Category Archives: Fiction

02.10.26
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THE INDIFFERENT STARS ABOVE/DONNER PARTY

Manifest Destiny. A new life in the great unknown expanse of the American West. Hearts and minds full of anticipation as the Donner Party left Saint Louis, Missouri in 1846. All ages, senior citizens to newborns, on board covered wagons filled with life’s possessions, pulled by teams of oxen. After a perilous journey the promised land beckoned.

Daniel James Brown tells the story of the Donner Party in a page turning narrative THE INDIFFERENT STARS ABOVE. The heavens looked down upon the greatest human tragedy of the pioneering westward movement. Meet Lansford Hastings a swashbuckling promotor who had a plan to divert the pioneers from heading to Oregon on the more established Oregon Trail to take the now infamous Hastings Cutoff to a promised land in Northern California. The Donner party after successfully traversing hundreds of miles from St. Louis made the fatal mistake of believing Hastings’s far fetched promises and took the Hastings Cutoff.

The result is a harrowing true story of a fight for survival under the most dreadful circumstances in the snow bound Sierra Nevada Mountains. Eighty seven souls left St Louis and less than half survived. How they survived is at the heart of Brown’s research and storytelling. The word pictures are unimaginable.

Daniel James Brown is also the author of The Boys in the Boat, a far more uplifting story. He also wrote of another tragedy, The Great Hinkley Firestorm of 1894.

01.15.26
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THE SECRET OF SECRETS/DAN BROWN

This is the latest from the author of The Da Vinci Code. Dan Brown’s Robert Langdon ( Brown fans have have met him before) once again is on the hunt, this time in Prague to track down a diabolical scheme to transform human minds into weapons of war. The Nature of human consciousness is explored in a ground breaking manuscript by noetic scientist Katherine Solomon. Both the manuscript and Katherine turn up missing and the quintessential Dan Brown (Landon) search begins through a labyrinth of science, exotic locations and ancient mythology. Get out your science terminology dictionary.

A little slower start than much of Brown’s work but well worth the trek. The romantic relationship helps. The NY Times correctly calls it a breathless chase.

Enjoy

02.24.25
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THE FROZEN RIVER/LAWHON

Ariel Lawhon’s Novel The FROZEN RIVER continues to ride numerous Best Seller Lists. Take her advice and do not read the Author’s Notes before completing the manuscript. There is a backdrop to the story.

FROZEN RIVER is a page turner indeed. The story is set during the mid 1700s along the Kennebec River in Maine when that state was still part of Massachusetts. Meet Martha Ballard a midwife who sees all and knows all in the colonial settlement of Hallowell. Add a murder mystery that brings a cast of family, friends and long standing enemies into the center of Lawhon’s story line. It’s a small town with many not so secret secrets.

A good read by the fire during our frozen New England winter.

12.26.24
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James/Percival Everett/POWERFUL

It is no surprise that Percival Everett’s James is leading multiple Best Seller Lists. A ride on a raft on the muddy Mississippi with Jim and Huck misses absolutely nothing of the strife and life of slaves and their society of oppressors in the American South. The dialogue is real:

Way I sees it is dis. If’n ya gotta hab a rule to tell ya wha’s good, if’n ya gots to hab good splaIned to ya, den ya cain’t be good.  Good ain’t got nuttin to do wif da law.  Law says I’m a slave.”

Funny, humorous and always insightful Percival James has delivered a brilliant portrait as the sounds, words, and message echo in the reader’s mind long after the cover is closed. Why of course.

08.06.24
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TOM CLANCY/ACT OF DEFIANCE

A new Jack Ryan Novel in the Red October genre, this edition written by Brian Andrews and Jeffrey Wilson. Everything would expect from a Clancy adventure, this time featuring the president and his daughter.

Hard to believe it was forty years ago when Clancy’s Hunt for Red October was first published. Like all series the adventures can often be challenging to maintain but Andrews and Wilson give this quick read their best effort.

You can see overviews of nearly all of Clancy here at Gordons Good Reads. I have read and enjoyed them all.

