last modified August 05, 2008

The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch.  When I began The Last Lecture, Randy Pausch was alive, but sadly passed away at age 47, the Friday before I finished. This is a wonderful, heart warming story of a tenured computer science professor at Carnegie Mellon University, diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer. As the consummate lecturer, Pausch embarks on a journey, to impart with his family, friends and colleagues, the life lessons he has learned along the way. His wife Jai, although not thrilled with her husband spending his last months at a computer, supports his decision to give to the world, ‘The Last Lecture.”  

Pausch, with Detroit native, Jeffrey Zaslow, has written a story not about dying, but about living, working hard and the rewards of both. He writes not about what he will miss, but what his family will miss without him. He’s witty, warm, and has realized and chronicled his childhood dreams, and more. From becoming a professor, to working with  Walt Disney Imagineering, to designing virtual worlds, he has also shaped some of this country’s brightest minds. But none of this can stop the disease from taking him from his family and friends. 

As Pausch sets out to put pen to paper, he recounts life lessons he has learned, many through he wisdom of his father. Although Pausch senior probably wouldn’t take credit for the guidance, it is apparent throughout the entire book. Clichés were his middle name, but oddly they worked in this family. Lessons were taught, lessons were learned, and at the end of the day everyone was a better person. And though his children are too young to understand all that is happening around them, they will have a touching story to carry them through the tough times ahead. Pausch has left notes and letters to be read to the children when they are old enough to understand. He spent great quality time with his niece and nephew when they were young, and at 19 and 21 respectively, he has asked them to be a part of his family’s life. And wife Jai will accept all the help she can get from them, and others.

As Randy Pausch dedicates his book to the family and friends he leaves behind, I dedicate this book review to two important people in my life – Pat, whose pancreas does not work and Ken, whose life parallels Randy’s in many ways. As Randy Pausch says, “Always tell the truth and stop to smell the crayons!” 

Review by Jill Zeeb, DeWitt Library Staff.  [8/5/2008]

Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict by Laurie Viera Rigler.  Although “Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict” by Laurie Viera Rigler could easily be dismissed as a frivolous story about time travel with Jane Austin thrown into the mix to pull in readers, this novel is far better than that brief description.  The details of Jane Austen’s life let you know that the author is fully familiar with the charming author’s history.  So many details of her works are placed in the novel.

Courtney Stone has suffered failure in both her romantic relationship and her closest friendship.  Whenever life has gotten her down, she has always retreated to reading one of Jane Austen’s works.  After a disillusioning night spent with vodka and re-reading “Pride and Prejudice”, she wakes up in an unfamiliar bedroom.  She emotionally goes through all the usual tests to determine whether or not she is dreaming.  Nothing seems to make her wake up.  She learns that her new family thinks that she is recovering from a fall from a horse.  She is inhabiting a body with a better figure and better hair.  Her immediate problem is the arrival of a doctor who wants to start blood letting.  Courtney has her twenty-first century mind that rebels at, first, the thought of loosing blood, and secondly, having any instruments used on her in such an unsanitary situation.  She is sure she does not want an infected wound in pre-antibiotic days.  Courtney’s new persona is Jane Mansfield, a thirty-year-old spinster.  Courtney meets Jane’s friend, Mary and discovers both she and her new self have an attraction to Mary’s brother.  She realizes that her new mother’s greatest fear is that she will not be able to see her daughter well married.  This society with its confining rules is a shock to Courtney, no matter how well read she is.  A California girl who likes her vodka and cigarettes has a difficult time blending into a time where she can go nowhere without a chaperone.

