End of Summer Reads

Reprinted from auburnpub.com

Summer is winding down and there’s still time to get in some last minute summer reads.

There are two books with unique storytelling. In both Patmeena Sabit’s Good People and Bobby Palmer’s Main Characters, the stories are narrated not by the main characters but by people in their orbit, family and friends, as well as strangers.

Good People is told in the format of interviews done by police departments in Fairfax County, Virginia and Fulton County, New York. 

The Sharaf family are refugees from Afghanistan who move to Virginia.The family came to America in 1998 and became part of a bigger Afghan community. Through hard work they became successful business owners, and were able to give their children, Omer and Zorah, everything that American teenagers wanted.

When Zorah became romantically involved with a young man who was not Afghan, she and her parents fought bitterly. Zorah went from a loving daughter and popular A student to a dropout.

On the way back from a family trip to Niagara Falls, a tragedy happens that changes the lives of the Sharaf family forever. What exactly happened is the subject of the police investigations.

Seeing the Sharaf family through the eyes of people who knew them well, and who only interacted with the briefly, makes the reader think more deeply about how well we know people in our own orbit. 

Even though we don’t hear directly from the Sharaf family, their story is vividly told and left to the reader to decide what happened. I highly recommend it, and readers of Megha Majumdar’ A Burning will want to read Good People.

Bobby Palmer’s Main Characters tells the story of Clara and Seb as they meet and fall in love. Clara is an artist who wants to be a filmmaker. Seb has modeled, acted a bit, and plays in a band with his childhood friends. 

While Clara has clear ambitions, Seb’s life goals are less defined. Clara becomes part of Seb’s close-knit friend group as well as his family. Watching them fall in love as seen by the people around them but not by Clara and Seb is a unique way to tell a love story. 

Their story is told by friends, family, strangers sitting next to them at a restaurant. After reading this, you may think twice about conversations you have in public.

Like all love stories between two people who are different from each other and want different things in life, the road is rocky. Clara works hard to become a film director and it can consume her. Seb desires to start a family. Can they make a compromise that works for them or does one have to give up their dream?

Main Characters is romantic, honest, and heartbreaking at times. It took me awhile to get into the story but once I did, I was all in. I highly recommend it.

In Chris Bohjalian’s new novel The Amateur, eighteen year-old Mira is a golf phenom, ready to head off to college on a golf scholarship in 1978. She golfs at the country club near her home in Westchester and can frequently beat the older male golfers. 

One day she is hitting golf balls into a practice net when her ball shoots through a hole in the net and strikes a young caddy in the head killing him instantly. 

Mira is devastated, and from that day forward refuses to pick up a golf club. She declines her college scholarship, much to the consternation of her parents. It was  accident, surely not her fault and she needs to move on with her life.

Soon is it revealed that Mira has been having an affair with a married man from the club since she was fifteen years old. Is it really an affair when a older married father pursues a teenage girl? The thoughts on consent in the late 1970s are markedly different than today.

Mira is decried as a homewrecker and becomes a pariah in her hometown and at the college she attends. To make matters worse, the caddy’s parents are suing the golf club and the net manufacturers, and Mira has to testify. Some people cast blame on Mira, accusing her of creating the hole in the net.

The story is told through Mira’s memoir (she has become a famous author), and fans of Chris Bohjalian will recognize that Mira’s novels hew closely to Bohjalian’s own previous novels-  little “Easter eggs” for his faithful readers.

The Amateur shows how one moment in your life, one single act, can change everything. Fans of Bohjalian’s The Flight Attendant will enjoy this one as well. I recommend it.

Good People by Patmeena Samit- A+

Published by Crown

Hardcover, $29, 386 pages

Main Characters by Bobby Palmer-A+

Published by Little, Brown

Hardcover, $29, 410 pages

The Amateur by Chris Bohjalian- A

Published by Doubleday

Hardcover,  $33, 319 pages

The Red Lotus by Chris Bohjalian

The Red Lotus by Chris Bohjalian
Published by Doubleday ISBN 9780385544801
Hardcover, $27.95, 400 pages

Last year Chris Bohjalian's thriller novel, The Flight Attendant, (my review here) was about a troubled flight attendant who becomes involved in a murder done by a murky Russian organization. It was good timing on Bohjalian's part that his book published at the height of the Russian election influence scandal.

