Highly Recommended Reading: Force of Nature by Jane Harper

Jane Harper knocks it out of the park again with her new book, Force of Nature. In Force of Nature, Federal Agent Aaron Falk, whom we met in The Dry, is under pressure from his superiors to obtain key documents that will support charges of money laundering against members of a family-run accounting firm.

To obtain the documents, Falk and his partner recruit/coerce (as law enforcement does) one of the top management employees at the firm who is not a member of the family, Alice Russell. This setup runs smoothly until Alice disappears while on a weekend corporate retreat, hiking and camping with her co-workers in the wilderness.

Told in chapters which alternate between events occurring during the retreat and the investigation into Alice's disappearance, Force of Nature quickly turns into a suspenseful page turner. Did Alice disappear by choice or was she murdered? If she was murdered, was that related to her work with Agent Falk or was it related to heinous crimes which took place in that same wilderness, decades ago? Chilling!

An entertaining read with lots of contemporary florishes, Force of Nature is highly recommended. 

Highly Recommended Reading: The Punishment She Deserves by Elizabeth George

Elizabeth George's latest book featuring Detective Inspector Thomas Lynley is everything a novel should be: gripping, layered, and thoroughly enjoyable.

In The Punishment She Deserves, the powers-that-be in New Scotland Yard are pressured by a member of Parliament into reviewing the death of a man while he was in police custody. The events occur in a small college town. The dead man was a local deacon who had been accused of child molestation. Local authorities reviewing the death concluded that it was suicide. The deacon's father does not believe the accusation or that his son killed himself. His threat of a lawsuit and pressure on his local member of Parliament result in Detective Sergeant Barbara Havers and her boss, Detective Chief Superintendent Isabelle Ardery, being sent out into the field to determine if the suicide conclusion was reached properly.

Havers is suspicious. Chief Superintendent Ardery is not, although Ardery's attention to the investigation is distracted by the twin issues of deepening alcoholism and a legal battle with her ex-husband over their children. Ardery's problems are just one of multiple threads running through this richly textured book: family dysfunction, more abuse of drugs, and other messy pieces of life are all part of the absorbing story. Elizabeth George gives us a great deal, and it is all wonderfully written. She expertly takes us along with Havers, who is soon joined by Lynley, in getting to the bottom of it all.

The Punishment She Deserves draws you into its atmosphere and keeps you there. This is a terrific read and highly recommended.

Highly Recommended Reading: The Mad Wolf's Daughter by Diane Magras

One of the most entertaining books I've read in a long time is The Mad Wolf's Daughter by Diane Magras. The book's target audience is readers ages 9 to 12, and the lean text reflects that age group, but The Mad Wolf's Daughter is an exciting adventure story that anyone will enjoy.

Set in Scotland during the Middle Ages, the heroine is 12-year old Drest. Drest lives with her father and five brothers; she never knew her mother. The family works together as a household troop, a war-band that goes out to fight and conduct raids. Drest, too, has learned to fight but, because she is the youngest, she has remained home while her family goes out on adventures. One night after her father and brothers returned, very tired, from a raid, a group of knights invade their home turf, a high point of land that extends out into the Scottish waters. On her father's orders, Drest hides from the invaders. And although she escapes harm, her family is captured and taken away by boat.

Drest finds one injured knight who was left behind by the raiders. She learns from him that her family has been taken to a castle and will be hanged in a matter of days. Determined to rescue them, Drest departs for the castle. She brings the injured knight along with her as her captive and bargaining chip. And thus the adventure begins as Drest encounters bandits and witches, makes new friends, hears disturbing revelations, and engages in lots of swashbuckling action as she starts to build her own legend in the Scottish countryside.

The Mad Wolf's Daughter is great fun, a pleasure to read, and a book I highly recommend. Hopefully there will be many more books from Diane Magras in the future. 

Highly Recommended Reading: Lab Girl by Hope Jahren

"I think that I shall never see
a poem as lovely as a tree."
Joyce Kilmer wasn't writing about cactus, but still . . .

The National Book Critics Circle (NBCC) awards are a great source for good books. In 2016 the NBCC award for autobiography went to Lab Girl by Hope Jahren, and rightly so. Lab Girl is the story of geobiologist Jahren's journey from growing up in Minnesota, where her father taught physics and earth science at a community college, to the forging of her own path into science and academia, and the relationships that grew along the way.

