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Book Review: I’ll See You Again by Jackie Hance and Janice Kaplan

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I am taking a 4-day hiatus from my blog, going camping with a special friend, and will be away from computer and from news of the outside world from Saturday, July 2nd through Tuesday, July 5th.  I have scheduled a few of my “oldies but goodies” and will see you all when i return to the real world (maybe?) on Wednesday, July 6th.  Please don’t go away … I shall return, rested and happy and ready to start ranting once again!  This book review, originally posted in 2013, was published in 4 separate venues and was without a doubt the MOST controversial book review I have ever written!  I still sometimes receive hate mail and comments on Amazon and Goodreads about this review!

I’ll See You Again, by Jackie Hance   Ill see

This is the book that should never have been published. It needed to be written, as I’m sure the writing was a catharsis of sorts to Ms. Hance, but it should never have been published and sold to the general public. Barbara Walters told Ms. Hance she found the book “uplifting”. Ms. Walters is kinder than I am; I found it almost anything but uplifting. Ms. Hance has faced the greatest nightmare that any parent can ever face and my heart goes out to her. I cannot imagine the pain, the devastation she feels every day as she struggles to get through the days of her life without her children. I am sympathetic to her, however this is a book review and as such must honestly appraise the value of the book in question and I find very little to love in this book.

I bought the book after seeing Ms. Hance as a guest on The View a few weeks prior and remembering the Tragedy on the Taconic, as it came to be called almost four years ago, I recalled that when the media circus finally died down, there were a number of unanswered questions left on the table. I was anticipating that Ms. Hance’s book would seek to provide answers to some of those questions. A third of the way into the book, I realized that the only question that was being addressed was “Why me, God?” and, finding little or no value in my reading I set the book aside with no intention of going back to it. However, two weeks later I decided that this was a review I wanted to write and my conscience would not let me write the review without finishing the book, so I did pick it back up.

The root of the story, for those who do not know or do not remember, is that on Sunday, July 26, 2009, Ms. Hance’s sister-in-law, Diane Schuler, was driving with the three Hance daughters and her own two children back to New York from a weekend camping trip when she entered the Taconic freeway going the wrong way. She drove nearly two miles at a speed of 85 miles per hour, despite numerous other drivers swerving, flashing their lights, and motioning out car windows to get her attention, until crashing head on with another vehicle, killing eight of the nine people in both vehicles. It was soon determined that Ms. Schuler was extremely intoxicated, with a blood-alcohol level more than twice the legal limit, undigested vodka still in her system, and evidence that she had also been under the influence of illegal drugs (marijuana). Those are the undisputable facts. The investigation into how and why this could have happened has turned up more half-truths, finger-pointing, and blatant lies than it has additional facts. There are numerous lawsuits in the courts today as a result of this accident, a few perhaps legitimate, a few based on more lies and attempts to shift blame and responsibility. It is not my intent to re-hash this pathetic investigation, and I’ll See You Again will not address the real issues at all. If you are interested in the most detailed account, a better choice to read is The Taconic Tragedy: A Son’s Search for the Truth, by Jeanne Bastardi, the wife of a man whose father and brother died in the vehicle Ms. Schuler crashed into.

