Never Go Back by Lee Child

Back in 2012, a movie called Jack Reacher came to theaters without a lot of hoopla. A few years later, star Tom Cruise teamed up again with its director Christopher McQuarrie for the fifth entry in the Mission: Impossible franchise, and it was based on my enjoyment of Rogue Nation that I went back and watched Reacher. I didn't have high expectations because on the surface it looked like a rote thriller, but I was pleasantly surprised by the main character, the tight plotting, and the action set pieces that had been praised by critics. Jack Reacher was based on Lee Child's book One Shot. This month, the movie's sequel Jack Reacher: Never Go Back is coming out so I decided to read the book that it's based on.

According to Wikipedia, this novel concludes a storyline that Child began with 2010's 61 Hours and continued in Worth Dying For and A Wanted Man, however Never Go Back stands alone and doesn't require knowledge of the preceding books. Former Military detective Jack Reacher has traveled to Northeastern Virginia to the base of the 110th MP, where he used to be the Commanding Officer. His goal is to meet the current CO Susan Turner because he liked the sound of her voice on the phone. Yes, that's his sole motivation at the start of the story, but somehow it makes sense character-wise. He finds that Turner has been imprisoned and replaced, and in two affidavits, Reacher himself is accused of a 16-year-old homicide and of having fathered a 14-year-old girl. In essence, the past is coming back to haunt a man who has always tried to move forward.

Reacher finds a way to break out of the jail cells with Turner, and the two cleverly escape the base and the District of Columbia together. They make their way from Virginia to West Virginia to Pittsburgh, stopping at diners and hotels on the way. Something that struck me as odd about Lee Child's writing is that he specifically describes the roads that his characters travel turn-by-turn, clearly showing he did research about the cities depicted, but we shouldn't need to visualize a map to understand the plot. Also, when Reacher and Turner enter West Virginia, that state's residents are personifications of stereotypes. And the method by which they acquire money and a vehicle for their travels is a convenience that borders on ridiculous. They just happen to come across a burning meth lab with its "cook" already dead and his cash and keys easy to find.

That being said, I found this book a compulsive read. Every chapter ends with a plot twist and both main characters remain likable and intelligent in their handling of difficult decision-making. Turner is never a damsel in distress and displays just as much competence and gusto as Reacher. To get back to the plot, they choose to fly from Pittsburgh Airport to Long Beach, California. (In that chapter, there's a comment speculating that perhaps there are so many flights between the two cities because of films increasingly being shot in Pittsburgh; I think this is a reference to the location shooting for the first Jack Reacher movie.) LA is their goal location because Reacher's alleged daughter is said to be living on the streets there. Along the journey they piece together who has framed them for the respective crimes, and fight off some relentless pursuers  I can't help wondering how effectively the movie sequel will depict the nation-trotting aspect of the story since apparently it was entirely filmed in New Orleans.

This isn't the kind of book that I would usually seek out, but I enjoyed it enough that I look forward
to seeing the movie adaptation and perhaps read a few more in the series. Since Lee Child has written more than 20 Jack Reacher novels as well as several short stories, the film series could potentially go on for decades. And since some of those stories are prequels, the studio could easily cast a younger actor when Tom Cruise is done. Maybe even someone who is tall and burly like Reacher is described in the books, who knows.

To find out more about Lee Child and the Jack Reacher books, check out leechild.com.

End of Watch by Stephen King

This is the third and final book in the saga of retired Detective Kermit William Hodges. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, go back and check out my reviews of Mr. Mercedes and Finders Keepers. Yay self-promotion! Or even read the books, they're good.

About seven years have passed since Brady Hartsfield maliciously ran over people waiting for a job fair with a stolen Mercedes. For most of that time he's been in the traumatic brain injury wing of Kiner Memorial Hospital due to getting walloped by Hodges' partner Holly Gibney at the scene of his subsequent attempt at mass murder. Now the presumably brain-dead Brady seems to be inducing a number of suicides, and the same defunct video game system is found near each victim.