This year his book, The Red Lotus, is about a group of nefarious people who are involved in a possible worldwide pandemic. (It makes me afraid to see what his next book will be!) Alex is on duty in a New York City hospital when a handsome man, Austin, comes into her emergency room after being stabbed in a bar by a homeless man.

They discover that Austin also works at the hospital, in fund development. They begin dating, and seven months later Austin and Alex are in Vietnam where they are taking part in a group bicycle tour. When Austin goes off on his own for a ride to visit the places where his uncle was killed in the Vietnam War and his father was shot, he doesn't comes back.

Alex has to work with the FBI, police, and embassy officials in Vietnam to try and find out what happened to Austin.  She  discovers that Austin lied to her- his uncle was not killed anywhere near where he was riding, and his father had not been shot in the war.

These lies bother her, and she wonders if she really knew Austin. She hires a private investigator to dig into Austin's life, and it turns out that there is a lot more to Austin than she knew, and it involves the hospital where they both work.

Once again, Bohjalian writes a smart, fast-paced thriller that had me reading well up past my bedtime. (Note to self- don't start reading his books after 9pm.) He keeps the reader guessing, and his characters are always interesting and well-drawn. I particularly liked Ken, the private investigator and Vietnam vet, and Toril, who worked in the American embassy in Vietnam, as well as Alex.

There is a scene at the end of the book that is so fraught with tension and action, I was gripping the pages so hard my hands hurt, and if it was a movie,  I would have been peeking through my fingers at the screen. I could feel my heart pounding. (The Red Lotus would make a great movie.)

I live in New York City, and rats are a part of life here, and I do NOT like rats. I will warn readers that rats do play a big role in the story, and even though I really HATE rats (did I tell you that?), I still really liked The Red Lotus. I highly recommend it for readers who like a smart thriller. My heart is pounding just writing this review.

Chris Bohjalian's website is here ,where you can read the first two chapters online.

Southern Lady Code by Helen Ellis

Southern Lady Code By Helen Ellis
Published by Doubleday ISBN 9780385543897
Hardcover, $22, 224 pages

In 2016, I read American Housewife. a hilarious collection of short stories by Helen Ellis  I literally laughed out-loud at the stories of women with neighbor problems, reality show aspirations, book club issues and more. Her women get things done, and take no prisoners doing it. Given what happened since 2016, Helen Ellis was a little bit ahead of her time.

Her latest book is Southern Lady Code, a book of essays that is just as hilarious, though it is nonfiction. She opens with a story Making a Marriage Magically Tidy, where she confesses to not being the neatest housekeeper. When her patient husband asks her a year into their marriage to please keep the dining room table clean, as it is the first thing he sees when he comes home, Helen fears he wants a divorce.

She calls her mother in Alabama, who tells her that she married a saint and she needs to clean the damn table! Her mother is a frequent commentator in these stories, beginning her sentences with "Helen Michelle" followed by advice only a Southern mother can give. (Side note- my middle name is also Michelle, and after reading this I'm going to insist that my mother begin calling me "Diane Michelle" in a drawling Southern accent.)

The essay that I now consider a classic is The Topeka Three-Way which begins at a dinner party for three couples where the host asks "Have I ever told you my Topeka Three-Way Story?" How a person cannot want to hear what comes next is unfathomable to me. It begins on an airplane with a man who asks to switch seats with our host so he can sit next to a beautiful woman.  People were staring at me on the beach as I guffawed reading this.

Many of the essays deal with being married, and in How to Stay Happily Married, Helen shares some very sage advice for wives:

"Don't let him see you get out of an athletic bra or into a pair of control-top pantyhose. Don't wear eyeglasses on a leash. Don't lotion your elbows in front of him in bed. Don't remake the bed after your husband has made it."

She talks about her Grandpapa who insisted she write thank-you notes and "carried grudges like handkerchiefs". When she references Julia Sugarbaker's "The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia" rant, I could see and hear Dixie Carter giving that speech on Designing Woman. 

We learn that "a hair bow clip is a Southern lady's tiara". Ellis says that she is "not a dresser-upper" but she is "put together" which in Southern Lady Code means "you can take me to church or red Lobster and I'll fit in fine." You can fill a notebook with all the new phrases you'll learn.