What is most striking to me about this book is how beautifully it is written. It is composed as artfully as award winning fiction or poetry. The chapters alternate between Jahren's sparkling discussion of plants and her engrossing personal story of professional and personal struggles and success. The memoir is lean, yet comprehensive and compulsively readable.

If you are looking for an outstanding autobiography to settle into this winter, check out Lab Girl. And to see the nominees for the 2017 NBCC awards, click here. 

Highly Recommended Reading: News of the World by Paulett Jiles

News of the World is a terrific novel by Paulette Jiles. Set in the year 1870, it is the story of a 400-mile journey through dangerous Texas territory by 71-year-old Captain Jefferson Kyle Kidd to deliver a 10-year-old girl to her family.

The girl, Johanna Leonberger, had been a captured by a band of Kiowa in a raid in which her parents and sister were killed. Johanna lived with the Kiowa for four years and fully assimilated into the band. She was returned by the Kiowa under pressure from US Army, but to the great dismay of her Kiowa mother.

They brought her in and sold her for fifteen Hudson's Bay four-stripe blankets and a set of silver dinnerware. German coin silver. They'll beat it up into bracelets. It was Aperian Crow's band brought her in. Her mother cut her arms to pieces and you could hear her crying for a mile. 

Her Indian mother. 

Yes. . . .

The U.S. Army subsequently determined who Johanna was and where her surviving blood relatives lived. Those relatives, an aunt and uncle, paid fifty dollars in gold to have their niece returned to them. Kidd accepts the commission to do the job as it fits into his world. He makes a living traveling to small, isolated Texas towns where he holds one-hour salons during which he reads various news and feature stories from the newspapers to folks who pay a dime to listen. But he also takes the commission because he is the father of two daughters, a good and honorable man, and sympathetic to Johanna who, at just age 10, had already lost two mothers, two families.

This pair of travelers face adventure and danger, growing closer as their experiences build trust and their companionship eases the loneliness that both feel.  News of the World is a very satisfying read set during a turbulent time in a dangerous place. I enjoyed every bit of this book. It is highly recommended reading.

Highly Recommended Reading: Ann Cleeves's Shetland Island Mysteries

I'm totally hooked on reading the Shetland Island mysteries by Ann Cleeves. I've churned through the first three in the series and have been highly entertained, and completely surprised, by each book. The protagonist in the books is Inspector Jimmy Perez. Perez is a native of the islands, which are part of the U.K. and celebrate cultural influences from both Scotland and Scandinavia. Cleeves neatly shows us the uniqueness of the Shetland Islands without letting that background dominate the story; and the story here is murder.

The three books in the series that I've read thus far are Raven Black, White Nights, and Red Bones. All three have great atmosphere, the right balance of suspense and character development, and characters to care about. If you like books by Louise Penny or Martha Grimes, I suspect you'll like these books, too. If you've never heard of Penny or Grimes, but enjoy reading a cozy-style mystery where the featured police detective uses his unique skills to puzzle through a murder, then you will likely enjoy these books as well. Great winter reading. Check 'em out!

Highly Recommended Reading: A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles

Moscow, 1922. Count Alexander Ilyich Rostov, 32-years old, recipient of the Order of Saint Andrew, member of the Jockey Club, Master of the Hunt, and resident of Suite 317 at the Hotel Metropol, Moscow, is a being prosecuted for political crimes before The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs. Despite being in jeopardy with the government, Count Rostov is something of a hero to the powers that be for penning a poem in 1905 that was interpreted as a call to revolutionary action. Subsequent events, however, have brought him under suspicion. The Committee deliberates, and concludes:

Alexander Ilyich Rostov, taking into full account your own testimony, we can only assume that the clear-eyed spirit who wrote the poem Where Is It Now? has succumbed irrevocably to the corruptions of his class-and now poses a threat to the very ideals he once espoused. On that basis, our inclination would be to have you taken from this chamber and put against the wall. But there are those within the senior ranks of the Party who count you among the heroes of the prerevolutionary cause. Thus, it is the opinion of this committee that you should be returned to that hotel of which you are so fond. But make no mistake: should you ever set foot outside of the Metropol again, you will be shot.

Thus, Count Alexander Ilyich Rostov becomes a Former Person and full-time resident of the Metropol; and so the story begins, and it is terrific.

