Hitwolf by Fred Adams Jr.

This book, based in the Vietnam War era, pulls us into the slimy underworld of the New Jersey mafia and the ongoing war between two of the mob families, run by Michael Monzo and Martin "Mardi Gras" Stubbs, respectively. But that's not all - Stubbs has gotten hold of a werewolf that he uses to kill his enemies. His werewolf bites one of Monzo's men, making him a werewolf too.

Enter John Slate, former mercenary and current construction worker, who happens to be in the same dive bar with Monzo and Pegg, the wizard who controls werewolves with an amulet. A biker gang comes in and starts a fight, and Monzo is so impressed with Slate's fighting skills that he kidnaps him and turns him into a werewolf to add to his arsenal.

The mob  wars escalate with the addition of werewolves, needless to say. Slate is a little too smart to be held captive for long though.

Although this is not the type of book I would normally pick up, I can truly say that I read it from cover to cover in practically one sitting. There is a lot of gory violence, but since it is fantasy it didn't really bother me as it might in another genre. The characters are interesting and well-developed, and the story moves along at a rapid pace with a cool ending. This book will not disappoint!

Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg

This book is fine for beginning writers, but I do have a couple of problems with it:

One, not everyone is a good writer. Yes, many people have inherent talent for writing, but Goldberg‘s collection of essays seems to suggest that every student in her writing classes had enormous talent that they were unaware of. I am sure lots of people who are told to “just write” will still write badly, so don’t sugar-coat it.

Two, I understand the book was first published in 1986. But when it was republished in 2005, it would have been good to update it a little. For instance, how many writers are sitting in coffee shops all day with notebooks and pens? At least put them in Panera with a laptop, for Christ’s sake. These kinds of references made the book seem horribly outdated.

In all, it is an easy book to read, although I didn’t find it earth-shattering or really learn anything I didn’t already know about writing. It’s more of a rah-rah type of book to give encouragement to those who need it.

Hausfrau by Jill Alexander Essbaum

This is a book I received from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I rated this book a 3 because I struggle with what to say about it. It is a dark book, following the life of central character Anna Benz, who is a very troubled young woman. A transplant from the States who married a Swiss man, moved to Zurich and had three children in nine years, she still has no friends and cannot speak the language. Upon her husband’s encouragement, she enrolls in a Swiss German class. Anna is also in psychoanalysis, but never seems to tell her doctor anything about herself – she only asks insipid questions. In fact, Anna is an insipid woman. She does not live her life, but lets life happen to her in a passive way. If a man smiles at her, she jumps into bed with him and spends her days having sex with several different men while her mother-in-law watches her children and her husband is at work. She does fall in love with one of her affairs, but he moves back to the States and left her behind to pick up the pieces. The other men are used to fill a void that will never be filled.

I found the book hard to get into, because it jumps around incessantly from Anna’s escapades, to her analysis sessions, to her German classes, also jumping around in time from past to present and back again. It was a little disconcerting. The story was compelling enough to keep me reading until the end, but I wouldn’t say it was a page-turner. I just wanted to find out what happens. A book has to be really bad for me to put it down before finishing it.

Essbaum uses German words and their meanings from the German class as reflections of Anna’s state of mind in a clever way, and it obvious she did a lot of research for the book. The writing is good, although not my cup of tea. The sessions with Doktor Messerli became somewhat tiresome and repetitive. There is a lot of sex, which is well written and I did not find offensive in any way. I just found Anna to be like an empty doll, just rolling along wherever the tide carries her. The story is believable and could very well happen in real life; I just couldn’t identify with Anna or have sympathy for her. As expected, Anna’s dalliances come to a head and she goes into a tailspin, but no spoilers here.