It is difficult to fairly and honestly review this book. My criteria for judging non-fiction is twofold: is the story worth the telling, and is it written in such a way as to reflect the value of the story. In the case of I’ll See You Again, there is definitely a story worth telling, however Ms. Hance told only a small part of the story and not one that can hold the reader’s interest for an entire 288 pages. It is difficult to review the story without coming across as unsympathetic, however a little self-pity goes a long way and Ms. Hance indulges in nearly 288 pages of it. She feels her own grief deeply and understandably, however throughout she is blind to the grief of anybody else, including her husband and the girls’ grandparents, neighbors, friends and their children. She is constantly angry at her husband, denying him the right to grieve. That they are still together may well qualify Warren Hance for sainthood! To her credit, she did try psychiatric help, but as is typical was treated with drugs instead of genuine grief counseling. And she did try talking to clergy, but was given the same platitudes we all hear rather than any real comfort. In situations like this, truly there are no words that can give actual comfort. The one thing that nobody suggested and it seems to me would have been the first line of attack against the depression that quickly took over her life was to get a job. Hard work and physical activity are really the only cures for depression, whether real or imagined, but rather than consider this, she chose to either spend her days in bed crying (which we are told over and over, ad nauseum) or go shopping and spend money. Her friends, who also qualify for sainthood, dedicated large portions of their lives to being there for Ms. Hance, including changing their lives drastically. One friend cancelled her annual Halloween party in 2009, as she felt it would be too hard for Jackie, but then in 2010 she resumed the party for the sake of her own children, and Jackie was furious, saying “How could Jeannine do this to me?” Really? This is a fully mature adult, nearly a year and a half after the accident, expecting her friends to put their own lives on hold indefinitely. When the story isn’t about how miserable she is and how unfair life has been to her, it is about what a great mother she was. Understandably, I began to not like Jackie Hance very much. The last quarter of the book sees some improvement in her attitude, presumably due to the arrival of a new baby, and she began to be able to see the grief that Warren and others in the family had suffered. We can only hope that the new baby is given the opportunity to grow and thrive in her own patch of light rather than in the shadows of her dead sisters. By the end of the book I was beginning to like Ms. Hance marginally better, but I still believe 288 pages of self-pity does not make for a good read.

In addition to the issue of excessive self-pity, I am disappointed in this book because the whole issue of the crash and its’ causes has been ignored except for a few brief mentions where Ms. Hance declares nobody had any indication that the sister-in-law, Diane, was an alcoholic and toward the end she graciously tells Diane at the gravesite that she forgives her. There are several lawsuits still pending, so I imagine it was not possible to delve too deeply into facts surrounding Diane’s drug and alcohol addiction, but I cannot accept the denial of the entire family that nobody knew she even drank. Perhaps one day when the lawsuits are settled, somebody will be able to write an honest book about the facts and details surrounding the accident.

I can only justify a one-star rating, as I still believe it should have been written as a journal for Ms. Hance’s personal benefit, and not a published book at nearly $30. Again, my heart goes out to Ms. Hance, but I am writing a book review, not holding a grief counseling session. I cannot in good conscience recommend this book.

Review of Storm Front by John Sandford

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I had a decided advantage over many when I read this book, which is that it is the first book I have read by this author, so I had no previous experience upon which to draw, no set of expectations nor preconceived notions. (Yes, I am aware that Mr. Sandford is a very popular and prolific author and no, I haven’t been living in a cave for the past decade or so … it’s merely a matter of “so many books, so little time”.) Thus, I was able to actually enjoy this book on its own merit with no point of comparison to his other books. As is my habit, I did not read any reviews until after I finished the book, not wanting my own opinion to be influenced by the opinions of other reviewers. So, I was quite surprised to find that so many fans of Mr. Sandford and his books did not like this one. It was only then that I found this book was a corroborative effort, his first, I believe, and was actually co-authored by Michele Cook, a fact that is not obvious until the acknowledgement page. I am not sure what level of involvement Ms. Cook had, but according to reader’s comments, I suspect it is more than she is credited with. As I mentioned, I believe that my newbie status gave me an advantage and I enjoyed the book, though more as a comedy of errors than as a serious work of mystery, crime-drama, or whatever genre you choose to call it.

The storyline is that Virgil Flowers, one of Sandford’s long-standing characters, is an investigator for the BCA, Minnesota’s Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, or Minnesota’s version of the FBI. It is also the story of Ma Nobles, a local woman of low morals (think of a cross between Blanche Deveraux, Ellie Mae Clampett and Ma Barker), who is being investigated by Virgil for a scam involving new lumber being artificially aged and sold as old lumber. And then come the more “serious” criminals, as Virgil is tasked with assisting in tracking down an artifact that was discovered in an archeological dig Israel and then stolen by a local clergyman, Reverend Jones. Enter representatives from Mossad, from Hezbollah, a former Turkish army intelligence officer, an Arab, and of course, let us not forget the CIA, who can always be counted on to make an appearance wherever Mossad and Hezbollah intersect. The law enforcement guys are all bungling, but the saving grace is that the criminals are even more so, reminiscent of the bad buys in the Home Alone movies. While there are many guns and several instances where lots of those guns are fired and some even manage to hit people (though most don’t), no body count is racked up, nobody is even seriously injured, and the result is seriously just … funny!

