Summerlong by Dean Bakopoulos - (Publisher Summary: A deft and hilarious exploration of the simmering tensions beneath the surface of a contented marriage which explode in the bedrooms and backyards of a small town over the course of a long, hot summer.)
The tense relationship and/or crumbling family novel seems to be a dime a dozen the past couple years. This is one of the good ones. It’s not perfect–the closing chapters of the book are awkward and choppy and the character development is uneven. But most of the story is sexy, appropriately claustrophobic, offbeat, and very, very readable.
Objective Troy: A Terrorist, a President, and the Rise of the Drone by Scott Shane - (Publisher Summary: Objective Troy tells the gripping and unsettling story of Anwar al-Awlaki, the once-celebrated American imam who called for moderation after 9/11, a man who ultimately directed his outsized talents to the mass murder of his fellow citizens. It follows Barack Obama’s campaign against the excesses of the Bush counterterrorism programs and his eventual embrace of the targeted killing of suspected militants. And it recounts how the president directed the mammoth machinery of spy agencies to hunt Awlaki down in a frantic, multi-million-dollar pursuit that would end with the death of Awlaki by a bizarre, robotic technology that is changing warfare—the drone.)
I gave myself a new challenge. I want to start reading at least one nonfiction book per month (or so) about a topic I know nothing, or very little, about. After I listened to a Fresh Air interview about this book, I thought it seemed like a good way to get the ball rolling. This book was fascinating–exhaustively researched and meticulously reported by Shane, who covers terrorism for The New York Times. The content is dense and full of foreign policy nuance that I am, admittedly, not well-versed in, but that’s why I read it. It’s two books in one really: the first about how an American citizen can become radicalized, and the second about the rise of drone warfare in the past decade and the moral balancing act that this new weaponry demands of those who use it. Shane made the multi-layered, murky content as clear as you could hope for–the book was so well-organized, I was never confused about what was happening, when it was happening, or who we were supposed to be following. It sounds obvious, but I’ve a lot of nonfiction that neglects the reader. A loose story structure may still contain interesting facts, but you can’t see the forest for the trees. Luckily, none of that happens here. Shane writes powerfully and candidly, not letting us forget the bigger themes at stake. He closes the book with a nod to the rise of ISIS and leaves the reader, uncomfortably, with that final thought.
The Gates of Evangeline by Hester Young - (Publisher Summary: When New York journalist and recently bereaved mother Charlotte “Charlie” Cates begins to experience vivid dreams about children she’s sure that she’s lost her mind. Yet these are not the nightmares of a grieving parent, she soon realizes. They are messages and warnings that will help Charlie and the children she sees, if only she can make sense of them.)
A spooky first half and the Southern Gothic setting really got me into the story. Unfortunately, a predictable ending and a wishy-washy commitment to the supernatural, “I see things in my dreams” storyline left me feeling meh on the whole thing. It had a ton of promise. The premise was original and creepy. The whodunit mystery/suspense was really well-maintained before Young inadvertently gave too much away all at once. It’s too bad. With an unpredictable ending, this book could have really stood out among the suspense novels I’ve read this year.