I could go on and on (and if you should ask me what to read, you will hear more about Southern Lady Code), but suffice it to say that this is wonderful book to give all your girlfriends, sisters, cousins, your hairdresser, favorite grocery store cashier, anyone you truly like. Then you can all get together, make Helen's grandmother's favorite things (cheese logs, onion dip, mail-order ham), drink wine, laugh, and take turns reading aloud from your post-it note stuffed copy of Southern Lady Code.  Now that's a party!

If you like David Sedaris, Sloane Crosley, and Laurie Notaro, put Helen Ellis on your must-read list.

Two Terrific Mysteries That Will Have You Guessing Until the Very End

Reprinted from the Citizen:

Sometimes a novelist will write a story that, when published, often more than a year later, is so topical that you wonder if the author has a crystal ball. Two recent novels, filled with nail-biting suspense and an end twist that will stun you, fit that bill.

Author Chris Bohjalian has written nearly two-dozen books, and what sets him apart as a writer is that he writes in so many different genres. He has written historical fiction (“The Sandcastle Girls," “A Light in the Ruins”), a ghost story (“The Night Strangers”), mystery (“The Double Bind,” “The Sleepwalker”), romance (“Trans-Sister Radio”) and a coming-of-age story (“Close Your Eyes, Hold Hands"). What they all have in common is that they make you think. 

His latest novel, “The Flight Attendant,” begins with flight attendant Cassie waking up hungover in a stranger’s bed in Dubai. While most people might be frightened by this fact, Cassie is used to it.

Cassie frequently drinks until she passes out or blacks out and sleeps around. This morning, she vaguely remembers that she came back to Alex’s hotel room, got drunk on vodka and had wild sex.

She painfully opens her eyes and looks over to find that Alex, a man who flew first-class on Cassie’s flight, has had his throat slit from end to end, and is covered in blood. Cassie panics: Did she do this? She has never been violent before.

Cassie quickly showers the blood off herself, tries desperately to wipe away any fingerprints she may have left behind, and rushes to get back to her hotel and her flight back home. Calling the police in Dubai is not a good idea.

The flight home to New York was stressful, and Cassie’s friend, another flight attendant, notices that Cassie is crying and upset. When the police begin to question the airplane crew about Alex, someone tells them that Cassie and Alex got very chummy.

Cassie remembers that a female work acquaintance of Alex’s showed up that night. What she doesn’t know is that the woman, Elena, is a Russian assassin who works for some oligarchs whom Alex supposedly stole money from.

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The tension is racheted up as Cassie tries to figure out who Alex was and who killed him, and Elena monitors Cassie, hoping she doesn’t have to kill her in this cat-and-mouse game that will have your heart in your throat until the crazy twist at the end. Anyone who is a fan of TV’s “The Americans," about Russian spies among us, should put “The Flight Attendant” on their list.

Alafair Burke is a former prosecutor turned author. Her newest novel, “The Wife,” tells the story of Angela and Jason Powell and their teenage son Spencer. Jason is a media sensation, author of popular nonfiction book “Equalnomics," NYU professor and owner of a consulting company that advises other companies on “how to make corporate decisions based on principles of equality.” He is the darling of the liberal 1-percenters. 

Angela was from the other side of the tracks on Long Island. She worked as a caterer to wealthy Hamptonites, where she met Jason, who swept her off her feet. Jason loves Angela and her young son Spencer, and they made a happy home in Chelsea, with Spencer at a private school and Angela at home caring for both of them.

All is well until the day a young intern accuses Jason of sexual harassment. He quickly becomes persona non grata until a police investigation is completed. His name is splashed all over the media, and the family comes under the spotlight, something that frightens Angela.

There is something in Angela’s past that she doesn’t want to come to light. She has gone to great lengths to begin a new life with Jason, and this incident could jeopardize that.

Then another woman accuses Jason of rape, and Angela now begins to doubt Jason. Could he have done what these women said he did?

A dogged female police detective is determined to get to the bottom of this when the woman who accused Jason of rape suddenly disappears. She believes there is more to the Powell family’s story.

There are so many layers to this gripping story. Burke keeps you guessing at to what the real story is, and there is more than one twist that will leave you breathless. By the time you get to the end, your head will be spinning. “The Wife” is a first-class mystery from a fantastic writer.

