Review 245: The Guide

The Guide by Peter Heller
My rating: 4 of 5 stars



A continuation of the character Jack from Peter Heller’s previous book: The River. It’s not necessary to read the first book, maybe even better if you haven’t as there is information from the first book that is repeated. But if you did read the first book, you’ll want to read this one.

We find Jack sitting on a small cabin porch nearby a small river, creek really, where he will be a guide to the ultra-rich in their fishing adventure during their time at the Kingfisher Lodge. Jack thinks he could sit here and watch the stream for the rest of his life.

Well, quickly he finds things are a bit “fishy” and not all as they seem. Why the cameras, the fences, and neighbors that are so unfriendly they will either shoot at you or send a raving pack of dogs? Jack is assigned to Alison K, someone nearly perfect for him, except being too famous. She knows how to fish, how to settle and focus, something Jack appreciates. As we get further into the oddness of the compound, Alison wants to know just as much as Jack, what is this place really about? It doesn’t look like it’s fishing and the other cover story of being a detox place isn’t holding much water either.
It was surprising to find the pandemic and coronavirus as part of the plot points in the book. I almost wished it wouldn’t be there, but it did help to add to the tension at a pivotal moment.

I like Heller’s way of describing the setting, I felt myself there in the woods, hearing the birds and the water over the stones. Nearly smelled the pine.

One issue that really bothered me was we had Jack's point of view for nearly the entire book. But then we get moments, mostly near the end when it switches to Alison. A stronger book would have stuck with the one viewpoint. In any case, an improvement over the previous.


Thanks to Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group and NetGalley for an uncorrected electronic advance review copy of this book.

Review 244: Hotel Bosphorus

Hotel Bosphorus by Esmahan Aykol
My rating: 3 of 5 stars



"The first Kati Hirschel murder mystery". Yes, but the book seems to focus more on Kati's life than the murder mystery. We get her life as a bookseller of crime fiction in Istanbul, and being part German she is considered a foreigner, despite living her first 7 years of life there, and the last 13. A friend from school calls out of the blue saying she will be visiting while working on a film in the starring role. It is the next day after arrival the director is found dead in his room. And Kati is curious, gets caught up in trying to figure out who did it. Along the way she is nearly shagging every available guy. At one point Kati just about gives up trying to solve the case, much like the Turkish police. Some of this narrative is very odd.

The book was okay, the English translation may have lost some of the language as it felt stiff and awkward.

Not going to continue the series. Not my usual reading, usually don't read series, and the setting just wasn't strong enough to retain interest to continue.

Review 243: Yale Needs Women

Yale Needs Women by Anne Gardiner Perkins
My rating: 4 of 5 stars



It's surprising to learn that just 50 or so years ago many ivy league universities did not admit women. 1969 was the first year Yale admitted women, but only a few compared to men. The book covers how this first group of women challenged the president of Yale, Kingman Brewster, and the governing body Yale Corporation, to get rid of sex discrimination, and admit students on the basis of merit not sex.

The focus is on just a few of the first women: Shirley Daniels, Kit McClure, Lawrie Mifflin, Connie Royster and Elizabeth Spahn. They aren't the only women detailed, but we keep going back to what these women in the first group admitted to Yale did and how they experienced the university. Such as Kit McClure was the first Yale band member. Laurie Mifflin started a women's field hockey team. We also get the view of Elsa Wasserman, the first administrator to oversee women's education in Yale.

An interesting and informative read!

I received a free copy of this book at a library conference. I was not required to write a review, but felt like it and, of course, the above opinions are my own.

Review 242: Below the Edge of Darkness

Below the Edge of Darkness: A Memoir of Exploring Light and Life in the Deep Sea by Edith Widder
My rating: 4.5 of 5 stars



What a fantastic book about bioluminescent ocean animals and a woman scientist breaking barriers in a mostly male world. Part autobiography, part science the main focus is on the research and exploration of the ocean’s waters and bioluminescent animals in particular.

This is an exciting read with amazing discoveries (yes, the Kraken is real!), disparaging tv documentary teams (slanted science for ratings), and submersible mishaps (although most dives do go well). Widder’s research and how she goes about trying to capture the bioluminescent animals on film and study them in the wild are fascinating tales. The few mishaps that go awry lead to moments of intense reading. And don’t skip the footnotes! They are extra nuggets that usually contain a bit of a joke. I’m not sure when the last science book made me laugh this much.

The book did have message: we have barely explored the ocean waters, which do cover more surface of the earth than land, and we need to do more, much more. Widder juxtaposes ocean explorations and research to space exploration, which gets funding and attention on an extreme scale comparatively. We need to learn more about the animals and environment in the oceans before it’s too late. There’s some really neat stuff down there, we just need to find it!



Thanks to Random House Publishing Group and NetGalley for an uncorrected electronic advance review copy of this book.

Review 241: Turtle Island

Turtle Island by Gary Snyder
My rating: 4 of 5 stars



Not sure why it took me so long to read this small book of poetry.


I do not know enough about poetry, past nor present. It feels like this book of poems was revolutionary in a way, discussing nature and native peoples, but I can’t be certain. It did win a Pulitzer prize in 1975 the year after it came out, so it did get attention and people liked it.

It feels like a book I should have read many years ago. I did now, finally. Owned it for who knows how long, likely ten, no fifteen.


It was recommended to me a long while back, and they were right, something I would enjoy, although I wasn't blown over by the book either. 