I am currently reading another, older, of Sandford’s books, as I don’t believe, based on the reviews I have read of Storm Front, that it is representative of his works. I suspect that if I had read several before I read Storm Front, I, too, would have found it disappointing, but as it was my first, I found it to be quite entertaining and a welcome relief from recent studies of the Holocaust in Italy! That said, while the book is humorous, it is almost tiringly so at some point, and the reader finds himself shaking his head and thinking “oh come on, REALLY?” The characters, while fun and funky, are not credible in the least. The storyline is unlikely, but then again, I thought that was intentional. If you are looking for a quick and quirky read, by all means pick this one up, but it you are a long-term fan of Sandford’s works, you would probably be better off passing it by.

Review of Tell Me by Lisa Jackson

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Review of Tell Me by Lisa Jackson

Some twenty years ago, Blondell O’Henry and her three children were in a cabin near Savannah, Georgia, when the unthinkable happened, leaving Blondell’s oldest daughter, Amity, dead, her other two children seriously wounded and Blondell herself serving a life sentence in prison. Blondell claims there was an intruder who broke into the cabin, shot the children and Blondell herself, however the police were never able to confirm the existence of such an intruder and the testimony of Blondell’s young son, Niall that his mother had shot him sent her to prison. Now, however, Niall is recanting his statement, saying he was coerced and being only eight years old at the time, having been shot in the throat and his sister killed before his eyes, he was certainly in no condition to resist any such coercion. Since the evidence was insufficient to convict without Niall’s testimony, unless the State of Georgia can find new evidence, Blondell will soon be set free. Enter Pierce Reed and his partner Sylvie Morrisette, detectives with the Savannah PD. Also enter our main character, Nikki Gillette, part-time reporter, part-time author of two previous true crime books, not to mention Reed’s fiancée. Nikki was friends with the murdered Amity, the cabin in which the crime took place belonged to her family; her uncle was the defense attorney and her father the judge in the case, so she has more than a passing interest and she intends to find out what really happened and sees it as an opportunity for her third book. The relational connections certainly don’t end there, but to tell any more would be to spoil the story for you. I would only advise that as you begin the book, you start a family-tree sort of document so you can keep this all straight!

This is certainly a fun, interesting mystery/suspense novel, which Jackson is known for producing and the plot contains enough twists, turns, and nail-biting sequences to keep us awake far into the night. What I liked about the book: the suspense-filled, chilling plot complete with a few red herrings tossed in just for fun, and for the most part I liked the relationship between Nikki and Pierce, though at times it seemed single-dimensional and strained. What I didn’t like about the book, however, was the number of characters and the fact that they were not well-drawn enough to keep them straight. This is one of those books that should really have a character mapping or list of characters at the beginning. Fortunately, I was reading it on my Kindle, so I had access to the X-ray feature which I used frequently to remind myself who was who, but if I had been reading the hardback copy I’m sure it would already be dog-eared from flipping back and forth. Many of the characters also lacked credibility, which I think is probably a result of just having too many characters on the periphery of the action.

I am of the belief that the best suspense novels are those that, when it is finally revealed whodunit, you smack yourself in the head and say, “darn, I sure didn’t see that one!” This is one of those books. Tell Me has just the right blend of dark and light, of suspense, humor and romance, a trademark of Lisa Jackson and her work. All-in-all, it was a pretty good read, though I don’t recommend it for bedside reading if you really need to get to sleep tonight.

Review of Daddy’s Gone A Hunting by Mary Higgins Clark

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Mary Higgins Clark has become known as the “Queen of Suspense” in the years since her first novel, Where Are the Children (1975) and for good reason. Her suspense/mystery books are reminiscent of Agatha Christie with plot twists and turns, multiple red herrings, and a dramatic conclusion that the reader comes to understand only in the last pages of the book. Her novels for the last decade or so have focused on the uncanny sleuthing skills of Alvirah Meehan and her husband Willy and did not have the same edge as her earlier works. Daddy’s Gone A Hunting, however, is more of a return to her earlier style and was a quick, easy and suspenseful read with just the right mix of suspense, loveable and hate-able characters, plot twists and humor. My only complaint, if in fact I have one, is that there are so many characters that it becomes difficult to remember who’s who. Since I read the Kindle version, I must say the x-ray feature would have been of great benefit in this case, but unfortunately was not available for this book.

