The Order

Conspiracy. For the twentieth installment of his Gabriel Allon series, Daniel Silva sends the Israeli spy back to a place where Gabriel made close friends in high places in the past, Vatican City. In the novel titled, The Order, Gabriel is asked by the late pope’s private secretary to come to Rome to investigate a conspiracy involving the Holy See. A group called the Order of St. Helena with much support from the European right may be engaged in a conspiracy to rig the election of the next pope. Fans of this series are those readers most likely to enjoy this latest installment featuring a complex and interesting protagonist who always seems to choose whatever it takes to do the right thing.

 

Rating: Four-star (I like it)

Click here to purchase The Order from amazon.com.

 

My Life as a Villainess

Verve. Just the word “villainess” in the title gives readers a taste of the verve with which Laura Lippman writes in her collection of essays titled, My Life as a Villainess. I’ve read her fiction for years, especially her Tess Monaghan crime series set in Baltimore. I thoroughly enjoyed the wit and enthusiasm of her non-fiction in these essays. Sometimes, she’s relating the experience of Everywoman in recent decades. Other times, she offers a glimpse into her own life in ways that will entertain most readers. We get to see among other topics, some of her childhood, life in school, finding work as a journalist, and her experience being an older mother. Readers who enjoy a wry take on our crazy world, good writing, and some real verve, should consider reading these essays.

 

Rating: Four-star (I like it)

Click here to purchase My Life As a Villainess from amazon.com.

 

 

Hard Cash Valley

Loss. Brian Panowich returns to Bull Mountain and McFalls County for the third time in a novel titled, Hard Cash Valley. Squeamish readers should be cautious when approaching this thriller, since the violence includes both murder and torture. Protagonist Dane Kirby has suffered a lot of loss during his life in McFalls County. His boss has assigned him to work with the FBI on a brutal murder in another state, but the trail leads him back home to a world of chickens bred for fighting, criminal treachery and the hunt for a boy on the autism spectrum. The pace of the novel is rapid, and Panowich builds heavy layers of complexity onto each main character to intensify the stakes and accelerate the action. Fans of crime fiction with a stomach for gore are those readers most likely to enjoy this novel. Through all the loss, there is also love, and that helps point Kirby and other characters in the direction of redemption and recovery. Meanwhile, the bad guys face justice to the satisfaction of readers who have put up with a lot from these criminals.

 

Rating: Four-star (I like it)

Click here to purchase Hard Cash Valley from amazon.com.

 

 

The Beauty in Breaking

Healing. I can think of no better time than now to read some life lessons from an emergency room physician. In her memoir titled, The Beauty in Breaking, Michele Harper blends patient and personal stories in ways that will engage and encourage most readers. Harper helps us pay attention to those places where each of us is broken in one way or another and offers us a path toward healing. We can learn about better ways to live in many ways, and this book will provide comfort to anyone engaged in a struggle and looking for a voice of experience to find a way to find healing.

 

Rating: Four-star (I like it)

Click here to purchase The Beauty in Breaking from amazon.com.

 

The Divided States of America: Why Federalism Doesn't Work

Inequality. Timing can be everything when it comes to non-fiction. The uneven responses among different cities and states to the novel coronavirus provide one more example of the main points Donald F. Kettl makes in his book titled, The Divided States of America: Why Federalism Doesn't Work. The sharing of power between the national government and individual states began as a creative compromise to create the United States of America. Kettl describes how that compromise built inequality into the balance, especially because of slavery. In this finely written book, Kettl argues that it is past time to reform our political system, and he offers some alternative solutions to what he sees as the problems of the current system. Where one lives makes the world of difference when it comes to education, health care, infrastructure and the risk of dying from a virus that some political leaders have not taken seriously. Any reader interested in public affairs should read this thoughtful book.

 

Rating: Four-star (I like it)

Click here to purchase The Divided States of America from amazon.com.

 

 

The Pull of the Stars

Pandemic. Consider taking a busman’s holiday from the current pandemic to Emma Donoghue’s finely written book set during the Great Flu of 1918, a novel set in Dublin and titled, The Pull of the Stars. As in her earlier novels, Donoghue doesn’t need a lot of landscape in which to set her dramatic action: much of this novel is set in a hospital room over the course of three days. I was delighted by the point of view from narrator and protagonist Julia Power, a nurse. Donoghue’s characters are deeply developed and reveal the depth of human nature and behavior. The prose is finely written, and the novel should appeal to any reader who enjoys the power of a well-told story and the selection of just the right words to convey it with love, care and precision.

 

Rating: Five-star (I love it)

Click here to purchase The Pull of the Stars from amazon.com.

 

 

Narrative Economics: How Stories Go Viral and Drive Major Economic Events

Contagion. The novel coronavirus has gotten many of us to think about the concept of herd immunity. In his book titled, Narrative Economics: How Stories Go Viral and Drive Major Economic Events, Nobel Prize winning economist Robert J. Shiller offers an adjacent theory: that the spread of stories has a powerful role in economic behavior. I know a CEO who will often frame a decision-making conversation in terms of what one would have to believe for the outcome to be probable. The beliefs of the herd can spread, and like lemmings, we can follow others into economic behavior that builds momentum from beliefs that are not necessarily supported by data. Shiller’s writing for general audiences is always clear and cogent. Readers interested in business, finance and economics will find something to think about after reading this book.

 

Rating: Four-star (I like it)

Click here to purchase Narrative Economics from amazon.com.