Black Echo by Michael Connelly

So, let's talk about Harry Bosch. I first got into this because of the Amazon original series, Bosch. One of my friends recommended that I watch it when I needed something to watch in the (limited) downtime that I had and boy were they ever right. I don't know if  it's because I have a thing for the actor that plays Bosch - he nails the role - or just a thing for cops but it hooked me. I also really love True Crime and crime books in general so this seemed like a complete natural for me.

For those of you that don't know, the main character is Harry Bosch, a Vietnam war vet and tunnel rat. We are introduced to him in this book and he, in his current iteration, is a homicide detective with the LAPD. In this particular book, the death of a fellow tunnel rat has drawn Bosch's attention. Bosch thinks it's tied to a robbery that uses underground tunnels.

I don't want to give away too much more of the plot because that's the whole point of crime fiction right?  But the character of Bosch is so attractive to me.  He's so multi-layered. He's a loner that wants some company and loves jazz and good art and can shoot a gun and doesn't give a frig about anything (at least on the surface! Deep down I'm convinced he's a softy). And ultimately, he's one of THE most realistic and perfectly flawed protagonists I've ever seen and I love him and Michael Connelly for creating him like this. I loved that Connelly knew enough about police work to be able to combine the differences in police and state procedurals and do so in a way that wasn't heavy handed at all.  There is also humor in this novel in spite of the ultimately very serious subject matter but it's dry and subtle and I really believe you have to be in the know to get it.

I'm already reading the second book in the series. SO good. Grab it!

Farenheit 451 by Ray Badbury

I have always had a thing for dystopian fiction, dating back to middle school when we had to read Animal Farm by George Orwell (8th Grade honors English - Mr. Borman!). I make no bones about it - The Handmaid's Tale by Atwood is one of my favorite books of all time. These dark books always fascinated me in some deep way.  I remember reading Farenheit 451 as well but thought that it warranted a re-read, particularly in the troubling times that we currently live in, so I picked it up again.

For those of you that don't know, Ray Bradbury wrote and had this book published in 1953. Bradbury is writing about a society that looks to be American at some point in the near future. In this society, books are outlawed and firemen are the people that go out and burn the books that are found in the hopes that society will eradicate them. The protagonist is Guy Montag, a fireman who becomes severely disillusioned with his role of burning books and with the banning of books to begin with.

I can see why people love this book:  it takes on themes of voyeurism, censorship and what it means to be a "true believer" in a job.  It also takes on themes of government thought control and groupthink at its worst.  In the period when it was written - right after the Nazis and World War II - I think that these things were very much on people's minds in a different context then they are now.  I think that then, Americans were likely to read the book and apply it to the people "over there" in Europe, across the ocean, who had let themselves be swayed by Mussolini or Hitler, whereas I think today people may read this book and internalize it to America more.

The measure of a brilliant book, in my mind, is a book that you can read at different points in your life but which is still relevant today and which you can read and re-read at various points in your life, yet still take something away.  Farenheit 451 is one of those books.  In 1953 when it came out, it acted as a tool in which to discuss the political occurrences and a terrible war that occurred overseas. And yet, it is still as relevant today as it was back then.  It is a brilliant tool with which to discuss the themes and challenges that we have on both macro and micro levels of our own society.  And that is why it such an important and magnificent work.

Kudos Mr. Bradbury.  May your book be read continuously by future generations.  

Why Shopping Local is a Value I Have

I know that this isn't strictly a review, but it's tangentially related, I promise. On Thursday, I went to an amazing and inspiring event at the LaBelle Winery in Amherst, NH. It was called "She Built This" and was put on by Kristen Hardwick (the badass photographer that took our photos for my real life job) - and Emily Aborn.  This was the second annual panel discussion featuring three female entrepreneurs.  This year, the panelists were Rebecca Hamilton (who owns Badger Balm and Machina Arts), Jennifer Desrosiers (who owns Laney and Lu) and Jessica Terzakis.  Jennifer also owns an adventure company.

It was such a good event and while there, I saw one of my favorite vendors - Her Tribe Athletics.

Anyways it got me really thinking about the importance of supporting local vendors and local businesses.  Whenever I go to a new city, I really make an effort to visit a local bookstore and buy something.  And I actually really feel good about doing so because, on some level, while I did realize how much of a help that one purchase may be, I don't think I truly appreciated the blood, sweat and tears that went into creating this business.  There's a certain drive and commitment that it takes to do something like this and rewarding  person with my business, especially another woman, is vitally important to me.

On that note, I wanted to say the following:  I love Her Tribe Athletics.  I buy from her as much as I can. I love her clothing. I love her messaging, and she's at all the races that I run. Rock on sistah!

