The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein

The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein
Fiction/Literature

This charming story is told from the perception of Enzo, a dog who has a human-like soul, loves watching TV to learn things, is obsessed with opposable thumbs, and most of all loves his family. When he is taken home by Denny as a pup, he quickly becomes Denny's best friend in shares in Denny's joy of race car driving. Enzo accepts Eve when Denny becomes married but doesn't love her until Eve gives birth to Zoe and asks Enzo to protect her always. Once Enzo understands his role in the family, he truly accepts and loves Eve.

Enzo notices a decaying smell coming from Eve's head but he can't communicate to her that there's a problem. This is a great quirk of the book. Enzo shows his love or displeasure in the only ways dogs can. Yet the reader learns of Enzo's thoughts and understands Enzo as a person.

Despite the fact that this book is narrated by a dog, it isn't difficult to get in to. You immediately fall in love with Enzo and understand his bond with Denny. Car racing plays a big factor in the book, including being used as a teaser for what's to come. It got to the point where I was so involved with what was going to happen in the next chapter that I almost skimmed through the racing analogies so I could see what happens. To think if dogs really did think like this!

I rarely get emotional over a book, but I shed a tear at the end of this one. It is such a sweet story and a must read for dog lovers.

First Line: "Gestures are all that I have; sometimes they must be grand in nature."

Rating:

(4.5/5)

Out at Night

Out at Night by Susan Arnout Smith
Mystery

Grace Descanso has gone on vacation with her daughter and her daughter's father who has just recently found out about his daughter. Grace is feeling very conflicted over the relationship with him and over the budding relationship between him and her daughter.

In the middle of all this, a professor is found murdered in a field of genetically modified (GM) soybeans. He has been shot with a crossbow bolt and on his cellphone is the start of a text message to Grace. Grace is a former doctor now working with the crime lab. The FBI and specifically her uncle feels no remorse in pulling her from her vacation to help them. Grace's uncle is the FBI agent in charge of the murder investigation and in charge of keeping control of the extremists at the conference.

Is Professor Bartholomew's murder simply that or is it the start of some terrorist plot?? The world is converging for a agricultural conference and the extremists are out in full force.

This book is a sequel to The Timer Game and I wish I had read that first as there were times I just got lost in Grace's personal life. I don't know whether it was because I hadn't read the first book or because there was too much going on in Grace's life. I felt I didn't 'bond' with Grace.

I found the mystery part of this story gripping and extremely interesting. The information about GM crops was both frightening and fascinating.

First Line: "She'll call the police if I don't come home."

Rating:

(3.5/5)

Gone for Good by Harlan Coben

Gone for Good by Harlan Coben
Mystery

Will Klein's family was left in shambles when his older brother Ken was suspected of murdering Will's high school love, and then disappearing. The family suspects that Ken was actually murdered as well and had nothing to do with Julie's murder. It's been 12 years since Will saw Ken, when his mother becomes sick and on her death bed tells Will that Ken is still alive.

Will starts trying to find where his brother is when his girlfriend suddenly leaves and the FBI visits asking about her. Her fingerprints were found at a double murder in New Mexico. With this help of his friend Squares, Will digs deep into his brother's past to determine what has happened and why he left all those years ago.

This book was full of suspense and made for quite a page turner. It involves mafia, murder, FBI, and cover ups. There were so twists at the end that I sort of saw coming. I do find Coben's writing pretty choppy though. He writes in very short sentences which makes the writing come off almost amateurish despite the fact that the plot lines are intricate and complicated.

First Line: "Three days before her death, my mother told me - these weren't her last words, but they were pretty close - that my brother was still alive."

Rating:

(3.5/5)

City of Bones

City of Bones by Michael Connelly
Mystery

This is #8 in the Harry Bosch series and they just keep on getting better and better.

Harry is investigating a bone that a dog has found in the Hollywood Hills. It ends up being human from a cold case 20 years previously. The case becomes intense for Harry as his childhood keeps on being dredged up.

Harry in his typical persistent dogged manner starts digging through police records, hospital records and missing people reports. He just won't let it go. Bosch finds a family is disarray because of their missing child. Following a trail of meager proportions he continues, sometimes alone by choice, until all hell breaks loose and the police have a live case to solve.

Harry also gets involved with a rookie cop which although short has disastrous results.

