A Man & His Cat, book 8, by Umi Sakurai. Square Enix Co Ltd.

In volume 8, we finally meet Mr. Kanda’s two children, both grown up (or almost grown up; I never did figure out their exact ages) and home for a visit- not realizing that their father has houseguests now, both human and feline. With his own cat, his cat’s sister, and the box full of kittens, the house is full. These kids had never had a pet growing up, so the cats presence is a huge surprise. And an unwelcome one for his son, who is both afraid of cats, and hates them. We get to see him heal from the childhood wounds that caused this, along with seeing the joy of family, both blood and found. Five stars, as usual.

Crux: A Cross-Border Memoir, by Jean Guerrero. One World, 2018

Jean Guerrero had a hard childhood. Her mother, a Puerto Rican physician working in San Diego, kicked her father out when Guerrero was 6- for understandable reasons. Her mother’s parents, who at times were the children’s caregivers, had some very odd ideas about child rearing. Her father, Marco Antonio Guerrero, was not around much, and when he was, he wasn’t much of a parent. Having mental illness but unwilling to acknowledge that, he self-medicated with, well, pretty much every drug that exists and huge amounts of alcohol.

The author majored in journalism and became a reporter for the Wall Street Journal, based in Mexico City. She used this situation to dig into her father’s culture and past. Turned out his family had a number of shamans in it, ending up in a sort of Castaneda territory. His parents and siblings, though, started a meat packing business that was making decent money with Marc Antonio running it. His half-sister edged him out, though, and that is when his problems really started, a downward spiral that included a tin foil hat along with the self-medicating. A voracious reader, he was a genius about repairing and creating things but couldn’t keep a job.

There is more than one crux in the story; the physical border between the US and Mexico, the border between mysticism and mental illness. The story wanders around in time and place, and I found this confusing in places. There is some repetition. There were sections that were so fascinating that I couldn’t put the book down, and other places I really wanted to skim or give up. Four stars out of five.

Let’s Talk About Death Over Dinner: An Invitation and Guide to Life’s Most Important Conversation, by Michael Hebb.

Author Hebb is asking a simple thing of us: to talk about death. Specifically, our own deaths. For the vast majority of us, that’s not actually a simple thing. It’s natural for humans to shy away from talking about- even thinking about- our own deaths. And yet it’s the one sure thing about our lives. And yet we ignore it, like the proverbial elephant in the room, until it is suddenly too late to make our plans, to tell people what we want for final arrangements, to decide whether to go with hospice or to fight until the end, to tell people we love them or we’re sorry.

Hebb goes around hosting dinner parties where death is the subject. He uses such prompts as “What would you want people to say about you at your funeral?”, “What do you want your legacy to be?” and “Do you have a will and advance directive in place?”

If you don’t think about these things, and deal with them while you are well, you may very well lose control over them. Do you want to be kept alive at all costs, even if it means being hooked up to machines, unable to communicate or move? How do you want your assets to be divided? If you don’t deal with that, the courts will.

This book will help guide you through talking about these things. You will have to really think about how you think about death, and what you want. I am a hospice volunteer, and I highly recommend it. 

I received this book free from the Amazon Vine program in return for an unbiased review. This did not influence my views. 

The Family Tabor, by Cherise Wolas. Flatiron Books, 2018

Nobody knows it, but the Tabor family is on shaky ground. The five gathered (plus grandkids) for the weekend ceremony of presenting the Palm Springs Man of the Decade award to Harry Tabor all have their secrets, Harry most of all.

Everyone in the family is a star; Harry the great philanthropist; his wife, Roma, a child psychologist; the children are two lawyers and an anthropologist. They gather together in a great pool of everybody-is-happy-ism, each determined to hide their problems from the others. But cracks appear fairly rapidly: Phoebe refuses to divulge any details about her new boyfriend, Camille is hiding the job that truly gives her fulfillment, and Simon’s wife refuses to stay in their marriage if he decides to practice his Judaism. Roma knows they are hiding things, but doesn’t know what. And she has no idea her husband is hiding the biggest secret of them all. Then, on the night of the presentation, Harry disappears into the desert night.

Panic ensues. Did he walk into the desert? Was he kidnapped or murdered? The police take the investigation seriously, and their questioning starts turning up surprises. Mysterious bank accounts. Really odd stuff on Harry’s computer. Roma quickly realizes that despite spending her life with him, she really doesn’t know Harry at all. And the kids find themselves forced to look into their own lives and admit the truth.

I have to admit that the ending surprised me. I thought I knew where the author was going, and then, in the last few pages, I find out I was wrong. Well, partly wrong. It was going where I thought it was when it derailed. The last part of the book was kind of a let-down to me, but tolerable. We never get to find out if what Harry was experiencing before his disappearance is real or hallucination. Harry is the center of the mystery and the book, but much of the book is not about him. It’s about his children, and what they need to do to feel authentic; as he needs to confront his past, they need to confront their futures. Four stars. 

