In The Country We Love by Diane Guerrero

Diane Guerrero is perhaps best known as Maritza Ramos on the Netflix series Orange Is the New Black.  When Diane was only 14 years old, her parents were deported back to Colombia and no one in the government seemed to know that they had neglected to find care for Diane, who was left behind.  Diane was born in this country so she is an American citizen and could not be deported.  However, it never seemed to occur to anyone in authority to check to see what happened to her. 

So begins a life of being cared for by friends and neighbors as her life becomes more and more precarious.  This could have been a book filled with negatives and bitterness.  Instead, it is a book about extraordinary people:  Her parents who tried for years to become legal in a broken system; the neighbors who stepped up when they saw a need to help even when they themselves were struggling; classmates and friends who banded together to form a support system and Diane herself, who was forced to assume many adult roles even though she was still a child.

Whatever side of the immigration debate you are on, this is a book that should be read by everyone.  It is important to hear individual stories to understand the faces behind the numbers and to understand how human resilience and love can empower a young girl left behind on her own at a vulnerable age to achieve her dreams.

The Jaguar's Children by John Vaillant

This is an incredible book.  The story takes place mainly inside a converted water truck that coyotes use to smuggle migrants into the United States.  We meet Héctor, who acts as the narrator of the story.  As the water truck trundles toward the American border, something goes wrong with the engine.  The truck is packed with migrants and throughout the book, we realize the increasingly horrendous conditions within the truck.  They coyotes have left the truck and promise to return with a mechanic. 

As the book progresses, the reader quickly realizes that what the coyotes have actually done is to abandon the truck and the migrants to their fate. There is little hope of rescue as the area is desolate and few people traverse the area.  Héctor narrates his story and that of his friend, César, who is also trapped in the truck.  Early in the novel, César is knocked unconscious in a freak accident and Héctor vows to try to keep him alive. César has entrusted his cell phone to Héctor and, it is through this fragile instrument, that the only lifeline may appear.  Héctor finds one phone number that appears to be in the United States, and he frantically messages an unknown person named AnniMac in the hopes that he, or she, will get the messages and send help.  However, the bars on the phone are unpredictable and, although Héctor diligently tries to communicate, it is unclear if the messages are getting through. 

Héctor begins to ruminate on his life and the series of events that brought César and him to this precarious place.  The last third of the book holds many secrets that are revealed and the plot takes a twist.  In the times we live, this is a book that should be a must-read for people interested in migrants and the migrant crises.  The reader truly sees the migrants as human beings trapped in an untenable situation and also explores what humans will do to stay alive.  It is a book that stays with the reader long after the last page is read.

The Unquiet Dead by Ausma Zehanat Khan

Although this book is called a mystery, it is so much more than that.  This is a book that everyone should read.  It is a testament to why evil must not be allowed to exist and why no one, nations included, should be allowed to stand by and do nothing and let something like the Bosnian Muslim massacres happen again.  This is a difficult novel to read in that each chapter begins with a quote, a quote that is referenced in the Notes section as being parts of the actual testimony of survivors of the massacres.  These are real people who lived through unimaginable horrors; mothers looking for lost children, husbands searching for wives, and everyone looking for someone who was brutally murdered for no other reason than their religion.  It is a story that grapples with the question of how people who were once neighbors turned upon children, boys, mothers, and fathers.  It is, however, also a story of hope and the conviction that justice, not revenge, must prevail. 

The Unquiet Dead by Ausma Zehanat Khan is the first book in a series.  The novel is set in Canada and has two main detectives.  Esa Khattak is a second-generation Canadian Muslim and Rachel Getty, a somewhat awkward woman, who nevertheless is invaluable to Khattak as she has a passion for the truth, no matter how painful that truth may be.  Khattak has been given charge of the new Community Policing Section, a department formed to deal with sensitive issues involving minorities, including refugees.  Khattak and Getty are puzzled when they are called to investigate the death of Christopher Drayton.  Drayton fell from the cliffs and it is first assumed to be an accident.  Evidence soon comes to light that seem to point to Drayton in actuality being Lt. Colonel Dražen Kristić, a man who was directly involved in the planning and execution of over 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys.  Khattak and Getty must probe the painful memories of survivors to see if the traumatic events did have a bearing on the death or if a more current issue drove someone to push Drayton over the cliffs.

