Scout, Atticus, and Boo: A Celebration of Fifty Years of "To Kill a Mockingbird", by Mary McDonagh Murphy

Scout, Atticus, and Boo: A Celebration of Fifty Years of "To Kill a Mockingbird" by Mary McDonagh Murphy
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

When one considers how popular Harper Lee's To Kill A Mockingbird is, it makes sense that someone would write a book celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of its publication. Scout, Atticus, and Boo: A Celebration of Fifty Years of "To Kill A Mockingbird," by Mary McDonagh Murphy is that book.

Murphy explored To Kill A Mockingbird and asked others how Harper Lee's book affected them. While it might be tempting to compare the two books, this would be an injustice to Scout, Atticus, and Boo; it would be analogous to comparing an art appreciation book with DaVinci's work. But Murphy's book does help the reader understand how loved Lee's work is.

Definitely a must read for anyone who has loved To Kill A Mockingbird.

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This is a repost from July 14, 2013.

The Things We Keep, by Sally Hepworth

The Things We Keep by Sally Hepworth
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Some books are great fluff-reads, to be zoomed through (happily) while at the beach, or otherwise taking a "me"-day.

Then, there are the books that wrench one's heart-strings, while staying with you in its profound telling.

The Things We Keep, by Sally Hepworth, is definitely in the latter category.

Thirty-eight year old Anna Forster has been diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's disease, leading to being admitted to an assisted living facility. There, she meets Luke, who, at 41, also is suffering from the disease. Anna and Luke soon fall in love. While both slowly lose themselves to the disease, Anna tries holding on to the few things she know; this includes her love for Luke.

Eve Bennett suddenly finds herself as a single parent, and takes a job at the assisted living facility that Anna and Luke are in. While she finds their situation sad, she also tries to help the two keep their relationship alive, even as their families try to keep them apart.

However, a tragedy causes the families to try keeping the two apart, and Eve must decide if she wants to help the two remain together. This, too, has consequences, leaving everyone affected in startling ways.

Definitely a must-read, though maybe not as a happy beach-read.

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HardBall, by Sara Paretsky

I've been a fan of Sara Paretsky's V. I. Warshawski series for years. Recently, I decided to read them all in order (or, rather, all of the ones I own; I'm missing Indemnity Only).

Hardball is one of Paretsky's best, up to this point. In this fast-paced novel, V. I. (Vic) Warshawski is hired by two elderly African-American sisters to find missing Lamont Gadsden. The son of one of the sisters, he has been missing for forty years.

Vic also meets her young cousin Petra, a recent college grad who has come to Chicago to work on the campaign of one of her father's friends' son. The likeable Petra wants to connect with Vic, and learn about the Warshawski family.

Several problems arise when it is discovered that Lamont may have been murdered, and that it somehow has connections with local gangs, a murder of a civil rights volunteer, police, politicos, and a nun. At every turn, as Vic struggles to find the truth all the connections, Petra also disappears, and Vic's life almost ends.

Will Vic survive? Will she find Petra, Lamont, and who has left a trail of dead bodies while trying to silence Vic? Read it and find out.