The Circle by David Eggers

Posted on November 15, 2013 by bseat

The Circle_Mae Holland has finally gotten her dream job! Through her connection to Annie, her best friend, who works at the social network giant called The Circle, Mae was able to snag an interview and she was hired!  The Circle, whose headquarters are located on a sprawling campus  in southern California offer a unique service through their universal operating system called TruYou which helps link a person’s email, social media, personal banking and shopping by creating a “true identity” which  allows people to minimize the number of passwords and other barriers to their internet experience and allows businesses to accurately determine what you might want or need based on your actual buying and social network activity.  As an employer, The Circle offers only the best to it’s employees: beautiful offices, dining and exercise facilities, a medical clinic, concert series and social events and even apartments that you can use if you have to work late. The Circle has thought of everything!

Initially Mae is asked to work in Customer Experience where she answer questions and asks people to evaluate their experience in using The Circle’s various services. It becomes very clear that maintaining and getting evaluations that are in the 90th percentile is the goal for anyone who works in Customer Experience and Mae soon becomes one of the best. However it is also important at the same time to maintain good relationships with others in the company and Mae after a few missteps realizes that she needs to maintain her social media connections within the company throughout the day, by “liking” posts made by others, taking pictures at various events and posting them to her page all to show that she is part of the Circle and a team player.  Soon Mae’s CE scores are regularly in the upper 90’s  and her connected status through the Circle’s various social media sites is also very high and she is getting the attention of various important people as a rising star within the Circle.  

Mae’s meteoric rise within the company however is not without some cost.  Her parents and her former boyfriend do not seem to understand her need to be connected and responding to her social network at all hours of the day.  Her ex seems especially resistant to any social media help that she offers for his new business and Annie, her best friend seems distant and remote; maybe even jealous.  And then there is this strange man who approaches her and seems to know some dark secrets about the Circle, but disappears before she can get any straight answers.  As Mae tries to find the answers, the Circle begins to “complete” and Mae is right at the center of it all.    

Eggers has written an interesting and thought provoking book about social media and the way we have traded in real connection for superficial “likes” on our Facebook pages.  The  profound questions which he raises about the need for privacy and anonymity as well as making connections with what people are doing and to share what we are doing seems to be one of degree, but none the less an important issue as we become more and more connected and our identities more visible.  Eggers, has paced this story well, and it is well written with good characters, although there are times when Mae feels a little less nuanced than I would have liked, although I feel that this was done purposefully for effect. Let me know what you think!

Brenda’s Rating: ****( 4 Stars out of 5)  

Recommend this book to: Ken, Keith, Sharon, Marian and Lauren

Book Study Worthy: Absolutely!

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Posted in Fiction, Mystery | 2 Comments

A Natural History of Dragons by Marie Brennan

Posted on November 8, 2013 by bseat

History of Dragons_I love it when books begin with a warning as this one does: “this series will contain frozen mountains, foetid swamps, hostile foreigners, hostile fellow countrymen, the occasional hostile family member, bad decisions, misadventures in orienteering, diseases of an unromantic sort, and a plenitude of mud.”   And there is all that and more in this delightful fantasy memoir!

Lady Trent now an older woman recounting her life, explains that she is obsessed with dragons and has been from the time she was a child.  Raised in an era when women were not allowed to pursue scientific study and in a class that expected women to be beautiful and accomplished in the feminine arts of needle work and managing a household, Isabella feels out of place and frustrated.  With the help of her brother however, Isabella begins to feed her thirst for knowledge about dragons, first by obtaining a copy of Sir Richard Edgeworth’s, A Natural History of Dragons, and then by maneuvering her way into a hunt for a wolf-drake (a type of dragon) on her father’s estate. Although the hunt did not go as she intended, her resolve to learn more about dragons grew stronger and stronger. Her father, realizing that he cannot prevent her from this quest, eventually gives her a list of marriageable men who he has on good authority also have Sir Richard Edgeworth’s, A Natural History of Dragons in their libraries and who might be willing to take on such an unconventional woman like Isabella and be amenable to her unnatural interest in dragons.

Set in a country not that different from England and in a Victorian-ish era, Isabella is a strong willed, curious woman.  She falls into scandalous adventures and although she is sometimes regretful of the consequences she never apologizes for the thirst of knowledge that gets her into trouble.

