A Million Little Pieces  by James Frey

Reviewed by Gerti

I remember a few years ago when Oprah still had a show on broadcast TV that she was busy picking novels to be part of her book club. This novel, “A Million Little Pieces” by James Frey, was one that she chose. People raved about it and its author, so when it was revealed that he had made up parts of it (which should be expected in a work of fiction, no?) he was vilified.

So when I saw it on the book sale shelf at the library, many years after all the hubbub, I decided to see what all the fuss was about. What I found was that any sensible person reading this book could see that elements of it were fictional. But that doesn’t take away from the fact that it is a riveting work, if a bit too long.

The main character is supposed to be James, who as a relatively young man has become addicted to a great many things. So when he wakes up in an airplane and doesn’t remember how he got there, or where he’s going, or how he’s gotten so physically wrecked, it comes as no surprise. His wealthy but often absent parents decide to take him to the best treatment center in the country, which is in the middle of nowhere. James has no clothes with him, or anything else, so generous souls give him a winter coat and some clothes and books. But basically, he’s at this treatment center on his own with no resources.

He makes friends, he makes enemies, he is a good doobie, he is a bad ass. James basically does whatever he feels is right at the moment. He isn’t much of a rule follower, but has a deep sense of ethics, and a fascinating story to tell his counselors. He totally dismisses the 12 steps process that Alcoholics Anonymous uses, and thinks the reliance on a superior power, for him, is foolish. However, he finally finds a text called Tao Te Ching to which he does relate, and that helps him sober up to the point where his parents can come to the center and the family can find out where James’ life and their relationship went south.

This is a fascinating book for anyone, no matter what weaknesses they have as human beings, as it ostensibly gives some insight into the lives of people who have let their weaknesses totally control them. But the question of addiction is larger than James’ desire for alcohol and drugs. “A Million Little Pieces” is a story about friends, enemies, co-workers, counselors and freaks – in short, everyone. It shows the evil that people do to themselves when they don’t care about the outcome, and the evil that even good-intentioned people do. Frey’s writing is brilliant, almost a new style of literature, and I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in addiction, self-abuse, broken families and ultimately, the human condition itself. A great read. 

The Walking Dead Invasion by Jay Bonansinga

I have already read several of the Walking Dead series of books, written by Jay Bonansinga, which have little in common with the television series seen on AMC network. This book, “The Walking Dead Invasion” deals, for example, with a villain not seen on the show (yet?) – a crazed preacher named Jeremiah. His nemesis here is Lilly Caul, the woman who takes over Woodbury after “The Governor” – another villain who was used on TV – is dead and gone.

I really like Lilly, and I like the storyline where the survivors of Woodbury have had to go underground, using the old “underground railroad” tunnels between towns, to avoid the hoard of zombies on the streets above them. I also like Jeremiah as a villain, since he has that nasty, “Governor” edge. He is able to charm people with his slick and handsome preacher persona, but deep down, he is one troubled pup. He often sees his father, who didn’t treat him very well, in visions, and in one of those, he decides that the answer to the plague is to turn the undead into a controllable army. Like the insatiable hatred the Governor felt for Rick Grimes, the hero of the television series, Jeremiah has it in for Lilly, and will do anything, even destroy his flock of survivors, in order to destroy her first.

The story begins when Jeremiah and some of his flunkies come upon an almost abandoned church. Some zombies are chained into the pews, and a lone human woman is holding down the fort there. She tells them a friend of hers had run away to join a mobile group of survivors, and Jeremiah decides that’s just the place he wants to be. Fortuitously they find the group, which consists of a caravan of various vehicles and a number of families. The group is being led by a Catholic priest, but using a trick the Governor would have used, Jeremiah leaves the Reverend’s RV door open and lets the zombies do their magic. Unfortunately, the priest is hardier than that, and Jeremiah has to shot him himself, taking charge of the caravan in the power vacuum that results.

Next he overpowers some nasty bikers, using them as bait to draw his zombie army. He finds out which tunnels Lilly and her friends are using, and makes his plans to kill them all. It culminates in a showdown, but if you’ve seen either the TV version of the Governor’s showdown with Rick’s group, or have read the books or comics, you’ll find this all very familiar territory. Another crazy baddie gets what’s coming to him.