Soon after the first suicide is discovered, Bill Hodges, now in his late 60s, gets diagnosed with late-stage pancreatic cancer. Now he's facing a supernatural killer at the same time as being faced with his own mortality. Jerome's sister Barbara almost gets herself run over while using a Zappit. A particular demo screen on the handheld game consoles has a hypnotizing effect on the player, which is a surefire metaphor for how our mobile devices suck us in. Brady has found a way to modify the game's qualities so that someone's mind becomes vulnerable enough for him to invade it, so he's able to control a body that isn't paralyzed like his own.

This series had not used supernatural elements up to now, but the mind control is brought up gradually. The first few times the reader encounters the characters that Brady is controlling such as Dr. Felix Babineau and Al "Library Al" Brooks, they just seem to be oddly loyal to him or brainwashed. But soon they start acting or speaking like the maniac we got to know uncomfortably well in Mr. Mercedes. This is a testament to King's storytelling prowess; any time a situation is joined in media res and doesn't completely make sense, just keep reading and it will be clearly explained later. Sometimes, his dedication to clarity feels overbearing, like when he recaps events from the previous two books thoroughly enough that one wouldn't have had to read them. Or when he takes half a page to have Holly or Jerome explain a bit of modern technology that would be obvious to the younger set, but I'm sure this would be helpful to the readers who are closer to Hodges' age.

I thought this was a very satisfying conclusion to the series. It left me imagining a TV series that could cover the entire storyline of Hodges and his partners. Although the track record of King TV adaptations lately, namely Under the Dome and 11.22.63 have been less than stellar, I think some kind of take on Mr Mercedes and its sequels could work out well. Any Stephen King fan would be happy with the way the books turned out.

One More Thing: Stories and Other Stories by B. J. Novak

One More Thing is a collection of short stories by that guy who played Ryan on The Office. At least that's how some of you will know him. He also wrote fifteen episodes of the show and this book proves that he's just as funny and insightful a writer on the page as he is for the screen.

All of Novak's stories have a twist that takes them outside the realm of reality. He explores the problem with Heaven being paradise for all its residents, explains the origin of that train-based math problem that everybody knows, and in the final story takes a jab at the publishing industry itself. A recurring element is the sarcastic "Discussion Questions" that appear at the end of a few of the pieces, presenting disturbing queries such as "Do you think Johnny Depp should have driven his motorcycle off the mountain highway to his death? Why or why not?" Sometimes it feels like Novak is mocking  the whole idea of a short story collection, including with the book's subtitle. You would not want to read this book out of order because there are a few recurring elements and characters, which I didn't expect.

Some of these are very short stories, often less than a page or a few lines. With these, he makes his point and moves on.

I highly recommend listening to the audio version of One More Thing, mostly read by Novak, with help from his celebrity friends Rainn Wilson, Mindy Kaling, Jason Schwartzman, Lena Dunham, Katy Perry, and more. The various narrators add variety and immersion to the experience. There's one story called "Closure," as voiced by Novak and Kaling, that one could imagine the broken-up couple being Ryan and Kelly from The Office if they had different names. Except that is, when it takes a turn that is too off the wall and dark to be on the NBC sitcom. Another story features a young girl with a desire to go to Niagara Falls "because a couple from a television show she watched got married there" which is a clear reference to Jim and Pam's wedding. But overall, the author doesn't ride the coattails of his well-known series too much.

B. J. Novak has blazed his own path with this collection, which some readers will call "weird" but I call hilarious and original. Sometimes you can determine exactly what question he asked himself that inspired a story, but other times you wonder where he comes up with this stuff. In either case, he takes things in directions I didn't see coming. I look forward to seeing what else he has up his sleeve in the future.

For more about the author and this book, visit bjnovak.com.

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs

This book was somewhat on my radar for the last few years when it was a best-seller, and when I saw that Tim Burton was directing an adaptation that will be released this fall, I decided to read the source material. Although Burton's output has not been lately what it used to be, the gothic weirdness of this story seems right up his alley.

Jake is an ordinary high school kid with a part-time retail job until he witnesses his grandfather Abraham die. Jake is convinced the perpetrator was a monster but this claim gets him marked as insane. Abraham had spoken of a Home for Peculiar Children that he had stayed at when he was younger, showing Jake some photos (which within the book are actual vintage photography) and leaving a cryptic message behind when he dies. This prompts Jake to travel to Wales to find the titular house.