Marie Brennan, who is an anthropologist and folklorist, claims to “shamelessly pillage” her own academic research and it is very evident in this book. She has created a special character in Isabella, who now as an older woman recounts her life and adventures with pride and a lot of self deprecating humor.  The beautiful drawings that accompany the book add immeasurably to the story as well.

This is the beginning of a new fantasy series, the second of which, The Tropic of Serpents is scheduled to be released in March of next year.

Brenda’s Rating: ***1/2 (3 1/2 Stars out of 5)

Recommend this book to: Lauren, Marian and Sharon.

Book Study Worthy: Maybe

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The Company by Robert Littell

Posted on November 1, 2013 by bseat

The Company_It is December 31, 1950, in East Berlin. Jack McAuliffe, along with several other more seasoned operatives from the CIA are waiting for a defector to show up. When the high ranking Russian intelligence officer appears he says that he can identify a mole in Britain’s MI6.  Jack’s boss, Harvey Toriti, also know as the Sorcerer, begins to interview and evaluate the information the defector gives him and in the end makes the determination that the information looks good, the defector genuine and recommends exfiltration.  When the exfiltration takes place a few weeks later, however, the defector and his wife are arrested and the police swarm the safe house where the Sorcerer and his Apprentice, Jack, are waiting. Escaping from the safe house and the from the Russian and East German agents sent to capture them, the Sorcerer’s team regroups in West Berlin and tries to figure out what happened. The conclusion is inescapable: there is a mole who warned the Russians about this defection.

The Company is the story of  the CIA during the forty years of the Cold War and the high stakes intelligence gathering that occurred during those years.  The revelations of the moles in MI6, the invasion of Hungary by the Soviets, the Bay of Pigs, and the Gorbachev putsch as well as the internal strife within the CIA itself-pitting political personnel against field operatives and the increasing and debilitating paranoia of James Angleton, a real-life mole hunter within the CIA are all a part of the story of The Company.

One of the most fascinating parts of the story for me was the Gorbachev putsch.  I think most people at the time focused on the fall of the Berlin Wall, but the behind the scenes of the attempted putsch and the maneuvering that occurred by Yeltsin in support of Gorbachev and what the CIA knew at the time was an insight to a piece of history that I knew little about and  found extremely interesting.

Robert Littell’s easy prose, well formed characters, and remarkable research makes this historical novel a joy to read. His attention to detail, and his knowledge of locations makes you feel like you are there where it is happening.  Since the book is close to 900 pages it is all the more important that it was written by such a masterful story teller.   This is however, a real spy vs. spy story, with the value of gathering information, developing sources and analyzing information as the basis of the story, rather than the exciting heroics that you see in James Bond movies, but because of that emphasis it is all the more satisfying, since you get to see the step by step revelations, the sudden insights, and the just in time information that makes the puzzle whole.  

Brenda’s Rating: *****(5 Stars out of 5)

Recommend this book to: Sharon, Marian, Keith and Ken

Book Study Worthy: Yes!

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The Burgess Boys by Elizabeth Stout

Posted on October 25, 2013 by bseat


The Burgess Boys_Relationships with siblings can run the gamut between easy or very difficult.   In The Burgess Boys the relationships between Susan, Jim and Bob are both difficult and complicated.

Born in Shirley Falls, Maine they were raised by their mother who struggled financially and emotionally after their father was killed in a freak car accident.  Jim, the oldest always treated his siblings with disdain, especially Bob, but Bob who always idolized his older brother, took it in stride and tried to create a connection with his brother.  Jim and Bob escaped from Shirley Falls as soon as they were able, and both ended up in New York City, while their sister Susan remained in Shirley Falls, struggling to raise her own son, Zach, as a single mother.  Jim became corporate lawyer in large firm, while Bob worked as a lawyer for Legal Aid. Although they are not close, the brothers see each other once in awhile and communicate occasionally with their sister,.  All would have remained in this state of remote equilibrium except that Susan’s 14 year old son, Zach, is arrested for committing a hate crime in the local mosque in Shirley Falls.  In order to help their sister and nephew negotiate their way through the legal and political  morass after his arrest, Jim and Bob must return to Shirley Falls.  The return of the brothers to their hometown creates an opportunity for them to reveal and confront some unexpected truths that have been kept secret in their family and have affected their relationships to each other.

