Where We Fall (Rochelle B. Weinstein)

Rochelle B. Weinstein’s Where We Fall is the story of a love triangle gone wrong.  Unfortunately, the book was very flat for me with characters I just couldn’t come to like.

Lauren and Ryan fell instantly in love when they were in college, and together with Lauren’s best friend, Abby, they did everything together.  When Lauren took off on the adventure of a lifetime, she promised Ryan that she’d be back, but when his father passed away, Lauren was nowhere to be found.  Abby took fast advantage of that situation, and she and Ryan ended up married and parents to Juliana.  Fast forward to present day, and Ryan still can’t understand why he didn’t hear from Lauren after his father’s death.  With each chapter narrated in the first person by a different character, the complete story is told, with a teenage love story between Juliana and her football star boyfriend, E.J., also thrown in.

If all this sounds complicated, that’s because it is.  But the plot itself isn’t what makes the book uninteresting (although the Abby/Ryan/Lauren story is much better than the Juliana/E.J. story).  The wording is far too superfluous, and I just kept wishing for Weinstein to get to the point of the chapter already.  Goodreads says that it took me over two months to read Where We Fall; it was just too wordy for me, and two months is far too long for me to spend with characters I couldn’t come to care about.

MY RATING - 2

The Maldives: Islamic Republic, Tropical Autocracy (J.J. Robinson)

Before I read The Maldives: Islamic Republic, Tropical Autocracy, I did not know much about these islands other than that they were in the middle of the Indian Ocean and were in the tropics.  J.J. Robinson's 300-page book on The Maldives' odd politics and history was well-researched and based on Robinson's first-hand experiences on the island as the editor of a newspaper.  It provides a story of paranoia, despotism that was shrouded in attempts of democracy, and politics that would make our own current affairs blush in embarrassment.

The book spends much of its time in the years the author worked on the island, talking about its experiments in democracy, the battle between establishment politics and democratic forces that rankled the prior power players, and the battle over the role of Islam in the nation's affairs.  Historical context is provided to shape how the Maldives became a hodgepodge of an archipelago - "inhabited" islands where local customs and faith dominated and "uninhabited" islands where resorts and a cultural diaspora of tourists roam - all the while showing the struggle between tradition and democratic progress while the author traversed the nation's many islands.

The author does a very solid job weaving between politics, custom, and tradition.  He speaks explicitly from a Western point of view, having lived in the U.S., England, and his native Australia, and talks about the challenges of adapting to a uniquely different country whose tropical paradise covered for a nation whose politics were anything but paradise.  It's a well-written, at times humorous, read into a nation few know much about.

MY RATING - 4

The Girl with All the Gifts (M.R. Carey)

As a fan of The Walking Dead from the very beginning, I was looking forward to reading M.R. Carey’s The Girl with All the Gifts.  One complaint I’ve had about TWD lately is that it just doesn’t seem as original as it once did, with the writers recycling stories over and over.  Readers don’t have to worry about that with this novel though, as Carey energizes the zombie genre with a fresh new approach.

Decades ago, the world has basically ended with the Breakdown, and “hungries” are roaming the land.  Most of them are like the way zombies are traditionally portrayed – always looking for their next meal.  But a group of children are different; they can talk if they’re taught, learn, and be somewhat controlled.  Melanie is one of these kids, waiting every day to be collected from her cell on the base so she can go to “school.”  Her best days are when her favorite teacher, Miss Justineau, is in control of the classroom; however, this is not your ordinary school.  They are taught only because a research scientist, Dr. Caldwell, needs the data.  When the base is compromised, the survivors set their sights on Beacon, where there might be some way to start new lives.

Carey manages to do something I’ve never seen in a zombie novel, and that is to add an enormous touch of humanity into it.  Even though Melanie is still a functioning hungry, she wants so badly to make Miss Justineau proud of her, and it is this teacher/student relationship that is truly at the heart of The Girl with All the Gifts.

MY RATING - 4

Eisenhower's Armies: The American-British Alliance During World War II (Niall Barr)

Eisenhower's Armies by Niall Barr recounts the British-American alliance during World War II, focusing on the relationship between the British and Americans in combating the Axis powers in Western Europe.  It's the story of two different nations, one on the rise and one who fought gallantly in the early wars of  the war, and how these armies had to learn to live, work, and fight together despite tactical and philosophical disagreements on how to fight the war.