If you read

BOOK: “The Flight Attendant” by Chris Bohjalian

GRADE: A

PUBLISHER: Doubleday

COST: Hardcover $26.95

LENGTH: 368 pages

---

BOOK: “The Wife” by Alafair Burke

GRADE: A+

PUBLISHER: Harper

COST: Hardcover $26.99

LENGTH: 352 pa

Diane La Rue is a member of the National Book Critics Circle and blogs about books at http://bookchickdi.blogspot.com. You can follow her on Twitter @bookchickdi, and she can be emailed at laruediane2000@yahoo.com.

The Flight Attendant by Chris Bohjalian

The Flight Attendant by Chris Bohjalian
Published by Doubleday ISBN 9780385542418
Hardcover, $26.95, 368 pages

One of the things I like best about author Chris Bohjalian is that every book he writes is so different from his last. He has written about a Vermont midwife accused of a terrible crime (Midwives), a young woman attacked while riding her bike (The Double Bind), an Italian family trapped in their villa in WWII (The Lights in the Ruins), a young American nurse who is witness to the Armenian genocide in 1915 (The Sandcastle Girls), and a man whose life intersects with a young woman caught up in sex trafficking when he hosts a bachelor party for his brother-in-law (The Guest Room), among many others.

His latest novel, The Flight Attendant, maybe his most topical yet. Cassie Bowden is a flight attendant who spends her time-off  getting blackout drunk and waking up in the bed of an unfamiliar man. She doesn't see this as a problem, she likes to drink and have fun.

Until the morning she wakes up in Dubai, in the bed of Alex Sokolov, a handsome hedge fund manager who grew up in Virginia and now lives in New York City. They struck up a conversation as she worked first class on the plane, and then met for dinner and went back to his hotel room, where they drank a lot of vodka and had sex.

She was nauseous and hungover and when she turned to look at Alex, his throat was slit from one end to the other. After monmentarily panicking, Cassie carefully showered the blood off herself, and wondered if she had killed Alex. She had done dumb things while drunk, but she was never violent.

She wiped her fingerprints off anything she touched and hightailed it back to her hotel, dressed and headed to the airport for her flight back to the United States. If needed, she'd call a lawyer from the US, but after what happened to Amanda Knox in Italy, calling the police in Dubai did not seem wise.

Cassie remembered that a woman, Miranda, a work acquaintance of Alex's, stopped by his hotel room and they all drank vodka while they talked business. Did she have anything to do with Alex's murder?

But Miranda is not her name. Her name is Elena and she is a Russian assassin tasked with killing Alex because he stole money from his investors, Russian oligarchs, which was not a good idea.

The Flight Attendant is a cat-and-mouse game as Cassie tries to figure out who killed Alex while evading the police investigation into his death and Elena is monitoring the investigation and Cassie, hoping she doesn't have to kill Cassie too.

As a big fan of FX television's The Americans, which is sadly winding up this spring (noooo!), I found The Flight Attendant a great companion to that. And with Russian meddling in our elections all over the news, it is the right time for this fast-paced novel with a surprise ending that will have you shaking your head in disbelief as Bohjalian pulls one over on the reader. I had to go back twice to say "What just happened????"

It is a crazy, suspenseful ride, and one well worth taking. Chris Bohjalian does it again.

Chris Bohjalian at Barnes & Noble

Although this past Tuesday was pouring rain outside, it didn't deter a full house of hearty New Yorkers from joining author Chris Bohjalian to hear about his latest novel, The Sleepwalker, at the 86th St. Barnes & Noble in Manhattan.

Bohjalian began his talk by saying that in the not-too-distant past his book sold briskly only to people with his same last name. He then gave a few examples of book events that he said we designed by the gods to humble him.

 When he arrived at a bookstore signing in Seattle, he didn't see any of his books in the store. Thinking they were sold out (yay!), he found a staff member who told him that they ordered three copies and they were still in the store. He was taken to a dark place in the back of the store, and on a high shelf that only Shaquille O'Neal could reach, were his three books. He asked the staff person if he should sign the books, and was told "No, our readers are very discriminating." Ouch.

At a book signing in San Francisco, a man came up to him and asked him if her had heard that author Robert Parker had died that day. Bohjalian said yes, he had heard. Then the man asked if he knew that J.D. Salinger had recently died, as did Howard Zinn. When Bohjalian told the man he had heard that as well, the man asked him "Are ya worried?"