The above is an affiliate link. If you click through and buy something- anything- from Amazon, they will give me a few cents. 

I received this book free from the Amazon Vine early reviewer program, in return for an honest review. 

Neither of these things influenced my review.

Muddy Boots and Red Socks: A Reporter’s Life, by Malcolm W. Browne. Times Books, 1993

Malcolm Wilde Browne (Wilde because his grandmother was Oscar Wilde’s cousin) was a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist who covered wars all over, starting in Korea, and thence to Viet Nam (for which he won said Pulitzer), and then to the Middle East. War wasn’t all he covered, though; among other things, he was the editor of Discover magazine for a while. Along with being a memoir, political and philosophical musings are included- some I agreed with, some very much not.

Malcolm was a proponent of the type of journalism that got right into a situation instead of sitting back and being told what was acceptable to print, hence the ‘muddy boots’. In his quest for the truth, he ended up in three plane crashes, a lot of gun fire, and numerous tight situations. Because of his close ties to the Buddhist community in Viet Nam, he was on hand the day the monk doused himself in gasoline and set himself on fire. The resulting photos of the burning monk shocked the world. The American leaders did not think much of his reporting as he pointed out the ways American ‘aide’ was hurting Viet Nam. AP was impressed, though, he was *the* reporter for them during this time.

I have to admit, I wasn’t sure if I’d find a memoir about war journalism engrossing. After I was given the book (a dear friend gave me the book when I blogged about Malcolm dying; he was my cousin whom I’d only met once, when I was a teen) I’d dipped into it many times- mainly for his family and personal life- but never read it front to back. I finally did so and found it was as gripping as any novel. His writing flows and draws you along; I found it un-put-downable. I know more about my cousin now, and just as much more about the politics of war. Five stars. 

the above is an affiliate link. IF you click through and buy something- anything- from Amazon, they will give me a few cents. This did not influence my review. 

I won't claim that my review is unbiased, though. I mean, he was family! 

The Rules of Magic, by Alice Hoffman. Simon & Schuster, 2017

 

This is the long awaited prequel to ‘Practical Magic’. In it we learn who the aunts were before they were the old ladies we see in PM- and they had quite interesting young lives! The story of how they grew up, along with their unnaturally beautiful and attractive brother- the only male born into their Owens line- includes being orphaned, being broke, falling in love and losing love, being feared and scorned by the small town their own aunt Isabelle lives in, and, of course, living with the curse of Maria Owens.

So much happens in this novel that I can’t give a capsule recounting of it. Suffice it to say that the teenaged Owen’s have a hard time of life, and choose different ways of dealing with the problems. In this story we meet other Owenses; aunt Isabelle, an unexpected cousin, and mother Susanna with her list of rules that include no walking in the moonlight or having cats and, most important of all, no falling in love. Of course we know they will flout that rule!

You do not have to have read ‘Practical Magic’ to enjoy this book. Except for the very end, it’s completely stand alone. It’s very magical; everything about the Owenses’ lives revolves, whether they like it or not, around magic. But it also revolves, as our own do, around human connection and love. Five stars. 

The above is an affiliate link. If you click through and buy something- anything- from Amazon, they will give me a few cents. 

I received this book free from Net Galley in return for an unbiased review. 

Neither of these things influenced my review.  

Inheriting Edith, by Zoe Fishman. William Morrow, 2016

Maggie is a professional house cleaner with a degree in English. She’s had other jobs, but she prefers cleaning in Manhattan- it pays a lot better, it gives her time to think, and she has been a compulsive cleaner since she was a child. She is the single mother of a precocious two year old, and has just gotten the surprise of her life: she’s inherited the Sag Harbor beach house and money of a friend and former client that she has been estranged from for years. Along with the house comes Edith, the 82 year old mother with a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease. The will states that Edith is to remain in the house she shared with her bestselling novelist daughter, who has taken her own life.

Edith and Maggie both have severe doubts about this situation. Edith feels she needs no help, nor does she need strangers in her house. Maggie feels she’s in over her head with caring for an elder. But they gingerly build a relationship, and Edith asks Maggie to help her write down her life story before she forgets it. In the process, they both realize they have things in their pasts that they need to deal with before it’s too late.

I read the story in a day; it’s fast reading and fairly compelling. It’s sad to watch Edith losing ground so quickly, but fun to learn about her past. I did have to wonder why the 2 year old took up so much of the book; obviously she’s the most important thing for Maggie, but I felt her constant chattering slowed the story down. I guess it did show how overwhelmed by the child Maggie is! The obligatory love interest might as well not be there; he really adds nothing to the story. I would have preferred to learn more about Edith’s past, and about her dead daughter. A good beach read. 

The above is an affiliate link. If you click through and buy something- anything- from Amazon, they will give me a few cents. 

I received this book free from the Amazon Vine program in return for an unbiased review. 

Neither of these things influenced my review.