The story begins with a deadly explosion in the furniture warehouse of the Connelly family of New York, known for their high quality reproductions of fine antique furniture. Injured in the explosion is daughter Kate Connelly and dead is Gus Schmidt, a long-time employee who was bitter over having been fired five years earlier. Kate had called Gus, asking him to meet her at the warehouse in the wee hours of the morning, and now Kate is in a coma and Gus is dead; suspicion naturally falls on these two who cannot tell what actually happened. This is also the story of lawyer Mark Sloan from Chicago, his mother, and his sister Tracey who disappeared 28 years prior when she went to New York to pursue her dream of an acting career. And it is the story of a man named Clyde, a hero, a decorated Vietnam Vet who came home emotionally damaged after the war and left his family for a life on the streets. Their lives all convene in this tale of greed and subterfuge with just a little romance folded into the mix.

The book is fun, fairly non-violent for a mystery and appropriate for any age group from teens to seniors. While I have also enjoyed Ms. Clark’s aforementioned series with Alvirah and Willy, this was a welcome switch back to her earlier style which led me to be a fan of her writing decades ago. Don’t be put off by my 3-star rating … those who follow my reviews know that I only give 4 or 5 star ratings to books I believe have significant social value, are destined to become classics, or are among the best books I’ve ever read.

Review of A Winter Dream by Richard Paul Evans

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This is the story of dreams, of a man named Joseph, favored son of a man named Israel, and a very special coat. Sound familiar? Of course it does … it’s from Genesis chapters 37-50. It is also from Richard Paul Evans’ long-awaited holiday offering, A Winter Dream. As he did with Lost December last year, Evans gives us a modernized story based on a beloved bible story and does it beautifully. In A Winter Dream, the main character is Joseph Jacobson (Jacob being another name for Israel) and he is one of eleven sons, the most favored. The family owns a successful advertising agency in Colorado headed by its’ patriarch, Joseph’s father Israel. The elder brothers are a jealous and envious lot and are plotting a way to rid themselves of Joseph, particularly as their father has once again shown his favoritism in giving Joseph his beloved Navy flight jacket decorated with many badges of honor from his years in the Vietnam War. Joseph has dreams, prophetic dreams that come true, though he may not fully understand the meaning at first. His brothers do manage to banish Joseph to an advertising agency in Chicago where … well, I really don’t want this review to be a spoiler so I will stop my plot synopsis here.

The story is relatively short, 288 pages, but a fulfilling read nonetheless, as are all the books I have read by RPE. It is an inspiring way to start the holiday season. Richard Paul Evans’ books are popular for three reasons: they are interesting, they are fun, and they remind us what is truly of value in this life without being “preachy”. I zipped through this book in two nights (it would have been one night, had that not been election night) and ended with a smile on my face. The characters are fun to either love or hate, and the twists and turns that constitute Joseph’s life after banishment are a roller coaster ride of joy and angst. I highly recommend this book if you’re looking for a fun read to transition into the holiday season. As an added bonus for Kindle users, if you purchase the Kindle edition from Amazon, you will also receive Evans’ classic holiday novel, The Christmas Box. Happy reading and Happy Holidays!

Review of Top of the Morning: Inside the Cutthroat World of Morning TV by Brian Stelter

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Who knew? Who knew, indeed, the backstabbing, manipulating and jockeying for position that goes on behind the scenes at the two highest ranked network morning shows, NBC’s Today show and ABC’s Good Morning America? And who knew that the only viewers who truly “matter” to the two network “news” shows are those between the ages of 25 – 54? And that, in short, is the substance of this book. If you are a morning person, odds are you catch one of these two programs at least occasionally. And odds are you prefer one over the other for one reason or another. And odds are that the reason has less to do with the actual content of the program than with the personalities of the hosts, the chemistry between them, if you will.

