October 2020 Book Reviews Part 2

Here we go with the second half of my reading month for October.  I read some pretty good books this month and can't wait to share them with you. And there is one book most people will love, but wasn't for me.

The Last Year of the War by Susan Meissner.  Oh my gosh, so many of you are going to LOVE this book. Susan Meissner is one of my favorite authors, and this book absolutely lived up to my expectations. She keeps coming up with unusual situations and plots for her books, which are always hugely entertaining as well as educating. This book is about the experiences of a German-American teenager whose family is sent to an internment camp in Texas during WW2. I was never aware that anyone other than the Japanese had been sent to those camps, so this was an eye-opener for me. It turns out that Germans and Italians were also classified as "enemy aliens" and placed in the camps. American born Elise Sontag is a typical mid-western American teenager when her father is accused of being a Nazi sympathizer and is imprisoned. Eventually, the family is able to join him in an internment camp in Texas where Elise befriends Mariko Inoue. The friendship between the two girls makes the camp bearable for them both. The girls share dreams of their future and plan to meet up when the war is over. However, the Sontag family is exchanged for American prisoners of war in Germany and is sent back to Germany in the last year of the war. The point of view of what Germany was like in 1945 for its citizens was beyond eye-opening. The hardship that was endured and the horrors the average citizen saw is something that is rarely described in books. After some years in Germany, Elise marries an American and finally returns to the US. Her experiences back at home make for more page-turning excitement. The plot and characters are both completely unique and captivating. There is so much to this book that my description cannot begin to encompass it all. All I can say is "please read it". This is anything but your typical WW2 era book. Five very happy stars.

Monsoon Mansion by Cinelle Barnes. This book is a memoir of the author's riches to rags childhood experience growing up in the Philippines in the 90s. Cinelle's wealthy family builds an extravagant mansion in Manila where every excess you can imagine is enjoyed. Ultimately the family's fortunes turn and the father leaves to pursue other opportunities. The self-absorbed mother hooks up with a con artist of a lover, who takes the family and the mansion down a rabbit hole of further ruin. He sells fraudulent land deeds, has lavish parties, and fills the house with prostitutes, cockfights, and unsavory individuals. The point of view from a confused, helpless, and much-ignored child is very compelling. This book contains child abuse, animal cruelty, drug use, pain and loss. It was a fascinating story, but very bleak. It seems somehow wrong to give any sort of a rating to someone's memoir, which is of course, their own story. I am going to go with the feeling I had when I finished this book, which was "Oh dear. That was depressing". Three stars.

The Good House by Ann Leary. If you love a book with an unreliable narrator, you will love The Good House. Hildy Good is a 60-year-old successful real estate agent living in a charming coastal New England town. She is also a raging alcoholic. Every experience and perception she has is viewed through the haze of alcohol. You want to reach into the pages and pinch her to wake her up to what she is missing in her life. You may find her deluded perception of herself to be funny at times, but ultimately tragic, particularly if you have any personal experience with an alcoholic in your life. Wonderful character development, which may have slightly out-shone the plot, but which was also pretty darn good. The depiction of an alcoholic was the best I have ever encountered. This author knew what she was talking about. All around well done and entertaining book. I recommend it. Four stars.

The Searcher by Tana French. You all know my son lives in Dublin, Ireland. Our annual visits to see him are such a high point of my year. This year, of course, our trip didn't happen, and Ahren will not be able to return home for Christmas. This book by Tana French kind of scratched my itch to experience Ireland, as it is set in western Ireland and features plenty of local Irish "color" and personality. Tana French is a very popular Irish author who is known for her Dublin Murder Squad series. This book is a stand-alone, not part of that series at all. Cal Hooper was a cop in Chicago for 25 years, when his life kind of fell apart. His wife left him, he is somewhat estranged from his adult daughter, and he is completely disillusioned with his life on the police force. He takes retirement, sells everything off, and buys a ruin of a property in rural western Ireland, and proceeds to start his life over again. The book is full of local Irish people, whose personalities absolutely jump off the page, they seem so authentic. Cal is just focusing on fixing up the shambles of a house he bought and is wishing the information that he is a former cop won't ever come out amongst the locals.  Hah. It doesn't take long for a poor local kid to start hanging around his place, doing various mischievous acts to get his attention. Turns out the kid's older brother has gone missing and the kid wants answers. He enlists Cal's reluctant help in solving the mystery of what happened to the brother. The plot is kind of slow, the character development is wonderful and deep, the language and writing beautiful. If you are someone who loves non-stop action, this book might not be for you. If you love descriptive writing, characters you can really care about and want to feel like you have traveled to the locale being described, you will love The Searcher, as I did. Four and half stars.

Anxious People by Fredrik Backman. Ok. Sorry, not sorry. This book just wasn't for me. This Swedish author is beloved by many for his previous works, Bear Town, A Man Named Ove, My Grandmother Told Me To Tell You She's Sorry and lots of other titles. Millions of people love him and every single thing he writes.  I just don't. I think the Swedish sense of humor or philosophy of life or whatever, is just something I can't relate to. Anyway, the basic plot summary is that a man starts out to rob a bank, fails at that, and escapes into an apartment building where he holds eight people hostage and then disappears. All the hostages tell their stories, and the police investigators are idiots. As a matter of fact, everyone in this book is an idiot. But don't listen to me, I am the ONLY PERSON ON THE PLANET who didn't like this book, didn't understand the point, and didn't finish the thing. Seriously, do not listen to me.  You might love it. Over 4000 people have reviewed this book on Amazon and gave it 5 stars.  Ok then. Yay. No stars from me because I couldn't bear to read anything more after about 75 pages.

So there you have it, another month of reading! Here's to November being a five-star month!