Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk by Ben Fountain

Hello loves!  Perhaps you've noticed I haven't been in the WHHS LMC this week.  I had urgent surgery Monday morning and will be out until 1/23.  Ms. Boyke will be filling in for me.

I saw the preview for the movie version of this book when we went to see Inferno.  As you know, it's my rule to read the book first.  I thought, based on the movie preview, it was a true story, however it is fiction.  It is written in such a way that makes it feel like it really happened.

A group of soldiers in Iraq have their actions filmed by a TV crew.  These young men go from nobodies to national heroes, simply because what they were doing was captured on film and broadcast.  Billy and his comrades are coming home to parties and accolades he doesn't feel they deserve, including recognition at a Dallas Cowboys game.

This book is about what many of soldiers face upon returning home from war.  Billy has no choice but to keep his emotions inside because he has been thrust upon a national stage for doing his sworn duty, one he might not agree with in totality.  While some soldiers get interviews, bridges or parks named after them, school assemblies, or some such publicity, many return home to find their homes in foreclosure, medical care out of reach (look at recent articles about our own VA hospital right here in West Haven), friends and family who have moved on without them, nightmares that never go away....

We will be putting this novel on our wish list for next autumn.

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Happy Holidays!  See you all very soon!

The Queen of the Night by Alexander Chee

I could NOT get into this!

I picked this up on a whim at WHPL when picking up Without Mercy.  It was on display and the jacket I read while waiting in line sounded intriguing.

I've tried to read this since writing the review for the Jefferson Bass novel.  I pick it up and put it down.  Finally, I am giving it up about 1/3 of the way in.  It pains me to do so, but as I tell all of my students, sometimes it just isn't doing it for you, no matter how your thing you think the book was going to be!

Paraphrased from the jacket: an opera singer in Paris is given the chance of a lifetime--the leading role in a new production, claimed to be written just for her voice.  But Lilliet knows the truth--this opera is based on her real life and there are very few people who know the truth to divulge it to this writer/composer.

I really wanted to like this, but I found Lilliet tiresome and her supporting characters boring.

A no from me.

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Without Mercy by Jefferson Bass

I've reviewed another Body Farm novel by the writing team of Jefferson Bass here before (Breaking Point).  I've really liked all the Body Farm novels except one.

Now, having finished this last night, I'm of the opinion this will be the final book in the series.  The villain of the very first book in the sequence (not the series, as it was a prequel) returns to exact revenge on Dr. Bill Bass.  Bass is aging, showing signs of forgetfulness, and out of touch with the latest technologies, even those in his own field.  Miranda, his graduate assistant, has completed her dissertation, earned her PhD, and been offered a job with the FBI.  The acknowledgements also allude to the finality of the series after 10 years and multiple novels.

Without Mercy is a frightening look at racial and religious relations right now in our country.  Obviously written before the election campaigns took off in earnest, I don't think the authors knew just how bad it was going to get.  Just this morning, the New Haven Register posted a story about a hate letter sent to our local Muslim organization.

This was a very quick read that kept me engaged for 3 hours straight.  I couldn't put it down.  That being said, it's really necessary to read the others first to understand the relationships between all the characters in this (final) novel.

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Tweet what you're reading #whhs #read
Submit your reviews to The Westie Review corner of The Rostrum  

All opinions expressed on this blog are solely those of Mrs. W.