Stout has created some interesting characters in Bob and Jim. The dichotomy between the two bothers could not be more stark, and I think the demeaning nastiness with which Jim treats Bob made this a difficult read for me. Susan, almost until the very end seems to be a ghost person-unable to take any control over her life after her divorce. I found the characters from the mosque to be much more engaging, and their development in the process of trying to get justice for what happened at the mosque, insightful.

I think this book was difficult because I couldn’t quite identify with any of the characters, Jim was a jerk, Bob was pathetically unconfident, and Susan just whined.   But if you can get past that to the essence of this story which is that the stories our families tell us influence us more than we realize, and that family secrets are inherently destructive, then the character’s become more sympathetic and understandable.

Brenda’s Rating: *** (3 Stars out of 5)

Recommend this book to: Sharon and Keith

Book Study Worthy: Yes

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Posted in Fiction, Mystery | Tagged , | 2 Comments

The Shining Girls by Lauren Beukes

Posted on October 18, 2013 by bseat

The Shining Girls is a hard book to categorize, since it is about a serial killer who travel back in time. OK… I know some of you are already tuning out, but keep reading because this book is strangely compelling and is one of the most fascinating stories I have read in a long time.

Harper Curtis finds young girls who shine.  It is their shining quality that attracts him and when he finds them he gives them a token and tells them he will be back again later.  When he does come back he brutally kills them. He has been doing this for many years now, and he has evaded suspicion because he can go back and forth through time. The house he lives in has strange powers and he has learned its secrets and uses them to choose his girls. Everything has been going flawlessly until one day when he tries to kill one of his shining girls and is distracted and in that instant, despite her severe injuries, she runs away.

Kirby Mazrachi, was brutally attacked, but somehow through sheer gumption was able to get away from her assailant.  The man who did this to her was never found and although she has tried to move on with her life it continues to haunt her.  Now as a journalist she has the resources to investigate what happened to her all those years ago. As she reads through cases with similar MOs to hers she begins to see anomalies.  Things left behind that were not the victims; things that are in the wrong time and the wrong place. It will take all her gumption, nerve and resources to track this killer down.

Beukes has written a truly haunting and suspenseful book.  Like Stephen King she has imbued every day things with an evil that is menacing, but her writing is lyrical and compelling and in some strange way that combination makes this book less of a horror story and more of a psychological study of how evil affects our lives. Harper is one of the creepiest, malevolent serial killers since Hannibal Lector while Kirby is a determined, spunky young women who refuses to let herself become a victim.

I hope that you will give this book a chance.  I think like me, you will be surprised at the great writing, the wonderful characters, and the satisfaction you feel at the conclusion of this story.

Brenda’s Rating: **** (4 Stars out of 5)   

Recommend this book to: Sharon, Marian and Lauren

Book Study Worthy? Sure!

Read in ebook format.

Posted in Fiction, Historical Fiction, Mystery, Science Fiction, Thriller | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter

Posted on October 11, 2013 by bseat

Claire Silver, Chief Development Assistant to legendary movie producer, Michael Deane, is trying to leave her LA office when two men show up.  One is a small elderly Italian man who can barely speak English and the other is Shane Wheeler who is extremely late for his pitch meeting scheduled earlier that day. Claire, bored and disBeautiful Ruins_illusioned by the constant stream of mediocre movie pitches wants to just leave, but her relationship with her boyfriend is on the rocks and they are due for “the talk,” so she chooses the lesser of two evils and sits down to listen to these two men.

As expected Shane Wheeler pitches a Donner Party remake that seems so far from the movies that that she thought she would be making when she left school that Claire can hardly contain her disgust.  The Italian gentleman, however is a different story. With the help of Shane, who unexpectedly proves useful as an interpreter, Claire discovers that the elderly Italian is not here to pitch a movie but on a mission to find a young actress named Dee Moray who stayed at his hotel in 1962.  He pulls out a business card with Michael Deane’s name and with Michael’s handwriting on the back saying to contact him any time.

Intrigued, Claire begins to unravel the story of Dee Moray, who was part of the cast of “Cleopatra,” starring Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor and the role that her boss, Michael Deane, played in containing costs and getting “Cleopatra” back on schedule.

Walter’s character’s are intriguing and multidimensional and the historical context and the small role that Richard Burton plays as a character ground the story in reality. Her descriptions of the Italian coast and the the small fishing village reminded me of my own trip to Italy and the many little villages I saw along that sun dappled coastline.