Along the way, Bonansinga writes great characters, undead and living, although I did get tired of working my way through another yet description of a “squishy” demise of a zombie. I don’t know how many of these books Bonansinga and Kirkman plan to put together, but I do enjoy them as a whole, some more than others. This one – “Invasion” – falls in the middle. I love reading about Lilly, but Jeremiah just seems like a more religious Governor character. Still, I think it would be worth reading for true fans of the AMC series, or Kirkman’s comics.   

 

The Last Coyote by Michael Connelly’s

Reviewed by Gerti

For Michael Connelly’s protagonist, former LAPD homicide detective Harry Bosch, the coyote is a metaphor for himself. He is one of the lone survivors in the terrible urban landscape of LA, trying to get by on his cunning and stealth. This is true when he tries to live surreptitiously in his cantilevered house, which has been condemned after the latest earthquake, but which he refuses to leave. He has been left behind by his previous girlfriend, who went to Europe, and now has been suspended from his job and forced to see a police shrink because he attacked his commanding officer. To watch this rebel and loner navigate this treacherous situation and come out on top at the end is what makes “The Last Coyote” (despite the wacky title) one of Connelly’s best novels to date.

Lucky for Hieronymous “Harry” Bosch, he knows how to work the system. He knows that you don’t have to be a cop to act like a cop, and until they take away his badge and gun (and even after they do, actually) he works to crack a case ignored for decades – the murder of his prostitute mother. For true Bosch fans, this book will be a delight, since there has been so little background information given out about their favorite LA cop. We have seen snippets in other books by Connelly, but not until “The Last Coyote” do we get to see the true story of Bosch’s mother, including finding out who killed her and changed (I wouldn’t quite say ruined) Harry’s life forever. Like the coyote, he faces trouble and survives.

Like all great mystery and crime stories, there is misdirection as Harry follows the clues that ultimately lead him to a criminal he did not suspect. There is for him also the bittersweet joy of discovering who his mother’s true friends (and enemies) were, and of course overcoming the natural obstacles put up by trying to solve a decades old cold case. But if anybody can do it, Bosch can. He even figures out why so little effort was put into solving the murder case initially, and he gets to meet the man his mother loved, and planned to marry.

If you’re a Bosch and Connelly fan like I am, you won’t be able to put this book down, and I couldn’t, even though the 512 page it takes to tell the story seem like a lot. Stylistically, it’s classic Connelly, with a clear-cut, no-nonsense style you just never want to stop reading. And in terms of the plot – it’s his usual non-stop, heart-pounding action as curmudgeon-y detective Bosch takes readers through his process, knocking corrupt cops and two-timing friends out of the way as he goes toward his goal. Connelly shows his maturity as a writer, and “The Last Coyote” delivers a treat to his legion of fans, with us seeing the softer side of hard-nosed Bosch, and learning what it is that made him the man we love. The book is just that – a way for fans to spend a long evening with Bosch over a bottle of wine and some smooth jazz, listening to him slowly tell the sad tale of his life, and crying with him over the heartbreak of lost chances and double-dealing friends. One of Connelly’s best, and well worth the read.  

 

The Two Mrs. Grenvilles by Dominick Dunne

This novel by Dominick Dunne is everything the backcover blurbs promise – compelling, steamy, engrossing, fast-paced, and diverting. Dunne has a reputation for being on the inside when it comes to information about the rich and famous, and this novel is no departure from that. His tale takes a sexually promiscuous showgirl and turns her into a society stunner after she marries the only son and heir to the New York Grenville fortune.

While not an original plot, Dunne’s treatment of Urse Mertens, a little nobody from Pittsburg, Kansas who turns into Ann Arden Grenville, arbiter of style and member of the jet-set and ultimately murderess, is fascinating. Dunne writes well, and only a few glitches (like saying that someone is a direct relation to Katherine Howard, Henry VIII’s 5^th wife, who got her head cut off before she could produce any children for him) shows him to be fallible with the facts. His other details about the right place to buy one’s flowers, linens and clothes in New York, I’m hoping, are more en pointe.

