Takedown Twenty by Janet Evanovich

If you are a follower of this series, the you already know what you are in for when you check out Takedown Twenty.  In Stephanie Plum's new adventure, she is trying to take down a very bad man who has ties to the mob.  Plus he is Morelli's godfather. Plus he is adored by Grandma Bella.  Well, you all know what that means - when Grandma Bella is not happy, Stephanie is in big trouble! On top of all that, Ranger wants her help in tracking down a serial killer.  What is more dangerous - getting involved with a psychopath or being in the close quarters with Ranger???

Once again, Janet Evanovich has written a fun novel that we have all grown to love. Not much new here, but who cares?

Karen

Read-alike:  Savannah Blues by Mary Kay Andrews

The Outsider: A Memoir by Jimmy Connors

During his twenty year career as a professional tennis player, Jimmy Connors was someone fans either loved or hated. The Outsider, Connors’ story of his life on and off the court, is unlikely to change the minds of those who found him hard to root for. However, The Outsider is an entertaining memoir that captures Connors’ personality.

Jimmy Connors grew up in East Saint Louis and learned tennis from his mother, who had played professionally, and his grandmother. Later on he was sent to California to train with Pancho Segura, another former professional player. Connors’ stories about Segura, who was ranked number one in 1952, and other players from earlier eras make The Outsider something of a tennis history lesson (and not a dry one). Connors gives an entertaining account of his exhibition match in the seventies with Rod Laver, one of the all-time greats. Laver was not a fan of some of Connors’ on court antics and came out of retirement to play the exhibition. Connors later crosses paths with other greats like John McEnroe and Bjorn Borg. He believes the Connors-Borg-McEnroe era was one of the greatest in tennis not just because of the quality of the players but because players like McEnroe and himself were entertaining and got rid of the country club stuffiness tennis had been associated with in earlier decades.

Connors’ career went all the way into the nineties when players like Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi were staring to establish themselves as the next greats in men’s tennis. Connors has little to say about them besides spending some time trashing Agassi. It would have been nice to hear Connors’ take on Sampras or a current player like Rafael Nadal, but Connors is mostly interested in telling his story and does this very well.

John

The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt

Winner of the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction

In 1654, a Dutch painter by the name of Carel Fabritius painted The Goldfinch. As one of Rembrandt’s most gifted pupils, he appeared to be destined for a long, successful career and lasting fame.  But on October 12, 1654, a gunpowder factory near his home in Delft exploded destroying a quarter of the city and Fabritius was one of the casualties. Approximately a dozen of his works, including The Goldfinch, survived. This work really exists – I saw it while studying in the Netherlands and was captivated by it. I returned to view it at least ten times before having to leave for England. This work, which has captured the souls of many, is at the heart of Tartt’s latest, engrossing novel.

A teenager, Theo Decker, accompanies his mother to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where the Fabritius painting is on loan. While they are there, a bomb explodes. Theo’s mother is one of the bomb’s victims, and in the chaos that ensues, he picks up the painting and carries it out of the museum. The story is peopled by many disparate characters: some fascinating, some bizarre, who come in and out of Theo’s life in the next few years. He moves from New York to Las Vegas when his estranged father takes over as guardian, and returns, under desperate circumstances, after his death. And all the while he carries the painting – carefully wrapped and hidden, but always part of his awareness. It is a constant, subtle character, out of sight but never out of mind, which influences Theo’s every decision.

Simply stated, the story tells what happens to Theo and the painting—the longer he hides it, the less able he is to simply return it. The Goldfinch is an absorbing novel, but one of its most interesting aspects is its consideration of what makes art art, or, more prosaically, what makes art timeless. Why does a 350-year-old painting exert such a hold on this young man?

At the very end of The Goldfinch, Theo, now an adult looks back on all that happened to him since the explosion, when his fate and that of Fabritius’s painting were joined. As much as he would like to believe otherwise, he says, “I’ve come to believe that there’s no truth beyond illusion. Because, between ‘reality’ on the one hand, and the point where the mind strikes reality, there’s a middle zone, a rainbow edge where beauty comes into being, where two very different surfaces mingle and blur to provide what life does not: and this is the space where all art exists, and all magic.” Long live art and magic!

CAS

The Bookstore by Deborah Meyler

Esme Garland is a British 23 year old in Manhattan on a full-ride art history scholarship at Columbia when she meets the charming, handsome, irresistibly sexy Mitchell van Leuven. In over her head, she is happily drowning in love (and lust!), when she is sent abruptly to the surface and the real world. First, she discovers she is pregnant, then, when steeling herself to tell Mitchell, he breaks up with her, saying he finds their sex life too dull.

Upon coming to terms with her situation, Esme sets out to put her new world on track – starting with a job to supplement her scholarship. She finds employment at The Owl, a used book store with an idiosyncratic staff and group of regular customers. They take her in as well as taking her on as her pregnancy continues. And then Mitchell returns…

The continuing story gets better and broader in scope as Esme learns more about herself and what is truly important to her and in life in general. The characters are well developed and the story line ultimately evolves into a good, thought-provoking reading experience.