Naturally, there is a love interest, but Courtney strangely has memories of that person.  She feels very disoriented when she realizes that she can remember incidents from the lives of the new people who surround her.  The book is a novel of manners with similarities to a Jane Austen novel with an outspoken, opinionated woman who is forced to look for a husband who will give meaning to her life.  The ways a modern-day woman reacts to that limiting opportunity provide comedy, satire, and suspense. [7/29/2008]

The Amateur Spy by Dan Fesperman. The time which Dan Fesperman has spent as a war correspondent gives validity to his novel about an ex-UN aid worker who is forced to act as a spy.  Freeman Lockhart, of “The Amateur Spy” has just retired at age 55 after years of administering UN aid in many of the world’s trouble spots.  He and his younger wife, Mila, plan to live the simple life on a Greek island.  Their dream is to grow and hunt much of their own food and earn a little money with simple crafts.  On their first night in their new home, they are victims of a break-in.  Mr. White, Gray, and Black take Freeman to a close-by luxury home and ask him to spy on an old friend.  These mysterious figures know the details of a shameful event from his aid past in Tanzania.  At all costs, Freeman does not want these details revealed to Mila.  Therefore, he agrees to spend a few months attempting to determine what his old friend Omar al-Baroody is really doing.  Omar and Lockhart had been partners in the distant past patrolling in Palestine together.  Now Omar is trying to put together an aid organization which will build a hospital in Jordan.

Additional, initially separate characters are Abbas and Aliyah Rahim, a middle class Palestinian-American couple.  This couple is attempting to deal with the loss of their daughter in a traffic accident in London.  She had been on a trip and her return home was delayed, most likely because in the post 911 world, her identity came under heavier scrutiny simply based on her foreign sounding name.  During the delaying period, she was hurrying to the airport and was hit and killed by a bus.  Grieving people often feel the need to blame an outside source, and her father focused on what he perceived as overly suspicious and accusatory regulators.

Freeman is troubled by his role as an amateur spy.  He is not sure who he is working for or what their goals are.  He is reminded of the history he had with Omar when a minor argument erupts between acquaintances:  “Omar nodded to me almost imperceptibly, as if to acknowledge we were still doing our bit for peace and harmony.  It brought on a flush of nostalgia, which of course produced an immediate backwash of guilt.”  Freeman struggles with these emotions throughout the novel.  Is he working for a greater good, or is he just trying to make sure his own tawdry past stays hidden? [7/22/2008]

Fall of Knight I don’t usually read very much science fiction or fantasy.  The creation of other worlds in which the reader must comprehend who are each others sworn enemies and learn histories of individuals with complicated names just often feels like too much effort.  That much mental concentration must be done so that the reader can connect with what is usually only a minimal plot.  “Fall of Knight” by Peter David is a fantasy novel that does not place that burden on the reader.  Most of us are familiar with the names and roles of the characters of the Arthurian legends.  For this tale, Peter David has given Arthur a completely modern persona.  Arthur Pendragon, a natural leader, became mayor of New York, then President of the United States.  Then an assassin shoots his wife, Gwen, and she is in a non-responsive coma.  Secretly, Gwen was restored to full health with water from the Holy Grail.  Because Arthur and Merlin realize the general populace would have difficulty believing in such a miraculous cure, Arthur and Gwen go into hiding.  Even legendary heroes have some of the same fantasies as ordinary mortals, so Arthur and Gwen take off on a cruise in secluded tropical seas.  They had naively forgotten about the modern magic of satellites.  The fully recovered Gwen is spotted on the deck of their sailboat.  When the White House security realizes they must deal with the reappearance of the ex-president and his recovered wife, all federal agencies go into overdrive.  The public’s questions are persistent.  When the miraculous powers of the Holy Grail are accidentally revealed to the press, almost everyone wants to drink from the cup.  This starts the battle between good and evil.  Grail Ale becomes commercialized as a cure all.  The FDA cannot ban it because the brew can only be analyzed as tap water that has been poured through the mystical cup.  The water is diluted so it will only provide the drinker with enhanced health.  The unanswered question is what will the long-term effects be?  The story becomes a cautionary tale about the pollution of the world’s waters. 

