11/22/63 by Stephen King

Posted on November 30, 2012 by bseat

There are quite a few people who relegate anything written by Stephen King as “horror” and therefore will not read it, which to my mind is a big mistake!  11/22/63 his most recent book couldn’t be farther from the horror genre and instead is a very thoughtful and interesting book.  It is a step back in time to the days leading up to the Kennedy assassination and explores the ways we might want to change the course of history if only we could or would. Like Philip Dick, King explores the possibility of an alternative reality where Kennedy would not be shot if only our protagonist, Jake Epping, can change things just enough so Lee Harvey Oswald is caught before he has the chance to fire those fateful shots.

King is masterful in describing the 1958-1963 time period.  You can hear and feel and even smell the differences between now and then, and you sense the differences in the rhythms of life as well.  Jake has to learn how to fit into this new time and culture as if it is a foreign country even though it is only 50 years ago.  As Jake struggles with his responsibility as well as the impact that his presence in this different time and place has on the the people around him, we are drawn into the story, on the one hand hoping he succeeds and on the other hoping he doesn’t as we see the effect even small changes have on the lives of those around him.

King takes the “what if” and creates a wonderful fully realized story about how complicated the flow of history is and how inextricably entwined we are to one another whether we recognize it or not.

Brenda’s Rating  *****(Five Stars out of Five)

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

Book Study Worthy: Yes

Read in ebook format.

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Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

Posted on November 16, 2012 by bseat

Sometimes you are surprised by a book. It takes you on a journey that you never expected and when it ends leaves you wondering how you ended up at this point rather than the one you anticipated when you opened the book at the beginning. Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn is that kind of book. The story begins with Nick coming home to a house that is ransacked, furniture upturned and his wife missing. Unable to find his wife, Nick is soon being questioned by the police and in alternating chapters we hear his side of the story juxtaposed with chapters containing entries from a diary written by his missing wife that tell a very different story about their marriage and their life together. At each step along the way the reader is being asked to figure out what is true in the relationship and what is false about their life together. But much as I would like to say more, this is about all I can say about the plot without giving it away!

What I found fascinating bout this book was the very different perspective that Nick and his wife had about their marriage. The psychological aspects of their relationship and the way that their life circumstances and disappointments in each other began to affect their marriage are portrayed in a real way. Flynn is a good writer and she has a keen sense of what motivates her characters. She carefully reveals little nuggets and clues along the way which pulls you along in the story, but they never seem out of character or misplaced. Although the characters were well developed in this book it was still quite disturbing and at the end all you can do is hope real people would make better or different choices if given the same circumstances.

I would be really interested in hearing from others who have read this and let me know how you felt about this book. Remember to put “Spoiler Alert”in your comment if you are going to give anything away! One of my friends, Becky, read this and blogged about it as well and I will link it so that you can get another perspective!

This was the first book I read by Flynn and it makes me want to read more!

Brenda’s Rating: **** (Four Stars out of Five)

Recommend this book to: Sharon, Marian and Lauren.

Book Study Worthy?: It would be worth getting together while drinking a glass of wine and say to each other “OMG, what about the part where…”

Read in ebook format.

Posted in Non Fiction, Psychological Mystery | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Manhunt by Peter Bergen

Posted on November 9, 2012 by bseat

A little while after the 9/11 Commission released its’ report in 2004, I saw a review of it in the Washington Post and was interested that they found it ‘highly readable,” unlike many such reports which are dry and incomprehensible.  I decided to read it, but waited until we went on vacation later that year so that I could read it on a beach with the waves and warm air surrounding me. As I read about the incomprehensible tragedy that happened that day, being able to look up at the palm trees and waves and feel the warm breezes seemed like both a counterpoint and reassurance that the world could recover and go on after such a tragedy.

So, recently, when Peter Bergen released this book on the 10 year search for and death of Osama bin Laden, it seemed like a type of closure for me to read it. Bergen is a journalist who has reported extensively on national security and is currently a contributor for CNN.  He is widely known for his interview with Osama bin Laden in which bin Laden declared war on the West for the first time to a Western audience.