The Witch of Napoli by Michael Schmicker

This is a book I received from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This book caught my eye because I’ve always been interested in witchcraft and the occult, ever since high school. Loosely based on the real-life story of Eusapia Palladino (1854-1918), a controversial and famous Italian medium, it blends fact and fiction to tell the story of Allesandra Poverelli through the eyes of her friend and believer, Tomaso Labella. Just 16 when he photographs one of her table levitations for the newspaper, Tomaso becomes enthralled with Allesandra, who is in her 40s. I won’t go into great detail on the story synopsis, as plenty of other reviewers have done so, but the gist is that Allesandra’s powers are challenged publicly, and she and Tomaso embark on a tour of Europe with Camillo Lombardi, a psychiatrist/professor who was a skeptic but became a believer after his own mother appeared to him in a séance. Lombardi arranges the tour so Allesandra can prove herself to the doubters, who do their best to make it impossible for Allesandra to play tricks. Meanwhile, her abusive husband Pigotti is after her, the Vatican is trying to discredit her, and Allesandra is sick. The stress of the tour and her illness make it increasingly difficult for her to perform.

The book is well-written and kept me turning the pages. It made me want to look up Eusapia Palladino and learn more about her, and I found that Allesandra’s story pretty much parallels Eusapia’s. It is an interesting read and would make a cool film.

In the Unlikely Event by Judy Blume

This is a book I received from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

When I got this book, I moved it up to the top of my reading list because, well, Judy Blume. I was excited to get started. But once I got into it, I thought maybe it was a YA novel. Until the first sex scene, anyway. The writing seems juvenile, for lack of a better term, and it is choppy, with short sentences and switching POV every few paragraphs. I lost track of how many POV characters there were. Too many to keep straight.

The fictional story revolves around three actual plane crashes that took place in Elizabeth, New Jersey, in just a few months in 1951-52. The many characters are all intertwined somehow, with the main focus being on Miri, a ninth grade Jewish girl who lives with her single mother, her grandmother, and her uncle, who happens to be the newspaper reporter who covers the crashes. One plane narrowly misses Miri’s school before crashing. The book tells how people’s lives are changed by the crashes – not only that of Miri and her family, but also her boyfriend, her friends, their families, their employers, and so on.

The story was compelling enough to keep me reading, and the characters likeable and believable. It’s just the writing style that I didn’t particularly care for.

Death of a Guru by Doug Greenall

This is a book I received from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

At first, it was confusing, with lots of different characters, and I couldn’t figure out how everything fit together. But once I got into the story, it hooked me and I really didn’t want to put it down. The story of Magnus Larsen, Devon Clarke (a/k/a Dadaram, the guru), and the sisters Anna and Amy, and how their lives are all intertwined, is intricate and fascinating. I’m impressed that this is Greenall’s first novel, because the writing is top-notch. Greenall alternates between Devon’s backstory (clearly announced by chapter titles “The Book of Devon One, Two, Three, etc.), and first-person POV by Magnus. Clarke, a Boston orthopedic surgeon, is said to have healing powers in his hands. His young son dies tragically, and he goes off the deep end, eventually becoming the head of a cult whose followers travel around the world with him on a huge yacht. He goes after and finds Magnus in a remote village in the Far East, but Magnus has no idea who this mystery man is or what he wants with him. Magnus is drawn into the web and his life is changed forever when he realizes what is really going on.

Death of a Guru is a great read. I am looking forward to seeing more of Greenall’s work.

Rain Girl by Gabi Kreslehner

This was a Kindle First book that I chose because it looked like a good story. I had never heard of Gabi Kreslehner, so I wasn't terribly excited about it and it sat on my Kindle for a few months. This week, I had a business trip and chose this book to read while sitting in airports and flying. From the first page, I couldn't put it down and finished it in two days.

A beautiful but troubled young girl, Marie, is killed by a car on the autobahn near a rest area, and police detectives Franza and Felix take over the investigation. The plot thickens with many twists and turns, some that Franza can't handle. Her family has its own problems - her son has become distant and disappears for days at a time, she doesn't love her husband anymore, and she spends a lot of time with her lover. Kreslehner weaves the lives of the main characters, the suspects, and their relationships together beautifully. As the story unfolds and the clues are uncovered, we are also drawn into Franza's life and her inner struggles. The book is very well written and translated into English. I look forward to reading more of Gabi Kreslehner's work.