en-US Tue, 29 Apr 2025 01:07:18 -0700 60 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg ReadStatus9365455914 Tue, 29 Apr 2025 01:07:18 -0700 /review/show/7527874139 Jak60 wants to read Better the Blood by Michael Bennett
]]> ReadStatus9351550456 Fri, 25 Apr 2025 12:06:18 -0700 /review/show/7518280155 Jak60 wants to read Take My Hand by Dolen Perkins-Valdez
]]> ReadStatus9349389672 Thu, 24 Apr 2025 20:13:25 -0700 /review/show/7490927187 Jak60 started reading The Seersucker Whipsaw by Ross Thomas
]]> Review7495777875 Thu, 24 Apr 2025 12:50:53 -0700 /review/show/7495777875 Jak60 gave 4 stars to The Mordida Man (Mass Market Paperback) by Ross Thomas
Ross Thomas' books might not always have the best plots or the most compelling characters but they all have a common trait, that of being compulsively readable.
The Mordida Man is one of those cases, it's almost a one-sitting read despite not being the best of Ross Thomas' works. For that, take a loook at Briarpatch (exceptionally good) or The Fools in Town are on our Side. ]]> ReadStatus9341748478 Tue, 22 Apr 2025 21:51:57 -0700 /review/show/7495777875 Jak60 started reading The Mordida Man by Ross Thomas
]]> Review7175001260 Tue, 22 Apr 2025 12:37:05 -0700 /review/show/7175001260 Jak60 gave 3 stars to The Cold War Swap (Mac McCorckle, #1) by Ross Thomas
bookshelves: ebooks
This was Ross Thomas' first book but definitely not his best.

He debuted on the espionage novel stage around the same period when Le Carré wrote The Spy Who Came In From The Cold and Len Deighton The Ipcress File, but - while his subsequent production brought him into the genre gotha - The Cold War Swap was certainly not at the same level of his peers.

We are in the middle of the cold war, in Berlin: it doesn't get much better...the Wall, checkpoint Charlie, double and triple agents and all the paraphernalia of the genre are there, but the story is a small story, it lacks the breadth and complexity that some of his future books will offer. ]]> Review7490223947 Sat, 19 Apr 2025 23:11:30 -0700 /review/show/7490223947 Jak60 gave 1 star to The Lion Women of Tehran (Hardcover) by Marjan Kamali
Based on the blurbs I was expecting an engagé type of novel, the equivalent of of what Susan Abulhawa does for the Palestinian cause applied to the women struggles in Iran, or like the movie Reading Lolita in Tehran. There would be no lack of material for that.

Instead what I found in my hands was a sugary YA romance, cheesy dialogues and flat characters. The plot? All about parties, flirting, dresses, fiancés, beauty salons, frills, the "dolce vita" under the rule of Reza Shah of Persia...In the second half it gets down to political and societal issues a bit more but staying a rather superficial level. All in all, a rather juvenile book.

A last remark: Mrs Kamali sprinkles her pages with bits and pieces of the local language just to offer immediately after its English translation; a few examples:
"Midooni chi?" Guess what?
"Hichi!" Nothing.
"Bereen, bacheha." Go on, children.
There are dozens of these in every page.
I don't know what the writer thought of accomplishing with this, I know I wouldn't learn Farsi through those soundbites, maybe she just wanted to show off she knows her stuff; fact is, I found such whim rather annoying and patronising ("I know it and now I'll explain it to you") ]]> Review7383889482 Fri, 18 Apr 2025 08:33:07 -0700 /review/show/7383889482 Jak60 gave 5 stars to The Blue Between Sky and Water (Kindle Edition) by Susan Abulhawa
I like Susan Abulhawa's prose a lot: so simple and linear yet so evocative and vivid. Some call it sentimental (perhaps not without a slight, non unintentional touch of scorn); it sounds more like lyrical to me.

This is the third book I read by the author and, while one might like one more than the others, the quality of the writing remains the same, and that is very high.

It is a fact that, in order to appreciate Mrs Abulhawa's books, one must be equipped with a mindset of compassion, that sentiment that the Latins called "Pietas"; that is, the willingness to appreciate someone's predicament regardless of whether they're friend or foe, without interpreting it through the warping lenses of our own biases.

But this is a good in short supply in today's culture where more and more people are blinded by ferocious partisanship, splitting the world in two, black and white, right and wrong. Susan Abulhawa's books are a testimony of deeply personal life experiences, and rather tragic ones at that, it is the tragedy seen through the eyes of a Palestinian, so don't expect any historical objectivity (assuming such a thing exists).

However painful the situations she depicts, I never found Mrs Abulhawa wallowing in the sorrow of her characters, she rather prefers to let them talk for themselves; a perfect example of showing rather than telling.

The Naqba is a constant and central theme in the author's books, seen as the deep root of the conflict, the "original sin". While Mornings in Jenin is focused on Palestinians displaced in the West Bank, The Blue between Sky and Sea is about Gaza; and this, for obvious reasons, makes the book resonate even more vividly in these days.

In particular, this is the story of a family that lived and prospered for centuries in a Palestinian village to be then be displaced as refugees in Gaza. It's a sprawling saga spanning 70 years and four generations, from 1949 to present day. The way the story is sprayed with family mystique, legends, dreaminess and a touch of magic was reminiscent of One Hundred Years of Solitude.

A beautiful, deeply engrossing and moving read. ]]> ReadStatus9319921874 Thu, 17 Apr 2025 10:01:12 -0700 /review/show/7490223947 Jak60 started reading The Lion Women of Tehran by Marjan Kamali
]]> Review7175017920 Thu, 17 Apr 2025 09:48:46 -0700 /review/show/7175017920 Jak60 gave 5 stars to Briarpatch (Kindle Edition) by Ross Thomas
What a splendid read this was! Definitely the best by Ross Thomas I've read so far - and the bar was quite high already.

Briarpatch is a shrewdly concocted political novel as well as an engrossing crime story with a dash of espionage. And Ben Dill, the protagonist is a hell of a character!

The specificity of Ross Thomas is that - while some writers excel in character development, some in world building, some others in plot construct - he does all that proficiently but what he does exceptionally well is that his books are all compulsively readable. His storytelling skills are stunning: the prose flows smoothly like olive oil, peppered with subtle irony yet intense and with some peaks of tension masterfully paced.
]]>