"And the Mountains Echoed" by Khaled Hoseini

Synopsis:  This is a dramatic story about a family in 1950's Afghanistan that is forced to make a terrible choice.  The book follows the lives of young Abdullah and his beloved sister Pari as they are faced with the ramifications of their family's heartbreaking decision.  Interwoven into the story of the siblings are people whose lives they've touched, if only briefly.             

Review:  This is such a well-written book and the first chapter is stunning.  Abdullah and Pari are wonderful characters and readers will be rapt at their story.  It's an excellent read and a touching story, but it doesn't pack the same emotional punch as Hosseini's previous books, The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns.  The book's powerful story gets a bit muddied down with too many characters, all of which are connected, but some only very, very briefly.  There are several chapters dedicated to the backstories of different characters that, despite being compelling in their own regard, do not move the main story forward.  It reads like a collection of short stories and it ultimately takes away from the story of Abdullah and Pari, who I wanted to hear more about.

Spoilers:  I didn't immediately make the connection between Abdullah and Pari's story with the book's opening chapter, but once I did, I was excited by the thought that Abdullah or perhaps their father would rescue Pari.  How disappointing!  The ending was heartbreaking.  I wanted Pari and Abdullah to be reunited under happier circumstances but with Abdullah's illness, it felt almost as if they weren't reunited at all.  I could have done without Markos and Thalia's story as well as the Bashiri cousins.  I do enjoy books whose characters are intertwined in interesting ways, but I felt like these characters in particular had no value in the story.  Ultimately I liked this book and I will be anxious to read Hosseini's next book, but with the hope that it is reminiscent of his first two books.  

"The Silver Star" by Jeanette Walls

Synopsis:  Liz and "Bean" Holladay's mother has dreams of being a star; she's impetuous and irresponsible and disappears one day, leaving the girls on their own.  The sisters decide to take a bus across the country to Virginia in hopes that their Uncle Tinsley will take them in until their mother returns.  Uncle Tinsley is eccentric, but he is kind and loving and takes the girls in.  Liz and Bean help their uncle care for the house, make friends in town and at school, and learn a bit more about their mother's past.  The girls even get jobs working for Jerry Maddox, a local with a bad reputation.  Ultimately, Liz finds herself in trouble and the sisters are faced with adversity that truly tests them.  

Review:  This book is a quick and easy read (it could easily be classified as a "Young Adult" novel) and would make for a great beach read this summer.  I liked the the book, but did not love it.  Bean is a charming character, reminiscent of Scout from "To Kill a Mockingbird," but many of the other characters fall a bit flat.  The book reads more like a memoir, which Walls is well known for, than a fiction book and ends up a mile wide and an inch deep.  This is a book about mothers and daughters, mental illness, bullies, family secrets, abuse, and much more.  It has racial tension, courtroom drama, stories of military heroes, and so, so much more.  It's a sweet tale and I recommend it for mindless entertainment, but it doesn't hold a candle to Walls' previous work.

Spoilers:  I am left with the question of why Jeanette Walls picked the title that she did.  Bean finds out more about her dad from Aunt Al and it was great to learn that he had been such a wonderful man and had even earned the silver star.  I understand that the star became a symbol to Bean of her father, but I am not sure this had enough of an impact on the story to earn its place in the title.  On another note, I really enjoyed the book's ending.  It was predictable through and through and I expected the trial to end in Liz's favor so I was pleased when it did not and even more pleased with Bean's uncle finished Maddox off.  

"Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls" by David Sedaris

Synopsis:  This is David Sedaris' latest book, a mixture of fiction and personal essays.  Here, Sedaris recounts the time he purchased a taxidermied owl for his partner, how he keeps a detailed diary of even the most mundane topics, his family quirks, including his father's affinity for Donny Osmond, and much more.

Review:  This book was okay, but definitely not great.  I like Sedaris' personal essays more than I enjoy his fiction and this book had too many fiction short stories for my taste.  I think that David Sedaris has begun to run out of material, which is understandable.  I wouldn't have enough interesting stories from my life for even a handful of essays and Sedaris has written several books, just about the kooky stuff that happens to him.  He is an excellent storyteller and I do enjoy his books, but this one was lackluster and almost redundant.

"Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald" by Therese Anne Fowler

Synopsis:  Seventeen-year-old Southern belle Zelda Sayre meets F. Scott Fizgerald, a young army lieutenant stationed in Alabama, at a country club dance.  She is young and reckless, but Zelda believes Scott when he tells her that he will make a career of writing and that fortune and fame await them.  Despite her father's disapproval, Zelda marries Scott and they begin their life in New York City.  Scott's novel, This Side of Paradise, becomes an instant hit and Zelda and Scott move to Paris where they join the likes of Ernest Hemingway and Gertrude Stein.  Things seem so glamorous, between the wild parties, the exciting company, not to mention the drinking, but Zelda soon begins to struggle to find her own identity in a world defined by Scott's success.   