The largest portion of the book by far is dedicated to the drama surrounding NBC’s ouster of Ms. Ann Curry from the Today show which was apparently orchestrated by Today show executives in an effort to keep their popular and long-term host, Matt Lauer happy. Personally, I haven’t watched the Today Show since back in the days of Brokaw and Pauley, and the few times I have seen Matt Lauer, I didn’t care for him, as he comes across to me as arrogant. That said, I am a regular viewer of Good Morning America and while I miss the camaraderie of Charles Gibson and Diane Sawyer, I am happy with the current team of George Stephanopoulos, Robin Roberts, Josh Elliot and weatherman Sam Champion. So you can imagine my disappointment to find that the executives at ABC could not care less whether I watch or don’t watch, as I am on the late side of their “target” viewing audience, the all-important 25 – 54 year-olds.

Typically I don’t read this type of book, but I had been reading some fairly heavy books about Joe Kennedy, WWII, the Civil Rights movement, etc., that were affecting my sleep patterns and my moods when awake, so I thought I would give myself a break for a week or two and picked this book up while browsing at the local library. The book is well-researched and fairly interesting, albeit the important and interesting parts could easily have been condensed into about half as many pages. As I mentioned, much more of the content is dedicated to the Today show, presumably because that is where more of the dirty dealing has taken place, particularly in the past decade. And CBS’ morning show, whatever it may be called this week, is mentioned basically as an “also ran”. I almost felt sorry for them, as they are the definite underdog and seem to be continually changing hosts and formats in an effort to get the leftovers in ratings. And make no mistake; it IS all about the ratings, as those ratings are what determine which show the big advertisers will grace with their almighty dollars … millions of those almighty dollars. Frankly, now that I know I don’t count, I am tempted to boycott every company that advertises on either show!

The book is a rather fun and interesting read, so long as you don’t take it all too seriously. After all, the personalities you will read about here take themselves entirely too seriously, but I guess one does when one’s salary is in the 7-figure range. The author, Brian Stelter, is a media reporter for The New York Times and is certainly more than qualified to write this book. He has done a good job and I have no complaints other than quite a bit of repetition and detail that made it, at times, a tedious read. I can recommend it for those looking for a bit of fun and nothing too serious, but I can only justify a three-star rating, as it certainly isn’t a life-changer nor a book of any real lasting importance overall.

Review of Garden of Stones by Sophie Littlefield

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Garden of Stones by Sophie Littlefield is a relatively short (320 pages), fictional book about a family, mother and daughter, sent to Manzanar, an internment camp for Japanese and Americans of Japanese descent, shortly after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. The book starts in 1978 when one of the former camp officials has been found murdered in San Francisco, and tells the story of Miyako and her daughter Lucy through a series of flashbacks to 1942-1943. In one sense, this is actually two books, one describing a place, time and existence that are, sadly, a factual part of our history, and the second a fictional tale of two Americans women of Japanese heritage who lived in that place and time. The factual account of the camp and it’s conditions is an interesting, though depressing and shameful account, and the fictional tale is mostly so depressing and without hope that the reader begins to wonder if they really want to be reading this book. The saving grace is the brevity of the book, that the characters are likeable (or hate-able in some cases) and fairly credible, and that there are a few genuine surprises in the last chapter that I truly did not see coming.

The family is the Takedas, living the good life in Los Angeles in December, 1941. The father, Renjiro, is a successful businessman and has done well for his family, wife Miyako and daughter Lucy. They are wealthier than most other Japanese immigrant families; however that wealth will not protect them from the mistrust and sometimes hatred by the American public when Japanese warplanes bear down on Pearl Harbor on the morning of December 7, 1941. Renjiro himself will not survive that fateful day and dies perhaps from the stress, or perhaps from understanding too well what will follow. Miyako and Lucy will be sent to Manzanar, the internment camp, or concentration camp as some have dubbed it, to the north of Los Angeles. There, their lives intertwine with other prisoners in the same situation, but also with camp officials who have not failed to notice Miyako’s extraordinary beauty, as well as that of her daughter. And the story follows an almost predictable path from there. That said, this is a tale of almost complete hopelessness and devastation of lives. I failed to find a ray of hope or even a small seed of hope for a brighter future, and that is what made this a “thumbs down” book for me.

