The Best Book I Read This Month: To The Bright Edge of the World by Eowyn Ivey

Eowyn Ivey is becoming one of my favorite writers. I was swept away by her novel The Snow Child and her latest, To the Bright Edge of the World, was equally transporting. Alaska is the center of these stories--its landscape, climate, and ruggedness as much a character in the stories as the people. And both books have dashes of magic and unexplained mysteries, which add color and dimension to the stories. They are, I think, fine examples of magical realism.

To the Bright Edge of the World actually tells three stories: two historical and one modern. All three stories revolve around an 1885 expedition into the Alaskan wilderness, and all are told through diary entries and letters written by the explorer leading the expedition, the wife he left behind, one of the members of the expedition, the explorer's descendant, and the curator of the Alaskan museum who receives the explorer's papers. It sounds like a vast cast of characters--and it is--but they are well described and easy to keep straight.

It did take me a while to find the book's rhythm, though, to become accustomed to the jumping back and forth among the story lines. My biggest struggle was with the two historical story lines, which occur a few months apart but are told as if they are parallel.

Once I found that rhythm, however, I got lost in the story. When I was reading, I literally forgot where I was and what time it was. I found the historical story lines more captivating: the explorer trying to navigate and understand the strange land in which found himself and his wife, trying to navigate being an independent woman in a time and place where such initiative was actively discouraged.

The edition I read included photographs, many of Alaska in the nineteenth century and others that related to the story. They were just as fascinating as the text.

While the book was inspired by a real-life Alaskan expedition, Ivey is clearly telling her own story here--one that is engaging and captivating. It held my attention for all of its 400+ pages, and it was worth every stolen moment I took to read it.

BONUS RECOMMENDATION

If you like mysteries, I cannot recommend Ausma Zehanat Khan's Esa Khattak series enough. It's a new series--the third book just came out--but it's become a favorite. Khattak is a detective with Toronto's Community Policing division, tasked with liaising with the Muslim community and solving crimes connected to that community. He's a quiet, somewhat brooding hero, a man trying to balance his Muslim faith and the demands of his job. The first book, The Unquiet Dead, centers on the Bosnian war. The second, The Language of Secrets, has Khattak racing to stop a homegrown terrorist attack. I had originally borrowed Unquiet Dead from the library but bought a copy for myself before I was halfway through. Now I've cleared a space on my shelves for the series as it grows.

Note: Clicking on a book's cover will take you to the book's Amazon page.

The Best Book I Read This Month: Lady Cop Makes Trouble by Amy Stewart

Confession: nothing I read this month knocked my socks off as much as The Quartet did last month. It's not that I read anything bad (although The Dead Tracks by Tim Weaver came close); just that I didn't read anything spectacular.

My favorite read, though, was Lady Cop Makes Trouble by Amy Stewart. Lady Cop is historical fiction, the second in a series about Constance Kopp, the first female deputy sheriff in New Jersey. I adored the first book in the series--Girl Waits With Gun. It touched on serious issues, but with a light touch and a sense of humor. There was something almost "Keystone Cops" about it.

I had high hopes for the sequel. In some ways, Lady Cop was as good as Girl. The characters of Constance and the sheriff, for example, were satisfying. They grew with the story. The mystery was well-plotted with appropriate twists and turns. The supporting cast--the minor characters--added color to the story and depth to the story's world.

The characters of Constance's sisters were not as satisfying. Norma and Fleurette were fun in the first book, but by the end of this one, they grated and annoyed. Each sister is unique and colorful. However, they stayed in their lanes, rigidly. They reminded me very much of George and Bess in the old Nancy Drew books. The tomboy and the girly-girl, the same in every book, the same strengths, the same flaws, no growth as people or characters. Constance's sisters felt just like that. While their lives in this book had broadened since Book 1, it didn't seem like they'd changed as a result of those wider experiences. And while Lady Cop had the same light touch as Girl, it lacked the "Keystone Cops" humor of its prequel. I missed that.

That said, I do enjoy this series, and I will read the next one.  This book might be the "sophomore slump," but it was still an enjoyable read.

Note: Clicking on the book cover will take you to the book's Amazon page.

The Best Book I Read This Month: The Quartet by Joseph Ellis

I've decided to try something new this year, part of my effort to be more involved in the writing community. Each month I'm going to write about the best book I read that month. The books won't be the latest releases or the hot new things. I'm way behind the curve on all that stuff. Most of the time, I'm so far behind I don't even know where the curve is.  These are just the books that grabbed my attention and held my interest.

January's book is nonfiction, a work of history called The Quartet by Joseph Ellis. In this book, Ellis tells the story of the functioning and failure of the Articles of Confederation (the nation's first governing document) and how four Founding Fathers brought about a second American Revolution by working--and conspiring--to replace the Articles with the U.S. Constitution. (Bonus points if you can name the four Founders. Their portraits are on the book's cover.)

I've developed a fascination with Revolutionary America in recent years--not the battles or military strategy but the politics and personalities. Ellis is one of my favorite historians on the subject. (His Founding Brothers is another recommended read.) What struck me in The Quartet was not just the personalities of the four Founders but the challenges they faced and the paralysis of the new nation's government. I could not help but see parallels in our current political situation and climate:

• a distrust of national government

• regional and sectional tensions

• the disconnect between the nation's political leadership and the majority of the population

• manipulation of class tensions to achieve political ends

• political leaders who believe compromise is equivalent to failure or capitulation

These four Founders were strong enough and single-minded enough to stand up to, withstand, and even take advantage of these challenges to create the government that the country needed not just to survive but to become a true nation (as opposed to the loose collection of states that it had been). That is why we have the political system we have today. What we don't seem to have are men like these four Founders, who had the prescience to see what was best for the nation long-term as a whole and act on it almost single-mindedly, in opposition of the myopic view of their contemporaries, who were focused on their own states and self-interests.

Which isn't to say these men were perfect. They were deeply flawed human beings in many ways: Hamilton's arrogance and Madison's inflexibility, especially. Just that they put their nation as their first priority and that they had a broader vision than their contemporaries, or ours.

Note: Clicking on the book cover will take you to the book's Amazon page.