The author, Peter David comes equipped with an extremely imaginative mind.  He has had wide experiences in the entertainment media.  He has worked on television and film scripts, also he has written over forty novels, including several Star Trek Books.  For twelve years he has been the writer for the Incredible Hulk comic books.  [7/15/08]

Stealing Athena by Karen Essex is two novels for one read.  She tells the story of two female historical characters, with their stories linked by the Elgin Marbles from the Greek Parthenon.  Mary Nesbit Bruce became the Countess of Elgin when she married.  Her husband, Lord Elgin, an impoverished Scottish nobleman, had been appointed British ambassador to Constantinople.  The Napoleonic Wars made travel dangerous as Mary journeyed with her husband to their first appointment.  She is newly married and already pregnant, but must endure primitive traveling conditions, both on a sailing ship and by donkey.  She feels pressure to remain a lady, but be flexible enough to endure any necessary hardships.  Mary hopes to be a true partner to her husband, both on the diplomatic front, and as he attempts to bring Greek art home to the British Isles.  Napoleon had plundered European capitals of their art treasures for France, now Elgin wants to do the same for England.  He had originally intended to only make casts and drawings of sculpture, but he becomes mesmerized by the remarkable marble statues on the Parthenon.  Money from Mary’s family and Mary’s charm are what makes Elgin’s mission possible.  Although his original plan was to deconstruct the Parthenon and bring the marbles to become decoration for his Scottish home, they ultimately wound up in a London museum.

Essex alternates their struggles with the story of Aspasia, who became the mistress of Perikles, the ruler of Athens during Greece’s Golden Age.  Aspasia was supposedly the model for the sculpture of Athena on the Parthenon’s frieze.  As a female who was basically sold as a slave girl to Perikles, she used her wit and determination to become a background voice while Perikles oversaw the construction of some of the world’s most glorious structures.

The removal of the Elgin Marbles has always been controversial, even two hundred years ago.  Since the area was controlled by the Ottoman Empire when Elgin removed them, the ruling bureaucrats were not as protective of Greek heritage items as preservationists are today.  Some arguments maintain that cultural items should never be removed from their place of origin; some maintain that an item in danger of destruction should be preserved wherever they will be safest.  This work of fiction does convince the reader that much of this ancient artwork was in danger of crumbling to dust or becoming subject to vandalism, so Lord Elgin did the art world a great service. [7/8/08]

Grange House Before air conditioning, Victorian families would travel extensively to spend the summer months in a cooler place.  The focus of the novel “Grange House” is a well run resort home in Maine which hosts the prosperous Thomas family of Boston.  Maisie and her parents have been coming to Grange House for years, so she is familiar with the staff that runs the hotel.  Miss Nell Grange is a shadowy constant presence, although she is not involved with day to day operations.  Instead she lives in the attic and occasionally interacts with the guests.  Her role is uncertain, and she is generally considered to be a poor relation that has simply been provided with a place to stay.

Maisie is at the point when a young Victorian miss will make the biggest choice of her life.  Of course her parents will have a great influence on the choice of the man she marries.  But Maisie is questioning the direction her life is taking.  She wonders if there is more to life than aspiring to being a good wife and mother.  Maisie dreams of being an author like Nell Grange.  These two compare stories and Maisie becomes confused about whether Nell’s stories are fact based or totally imaginary.  Nell gives Maisie what she claims is her diary, but is it?  Is Nell trying to tell Maisie important facts about their families or is she trying to stimulate Maisie’s imagination?

On the day Maisie and her family arrived for the summer of 1896, two lovers are found, drowned with their arms intertwined.  What is their story?  As Maisie attempts to learn what passions inspired them to try to sail away, she also must confront the two men in her life.  One is a staid, serious young man who works for her father.  The other is a committed traveler who sees the romantic in every situation.  Complicating the plot are ghostly children’s handprints that show up on walls.  Is this a ghost story or a romance?  The writing style makes the reader feel they are reading a Victorian novel instead of a modern novel.  Both the actions of the characters and the dialog have the flavor of another time.  The author, Sarah Blake, received her doctorate in Victorian literature. This novel is a successful attempt at recreating a story which might have been read by a daring Victorian miss. [7/3/08]

When Science Goes Wrong, Twelve Tales from the Dark Side of Discovery, by Simon LeVay, is an entertaining look at scientific debacles from the last century.  His book probes whether risks taken during scientific experiments outweigh the rewards.   The topics are wide ranging, and written at a level even a science novice can understand. 