Shifting between the present and 1962, Beautiful Ruins is a story about the unexpected ways our history can both inform and guide our future as well as hold us back from what we envision our life could be.  Each character and each story line, allows us to see the historical scope of their lives and the repercussions that reverberate throughout their lives because of their choices and connections.  As one of the characters says; ” All we have is the story we tell. Everything we do, every decision we make, our strength, weakness, motivation, history, and character-what we believe-none of it is real; it’s part of the story we tell. But here’s the thing: it’s our goddamned story!”      

Brenda’s Rating : **** (4 Stars out of 5) 

Recommend this book to: Sharon, Marian and Lauren

Book Study Worthy?: Yes, with Italian food and wine!

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Suspect by Robert Crais

Posted on October 4, 2013 by bseat

Robert Crais in one of my favorite authors.  His books about Joe Pike and Elvis Cole, two private detectives in the City of Los Angeles (Taken, and The First Rule for example) are compelling, gritty, exciting and never disappoint.  However, in Crais’s most recent book, Suspect_Suspect, he has created new characters, who although unlike Joe and Elvis are just as memorable and engaging.

Scott James, is an LAPD cop recovering from a shootout which nearly killed him and did kill his partner Stephanie. Eight months later the incident although officially resolved still remains unresolved for Scott who is just now is trying to adjust to his life and get back to work.  Unable to go back to his old position he has been going through a retraining program and is now finally ready to meet his new partner, Maggie.

Maggie is a war vet who served three tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan.  She too lost her partner when IED  blew up in front of  her and is suffering from severe PTSD.  Discharged from the  military, Maggie who is highly trained bomb sniffing German Shepherd is now being retrained to work as a K-9 dog with the LAPD.

When Scott and Maggie first meet at the K-9 training facility they are both unsure about the other.  Both feel like they have failed the important people in their lives and find it hard to trust in another partner again. But soon they are forced to rely on each other as Scott keeps turning up clues in Stephanie’s murder that seem to contradict the official version of what happened that night. As the clues unravel a cover up, Scott and Maggie must use all their skills to keep each other alive.

Crais captures Maggie in a very real way. Maggie is a dog, and acts and reacts like a dog, not a person. It was fascinating to see how Maggie perceived the same interactions, compared with the way Scott perceived them.  The descriptions of Maggie’s sense of smell and the way she can sense fear or honesty or just the bologna that Scott treats her with were fascinating in their own way, giving us insights into what being DOG means.  All along the way we are watching as Scott and Maggie begin to heal and develop a bond that is mutually devoted and trusting and feel invested in that deepening relationship.

I hope that we see more of Scott and Maggie. They are totally worthy of becoming stars of their own series just like Joe and Elvis!

Brenda’s Rating: ****(4 Stars out of 5)

Recommend this book to: Keith, Ken, Sharon, Marian and Lauren

Book Study Worthy: Sure, but only if you include some dogs! 😉

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Posted in Detective novel, Fiction, Mystery, Thriller, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

The Given Day by Dennis Lehane

Posted on September 27, 2013 by bseat

Denis Lehane has written some great books, and some Like Gone, Baby, Gone or Shutter Island have become great movies as well, with great characters and much mystery and suspense.  The Given Day, however, is a much broader historical story spanning the lives The Given Day_of two Boston families, one black and one white, during and after World War I through the Boston Police Strike of 1919.

Luther Laurence is a gifted baseball player, and in fact he and his team almost beat Babe Ruth out on a dirt field in the middle of nowhere.  But Luther is black, and that means that professional baseball is not a career choice he can make. Instead Luther must find another way to make a living in a time where that is very difficult.  Without even trying Luther is soon mixed up in some bad business and is soon running from some very dangerous people in Tulsa.  Leaving his pregnant wife behind, he jumps on a train and ends up in Boston working as a driver for the wealthy, and well connected Coughlin family.

