Cheryl Strayed grabs the reader on the first page of this absorbing book when she describes an unfortunate incident during her 1995 trek along West Coast mountain ranges. Strayed had removed her hiking boots to rest when suddenly one of the boots slipped over the edge of a cliff. Realizing that the other boot was now worthless, she tossed it off the side of the mountain, … [Read more...]
‘Camp 14’ a horrifying picture of the North Korean gulag
The horrors described in Escape from Camp 14 are so extreme that one might assume this is a work of fiction. But the sad reality is that this is a spellbinding true account of life inside a North Korean prison camp, told from the viewpoint of Shin Dong-hyuk, who was born in Camp 14 and fled to the West after a dramatic escape that defies the imagination. In spare prose … [Read more...]
Case of jailed handyman exposes many failings of justice system
Thirty years ago, a 76-year-old white widow was brutally murdered in her South Carolina home. Police arrested a 23-year-old African-American handyman who had recently cleaned the woman’s windows and gutters. He was quickly tried and sentenced to death. Appellate courts twice overturned the conviction. Each time, Edward Lee Elmore was reconvicted and sentenced to death again. … [Read more...]
Reporter exhaustively uncovers chronicle of Indian misery
Katherine Boo spent more than three years observing life in a wretched slum in Mumbai, one of India’s largest cities. She tells the story in this absorbing new book, filled with shocking details about wasted lives, gruesome deaths and widespread corruption. Known as Annawadi, the slum was founded in 1991 by workers trucked in to repair a runway at the city’s international … [Read more...]
An even-handed account of the Civil War’s meteor
Although some people viewed John Brown as a madman, his daring 1859 raid on the U.S. military arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Va., helped galvanize anti-slavery sentiment in the North. In Midnight Rising: John Brown and the Raid That Sparked the Civil War, Tony Horwitz has written an engrossing account of Brown’s life and singular devotion to the abolition cause. With hindsight, … [Read more...]
Dying author faced the end by insisting on happiness
As medical director of Dean Ornish’s Preventive Medicine Research Institute in California, Lee Lipsenthal regularly helped patients overcome their fear of pain and death. But just short of his 52nd birthday in 2009, Lipsenthal was diagnosed with esophageal cancer and told he had at most only a few years to live. Enjoy Every Sandwich is the author’s upbeat account of how he … [Read more...]
‘That Used to Be Us’ an urgent call to recover American primacy
Three years ago, Thomas L. Friedman sounded alarm bells about global warming in his best-selling book, Hot, Flat, and Crowded, but predicted that America would wake up before it was too late. Now Friedman and co-author Michael Mandelbaum in their new book, That Used To Be Us, say they are frustrated, but still optimistic, about a range of issues, including global warming, … [Read more...]
Spare novella of Japanese-American brides haunts
After Japan attacked Pearl Harbor in December 1941, U.S. authorities rounded up thousands of Japanese-Americans living on the West Coast and shipped them to internment camps, fearing they might be traitors. In her compelling new novella, The Buddha in the Attic, Julie Otsuka captures in spare prose the paranoia of that period. She opens by describing the arduous voyage by ship … [Read more...]
Writer’s memoir of husband’s stroke meticulous, moving
When a blood clot lodges in the brain, patients may lose their ability to speak or write, a devastating setback for anyone, but particularly so for an author. Husband-and-wife authors Diane Ackerman and Paul West had devoted their lives to words until that awful day in 2003 when West suffered a stroke that left him devoid of language, an outcome known as aphasia. One Hundred … [Read more...]
Author’s quest to know lost dad revives tales of sadness
John Darnton was 11 months old when his father, Barney Darnton, was killed during World War II while reporting on the war in the Pacific for The New York Times. Almost a Family is a meticulous reconstruction of the lives of the Darnton family – the author, his older brother and their mom and dad. The book is, by turns, illuminating, gripping and sad. Growing up, the author … [Read more...]