by Max Brooks
This book was recommended to me by my friend Chase. If you’ve seen the 2013 film adaptation—aside from the global zombie outbreak—this book is nothing like that. Here, the war is already won, and society is rebuilding. A journalist travels around the shaken world, interviewing survivors as they reflect on their experiences during the war.
The structure of the book is engaging. The story unfolds in a non-linear fashion, with different interviewees offering vastly different perspectives and varying degrees of reliability. One account might come from a sleazy businessman who marketed a fake vaccine during the early days of the outbreak; another from civilians fleeing north who resorted to cannibalism; and a third from a special ops team operating in zombie-infected territory. The breadth and depth of these accounts, along with the book’s effort to portray the many facets of the war, are well done. If I’m being extremely nitpicky, I might quibble with a few sequences, but that’s a minor gripe.
I haven’t read much zombie fiction, but this was an enjoyable experience.
I give this book 5/7.
by Matt Haig
This book was recommended to me anonymously. It follows a suicidal woman who is given a chance to view alternate versions of her life.
To be frank, it was quite a letdown. For starters, the plot is so similar to It’s a Wonderful Life that I almost felt cheated by the lack of subversion. The alternate realities were just not that interesting. The protagonist is neither sympathetic nor particularly compelling. And the ending was cheap and expected. The most interesting part of the whole book—the eponymous Midnight Library—is barely explored, instead serving as a mere plot device.
I give this book 3/7.
by John Grisham
This book was recommended to me by my friend Josh B. Here, the famous legal fiction writer John Grisham dips his toe into non-fiction, covering the true story of Ron Williamson—an innocent man who spent twelve years on death row.
The book profiles Ron Williamson's life, starting with his early years as a promising baseball player, moving through his troubled twenties, his conviction for rape and murder, and ultimately his exoneration. Williamson’s story is incredible, but I felt that some of the impact was lost on me because of my law degree—I wasn’t as shocked by some of the more egregious failings of the legal system. However, I was consistently stunned by the senseless motivations of those operating within it.
Frankly, Williamson is not always a likeable protagonist, but perhaps that’s part of the point. Good guy or not, he certainly didn’t deserve the death penalty. There were some powerful moments, but Grisham neglects some of the more interesting elements of the story, choosing instead to focus on repeating certain mundane details.
Despite these flaws, this is still a good read—especially if you have a great deal of trust in the justice system and need that trust qualified.
I give this book 5/7.
by Kristin Hannah
This book was recommended to me by my friend Sam H. Set in occupied France, it follows two sisters as they fight to survive and resist the Germans occupying their homeland.
Two aspects stood out to me. First, I appreciated the portrayal of misunderstandings between characters’ motives. There are numerous characters in this book who know each other but remain unaware of each other’s heroics—sometimes even vilifying one another. The exploration of these secret battles was thoughtful and well done. Second, in the two dozen or so books set during WWII that I’ve read, I’ve largely neglected occupied France. Reading a story about the French, who were not explicitly marked for extermination but still suffered under a brutal occupation, added a valuable new perspective.
At times, this book struggles with how brutal it is willing to be. While unexpected violence can serve a narrative purpose, here it felt forced—as if the author wrote the story and then added shocks after receiving feedback. This introduction of extreme violence clashed somewhat with how often one of the protagonist seemed protected by plot armor. Some of her escapes felt implausibly lucky. But as the book is probably a roman à clef for Andrée de Jongh, I’m willing to let that slide. Fiction has to make sense; reality does not.
I give this book 5/7.
by Ben Macintyre
This book was recommended to me by Taylor V. It chronicles the real story of one of the greatest spies of the Cold War, Oleg Gordievsky. I also learned a fair bit about the post-Stalin USSR and the anxiety of 1980s Soviet leadership.
This book was enthralling. It hit the sweet spot between "this is the real world, not James Bond" and "ok, it's a little like James Bond." As Gordievsky climbed the KGB ladder there was tedium, drudgery and office politics, but as he simultaneously climbed the MI6 ladder there was ideological conflict, secret meetings, traitors, and a few funky gadgets. The world of espionage is inherently filled with unknowns, but Gordievsky may have prevented a devastating war—hard to say.
It's an unfortunate fact that we often judge things by how they end. It is a fortunate fact that the book's climax was excellently executed. The scope rapidly diminishes from the world stage to Gordievsky's personal fate. I won't spoil it , but it involves the execution of a plan discussed many times, but hopefully never used. It was heart stopping and nerve wracking.
If you like spy thrillers, but want a little more realism, this is the book for you. I give this book 6/7.