At another panel discussion, Adriana Trigiani and Alan Tennant were also on the stage. Tennant brought out a falcon and for an hour, everyone was entranced by the falcon. After an hour, Bohjalian finally got a question from the audience, someone asking him how the reviews were for his latest book. When he was about to answer, the falcon pooped on Tennant's arm, prompting the the comment "At least we know what the bird thought."

After these chuckles, Bohjalian got down to business, talking about the research he did for The Sleepwalker. He learned that people sleep-cook, sleep-drive, have sleep-sex, and even sleep-murder, all while having no memory of this at all. People who sleepwalk, their motor activity part of their brain is awake, while the judgement part of the brain is asleep.

He cited a statistic that in the 28 times that lawyers have used the sleepwalker defense for their clients accused of crimes while asleep, 15 acquittals were won. The audience found that fascinating.

Bohjlalian also shared a sleepwalking experience his family had. They were on vacation in Rome, staying at a small boutique hotel. They were awakened in the middle of the night by a breeze coming in their room from the open doors to the balcony. There was their 9 year-old daughter ready to climb on top of the balcony. She was sound asleep, sleepwalking. (Children are more prone to sleepwalking and frequently grow out of it.)

That incident inspired an important scene in The Sleepwalker.

What Bohjalian's books have in common, since he writes about so many different topics, are two things- a sense of dread and characters dealing with regret. His daughter, now a young woman, told him that messed-up women seems to be "his sweet spot", and Bohjalian says that he finds it more interesting to write about women. "Women are better people", he said.

During an interesting Q&A session, in which tote bags filled with Bohjalian's books were given away, he said The Sandcastle Girls, his amazing book about the Armenian genocide of 1915 "was the blessing of his life." He also said that he doesn't outline his books, he prefers for his characters to lead him through the story.

Then we got to my favorite part of book talks- what is the author reading? Bohjalian showed the audience his current favorites:
Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead, which he said deserves every award it has gotten. (I agree.)
American Housewife  by Helen Ellis, which is hilarious (I also agree!). Helen was in the audience as well.
Dead Wake- Erik Larsen's newest book about the Lusitania
Small Great Things- Jodi Picoult's latest book about race
Political Suicide - Erin McHugh's timely books about the crazy things politicians have done
Black Water - a mystery by Louise Doughty
This Was Not The Plan- Cristina Alger's new book (Cristina was in attendance as well)
Blackout - Sarah Hepola's memoir

Bohjalian also mentioned that The Sandcastle Girls will be a movie. The producer has funding and casting has begun, with filming to begin this summer in the Middle East and Spain. That is great news!

He closed by praising bookstores who host author events, and asking the audience to support bookstores by buying books- any book, not necessarily his. I bought two copies of The Sleepwalker and a copy of Jane Harper's The Dry Season  because I have heard such good things.

My review of The Sleepwalker is here.
Chris Bohjalian's website is here.

The Guest Room by Chris Bohjalian

The Guest Room by Chris Bohjalian
Published by Doubleday ISBN 97803855538893
Hardcover, $25.95, 336 pages

What I like about a new Chris Bohjalian book is that you know it's always going to be an intriguing story that tackles an important issue. He's dealt with such topics as mental illness (The Double Bind), domestic abuse (Secrets of Eden), the Armenian genocide (The Sandcastle Girls) and now the global sex slave trade in his gripping novel The Guest Room.

Kristine takes her eight-year-old daughter to visit her mother overnight in New York City while her husband Richard hosts a bachelor party for his n'er-do-well brother in their suburban home. She's not crazy about her immature brother-in-law Phillip and his friends, but Richard doesn't have many friends or go out much, so she hopes this will be a fun night for him.

Phillip's best friend Spencer arranges for two strippers to come to the house, but when they arrive, it's clear that these are the not the kind of women Richard envisioned. The two young women are more than strippers, they are prostitutes.

Things get way out of hand, and Richard ends up in the guest room with one of the young women, Alexandra, about to make a very bad mistake. It turns out that these two women were kidnapped and forced into sex slavery and when the women kill their bodyguards/captors in his house, Richard's life turns upside down.