Bergen begins with the hunt for bin Laden, and the various tactics used and the types of information that those tactics elicited during the Bush and Obama administrations.  It was surprising to me that there was so very little to go on for so many years.  bin Laden essentially disappeared and was very careful in contacting his people in al-Qaeda throughout the ten year period after 9/11 making him very difficult to find.  It also had the  effect of making bin Laden more figurehead rather than the charismatic leader who had the audacity to plan the 9/11 attacks.  Throughout this period, especially after Obama took office, drone strikes were used against other al-Qaeda leaders and this began to take its toll on the organization as well.

Against this background the search for bin Laden continued but had basically stalled for a number of years until Obama took office when it began again to gain more attention and traction.  When eventually the CIA felt that that they had found bin Laden’s hideout in Abbottabad, Pakistan, the story turns from the hunt to the process of confirming and making the decision of when and how to strike and take out bin Laden.  I found this part of the narrative to be quite insightful.  Looking at the various choices that Obama had to consider and their ramifications, both politically and operationally, was quite instructive on how a president must think and make decisions.

Bergen interviewed many people for this book and the insights from Bush and Obama as well as others closer to the actual planning and logistics of the operation are quite extraordinary.  Just getting the background about that now famous picture of Obama leaning forward and Secretary Clinton covering her mouth in shock as they watched the operation proceed in real time makes this book totally worth reading!

So was killing Bin Laden revenge or justice?  I think a little of both.  On the world stage it  seems like a necessary action since I don’t think that a nation state can turn the other cheek in the face of such massive and horrific hatred as was unleashed on that fateful day in September. On the other had does this kind of retaliatory action just breed more hatred in the future?  I sincerely hope not but we will not know the answer to that until more time has passed.

 Brenda’s Rating: ****(Four Stars)

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

Book Study Worthy?  Yes

I read this book as an ebook

Posted in Non Fiction | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

The Man in the High Castle by Philip Dick

Posted on November 2, 2012 by bseat

Philip Dick is an author I have liked for a long time without having read any of his books.  I have seen many of his works as movies, like Blade Runner, Total Recall ( a remake of which is in the works,) Minority Report and most recently, Adjustment Bureau.  As you have realized by now, Dick is a science fiction author who has used that genre to explore deeper questions of being human and the reason for existence.

In The Man In the High Castle, Dick (winner of the 1963 Hugo Award) explores one of the more interesting questions of our time, “What would have happened if Germany and Japan had won WWII.”  Our story begins in 1962, 20 years after the war. The US is now occupied by Japan and Germany and a new kind of society has emerged with Japanese and Germans as the dominant class, slavery re-instituted  Jews hunted and eliminated and all other Americans considered second class citizens with limited value.

We follow several different characters, a Japanese diplomat, an American antique store owner, a two silver craftsman who are trying to create something new in a time where that is not appreciated, an German spy.  The characters struggle with their place in this world as each face crises: a diplomatic crisis, a spy trying to move under the radar, a woman who needs to make a better choice, and a Jew who wants to unleash his creative power in a world where he must remain unknown, and they are all touched in some way by a manuscript which portrays a world where the Germans and Japanese have lost WWII, written by someone know only as the man in the high castle.

Dick has created a unique blend of cultural realism in this world from the description of the use the I CHING for the divination of choices that face our characters and to their own sense of superiority if they are Japanese or German or an overwhelming sense of worthlessness if they are not.  Although new inventions have occurred, plastic, a uniquely American product has not been invented and the lack of that is an interesting part of building this alternative reality.

Although I loved the world Dick created and the questions the characters wrestled with interesting, the characters themselves were hard to relate to.  They seemed wooden or  like caricatures throughout most of the book. Towards the very end I felt like I had finally begun to make a connection with a couple of characters, the Japanese diplomat in particular, but then the book ended and ironically I felt short changed.

In spite of that I think the book is well worth reading just to get a feel for what the world might have been like if Japan and Germany had won the war.

Brenda’s Rating: ***(Three Stars)

Recommended this book to: Ken, Keith and Lauren

Book Study Worthy: Maybe…with some history buffs and with lots of wine!

Read this as an ebook.

