Bookin' It Online and at Great River Arts

The Yellow Birds by Kevin Powers
(Trade Paperback)
Also available at Great River Arts Book Kiosk

Powers alternates between the hard stock of the rifle gripped in the hand, the tough love of his hard-as-nails slightly crazed Sargent, and again and again to the blurred form of tress obscured by smoke, dust, fog, rain. At the core, is an un-keep-able promise. Powers pulls the reader in to the rooftop landscape of Al Tafar, Iraq as his unit waits through a long restless night and into morning for their instructions. Really fine writing elongates the minutes and gives the reader a sense of time stalling and circling like the dusty landscape. A bit Catch-22 as the guys tick off the number of deaths that will place the body count at 1000 US combatant deaths. Splicing subdued interior monologue together with acid dialogue and sudden bursts of violence, the author opens the reader to the pride, shame, confusion, camaraderie, and dark nights of the soul faced by in country and returning soldiers.

Not a Drop to Drink by Mindy McGinnis
Katherine Tegen Books/Harper Collins, September 2013, $17.99

A teen read that has very adult topics and appeal. I hestitate to call this a dystopian or post-apocolyptic novel (though it clearly is) because it is so much more. It is a story of survival, of self-imposed isolation, and the powerful desire to protect the one thing that matters, the one life-giving essential - water. A brutal and unflinching look at life lived outside the guiding hand of a civil authority, where need s the highest power.

Lynn and her mother spend half their life on the roof fighting off predators, looters, scavengers and wanderers who carry deadly city-born diseases. Compassion equals contamination, so all who approach are fired upon. Men and beasts are equal in Lynn's eyes since all she has ever known is her Mother and her stern protective ways. Eventually Lynn will have to learn how to keep the world at bay on her own or opt to place her trust in someone she hardly knows.

Standing in Another Man's Grave by Ian Rankin

After the threat that Rankin had completed this series and no more would be heard from dear Inspector Rebus, I almost cried to see that Rankin had caved and written another story about dark and feisty John Rebus.Rebus, retired but on loan from SCRU (a group of former detectives looking into cold cases) happens into an investigation of multiple MisPers, women gone missing along the A9 highway. Working partly within channels and mostly outside channels, Rebus is as bull-headed and irascible as usual as he digs deeper and finds links others have missed. Meanwhile he is being investigated by Complaints (Internal Affairs).

Harking back to the summer of 2010, a book I should have read then but just finished now: Alone in the Crowd by Garcia-Roza (a Houston Chronicle Summer Reading Pick). I gave it five of 5 stars on good reads.

In the course of this novel (p. 132) Irene says to Espinosa not to romanticize Hugo Breno (the "suspect" - we never quite know if he really is or should be considered one) as an equivalent to Poe's Man of the Crowd. I, of course, had to search out Poe's short story and read it once I'd finished Garcia-Roza's book. Midway through the short story it was clear where Garcia-Roza drew his inspiration for Alone in the Crowd. Poe's story of a man who keeps himslef seperate but always moving day and night amongst London's most crowded places translates nicely into Espinoza's Rio and his Cocacabana neighborhood.

The Sound of Broken Glass by Deborah Crombie -

A tightly woven mystery set around the area of London's historic Crystal Palace with Gemma and Melody taking the lead as Duncan takes parental leave. Crombie tucks all the ends in neatly at the end but leaves us with one loose thread to look forward to in the next book.

*The Hypnotist by Lars Keplar

This Swedish duo writing under the pen name Lars Kepler weave their voices seamlessly into a high stakes thriller. Two boys are missing; one highly volatile, the other in grave danger. National CID heads the investigation with the help of the family of the kidnapped boy, the Swedish Police and  a retired officer in an attempt to head-off further violence. Are the two cases connected as they first thought or is evil taking on a younger and younger face?

*Behind the Beautiful Forevers; Life, Death and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity by Katherine Boo February 7, 2012

Amazing narrative. Boo acts as a silent observer, telling the stories of a group of slumdwellers and garbage pickers in Annawadi. Living within view of the Mumbai airport but cut off from general society, Boo brings a real sense of indivuality and hunmanity to each character. Non-Fiction. Boo is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist. Follow it up with Aravind Adiga's (The White Tiger) new novel Last Man in Tower.

Little Princes: One Man's Promise to Bring Home the Lost Children of Nepal by Conor Grennan

No matter what kind of reader you are, you will love this account of Grennan's transformation from world traveler to committed volunteer. Grennan writes with humor, style and real warmth about his - not uneventful - months as a volunteer in a Nepali orphanage and his eventual determination to make a real difference in the children's lives. I highly recommend placing an order in advance for this moving and adventuresome book.

Click the link to learn more: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6mHur8RMb3w.