There have been two great shames in the history of the United States: our treatment immigrant slaves and their ancestors, African-Americans, throughout our brief history, and our treatment of Japanese immigrants and Americans of Japanese heritage after Pearl Harbor and in the following years. This is a tale of the latter and while it is a fictional tale, there is much presumably well-researched historical content of the Manzanar camp during that period. Manzanar did exist, housing more than 11,000 at its height. Conditions at the camp were not good: cramped quarters, inadequate warm clothing, insufficient and poorly prepared food, and unfinished barracks with dust constantly blowing in through the cracks. This novel outlines serious abuses of the prisoners which may or may not have actually happened, but given the elements of human nature, most likely is not too far a stretch of the imagination. This book paints a fairly vivid picture of the camp, however if one is genuinely interested, I would recommend Farewell to Manzanar, a memoir by Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston and James D. Houston published in 1973.

Review of The Lion’s Game by Nelson DeMille

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An airliner, prophetically flight 175, bound for New York’s JFK from Paris has been out of radio contact for several hours and is due to land momentarily. It just so happens that among the passengers is a Libyan defector and his two FBI “handlers”, so the fictional ATTF (American Terrorism Task Force, a not-so-subtle substitute for the very real Joint Terrorism Task Force) is understandably concerned. The airport is on high alert, not knowing if the aircraft is going to be able to land safely; however it seems to be making all the right moves toward a normal landing. The plane lands, comes to a stop, and … nothing. Nobody exits the plane, the engines continue to run. Attempts to get the pilots attention from the outside are met with silence. Are you intrigued yet? If so, you need to read this book.

This book was published in January 2000, more than a year and a half before 9/11, yet there are shades of 9/11, giving the reader a chill. As the author explains in his introduction, it wasn’t necessarily prophetic, as “… the handwriting was on the wall for all to see. The facts of the first attack on the North Tower of the World Trade Center, which occurred on February 26, 1993, were obviously well known when I wrote The Lion’s Game, and are even mentioned in the book. … While conducting interviews with JTTF personnel for The Lion’s Game, I kept hearing about “the next attack” and here is what I heard almost two years before the actual events of September 11, 2001: The World Trade Center would again be targeted, and the attack would be carried out by suicide pilots, flying small private jets loaded with fuel and explosives which would be flown into the North and South Towers of the Trade Center.”

John Corey is a former member of NYPD who we first met in Plum Island where he was wounded and retired on disability. He is now on contract to ATTF, which is a joint organization comprised of FBI, CIA and local law enforcement. (The first JTTF agency was formed in New York City in 1980 and while offices were established in several cities prior to 9/11, the agency expanded post-9/11 and now has 103 offices nationwide. Their mission is to combine law enforcement at the federal, state and local levels to ensure information-sharing in order to avoid terrorist attacks.) In The Lion’s Game we are introduced to Kate Mayfield, an FBI lawyer and Corey’s partner in the ATTF. Predictably, there is a little romance going on here. And then there is Asad Khalil, the Libyan who was defecting to the United States on flight 175. Asad is here on a mission, but changing loyalties isn’t his mission, revenge is. The first part of the book alternates between John Corey’s voice and Asad Khalil’s, so that we know what each is doing and thinking. One might think this would take away from the suspense; however it doesn’t and actually enhances it to a degree, as the reader finds himself wanting to shout to the sometimes-clueless ATTF agents that they are going in the wrong direction! Then in about the last third of the book we stop hearing Khalil’s voice and are left wondering exactly what he is up to. We think we know, but we are wrong.

This book kept me right on the edge of my seat. And while I don’t mind the romance being added to the plot, my one complaint was that there was too much of the back-and-forth between John and Kate that did nothing to enhance the story and bordered on tedious and annoying. The book is 677 pages, so a great deal of the John and Kate story could have been eliminated without sacrificing anything of value. That said, it is still a good story and a very enjoyable read. It was followed in 2010 by a sequel, The Lion, which I have just begun reading. The Lion brings back Corey, Mayfield and Khalil, and I am hoping it proves as good as The Lion’s Game. I will let you know shortly. Meanwhile, pick up a copy of The Lion’s Game … I promise you won’t be sorry.

Review of Calico Joe by John Grisham

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In recent years, Grisham has made a few departures from his norm, such as Bleachers (football), Skipping Christmas (which was made into the movie, Christmas with the Kranks); A Painted House; Playing for Pizza, etc. Calico Joe is the latest in his non-legal-thriller ventures and it is one of his best. Calico Joe is fiction, but fact about baseball, the game and its’ players, is liberally interspersed and is effective in that the reader nearly forgets that this story is fiction and almost begins to believe in the legend of Calico Joe.

