A sensitively written portrayal of a Chinese American family with many secrets and a serious failure to communicate. Ling Tang has been widowed for nearly a year, but can’t get past the pain of a brittle marriage and two adult children who can’t communicate with her, each other, or their significant others. The story is told from the varying perspectives of Ling and her children Emily and Michael, and the rawness of their damaged lives is tangible and sometimes hard to take, but she offers […]
A Martian MacGyver for the problem-solving sci-fi fans among us
This is going to be a hard book to top for me this year. I LOVED The Martian! I haven’t read science fiction in many decades, but I’m an old aficionado from my early years, and this book had me panting with excitement and anticipation throughout. Some have compared The Martian to Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe, and while I can fully understand the comparison, I much prefer the image of a Martian MacGyver, for those of you who remember the television show from the late eighties. […]
A Sweet Love Story about pre-WWII New York City
North River is a warm-hearted and touching love story written about pre-WWII New York City, a doctor with a conscience, and a tough cookie – or should I say cannoli—named Rose. Dr. Jim Delaney is the son of a long-gone Tammany Hall big shot who came back from WWI emotionally scarred and physically unable to practice as the surgeon he longed to be. He returned to a bitter and angry wife named Molly and a little girl named Grace who didn’t remember him, and he […]
Wallender must find the targets of a vengeful woman before she does
This was my first foray into the world of Swedish detective Kurt Wallender, and while the main character shares the same alienated, depressed profile of so many of his counterparts in the Scandinavian police procedural literary genre, there is something else to Mankell’s protagonist that makes for a different and interesting reading experience. Wallender’s angst as he goes about his duties does not stem from some personality or mental disorder, but rather from the social and cultural decline he feels is swirling around him, day […]