Middlesex (Jeffrey Eugenides)

I’m finally getting around to reading Jeffrey Eugenides’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Middlesex over a decade after it was published.  Better late than never I suppose, as this was one of the best novels I’ve read in a long time.

Yes, this is the story of Cal/Calliope Stephanides, a hermaphrodite, but it’s also about so much more than that. It’s a sweeping tale of three generations of the same family, starting with Calliope’s grandparents, Desdemona and Lefty. They flee their home to come to America and share a big secret, one that will eventually affect Cal/Calliope in a big way.  Tessie and Milton are Cal’s parents and love both of their children dearly.

The perfect combination of warmth, humor, heartbreak and surprise, Middlesex takes you on a journey with the Stephanides family that you won’t want to see ever come to an end. It gets my highest rating.

MY RATING - 5

Originals: How Non-Conformists Move the World (Adam Grant)

Adam Grant’s Originals: How Non-Conformists Move the World is a witty, fast-moving read that tackles how individuals can shape and change companies, movements, and the greater world at large.  Citing specific, relevant examples and case studies, Grant provides a smorgasbord of options for people who have great ideas and struggle with just how to incorporate them into their workplace, their life, or the greater world.

Originality in the business world is very difficult to maintain at times as many large companies prefer their employees to “fit” the organization’s culture rather than be a contributor to it.  Grant suggests that companies adjust their thinking to embrace new, often better ideas to improve organizational performance and argues that companies that are adaptable to new ideas from within their ranks will stand the test of time.  When it comes to movements and changing something in society, Grant cites examples of how to build an original movement of change and how those movements that succeeded sometimes did so throughout unconventional, original methods.  “Best practices” can sometimes get tossed out the window for a fresh perspective!

Grant’s work starts out slow but picks up steam quickly, with great case studies that span multiple disciplines and centuries of American life.  If you are in mid management, moving up the ranks in an organization, or looking to change the world through a new idea or a pet cause, Grant’s work is a must-read and provides needed insight.

MY RATING - 4

Before the Fall (Noah Hawley)

Up until the last few pages, Noah Hawley’s Before the Fall was going to get one of my rare 5 ratings.  The intense, nail-biting suspense makes it tough to put it down, but at the end, it goes strangely downhill and suffers from a predictable ending.  However, the majority of it is still a wonderful read.

At the beginning, the reader knows that there was a plane crash and that almost everyone on board perished in it.  The only survivors were Scott, who was invited to take the trip last minute, and J.J., the young son of a rich couple.  Scott is able to get J.J. to shore even though they are miles away, and the rest of the book is spent delving into the backgrounds of each of the people on the manifest and those that are left behind.  The story here is what happened to cause the plane crash, with lots of red herrings thrown in as a distraction.

Hawley sets up each chapter with the name of the person, their date of birth, and their date of death.  While there are many unexpected details and surprises throughout the book, the ending is disappointing and makes an otherwise 5-star book go down to a solid four.

MY RATING - 4

In Twenty Years (Allison Winn Scotch)

Having reached my fortieth birthday just a few months ago, Allison Winn Scotch's In Twenty Years really resonated with me.  The title refers to how much can happen in the span of twenty years, a time during which six Penn college students have gone their separate ways after being the best of friends.  Even though one of them is a world-famous singer and the other is the CEO of their own company, how much have they really lived in those two decades?

It was the death of one of the six, Bea, that broke up the group for good.  Now, on the eve of what would have been Bea's fortieth birthday, the remaining five receive a letter from her attorney inviting them back for a weekend to their old house.  Catherine and Owen are married but unhappy, and Lindy seems to have it all with fame and fortune but feels empty inside.  Annie tries to put on a perfect facade on social media to cover up her insecurity, while Colin is a famous plastic surgeon who has a secret he shared with Bea.  The five converge on the house at Bea's request, but will they ever be the same when the weekend is over?

