The Good Nurse by Charles Graeber

I picked up this page turner on my birthday, while I was away from home at a conference, my traveling companion was busy doing other things, and my family was far away.  I needed something to draw me in and help me forget that I was missing birthday among friends.  I am not sure where I first heard about this, but the minute I saw it on the shelf I knew it would be my birthday present to myself.  I love reading journalistic accounts of real life events.  I am interested and amazed to watch a writer recreate complex events and turn them into elegant narrative despite the fact the he or she was no where near the events of the story. This write especially was able to see and hear and interpret all that happens with his clever imagination and in the eye of his mind. The transformation and writing can be miraculous.

This story of an angel of death, a nurse who begins killing his patients, is a  difficult story to tell for a host of reasons.  Charles Graeber recreates the events of 16 years by reviewing police reports, hospital reports and interviewing the many many people why were involved, even the killer himself. The story is told in an exciting manner, first by following the nurse who is perpetuating the crime, and then by following the police who eventually clue in to his crimes. The difficult mitigating factor is the fact that the hospital was fighting the police who were investigating the crime. Hospital officials would never be complicit in investigating the system that allowed a nurse to kill multiple patients over and over. How bad would that look for the hospital?

The Good Nurse is a true life crime thriller complete with good guys, bad guys, and real heroes. It is scaring me away from hospitals for the foreseeable future.  Who know how easy it would be to get away with murder? I highly recommend this true crime/hospital drama.  

Gone GIrl by Gillian Flynn

Dear Readers,

So sorry I have been so absent from the book world.  My life has been a confluence of events--way to complicated to go into here that have precluded me from reading much more than the newspaper and cereal boxes.  But I have finished a thrilling, page turning, New York Times best selling book that I wanted to share with you.

You may have heard of Gone Girl. It is on every bookshelf and every list.  A missing woman, a suspicious husband, an elaborate plan.  It has many twists and turns and is the kind of book you can read in a day or if you need to put it down to eat, perhaps a weekend.

My only bit of criticism was that by the end--it did get a bit predictable.  Not totally predictable, but by the last hundred or so pages I could see where the author was going with it.  Disturbing book, great read, perfect for the airplane or beach.  Long wait list at the library--it should be out in paperback soon.

Happy Fall! Enjoy.

January First

Wow!  Captivating story of a father whose small child exhibits symptoms and is eventually diagnosed as schizophrenic.  Michael Schofield takes us through about three years in the life of his family as they grapple with his severely disturbed daughter and all the ups and downs of caring for someone you love who causes you so much pain. 

I could not put this story down. I turned the pages to find out if they ever felt relief, if they ever got a correct diagnosis, or if they adjusted her medication so that she could be calm and stop hearing voices.  I turned pages to make sure Michael and his wife stayed married and if their son Bodhi survived the onslaught of sister malice.

It was a raw energetic work, and yes, it was written too soon.  The girl in the story January "Jani" Schofield is probably not even 10 years old yet, so I know there is a lot more to this story and I do think given time, a different story might be written.  But in this instance, the recentness of the story, works.  There is a real immediacy that makes my pulse quicken.  This tale needed to be told.  January is one of the youngest children to be diagnosed as schizophrenic.  It does not normally present in children so young.

The author has produced a blog so that interested readers can follow along with  the progress his daughter makes and how is family is coping.  

This is a stunning, gut wrenching, draining story of a father's struggle to maintain his own sanity, keep his family safe and try to do right by his little girl.  I can't recommend it enough.  It was out in print on August 7th so you can probably find it on-line or at your local bookseller.  I am glad to lend mine as well.

Mockingjay

It did not take me long to finish the third book in the trilogy.  Yes, I will say everything that every other reviewer and blogger has stated:  mesmerizing, riveting, horrifying, perfect ending, couldn't put it down and can't wait for that movie.  If you have made it this far--reading the first two--I don't know how you can not finish and not want to know what happens to Katniss and Peeta and Gale and Haymitch and Prim and the Capitol with their beloved Hunger Games.  I read this waiting in line, on breaks at work, and just about everywhere I could squeeze in a paragraph or two.

What is it about exceptional storytelling that leaves a reader so engrossed in a tale that she cannot forget it?  All I want to do is thinking about these characters and this story and all the themes and symbols and implications.  Moreover, I want to write a story as compelling and engrossing as this one.  How did Suzanne Collins do it?  When I read something like this I am humbled: always wanting more, wondering how to become this kind of supreme storyteller.

After a day or two it will fade.  Other stories and life itself will take over.  The tale will recede a bit, and eventually I will pick up other books to try and recreate this feeling.  I guess this is why I read and why I write, to create this feeling of ecstasy over finding other people, other worlds, other ideas.  I read to become absorbed in something other than myself, to learn about the world, to broaden my scope of understanding.

