Fiction: Mystery, Crime
A Body of Water by Rhys Dylan
Publisher’s Description: “When a delivery driver stumbles across the dead body of a reclusive author in a remote area within a stone’s throw of the Llyn Brianne dam, his first thoughts are that the elderly man has had a heart attack. But the knife sticking out of the corpse’s chest tells a different story.
Why would anyone target such a defenseless victim? That’s the first problem DCI Evan Warlow has to solve when he and his team arrive to investigate. But soon, some missing walkers, a secretive cult, and the unwelcome presence of paranormal-hunting podcasters all add to the team’s woes. But the killer is abroad and has already ended one innocent life. If Warlow can’t peel away the layers to get to the rotten heart of the case and quickly, more deaths are sure to follow.”
I have now exhausted all the books in the BLACK BEACONS MURDER SERIES (also known as DCI Evan Warlow) that our public library owns – I will need to purchase the rest of the books. I LOVE THIS SERIES!
WINNER OF THE 2024 PULITZER PRIZE FOR GENERAL NON-FICTION
A Day in the Life of Abed Salama: Anatomy of a Jerusalem Tragedy by Nathan Thrall
NOTE: *The author, Nathan Thrall is a Jewish American journalist based in Jerusalem. He has written an academic analysis of the Arab Israeli conflict and is a former senior analyst at the NGO International Crisis Group. Thrall writes regularly for international publications including the New York Times, the Guardian and the New York Review of Books.
Published a year before the Hamas attacks and Israeli retaliatory strikes, this revelatory history forces readers to look at the numerous and horrifying iniquities that the Arab inhabitants of the West Bank are forced to endure.
On a poorly maintained stretch of highway, a bus carrying Palestinian Kindergarteners was hit by a semitruck, overturned, and burned, killing or injuring many of those on board. Thrall used this tragedy to illustrate the greater and more complex tragedy of Israel and Palestine. In retelling the history of the bus accident, we can see the way that politics seeps into every aspect of the lives of Palestinians.
In A Day in the Life of Abed Salama, Thrall goes deeper into Salama’s personal life, and then branches out into the other families’ stories. All the families are brought together by the accident – although, of course, one of the book’s clear underlying messages is that this tragedy was not an accident, but rather the result of a deliberate policy of apartheid in which the Israelis sought to make every aspect of Palestinian life more difficult and dangerous. Israel’s dominance of Palestinian lives is presented as absolute– Palestinians are treated as problems to be solved by walls, “passes”, limited transportation, eviction, and military checkpoints.
Especially depressing is the hatred Israelis expressed towards the Kindergarten victims. Israelis, including Middle and High School students, posted on social media their pleasure in the deaths of the Kindergarteners. When interviewed by a television reporter they proudly repeated their hateful words which few Israeli citizens condemned.
Now, after Hamas’s brutal attacks on Israeli civilians and the response from the Israeli government, life on both sides of the divide looks unimaginably bleaker. It is difficult to recommend reading this book against such a backdrop, but A Day in the Life of Abed Salama provides just the sort of compassion and understanding that is needed at a time like this. This look at the Israel/Palestine conflict is unflinching and clear. At a time when facts have become weapons in this seemingly endless conflict, this is a book that speaks with authenticity about the truth of ordinary lives trapped in an unending cycle of suppression and violence.
Nonfiction: History, Law, Politics
The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage by Jonathan Turley
We live in an Age of Rage. But it is not the first. The history of the United States is a history of rhetoric originating with the anger of groups of the American people with their government. The government’s reaction was usually an attempt to suppress this speech.
“Rage is a form of speech, and like all expression, it is a matter of both interpretation and perspective.”
This book is a “march” through all the ages of American fury in sections that include: The Boston Tea Party and America’s Birth in Rage; The Whiskey Rebellion; Lincoln and the Copperheads; Comstock and the Obscenity of Dissent; Sedition in World War I; Race, Rhetoric, and Rebellion in the 1960s; Antifa, MAGA; and January 6th.
“Rage captures a crisis of faith within a system. It signals a fundamental break with not only the status quo but also with conventional discourse.”
Turley makes a passionate argument for free speech, not just because it is essential for a functioning democracy, but because it is a fundamental and basic, human freedom. Turley's bottom line is that freedom of thought and speech is the very basis of democracy, of human rights. He provides a framework of understanding speech beyond its importance to public discourse and his enthusiasm for speech rights is evident.
“Rage is not what defines us. It is free speech that defines us.”
However, I differ from Turley in his view on the January 6 riot. And even after reading the book, I'm not entirely clear on where he draws a line between free speech and criminal conspiracy to incite a riot.
I recommend The Indispensable Right to anyone who wants to learn about the history of American free speech and why it is important.
Books by the Beach Book Club: International Fiction (Venezuela)
It Would Be Night in Caracas by Karina Sainz Borgo, Elizabeth Bryer (Translator)
“In this country, no one rests in peace. No one.”
A young woman, Adelaida, is an editor who works online. Her mother has just died and Adelaida has used up most of her money buying her mother’s medication on the black market – the only way she could get it. She had no idea if they were real drugs on not, but what else could she do? Almost no one comes to the funeral because cemeteries are unsafe places. She worries that her mother’s body will be dug up immediately so people can steal her clothes and jewelry.
Adelaida lives alone in an apartment in the heart of Caracas, so she has a bird’s eye view of the daily chaos. No one can go out after 6 pm because of the rampant crime. Kids can’t leave their houses to go to playgrounds. She hears gunshots every day and bursts of fire from automatic weapons. Anti-government demonstrations are so frequent that she has taped the edges of her windows to prevent tear gas from getting in.
