body Through Space, but want to mention a couple that hit home for me:
"I think what grates about these abruptly ubiquitous expressions.... Meaning, suddenly everyone says it.... It’s just, people throwing around fashionable lingo think they’re so hip and imaginative. But you can’t be hip and imaginative. You can be unhip and imaginative, or hip and conformist."
"She was too content by herself, and had sometimes wondered if not getting lonely was a shortcoming."
"I dislike her personally. As an individual. Is that possible anymore? Is it legal to harbor animosity toward a specific person who just happens to belong to a 'marginalized community'?"
"What has not changed - what has always been the case with human beings - is that 'feelings' are no more factually sacrosanct than any other form of testimony. So you can 'argue with what people feel.' Because people lie about what they feel. They exaggerate what they feel. They describe what they feel poorly, sometimes out of sheer verbal inadequacy. They mistake one feeling for another. They often have no idea what they feel. They will sometimes mischaracterize their emotions with an eye to an ulterior motive - "

Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of HarperCollins.

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Simon the Fiddler

Simon the Fiddler by Paulette Jiles
HarperCollins: 4/14/20
advanced reading copy; 352 pages

Simon the Fiddler by Paulette Jiles is a very highly recommended historical fiction novel set in Texas at the end of the Civil War.

In March 1865, Simon Boudlin is a twenty-three-year-old itinerant fiddle player who, due to his youthful appearance, avoided conscription into the confederate army until almost the end of the war. After the war ends when he plays for a group of officers and their families he notices the lovely Doris Mary Dillon. Doris is an indentured girl from Ireland who has committed to three years as a governess to the daughter of Colonel Webb of the Union Army. While Simon travels around Texas with his band mates and fellow veterans making money playing music, he has plans to buy some land in Texas and to marry Doris once her service comes to an end.

Simon the Fiddler is a beautifully written, richly detailed, atmospheric story that perfectly captures the time, place and setting as Simon and his mates travel and play across Texas. Jiles vividly describes their travels and experiences across the Texas landscape during this turbulent period in time. Along with Texas, music plays an even more vital role in this novel. In order to play the music that he loves and is committed to, he has to carve a way to do so during a rugged and wild time. For those who love music, the songs mentioned in the novel will be a treasure to encounter along the way and should provide you with an internal playlist as you read.

The characters are wonderfully well-developed and realistically portrayed. Simon certainly knows his faults and will tell you what they are even before we see them displayed. But his drive and determination along with his talent and love for music is also clearly shown. Doris is also a strong young woman enduring a difficult situation. The two manage to correspond through a clever deception and you will be rooting for their eventual reunion as you follow Simon's travels and Doris's struggles.

There is some exciting action and drama toward the end of the novel and a satisfying conclusion. This would be a great choice for book clubs, especially those who enjoy discussing historical fiction. Including songs mentioned in the book would be a fun bonus to add for members.

Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of HarperCollins.