Posted in Science Fiction | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

A Wanted Man by Lee Child

Posted on October 26, 2012 by bseat

Continue reading →

Posted in Thriller | 2 Comments

Acts of Faith by Philip Caputo

Posted on October 19, 2012 by bseat

Acts of Faith by Philip Caputo

One of the most impressive books that I have read in the past 5 years is a novel called Acts of Faith, (2005) by Philip Caputo, a Pulitzer prize-winning journalist. The book is about present day Sudan and although it is fiction, it carries a sense of realism that can only come from a person who actually experienced what they are writing about.

The theme of this book is that things done for all the right reasons sometimes have unintended consequences and that maybe seeing our good deeds as acts of faith might help us be more realistic and humble about the impact we might have in any given situation. The book follows a rebel leader, a Kenyan aid worker who questions the work he is doing, an evangelical missionary who falls in love with one of the people she is working with and a pilot who starts out flying food and medicine but is soon seduced into using his plane for smuggling. As we follow each of these characters we see the consequences of their choices and the inter connection of these various characters and their moral dilemmas as they face the enormous need and challenges in the war ravaged country of Sudan.

This book stayed with me for a long time after I read it. The idea that just because we have good intentions or that we are doing things for all the right reasons does not guarantee a good outcome is not a new one, but it was interesting to see it play out in the culture and historical context of the Sudan.  Caputo is not judgmental, this is especially true in the way he wrote about the missionary work that is being done, or the rebel fighter who is fighting for a voice and to help those who have no voice and yet as the novel unfolds you can see where the attempt to do right gets corrupted or bent as compromises are made and the end consequences are far from what they were striving for.  The idea that each of our actions are actions of faith- faith that these actions will create the good we have in mind but held humbly enough to let them go and to have faith that in the end there is redemption for each choice and each deed was both sobering and empowering. It still resonates with me even though I read it quite a while ago.  And that may be the best recommendation you can ever have for a book- that you still carry its message with you and that it has become ingrained in you!

Brenda’s Rating ***** (five stars)

Recommended for: Keith, Sharon, Ken

Books Study Worthy? YES!

http://www.amazon.com/Acts-Faith-Philip-Caputo/dp/0375725970/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1350061445&sr=8-3&keywords=acts+of+faith#_

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Wolf Hall and Bring up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel

Posted on October 12, 2012 by bseat

Historical fiction is one of my favorite types of books and Hilary Mantel is fast becoming one of my favorite authors for this genre after reading Wolf Hall (2009) and her more recent Bring Up the Bodies (2012).

Starting in England in the early 1500’s the books follow the course of Thomas Cromwell’s life as he negotiates the complicated and tricky court of Henry the VII. Of course there have been many books written about this period of English history and many movies as well, but what is fascinating about Mantel’s treatment of this period of history is the deep personal empathy with which she fleshes out Thomas Cromwell, a man who rises to the peak of power and influence and yet is of lowly birth, and has no real status other than that which he has gathered and worked for as the implementer of King Henry VII’s will and wishes.

Wolf Hall follows the rise of Henry the VII and Anne Boleyn’s courtship and ends with the death of Sir Thomas Moore who stood in the way of Henry and Anne’s marriage.  Although we know the outcome from history, the book focuses on the very real humanity of each of these players.  Henry who is frustrated by the limitations of his own power as king and cannot get his own way.  And Anne, who is caught up in the schemes of her power hungry family and who longs for the power and independence that life as queen might bring.  Even though the Protestant cause provides a means to and end, Anne sincerely believes in its values and becomes quite devout, even as the Church/State conflict swirls around her.  Thomas Moore, a man of deep spiritual conviction is caught in a changing time and a changing world.  The conflict between Thomas Cromwell and Thomas Moore, in Mantle’s hands, allows you to see the humanity and sincerity of both of these men.  In the end Cromwell remains but you are not so sure that he sees it as a win, but rather as a land mine that he has narrowly missed, and you sense the loss he feels in losing a worthy opponent and friend.

Bring up the Bodies continues the story and we see the cracks and fissures that emerge in the relationship between Anne and Henry.  Henry got what he wanted but begins to see that what he thought he wanted was not what he wanted after all.  Thomas Cromwell must negotiate an increasingly difficult course of action as he tries to read Henry’s vacillating wishes and step around the traps set by the more highly born factions of the court including the Boleyn’s who relish the power and authority Anne’s elevation to queen has brought them.