Series in order:

                               

 

Note:  A Death in Sarajevo is a novella and is available in eBook format only at this time.

For more information about the author and her books, please visit 

Ausma Zehanat Khan's website.

The White Road by Sarah Lotz

Although I don’t normally recommend books with unlikable main characters, I found The White Road to be one of those books that I couldn’t put down.   This is a book that you think you’re only going to read one more chapter before you go to sleep, and then you find out it’s 2 hours later and you have to get up for work soon!   The main character, Simon Newman, is really a hateful character, but he’s like a car crash from which you can’t seem to look away.

Simon is an adrenaline junkie who also seems to be a pretty useless human being.  When the new website that he and his friend host is not exactly causing advertisers to start dropping money in their laps, Simon decides to explore the notorious Cwm Pot caves in Wales.  Enlisting the help of a thoroughly creepy guide, Simon has a hidden agenda.  He wants to photograph the bodies of a group of young men who were trapped and died in a previous caving adventure.  (Okay, right there, the “I really don’t like this guy” crept into my thoughts.)  

Barely surviving this ordeal, Simon’s footage goes viral, and his fame and advertising revenue seems assured.  Soon, however, Simon needs another escapade to keep the excitement going and, ignoring his own precarious mental state, he agrees at the last minute to join a group who are attempting to summit on Everest. Throughout the trip Simon senses a malevolent presence that he isn’t sure is real or is a product of his own deteriorating sanity.  Simon becomes involved with other members of the expedition, including one man who is desperate to find the body of his mother who disappeared on Everest years ago.  All the while, the entity seems to haunt Simon, whether in reality or his deteriorating mind, he’s not sure.

A big part of the suspense is because you’re never sure if Simon is a reliable or unreliable narrator.  Can you believe what he’s reporting or is he hallucinating or, even more troubling, is he deliberately misrepresenting events?    The stark beauty and power of the caves and the mountains add dimension as they become almost characters in their own right.  It is truly a book that is hard to put down. Highly recommended.

Exit West by Mohsin Hamid

Exit West is a truly amazing book that is so very timely.  Although it’s a slim book at 231 pages, it’s not a fast read.  It’s a book to savor and mull over and over. I read this about a month ago and I’m still thinking about passages that particularly struck a chord with me. The novel is set in a country that is about to explode into civil war.  Nadia and Saeed are the main characters. Both are Muslim, but neither is devout.  They begin to meet in secret and soon their world begins to crumble. Saeed’s father is a widower, his wife falling victim to the violence of the streets. Saeed lives with this father and becomes responsible for his well-being.   When conditions become extreme, they begin to hear whisperings about secret doors that just randomly appear; doors that have the ability to whisk people to other, safer parts of the world.  Of course, the safer parts aren’t thrilled about the influx of refugees who begin coming through the doors.  Also, passage through the doors comes at a price, not the least being the money it costs for the door guides.  It’s a book about culture, class, immigration, resistance, identity, loss of identity and so much more.  

Born a Crime: stories from a South African childhood

I recently finished the book Born a Crime:  stories from a South African childhood by Trevor Noah.  It’s an incredible book and one which, if you only read one nonfiction book this year, you need to read this.   Basically, the book is about growing up under apartheid in South Africa.  Trevor Noah was born mixed-race. He was born to a black Xhosa mother and a white Swiss father.  Under apartheid, this was a crime.  Trevor struggles to find his place in a world in which he never truly feels that he belongs.  His mother is a very strong woman who is determined to save him from the poverty and abuse that have often dominated her life.