He has to tell his wife, who has to tell their young daughter. The lurid story is all over the news, Richard is forced to take a leave of absence from his lucrative job and they can't go back into their house as it is a crime scene. It is a nightmare.

The story is also told from Alexandra's viewpoint. After losing her father, she is tricked into leaving her mother, believing she is going to study dance in Russia. The man who was her benefactor became her nightmare. At the age of fourteen she was forced into prostitution. She was beaten and raped repeatedly until she realized there was no way out.

Bohjalian describes in graphic detail the brutality these young women are subjected to. It is horrifying to read on the page, I can't imagine the actual reality of it. For five long years Alex is locked away, forced to service men.

At the age of nineteen, she and three other young women are sent to New York where they can make more money for the Russian mobsters. One of them is killed by their captors, and then they go to the party at Richard's, where Alexandra's friend decides to change her fate.

The story is riveting, and The Guest Room is definitely a page-turning nail-biter. As Alexandra is on the run, trying to avoid the Russian mobsters and police looking for her, and Richard tries to put his life back together, their stories collide.

The ending is shocking and will send you for a loop. The Guest Room is just heartbreaking, and the fact that this goes on right here is mind-numbing. I highly recommend The Guest Room, it combines a sad story with a thriller's pace and you'll race through it. And if your husband asks to host a bachelor party in your home, just say no.

Close Your Eyes, Hold Hands by Chris Bohjalian

August 11, 2014 6:00 am  •  Diane LaRue | Special to The Citizen

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If you read

BOOK: "Close Your Eyes, Hold Hands" by Chris Bohjalian

RATING: Five stars

PUBLISHER: Doubleday

COST: $25.95, hardcover

LENGTH: 288 pages

Author Chris Bohjalian writes novels about serious subjects. “Midwife,” chosen as an Oprah’s book selection, was about a midwife accused of killing a mother during childbirth. “The Double Bind” told the story of a young woman attacked while riding her bike, and “The Sandcastle Girls” brought us into the Armenian genocide in the early 20th century as seen through the eyes of a female American aide worker.

Bohjalian is particularly adept at writing strong female characters, usually facing some crisis. His latest book, “Close Your Eyes Hold Hands,” continues in that tradition, and is considered by many to be his finest book yet.

Teenager Emily Shepherd lives with her parents in a somewhat remote area of Vermont. Her father is an engineer at a nuclear power plant, and her mother is the public relations officer for the plant.

Emily is smart, but according to her teachers, she doesn’t apply herself. She loves the poet Emily Dickinson, and feels a kinship with the author who shares her first name.

Her relationship with her parents is somewhat strained. Emily’s parents drink and fight a lot. Emily thinks her mother is unhappy living in Vermont, and that causes much of the strain.

One day, while Emily is at school, the emergency sirens go off. The teachers seem more concerned than usual, and the students are put on buses and moved out of town.

There was an explosion at the power plant, and 17 people died. Emily can’t get a hold of her parents and fears them dead. News stations are reporting that Emily’s father is being blamed for the explosion, accused of being drunk on the job.

Emily panics and runs away. In the confusion of the situation, she is able to leave relatively unnoticed. Her plan to go home is thwarted, as traffic is snarled with everyone trying to get out of the area to safety.

The story is told by Emily, and although she promises to tell the story chronologically, she jumps around. It appears that we are reading Emily’s writings in a journal, much like the ones that Emily Dickinson kept.

Emily ends up in Burlington shelter, and tells people she is from upstate New York and her name is Abby Bliss. She heard people saying such horrible things about her parents, she feared if people knew who she was, she would be treated badly, as she found out in a 7-11 when she told a cop her name and people nearly rioted.

After she leaves the shelter, she lives in an apartment with other runaways and an Iraq war vet, who gives the kids drugs and sends them out to prostitute themselves at a truck stop when they need money for more drugs.

Emily makes friends with one girl, who teaches her how to cut herself. She doesn’t want to do it, but the compulsion is too much for her. When her friend leaves because her parents have found her, Emily leaves, too.

She makes an igloo of frozen ice and garbage bags to live in, and meets Cameron, a 9-year-old runaway. Emily takes Cameron under her wing, and vows to protect him. He is an orphan, like her, and ran away from his last foster home because he was beaten.

Taking care of Cameron gives Emily a purpose. She feeds him, takes him to the library to read, gets him a flu shot at the drugstore and buys him a skateboard, the only thing he wants.