He finds his way to September 3, 1940, the time loop that the children and their caretaker Miss Peregrine live in. They've lived through the same day for several decades, and the day resets when bombs are dropped on the town. Then there's the fact that these "peculiar" children have abilities such as levitation, invisibility, pyrokinesis, and um, bees coming out of one's mouth. These elements bear a lot of exposition, and I felt like the plot took a while to get going. For much of the book, Jake is hanging out with his new friends and getting to know their world. He struggles with his attraction to Emma, who his grandfather loved while he was there, and Jake isn't sure if he wants to remain in the time loop or return to live with his parents in the 21st century.

It takes about three quarters of the novel for the strange circumstances of Abraham's death to become significant to the story again, and for a major conflict and antagonist to rear its ugly head. The climax is the rollicking adventure that I'd been hoping for the whole time, and then it ends on a sequel teasing cliffhanger. Since at times it's a dialogue-heavy book and relies on the photographs to give visual credence to the story, it may actually work better as a film than as a novel. But then if the movie doesn't make enough at the box office for Hollow City to be adapted, it will become unsatisfying.

For more about this book and the author, check out ransomriggs.com.

Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel

Post-apocalyptic fiction seems to fascinate us as a society, from The Walking Dead to the Fallout games, to the sitcom "The Last Man on Earth". In Station Eleven, Emily St. John Mandel gives us a future world that is realistic enough that she objects to it being called science fiction, since it doesn't depict any advanced technology.

There has been a pandemic called the Georgia Flu that has wiped out most of the world's population. The novel jumps around in time, showing moments both before and after the fall of civilization, and follows a number of different characters in Toronto, Chicago, and beyond. Despite the changing perspectives, it's always made very clear at what time a chapter is taking place. We first meet Kirsten Raymonde when she's in a production of King Lear, and at eight years old she witnesses the on-stage death of her castmate Arthur Leander. This signals the beginning of the pandemic, and twenty years later she still remembers Arthur and the graphic novel written by Arthur's first wife titled "Station Eleven."

Scattered throughout the book are excerpts from an interview of Kirsten conducted by a librarian in the town of New Petoskey, fifteen years after the flu hit. These give more insight into what she has been up to in the intervening time since the collapse, including her joining the traveling group of musicians known as the Symphony. She barely remembers the conveniences of technology that the world is now without, such as air conditioning and airplanes, and children younger than her never experienced them at all. Kirsten and her friend August end up seeking the Museum of Civilization in the Severn City airport that they've heard rumors about.

On Day One of the pandemic, when Arthur died playing King Lear, entertainment journalist Jeevan Chaudary was there to write a story about the play, and attempted futile CPR on the actor. Jeevan had covered Arthur's film career and personal life for years, and serves as a secondary protagonist in this novel. It's through Jeevan's eyes that we experience what things were like within the first few months of the Georgia Flu.

Station Eleven was an engrossing read. All the transitions between past, present, and future were integrated into the story so they weren't jarring, and the characters experiencing the worldwide disaster felt realistic in their relationships and concerns.

To buy the book or get more information, visit the author's website.

Misery by Stephen King

As I mentioned in my review of Finders Keepers, I knew Stephen King had written about an obsessed literature fan before, but I had only seen the movie version of Misery, and had not read the book. It was also referred to in William Goldman's introduction to The Princess Bride, because while Goldman wrote the screenplay, he got to know King as a colleague. Not to mention there's now a Broadway version of the story. So it felt like a good time to finally read this nearly-three-decade-old novel.

At the same time as being a thrilling story, Misery is just as much a look inside the mind of a writer as King's non-fiction guide On Writing. Protagonist Paul Sheldon is the author of the popular Victorian-set books about a woman named Misery, and in the most recent one she has died during childbirth. This does not sit well with Annie Wilkes, who has coincidentally found Paul near her house after a car accident and put him up in her home. As a former nurse, she has all the painkillers he could need, and forces him to start a new book that brings Misery back to life, appropriately titled Misery's Return.