Count Rostov is, as was noted even by The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs, charming. And it is with charm, intelligence, and humor, (and benefiting from a bit of foresight and emergency planning) that he begins his life in his new attic room at the Metropol, a first-class hotel located near the Kremlin and Bolshoi Theatre and patronized by visitors from around the world. Responding to his new, diminished space in the world, Rostov's connections expand to the people in the hotel, both employees and guests. These guests and employees bring to Rostov the pleasure of new and unexpected relationships as well as the tense and dangerous world of  Moscow in the mid-1920s through the mid-1950s.

A Gentleman in Moscow is written in the third person and the omniscient narrator makes his own charming and wise observations.

[Nina] leaned back in her chair and appraised the Count in a manner acknowledging that she may have underestimated him.

Now, when a man has been underestimated by a friend, he has some cause for taking offense - since it is our friends who should overestimate our capacities. They should have an exaggerated opinion of our moral fortitude, our aesthetic sensibilities, and our intellectual scope. Why, they should practically imagine us leaping through a window in the nick of time with the works of Shakespeare in one hand and a pistol in the other. But in this particular instance, the Count had to admit he had little grounds for taking offence.

A Gentleman in Moscow has many bookmark moments. It is a delightful novel that winds up with an exciting, and unexpected, conclusion. It is definitely a "you must read this" book.

Highly Recommended Reading: A Great Reckoning by Louise Penny

A Great Reckoning by Louise Penny is a terrific book. The plot is twisty and engaging, the story is full of interesting characters, and there are layers of ideas and philosophy that make this a tasty novel, not a thin-soup murder mystery (we've all dashed through those, haven't we?). But while the book provides lots of interesting things to think about, there nonetheless is a murder to solve.

Beauvoir looked down at the body
"Suicide?"
"Maybe," said Gamache. "Does something strike you as strange?"
Beauvoir examined the scene more closely.
"Oui. The gun. It's on the wrong side. If he'd killed himself, it'd be on the same side as the entrance wound."
Gamache nodded, lost in thought.

Former Chief of Homicide for the Surete du Quebec Armand Gamache is now in charge of the police academy. The school has been riddled with corruption and Gamache is taking bold steps to right the ship. But the changes he sets in place create more pressure in an already tense institution. And when a murder takes place at the school, the faculty, students, even Gamache himself come under suspicion.

Tied to the murder at the academy is the mysterious map found inside a wall of the bistro in Three Pines, Gamache's home town. Gamache had given copies of the map to four cadets with the assignment of solving its riddle. When one of those copies is found with the murder victim, the residents of Three Pines get pulled into both mysteries.

A Great Reckoning is highly recommended reading.

Highly Recommended Reading: Back Lash by Chris Knopf

If you are looking for a good mystery to read on vacation this summer, then check out Back Lash by Chris Knopf. Back Lash is the seventh book in Knopf's mystery series featuring Sam Acquillo. Even if you haven't read the previous books, you will enjoy this one (but read the others, too, because they're great). In this outing, Sam heads out from his cottage home near Southampton, overlooking Little Peconic Bay, to the Bronx to investigate a cold case: the murder of his father.

Sam's father was murdered forty years ago, beaten to death in a bar in the Bronx. A conversation with the now-elderly bartender who had been on duty on the night of the murder spurs Sam into looking into what happened, and why. Sam quickly finds out that although the crime occurred long ago, there is plenty of present-day interest in keeping a lid on it. He uncovers connections to organized crime, police irregularities and a whole lot of danger.

There is lots of action and suspense in Back Lash. and I found the ending to be a complete surprise. Add to that Sam Acquillo's dry wit and a compelling supporting cast of characters and Back Lash totals up to a great read. Check it out!

.

Highly Recommended Reading: The Passenger by Lisa Lutz

Are you a fan of Gone Girl, Girl on a Train or Luckiest Girl Alive? Then you'll like The Passenger by Lisa Lutz.

The novel begins with Tanya Dubois' husband dead at the bottom of the stairs. She didn't kill him, but must nonetheless take off because her identity can't withstand close scrutiny by the cops. The rest of the exciting book is about her life on the run, and the slow reveal of the reason she initially had to hide her identity.

The Passenger is an exciting and entertaining read. Check it out!

Highly Recommended: "Dear Committee Members" by Julie Schumacher

Let me start by stating that Julie Schumacher's novel Dear Committee Members is funny. It's also witty, keenly observed, honest, and an absolute pleasure to read.

