Moneyland (Oliver Bullough)

Oliver Bullough’s Moneyland is a journey into a place that exists not on a map, nor in an app, nor in some virtual reality scene. This book is about the inside story of the highest of high net worth individuals who conceal large chunks of their wealth to avoid taxes or to hide their criminal affairs.

Bullough takes readers on a jet-set trip across the world to the Caribbean, London, the Channel Islands, the Sahel, the Ukraine, Russia, and the United States. Each of these locations is a willing or unknowing participant in setting up financial shelters for the super rich. Some of those super rich earned their money through completely legal manners and are looking for the best return on their assets at the lowest tax rate. Others obtained their money through illegal means. Bullough’s Moneyland is a place without borders and reflects the flow of money around the world, seeking out the best and easiest way to protect its value and those who have a lot of wealth.

The author goes through a detailed review of how the so-described “Moneyland” came to be, between loopholes in global financial arrangements, to various nations selling their citizenship for a price, to the development of layered corporations as tax shelters. All of this occurs to hide and make it near impossible to figure out just who owns that expensive condo or that business venture. Of course, given modern events, current political players and their surrogates take a willful role in the “Moneyland” stage.

Bullough’s book is a great read if you are interested in finance and curious to know how some of the one-tenth of one percent flaunt law, taxation, and decency all in order to hoard more of their wealth. Bullough offers pointed suggestions to bring about Moneyland’s demise, including better vigilance from politicians and voters alike.

MY RATING - 4.5

Inspection (Josh Malerman)

When an author comes up with such an original concept as Josh Malerman's Inspection, it's just plain refreshing to read. There are only so many times I can read about secrets in marriages and the like before I start to get bored with the same old topic again and again. It's nice when you can say as a reader that you've read NOTHING like a particular book. That's not to say I loved Inspection, but it definitely had its positives.

If you want characters with actual names, you better turn elsewhere. The story revolves around the "Alphabet Boys," who are students in a school deep within a forest. They know nothing about reality. All they know is what D.A.D. and the Parenthood have told them, namely that they came from trees and need to be careful not to get fake diseases. Oh yeah, they also do not have a clue that a species called "girls" exists either.

We are told their story through the eyes of "J." J begins to have some suspicions, and these suspicious are increased a hundredfold when he meets "K," a girl. Where did K come from? What secrets about the world are being kept from all of them, and how will they react when they find out they have been deceived?

Other readers have commented that they found the plot slow and the ending great. I, however, am completely the opposite, which is why I couldn't rate this a 4. Unfortunately, I can't reveal much about the ending lest I give it away, except to say that I just found it way too much. But major props go out to Malerman for creating something here that we really haven't seen before.

MY RATING - 3.5

Everything I Never Told You (Celeste Ng)

The opening lines of Celeste Ng's Everything I Never Told You shocks you from the very beginning: "Lydia is dead. But they don't know this yet." Based on these lines, the reader obviously assumes that this book is some type of mystery. But what Ng surprisingly does instead is make what happened to Lydia the secondary part of the story. Instead, this is a book about a family in turmoil, both before Lydia died and after.

Set in the 70s, Everything I Never Told You is about Marilyn and James Lee and their children, a Chinese American family living in a small town. Even though she has two other children, Marilyn's attention is focused on Lydia, making sure she has the opportunities (whether or not she even wants them is beside the point) that Marilyn never had. The family struggles to overcome the hardships in their lives until one day, Lydia goes missing.

This is a page-turner at the beginning, but I found the last quarter of the book dull and even confusing. However, Ng does create here a profoundly moving narrative of a family trying to understand each other and wondering if it's too late to mend its connections.

MY RATING - 3.5

The Dreamers (Karen Thompson Walker)

I was really excited about the premise of Karen Thompson Walker's The Dreamers, especially because the book got major buzz in the publishing world. Unfortunately, at least for me, the premise was far more exciting than the execution.

