Book Review

Welcome warmer weather with a variety of new books

By Lynda Rego
Posted 4/18/16

As spring approaches, I always find less time for reading. Spring cleaning and garden chores take up lots of time. Here are a few new selections I enjoyed in recent months. And, once things calm …

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Book Review

Welcome warmer weather with a variety of new books

Posted

As spring approaches, I always find less time for reading. Spring cleaning and garden chores take up lots of time. Here are a few new selections I enjoyed in recent months. And, once things calm down, there will be lots of time for outdoor reading.
“Amy Falls Down” (2013) by Jincy Willett. I loved Willett’s first book about Amy Gallup, “The Writing Class.” So, I couldn’t wait to continue the adventures of the California author, who has writer’s block and is a writing instructor. I don’t want to give away too much from the first book in case you want to start with that one.
But, Amy is no longer welcome teaching at the university extension. She isn’t quite the hermit she was and remains in contact with some of her students. But, then she falls and bangs her head on a birdbath in her yard and gives an interview she doesn’t remember. Suddenly she’s in demand as a speaker and she’s writing again. Willett’s books are just hilarious. Amy is intelligent, funny, sardonic and mired in the past. But, the turn her life takes will force her to confront her future.
“Every Day” (2012) by David Levithan. A teenager, “A,” wakes up each morning in a new body to a new life A must live until midnight that evening. It might be a boy or a girl, someone who is sick or athletic, happy or suicidal. A tries to affect the person’s life as little as possible and do no harm; but, then one day A meets Rhiannon and everything changes.
This is a fascinating book I couldn’t put down. It’s a very clever, creative way to look at life and how we choose to live it and what matters. The end seemed a little abrupt. There’s a second book, “Another Day,” which tells the story from Rhiannon’s perspective. But, I suspect Levithan might be planning a sequel to “Every Day.” I would definitely be interested.
“Stones from the River” (1994) by Ursula Hegi is a big book and a big story. It ranges from World War I to 1951 and takes place in Germany. Trudi Montag is a zwerg — a dwarf, living in a small town outside Dusseldorf. It’s the story of her life, her “otherness,” how she copes with what life dishes out and the stories she weaves from the secrets she learns from others. Trudi and her father run the town’s lending library.
The World War II section is hard to read, but is an incredibly nuanced picture of what it was like to live in Nazi Germany — the good and mostly bad. And, the post-war years are equally fascinating. Hegi lived the first 18 years of her life in Germany. The book is a slow start. But, give it time until you catch the rhythm of the town and its inhabitants. They ’re an interesting bunch.
“Heading Out to Wonderful” (2012) by Robert Goolrick is so richly drawn it’s as if you’re in 1948 Brownsburg, Va., when Charlie Beale arrives with two suitcases (one full of money) and changes the townspeople’s lives forever.
Love, obsession and a yearning for a place to feel at home combine in this heart-wrenching book based on a true story. Once Charlie sees the young, beautiful and married Sylvan Glass, his obsession will lead nowhere good. It’s such a capsule view of small-town life in those years — the good and the bad — with its insular beliefs, Southern prejudices, and hypocritical sets of rules for men and women and those with and without money.
“The Wordy Shipmates” (2008) by Sarah Vowell is a must for anyone interested in early New England history. When a fellow book club member called it a history book by a snarky writer, I was all in. Vowell has a hilarious way of taking history and making it relevant for today. She looks at the Puritans who came here on the Winthrop fleet from 1630 to 1640, including the two famous exiles, Roger Williams and Anne Hutchinson. I love that she skewers the notion that Puritans were “judgmental killjoys” and points out how little most of us know about this period in our history (the years following the Pilgrims’ arrival).
Winthrop and his fellow travelers believed they were chosen by God to build a “city upon a hill”; so, Winthrop’s humility on one hand and the arrogance of his beliefs on the other make for an interesting colony. Vowell dredges up ancient English history and Bible stories to explain the settlers and finds humor in the most brutal happenings. I will be curious to read some of her other books; the newest is “Lafayette in the Somewhat United States.”
“The Monogram Murders” (2015) by Sophie Hannah is a new Hercule Poirot mystery. This is Agatha Christie’s Poirot, but it isn’t. Captain Hastings and Miss Lemon are nowhere in attendance (Hastings is mentioned). Poirot’s partner in detection is a young Scotland Yard detective, Edward Catchpool, who narrates most of the chapters. Hannah has captured Poirot and his little gray cells perfectly and the case is intriguing. My only quibble is that the denouement is twice as long as usual in the Christie books and seems to go on and on, with twists and turns and explanations galore. But, it’s nice to have the little Belgian detective back.
Visit Lynda Rego on Facebook at www.facebook.com/lynda.rego where she shares tips on cooking, books, gardening, genealogy and other topics. Click on Like and share ideas for upcoming stories.

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Mike Rego has worked at East Bay Newspapers since 2001, helping the company launch The Westport Shorelines. He soon after became a Sports Editor, spending the next 10-plus years in that role before taking over as editor of The East Providence Post in February of 2012. To contact Mike about The Post or to submit information, suggest story ideas or photo opportunities, etc. in East Providence, email mrego@eastbaymediagroup.com.