When looters masquerading as revolutionaries take over her apartment, Adelaida resists and is beaten. It is the beginning of her fight for survival in a country that has disintegrated into violence and anarchy, where citizens are increasingly pitted against each other. But as fate would have it, Adelaida is given a gruesome choice that could secure her escape.
This is a story about grief, about the loss of a home and a whole culture that goes down in brutal violence. Adelaida has abandoned all hope for her country, and while she wants to save herself, she has no idea what to do with her life once she gets out: It's not about getting somewhere, it's about the choice between leaving or dying. This is an important story about why people become refugees.
Fiction: Science Fiction, Fantasy
Martian Time-Slip by Philip K. Dick
Publisher’s Description: “On the arid colony of Mars the only thing more precious than water may be a ten-year-old schizophrenic boy named Manfred Steiner. For although the UN has slated 'anomalous' children for deportation and destruction, other people—especially Supreme Goodmember Arnie Kott of the Water Workers' union—suspect that Manfred's disorder may be a window into the future.
But what sort of future? And what happens to those unfortunates whom Manfred ushers into it? In Martian Time-Slip Philip K. Dick uses power politics and extraterrestrial real estate scams, adultery, and murder to penetrate the mysteries of being and time.”
This book defies easy description. There seem to be mysteries that even the author cannot answer. Why does Manfred see living people as though they are dead? What is “gubbish,” and how is Manfred able to distort the realities of those around him?
These mysteries go unsolved. I was also disappointed with the dialogue. Many times the dialogue didn’t “sound” like the character was speaking but rather just words the author wrote to move the plot. Finally, I found the author’s depiction of women extremely shallow – not surprising given that this book was written in 1964. I know Philip K. Dick is famous, but I felt this book was, in his words - “… a scene of ruin and despair, and of a ponderous, timeless, inertial heaviness.”
Audiobook Fiction: Cozy Mystery
The Murders in Great Diddling by Katarina Bivald
Berit Gardner, a Swedish writer who has living in England for twenty years, has writers’ block. She moves to the village of Great Diddling from London. She bought a small cottage, sight unseen, because she believed the quaint house would provide a fresh start. Every morning, Berit woke up, made a cup of coffee, settled in at her desk, reached for her pens and notepaper, and waited. And waited.
What does it take to kill a person? - Berit wrote the question in her notebook. Berit had just arrived home from a tea party on the lawn at Tawny Hall, which ended when a huge explosion tore apart the Old Library. Reginald Trent, the owner's nephew, lay dead, buried in the shattered glass, shards of wood and scraps of leather. The remnants from the hundreds of books - torn pages, charred and tattered - were floating through the air and landing in trees and bushes.At her desk, Berit looked at the question again - What does it take to kill a person?
After the bombing, Berit’s visits to Tawny Hall and growing friendship with the owner make her determined to solve Reginald's murder. The entire mansion is stuffed full of books in every room on every surface, she is amazed by the extraordinary collection (hoard!) of books. Meanwhile, against her better judgment, Berit is drawn into a bizarre weekend event billed as Great Diddling’s Murder and Book Festival, which villagers believe will bring tourism to their village and is the most humorous part of the book. In the end, Berit does determine what it takes to kill a person, and she exposes the murderer.
Great Diddling is full of eccentric characters, their secrets, and an all-encompassing determination revive their declining village. Central to the village (and the plot) are the thousands of books in Tawny Hall. Throughout The Murders in Great Diddling Berit’s “detective” methods provide little lessons in the process of writing. Plus, she shows possible ways to break through the inertia of writers’ block.
This is the first book in the new Berit Gardner series. There are possibilities for more stories about additional murders and killers in Great Diddling.
Fiction: Dystopia (Ireland)
Prophet Song by Paul Lynch
On a dark, wet evening in Dublin, scientist and mother-of-four Eilish Stack answers her front door to find “police” officers on her step. Two officers from Ireland’s newly formed secret police are here to interrogate her husband, a teachers’ union leader. Her husband answers some questions and the officers leave.
While not worried initially, Eilish’s husband then disappears during a teachers’ protest march. Eilish doesn’t know what has happened to him but learns through someone else that her husband has been arrested under the government’s “Emergency Powers.” He is not allowed a lawyer, she does not know where he is being detained and … she will never see him again. Now Eilish is on her own with four children and a father who suffers from dementia.
Prophet Song depicts the rise of totalitarianism resulting in a civil war, as seen through the eyes of a family with four children. The novel is set in Ireland at an unspecified time but judging from the technology the characters are using it is contemporary. Some reviewers complained about the lack of paragraphs. For me, this is the novel's forte. While reading it felt like I couldn’t stop, there was no break from what was happening. I thought this was probably how Eilish felt, she couldn’t stop what was happening to her family. This is a dark, depressing tale of a possible future. It blends detailed realistic descriptions with the characters’ dreams and snippets of poetry. Prophet Song is worthwhile reading.
Fiction: Humor, Graphic Novel
Your Guide to Not Getting Murdered in a Quaint English Village by Maureen Johnson, Jay Cooper (Illustrator)
Super-Duper-Light-Quick reading! This is a tongue-in-cheek illustrated guide to the countless murderous possibilities lurking behind seemingly peaceful English villages.
Playful in tone, this guide has charming illustrations of the different ways to be murdered while visiting an English village or a manor house. There are also quizzes, just to make sure you know how to avoid getting murdered!