Mostly, Dunne has a good sense for what makes people tick. His portraits not only of gold digger Ann, but of her stuffy mother-in-law Alice, and her hapless husband, Junior “Billy” Grenville, are rich and layered. He is not content to make them caricatures of themselves, but allows them to grow as people who make decisions and choices for very understandable human reasons, even if those decisions are not the right ones to make. Dunne shows Ann’s cleverness, which of course must face off against that of her wealthy boyfriend’s snobbish family. He shows their snobbishness, and that of their friends, but in the end it is only Ann’s crime that brings her back to being a person of little consequence.

It is not a short book, being over 300 pages, but it is an interesting one from beginning to end, as Ann is pursued by a writer who wants to know the truth behind the night her husband died, and to get a little revenge of his own for being marginalized by her years earlier. I sense hints of Truman Capote’s story here, a story Dunne would also know well, but he could be talking about his own experience of getting to the heart of high–profile, high-class crime.

I strongly recommend this book for adults, because some of the sexual escapades would probably be a bit much for young teens. I think you need to be a bit cynical to enjoy the story, which is a story of luck and ambition, both of which eventually run out for the younger Mrs. G. This would make a great book to take along to a spa or resort, because it will take you some hours of leisure living to get through, but you won’t want to put it down until you do.  

Visions of Sugar Plums by Janet Evanovich

Reviewed by Gerti

Janet Evanovich has the ultimate recipe for writing success. She takes a fabulously interesting protagonist, bail bondswoman Stephanie Plum, and puts her in the craziest situations imaginable. In this book, it’s a few days before Christmas, and Stephanie wakes up to find a man in her apartment. Not just any man, but a sexy sort of superman/alien named Diesel, who has the ability to open locks and seems to know things about the universe the rest of us don’t, like why a fugitive named Sandy Claws is having a hard time making toys this season.

While she is initially shocked and scared to find Diesel has gotten into her place, he is not a serial killer, but becomes instead Stephanie’s sidekick as she visits her funny family, led by her hot-to-trot Grandma Mazur, and her unexpectedly pregnant sister, Valerie. Diesel also accompanies Stephanie to the little shop in Jersey where Claws supposedly sells toys, and to other locales, like where little people/elves are hired as toymakers. No problem if large humans can’t enter. Stephanie has a friend named Briggs who is vertically challenged and owes her a favor. She convinces him to apply for a job, and together they infiltrate the organization, only to find that some other alien/super creature named Ring is after Claws and determined to shut down his toy operation. Diesel explains how it’s an old rivalry, but I don’t really care. What it is, is funny. I especially love where Stephanie gets attacked by elves. LOL funny.

I’ve read a number of books by Evanovich now, and you don’t read them to increase your IQ, improve your manners or increase your vocabulary. But they are great fun to read because her characters are vastly entertaining and appallingly unique. Her books are easy to digest and if there is very little mystery, or at least very little mystery that can be solved using normal human logic, well, that’s part of the fun. “Visions of Sugar Plums” is escapist literature at its best, but Evanovich keeps the comedy coming, and that’s what keeps me picking up her books.

Old Friends and New Fancies by Sybil Brinton

Reviewed by Gerti

What an odd duck this book is! According to the cover blurb, “Old friends and New Fancies” is the first ever Jane Austen sequel, and perhaps among the earliest fan fiction ever! Little is known of author Sybil Brinton except that she penned this love letter to Austen’s fiction back in 1913. It’s a wonderful read, because the language she uses is more similar to that of Austen’s day than what fan fiction writers put out today, so it’s almost like finding another, final Austen novel that ties all her plots together! The only thing Brinton fails at, is that she doesn’t have Austen’s sharp wit, but it is a small failing indeed when there is so much other fun to be had! It’s like riding in a literary time machine!