All of Misery is told from Paul's point of view, and we can nearly feel the pain of his crushed legs and his rage and fear towards his captor. Near the middle of the book, we get to see the progress that Paul has made on Misery's Return, complete with the n's tediously filled in by hand to compensate for the broken key on the typewriter Annie provides. I think this device adds to the verisimilitude of the story, since you can see how Paul's typed words deteriorate along with the typewriter (it soon loses its "t" and "e" keys) and his situation at the mercy of Annie. Cut off from the outside world and with seemingly no chance of getting out of the guest bedroom, his writing is the only way he can "escape".

I can tell why this story has endured, and been adapted as multiple forms of media over the years. It's filled with suspense as Annie reveals further layers of her insanity and Paul gets more desperate to find his way out of the house. And although Stephen King has written many stories starring authors, his examination of what drives one to create and sustain fictional worlds (even when not under duress) remains a fascinating and enduring subject.

Finders Keepers by Stephen King

As I mentioned in my review of Stephen King's Mr. Mercedes, that was the first of a trilogy. Finders Keepers is the second part of the series but the recurring characters don't appear immediately, and it doesn't feel entirely organic when they do.

The story starts off in 1978 in the home of acclaimed author John Rothstein. He is known for a trilogy of books (hey that sounds familiar) about a man named Jimmy Gold. Morris Bellamy, who mostly loved the Gold novels, is quite upset with the way the third book ended, and ends up killing Rothstein. With a few accomplices, Bellamy gets away with money-filled envelopes and several Moleskine journals from Rothstein's safe. He later kills the two accomplices and realizes the journals are filled with unpublished writing that includes two more Jimmy Gold novels, which is more valuable to Bellamy than the cash. He ends up hiding both the journals and money in a trunk buried near his house, and goes to jail for a crime he doesn't even remember committing, rather than the robbery and homicides.


That may seem like an exhaustive plot but we're just getting started. About thirty years later, a boy name Pete Saubers lives in Bellamy's former home and finds the buried trunk. Since his family is having financial trouble, he decided to anonymously send the cash to his own address, a couple hundred dollars at a time. Meanwhile, Morris Bellamy has been in jail but happens to be up for parole. Once Bellamy realizes the journals are not where he left them he's on the warpath. When Pete's cash runs out, he tries to find a way to make money off the Rothstein writings but it's not as easy as he hoped, and his sister gets in touch with Ret. Det. Bill Hodges because Hodges helped a friend of hers.


So Hodges and his acquaintances Holly Gibney and Jerome Robinson from Mr. Mercedes finally get involved in the story at this point, and it just isn't handled as smoothly as in the first book, in which they were way more personally invested in the crime. I feel like King had the story of the murderous literary fan in mind and he shoehorned in the established characters. Morris Bellamy will remind readers of Annie Wilkes from King's Misery since she was quite upset with the author of her favorite books, except Annie wasn't as blatantly bloodthirsty as Bellamy. He's also not as interesting of an antagonist as the mother-obsessed Brady Hartsfield from Mr. Mercedes. In this volume Hartsfield is hinted to have gained telekinesis, a seemingly common King trope, but that does keep me interested to see where things will go in the finale of this trilogy. Finders Keepers was compelling enough while I was reading it, but by the end it didn't leave a lasting impression and was ultimately filler.

Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones

In which Liz reviews a book

I read this book is because I really like Hayao Miyazaki's movie and I wanted to read it for myself. I think that the movie is a good interpretation of the book even with the differences; for example, in the movie, Sophie only has one sister while in the novel she has two; in the movie, Howl tries avoiding getting caught up in the war while in the book he tries avoiding the King's order to find Suliman and Justin and kill the Witch of the Waste.

I enjoyed Howl's Moving Castle so much, I kept going in the series and listened to the sequels, Castle in the Air and House of Many Ways. I'd rate them in this order: Howl's was the best followed closely by House and bringing up the rear was Castle. I think that was mainly due to that Castle was narrated by a male character and, for me, it was more challenging to relate to his situation. I liked and identified more with Sophie (Howl's) and with Charmain (House).

Visit Diana Wynne Jones' site for more information about the author and how to purchase her book(s).