Calico Joe is Joe Castle, a rookie from Calico Rock, Arkansas who, in 1973 was called up from the farm team to play with the Chicago Cubs. His first game breaks record after record as he hits home run after home run and within a week has become known as the greatest rookie ever. Joe rapidly gains the attention of the media and baseball fans everywhere and his future looks bright. This story, however, isn’t really about Joe; rather it is about our fictional narrator, Paul Tracey. Paul is eleven years old in 1973 and a huge baseball fan, particularly of his father, Warren Tracey, an aging, bitter second-rate pitcher whose career is rapidly headed for the rock pile. Warren Tracey is also a lousy husband and an even lousier father, but still, his son follows his career avidly and hopes to someday be a major league player himself. However, he becomes a fan of Calico Joe … what young boy wouldn’t be inspired by “the greatest rookie ever”? The showdown comes a few weeks into Calico Joe’s major league career when he is at bat against Warren Tracey. I don’t do spoilers, so as tempting as it is to go on with this plot summary, I shall restrain myself and encourage you to read the book.

I enjoy baseball and I like Grisham most of the time, so I was eager to read this one and I am glad I did. I found the character of Warren Tracey to be a little less believable in the end than throughout the book, but that did not detract significantly from my enjoyment. I admit, though, that while I think the events that take place at the end of the book were intended to be the heart of what Grisham was trying to say, lessons about life, father-son relationships, and forgiveness, my pleasure came from the first half and reading about major league players I remember from my own childhood and the wonders that were Calico Joe. This is a short book (208 pages) and quick read which I think most will enjoy. It is not destined to become a classic or to top the bestseller lists for a long period, however it is a fun read. Sometimes that is enough.

Review of Until the End of Time by Danielle Steel

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Until the End of Time by Danielle Steel is fairly typical Danielle Steel, however far from her best work. Some of Ms. Steel’s books have addressed issues of importance, issues relevant to the times, but this is not one of them. The plot lacks any depth, as do the characters. I chose this book seeking something light-hearted, having just read two non-fiction and very thought-provoking books and feeling a need for some fluff in my literary diet. To that end, this book fulfilled my need; however it left me with an empty feeling.

The story is about two couples who exist forty years apart. Bill and Jennie meet in New York City. He is a lawyer in his family’s firm, though he is not happy in his career but seems to have chosen this path merely to meet his family’s expectations. Jennie, originally from a small mining town in Pennsylvania has a successful career as a fashion consultant and loves what she does. They meet, fall in love, and the rest is history. Bill’s family is singularly arrogant and nasty with seemingly no redeeming qualities at all. Even Bill and Jennie’s love seems flat, and I just somehow didn’t “feel the love”, though they certainly said it often enough. Perhaps they had to say it often to remind the reader, since the feeling just didn’t come through. Couple number two, forty years later, is Bob and Lillie (see any similarities in the names of these two couples?). Bob’s families are lawyers, doctors, etc., however Bob owns his own small publishing firm in Tribeca and is struggling to find just one really good book to put the company on the map and in the black. His family is singularly arrogant and nasty with seemingly no redeeming qualities at all. Lillie is an Amish girl, living with her father in an Amish community near Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and helping to raise her brothers since her mother’s death. She has written, by hand in candlelight, of course, a novel that she wants to try to publish, however her father is an elder in their Old Order Amish community and the obstacles seem insurmountable. Through a small coincidence, Lillie finds the name and address of Bob’s publishing company and sends him her unsolicited manuscript wrapped in an apron. Bob and Lillie meet, fall in love, and the rest is history. To say more would spoil the few surprises that await, as the book jacket alludes to much of the plot and early foreshadowing gives away the rest.

The story line perhaps could have been interesting if the characters had any degree of depth. Bill’s and Bob’s families could have really been made believable with some work, but frankly people are all multi-faceted and these people had only one dimension … flat. Ms. Steel did a little better with Lillie’s family and I almost sensed some credibility in Lillie’s father, but in the last chapter events transpired that made him thoroughly contrived. The greatest story in the world will fail without good character development, and this was not the greatest story to begin with, so character development was crucial and Ms. Steel dropped the ball.