Shades of Grey

We accidentally read the second book in this planned trilogy first: Red Side Story, but after reading Shades of Grey (#1268) by Jasper Fforde, much is explained that we missed the first time around.  It's social satire at its best, so it really would make sense to read them in order.

Edward Russett is a young man on the cusp of discovering the strength of his color perception.  The Ishihara will determine what your role in the community will be, who you are eligible to marry and other key factors.  Once tested, the results cannot be changed.  But Eddie's father has taken on a temporary assignment in East Carmine, far from home, and his life is turned upside down.  Eddie is a Red, which in the color hierarchy is looked down upon by the Yellows and especially the Purples.  But to be fair, everyone looks down on the Greys, the class which performs all the meaningful work in society.  It doesn't take Eddie long to figure out who in East Carmine to be wary of, and who to cultivate.

When Eddie falls hard for a Grey, Jane, a totally unsuitable attachment (He is, after all, half promised to an Oxblood back in Vermillion, a big step up chromatically.) he begins to question many of the rules governing their lives.  Why must things be done a certain way?  And why are huge swathes of the past routinely eradicated?  And that's a problem by itself, one which those above him socially are determined to eliminate.  Can Eddie survive to make it to the second book?  You'll have to read it for yourself to find out.

Where does Jasper Fforde come up with these ideas?

Spirit Crossing

The title Spirit Crossing (#1,267) by William Kent Krueger is a clever play on themes in this Cork O'Connor mystery.  

One thread follows the protests against an oil pipeline construction across a river in virgin North Woods territory named Spirit Crossing.  It is a sacred place to the various indigenous tribes in the area. Others object to the despoilation of the pristine area.  The clashes between the protesters and the police have gotten quite heated, and right in the thick of it is Cork's son Steven and his fiancé.

Another thread concerns Cork's seven-year-old grandson Waaboo.  On a family outing to pick blueberries at a secret patch, Waaboo is seen talking to someone who isn't there.  But her grave is concealed in the blueberry patch, and he feels her presence.  When the police excavate a young female body, the hope is initially that it is a missing senator's daughter, but the remains are identified as Native.  Although the FBI loses interest, unfortunately, the discovery puts Waaboo in the crosshairs of a killer.

Yet another thread involves Annie, Cork's daughter who has been living in Guatemala for years.  She's home for her brother's wedding, but she comes with her own dark secret.

Love and loss, care of people and places, the dark "othering" of those who are different are all intertwined in this moving mystery.

William Kent Krueger is one of the best American writers today.  It you've never read any of his books, you should definitely add him to your "To Read" list!

Dog Day Afternoon

Andy Carpenter manages to keep everyone guessing about his client's guilt or innocence right up until the end again in David Rosenfeldt's Dog Day Afternoon (#1,266).  As reluctant as Andy is to take on yet another new client, when Marcus Clark asks him to do it as a favor for him, how can Andy refuse?  Marcus has kept him alive on a number of occasions in order to be able to continue his law practice.

Everything in the case against Nick Williams points directly to him as the gunman in a horrific mass shooting at a law office.  The only problem is that Nick claims that he remembers nothing from the time he left the back door of his apartment to go to work until he wakes up chained to a wall in a deserted building for several days.  Marcus has mentored this young man and he believes he was set up to take the fall for the murders.  All he needs is to have Andy prove it...

Oh, and of course there's a dog named Daisy involved!  A golden retriever, so how can Andy resist?

Another fun outing with an ending I did not see coming.

On Call - A Doctor's Journey in Public Service

It's amazing how much I've forgotten about the course of public health events over the last fifty or so years which affected all of our lives in American and beyond.  Dr. Anthony S. Fauci played a key role in influencing the outcomes of a surprising number of crises.  He was the right man in the right place at the right time, as he is first to acknowledge in his memoir On Call - A Doctor's Journey in Public Service (#1,265).

I was impressed by a number of things in Dr. Fauci's book; his incredible work ethic, stamina and willingness to get his hands dirty by continuing his patient-centered work.  And always in the background, his faith and his family.  Not least, Dr. Fauci was able to explain complex scientific concepts in a way that was easily comprehensible to a lay reader.  No wonder he was sought after as a teacher and mentor.

His book inspired my admiration for the man.  I was surprised recently when reading Stephanie Grisham's White House tell-all at the energy she employed at lashing out at him personally during the Covid debacle.  All I could think of was that it must be difficult to be around someone who possesses integrity when you have none.

