The Dry by Jane
Harper
When main character Aaron
Falk was a teenager he had to leave his small hometown in Australia because
something horrible happened. Twenty years later he reluctantly returns to
attend his high school best friend, Luke’s funeral. But Luke isn’t the only one dead
as his wife and young son were also found at a bloody scene that implicates Luke as the killer - of his family and himself.
Within a few hours of Aaron's arrival, Luke’s father is threatening Aaron, who is federal officer in Melbourne, with blackmail if he doesn't stay to prove
Luke didn’t kill himself and his family? Blackmail him for for? What happened 20 years ago and why do
the townspeople harbor such hate for Aaron? What, if anything does it have to
do with Luke and his family’s deaths.
Jane Harper's believable small community culture, colorful characters, and unique plot
textures keep the reader off balance, driving a compelling and satisfying
plot. Read it.
What Happened by Hillary
Rodham Clinton
Hillary has written another informative
and interesting book. Much of it is a rehash, albeit fascinating rehash of the
story of her commendable and impressive history of public service and the
disasters and victories that hallmark that history. And much of it is in
defense of the controversies used against her by both Obama and Trump.
If you’ve not read her other
books or books about her, it will be impressive; if you have you may find
yourself wanting to skip thorough chapters. Once you get past everything
leading up to her second bid for the Presidency, much of this book is about the
day-to-day drudgery of the campaign trail, along with surprisingly believable
and touching vignettes featuring her seasoned relationship with Bill Clinton
and her reflections on grandmother-hood.
Unfortunately, although
Clinton very effectively tells us “what happened” during her life, her public
service, and her several election bids, I don’t feel like she tells us “what
happened” in terms of “why” she didn’t win her race against Donald Trump - because she doesn’t really understand herself.
She of course discusses
Russian interference and touches on the undercurrent of “white, male
discontent,” but at the core of it all is the unsettling truth that even hindsight doesn't reveal. It is still simply confounding – to Hillary, to me, to the press,
to the Democratic and Republican Parties, to many voters, and probably even
to Trump.
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval
Noah Harari
When I learned that my BFF in New Mexico, and Keanu Reeves and Bill Gates all loved this book. I knew I had to read it, and
I too couldn't put it down! Why? I can't speak for my BFF, Keanu or Bill, but for me, Sapiens was a fresh and intriguing perspective on human history, un-tinted by religious doctrine and untainted by human arrogance, and certainly a version of the history of Homo Sapiens I’d not heard before.
With the passing of time, perspective is something with which I've become very fond, and this book was a provocative perspective for me, in the same way the book, Women’s Diaries of
the Westward Journey was. Before I
read Diaries most of what I
understood about the westward movement of the mid 1800's was the courage and
determination of the frontiersmen and the savagery of the American Indians. In “Diaries” which was womens’ account of
that same period, families traveling west in covered wagons withstood
horrible conditions, buried their children along the trail, settled in extremely primitive conditions, and never saw their other family members again. Their diaries
also said the frontier families would have never survived without the help of
the Indians, who taught them how to ford rivers and plant corn. A very different
perspective.
Bill Gates’ review of Sapiens is good, and although I don't agree with everything he says, worth sharing (click on read more below).
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