It’s been a while since I did a book review – mostly because it’s been quite a while since I finished a new book. I think I’ve mentioned before that I do most of my reading while commuting to work, so that means I generally read in 30-ish minute increments. If a book is particularly riveting I’ve been known to continue when I get home (sometimes completely ignoring anything else), but those short spurts of reading can be problematic if a book is one that’s slow to get going. Given I get my books mostly in e-book format from the library they’ve been known to expire before I’m finished. In fact I had one expire last week when I was 95% complete. This was particularly annoying as it took a while for me to get invested in the story, and given the wait list it’ll be months before I get it back and by that point I’ll likely have forgotten some plot points and will have to restart it.

This past weekend was a long one for us Canadians as we celebrated Canada’s 151st birthday. It was also ridiculously hot. Since I’m not lucky enough to have a cottage to escape to, I spend a bit of time hiding from the heat indoors where there was AC.  While hunkered indoors I finished up ‘The President is Missing: A Novel’ by James Patterson and Bill Clinton. The foundation of the story is an intriguing one, and one that is completely relevant today – the US is under attack, but not by conventional methods. This time the US is the target of a massive cybersecurity breach that will see a computer virus infect every electronic device connected to the internet and render it useless. This means all electronic records (financial, medical, social, etc) will disappear, and the US economy will grind to a complete stop as anything that runs on a computer ceases to function.

The President is the narrator of this story which confused me – given the title of the book I expected the President to be, well, missing. Anyways, along with the cyber threat the President must deal with a Speaker who’s gunning for an impeachment, and a traitor within his own cabinet.

I don’t think I’ve ever read any of James Patterson’s other books so I found the incredibly short chapters of this book strange, but short chapters are apparently something he’s known for (there are 128 chapters plus an epilogue in this novel, but some are only a paragraph or two long). As a writing style I found it extremely odd, but short chapters were rather handy for my short reading spurts on the subway.

One of the marketing tag lines for this book is it’s ‘filled with information that only a former Commander-in-chief could know’ (which I confess might have been what drew me to the book in the first place), but to be honest I can’t think of anything that was ‘revealed’ in this book that only Clinton and other Presidents might know.  Sure, at one point the President leaves the White House via a ‘secret’ underground tunnel, but everyone has known about the tunnel since Kennedy and Marilyn right?

Anyways, at 500-ish pages it’s not really a quick read, but it is a fairly easy one. If you’re looking for something cerebral this isn’t a book for you, but if you’re looking for something to while away a few hours over the summer it’s a book with a assassins, stuff being peppered with bullets and/or blowing up, secret codes, and a vision for what America could be.

Book Title: The Pressident is Missing
Author: Bill Clinton and James Patterson
Genre: Thriller
Pages: 528
My Rating: 3 Stars
Buy the Book: Amazon
The President Is Missing confronts a threat so huge that it jeopardizes not just Pennsylvania Avenue and Wall Street, but all of America. Uncertainty and fear grip the nation. There are whispers of cyberterror and espionage and a traitor in the Cabinet. Even the President himself becomes a suspect, and then he disappears from public view . . .

Set over the course of three days, The President Is Missing sheds a stunning light upon the inner workings and vulnerabilities of our nation. Filled with information that only a former Commander-in-Chief could know, this is the most authentic, terrifying novel to come along in many years.

I think I’ve mentioned before that I tend to be a person who tends to always read a book before seeing the movie and/or TV series that is based on it. Big Little Lies has been a TV show (and judging by the latest awards season – a good one) for over a year and I’ve only just finished the book. I’ve just finished it, and I’m having trouble writing exactly how I feel about it. If I was to say I loved it that would be a little lie. If I say I hated it that would be a big lie. And yet, here I am unsure about what to tell you.

Big Little Lies centers on a group of three women who each have young children in the same Kindergarten class. Madeline, who takes no shit from anybody, but who has an ex-husband who has moved his new wife and their daughter to town and enrolled her in the same class. Celeste who seems to have it all – beauty, wealth, a doting husband, and twin boys, but is there something else going on with Celeste? Jane is new to town, and a young single mom of a son named Ziggy (aside – seriously – that’s the kids name). Over a twisted ankle and some champagne, the three women form unlikely bond that sets the stage for all the drama that follows. Oh calamity.

I actually tried to read this book last year and didn’t get very far into it before giving up. I’m not sure what it was about the book that I had trouble with – maybe it’s because I couldn’t relate to the characters on a personal level? They’re all moms and I’m not lucky enough to be one. Maybe it was the stylistic approach to using gossipy conversations between other moms in the class to move story lines ahead. Is it possible moms are that catty and judgemental of each other? Whatever it was I gave up about a quarter of the way through, but added it back to my hold list at the library once the HBO show started getting all the press.