I was not initially engaged by either the story or Esme – I found her a bit disingenuous for a seemingly bright graduate student at a prestigious university. Then I began to reflect on being 23 and the relative sanity of some of my own non-academic decisions. Book smarts don’t necessarily mean life smarts; experience and thought take precedence there. That’s where Esme, and some of the supporting cast, began to blossom and became more real and appealing as did the story line.

Great literature – no; well worth reading – definitely; The Bookstore entertains as well as educates; not a bad combination!

CAS

JFK, Conservative by Ira Stoll

I have to admit I have never read an entire book about JFK.  I guess it’s because I’m not a fan of the whole Camelot thing.  The title of this book intrigued me, and it reminded me of an excerpt of one of Kennedy’s speeches that I heard.  It was given in December 1962 to the New York Economic Club and was promoting his proposed tax cut.  The theme of JFK,Conservative, is basically found in a quotation from the first paragraph of the penultimate chapter. “President Kennedy spent—and planned to spend—Friday,  November 22, 1963, in Texas doing just what he had done for his entire presidency and for much of his political career: quoting the Bible, making the case for a strong military that would defend freedom against the Communists, and promoting economic growth through a tax cut.” (181)  Ira Stoll, who has previously written a book on patriot Sam Adams, goes through every stage of Kennedy’s career, beginning with a speech he delivered on July 4, 1946, at Feneuil Hall in Boston.  The challenge of the book is defining the terms “conservative” and “liberal,” as they have stood for many things over the years.  Stoll shows that Republican presidents Eisenhower and Nixon were actually more “liberal” in their policies regarding Communism, economic policy and social policy, while Kennedy was more “conservative” in those areas.  As evidence, Stoll cites numerous Kennedy speeches and the many protests by economists and peace activists.  Even his advisors were often frustrated with him, and many of them sought to change his record after his death.  

Stoll examines Kennedy’s conservative legacy as well, pointing out the numerous ways every succeeding president has referenced him and adopted at least one of his core beliefs.  Stoll concludes that it is Ronald Reagan who is the true successor to Kennedy, and most readers will recall that it was Reagan who signed the biggest tax cut and had the greatest success against communism since Kennedy.  I finished this book with a new respect for Kennedy, one that did not relate in any way to the current Kennedy world view that we are all familiar with.

Dawn

The Influence by Bentley Little

My favorite horror author is back with a vengeance!  The Influence is the story of Ross Lowry, an unemployed engineer who is about to lose everything.  When his cousin Lita and her husband Dave offer him a place to stay on their ranch in Magdalena, Arizona, he figures "why not"?  No one else has offered him any help, and he has been looking for a job for over a year with no offers.  Maybe if he takes some time off and relaxes a bit, his luck might change, right?

Well, no.

At first, Magdalena Arizona looks like a very small town in the middle of the desert.  A tiny Main Street and surrounding ranches pretty much sum it up.  But it seems nice. Friendly church-going people. Quirky old-timers.  Bored children.

But all that changes on New Year's Eve when the annual bash is held. As is tradition, many of the residents shoot their guns into the sky at midnight. But this time, something bad happens. Very bad.  This time, they hit someone. Or something.  And the town of Magdalena changes forever.

Once again, Bentley Little manages to turn small town life into a terrifying existence.

Karen

Read alike author:  Graham Masterton

Heretics and Heroes by Thomas Cahill

Cahill’s latest offering is the sixth installment in the “Hinges of History” series that began in 1995.  Heretics and Heroes: How Renaissance Artists and Reformation Priests Created Our World reads like an upper-level European history lecture class.  It is definitely not for readers unfamiliar with the major artistic, political and religious figures of the time period.  Cahill displays an amazing breadth (if not depth) of knowledge on the topics.  He often references his other books and frequently comments that the topics treated could each have a complete book written about them.  His thesis of sorts is that European sensibilities shifted from a Platonic/Augustianian outlook to a more Aristotelian/Aquinine outlook.  This is reflected in the works of many contemporary artists such as Botticello, Caravaggio, Durer and Bruegher.  Cahill analyzes pieces of Renaissance art in great detail and provides accompanying illustrations of them.  Complementing his art history lecture is a study of the Reformation.  Cahill discusses Luther, Erasmus, Zwingli and Calvin, et al, and pits them against the various popes and church officials who sought to stop the movement.  The reader cringes at the inherent turmoil between Catholic and Protestant, and among the Protestants, as everyone sought to promulgate their version of the truth.  Numerous tortures, beheadings  and burnings are described, and it is this gruesome reality that the artwork reflects.  Lest the reader conclude the book in a foul mood, Cahill decides to end on a high note by profiling authors and artists (e.g. Cervantes, Shakespeare, Donne and Rembrandt) who aren’t defined by religion.

Dawn