There are a few essays in the last portion directly addressing environmental issues, on how to make the world a better place, for the environment mostly, but also on how to be better humans. It feels ancient and still relevant for today. Of course the suggestions would never work, too many people are stuck in the mind set of “Freedom” and “My Rights” and honestly, selfishness. No, too many people think of themselves not of society, at least in the United States. And funny enough in discussing population in the 70s there were too many, should be reduced, now it had nearly doubled, if not more.

Review 240: The Hard Crowd

The Hard Crowd: Essays 2000-2020 by Rachel Kushner
My rating: 3 of 5 stars



Having never read any of Rachel Kushner’s fiction before may have hindered my enjoyment of these essays. Many of them touch on aspects of what inspired or were the foundation of her novels. Most, but not all, of these essays are autobiographical in that they discuss Kushner’s life or people she knew. At times it was a bit tedious for me, but funny enough the last sentences in the last essay touch on this and that acuteness improved the book overall.

Certainly fans of Kushner’s work will enjoy this collection. For myself my favorites were in the beginning, essay “Girl on a Motorcycle” and “In the Company of Truckers”.



Thanks to Scribner and NetGalley for an uncorrected electronic advance review copy of this book.

Review 239: The Rain in Portugal

The Rain in Portugal by Billy Collins
My rating: 5 of 5 stars



Billy Collins makes me want more poetry in my life. His poems invite you in. The poems are relatable and enjoyable. Many have humor where you may actually laugh out loud.

In this collection of poems animals come up quite often, as if a theme. Often it is cats, but there are a few about dogs, turtles appear more than once, there’s an elephant and other animals. From the cats who misbehave to dogs who don’t know what city they reside in, you can be sure an animal is lurking around the next line.

One of my favorite poems in the collection is Traffic. We have all sat in a car, stuck, feeling like everyone including a "family of snails" are travelling faster than you.

I may now have to include a poetry book or two by the bedside table for daily reading.

other read Billy Collins books:

The Trouble With Poetry - Sept.2011

Nine Horses - June.2006

Questions About Angels - January.2003

Sailing Alone Around the Room - Aug.2002

Picnic, Lightning - January 1999

Review 238: Legends of the North Cascades

Legends of the North Cascades by Jonathan Evison
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I’ve been binge watching the television show Alone and this book seemed to fit right in with the theme, wilderness survival. Perhaps I have seen too much of that show as I was a bit critical of the survival methods in this book, but that wasn’t the point. This is about a man, Dave Cartwright, with PTSD from serving too many tours in Iraq. He’s finally done with his service, comes home and his marriage is falling apart. Yet at one point they have a long, long talk and things are better and now they are having a baby.

In the present time for the main story the baby, Bella is seven, nearly eight years old, and they just lost the glue of the family. Dave doesn’t handle this one more loss well and gives up on society, thinks that everyone has everything wrong and what we need is to return to nature, to feel what is real. So he takes his daughter into the mountains, the North Cascades to live. Dave found a cave that is secure, they go to town for supplies and library books.

Meanwhile Bella “hears” or “understands” this life from a long time ago, a woman S’tka and her life, starting as S’tka and her husband were kicked out of the clan. Then she is pregnant. S’tka and her family end up at moments mirroring what is going on with Dave and Bella.

In town, Dave’s brother and family, have a hard time with letting him just go live in the woods with a young girl. A social worker hikes out to visit them, a ranger. Dave’s brother takes custody for a while. There are brief snippets from people in town about what they thought about “Cave Dave”.

The chapters are short, and we have Bella's point of view as well. Having the little bits from the town people ultimately did not add anything to the story. At first, I wasn’t sure where the ancient people’s stories were going, why was it added into the novel, but with the mirroring aspect it does add another layer to the overall story. It has its own tale to tell, about being alone in the world separated from your community and what it takes to survive.


Thanks to Algonquin Books and NetGalley for an uncorrected electronic advance review copy of this book.

Review 237: An Alphabetical Life

An Alphabetical Life: Living It Up in the World of Books by Wendy Werris
My rating: 3 of 5 stars



A book about books, or rather book selling. While some books are mentioned that the author, Wendy Werris, like or enjoyed, there really isn’t any sense of the actual books themselves. So this becomes more a book about selling, and it could be anything really. Although it’s not anything, it’s books and bookstores and occasionally authors.

It starts with her first job, almost as a whim to do something the summer before heading off to college. Werris talks her way into working at a bookstore, Pickwick in Hollywood, one of the family favorite bookstores. She enjoyed the job and the people she worked with so much that she chucked school and stuck with the bookstore job, quickly raising in the ranks with next managing the children’s books.

We get a glimpse into her life growing up, with her father a writer of comedy, writing jokes for people like Johnny Carson and Jackie Gleason. In fact the work with Gleason took him away from the family for months on end caused a lot of issues for young Wendy, which is brought up many times throughout the book. Around 2/3rd the way through there was mention of a sister, and so little was there about her two sisters that I was thinking she was an only child!

I wasn’t thrilled by the writing style or the way Werris would categorize and talk about people, and the structure of the book was a little off at times. It was mostly linear but not entirely so we had this going back and forth in her career that fit the story about a specific person, but made for some confusion on my part. Then we get to the latter part of the book and even more personal for her, when she writes about a late-night intruder who raped her. Now the writing got much better, even the last few chapters seemed to improve. It was almost mirroring her life in some ways, as before she went to counseling to deal with the rape and her “missing” father she found solace in drinking and drugs, and wild spending. After counseling she was better, and so was the writing.

I ended the book enjoying the book much more than the first half, for a little insight into the book industry, although how it was back in the days before big box stores and internet bookstores. The demise of small independents is a sad note in the book industry, but there is hope as some still do exist and not all have gone away.