04.04.24
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THE HEAVEN AND EARTH GROCERY STORE/McBRIDE

Characters, Characters, Characters…….all deserving of capitalization…..you will meet them all. James McBride has gathered an endless collection of folks all passing through THE HEAVEN AND EARTH GROCERY STORE...no credit cards and cash not necessary at this Pottstown Pennsylvania “Chicken Hill” establishment. Immigrant Jews, African Americans, White People of dubious distinction, strivers, losers, cultures and subcultures all interacting sometimes positive, oftentimes negative.

THE HEAVEN AND EARTH GROCERY STORE is well stocked with cultural themes leading to a road to an asylum and a rescue that is worthy of a book unto itself.

Another best seller for McBride plus The National Book Award.

01.10.24
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THE LIONESS OF BOSTON/EMILY FRANKLIN

Don’t spoil a good story by telling the truth. This quote from Isabella Stewart Gardner sets the tone for Emily Franklin’s wonderful novel The LIONESS of BOSTON.

If you have visited the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum this novel will add volumes to the dimension of your experience. If you have not yet made the trek read The LIONESS of BOSTON first.

Glass ceilings broken long before anyone coined the term. An intimate look at the Boston Brahmin society of the late 19th Century and how one woman changed an insular world. A story of relationships, family, travel, art and artists and a greater grasp of Henry James, John Singer Sargent and Oscar Wilde.

Emily Franklin creates a new map as you walk with The Lioness the streets of Boston, Venice, London and Paris. You will not tire of the adventure.

11.09.23
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ALL THE LIGHT WE CANNOT SEE/NETFLIX

I disagree with the tepid reviews in the New York Times and Boston Globe about the NETFLIX mini series of Anthony Doerr’s novel All The Light We Cannot See. Of course no mini series or even a full length film can completely do justice to the book but the NETFLIX film interpretation is well worth viewing and I believe captures the essence of Doerr’s novel.

Search Gordon’s Good Reads for my take on the book.

Tune in. You will be entertained.

10.19.23
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THE ILIAD/EMILY WILSON

Some have, but so very many have not read Homer’s THE ILIAD). Emily Wilson’s translation, THE ILIAD, puts this classic within the scope of almost any reader. Wilson has accomplished a remarkable feat in bringing to the reader in contemporary iambic pentameter this incredible poem of over 500 pages vividly telling the mythical story of the nine year siege by the Greeks of ancient Troy. None of the mythical and mortal characters are missing.

What makes Wilson’s work even more accessible is her carefully detailed introduction which perfectly sets the table for the giant epoch. Furthermore, in THE NOTES, Wilson writes summaries of each of the twenty four books (sections) of the poem. However, don’t look for the Trojan Horse in these verses. That story is told in another ancient tale OF Troy, the Aeneid by Virgil.

When I first opened THE ILIAD I admit it was daunting. But once I ventured into the poem it unfolded very logically despite the enormity of the plot and cast.

The ancient story has contemporary meaning. You can raid fine cattle or well fed sheep, and you can trade to get tripods and horses with fine golden manes. But human life does not come back again after it passes through the fence of teeth. No trade or rustling can recover it. (9.324.29)

Cowards and heroes have the same reward. Do everything or nothing-death still comes. ( 9.493.97)

THE ILIAD teaches: In war, killers recognize no binding obligation to compensate the families of their victims. The only way the bereaved can recoup their losses is to kill the killer-whose comrades will demand vengeance in their turn. Killing begets killing, death begets death, and every loss of life generates further loss of life. ( THE ILIAD Introduction P2)

Ancient perspective for the world affairs of October, 2023.

07.18.23
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THE WIND KNOWS MY NAME

Isabel Allende weaves the characters in her new novel THE WIND KNOWS MY NAME with contemporary themes and political consciousness. The book is a perfect combination of fact and fiction just as she accomplished in another novel A LONG PETAL OF THE SEA.

Here, Allende strikes at the heart of the immigration issue while at the same time tugging at the heart with her prose.

Add THE WIND KNOWS MY NAME To your summer reading.