If you doubt there are still good people out there, read On Call.  Your faith in humanity will be restored, and you'll learn a few things along the way.  Highly recommended.

The Ministry of Time

Kaliane Bradley's science fiction novel, The Ministry Of Time (#1,264) got a lot of buzz before being published, so I was anxious to read it.  The premise is that the unnamed protagonist works for the British government in the near future as a "bridge" - someone assigned to a person from the past brought through a time portal to the present day.  The job of the bridge is to ease their subject, known by the year from which they came, into modern life.  Our bridge's assignment is a real person - an Arctic explorer lost on a British naval expedition in 1848.

As the novel progresses, she begins to have doubts about the morality of this experiment and her own role in it.  Just what will the government do with the knowledge it is gleaning?  Is she willing to go along with it?

It's an interesting premise, but I'm not sure how I feel about its execution.  But if it gets the reader interested in polar explorations, I guess it has accomplished a worthy purpose.  You'll have to read it for yourself.

The Good, The Bad and The Aunties

In The Good, The Bad and the Aunties (#1,263) the third outing in this entertaining series by Jesse Q. Sutanto, Meddy has finally married her handsome husband, and reluctantly cuts short their European honeymoon to rendezvous with her mother and aunties as they visit family back home in Jakarta, Indonesia.  As delightful as the visit to introduce her husband to a cast of seemingly thousands of cousins is, a surprising side to one of her aunties is revealed as an old sweetheart appears to woo his childhood sweetheart at traditional New Year's celebrations.

But of course, nothing can go smoothly!  It seems he's a highly connected "businessman" who inadvertently involves Meddy's family in a life-and-death situation.  Can Meddy come to the rescue in time?

A mystery, a comedy, and sadly, the final installment in this charming series.  But what a way to end things.  It's sure put Jakarta on my list of places to see before I die!

I'll Take Your Questions Now

 As I was reading Stephanie Grisham's memoir I'll Take Your Questions Now - What I Saw at the Trump White House (#1,262) I couldn't quite figure out what Ms. Grisham's point was in writing this book: revenge? self-justification? guilt? money?  Maybe a blend of all of the above?

Did I learn anything new from this book?  Not really.  Just that Melania Trump sleeps a lot and can't be bothered with anything that doesn't directly forward her own interests.  Apparently, Donald Trump is just as mercurial and angry as he has been portrayed by the mainstream media, despite Ms. Grisham's claim that they don't give him credit for all the good work he's done.

Power and money.  That's all anyone in Trump world cares about.  I'm sorry the sale of this electronic copy contributed to Ms. Grisham's pockets.

A Most Agreeable Murder

I had been saving Julia Seales' debut novel A Most Agreeable Murder (#1,261) as a special treat.  Reader, I was most disagreeably disappointed.  It promised a Regency romance style murder mystery with an enticing cover.  The contents, sad to say, did not quite measure up.

I think Ms. Seales tried too hard.  The results came across as "cutsie" rather than tongue in cheek with "fainties" and "squelchies" in a fairytale setting.  A younger sister as an unidentified werewolf?  The only weather in the village was rain and violent hailstorms?  A proper young lady whose sole ambition was to solve murders?  The parents as caricatures of the senior Bennetts?  It was all a bit much for my taste.

It might be perfect for some readers, but I am not one.

The Paranormal Ranger

I read Stanley Milford Jr.'s book The Paranormal Ranger - A Navajo Investigator's Search for the Unexplained (#1,260) with a great deal of interest.  Acting as a law enforcement officer, Milford and his partner were assigned to investigate incidents and complaints in the Navajo Nation which could not be explained by normal methods.

Being raised by a Navajo father in the summers and receiving a traditional Western education where he lived with his mother enabled Milford to embrace both sides of his cultural heritage including the acceptance of a spirit world.  He writes about the Navajo creation myth and its influence to explain some of the uncanny things he came across.  That is really the part of the book I found most interesting.  It built on bits and pieces I have learned about the Navajo way of life from the popular Tony and Anne Hillerman novels.

Some of what I read surprised me - I knew about witches and Skinwalkers, but I had not realized that Big Foot and UFO sightings were not uncommon in this part of the world.  Since Stanley Milford Jr. had had a number of these experiences himself, it put him in a position to respond to similar sightings across the vast Navajo Nation and take these occurrences seriously.  He was in a unique position to make these people reporting odd things feel heard and seen.

It's a thoughtful presentation of one man's experiences with the unknown from a culturally different perspective.  Definitely worth a read with an open mind.