A "sleeping disease" is going around a California college town. One day, a college girl falls asleep in her dorm room and never wakes up. It doesn't take long before the disease travels around the dorm floor. Some of the other people in the town become infected, and the National Guard is called in to enforce a quarantine. How did the disease start and what is the cause? Will the "dreamers" ever wake up, and if they do, will they ever be the same?

The ultimate problem of The Dreamers is that many of the questions the reader will definitely expect to be answered are not. The book also bounces from character to character so much that we never really get to know them (and therefore, care about them). I did enjoy the "dream-like" quality of the prose, but because there are so many plot points left open-ended, I ultimately wondered what the point of it all was.

MY RATING - 2

Beartown (Fredrik Backman)

I'm not that much of a sports enthusiast, but author Fredrik Backman made me understand completely the passion that goes into a sport like hockey. Beartown is a small community and having a great hockey team is really the only thing it's known for. People "survive" in Beartown, but they take unbelievable hope from their teams.

When the book begins, the Beartown junior hockey team is about to compete in the national semi-finals. This burden to win is heavy on the shoulders of these teenage boys, who believe that hockey is in their blood, sweat, and tears. Most people in the community think that if the team wins in the semi-finals, Beartown will change forever, but what really changes it is a violent crime that occurs on that same night.

No member of the town will be unaffected by the crime, and it is in this moment that the book's pace really picks up. Backman has a way of making the reader feel that they are flies on the wall IN Beartown, and it is his writing and unforgettable characters that make it such a heart-pounding read.

MY RATING - 4

Between the Lies (Michelle Adams)

Michelle Adams's Between the Lies has a premise that should hook you immediately: What would happen if you woke up and couldn't remember a thing? Such is the case with the main character Chloe Daniels. She wakes up in a hospital with absolutely no memories of how she got there or who her family members are. Sounds interesting, right? It certainly does, but the payoff at the end is just not there.

As Chloe goes through her recovery at her parents' house, she tries to put together the puzzle pieces of her life. She knows she was in an accident and that the accident involved her young son. Was she responsible for it? Her father specifically attempts to help her, but Chloe is not sure the methods he is using is good for her. As the narrative evolves, Chloe begins to figure out bits and pieces until she finally remembers what truly happened.

I am usually not one to figure twists out easily, but this is actually pretty simple. I think the problem was that I didn't find the story as a whole plausible, which I believe a mystery novel needs to be. In addition, the reader doesn't find out much of the backstory behind what led up to the accident, so the payoff isn't rewarding. This is one I just didn't enjoy all that much.

MY RATING - 2

Gumbo Life (Ken Wells)

Ken Wells’ newest book is a reflection of his life’s journey through the Louisiana Bayou. It’s the story of how a dish became one of the signature Cajun cuisine creations but also a mirror in many ways of the American melting point. Gumbo Life is an entertaining, soulful collection of Wells’s journeys through Louisiana as he seeks out answers to the evolution and development of this distinctive dish.

Gumbo, if you are not a foodie, is a stew-like dish of meat, sometimes with or without shellfish, with peppers, celery, onion, and okra. It is well-seasoned and slow-cooked before often being served over white rice. The origins of gumbo come from a blending of several different cultures and cuisines, each adding a little more flair and flavor to the dish as it developed. We learn in the book that this dish has local flair, regional variety, and even international renown and Wells expertly details that evolutionary process in two distinct paths. The first is through the work of others like Paul Prudhomme, the second is the evolutionary process within his own family and his own life.

Gumbo Life reflects much about life on the Bayou and the namesake dish of the book; a melting pot of traditions, flavorful and authentic, simple in explanation yet an evolution of complexity that takes time and patience to properly figure out. This book will fill your soul with a feel-good tale of a dish that’s reflective of our nation’s blended heritage...and will leave you wanting to find a hearty bowl of gumbo. Let’s eat!

MY RATING - 4.5