Written in monologic epistolary style, it features a year's worth of letters written by Professor Jason T. Fitger, tenured professor of creative writing at Payne University. In his mid-50s, Fitger's own creative writing and publishing has stalled. In its place, the day-to-day demands of his job, and in particular the writing of letters of recommendation (LORs), consumes all his time. But what letters they are! For example:

Internship Coordinator
State Senator Pierce Balnearo's Office
The Halls of Power
. . .
Melinda is intelligent; she is organized; she is well spoken. Given her aptitude for research (unlike most undergraduates, she has moved beyond Wikipedia), I am sure that she will soon learn that the senator, his leathern face permanently embossed with a gruesome rictus of feigned cheer, has consistently voted against funds for higher education and has cosponsored multiple narrow-minded backwater proposals that will make it ever more difficult for her to repay the roughly $38,000 in debt that the average graduate of our institution inherits - along with a lovely blue tassel-on the day of commencement.

A major theme in Fitger's LORs is society's deflation of the value of teaching young people how to think and write. Perhaps this sounds like dull reading, but author Julie Schumacher masterfully presents the subject with biting humor, often simply by speaking the truth using scrumptious word choice. And through these letters, some sent to prospective employers on behalf of students, others to faculty colleagues, his ex-wife, ex-girlfriend, and his publisher, Fitger himself is slowly revealed. Happily, under the crusty shell is a person we like.

I think Dear Committee Members is a wonderful book and highly recommend it.

Highly Recommended Reading: "Any Other Name: A Longmire Mystery" by Craig Johnson.

This horse in southern Arizona is a long way from Sheriff Walt Longmire's Wyoming home.

But the vibe is similar!

Any Other Name: One of the best Longmire mysteries yet
 in this excellent series.

I greatly enjoy the Sheriff Walt Longmire mystery series by Craig Johnson. In Johnson's latest book, Any Other Name, Longmire is outside his jurisdiction, investigating the suicide of a law enforcement officer as a favor for his friend and former boss, Lucian Connally. I found it to be an exciting and highly entertaining read.

Any Other Name has all the classic characters and elements we now associate with a Longmire mystery: Walt unwaveringly pursues the truth, with a touch of humor and against all the odds (and the elements). And he is aided in the investigation by Lucian, his great friend Henry Standing Bear, and his colleague Victoria Moretti. In Any Other Name, Longmire is also under the pressure of time to both solve the mystery and keep an important commitment to his daughter.

If you are already a fan of these books, just dive right into this one. It is terrific. If you are new to the series, start with the first book and build your way up to this one; it's a great ride!

Longmire newbies: Get volumes one through four in this set.

Highly Recommended Reading: The Son by Philipp Meyer

Philipp Meyer's historical novel The Son, a finalist for the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for fiction, is one of the best books I have read in the last year. It is an unsparing, insightful, and engaging work.

The Son is the story of multiple generations of a Texas family, from homesteading on the frontier to the 20th century oil boom. It begins with Eli McCullough. In 1849, 13-year old Eli is taken captive by the Comanches. Meyer compellingly writes of Eli's absorption into the life of the tribe at this period when the migration of people from the east is decimating the western tribes. Eventually, war, illness, and hunger destroy his band and Eli returns to Texas where he seeks a path of independence and fortune.

In chapters that alternate with Eli's story, Meyer writes from the perspective of  Eli's son, Peter, and his great-granddaughter, Jeannie. The influence of Eli's personality and choices in life profoundly shape these two characters as the McCullough wealth transitions from ranching to oil.

A riveting, multilayered story, The Son is simply excellent and is highly recommended.

Highly Recommended: Saints of the Shadow Bible by Ian Rankin

Inspector John Rebus is out of retirement and back on the Edinburgh police force in Saints of the Shadow Bible.  Returning to the job isn't easy.  On the one hand, the force has changed and finding a place for Rebus in the new order is difficult.  For example, he is now operating at a lower rank than when he retired, and people he used to supervise are now his superiors.

On the other hand, things one might have considered to be ancient history are getting dug up.  The police department's internal affairs investigators have begun looking into whether or not officers Rebus served with when he started on the job cut to many corners, or even committed murder.  Was Rebus involved? What does he know about possible police corruption?