Someday, Someday, Maybe by Lauren Graham

Franny Banks is living in New York City circa 1995 trying to be an actress. She set herself a deadline: by the time her boyfriend in Chicago graduated from law school, she should know if acting is her way of life or just something she can say she tried. We join her 6 months till her deadline and she seems no closer than when she started. We meet her roommates, Jane and Dan: Jane is a production assistant and Franny's cheerleader and Dan is the engaged guy trying to write a science fiction screenplay.

It was not until the end of chapter 29 (of 32) that I saw what Graham was trying to say with this book. Prior to this point in the novel, we've been following a jaded Franny in her in her every day life: acting classes, auditions, dating, agents.. Franny has lost hope and Dan tries to cheer her up by describing the character in a J.D. Salinger story that Franny is named her after: J.D. Salinger's Franny carries around a book, The Way of the Pilgrim, which says that repetition brings enlightenment. I prefer how Dan interprets it: "the idea that quantity becomes quality." Throughout the whole book Graham's Franny has been filling her Filofax and Dan tries to get her to understand that if she "keeps filling up the pages" that "something is bound to happen." And so I found myself understanding the beauty of Franny's life as told by Lauren Graham.

I started reading it but I ended up listening to the audiobook which is read by Lauren Graham. And I thought that was really great: an actress reading her own book so you could really hear what she meant with her words. I have no doubt that listening to that audiobook gave me a better understanding of the exact tone was trying to convey from her novel. I liked it. Oh and I have to mention that the #1 reason I decided to read the book in the first place is because I really liked Lauren Graham as Lorelai Gilmore in Gilmore Girls.

Visit Lauren Graham's site for more information about the author and how to purchase her book(s).

Mr. Mercedes by Stephen King

I have been a long time fan of Stephen King, who has earned a reputation as horror writer, but I think he's just as compelling when stepping outside of that genre. Mr. Mercedes is what King calls "his first hard-boiled detective book," being the story of a retired police detective who is taunted by a killer who got away with his crime.

Bill Hodges is deep in self loathing and considering using his father's revolver to end his life when he gets a creepy letter. The writer alleges to be behind a vehicular massacre that occurred a year earlier, mowing down a crowd waiting to get in to a job fair. The Mercedes-Benz used in the crime was stolen from a woman named Olivia Trelawney, driven to suicide from guilt when she became convinced that she left her keys in the car. Hodges falls in love with Olivia's daughter Janey while she helps him unravel the case, and a teenager named Jerome who lives in the neighborhood also provides some ahead-of-his-age wisdom.

The reader gets almost as much time in the mind of the retired detective as we do with Brady Hartsfield, who in the letter to Hodges refers to himself as the "perk" who ran down those unfortunate people. Brady, like Psycho's Norman Bates, is obsessed with his mother to an unhealthy degree, and gets headaches that signify his murderous urges. Brady works both in an ice cream truck and at an electronics store in the local mall, so he's the type of bad guy who hides in plain sight. Most of the suspense of this novel arises because we know from Brady's chapters exactly what he plans to do, and subsequently we see how Hodges is just a step behind.

This cat and mouse aspect keeps the story engaging, and the characters all have believable personalities. Brady has unwittingly given Hodges a reason to live instead of making the "fat ex-cop" end it all. Hodges and his companions make some human errors during their investigations, and Brady causes some deaths that he didn't intend but still delights in. King gives us plenty of reasons to hate Brady Hartfield, but a flashback gives him a little humanity as well. At the risk of giving too much away, I thought it was interesting that the two main characters never come face to face like you might expect.

The author says this book is the start of a trilogy, which surprised me because it's rare that Stephen King will write sequels, with the exceptions of The Dark Tower series and the recent (and disappointing) sequel to The Shining, Doctor Sleep. I enjoyed Mr. Mercedes, and I definitely look forward to reading the continuing adventures of Detective Hodges in Finder Keepers and the upcoming End of Watch.

For more about Stephen King, try stephenking.com.

Insane City by Dave Barry

Usually when I choose a book to read, I have heard a little about it beforehand and I have a notion that I'm going to enjoy it. However, in the case of this one I chose it because I knew Dave Barry as a humorist and was curious about his fiction writing.

