Turn of Mind

How do you solve a crime, when the main suspect is literally losing her mind? Alice LaPlante's book Turn of Mind does just that, in one of the most unique and intricately crafted thrillers this year.

Jennifer White is a world-renowned orthopedic surgeon who is going through a very bad patch.  She has been forced to leave her prestigious position at a hospital, she is suffering from early-onset dementia, and her best friend Amanda has been murdered.  And Jennifer herself is the prime suspect.

The clues to the crime are locked away inside Jennifer's fractured mind, where clarity comes only in bits and pieces.  Jennifer's friend Amanda has been found dead from a blow to the head, but a crucial piece of evidence points to Jennifer as the murderer: the fingers of Amanda's right hand have been removed with skillful precision.

Writing the book from the point of view of someone suffering from Alzheimers is a delicate task.  LaPlante tells the story through interactions with Jennifer's family, her caregivers, and the police.  This enables the reader to infer details about the crime, the various motives, and Jennifer's own state of mind, all through Jennifer's altered perceptions.

More than just a murder mystery, Turn of Mind provides a brilliant glimpse into the world of those suffering from Alzheimers.  Jennifer rediscovers her own divorce, her best friend's death, and her lack of career on an almost daily basis, each time with the grief as painful as it was the first time she heard it.  Mixed in with this sorrow is the brief awareness of the rapid decline of her disease, which is perhaps one of the most heartbreaking parts of the book.

Turn of Mind ties all the loose ends in a neat bow, but there is no satisfaction in it.  For someone suffering from Alzheimers, there can be no happy ending. There is only a slow descent into madness, and eventually, no memory at all.

Have Books, Will Travel

One of my great joys in life is to sit on the beach and read.  I'm sure there are plenty of people out there who would rather watch paint dry than to spend the day alternating between staring at the ocean and delving into a  good book.  But for me, that is a little slice of heaven.

With vacation nearly here, I have several books waiting for their turn. I still haven't finished the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo series, I have a couple of chick-lit books on the Kindle, and my fingers are triple crossed that my holds will come in from the library. Alice LaPlante's Turn of Mind, J.D. Robb's futuristic thriller New York to Dallas, and Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor are at the top of my "To Read" list.  My bags are packed, my Kindle is charged, and I am hounding the library like a lovesick teenager. 

All  too soon, winter will be upon us, and with that comes the chance to snuggle under a blanket with a cup of coffee and a good book.  But until that point, I will be soaking up all the sunshine I can, whether it's at the beach or in my lovely red hammock!

Then Came You

I admit it - I'm a sucker for any story where it takes a village to raise a child.  Families that don't fit the mold fascinate me, and when a story combines women, pregnancy, surrogacy, and a unique family, I am hooked from the first page.

Then Came You by Jennifer Weiner fits that bill perfectly.  This latest from the bestselling author of Good in Bed and In Her Shoes tells the story of egg donors, surrogates, and parents desperate for a family, all mixed together with drama, personal growth, and lots of fun twists and turns in the plot.

In Weiner's latest, we meet Jules, who is the perfect candidate for egg donation.  As a college student eager to have enough money to send her father to a rehab facility, it seems a quick and relatively painless way to come up the necessary funds. Across the state, Annie is a mom of two young boys who dreams of going back to college and finding herself, and the thing she is best at is being pregnant.  And in the heart of New York City, India and her husband want a second chance at parenthood, but are unable to carry a baby to term.  These three groups of people will come together to discover heartache, love, and the true meaning of being a family.

This is a book that could be cloying and filled with stereotypes, but under Weiner's skillful writing we get glimpses of humanity and genuinely feel for the chararcters as they stumble, fall, and eventually redeem themselves.  The ethical issues surrounding both donation and surrogacy are handled gently; the pain and regret felt by both Jules and Annie is clear, but so is the knowledge that they are helping to create a family.  The ending is tidy (as Weiner's books usually are) and made me sigh as I finished the final page - particularly satisfying was the epilogue, where we get to see several years into the future at what life for this little baby holds.  This book is the ideal beach read, or (now that it's Fall) for an afternoon of relaxing on the couch.

Untold Story

For my parents' generation, their "where were you" moments include the first man on the moon and JFK being assassinated.  For our generation, it includes many landmark events, but two will be forever linked in my mind: Princess Diana of Wales on her wedding day, and again on that horrific night in Paris when she died.  She was such a beautiful, loving mother and an incredible advocate for AIDS, particularly in children, and to have that life cut short was simply devastating.

Untold Story imagines another ending to Princess Diana's life: one that involves a yaht, a lazy security staff, and a rowboat.  In Monica Ali's new novel,  she has invisioned a world where Princess Diana appears to the world as drown, but in fact, has faked her death, left everyone but her closest confidante behind, and started a new life in the United States.

As part of her new life,"Lydia" has no children, few good friends, and no meaningful relationships.  Her need to escape life under worldwide scrutiny has come at a tremendous cost - the loss of her children, her family, and everything she knows. But in return, she can shop, eat at restaurants, swim in her pool, and volunteer at an animal shelter, all without worrying about what photo or ugly comments will emerge next.  At least, until the Princess' most obsessed paparazzi stumbles upon her living in a tiny Midwest town.

Ali's book is a wonderful glimpse into the world that Princess Diana might have had, under very unusual circumstances.  Ali is very careful never to refer to the Princess by name, but her identity is obvious, from the cover of the book to the intimate details she includes of the Royal Family. Ali did a tremendous amount of research about Diana's life, and the fruits of that research makes the story even more delicious.

As a teenager, I watched in awe as Diana walked down the aisle at St. Paul's Cathedral.  Many years later, as a mother myself, I stood in shock and cried as I watched coverage of the wreckage that would end her life.  The best part of Untold Story was getting to meet Princess Diana again, even if it was only a woman created out of talented Ms. Ali's imagination.

An Embarrassment of Riches

I've had something of a reading drought this summer.  It's not that there hasn't been plenty to choose from, just that nothing is appealing.  Kind of like when you go out to eat, and nothing on the menu looks good.  Maybe it's been my mood, but with a few exceptions, nothing's really stuck with me.

So you can imagine my delight when I hit the mother lode at my public library this week.  Our library is small but mighty, and has a good selection of new titles.  I have learned over the years to make the most of the library's reservation system, but since none of my books on holds were available yet, I took a spin through the new fiction shelves.

I was like a kid in a candy store when I found not one, but four (yes, four!!) books that I had been hoping to read.  I started with Untold Story by Monica Ali, then quickly moved on to South of Superior, by Ellen Airgood.  Filling out my stack were Jennifer Haigh's newest, Faith, and the creepy Robopocolypse, by Daniel H. Wilson.

Reviews will be coming soon on Untold Story and a few others, but in the meantime, I've been reading like a woman on a mission.  It has been a true delight getting to know some new characters, a few new authors, and most of all, some stories I could really sink my teeth into. My wonderful husband purchased a lovely, bright red hammock for me this summer, but up until now, it's been too hot to use it.  Now I have both the cooler weather and a stack of delicious books.  Heaven!