What hasn't changed is that Rebus knows how to solve a case.  In between the internal affairs investigation and office politics, Rebus unravels an intriguing mystery that starts with a simple car crash and leads to bigger crimes with wider implications . . . and death.

This is a highly entertaining and absorbing police procedural.  It also weaves in interesting plot points concerning the upcoming vote in Scotland on whether or not Scotland should become independent and leave the United Kingdom.

Check out Saints of the Shadow Bible if you are looking for a great weekend read.

Highly Recommended Reading: "The Middlesteins" by Jami Attenberg.

By chance I recently picked up Jami Attenberg's novel The Middlesteins and discovered that it is a terrific book, one I highly recommend.  It was one of those books that really hooked me in and I felt at a bit of a loss after it was through. Do you know that feeling? the "now what do I do" feeling after a good book is over?

Briefly, the plot concerns a smart woman in her 60s, Edie Middlestein, who is killing herself by overeating, and how her children and husband react to this situation.  The book isn't a clinical story about disease. Instead it is a witty and engaging story of a family reacting to a crisis: Edie's husband of over 30 years leaves her; her daughter-in-law decides to save her; and Edie herself finds new love.  The Middlesteins is about how people in a family unit act and react to changing circumstances.  It is a wonderful novel, witty and fast-paced.  Check it out!

Highly Recommended Reading: "The Last Summer of the Camperdowns" by Elizabeth Kelly.

If sometime in the next few months you plan to be stretched out on a chair somewhere with a book, here is a title to consider:  The Last Summer of the Camperdowns by Elizabeth Kelly.  I greatly enjoyed this funny, scary, tense, and memorable novel.  

The novel takes place in the summer of 1972 on Cape Cod.  The protagonist is a 12-year-old girl, Riddle James Camperdown.  Riddle witnesses something dreadful and is terrorized into keeping what she saw a secret.  The secret and her fear reverberates, shaking loose other secrets, and changing Riddle and her parents forever.

Elizabeth Kelly's writing is fresh and energetic, and the plot structure is fantastic. Kelly creates incredible suspense and a long note of tension that is broken only at the very end of the book, when much of what we think we know gets turned onto its head.  At the very end, I had tears in my eyes and could only think one thing: Wow.

The Last Summer of the Camperdowns is a very good book and highly recommended reading.

   

Highly Recommended: "The Dog Stars" by Peter Heller.

The Dog Stars is one of those books that is more than just a good read, it is an amazing experience. I highly recommend it to readers who, like me, infrequently read post-apocalyptic fiction; fans of this genre will undoubtedly also enjoy this novel.  It is a moving story about a man dealing with loss, loneliness, and living again.

In The Dog Stars, a flu pandemic, and then a blood disease, has swept through the United States, Europe, and other parts of the world, killing most people and destroying much of the environment. One of the survivors is the story's narrator, Hig.

When the story opens, nine years have passed since the crisis hit.  Hig, a pilot, lives with his dog Jasper at a small abandoned airport in Colorado, just a few miles from the mountains.  Also living at the airport is another survivor, Bangley. Bangley's sole focus is, in this extremely dangerous new world, on defending their turf by whatever means necessary: guns, rockets, grenades, whatever it takes to keep out marauders. Hig understands the necessity for this violence. Most of the other survivors are, he says, "Not Nice." But unlike Bangley, Hig doesn't enjoy the killing.  He does what is deemed necessary to survive.

The Dog Stars is Hig's story of survival, which author Peter Heller writes in a spare, yet powerful style that perfectly draws the reader into Hig's experience. The somewhat jumpy narrative reflects Hig's condition, emotionally and physically.  Although a survivor, Hig did get ill and suffered from high fever for two weeks.  The fever "cooked my brains", he says, and ideas no longer rest comfortably together in his mind.  In addition to a cooked brain, Hig is still shaken from memories of his losses and from the experiences that occurred during the height of the pandemic. And although he is now relatively safe, that safety cannot be taken for granted.

And so here is Hig. Barely surviving. Marginally safe. A man who has lost everything. A poet who must now kill to defend his corner of the world. A fisherman who mourns the destruction of the environment. After all the terrible things that have happened and continue to happen, will he move beyond merely surviving to being happy?  Can he?  That is what we find out.

For an amazing reading experience, check out The Dog Stars.