Review:  This novel is a great introduction to the lives of the famous Fitzgeralds.  Fowler most definitely did a lot of research and has accurately portrayed the characters here.  The book delves deeply into the collapse of Scott's marriage to Zelda and into the personal problems they each faced.  I liked it, but felt it moved too slowly through their time together.

Spoilers:  What a sad, sad story.  I think that not knowing much about the Fitzgeralds helped me to enjoy the story more because I'm not sure I would have picked up this book if I had known that their lives were both cut so short, and Zelda's in particular in such a horrendous manner.  I felt bad for both of them throughout this story, Scott for his alcoholism and Zelda for her physical and mental pains and for the fact that she never found a way to really express herself.  I had always imagined them to be such a vivacious young couple, but that part of their lives seemed short compared to the hard times of real anguish.  It was an interesting tale of bad things happening to undeserving people.

"Winter Garden" by Kristin Hannah

Synopsis:  Meredith and Nina are as different as sisters come.  Meredith has devoted her life to her husband and children and to managing the family business while Nina has grown up in wild locales as a photojournalist.  The sisters find themselves home again at the death bed of their beloved father beside their cold and unloving mother, Anya.  Their father's dying wish is that Anya tell her daughters the rest of the Russian fairy tale she used to share with them as children.  As the sisters listen carefully to Anya's story, they begin to see that Anya's fairy tale may hold clues to her own childhod in war-torn Leningrad.

Review:  I liked this book, but I despised Anya.  She is a cold, distant mother to her girls throughout their lives.  Her husband seems to be the only one that she has ever opened up to.  Readers will guess far before Meredith and Nina that Anya's fairy tale is indeed her life story, but can anything really justify a woman who shares no love with her children?  Both girls are struggling with their own intimacy issues because they grew up with a mother that seemed never to care for them.  It's an interesting story about a handful of unlikable people.

Spoilers:  I hated Anya even after her story was told.  What a terrible person.  I did not feel like her sad story justified the cold shoulder she gave her daughters.  I also felt it too contrived that not only did Anya's daughter survive the bomb, but that they all crossed paths with her at such an opportune time.  Almost instantly, Anya has a change of heart and wants to bond with her girls, but if I were her child, it would have been too little too late.  The book had great intentions, but never quite fulfilled its promise.

"Inferno (Robert Langdon #4)" by Dan Brown

Synopsis:  Robert Langdon is back in his fourth Dan Brown novel.  The novel starts with Langdon in a hospital room with no recollection of how he got there or why.  As he begins to look for answers, he finds his clues are related to Dante's most famous work, Inferno.  Langdon races through Europe against a frightening and powerful enemy in this exciting novel.

Review:  I can't review much here without giving something away.  Suffice it to say that this is an excellent book and while it's not quite up to snuff with previous Robert Langdon stories, if you like Dan Brown's previous novels, you are sure to enjoy this one.  

Spoilers:  This book was excellent fun from the first page.  Zobrist makes for a great bad guy here.  The idea of the overpopulation of Earth is an interesting topic.  It's clear Zobrist is a mad man, but who can really argue that we aren't on track to use all of our resources and cause mass extinction on our planet?  Aside for the drawn out escape over the Apotheosis (80 pages worth) this book moved along very quickly and I read it over several days.  I was expecting a twist, and was willing to believe that Jonathan Ferris was also a bad guy, but never saw that Sienna might have been in cahoots with Zobrist, although she did try to do the right thing in the end.  I was also surprised to discover that the bag had dissolved and released its plague before Langdon or anyone could stop it.  Even though the ending was not what I had anticipated, I still thoroughly enjoyed this book.  I can't wait for Robert Langdon's next adventure!   

"The Elegance of the Hedgehog" by Muriel Barbery

Synopsis:  Renee is a concierge in a ritzy apartment building in the heart of Paris.  She pretends to be what everyone might expect from a concierge:  fat, cross, and obsessed with television.  In reality, she is an autodidact with deep love for art, philosophy, and Japanese film.  Living upstairs is Paloma, a twelve-year-old genius who has tired of this tedious life and plans to commit suicide on her thirteenth birthday.  Paloma and Renee befriend the building's new tenant, a wealthy Japanese man named Ozu, and he helps bring them together. 

Review:  The synopsis above details all of the plot in this book.  All of it.  Burberry's book, originally published in French, must be missing something in the translation.  There is very little plot, action, or much of anything in this book.  It's not an altogether terrible read and it does have its moments, but it waxes philosophical far too often for my taste.  The characters are interesting, but the story is threadbare.