Brinton is gifted at finding connections between the various characters in Austen’s novels (excluding juvenilia, “Lady Susan” and “Sanditon”.) She starts with JA’s most popular work, “Pride and Prejudice”, and does the usual thing, with Georgiana Darcy engaged to Colonel Fitzwilliam. She then breaks that couple up and allows them to find new fancies, much as the title says. Fitzwilliam finds himself falling in love with Mary Crawford, one of the pair of sophisticated siblings who appear in “Mansfield Park” to play with the hearts of the Bertram family. Georgiana also forms a connection to Mansfield, when she finds herself proposed to by a sailor named William Price, the brother of goody-two-shoes Fanny Price, the heroine of that novel. Trouble occurs when Sir Walter Eliot of “Persuasion” fame also sets his cap at Mary Crawford, and a younger Bennet sister likewise expects an offer of marriage from handsome Mr. Price.

Do you feel your heart beating faster already? Yes, for true Austen fans, this novel is a delightful mashup of Austen’s best and worst characters, with trouble-making Mrs. Jennings (from “Sense and Sensibility”) killing Kitty’s chances at romance, and Lucy Ferrars (once Steele, from the same novel) poisoning Lady Catherine de Bourgh’s mind against poor Mary Crawford. Heroes, villians and classic characters all dance around for the enjoyment of Austen fans, and I couldn’t get enough of it, even though Brinton’s book weighs in at 377 pages.

Sad notes for me: Colonel Brandon is dead by the start of the book, so we don’t get to hear from him (and I always found his character so appealing!) Mary Bennet is also excluded (although she’d be the perfect bride for a curate) as is Mrs. Bennet, whose “spasms and flutterings” add so much humor to “P & P”. But Emma Woodhouse is here, now Mrs. Knightley of course, and she’s still matchmaking despite learning her lesson in the book that shares her name. And while little is seen of Catherine Morland from “Northanger Abbey”, her brother and greedy friend Isabella Thorpe play a role here, too. And I’ll just give you this spoiler – Isabella gets the groom she deserves in the end! In short, this book is a must read for all Austen fans. I’ve just finished and can’t wait to read it again!

Bleachers by John Grisham

Review by Gerti

Although John Grisham is best known for his legal dramas, I recently picked up a copy of his football-centric novel “Bleachers”. And just like those other books of his that I’ve enjoyed most, this one is personality driven story. The reader has to like former high school quarterback Neely Chenshaw in order to like the novel. The good news is, thanks to the lovingly human descriptions of Neely penned by Grisham, I do.

The story is ostensibly about the dying days of former Messina high school football coach Eddie Rake. The vigil in those final days has brought many former Spartan players back home, and they meet on the bleachers at the MHS football field to remember their Coach, and their own glory days. This is where the story is strongest, as these boys sit around and tell tales, revealing some secrets and keeping others hidden, all while drinking beer under those Friday night lights.

Not only do members of Neely’s ’87 state championship team show up, but guys who played the game for the Coach decades before and after make an appearance. Rake was an institution in the town for years and had a winning streak of about 80 games. But he was fired after a practice session in the hot sun caused one young boy to die of heatstroke, and the town was never the same.

“Bleachers” is a fascinating story of football and the men who play it, the fans who love it, and what really goes on behind the scenes at a high school and college level. I’m not normally given over to reading about sports, but Grisham made this a novel I did not want to put down. First there is the drama about when the Coach will die that drives the action, but mostly it’s discovering these men – the football players themselves – that is most fascinating. It is something that women don’t generally get to see, or understand, this comradery that comes to men in war and sports, and I loved this look behind the testosterone curtain.

Grisham gets a lot of credit for writing stories about lawyers and what happens in courtrooms, but this book shows that his true gift is writing characters, and it doesn’t matter what they do with their time. In a novel without much of plot and taking place within a short time frame, Grisham has built a real small town with his words and peopled it with girls, boys, boosters, business owners, criminals and cops. He’s shown us harsh realities and Friday night fantasies, and in such clear, lively language that I wasn’t even bored while he was practically doing play-by-plays of the big Messina ball games. A good writer can make you interested in any topic, and John Grisham certainly proves that here, with a protagonist who is every bit as real to me as literary icons like Rhett Butler and Mr. Darcy. This book is a must read for Grisham and football fans!