Having now finished it I can say that I sort-of liked it. The beginning is a bit slow, but the story picks up as you get further into the book. I will say that I accurately predicted most of the plot twists at the end, but maybe some of them were more surprising to other readers? If you’ve read the book, did you predict the outcomes? Did you like the book? Have you seen the mini-series because I do plan on watching it soon.

I so very much wanted to love Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterly, but sadly I didn’t. It was educational and interesting, and because the book was turned into a truly excellent Oscar-nominated film it’s a very popular book right now, but I truly can’t say I really enjoyed it.

The book centers on the lives of a group of African American women who because of their gender and the colour of their skin, were limited to teaching math in the segregated schools in the US south until the onset of the US involvement in the second World War. The dramatic rise in need for talented individuals to work in the aeronautics industry opened a door for these women and many others, who possessed the mathematical skills to help develop planes for the war in the sky, and later to help the US beat the USSR in the race to the moon.

Hidden Figures is Margot Lee Shetterly’s first book, and it’s easy to tell. It’s incredibly researched, but the problem is she attempted to cram in every piece of research she did into the book which makes it a very dry read. I read on the subway on my daily commute to work, which means that I generally read in stretches of 30 minutes or so. The heavily fact-based nature of the book, and the very non-linear writing style she uses (jumping back and forth through time, and across characters) made this book a difficult one for me to get through.

Some of the trouble I had with the book might be due my very basic knowledge of the history of racial segregation in the American south and of the space race. I’m Canadian so my history classes in school centered mostly on Canadian history (and a very white-washed version of it at that), therefore the book’s structure and tendency to jump around through time, and across events in history made it hard for me to follow when historic figures and events in the civil rights movement were interlaced with the scientific events occurring at NASA.

In life I find there are generally only two types of people – those who read the book first, or those who watch the movie first. I am firmly in the first camp, but for Hidden Figures I ended up seeing the movie first (in truth only because the hold list at the library was so long). The movie is excellent, but while it’s based on the book, it takes a number of liberties with the story of these truly inspiration women. If you’ve seen the movie and are thinking about reading the book please remember that the movie is a work of fiction based on true events, and I wish in this case I had read the book first.

Have you read the book? What did you think?

Book title: Hidden Figures
Author: Margot Lee Shetterly
Genre: History
Pages: 384
My rating: 2 stars
Buy the book: Amazon.com Amazon.ca
The phenomenal true story of the black female mathematicians at NASA whose calculations helped fuel some of America’s greatest achievements in space. Soon to be a major motion picture starring Taraji P. Henson, Octavia Spencer, Janelle Monae, Kirsten Dunst, and Kevin Costner. Before John Glenn orbited the earth, or Neil Armstrong walked on the moon, a group of dedicated female mathematicians known as “human computers” used pencils, slide rules and adding machines to calculate the numbers that would launch rockets, and astronauts, into space. Among these problem-solvers were a group of exceptionally talented African American women, some of the brightest minds of their generation. Originally relegated to teaching math in the South’s segregated public schools, they were called into service during the labor shortages of World War II, when America’s aeronautics industry was in dire need of anyone who had the right stuff. Suddenly, these overlooked math whizzes had a shot at jobs worthy of their skills, and they answered Uncle Sam’s call, moving to Hampton, Virginia and the fascinating, high-energy world of the Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory. Even as Virginia’s Jim Crow laws required them to be segregated from their white counterparts, the women of Langley’s all-black “West Computing” group helped America achieve one of the things it desired most: a decisive victory over the Soviet Union in the Cold War, and complete domination of the heavens. Starting in World War II and moving through to the Cold War, the Civil Rights Movement and the Space Race, Hidden Figures follows the interwoven accounts of Dorothy Vaughan, Mary Jackson, Katherine Johnson and Christine Darden, four African American women who participated in some of NASA’s greatest successes. It chronicles their careers over nearly three decades they faced challenges, forged alliances and used their intellect to change their own lives, and their country’s future.

Like the first book I read for my 2017 book goal, I’d never heard of ‘The Hired Girl’ by Laura Amy Schlitz until I read the blurb on the A Mighty Girl booklist, but it sounded promising. Published in September 2015 it is a work for young adults and is one I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend to teen girls.

The book tells the story of fourteen year old Joan who, in 1911, runs away from her home on a small farm in Pennsylvania when her father forbids her from continuing her schooling. Being a lover of reading, Joan treasures the few books she owns and longs for a life full of love and adventure just like her favourite heroines.