Over the last few months I have had to access local services and I can't say enough of them. My car needed some work lately and I utilized Merrimack Auto Center.  I left a message requesting an appointment - I suspected there were  brake issues - and they got me in first thing on a Monday morning and I had a car that felt like new that afternoon.  They were the true consummate professionals (and had two VERY sweet dogs that I got to love on while I waited!). The second service I had to utilize was when my fridge started to go - I needed someone to come in to take a look at and repair it.  I used Derry Repair - Fred came out after his sweet wife scheduled the appointment for me and my fridge was good to go right after. Fred was the type of repair person that I would trust to come into my home for all of my appliance repairs when I wasn't home.  He was quick, affordable and I have no issues to date.

It's so important to support your neighbors.  

Sabrina and Corina by Kali Fajardo-Anstine

Who says that Young Adult books aren't good and shouldn't be read by actual adults?  If anyone, then they are flat out wrong and this is one of the books that proves that.

This is a debut short story collection about Hispanic or Native American Women, or both, living in Denver, Colorado (which is a character of each story in and of itself!) - 11 stories in all. All of these women seemed so real that I honestly thought, initially, that these short stories were memoir based and were about real experiences that Fajardo-Anstine had herself!  I also think that, in large part, many of the plots are so real life that we've either lived some version ourselves or know someone that has lived it. 

For instance, in the title story, we learn about the close relationship and then falling out of two cousins: Sabrina and Corina and the struggles that one of them has with alcohol and substances. We all know or have experienced this: “By our mid-twenties, I saw Sabrina less and less. She worked nights. I worked days. She moved a few times and I lost track of her addresses, the names of her friends, the men she dated, the bars she tended. She rarely went to family dinners, but when she did, she was puffy-eyed and sallow-skinned, her slinky tops always falling off her shoulders."   But we haven't experienced was having to do that same cousin's makeup for her wake. 

I loved how Ms. Fajardo-Anstine takes on and writes about such hard things in such a matter of fact and yet beautifully delicate way that you can't help but just sigh even when the experiences are so bleak. I grew to admire the women that she wrote about because they prevailed in spite of or simply because of it all and had an inner strength, a grit, that most people don't have. Definitely well worth the time to read this book - the multiple times I read this book 

Nickel Boys By Colson Whitehead

The first book I read by Colson Whitehead was Sag Harbor and it was because I too spent loads of time in Sag Harbor, but not the area that Colson did. Even way back then, when he was brand new, I was intoxicated by his writing and I still am. I was so proud of him when he was winning prizes for The Underground Railroad, but I honestly liked earlier novels by him better (although his foray into the Zombie apocalypse was surprising).

Nickel Boys is h is most recent book and it's making waves, exactly as it should. It is based on a school that actually existed in Florida called the Dozier School and the novel itself focuses on acts of abuse that occurs at the fictionalized version of the school, the Nickel School. The Dozier School was operated for about a century before it closed after it had been exposed as a den of torture for the young boys that went there. Whitehead's novel opens with an announcement similar to one that occurred in real life with regards to the Dozier School: that the State of Florida was going to excavate the school grounds for more bodies buried in unmarked graves. In Nickel Boys, students have found numerous bodies with caved in skulls, buckshot marks and other severe injuries that lead to much suspicion and more heartache, particularly for the boys that survived the torture meted out at the school.

The hero of the novel is a boy named Elwood Curtis, a teenager who lives alone with his mother and is one of the most earnest characters that I have ever come across. He is smart and hard working and (of course) has his future brightly before him.  Elwood is a very earnest student of the Civil Rights Movement and MLK, Jr. in particular. He loves the Civil Rights movement so much that a record of a speech given by MLK, Jr. is his most prized possession and he plays it repeatedly much like another boy his age would play music records.

But Elwood is also really naive.  He's so naive that he almost can't see what is in front of him and why a Civil Rights Movement is so necessary in the first place.  He can't seem to figure out that his moral compass is not shared by the vast majority of people living in the South at this time. Nowhere is this naivete more present then when Elwood is arrested on very flimsy evidence, he's sentenced to the Elwood School and he clings to the belief that the law is going to prevail and his white lawyer will help him.

Elwood's reactions to the systemically horrific abuse is actually more of a focus than the actual abuse itself (although these acts play major roles as well, if just to cause Elwood's reaction). I don't feel that I can get into too much more here without revealing spoilers but I really liked it.

I liked this book much more than Whitehead's other novels, even The Underground Railroad.  It feels more real world and is something that I think people can envision more since the Civil Rights Movement and the abuses that it dealt with are still relatively new in our history.  It also is more scary and difficult in that same vein.  It systematically takes apart not only our hopes about changing the future but really challenges MLK and his theory of love.

You have to read this book. Hands down one of the best books of the year.