THE LINDBERGH NANNY by Mariah Fredericks

I had misgivings about this book, as there is so much bad historical fiction out there.  However, I found myself engrossed in this story and wondering how factual it was.  (The author distinguishes fact from fiction in a section at the end.)  Plus, Charles Lindbergh’s admiration of Hitler and embrace of Fascism make him an unsympathetic historical figure.  However, this is not his story.  This is the very personal story of Betty Gow, the nanny who had to fight suspicion of her involvement in the abduction and death of a child she adored.  The first half of the novel, prior to the kidnapping, drags a bit, and, honestly, we don’t know how many pages we are going to have to read before the crime occurs.  The author wisely provides as much shock value as possible, given that we know what’s coming sooner or later.  She takes us on a twisty ride afterwards, with many seemingly innocuous events, such as phone calls prior to the kidnapping, suddenly becoming clues to the mystery of how it happened.  The Lindbergh’s household staff, as well as those working for Anne Morrow Lindbergh’s parents, all come under scrutiny during the investigation, as does Betty’s boyfriend.  Doubts as to any character’s innocence are sometimes put to rest and then resurrected.  Ultimately, everyone’s life is adversely affected, but none more than Betty Gow’s.

INFINITE COUNTRY by Patricia Engel

A Colombian family of three—Elena, Mauro, and baby Karina—go to the U.S. to escape the violence in their home country.  Ironically, the constant stream of shootings in the U.S. unsettles them and causes them to doubt the wisdom of their decision.  A bigger problem, of course, is their undocumented status.  Elena gives birth to two more children, Nando and Talia, while in the States.  In another weird twist, Talia, an American citizen, is sent to live with her grandmother in Bogotá, because Elena cannot work and care for an infant simultaneously.  By this time, Mauro has already been deported, so that we have a split family.  Plus, Elena did not really want to leave Colombia in the first place, and now she is torn about whether or not to stay in the U.S..  Fast forward fifteen years, and Talia has escaped from a juvenile detention center so that she can join her mother and siblings in New Jersey.  Everything I’ve said so far is pretty much the premise, but the other stuff that happens, in both Colombia and the U.S., is glossed over and told in a very detached manner.  In other words, this book did not grab me emotionally, except for the connection between Elena and Mauro, although no one would categorize this book as a love story, and the trepidation that Talia feels about reuniting with her mother, brother, and sister, whom she does not know at all.

APPLESEED by Matt Bell

Strange hybrids inhabit this novel.  Chapman is a faun—half man, half beast—who, along with his brother Nathaniel, marches westward during the early settlement of this country, planting apple orchards.  He manages to shapeshift into a man as necessary and is the author’s reimagining of John Chapman, aka Johnny Appleseed.  Two other storylines are futuristic and at times difficult to unravel, but they basically bring us to a world in crisis, due to climate change.  I feel a little guilty calling these sections sci-fi, since the consequences of climate change are anything but fiction, but there is definitely some not-yet-invented cloning and whatnot going on.  Another hybrid is C-433, who is a blue furry being (recycled from C-1 through C-432, plus some plastic replacement parts) and is gradually morphing into a tree, due to some biomass that C-432 threw into the mix.  The third storyline, which takes place sometime between the other two, involves John and Eury, childhood pals who built Earthtrust, a company that ostensibly intends to save the planet.  However, John abandons this enterprise when he discerns that Eury is becoming a little too drunk on her own power and is losing sight of their ultimate objective.  In fact, Eury is intent on saving humanity, at the expense of everything else, by monkeying around with the natural world.  The suspense in this novel, for me, was how the three storylines fit together, and I never caught on to the link between the Johnny Appleseed story and the other two.  Plus, the last name of John, of the John and Eury story, is Worth, which is also the last name of a farm family who befriend Nathanial and Chapman during their orchard-planting expeditions.  Huh?  Anyway, the author drives home the fact that Johnny Appleseed destroyed natural habitats by clearing land to plant apple trees.  Wildlife doesn’t stand a chance in the face of human proliferation.

HELLO BEAUTIFUL by Ann Napolitano

William’s 3-year-old sister dies when William is 10 days old.  The behavior of his parents after this tragic loss causes William to feel that he should have been the child who died.  Basketball becomes his refuge, and he “wills” himself to become tall.  He meets Julia in college, and her three sisters and parents soon become his surrogate family.  However, cracks begin to appear in the veneer of Julia’s close-knit family, and two almost simultaneous events send them into a tailspin.  The resulting fracture resembles what happened to William’s family, as Julia’s family goes from happy to splintered in a split second.  Another example of history repeating itself is William’s reaction to the birth of his own daughter.  From here the story becomes just too messy and somewhat tedious.  The author covers too many issues—depression, attempted suicide, coming out as gay, teenage pregnancy, alcoholism, cancer, estrangement, and, of course, the death of a child.  Also, the degree to which William’s parents distanced themselves from him seemed weird to me.  He had to have had some supervision and discipline when he was a child, as I don’t think he raised himself, and there was no indication that someone else did.  I kept hoping for something to draw me to this story, but, alas, the ending is melodramatic and predictable.