Peachy Reads

This is the kind of scientific thriller that takes me back to Michael Crichton when he was at his finest.  I actually saw the movie with Matt Damon first and heard the book was good, but more “science-math-y”.  I also heard an interview with the author who revealed that he researched all the science behind the plot devices, so that the novel was basically scientifically viable (or at least credible), and not pure fiction.  But if it was just the science, it would be a snore.  Like the movie, there’s humor and suspense and some incredible escapes from deadly situations.  It’s so much more than growing potatoes on Mars.

This book received a lot of attention in the library several years ago, was featured as a popular book club choice, but was one I never personally got around to reading.  Now that the buzz has faded, I found that the eBook version was recently available from the library, so I checked it out to satisfy my curiosity. The subject is a compelling one.  Henry, who is Chinese American, meets Keiko, an American-born Japanese, and their friendship represents an unlikely bridge between two cultures.  Being Asian in 1940s Seattle was difficult enough, but being of Japanese descent was even more difficult when Executive Order 9066 dictated the forced evacuation of Japanese Americans to internment camps in the interior of the country.  Henry’s story is told in flashback mode—we first meet him in 1986 as an adult who has just lost his wife to cancer.  One day he walks by the Panama Hotel in former Japantown and learns that the basement holds suitcases and boxes of keepsa...

What could be more civil than a dinner among family at a highly-rated restaurant where the plates come out of the kitchen looking like works of art and the waiter describes the culinary creations in exquisite detail, pointing out the featured ingredients with his perfectly manicured pinky finger? As the courses are served, a horrible family secret gradually comes to light until an almost unimaginable ending is revealed. Paul is an unreliable narrator, so it isn't clear that his stories all ring true, and the reader is left wondering if he really is the monster that is suggested. No doubt there is a character flaw shared in his immediate family, an apparent genetic predisposition to violence and a cold removal from normal human compassion (reminding me a little of Patricia Highsmith’s character Tom Ripley).  I liked Paul's snarky tone at first, but then realized that he wasn't what he first appeared to be. This book came out a couple years ago.  Since my conscious deci...

A modern day Jack the Ripper is the subject of the third installment of the Cormoran Strike detective series. Definitely darker than the first two novels, it is nevertheless a worthy addition to the franchise (if you can stomach the violence and gore).  Cormoran and Robin’s professional footing is tested and her relationship to fiancé Matthew continues with its ups and downs.  Though the last scene is a wedding in Yorkshire, it has more than a hint of “The Graduate” with Strike stumbling in at the last moment.  We’ll have to wait until the next installment to see how this loose end is resolved.

It is always rewarding to revisit Bernie Gunther, the independent-minded cynical Berlin police detective who tries to pursue his profession and stay alive in a dangerous world where the rules of justice and civil order have been turned upside down. In this installment he takes instructions from Joseph Goebbels who has taken a shine to a film starlet who goes by the name of Dalia Dresner.  Gunther's task is to track down Dresner's father in Croatia, a land where a barbaric internecine conflict is taking place that in some regards rivals the brutalities of the Nazi killing machine.  Gunther's wanderings also take him to Switzerland, which in contrast to the Balkans seems to represent an oasis of tranquility and a glimpse of what life used to be like in prewar Europe. The characters are wonderfully drawn and the plot gripping.  There is an unforgettable scene where Gunther turns the tables on two Gestapo agents in a fiery defense, and a clever strategy involving a tes...

I recently saw the Amazon series based on this 1962 novel and was taken by it.  It’s  set in 1962 in an America that is partitioned between the victors of World War II-- the Japanese and the Germans. There were some plot twists and scenes from the television series that I thought needed a bit more explication, so I decided to read the novel and see if it shed additional insight. Well, it didn’t.  The novel was the inspiration for the dramatic series, but other than the historical premise and some of the characters, the book and the television production diverge significantly. That’s not to say that the book isn’t good.  It’s just different.  I like alternate histories of World War II and this one is a good one. Readalikes:   Fatherland by Robert Harris, The Afrika Reich by Guy Saville

The summer of 1927 was a momentous one in America.  It was a year that saw the United States on the cusp of greatness.  Charles Lindbergh’s historic trans Atlantic flight helped to make the US the undisputed leader in aviation (whereas previously it was just trying to play catch-up with Europe).  Movie palaces were being built with a luxury to rival Versailles, newspapers boasted record subscriptions, but radio was quickly becoming a force to be reckoned with, and the earliest primitive experiments with television were being conducted.  Babe Ruth was creating a legend in the sports world, and Al Capone was becoming a legend of a different kind in prohibition-era crime-fueled Chicago.  Sacco and Vanzetti were executed in a controversial case, highlighting anarchist and anti-immigrant tendencies in the country at large.  Henry Ford abruptly ceased production of the Model T without having another replacement model in production, almost bankrupting the Ford...