The Hired Girl takes the form of a diary, written by Joan in the notebook given to her by her beloved teacher, Miss Chandler. At first I found the format a bit befuddling, and frankly I had a bit of trouble with Joan’s ‘voice’. But I got over myself and realised that the author had truly managed to inhabit the mind of a fourteen year old girl. If you’re a fan of Anne of Green Gables you’ll like Joan – she’s intelligent, naïve, impetuous, prone to making rather large blunders, and desperate to be in love. At times I found Joan to be a frustrating character who is overly emotional and a bit self-involved, but then again so are all regular fourteen year old girls (except for me – I’m sure I was perfect when I was fourteen – Ha!).

The author has crafted a tale where Joan takes us on a journey through early twentieth-century America as she experiences new inventions like electricity and a magical carpet-sweeper, and as she learns about feminism, religion and love. Overall I thought 'The Hired Girl' was an enjoyable book, and one I’d recommend if you’re looking for an easy read.

Book Title: The Hired Girl
Author: Laura Amy Schlitz
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
Pages: 400
My rating: 3 Stars
Buy the Book: Amazon.com Amazon.ca
Winner of the 2016 Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction A 2016 Association of Jewish Libraries Sydney Taylor Award Winner Winner of the 2016 National Jewish Book Award for Children's and Young Adult Literature Newbery Medalist Laura Amy Schlitz brings her delicious wit and keen eye to early twentieth-century America in a moving yet comedic tour de force. Fourteen-year-old Joan Skraggs, just like the heroines in her beloved novels, yearns for real life and true love. But what hope is there for adventure, beauty, or art on a hardscrabble farm in Pennsylvania where the work never ends? Over the summer of 1911, Joan pours her heart out into her diary as she seeks a new, better life for herself--because maybe, just maybe, a hired girl cleaning and cooking for six dollars a week can become what a farm girl could only dream of--a woman with a future. Newbery Medalist Laura Amy Schlitz relates Joan's journey from the muck of the chicken coop to the comforts of a society household in Baltimore (Electricity! Carpet sweepers! Sending out the laundry!), taking readers on an exploration of feminism and housework; religion and literature; love and loyalty; cats, hats, and bunions.

One of my goals for 2017 is to try to read 40 books. In order to help me keep track of the number of books I read this year I thought I might write reviews as I go. Hopefully these will introduce you to a book or two you'd like to read, or it might even prompt you to recommend one you've read and enjoyed to me. Code Name Verity was the first book I started after January 1, 2017.

Code Name Verity by Elizabeth E. Wein was released back in 2012, and to be completely honest I’d never heard of it before I stumbled across it while perusing the A Mighty Girl book list. I’m a bit of a fan of fiction set during the Second World War, but this one is different than many of the ones I’ve read before as the main characters are female and they’re right in the middle of the action. Needless to say this was quickly added to my hold list at the library.

When this book became available I couldn’t wait to get started. The story centers on two unlikely best friends – a working-class girl from outside Manchester and a Scottish Aristocrat, who despite their completely different backgrounds complement each other perfectly. The first part of the book is written from the perspective of a spy captured and held by the Gestapo. It’s a diary of sorts – the confession the spy writes to delay further torture, and what she anticipates will be her eventual execution. The spy tells of the friendship between Maddie, a pilot, and Julie, a special operations executive.

To be honest I had trouble getting into this book for the first little while – I found it slow going. The narrator focused a lot on Maddie’s story – detailing planes and airfields and other operational aspects of the war. This focus makes sense given it the information that would be most desired by the Gestapo about the war-time operations of their enemies, but I truly only wanted to read more about the friendship between the two young women, and frankly I also didn’t like the narrator’s character – a spy willing to confess to the enemy in order to save their own skin. To be honest I was a bit tempted to put the book down, but I persevered and I’m so very glad that I did.

I won’t go into the second part of the book as it would give away some key points of the story (and some major plot-twists), but I will say that Code Name Verity turned out to be a fabulous book and I can’t recommend it enough. It’s classed as Young Adult fiction, but it’s a truly great read for adults (and frankly some of the book might be a bit graphic for young teens).

So tell me - have you read it? If so, what did you think? Have any similar books you can recommend?

Book Title: Code Name Verity
Author: Elizabeth E. Wein
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
Pages: 352
My Rating: 5 Stars
Buy the Book: Amazon.com Amazon.ca
Code Name Verity is a compelling, emotionally rich story with universal themes of friendship and loyalty, heroism and bravery. Two young women from totally different backgrounds are thrown together during World War II: one a working-class girl from Manchester, the other a Scottish aristocrat, one a pilot, the other a wireless operator. Yet whenever their paths cross, they complement each other perfectly and before long become devoted friends. But then a vital mission goes wrong, and one of the friends has to bail out of a faulty plane over France. She is captured by the Gestapo and becomes a prisoner of war. The story begins in "Verity's" own words, as she writes her account for her captors. From the Hardcover edition.