The Best Book I Read This Month: The Ravine by Wendy Lower

A bit late in posting, but the best book I read in March was the most disturbing book I’ve read in a long time: The Ravine by historian Wendy Lower.

As the book’s subtitle (A Family, A Photograph, A Holocaust Massacre Revealed) indicates, the book focuses on the murder of a one family during the Holocaust. But it is not the Holocaust of Western Europe, not the Holocaust of concentration camps. This book focuses on the Holocaust as it occurred in Eastern Europe, where it took on a very different character—graveside massacres instead of formal death camps. The most famous of these massacres occurred at Babi Yar in Ukraine. This book focuses on a smaller massacre, one that may have remained invisible to history were not for a single photograph.

The first ten pages of the book were brutal to read. The focus is entirely on the action in the photograph, which shows the murder of one Jewish Ukrainian family at a ravine and is described in unflinching detail. After that, the book’s focus expands to Lower’s efforts to identify the location, victims, and participants in this murder. Her work is as frustrating as it is rewarding, as she encounters obstacle after obstacle. Even at the end, there is no clean resolution for her or for the reader.

This is not a book that one reads for pleasure. It’s not a book to enjoy. But it is a book that is important and worthwhile. Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day) occurs later this month. Reading this book would be a good way to spend that day.

The Best Book I Read This Month: Say Nothing by Patrick Radden Keefe

I need February to be a couple days longer so I can finish the best book I’m reading this month before the month is over. Say Nothing by Patrick Radden Keefe is incredible. It tells the story of Northern Ireland’s Troubles by focusing on the murder of single mother Jean McConville.

I’m finding the reading slow-going, not because of Keefe’s writing—which is clear and easy to read—but because of the subject matter. It’s heavy, so I can only read it in short bursts. Keefe does not flinch from the violence of the events he describes, neither the scope nor the toll. But he also humanizes the events, giving a full picture of the people involved—their backgrounds, their hopes, their lives beyond the conflict. That’s what makes the story he tells so gripping.

I’m at a point in the book where I think I know whodunit, but I’m not entirely sure. There are likely still a number of twists and turns before Keefe brings the story to a conclusion, because very little in this story is cut and dry.

The Best Book I Read This Month: Death Washes Ashore by Patricia Skalka

The best book I read this month was a short but engaging mystery: Death Washes Ashore by Patricia Skalka. The book is the most recent installment in Skalka’s Dave Cubiak Door County Mysteries series, which I enjoy very much. (My favorite of the series is still Death in Cold Water.)

Death Washes Ashore takes place in the wake of a destructive storm. A strangely-dressed, strangley-positioned body is found on a beach, and Sheriff Dave Cubiak’s team quickly determines the death was not accidental. Over the course of the investigation, Cubiak is drawn not only into the world of larping (live action role playing), but also into a mess of secrets and lies and betrayals.

I enjoy the regular characters in this series. They’re all very down to earth folks. And this story is a well-plotted mystery. I enjoyed all the twists and turns—and the opportunity to visit Door County again, albeit vicariously.

The Best Book I Read This Month: West with Giraffes by Lynda Rutledge

The best book I read this month was an unexpected delight. Lynda Rutledge’s West with Giraffes is a fictional account of the cross-country journey of the San Diego Zoo’s first two giraffes. I was looking for something light(er) to read after finishing a particularly intense mystery (The Broken Girls by Simone St. James, in case you’re interested in that sort of thing). West with Giraffes fit the bill perfectly.

Set primarily during the Great Depression, with a frame story set in the very near future, Rutledge’s book follows the adventures of Woodrow Wilson Nickel. Displaced by the Dust Bowl, young Nickel is looking for his place in the world when he stumbles across two giraffes being offloaded from a ship that survived a hurricane at sea. Nickel is captivated. When he hears that they are being sent to San Diego, he decides he must go with them, that his destiny lies in California. What follows is part mad-cap chase, part buddy road trip, part coming of age, and entirely full of heart.

The story is narrated by Nickel, who is 105 years old in the frame story. He’s just heard that giraffes are about to become extinct and he’s desperate to tell the story of the two giraffes that changed his life.

Nickel’s voice is colorful and conversational, which made the book an easy, enjoyable read. I may have even laughed out loud in some places. If you’re interested in a light, fun read, this could be just what you’re looking for.

The Best Book I Read This Month: Horseman by Christina Henry

It’s spooky season, so it’s fitting that the best book I read this month had a spooky bent. Horseman by Christina Henry is not so much a retelling of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow as it is an imaginative sequel. I adored Henry’s Alice in Wonderland retellings, and this one didn’t disappoint, either.

The story follows Ben Van Brunt, grandchild of the original Legend’s Brom Van Brunt and Katrina Van Tassel. Ben wants nothing more than to be just like brave, bombastic Grandpa Brom, but that determination is put to the test when two village children turn up dead and mutilated. Ben knows a monster killed the boys, but Sleepy Hollow’s residents want something human to blame—something like Ben.

Henry has crafted a story in which nothing is quite what it looks like—not Ben, not the murderous monster, not even the legendary horseman. I loved that. And while I can’t imagine a sequel to this book, I would happily read anything else set in this world.