The message of In Twenty Years is clear -- don't waste your life because you only get one.  However, I never could quite get into the novel until the end.  With the exception of Bea, I felt that most of the characters were unlikable and frankly, unrealistic.  This prevented me from becoming invested in any of them, so I would put this novel on the average read scale.

MY RATING - 3

Small Great Things (Jodi Picoult)

Because she's one of my favorite authors, receiving a new Jodi Picoult book is like Christmas, Halloween, and my birthday all wrapped up into one.  I devour each and every one, and Small Great Things was no exception.  This time, Picoult taps into the always-prevalent issue of racism, one that writers seldom do except in the area of historical fiction.  Reading her reasons for delving into the issue, along with how she accomplished her research, is just as interesting as the actual book.

Ruth is a highly respected delivery nurse in a hospital when one day, she finds herself assisting Davis, the newly born son of white supremacists.  They want nothing to do with Ruth and promptly ask her supervisor not to let any African Americans touch their son.  One night, every other nurse is in some type of emergency, and Ruth is the only one available to watch over Davis after a routine procedure.  When he codes, she's left with the choice of whether to follow her orders or help the infant. 

As in every Picoult book, Small Great Things is told with multiple narrators -- Ruth, Turk (Davis's father), and Kennedy (Ruth's lawyer).  The trial is emotional and really makes readers think about how they act with people who are different from them.  While the ending is slightly unrealistic and wrapped up in too neatly of a bow, that doesn't deter from the profound lessons the book teaches.

MY RATING - 4

India's War (Srinath Raghavan)

Srinath Raghavan's comprehensive work India's War delves deeply into the role that India played in World War II. India in the 1930's and 1940's was still under British rule, and its geographic position in South Asia put it on the edge of two theatres of battle - Japan in Southeast and East Asia and the African battles that raged as close as Ethiopia.

Raghavan's book is well-researched and detailed, talking about the recruitment of India's armed forces and the "rogue" army that was raised and sought out Japanese and German support.  All of this amid the specter of political drama that was playing out as the leading factions in India's dueling nationalist movements quarrelled with the British colonial government as the nationalists sought further self-control and power.

The author focuses significant time on World War II, but very little deals with the consequences of war with regard to the political turmoil that overtook India and Pakistan in the late 1940's and continues to this day. While the seeds for division and partition were being sewn during World War II, and the author does talk about this, it feels like the immediate aftermath of the war and how India's military shaped some of the civil strife during the India-Pakistan partition was only given brief consideration. More information on this would have been beneficial.

This is a solid but unspectacular work that misses the mark in a few areas but properly mentions the contributions of India's armies to the British war effort.

MY RATING - 3

The Long Weekend (Adrian Tinniswood)

Adrian Tinniswood’s The Long Weekend is a brilliantly paced read on the golden era of the English country house between the two world wars.  Tinniswood’s historical work touches on all facets of life in the 1920’s and 1930’s for Britain’s political class, nobility, and socialites -- from the architectural look of the country house to the lifestyle of those who resided in it. Details about the lives of the Astors, Windsors, and Churchills and their estates are given proper coverage…and of course, Edward VIII’s many, many ladies.

The era and lifestyle of many of those who resided in these homes would closely resemble that of the popular British show Downton Abbey, and Tinniswood’s well-researched work closely overlaps the time of the show, extending beyond its ending to cover the golden era’s decline and the fate that many of these homes faced in later years.  Unlike the Granthams of Downton fame, however, many of the residents of these country homes were not there full time, living primarily in London or in some cases even the United States, utilizing these properties for weekend or holiday use.

The author crafts together a fast-paced but intellectual read (290 pages can be trotted through with ease), full of detail of both sophistication of the elite and the sophistry of affairs, double lives, and of lifestyles that were frowned upon in an earlier time.  It’s arguably one of the finer books on the subject of English 20^th Century life and certainly well worth your time to read over a long weekend…or a short vacation!

MY RATING - 5