When I first started reading this, I was prepared for a grim and depressing book.  I actually listened to this on audio, and I was blown away by it.  Noah manages to impart the horror of apartheid to be sure, but there are many parts that are laugh-out-loud funny.  It’s a timely book that should resonate with audiences worldwide.  This book earned a starred Booklist review.  

The Lost City of the Monkey God by Douglas Preston

You might know Douglas Preston as a co-author with Lincoln Child of best-selling books such as Brimstone, Crimson Shore and Beyond the Ice Limit.  In his newest book, Preston ventures into nonfiction territory in The Lost city of the Monkey God.  The legend of a lost city someplace in the rugged interior of Honduras has been around for ages. (It has often been called The White City.)   In 2012, Douglas Preston joined a team of scientists to look for this city.  Using highly advanced technology, they identified 3 sites and subsequently explored one of them.  The terrain was so rough, and the jungle so dense, that they had to be dropped by helicopter and made their camp by hacking out the jungle. 

This is a fascinating and well-written book that is as exciting as a fiction adventure novel. Preston talks of the history of the region, the Indigenous people who lived in the area before the invasion by the Conquistadors, the actual search the team conducted and the hardships that needed to be endured.  For example, on page 135, Preston has just set up camp and was heading to his hammock: 

  “On the second circle of the hammock, I froze as my beam passed over a huge snake. It was coiled up on the ground, just to one side of Juan Carlos’s hammock, three feet away from where I stood.”

  He continues on:  “It was staring at me, in striking position, its head swaying back and forth, it’s tongue flicking in and out.  I had walked right past it – twice.”  

YIKES!  I read that just before going to bed and that passage kept me up awhile.

The Lost City of the Monkey God is a great read, both for non-fiction and as cross-over for fiction readers.  I highly recommend it.

The Devil in Spring

I actually listened to the audio version of The Devil in Spring by Lisa Kleypas.  This book brings together some of the characters from two series, The Ravenels and The Wallflowers.  The audio is by Harper Audio and is read by May Jane Wells.  This story concerns Lady Pandora Ravenel who, by virtue of getting her head and body stuck into the carved backing of a chair in a remote garden during a house party, is compromised by Gabriel,  Lord St. Vincent (who just happens to be the son of Sebastian and Evie, last seen in The Devil in Winter.)  Lady Pandora has no intention of marrying anyone as she intends to become a businesswoman and design her own board games, which are just becoming the rage in England and in which she has a surprising talent. Gabriel is appalled to find himself attracted to this unconventional girl who he is sure would make an atrocious wife.

The great thing about all of these books is that they don't take themselves too seriously and the characters all have some quirks.  The dialogue between characters is sharp and witty, such as when the first real conversation alone between Pandora and Gabriel concerns vegetables and his dislike of all things carrot.

These are a good read-alike  Amanda Quick (Jayne Ann Krentz) as these both have unique characters and snappy dialogue.   It's best to read these in series order; however, it's not the end of the world if you don't as you can pick up the previous story threads pretty easily.

 

The Wallflowers                                         

1. Secrets of a Summer Night                                   

2. It Happened One Autumn                                     

3. Devil in Winter                                                      

4. Scandal in Spring

5. A Wallflower Christmas

The Ravenels

1. Cold Hearted Rake
2. Marrying Winterborne
3. Devil in Spring

Welcome!  if you’re like me, it’s always exciting to find a new author.  We’ve all got favorite authors and genres, but I like to explore books that fall outside my usual reading habits.  Some of my favorite reads have happened when I reluctantly picked up a book someone recommended while thinking, “They won’t stop talking about this book.  I'm not going to like it, but I’ll start it, and at least I can say I’ve tried it.”  (Come on, you know we’ve all done that!) Of course, then I’m sometimes surprised by becoming THAT person who can’t stop talking about the book!  That’s the purpose of this blog; to explore new worlds of reading, chat about new authors and just maybe find that perfect read.