LeVay’s book begins with the story of an accomplished track and field star who was unlucky to acquire Parkinson’s Disease in 1979.  His effort to get the best care took him to China in a last ditch effort to try an early stem cell transplant.  The chapter chronicles the ups and downs of the treatment, and the patient’s ultimate demise. 

Volcanic research is a field that requires scientists to get up close and personal with their subjects.  Unfortunately, a group of scientists studying a volcano in Columbia in the early ‘90s had the worst of luck.  Despite indications the volcano was about to erupt, several scientists descended into the caldera, and were vaporized. 

In 1928, the St. Francis Dam north of Los Angeles was completely destroyed just days after it was officially opened, due to an engineering mistake made by a respected “chief engineer” with little formal education.  The blunder caused the death of hundreds downstream and destruction in the millions of dollars. 

Three men died in January, 1961 at the Idaho National Laboratory, conducting routine tasks to bring a nuclear reactor back online after a hiatus during the Christmas holidays.  The cause of the explosion was determined after the radiation dissipated but the accident’s cause remains a mystery. 

During the height of the cold war in the late 1970’s, the U.S.S.R. was conducting clandestine research in the field of biological weapons, or maybe not.  Over the years, many respected scientists have researched the deaths of more than 40 in Sverdlovsk as a result of anthrax poisoning, but several theories still abound regarding the outbreak’s cause.    

Other scientific mysteries are discussed in detail in the book, from the botched weather forecast of an English hurricane, recent research into the party drug Ecstasy, a CSI-style story about forensics nailing the wrong man, a Mars surveyor lost completely due to a software problem attributed to the wrong units which inadvertently changed the spacecraft’s trajectory, and more.  LeVay’s book is an eye-opener, and makes you think about the ultimate impacts of scientific research. [6/24/08]

Dark Tide Andrew Gross has been a co-writer with James Patterson on several very successful best sellers.  His solo novel “The Dark Tide” begins on the day when Charles Friedman supposedly dies in an explosion at Grand Central Station.  Charles owns and manages his own hedge fund.  He had been a trader on Wall Street, working for a powerful firm, but he left to start his own business.  He was able to take several customers with him and they were enough to enable Charles to earn a quality living for his family.  Together, they all lived the good life.  Charles and his wife, Karen, have two perfect children, Alex and Samantha.  There is a classic Ford Mustang in the garage, color Emberglow.  The vanity plate reads Charlie’s Baby.  The only point of grief in their life was when their Westie dog had been run over the previous week.

On what seems to be the start of a typical workday, Charlie takes the commuter train in from Greenwich, Connecticut to New York City.  Karen is at yoga practice, when suddenly TV bulletins about a fire caused by a bombing at Grand Central Station rivet everyone.  Many families in town have a family member who regularly takes the train into the city, so people worry that they might know a victim.  It is several days before Karen can believe that Charlie is dead.  The devastation at the bombing scene is so great that bodies are unidentifiable.

On the same day that Charlie dies, a young man is killed by a hit and run driver in Greenwich.  Ty Hauck, a police detective, becomes both professionally and emotionally involved in that case.  Ty had accidentally left his car in gear and the vehicle ran over his red-haired daughter.  This victim had the same bright red hair, so that pulled a visceral response from Ty.  He was determined justice would be found for this young man’s death.