 

Highly Recommended Reading: "The Round House" by Louise Erdrich

The Round House is already appearing on lists of the best books of 2012, and rightly so.  This finalist for the National Book Award is definitely one of the best books I've read all year.

If you've previously read books by Louise Erdrich, you know that her writing is superb.  In The Round House, Erdrich again satisfies one of Kurt Vonnegut's rules for creative writing:  Every sentence in her book either reveals something about a character or advances the action.  She does not waste the reader's time.  Erdich is in complete control of her art.  In The Round House, she uses her talents to tell a story about a 13-year old boy, Joe Coutts, and his family.

Joe and his parents are Ojibwe and live on the Ojibwe reservation in North Dakota.  Joe's dad, Antone Bazil Coutts, is a tribal judge and his mom, Geraldine, is a tribal enrollment specialist.  One summer Sunday in 1988, Geraldine gets a phone call which prompts her to go to her office.  While away, she is brutally attacked.

The attack is, of course, shattering to Joe's close and loving family. Bazil Coutts, as a lawyer and judge, knows that if there is to be justice for this crime against Geraldine, complicated issues of legal jurisdiction must be quickly resolved.  In the complex world of Indian law, a criminal matter may fall under the purview of tribal, state or federal police and courts.  The precise geographic location of a crime will determine which police force investigates and which court will ultimately hear any criminal case brought on the matter. These important determinations are slowed as Geraldine struggles to recover.  Joe, wanting to help and be a part of obtaining justice, starts to investigate the crime with the help of his closest friends.

As Joe's investigation moves forward, Erdrich does a masterful job building tension, suspense and foreboding.  It is the grown-up Joe who is the narrator of this story, giving an adult's perspective to events experienced by a 13-year old.  This technique also puts the plot's pressure points squarely on the events of that summer in 1988 because the adult Joe shares with the reader some information about what transpires in subsequent years, allowing us to fill in parts of the story on our own.

Supporting the central plot about Joe and his parents are terrific secondary characters and stories that add wonderful richness to the book.  All these elements together make The Round House a transporting, memorable novel.

It is highly recommended reading.


Note:  The 2012 National Book Award will be announced on November 14.

Up-Date:  The Round House won the National Book Award prize for fiction.

Highly Recommended Reading: "Gone" by Mo Hayder.

Mo Hayder's thriller Gone is a first-rate mystery, full of tension and plot twists.  Winner of the 2012 Edgar Award, Gone features Detective Jack Caffrey of  Bristol's Major Crime Investigation Unit.  The unit is investigating a car jacking.  Rose Bradley was loading groceries into her car when a man wearing a Santa Clause mask rushed up, threw her aside, grabbed the keys off the seat, started the vehicle and roared away.  Bad, yes.  But here is what's really awful:  Rose's 11-year old daughter was in the back seat of the stolen car.  

Caffrey knows that when a carjacker realizes that he has made a mistake such as this, statistics show that 'jacker drops off the passenger within three hours.  The trouble is, the clock is running down and the girl is not back.  Was the thief after the car or the daughter?

To avoid spoiling any bit of the suspense in Gone, that's as much of a plot summary as I will provide for this clever, chilling - but not macabre - book.  Mystery fans and fans of police procedural books will definitely enjoy reading Gone.  

Read "When God was a Rabbit" by Sarah Winman: It's a Wonderful and Original Novel.

About one-quarter of the way through When God was a Rabbit, I was overwhelmed by how good this books is and wanted to immediately hand copies of it to my friends and insist they read it right away.  While such a purchase is not in this blog's budget, I can urge you all to go out and get this book.  I think you'll agree that it's terrific.

When God was a Rabbit is set primarily in the United Kingdom, with some key events taking place in New York around September 11, 2001.  The main character, Elly, is born in 1968.  The story follows Elly, her family and friends over the course of the next four decades.

In particular, the story looks at Elly's strong relationship with her older brother, Joe, and her best friend, Jenny.  Over the years both good and very bad things happen to these characters - there are as many ups and downs recorded in this novel as there are in an electrocardiogram report.  But through all of the gains and losses, there is a wonderful warmth, kindness and vulnerability in the main characters.  There is also great humor and comedy, much of it dark, found particularly in the first half of the story when Elly is a little girl.  Combined, these elements give this coming-of-age story a fresh tone and engaging atmosphere.

When God was a Rabbit is an exceptional novel, and highly recommended reading.