The life of a homeless teen caring for a young boy is incredibly difficult, and Bohjalian doesn’t shy away from the ugliness. The thing that struck me most was the sheer exhaustion of just getting through the day. It’s awful enough for an adult, but for two children, it’s just unfathomable.

The title “Close Your Eyes, Hold Hands” comes from words spoken by a teacher or police officer to the children at Newtown school where 21 children were murdered in 2012. Emily thinks of those words when she decides to go to the Exclusion Zone, the new name for the area around her home.

“Close Your Eyes, Hold Hands” is a heartbreaking novel, beautifully written by Mr. Bohjalian. He creates an unforgettable character in Emily Shepherd — perhaps his best yet. He said that his own teenage daughter helped him find Emily’s voice, and he brings her to vivid life on the pages. Weeks after finishing this book, I find myself still thinking and worrying about Emily and Cameron.

My review of Chris Bohjalian's The Light In The Ruins is here.

A Trio of Memoirs From Funny People

I do like to read humor books, and there seems to be a spate of memoirs by funny people published recently. I read Bob Saget's Dirty Daddy- The Chronicle of a Family Man Turned Filthy Comedian, Carol Leifer's How To Succeed In Business Without Really Crying and actress Judy Greer's I Don't Know Where You Know Me From. I'll do a short and sweet review of each here.

Dirty Daddy by Bob Saget 

Published by It! Books ISBN 978-0-06-227478-6

Hardcover, $26.99, 264 pages

Bob Saget is best known for his many years playing neat freak widower and dad Danny Tanner on TV's iconic sitcom Full House. Anyone who has children in the 20s has probably seen that show, but this memoir, Dirty Daddy, shows a much different side to Saget, one that fans of his standup will know better.

Saget likes scatological humor, which can be funny in small doses, but for me a little goes a long way. He got his love of this humor from his father, whom he clearly adores, and that shines through brightly in this book.

Death played a big part in the Saget family, with Bob losing three close uncles and a cousin at a young age. His parents lost twins when they got an infection in the hospital when they were born and died. His two older sisters died at age 34 and 41, respectively. Death followed the Saget family, and that is where their gallows humor came from; it helped them cope.

There are a lot of showbiz stories here, about famous people Saget knows, like Don Rickles, Richard Pryor, George Carlin, and some fun stories from his Full House and America's Funniest Home Video days. His story of visiting Larry Fine from the Three Stooges in a nursing home when he was teen was so sweet.

One day he forgot to take his microphone off when going to the restroom during a break of AFHV and he said something rude about the audience that was broadcast to everyone. When he returned, the audience was ice cold to him. Oops.

Saget's stream--of-consciousness writing and scatological (vulgar) language will turn off some, but overall I enjoyed his memoir. Rating 4 of 5

How To Succeed In Business Without Really Crying by Carol Leifer
Published by Quirk Books ISBN 978-1-59474-677-2
Hardcover, $19.95, 240 pages

Carol Leifer's How To Succeed In Business Without Really Crying combines humor, memoir and advice in one volume. Like Saget, her love for her dad is evident, and she also shares lots of fun showbiz stories, mostly from her early days of standup.

Leifer was the inspiration for Elaine on Seinfeld, and as a writer on the show she wrote one of my favorite episodes, "The Understudy" which featured Bette Midler, whom Leifer said "had a lot of heart."

Lost of famous people are in the book, like Jay Leno, whom Leifer says is the nicest person she ever worked with. There's many photos in the book, and the early ones of her, Paul Reiser and Jerry Seinfeld, whom she has known for years, are priceless.

The book is divided into three sections: How to Handle Yourself During the Frenzied Scramble for Gainful Employment, How to Maintain Your Sanity While Stubbornly Advancing an Ever-Arduous Career, and How to Keep Your Footing When You Finally Get a Leg Up To the Top of the Heap.

In these sections, Leifer shares not only funny stories from her difficult climb up the comedy writing heap, but useful advice for anyone looking for a job. (Don't take a soda from the refrigerator at a job interview. It cost her a job with Aaron Spelling when he found out. Like Aaron Spelling can't afford another Diet Coke).