Insane City takes place during the weekend of Seth and Tina's destination wedding in Key Biscayne, Florida, near Miami. Seth is accompanied by his immature Groom Posse who inevitably convince him to drink irresponsibly during his bachelor party. This was all too reminiscent of the movie The Hangover, with the exception that the groom is the protagonist of Barry's hijinks rather than being relegated to a side character.

The debauchery at local bars leads Seth to be separated from his groomsmen and for the Groom Posse to be separated from their luggage and some of the clothes they were wearing. After smoking pot with his fiancee's sister, Seth saves a Haitian family in the ocean who we'd been introduced to in some earlier, humor-free chapters just so they wouldn't joining the narrative out of "nowhere." Seth sets up the refugee family in his hotel room along with a "stripper" his friends hired and her intimidating but lazy "boyfriend." (Really a prostitute and her pimp.)

Through a series of contrived circumstances, Tina's wedding ring ends up in the hands of an orangutan named Trevor, with Seth trying desperately to retrieve it. Meanwhile, Tina's rich father buys a couple of restaurants after getting high on pot brownies brought to the rehearsal dinner by Seth's mother. And Seth has a series of misadventures with a wannabe model who both think the orangutan is a gorilla.

I'm sorry to say that most of Barry's attempts at comedic situations felt predictable and his characters were all cliches. From the drug humor to the wedding shenanigans to the very presence of a primate, it all seems like things I've seen before and have no desire to ever read again.

Landline by Rainbow Rowell

Marriages aren't easy. Sometimes when the going gets rough, one may wonder whether they are meant to be with this person. After becoming well known for her novels for young adults, with Landline Rainbow Rowell examines a marriage at such a turning point.

Georgie McCool lives in Los Angeles with her husband Neal and their two daughters. For Christmas, they planned to go to Neal's childhood home in Omaha, Nebraska. But Georgie, a TV writer, has to stay in California to write for a new show, so Neal takes the girls himself. Georgie doesn't want to stay in their house alone so she decides to stay with her mother and 18-year-old sister. Georgie's mom keeps asking why Neal "left" her, and Georgie begins to believe her marriage is in trouble despite repeated verbal denial.

To make matters worse, Neal won't answer his cell phone, so Georgie uses her mother's landline to call Neal's mother's house. Neal answers, but something seems off; he doesn't mention their daughters and he speaks as if his father is alive despite the man dying three years prior. Eventually Georgie realizes that she is talking to her husband 15 years in the past, during a similar Christmas week before they got married. She makes excuses to herself at first, believing this to be a persistent hallucination, but comes to realize she may be able to affect her present by changing her past.

The mystery of the phone is a compelling through-line, but what will keep you reading Landline is the relationship between Georgie and Neal. We get flashbacks to how they met and the tension caused by Georgie's close friendship with her co-worker. She also worries that Neal resents living in Los Angeles since that was for her career and there's nothing there for him. This may seem like some heavy drama, but considering Georgie is a comedy writer and Neal used to draw a comic strip, there is plenty of levity to be found between them as well.

Landline is a good depiction of a realistically flawed marriage with an imaginative, thought-provoking fantasy element. Most people have imagined the possibility of going back to correct past mistakes, but usually it's better to learn from them since that's the better way to use our time.

For more information about this book or the author, visit Rowell's website.

The Master Magician by Charlie N. Holmberg

Two years after the events of The Glass Magician, Ceony Twill is ready to take her magician's exam. Things are going well for her: she can switch materials at will, Folding's a cinch, and you get the impression early on that Emery Thane is going to marry her. Enter conflict: the Excisioner, Saraj Prendi, escapes from prison! Then, because of her relationship with Thane, she is reassigned to another Folder for her exam (Pritwin Bailey, who appeared briefly in The Paper Magician as a memory in Thane's heart).

This book was a good conclusion to the trilogy but as a standalone novel, it lacked depth. I find most of the characters one dimensional. In this novel, we meet Pritwin Bailey and his apprentice, Bennet Cooper. Pritwin is a grumpy perfectionist who is not satisfied with Ceony because she does not give him her undivided attention (which, as an actual Folder, shouldn't she?) but we never get into why or anything else about him. And where Prit is unfriendly, Bennet is so friendly that Ceony assumes he's in love with her (and I'm not sure he is) and he does not develop further.