Barr, whose specialty is 20th Century History, delivers painstaking details of the relationship between the United States and Great Britain. If you like insight, the author goes way beyond World War II and talks about the history of American-British military relations going back to the Colonial Era.  While important for context, the depth and breadth of what was covered by Barr was arguably excessive if you value a quick read.  At 470 pages, this book can grind into some level of detail and would require an occasional re-read or two to get points across.

It would also have been a benefit to see more coverage devoted to the air campaign and coordination between the United States and Great Britain.  While some coverage was devoted to the importance of the British air support in North Africa, more could have been devoted to the coverage of the last year of conflict, specifically in how the United States and Britain worked together effectively through air sorties in the Battle of the Bulge and the attacks the Allied forces provided in advance of the invasion at Normady.  This could have been provided at the expense of an exhaustive back story into the relationship between the Americans and Brits.  Nonetheless, the book is an effective historical account of the "Special Relationship" and its evolution over time.

MY RATING - 3

1946: The Making of the Modern World (Victor Sebestyen)

1946: The Making Of The Modern World by Victor Sebestyen provides a play-by-play of the events of the first full year after the end of World War II.  The year was action-packed, full of international drama from an unsettled Europe to an emerging Cold War showdown between the United States and the Soviet Union.  Sebestyen does a very effective job capturing the year in context of a radically changing political landscape.

One of the best features of the book is Sebestyen's occasional, but poignant, use of footnotes within the book.  Whether it was to portray an individual's eccentricities in a greater context or to refer the reader to an additional author and their work related to a specific 1946-related event, the footnotes added tremendous value and were used wisely throughout the book.

Sebestyen captures the emerging political landscape in 1946 by weaving in past context where appropriate, showing how decisions made by global leaders were scrutinized and how the world went from being united against Fascism to being divided between democracy and communism as the two major political systems that governed the world for nearly forty years.

The 380-page book is well-sourced and a fast read.  Sebestyen should be applauded for not just recapping the year but for his ability to weave in the personalities of Stalin, Truman, Churchill, Attlee, and other global leaders to provide context in how and why events of that year played out.  Given how much change has taken place in our recent times, it's important to point out that the mid 1940's provided even more rapid change and instability.  The author illustrates that quite well in his book.

MY RATING - 4

The Restaurant Critic's Wife (Elizabeth LaBan)

As a Philadelphian, I've read (and depended on) quite a few of Craig LaBan's restaurant reviews.  So I was very interested in "devouring" his spouse's novel The Restaurant Critic's Wife.  In her acknowledgments, LaBan writes that "For the record, Craig is not quite as obsessive or controlling as Sam -- and he didn't even tell me to say that."  Which is good, because the restaurant critic (Sam) in the book is quite the unlikable character.

There's really not much of a plotline here.  The wife in this instance, Lila, has just moved to a close-knit Philly neighborhood with Sam and her two children, Hazel and Henry.  As a very well-known critic, Sam is obsessed with keeping his identity secret.  This sometimes just takes the form of wearing disguises when he goes out, but more often than not takes on ridiculous methods: wanting Lila to ask any potential friends if they own a restaurant, refraining from showing her face in public, and not wanting her to go back to the work she loves.  The entire novel basically just recounts Lila's banal days as she tries to follow Sam's "directions," but she obviously wants more for herself.  It's not difficult to figure out the ending here.

With such an unlikable character at its forefront and not much of a plotline, it's hard to discern what the point of The Restaurant Critic's Wife really was.  However, the writing is good, so this is a great book to throw in your beach bag when you just want to zone out in the sun.

MY RATING - 3

Approval Junkie: Adventures in Caring Too Much (Faith Salie)

I was excited to read Faith Salie’s Approval Junkie: Adventures in Caring Too Much because that describes me to a tee.  A collection of oftentimes hilarious essays, the book is a quick read that will have you laughing at loud.  However, I didn’t quite understand how some of the essays were related to the topic as a whole.  But oh well – most of them were fun to read anyway.

Salie’s irreverent style works well in each chapter, as she comes right out and says what most of us are thinking. From her time winning “Miss Aphrodite” in her high school’s beauty pageant to her joys as a new mother, she doesn’t mince words, and extra fun for the average Joe who is not a celebrity, she names names of famous people she has encountered.  Not all of her essays are meant to be funny, however; the selection describing her agony of trying to get pregnant is especially poignant.

Some chapters are better written and relate more to the topic at hand than others, but those who so identify with the approval-seeking phenomenon will appreciate the book as a whole.

MY RATING - 3