Mantel uses a unique voice for Cromwell throughout her books that both distances you from him, but oddly keeps you close to him as well; both seeing things from his eyes, and also seeing them from a distance. It takes getting used to but as you begin to fall into the rhythm of her great writing writing you begin to warm to Cromwell, and see the deft and careful way he negotiates through his precarious life.

A third volume, tentatively entitled the Mirror and the Light is set to be released in the future.  

Brenda’s Rating: ***** ( Five stars)                                                                                                                   

Recommend this to: Keith, Marian and Sharon

Book Study Worthy: Yes!

I read Wolf’s Hall in paper; Bring Up the Bodies in digital

http://www.amazon.com/Wolf-Hall-Novel-Hilary-Mantel/dp/0312429983/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1349370403&sr=8-1&keywords=wolf+hall

http://www.amazon.com/Bring-Up-Bodies-Hilary-Mantel/dp/0805090037/ref=pd_bxgy_b_img_y

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Welcome to my World of Books!

Posted on October 9, 2012 by bseat

Welcome! This is a blog about my reading life; a place for me to share some of my reflections and insights about the books I  read with the hope that my sharing will make it easier for you to find a great book to read!

I love reading! The magic of being taken into another world, another place, another time, and in the process getting deeper insights about relationships, values, culture and life has always been fascinating to me.  Over time I have developed a wide ranging and rather eclectic taste for books of many styles, types and genres.  My family and friends often ask me for recommendations for books, but it is often hard to recommend books which might appeal to their varied and different tastes.   I also have a hard time keeping track of what I have read. I do keep a list but it would be so much better to have a little bit more content besides title and author, to remind me of what I thought of a book and whether it is worthy of being recommended to someone else.  So it occurred to me that it might be helpful to create a blog where I could describe and rate books that I have read, and that then you, the reader, can decide for yourself what you might like to read!

In addition to rating the books that I review with a five star rating, I thought it might be helpful to recommend books to particular people in my life who are always looking for something new to read. These personal recommendations may be helpful to others as well who might find themselves with similar interests and styles of reading. Let me introduce you to them!

My sister Sharon is a mom-on-the-go.  She reads on her phone and so she is constantly picking up and putting down what she is reading at the doctor’s office, or while waiting for the school bus.  She is enjoys thrillers or police procedurals but also likes historical fiction or historical non-fiction that has a strong plot line and can sustain her interest through her busy days.  She also enjoys books that have a spiritual content to them that she uses for reflection and to keep her grounded in her busy life.

Keith, my husband, likes books that are soulful.  He mostly reads at night before he goes to bed, so he needs books that can be read for just a short amount of time but aren’t too exciting so he can’t get to sleep!  He also needs books for when we go on vacation- something that he can read on the plane or at the beach when he has a nice chunk of time to get deeply involved in a book. Keith even likes the occasional magical realism, i.e. John Irving, which I do not like, so there are some books that he loves that I just can’t get my head around.  Opposites attract, right?

Daughter Number 1, Marian, likes a wide variety of books but right now she needs something to keep her entertained as she commutes on the subway in New York. She generally likes thrillers, sci-fi/fantasy, general fiction from around the world and even some good historic fiction. She also enjoys interesting economic and social science books for main stream readers.

Daughter Number 2, Lauren, loves fantasy books! She also likes fiction from other countries and non-fiction books about social and psychological trends.  She does not usually like thrillers or police procedurals  but has begun to explore more general fiction, especially fiction that has an interesting psychological component.

Ken, my bother in law, always asks me to recommend books when he goes on vacation.  He travels a lot since he is a social studies teacher and so I often recommend books that I have read about the countries he is visiting.

I will also let you know if I feel a book lends itself to a book club or book study.  Some of these books I have used in book studies and have developed some book study questions that I will be able to share with you at the end of the post.

I hope that you will find these book reviews entertaining and that you will find many new and wonderful books to explore!

Happy Reading!

Brenda Seat

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , | 5 Comments