Months after Charlie’s death, Karen is visited by two men who threaten her and accuse her of hiding millions which Charlie had supposedly stolen from the hedge fund.  On the anniversary of the bombing, Karen reluctantly is watching a TV special about the event.  The program is very difficult for her to watch, but just as she turns away, she sees a brief glimpse of Charlie leaving the station after the bombing.  What happened to Charlie and what happened to the money?  Eventually Karen and Ty partner in this cliffhanger search. [6/17/08]

The Book of Joe by Jonathan Tropper is the fictional account of the trauma undergone by an author when he writes a novel about his hometown, including thinly disguised local characters.  Joe Goffman left his hometown seventeen years ago and has not been back since.  After college and several years spent in New York City, he wrote a very successful novel about his hometown and his tragic high school senior year.  It even became a movie starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Kirsten Dunst.  Two close friends and a girlfriend were a part of that senior year in both reality and Joe’s fiction.  Joe’s great failure in high school was that he was not on the basketball team.  The Bush Falls Cougars frequently win state championships, so the team is the focus for the entire town.  Joe’s father and older brother had both been team members.  Virtually every town leader had played basketball.  If you weren’t a player, you don’t count in Bush Falls.

Strangely, Wayne, an outstanding basketball player, spends time with Joe.  Wayne is the kind of kid who sees no boundaries.  He makes friends wherever he wishes.  Joe’s other friend is Sammy, a new transfer student.  Sammy tries to be an outsider.  His dress, hairstyle, and musical taste indicate he wants to be in New York instead of suburban Connecticut.  The three boys manage to stay close friends, doing the slightly irresponsible things teenagers do in 1986.  Some of these scenes are hysterically funny and some are unbelievably tragic.

When Joe’s father has a stroke, Joe feels a familial duty to return to his hometown.  Joe now has to face the outrage of the Bush Falls residents.  Although the book had been an outstanding bestseller, it is not popular locally.  On Joe’s first night at a local diner, the wife of the high school basketball coach throws a milkshake at Joe.  Joe’s reunion with his brother, Brad, and the old friend, Wayne, isn’t much happier.  Even the local book club welcomes him back by throwing copies of his novel at the house.  Additional characters that add dimension are Owen Hobbs, Joe’s agent, and Joe’s nephew, Jared.  Jared is leading a new generation’s rebellious teen life, and (gasp) he is not playing basketball.  Joe has a new definition of ancient when he begins to grasp the chasm between his and his nephew’s interests and moral codes.   Lyrics from Bruce Springsteen songs are used to highlight characters’ philosophies. [6/11/08]

Executive Privilege.  Philip Margolin has authored an exceptional read in Executive Privilege, a 2008 release by Harper-Collins. This fast-paced mystery chronicles the steps a President and his entourage might be willing to take to retain the position as “Leader of the Free World.”

This tale begins with two people holed up in a safe house waiting to be heard in an investigation of murder charges being pursued by a special investigator against the President of the United States, and then flashing back to the series of events leading to this moment.

On both coasts of the United States, serial killers have a single unexplained murder amidst their gory kills. The investigation of one jeopardizes the career of a young lawyer doing pro bono work for his firm. Doing research on a potential death row appeal, he learns that the condemned killer, while accepting his death sentence for his acknowledged homicides, refuses to be condemned for a murder he couldn’t have committed. His alibi was never shared at trial, but this innocent is saddled with the gruesome information proving the impossibility. The second anomaly brings a PI too much information regarding a presidential tryst with a teen-ager working for the opposition’s campaign who winds up dead. As the actual serial killer is identified, the copycat has missed a key unreleased piece of information establishing this murder as the product of a different source. The resulting attempts on her life, send her into hiding while attempting to find a long-term solution allowing her to live.

The twists and turns take the reader from the scenic Williamette River to a dumpster in downtown D.C. pursuing the truth about an out-of-control, above the law triangle, which looks much different to its adoring public than it does when all is exposed. An incumbent President on the campaign trail, his devoted, newly pregnant wife and the long-time friend who has cleaned up his messes before, share a secret that binds them together in protecting the presidency and endangers anyone outside of the circle who knows it.

How far does loyalty go? What price would one pay for their ultimate prize? When money and power combine is anyone safe from its clutches? Margolin’s grasp of legal, political and investigative nuances melds with believable characters to create a riveting read challenging the reader to answer those questions.

This page-turner has you certain you know how it happened until the final turn unlocks key details that only the murderer would know leaving one gasping at the identity of the improbable culprit. [6/3/2008]

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