Harry's character is the cop we all love to see. One who follows a case and solves it on crumbs of clues. Can't wait to read the next in the series.

First Line: "The old lady had changed her mind about dying but by then it was too late."

Rating:

(4.0/5)

The Story of Edgar Sawtelle

The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski
Literature

This book is a saga about the Sawtelles and their exceptional dogs. Dogs not of a particular breed but bred for their qualities of obedience, loyalty and intelligence. Edgar was born to Trudy and Gar,as a mute. He learned sign language to communicate but he has grown up with the dogs and little outside contact. His father gives him his own litter to raise and train.

When Gar brings his brother, Claude into his home after his release from prison, the family is changed. Gar and Claude start to argue a lot and Edgar doesn't understand why. When Gar dies, Edgar knows he must learn everything that his grandfather and father knew about the dogs. But Claude is insinuating himself more and more into Edgar's and Trudy's lives. When Edgar tries to prove that Claude killed his father everything backfires and Edgar runs away.

This is a coming-of-age, a mystery, an animal and family story. The scenes from the wilderness that the author portrays are so very real. By far my favourite part of the book is the narration by Almondine, Edgar's faithful companion dog. These chapters are poignant and beautifully written.

First Line: "After dark the rain began to fall again, but he had already made up his mind to go and anyway it had been raining for weeks."

Rating:

(4.5/5)

The Art of Racing in the Rain

The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein
Literature

Enzo is a dog like no others. He knows that when he dies he will return as a man and so hopes by watching the humans around him he will learn his lessons well. He educates himself by watching TV and listening to his master, Denny.

On the eve of his death Enzo recounts his life story. He starts off when he was picked by Denny and goes through Denny's life. The hardships Denny has faced trying to become a professional race car driver. The marriage and then loss of his wife to cancer. The ugly custody battles with his late wife's parents over his daughter Zoe. All Enzo hopes for is for Denny to have Zoe beside him when he wins the ultimate race.

Enzo draws on car racing as an analogy of life. Enzo's way of looking at life is funny, quirky and sometimes sad. One wonders if dogs really see us this way. Even though I knew Enzo was dying I cried buckets at the end. Loved, loved this story

First Line: "Gestures are all that I have; sometimes they must be grand in nature."

Rating:

(4.5/5)

The Great Stink by Clare Clark

The Great Stink by Clare Clark
Historical Mystery

Below the streets of mid-1800s London, England runs the city's sewer system. It's an endless maze of decaying brick pathways that smell horribly and are used by many to hide things, including bodies.

William May returns from the Crimean War an almost broken man. He has what is obviously post traumatic stress syndrome and the only way he can act normally around his wife and son is to go down into the sewers to cut his wrists. Eventually, May gets a job with the city to help transform the sewer system. This leads May in to some tricky scenarios from corrupt city workers that make him lose his mind and his family. Did he witness a murder in the tunnels? Or was it just his deranged mind?

I found this book to be a fairly slow read even though it was very interesting. I'm not sure if it was the structure of the book that made it slow as I was definitely engaged. I was surprised that someone would pick this subject for their book but it worked! Though there is some history in this book from the little bits of Crimean war and how the sewers were overhauled, I didn't find this as much as a historical fiction as a fictional mystery. Though I do wish the mystery had started a bit earlier in the book, there was still enough tension to keep me engaged. Definitely an interesting read.

First Line: "Where the channel snaked to the right it was no longer possible to stand upright, despite the abrupt drop in the gradient."

Rating:

(4/5)

Margarettown

Margarettown by Gabrielle Zevin
Literature

N falls madly in love with Margaret Towne while a grad student. When he goes to visit her family in Margarettown he finds several women named Margaret: May, a little girl, Mia, a sullen teenager, Marge, a cynical middle-aged woman, Greta a 50ish woman who has committed suicide and Marge, old and full of advice.

The first half of the book describes N's and Margaret's love and the struggle of N to understand all the variations of Margaret. The second half belongs to Jane their daughter reading her father's letters and version of his courtship with Margaret, their affairs and eventual 'getting back together'.

Every person does have a multitude of people that make up their whole. That is the gist of the book but I found this book just a bit too philosophical for me.

First Line: "When I first met Margaret, I lived in a basement apartment."

Rating:

(3.5/5)