Danny Coughlin, is the son of  Thomas Coughlin a well respected Boston cop and the man that Luther works for as his driver. Danny follows in his father’s footsteps and becomes a beat cop himself in the North End of Boston.  Trying to make a name for himself within the department, Danny goes undercover to be a part of an effort to root out Bolshevik sympathizers and agitators within the unions and even in the department who are encouraging the rank and file to demand better working conditions and better wages. Initially Danny sees the agitators as noisy trouble makers but soon he comes to admire their goals. He knows first hand the terrible conditions that many policemen live under and he is drawn to the message of standing up for their rights, especially when the City of Boston and the Boston Police Department itself  keep postponing pay raises and other changes that were promised.  Frustrated by the procrastination, Danny begins to wonder whether the agitators are in the right, but as their tactics become increasingly violent, Danny has to make serious choices that affect his standing within the department and with his own family.

Intertwined with the stories of Danny and Luther is the story of the City of Boston during this time of great change and chaos and among the events that emerge are The Great Molasses Disaster, where a large tank of molasses broke open and ran down the streets at 35 mph killing 21 and injuring 150, or the Spanish flu epidemic that arrived in Boston Harbor aboard a transport ship from Europe and killing more that 1,000 people and from there spread through out the US, and finally the Boston Police Strike which is the culmination of our story. In addition to these events we also meet Calvin Coolidge as the governor of Massachusetts, Edgar Hoover as a young FBI agent, W.E B. Dubois and Babe Ruth all of whom add a strong sense of historical context and authenticity to the book.

Lehane is obviously passionate about this time period and is eloquent in his descriptions of the city, the politics of the time and the working conditions of both blacks and whites.  He has a sharp ear for language and colloquialisms as well.  My only complaint is that it is long (720 pages) and that at some points the historical context overwhelms the story lines, but if you are interested in this time period, the birth of the union movement and the beginnings of our modern world, this is a great book to read!

Brenda”s Rating : **** (4 Stars out of 5)

Recommend this book to: Keith, Ken and Sharon

Book Study Worthy: Yes

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The Cuckoo’s Calling by J.K. Rowling

Posted on September 20, 2013 by bseat

Cuckoo's Calling_Cormoran Strike, a veteran of Afghanistan with a prosthetic leg to show for his time overseas, is trying to make it as a small time private detective in London.  He is barely scraping by, and is now also arrears on his office rent-a major problem considering his office is also where he is living since the break up with his long term girlfriend.  But in spite of this reality, combined with his inability to face it, the temp agency continues to send a secretary to his office every week.  This time, Robin Ellacott, fresh from Yorkshire shows up and somehow her youthful, positive presence brings a change of luck to Strike’s moribund practice and suddenly Strike is investigating the death of Lula, a beautiful super model who fell to her death in an apparent suicide three months earlier.  

Investigating a celebrity’s death, especially one that happened months ago carries with it a certain amount of baggage.  But as Strike investigates the dysfunctional family dynamics, and sorts through the strange circumstances of Lula’s death very public death, he becomes convinced that it was murder and not a suicide.  Robin, who has always secretly wanted to be a private detective, becomes an integral part of the investigative process, even as she brings order to the chaos that he calls his office. Her insights help move the investigation along, and Strike begins to rely on her even as he realizes that he could never afford to have her stay on permanently.

 I was struck many times by the wonderful descriptions and the great writing, for example here is Strike, musing on the city around him: 

This was the hour when he found London most lovable: the working day over, her pub windows were warm and jewel like, her streets thrummed with life and the indefatigable permanence of her aged buildings, softened by the street lights, became strangely reassuring.

Rowling also captures the naive and youthful Robin with the same assurance as she captures Strike in all his cynical war weariness. Each character emerges with their own personality, that extra something that makes then seem real and knowable; a gift of a good writer. 

Yes, this is that book, the one that J.K. Rowling published under the pseudonym of Robert Galbraith, but don’t let that hold you back from reading it.  It is a well written detective novel with interesting characters and all sorts of twists and turns in the plot line. A wonderful read! 

Brenda’s Rating: ****1/2 (41/2 Stars out of 5) 

Recommend this book to: Sharon. Marian, Keith and Lauren

Book Study Worthy? No

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Posted in Detective novel, Fiction | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Will Return Next Week!

Posted on September 13, 2013 by bseat

Dear Readers,

Our kitchen is being renovated!  What, you say, does that have to do with my blog?  Well, I have been consumed with things kitchen…door pulls, paint colors, appliances, lighting fixtures, counter tops and the dust!  You would not believe all the dust!  So, my dear readers, you are just going to have to wait until next week when I shall return  with a new posting and hopefully by then our kitchen will also be finished!

Thanks so much for your patience!

Brenda

Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments