Escape from the Deep (NF 2008) - Alex Kershaw

In October, 1944, the U.S. Navy submarine Tang was on her fifth Pacific patrol led by Commander Richard O'Kane, a man whose hatred for the enemy was impossible to miss or ignore. He had, after all, sunk over 100,000 tons of Japanese vessels in his previous patrols and was always on the lookout for more. That October, O'Kane indeed found more, but at a great cost.

On October 24, the U.S.S. Tang found herself in the Formosa Strait surrounded by a convoy of Japanese vessels. Although O'Kane torpedoed some of the ships, one of the Tang's torpedoes misfired and struck itself, sending the sub and it's 87-man crew to the bottom of the South China Sea.

But the story's just beginning. Kershaw's gripping account, gathered mainly from the survivors themselves, takes the reader from the frantic moments when the crew realized their fate to the successful escape of a handful of the sailors to their rescue by a Japanese ship to a Japanese torture camp and beyond.

Escape from the Deep never lets up, not for a second. I was hooked from the first paragraph and felt like I never got a good breath until I'd finished the book. Even the person who absolutely hates history in any form will find the book hard to put down. Yes, it's an exciting page-turner and good history, but Escape from the Deep also leaves the reader with thoughts and questions that last beyond the initial excitement of the story: the nature and rules of war, the human capacity for inflicting suffering, concepts of forgiveness, revenge, brotherhood, understanding and survival. Highly recommended.

The Billionaire's Vinegar: The Mystery of the World's Most Expensive Bottle of Wine

I don't often scour Fortune magazine for book recommendations. However, as I was doing my usual search for subscription cards on a batch of magazines a few weeks ago, this title caught my eye. I grew up in a wine-friendly household, where family vacations to California were split between Disneyland and the wine country. Wine auctions? No way. I found the world presented in this book to be fascinating.

The "World's Most Expensive Bottle of Wine" went up for auction in 1985. A 1787 Château Lafite Bordeaux that had been in Thomas Jefferson's collection, it sold for an astounding $156,000 at Christie's of London to Christopher "Kip" Forbes of the Forbes media empire. Many mysteries surrounded this bottle and the other "Jefferson bottles" that had been found with it. Jefferson's meticulous records showed no definite evidence that he had owned these bottles. The collector who brought them to Christie's, Hardy Rodenstock, withheld details about the bottles, including where he had gotten them, or even the exact number of bottles that he had. It looked more and more like Rodenstock was, at best, peddling fakes to the collecting world, and at worst, deliberately forging wines.

The cast of characters involved is like something out of Dickens. I periodically had to remind myself that this was a non-fiction book, and I wasn't all that surprised to learn that the movie rights have already been optioned.

The Sea

(2005)

~John Banville~

In this his fourteenth novel, Dublin writer John Banville gets inside the very soul of his narrator, middle-aged Irishman and newly bereaved widower Max Borden. The loss of his wife has left Max anguished and angry, and in an attempt to assuage his grief, he goes back to the seaside village of Ballyless, where he vacationed with his parents as a child, and moves into a boarding house called The Cedars.

Throughout the novel, Max travels back and forth in time, alternately recounting his childhood summers, the last year of his wife, Anna's, life, and various episodes from the time he spends as an adult lodger at The Cedars.

The opening scene places an eleven-year-old Max at Ballyless, watching the arrival of a new family to the shore. This family, aptly named the Graces (for the mother, daughter, and governess each figure boldly in Max's story), rent the largest summer house in the village, The Cedars, the very house to which Max returns more than fifty years later.

In many ways this novel is as much about literary structure as it is about story. Banville is a master craftsman - I marveled at the way he seamlessly moved from one time frame to the next. It was almost like being in conversation with someone, when you are talking first about the day you've had at work and then chatting about that odd uncle who used to come for Christmas dinner. Banville writes in an immediate and intimate voice that assumes, and rightly so, that the reader has been included in the hushed whisperings. You are always an insider with this novel: connected, drawn-in, aware. And the language is hauntingly beautiful, - when Max first moves into The Cedars he remarks that the past beats inside him "like a second heart," later in the story he describes a violent thunderstorm as "the sky stamping up and down in a fury, breaking its bones."

This novel is at once a coming-of-age and a growing-older story, for in its telling Max moves both through early adolescence and into late middle age. Its ending is tragic, revelatory, and ultimately consoling.

This is my third foray into the works of contemporary Dublin writers, following Anne Enright's The Gathering and Roddy Doyle's The Woman Who Walked Into Doors. I am finding these titles each a bit disquieting but equally lyrical, moving, and intelligent - sustenance for the mind and the spirit.

Banville's The Sea was awarded the 2005 Man Booker Prize.

The Puzzling World of Winston Breen by Eric Berlin

A 2008-2009 Black-Eyed Susan Nominee for 6th-9th grades, The Puzzling World of Winston Breen will appeal to lovers of mysteries, puzzles, codes, and treasure-hunting. When Winston buys a box in an antique store for his sister's birthday, he doesn't know that, hidden inside the box, are the first pieces of a puzzle leading to an unknown treasure. He teams up with the town librarian, a burly ex-cop, two shady treasure hunters, a reporter, his sister, and two buddies in search of the elusive treasure. But someone wants the treasure all to themselves--who could it be?

The neat thing about this book is all the puzzles sprinkled throughout the text for the reader to solve. You don't have to solve them in order to follow the story (and answers are provided in the back), but it's fun to try. It's also fun to attempt to solve the larger puzzle of the missing treasure as the team finds more and more clues, all the way up to the exciting conclusion that will have readers turning pages quickly to see what happens.

This was an enjoyable read, and I think people of many ages would like it as well. Recommended for 5th grade and up, both boys and girls, especially those who love mysteries and puzzles.

Catherine

The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski

I hesitate to review this title because, as I revel in the completion of it, I feel that I am not enough of a writer to do Wroblewski justice in writing a critique. So, bear with me as I try to translate the beauty of this book.

Last week, Jean suggested that I read the review of The Story of Edgar Sawtelle in the Post's Bookworld. I had already read Bookworld but went back to take in the review that I had skipped. It was a glowing review that had also garnered the front cover, so you could sense that this must be the "next big thing." And indeed it is.

While the story centers on a farm where a unique breed of dogs has been lovingly raised by the Sawtelle family for three generations, this is not merely another dog novel. This is the story of a mute boy named Edgar and the bond he has formed with his family members, including a few select Sawtelle dogs. When his uncle moves back to the farm, Edgar's life is thrown out of balance, a tragedy befalls his father, and in trying to come to terms with these changes, he finds that his dogs are his true family- the ones that understand him and are loyal to him even when he has trouble communicating. The reader is taken on a journey- through the state of Wisconsin as well as through the maturation of Edgar Sawtelle and his dogs. This truly is THE story of Edgar Sawtelle. Edgar's heart is the heart of the story.

David Wroblewski's prose is astounding, there were many points when I read a sentence again to marvel at his word choice (“One evening, as Edgar was crossing the lawn, in that dialated moment after sunset when the sky holds all the light..."). It has been a long time since I felt so compelled to find out what happened in the next chapter, even up to the end which I found more surprising with each sentence.

This book is long, I admit that, but its summertime right?

I WANT YOU TO READ THIS BOOK. Then tell me what you think, ok?

Tamar: A Novel of Espionage, Passion, and Betrayal (YA 2007) - Mal Peet

You hear a lot these days that YA books are flying off the shelves and they are, but what a lot of people fail to realize is that a huge number of adults are reading YA. Apparently many grownups have become frustrated with adult fiction and just want "a good story," something that keeps the pages turning and wraps up nicely at the end. That's not to say that it has to be simple. It can be well-written, intellectually and emotionally satisfying, challenging, creative, descriptive, effective, powerful and still appeal to both YAs and adults. Tamar is one of those novels.

The odd thing about Tamar (and possibly a selling point for adults) is that most of the book is not written from a teenage point of view. William Hyde, a former WWII British undercover operative in Holland, has apparently committed suicide in 1995, fifty years after the end of the war. Before his death, he leaves a box for his 15-year-old granddaughter Tamar (also Hyde's code name in WWII). Inside, Tamar finds maps, coded messages, photos and other seemingly unrelated objects from her grandfather's past. Slowly she begins to unravel the mystery of why her grandfather, a war hero who helped liberate Holland from the Nazis, would kill himself.

Again, most of the book is told from the point of view of either Hyde or his partner Dart (both not much older than young adults themselves) as they parachute into Holland and work undercover, trying to send messages to the Allies while avoiding detection by the Nazis. Peet does a masterful job of linking the past with the present without falling into the traps and cliches of a multitude of wartime novels. The writing is fresh, the details vivid and the characters multi-dimensional. Highly recommended for YA and adults.

Winner of Britain's Carnegie Medal
424 pages

The Miracle at Speedy Motors

~Alexander McCall Smith~

(2008)

McCall Smith concludes each of the novels in his delightful No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series with a pointed and touching tribute to the country in which he sets his stories (africa, africa, africa...) . This title represents the ninth installment in a run which continues to serve up generous helpings of wisdom, comfort, humor and charm.

Back again is our female detective, Mma Ramotswe, the traditionally built lady with a kind heart and a mind for the higher path. Her husband, Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni, a gentle soul himself, is in search of a cure for their adopted daughter's paralysis, and her assistant, Mma Makutsi, must deal with a careless mistake that may come between her and her fiancee.

Threaded through the intricacies of the characters' lives are many cups of steaming bush tea, the continual put-put-put of the engine on Mma's little white van, and the wide open skies of her native Botswana, a land so tenderly described as to become a character in its own right.

The audio presentation of these titles is truly delectable. Reader Lisette Lecat, who is herself a native of South Africa, delivers a delightful and spirited rendering of McCall Smith's tales.

BBC One has partnered with HBO to produce a thirteen episode television series based on these titles and filmed in Botswana. American actress and singer Jill Scott is playing the role of Mma Ramotswe and will be joined by Anika Noni Rose (Dreamgirls) as Mma Makutsi. A 90-minute pilot episode aired on BBC this past spring ~ I can't wait until the television series makes its way across the pond:).

Check out the following for an interesting video about "Sandy" McCall Smith, his allegiance to South Africa, and his mission to promote optimism and hopefulness through his work.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JtHqqRkTQIs&feature=related

The Woman Who Walked Into Doors
~Roddy Doyle (1996)

Paula Spencer is a thirty-nine-year-old Dublin woman who makes her living cleaning houses. The mother of four children, Paula is recently divorced - she kicked her abusive husband out of the house on a Thursday morning after knocking him over the head with a frying pan. She had taken the abuse herself for years, but it was the way he looked at their adolescent daughter on that particular morning, the way he regarded her young face with seething hatred, that propelled the long suffering Paula into action.

Written as a compelling first-person narrative, The Woman Who Walked Into Doors is a contemporary portrait of a working class Irish woman. I found an awful lot to like in this story and in the anguished yet spirited voice of its narrator. It took me right into the heart of Paula Spencer, walked me through her childhood and adolescence, whisked me through her courtship with her husband, Charlo, whom she loved fearlessly for most of their marriage, and deposited me into the depths of her struggle with alcoholism. Roddy Doyle brilliantly sustains the voice of his female narrator. I came to know Paula Spencer in these 31 staccatoed chapters as one would know a sister or a best girlfriend. She's a real character - and I miss her now that my reading of this marvelous novel has concluded.

Roddy Doyle lives and writes in Dublin. His 1993 title, Paddy Clark Ha Ha Ha, won the Booker Prize.