I really have to remind myself that I often stumble across inspiration and fabulous storytelling in the most unlikely of places.  Several good friends and avid readers had recommended these stories to me, and I waved them all off. The topic sounded too grisly:  children put in an arena to kill each other off!  Not my cup of tea. That is what has made this reading experience doubly good.  I did not expect to be so captivated by this tale.

Thanks Suzanne Collins.  Looking forward to your next adventure.

When Katie Wakes by Connie May Fowler

This book (a memoir) was a Christmas gift from my in-laws who saw Connie May Fowler speak and stopped to get a signed copy for me.  The lovely autograph and well wishes make the book all the more special.   I began reading it right away and was immediately drawn in.  Fowler is a superb writer and has a knack for  creating suspense.  I especially loved how she used present tense and second person to create this voice that put me right in the middle of every scene.

Since the book is a memoir and by the pictures on the cover we know that the writer is fine and happy, we guess that this memoir, as terrible and grim as it gets must have a happy ending.  The suspense becomes how will she finally develop some self esteem and extricate herself from this horrible abusive relationship? How will she transform herself into the writer that she is today?   I loved reading her story and understanding how it happened. She painted the picture so vividly and perfectly that I can hear the surf on the beach in Florida and smell the exhaust from the Audi as it drives away.  I cry over her inability to leave and get help and rejoice when she finally does.  Painful but uplifting. Certainly hard to read, but such a great voice and beautiful story that it was worth it.

Ms Fowler's book Before Women had Wings was chosen as an Oprah selection a few years ago and from the acknowledgements in Fowler's memoir it seems Oprah may have had some influence over her writing this memoir.  Oprah has a knack for spotting talent.  

I am going to find Before Women had Wings which I am pretty sure I own but never read before.  Watch for a review.

Breaking Night by Liz Murray

Breaking Night: 

Urban slang for staying up 

through the night until the sun rises.

Breaking Night by Liz Murray is rightly being compared to Jeannette Walls gripping account of her rise out of poverty in The Glass Castle.  Both memoirs feature a harrowing tale of a childhood in hell, and how each woman manages to pull herself up out of despair and create a life for themselves.

Even though these tales are similar, Breaking Night does feel new and fresh and original as Liz Murray does a great job of telling her own very authentic tale.

Recently, I read a memoir writing book that cautioned the writer never to  paint oneself as a victim. It is more important to tell your story with regard to your own truth, but never let it devolve into self-pity. Liz Murray has painted herself as an authentic believable human who has overcome seemingly insurmountable obstacles  in rising from living on the streets and rejecting all formal schooling, to finishing school and being accepted at Harvard.  One of the most touching scenes I have ever read comes after a newspaper story of her is printed, men and women from all over the country come to her and offer to help.  A wall she had built for herself between us and them came toppling down.  She could not believe the generosity of people who she had never even met.

Equally as touching are the scenes she paints with her mother.  Even though her mother was an addict and refused to care for her children in any of the ways that we have come to regard as normal parenting, Liz loves her mother.  Liz's mom, in her own screwed up way, loves her right back. I loved that I always understood that.  As a reader, I never hated her parents, even though plenty of people probably should.  

Just as The Glass Castle kept me turning pages so did Breaking Night.  Don't be fooled into thinking this is the same story though. It is very different and very much worth the read.  Liz Murray has gone on to become a motivational speaker and owns a company which encourages people to be all they can be.  An important message for any of us.

A fine first novel

Thanks to the recommendation of a friend and fellow reader (thanks M.) , I decided to check out The Outlander by Gil Adamson. Ms. Adamson is a poet by trade, so I figured that her prose would be magical. I find most poets know how to string words of prose together better than any writer. They have a real sense of rhythm and timing and cadence.

A widow is on the run from some menacing brothers after committing a crime. She manages to elude them and have some great adventures and find peace and contentment in a mining camp. She falls in love, makes great friends, and contemplates her sad childhood and even sadder marriage.

M summed my feelings for the book best when she said, "you just feel as though you want to keep following her on her adventure." You want to know what happens next. How will the widow escape? Will her true love find her? What lies in wait for her and the dwarf (yes, there is even a dwarf) as they head further west into the Yukon?

This is a perfect escapist read. A page turner and adventure about a strong woman and a very different time. Oh, and Ms Adamson's prose is like poetry. Every page feels perfectly narrated and perfectly told.

I don't read much fiction anymore, but I am very glad I took the time out for this one. It will stay with me for a long long time.