July Book Reviews (9 books)

Tales from the Arabian Nights edited by Andrew Lang

This selection of stories gleaned from ancient Persian, Indian, and Egyptian folk tales is familiar to most everyone in America, at least to an extent. Adults and children alike have enjoyed the stories of Sinbad and Aladdin in print and on the silver screen.

The stories are set into a framework in which Scheherazade, daughter of the grand-vizir of the Sultan Schahriar, who has volunteered to be the Sultan's bride, tells a new story every evening. The Sultan's first wife was unfaithful to him, leading him to believe that all women were similarly unfaithful and to marry a new woman each day and execute her the following day, before she could betray him as his first wife did. Scheherezade ends each evening with a cliffhanger, thus piquing the Sultan's interest enough so that he allows her to live another day to finish her story. Legend has it that she was able to continue to keep the Sultan interested for a thousand and one nights, at which point one assumes that he was so impressed with her creativity that he allowed her to live.

The edition I read, published in the U.K. in 1993, includes only thirty-four of the hundreds of stories included in the collection, which can be viewed in its full, unexpurgated Sir Richard Burton (no, not that Richard Burton) version at Project Gutenberg online (http://www.wollamshram.ca/1001/index.htm), along with several other translations.

Yes, we consider them children's stories now, but they are really fascinating reading for an adult as well. It's fun to read old translations of even older stories to give one's vocabulary a little workout, and it's interesting to peek into a culture so far removed from us in time and place. Many of the stories are little parables, too, that teach life lessons about greed and honesty and other issues that we all still face. If you've never bothered to read these, I highly recommend them.


The Web by Jonathan Kellerman

Another well-written, tightly plotted thriller from Mr. Kellerman. I expected this one to be about technology because of the title, but no, the reference is to spiders (yuck!). Oh, well. It was well done, regardless. By the time you get to the denouement, you have managed to suspect half the characters in the book. This one is about a tiny island in Micronesia, an old man who owns much of the island and harbors dark secrets, with a sprinkling of dirty politics and plain old evil.  It's a good one.


Presumed Innocent by Scott Turow

Turow's first novel, I believe. Very noir. Tightly plotted, keeps you guessing until practically the last page and even tosses in a surprise or two after you know "whodunnit."


Odd Hours by Dean Koontz

The fourth in the Odd Thomas series. I really enjoy the young protagonist in these books; he's sweetly naive while at the same time being worldly wise. Odd (that's his first name, not a description of his character) reminds us that it's okay to want a simple life, and that love is far more important than money or status. One is tempted to believe that Mr. Koontz has fun writing the Odd Thomas books. It's certainly fun to read them. In this one, young Odd has been given the task of saving the world from a nuclear conflagration while saving a mysterious young lady from an unknown, but dark, fate.


The Murder Book by Jonathan Kellerman

Another in the Alex Delaware series. Delaware gets a scrapbook in the mail containing gruesome photos of crime scenes dating back many years. When he tells his friend Milo, a homicide detective, about it,  the book's contents trigger a renewed investigation of a twenty year old murder, the first unsolved case that Milo handled. This one is a real page-turner.


Summer Light by Luanne Rice

A sweet little fairy tale about a little girl who sometimes communicates with dead people and who helps her mother and new stepfather find happiness. Romances are not generally my cuppa tea, but this one was nicely constructed and proved a nice way to spend an afternoon.


Echo Burning by Lee Child

Jack Reacher is an archetypal American hero. Rootless as the child of a military man, then as a military man himself, Jack has dissociated himself from the rest of humanity. Except, of course, for the mysteries he finds himself embroiled in. In Echo Burning, he comes to the rescue of a woman who at first is trying to escape from an abusive husband then is arrested for said bully's murder. Excellent, excellent read, as is everything Mr. Child writes.


The Rich Part of Life by Jim Kokoris

When you read the first line of this novel, you know that the entire thing will be perfectly charming. The story is told from the viewpoint of young Teddy Pappas, whose mother has died, whose younger brother exhibits some disturbing behaviors, and whose father wins the lottery for a hundred ninety million dollars. As the publicity spreads, a melange of characters shows up at their door, from elderly Aunt Bess with her elderly cat to can't-quite-make-it-to-the-big-time Uncle Frank to Sylvanius, a has-been television vampire. Soon, trouble rears its head in the form of a sinister man in a red pickup who seems to be stalking Teddy and his brother.  A well-told tale, indeed.


On the Street Where You Live by Mary Higgins Clark

Imagine you've lucked out and sold stock worth ten million dollars and bought a beautiful Victorian house that belonged to your family long ago. Now imagine that on your first day in the house two bodies are found in your back yard by the pool excavators. One of those bodies is a young lady who has been missing for almost four years, and the other is your own ancestor who has been missing from the same date as the other body, except since 105 years earlier. Now imagine that you're being stalked and terrorized by someone unknown, on top of everything else. A tight little thriller, as we have come to expect from Ms. Clark.