I still really like the world and the mechanics that Ms. Holmberg has created but I think her characters are a bit underdeveloped. Sometimes they seem more like props than actual people. In the previous novels, where you can be distracted by the mechanics of Paper or Glass magic, this one focuses on Ceony's ability to change mediums which, I'm sorry to say, isn't that interesting. And then after everything's all nice and tidy, she ends on a (albeit weak) cliffhanger! It was disappointing. I hope she writes more novels in this world.

Visit Charlie N. Holmberg's site for more information about the author and how to purchase her book(s).

Funny Girl by Nick Hornby

Several of Nick Hornby's books have been adapted into movies (High Fidelity, About a Boy, A Long Way Down, and Fever Pitch), and he's written a few screenplays himself. Funny Girl (no relation to the Streisand musical) is his first novel to not take place in the modern age, deals with the act of writing itself, and in my opinion would make a good film.

In the mid-1960s, Barbara Parker wins the beauty pageant in her hometown of Blackpool, England, but would rather be known for her sense of humor over her looks. She takes off for London with the goal of being a comedic actress like her idol, Lucille Ball. Her agent encourages her to change her name, and they settle on Sophie Straw. She soon gets an audition for an episode of BBC's Comedy Playhouse, which has long been a springboard for full-series orders of sitcoms.

When the writers of the episode, Tony and Bill, ask Sophie what she really thinks about their script Wedded Bliss?, she prompts them to throw the whole thing out, and on the spot they decide to write a new version based around her. Ironically, they decide the female character should now be named Barbara and hail from Blackpool. Then they change the name of the show to Barbara (and Jim), the parentheses (or "brackets" in Brit-speak) indicating the dominance of Sophie's character over her husband, which does not please her vain co-star, Clive.

Barbara (and Jim) becomes successful enough to run for four 16-episode series (seasons). The lives of the writers and stars are used for inspiration for the show's plots. Sophie and Clive begin a relationship and eventually become engaged. Tony is in an uncomfortable marriage until he has a baby with his wife around the same time that Barbara and Jim have one in the show. Co-writer Bill is a closeted homosexual who writes a novel based on his outsider status, and producer Dennis gets a divorce and realizes he's in love with Sophie. There is some intersection with real events, like when Lucille Ball is shooting Lucy in London, Sophie gets an underwhelming conversation with her idol.

The last couple chapters jump forward to present day, but I won't say any more since you should discover the circumstances for yourself. Funny Girl is a purely entertaining book that explores whether entertainment itself should have a deeper purpose, or if it's "enough" to be writing something that people enjoy.

Go Set A Watchman by Harper Lee

Harper Lee published To Kill a Mockingbird in 1960 and I do not think she expected (or even hoped for) the amount of attention the book has received. It won the Pulitzer Prize and has become a classic of modern American literature. The author herself is an enigma: she does not make public appearances nor communicate with fans and has stated she will not publish another book. So it seemed weird when her lawyer, Tonja B. Carter, discovered a manuscript in the safety deposit box and Lee consented to publish it.

Go Set a Watchman reads like it was not given a professional edit which, given the circumstances, makes sense. I don't mean to suggest it is full of typos and such, but it does lack the polished tone found in Mockingbird. The novel follows Scout, now an adult living in New York and going by her given name Jean Louise, visiting Maycomb and being shocked by all that has changed. I think it reads like a logical sequel; Scout now sees through adult eyes what she thought she understood as a child and the reality disturbs her. That being said, if Watchman had come first I don't think we would be discussing it in English classes across the country. I don't think people would re-read it as often as they do Mockingbird. I don't think Monroeville would have Watchman-themed everything and be thriving on tourism like it is with Mockingbird.

My verdict is: do not go out of your way to read it. And my main reason? Because I still do not believe that Harper Lee ever intended that book to be published, in her lifetime or posthumously. I think, like a lot of people out there, that Tonja B. Carter is taking advantage of her elderly, famous client. When she dies, it will be interesting to see what happens to her estate.