THE GIVEN DAY by Dennis Lehane

I thought that Dennis Lehane's The Given Day would be more of a baseball book, as I'm a big fan of the nation's pastime. However, Babe Ruth figures into the story only tangentially as a means of helping to set the stage—Boston, as WWI is drawing to a close, and Prohibition is on its way. This book is a nice blend of fact and fiction, and the facts are more engrossing than the fiction. Boston at that time was a city in trouble, anxious to blame just about everything on the Communists, except perhaps the flu epidemic, and by the end I felt as if that had happened a couple of books ago. The family histrionics are fairly predictable, with the bad son (Connor), the good son (Danny, our hero), and the young son (Joe). Of course, Mom and Dad have their heads in the sand and think that the good son is really the bad son and vice versa. There's also Eddie, who came over on the boat from Ireland with Dad and is evil personified. Dad and Eddie are cops on the take, and Danny, also a cop, gets involved with unionizing the police force. Then there's Luther Laurence, a black man on the run from the law. Even with all these cops around, only Eddie knows of Luther's past, and it is information that he uses for his own vile purposes.

BRICK LANE by Monica Ali

Monica Ali's Brick Lane is the story of Nazneen, a Bangladeshi woman living in London with her older, fatter husband, Chanu. Theirs is an arranged marriage, but Nazneen is pretty much resigned to whatever fate dishes out. At least Chanu is kind, but, while he is educated and somewhat of a dreamer, he stifles Nazneen's thoughts of expanding her horizons, even discouraging her from learning English. He inadvertently expands her horizons, though, by introducing a sewing machine into the house so that Nazneen can contribute to the family's income. Karim, the young handsome Muslim organizer who delivers and retrieves Nazneen's sewing projects, piques her interest in more ways than one. The book is full of colorful, though sometimes tragic, characters, including Nazneen's sister Hasina, whose "love" marriage doesn't work out so well, Nazneen's friend Razia whose husband is killed by frozen beef, and Mrs. Islam, who is the neighborhood loan shark. My biggest complaint is that there are a number of letters from Nazneen's sister, including one 20-page section, in broken English that is very difficult and annoying to read. Since neither Nazneen nor her sister speaks English, I don't understand the author's purpose in making the letters grammatically incorrect.

THE EGYPTOLOGIST by Arthur Phillips

The Egyptologist by Arthur Phillips has colorful characters, a convoluted plot, and humor to spare, although that definitely wanes toward the end. It's not a fast, easy read, however, partly because the entire story is told from journals and letters. Both of the primary puffed-up narrators think they have a book in them. One is Harold Ferrell, a former detective, now in a retirement home, who is writing to a man named Macy. Ferrell had a case in the 1920's that brought him to meet Margaret, Macy's aunt, and fell in love with her. The other, more prolific narrator and main character, is Ralph Trilipush, an inept and deluded archaeologist, who, in the 1920's, was Margaret's fiancé. Trilipush is in Egypt at the same time that King Tut's tomb is being exhumed, looking for a find of his own that will ensure his immortality. His quest is for the tomb of Atum-hadu, a possibly fictitious pharaoh with a taste for bawdy poetry. Trilipush's writings are hilarious during his early weeks in Egypt, as he sits for his portrait, orders ten tailor-made suits, and ponders which gramophone to take to the site. Phillips gives each narrator his/her own font, as there are also a few letters from Margaret and one key letter at the end from a man named Beverly Quint. I read this letter twice more after finishing the book before I finally grasped what had happened. I had to rethink the chronology and Trilipush's whereabouts after WWI.

THE READER by Bernhard Schlink

The hype about the movie based on Bernhard Schlink's The Reader spoiled the plot for me, but the plot is not what's most compelling anyway. The book takes place in post-WWII Germany, where thirty-something Hanna comes upon fifteen-year-old Michael Berg, who is obviously ill. She walks him home, and, after getting over a bout of hepatitis, Michael visits Hanna to thank her. Thus begins an unlikely affair. (I'm reminded of The Last Picture Show without the comic element.) Moreover, Hanna harbors two big secrets that are wildly different in magnitude, but she guards them both equally closely. Hanna exits Michael's life abruptly but leaves a lasting impression, and then their lives cross again under very different circumstances while Michael is in law school. The book is largely about sins of omission, on the part of both main characters. It raises several disturbing questions, such as what constitutes betrayal and whether one should risk embarrassing a person in order to save him/her from larger consequences, when that person seems unwilling to save himself/herself. The biggest question, though, has to do with the Holocaust and what steps should or could the guards have taken to save the prisoners. Translations always seem a bit dispassionate to me, but in this case, emotional numbness is one of the primary themes, so that the absence of passion seems to be appropriate.

THE DISTANT LAND OF MY FATHER by Bo Caldwell

This is a book to be savored for the struggles of its characters but also for its history lesson. The narrator is Anna, a child who lives in Shanghai with her American parents in the late 1930s. Her father, Joseph, was born in China to American missionary parents and loves Shanghai, much to the detriment his family life, for its ambience as well as its business opportunities. When the Japanese begin to invade Shanghai, Anna and her mother, Eve, get out while they can, fleeing to Eve's mother's home in Pasadena. Thus begins the slow passage to Anna's and her mother's realization that the three of them may never be a family again. Meanwhile, Joseph, who repeatedly underestimates the effect of the volatility in China on his way of life, leads a precarious existence that includes poverty, imprisonment and torture. He is truly the main character here, even when the story centers upon Eve and Anna in California. The more his wife and daughter try to oust him from their thoughts, the more they focus on their loss of a husband and father. One could argue that the distant land in the title is the U.S., from which Joseph is estranged by miles and by culture. Shanghai itself is also a central character, as its destruction and suffering somewhat parallel Joseph's path through life. More so than many wartime novels, this book made me appreciate not just my health but also our relatively safe democratic society.

MARLEY AND ME by John Grogan

Marley and Me is John Grogan's ode to his beloved yellow Labrador Retriever who predated all three of Grogan's children. Marley was a loving, happy, loyal dog but a constant troublemaker. He turned the garage into a shambles when a thunderstorm hit, was expelled from obedience school, swallowed an 18k gold necklace, and managed to escape a large steel cage. This is one of those alternately laugh-out-loud funny and tear-inducing books. As all of us who have pets know, though, you can't have one emotion without the other, since we usually outlive them. It's not just about the dog, either. Grogan bares all in his recounting of his wife's miscarriage, the unpleasant effort to get pregnant again, and her plunge into postpartum depression after a difficult pregnancy with their second child. Fortunately, one day she finally wakes up as her old self, and even Marley is back in her good graces. In one of his better moments, Marley stands sentry while Grogan comforts a young stabbing victim. Mostly, though, it's about Marley's many screw-ups and escapades, and it made me appreciate my cat, whose worst faults are chewing up shoelaces and noisy bathing at ungodly hours.

FREAKONOMICS by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner

If you're looking for a solution to our current economic woes, you've come to the wrong place. This book is more about challenging the "conventional wisdom," a term coined by the late great economist and author John Kenneth Galbraith. Levitt and Dubner cover a wide range of topics, including how an infiltrator brought down the KKK, why your real estate agent may not try to get top dollar for your house, why gun control doesn't work in this country, the effect of Roe vs. Wade on crime, the effect of a variety of factors on future success, cheating by teachers who monitor standardized tests, why crack dealers live with their mothers, and how financial incentives can have the opposite of the desired effect. More than once you'll find yourself going "How about that!" The authors back up their claims with studies and statistics and even offer a brief explanation of regression analysis. The section on baby-naming patterns gets a little tedious, but, other than that, this is fascinating stuff.