Peachy Reads

I'm not sure how I stumbled across this title, but it is a real gem.  Written by Flemish-Belgian writer Stefan Hertmans, the book-- part memoir, part scrapbook, part historical fiction, is cobbled together from the notebooks and reminiscences of the author's grandfather.  His hard-knock upbringing in Ghent rivals anything that Dickens described in the poor districts of London.  The central part of the book consists of his grandfather's harrowing accounts as a soldier describing the brutality of World War I.  The scenes exceed even the shock-value of some of the montages in the recent movie 1917.  The book ends with his marriage to the sister of his beloved, after the former succumbed to the flu of 1918.  This is a history of 20th century Europe, but at the same time it serves as a nuanced and multilayered glimpse into an intimate and personal family history.

Two foreign nationals are teamed up to pave a ribbon of highway linking the north and south of an unnamed war-torn nation.  The highway represents a hope for lasting peace, binding the two halves and ushering the poor nation into a new era.  A parade is promised at the end to commemorate the completion of the road, thus the title of the novel. Four and Nine (they go by numbers to avoid sharing personal details that might aid potential kidnappers) are polar opposites--  Four is a no-nonsense company man, while Nine has a curiosity and joie de vivre that threatens their mission.  While Four plods on with the paving project, Nine throws out the rulebook and not only compromises their schedule, but nearly dies as a result of his shenanigans.  In the end the project is completed, but at what cost?  I just thought this book was nearly perfect.  It's a parable about human nature, people's intentions, who is good and who is bad, whether we should be by...

Barbara Kingsolver always delivers on thoughtful, politically-inspired, and environmentally targeted novels.  Unsheltered , her latest, tells two alternating parallel stories, set 140 years apart about two families living in Vineland, New Jersey.   The nuances of the characters are so wonderfully drawn and the two complex storylines are expertly joined.  The tone of both narratives is extremely authentic to the period in which the characters live, and yet the novel as a whole is cohesive and successful.  Historically and environmentally engaging, Kingsolver is always a favorite author of mine.

Roy Jr. is a first gen college graduate of Morehouse and has high hopes for the future as a newlywed and in an entry level position with a textbook company.   All that rosy vision of the future is shattered when he is falsely imprisoned after being accused of a rape.   The status of his marriage during the five years of his incarceration is told via letters, and in the voices of those involved.   The characters are all very multi-faceted and speak in a way that is extremely believable.  And I liked the way the story resolved itself, it seemed very true to life. This Oprah Book Club pick has been at the top of the popularity lists for months and garnered its fair share of awards.   Another interesting angle for the Atlanta reader is that Tayari Jones is a local and An American Marriage takes place largely in Atlanta.

Toby, a PR person for a Dublin art gallery, leads a charmed life.   When two burglars break into his apartment and beat him up severely, his life is shattered.   Later, he moves into the ancestral home to take care of an ailing uncle suffering from terminal brain cancer.   When a skeleton is discovered in the back garden, Toby’s fragile mental state makes it difficult to process the facts of the case, and his potential role in a history.   This psychological thriller depends on an unreliable narrator and keeps the reader guessing until nearly the end.

Dave Eggers has chronicled the story of the most recent wave of immigrants to the US with Zeitoun , What is the What? , and now The Monk of Mokha .   In this latest nonfiction account, he follows Yemeni-American Mohktar Alkanshali as he develops from a shiftless youth to successful coffee mogul.   He decides (in a somewhat haphazard way) to promote the heritage of coffee in his ancestral land, and elevate the Yemeni coffee industry (and improve the lot of coffee farmers) to an esteemed place internationally.   All this is difficult to achieve in a war-torn country that long ago all but forgot its pride of place in introducing coffee to the world centuries earlier.

Just Mercy is basically about a messed-up justice system that puts people on death row without due process, with these individuals frequently proven to be innocent years after their initial incarceration.   The author of this nonfiction work focuses mainly on the case of Walter McMillian, an African-American  wrongfully put on death row for the 1986 murder of a white woman in Alabama.  The book covers a lot of other cases of injustice, and it really is a compelling read, and a shocking eye-opener to see the frequent miscarriage of justice continuing on into our day.  The author makes a convincing argument linking the treatment of prisoners today to the treatment of blacks under Jim Crow laws. Movie advert Bryan Stevenson is the founder of the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI).   I first became aware of EJI after visiting the Legacy Museum and National Memorial for Peace and Justice (the lynching memorial) in Montgomery, AL, on a recent trip....