This is a terrific, funny book, and the perfect gift for a college graduate, a woman re-entering the job market or just anyone who likes comedy (especially Seinfeld). Rating 5 of 5

I Don't Know Where You Know Me From by Judy Greer
Published by Doubleday ISBN 978-0-385-53788-9
Hardcover, $25.95, 256 pages

Judy Greer is that actress who has been in everything. The title of her memoir, I Don't Know Where You Know Me From, references the fact that people come up to her, but can't quite remember what they have seen her in.

She's usually the best friend/co-worker (in 27 Dresses and The Wedding Planner) or the nerdy/oversexed TV guest star (Big Bang Theory, Modern Family, Arrested Development).  For someone who has worked with so many famous actors, Greer really doesn't dish much. If you are looking for gossip on Katherine Heigl or Jennifer Lopez, you won't find it here.

We do get a nice story about how Ashton Kutcher bought her dad a motorcycle, and the time she was in the restroom with Jennifer Lopez, but mostly it's about her life as a working actor, going from city to city and job to job.

Greer seems like the girl-next-door, and the most interesting chapters include one where she asked her closest friends (who are not in showbiz) to write about what's it's like being her friend, and how she fell in love with a man who has two tween children, and a ex-wife who is a sheriff, and how they shared two homes hours away from each other. (She made it into a sitcom, but alas it didn't last long.)

Reading it, I felt like I was talking to my best friend, and that is the reason to read this book, not for juicy Hollywood gossip. You'll have to watch TMZ for that. Rating 4 of 5

The Light in the Ruins by Chris Bohjalian

The Light in the Ruins by Chris Bohjalian
Published by Doubleday ISBN 978-0-385-53481-9
Hardcover, $25.95, 320 pages

I've read some WWII books set in Germany (City of Women, The Life of Objects), France (Suite Francaise)  and England (The Guernsey Potato Peel & Literary Society and Phillip Rock's Abingdon Pryory trilogy), but I hadn't read many set in Italy.

Chris Bohjalian returns to historical fiction again after his last novel, The Sandcastle Girls, was set after WWI in Armenia during the genocide there. This time in The Light in the Ruins, we meet the Rosatis, Italian descendants of nobilty. They have a lovely large mansion near Florence and life is good until Italy decides to throw its fortunes in with Hitler's Germany.

What I find interesting about many of these books is the theme of what happens to people who want nothing to do with war, who do not support their government. They cannot openly defy their government, and they can hide from the war for only so long before it comes to their doorstep.

The story takes place both during WWII and ten years later when someone begins to murder the surviving members of the Rosati family. Daughter-in-law Francesca, who lost her husband and children to the war, is brutally butchered. It is thought that she picked up a strange man who killed her, until another Rosati is murdered.

We meet a female Italian homicide detective, Serafina Bettini, which is a unique job for a woman in Italy in the 1950s. Serafina has a fascinating past, and as the story unfolds, we discover her connection to the Rosatis. I loved this character and would enjoy seeing Serafina in another book (hint hint Mr. Bohjalian). Bohjalian has a knack for writing interesting, complicated female characters (Midwives, The Double Bind,  The Sandcastle Girls).

The book moves back and forth in time, and we see how the Rosatis are drawn further into the war. One son, Francesca's husband, is an engineer who ends up on the front lines. Another son is an art historian, and his job is protecting art from falling into the hands of the Nazis. This part of the story intrigued me, and I learned much about a topic I had not known about before.

The youngest Rosati, Cristina, falls in love with a young German soldier, and this complicates matters. Her family is upset, and the townspeople, some of whom are resistance fighters, distrust the Rosatis. They feel that the Rosatis have thrown their lot in with the Nazis and deserve whatever misfortune comes their way.

War is hell, and their is plenty of horrific atrocities that take place in the book. Even though as a reader you brace yourself for it, the things that happen are shocking and brutal. The Rosatis have to deal with the Germans, and then the Russians as they come through looking for the Germans. The horrors of war come right into their home and the result is devastating.

There is so much in this book to recommend. The history, the characters, the setting (it has increased my desire to visit Italy), the mysteries (who is killing the Rosatis and why, and what happened to Serafina during the war), they all come together in the skilled hands of Chris Bohjalian.

I lost myself in The Light in the Ruins and isn't that really why we read books? This is one of the best books I have read this year.

rating 5 of 5

Chris Bohjalian's website is here.
Read an excerpt here.