CHARGE (What is the author trying to say?): “To detail one family’s discovery of their daughter’s spiritual gifts, their journey to understand about the spirit world and how to balance spiritual gifts with everyday parenting challenges.”

FACTS: As a Christian and a skeptic, I’m not really sure why I wanted to read this book. A woman in England recounts the activities of her daughter, Faith, who she believes to be a psychic-medium. She recounts how she came to learn of the spiritual “gifts” of her daughter and the types of encounters her daughter had with “spirit.” Though her daughter was only four years old at the time of this discovery, it does not seem distressing to the author. Her discussion of the existence of “spiritual churches” was rather concerning. Faith’s father remains a skeptic. Despite her belief in the “abilities” of both her children, the family has chosen to keep those abilities private as a means of protection. Her discussion of auras, chakras, and spiritual workshops was a bit far-fetched. Though billed as a book about her daughter Faith, the majority of the book is about the author’s dabbling with spiritual practices. Parts of the book dealing with Faith are written very poorly, cast as questions and answers. The book swings wildly between food choices, crystals, spiritual healing, and reincarnation, with no obvious organization. I did not find any value in reading this book.

VERDICT (Was the author successful?): Not guilty. I would not recommend this book.

#RaisingFaith #NetGalley

CHARGE (What is the author trying to say?): To memorialize memories of Afghanistan, the place of her birth.

FACTS: The author was born in a time of the most democratic and modern reforms in Afghanistan. Education and professional life was open to women. When the socialists take power and the Russian’s ultimately invade the country, everything changes. The author’s mother and several of her siblings flee to India where the mother has open heart surgery. Enjeela and her remaining siblings make a treacherous journey to the safety of Pakistan with a paid escort, traveling by foot for the majority of the journey. What they learn as they travel, teaches them about themselves, each other, and the world around them. The entire family is ultimately reunited in India and resettles in the United States. The book opens with a description of the author’s lavish life in the US. This should have been omitted, as it makes later contentions in the book about her growing empathy for those less fortunate ring false.

VERDICT (Was the author successful?): Guilty, as charged. The book is beautifully written and is a gritty coming-of-age under extreme circumstances.

#TheBrokenCircle #NetGalley

CHARGE (What was the author trying to say?): To explore how Zelda Fitzgerald’s affair with Edouard Jozan affected the plot of The Great Gatsby.

FACTS: The book retraces the familiar story of the Fitzgeralds’ courtship, marriage, and dissolute lifestyle. Scott encouraged Zelda’s flirtations with other men asd it left him free to write. As the Fitzgeralds lived an extravagant lifestyle, they realized their income was sufficient to maintain them. They relocated to San Raphael, France, where the dollar had a very good exchange rate. As Scott “started a new novel and retired with strict seclusion and celibacy” Zelda met Edouard Jozan, a French Naval pilot to whom she was immediately attracted. Some have implied that Scott threw the two together to provide “more emotional stimulation that would help his writing.” Scott considered jealousy the biggest aid to making monogamy work. The affair lasted five months, but the author believes that “When one compares Scott’s first draft of The Great Gatsby with its final version, the influence of the Jozan affair becomes evident.” The book goes on to chronicle the almost current institutionalization of Zelda for much of their marriage, and the tragic end of Scott, Zelda, and their daughter Scottie.

VERDICT(Was the author successful?) : Not guilty. There was sparse evidence of the connection and the book was filled with references to relatively obscure celebrities with whom this reader was unfamiliar.#

#TheGatsbyAffair #NetGalley

CHARGE (What is the author trying to say?): To explore whether science can created the perfect wife.

FACTS: Is artificial intelligence the wave of the future? Tim Scott is the genius behind Scott Robotics, where his vision is “a society where autonomous intelligent bots are as commonplace as computers are now.” Can we imagine cheating death by transferring our “soul” to a robot – thereby attaining immortality? “Living forever will become as simple as making an upload” For what purpose would the perfect wife be created? As a companion – or possibly for something more sinister? To replace a wife who’s gone missing – or to find the missing wife? Throw in an autistic child and you’ve got an engrossing psycho-thriller. The very realistic scenes of autistic behavior come from the author’s own experience with an autistic son. Who did it – and what exactly did they do?

VERDICT (Was the author successful?): Guilty, as charged. Eerie look at the risks and rewards of artificial intelligence.

#perfectwife #NetGalley

CHARGE (What is the author trying to say?): To write a psychological thriller inspired by a Greek myth.

FACTS: “Alcestis willingly sacrifices her life for that of her husband, Admetus, dying in his place when no one else will.” In the beginning of the book painter Alicia Berenson apparently murders her husband, fashion photographer Gabriel Berenson. She never speaks another word. She paints a self-portrait in the days after the murder and at her trial refuses to mount a defense. She is found incompetent to stand trial and is transferred to a mental hospital. Psychotherapist Theo Faber is fascinated with the case and manages to secure a job at the hospital in hopes of saving Alicia. The ending is not at all expected. I could not put it down!

VERDICT: Guilty, as charged. If you like psycho-thrillers pick up this book immediately!

CHARGE (What is the author trying to say?): To process and overcoming discovering that her father is the BTK Killer.

FACTS: Imagine growing up with a father who led two lives – one as a father, compliance officer, and a pastor’s assistant, and another killing ten people – including an elderly woman in his own neighborhood – all while working for a home security company, attending college, and even working in a office in the police department complex.

Kerri recalls a rather normal childhood with a father who loved his family but often struggled with anger control issues. His arrest caught the entire family by surprise. After he began confessing, Kerri believed that “my whole life was a lie – from before I was born.” How do you pick up the pieces from this kind of betrayal? It is eerie, in hindsight, how the author is able to link the murders with what was going on in their family at the time. How do you respond to the breakup of your family due to your father’s incarceration? Is it OK to love your father if he is a serial killer? Did loving her father mean she had forgiven him? Could she? Kerri relates how her Christian faith has helped her move on from this horrible trauma. After seeing her recent interview on 20/20 it was very interesting to read more details of this horrific situation.

VERDICT (Was the author successful?): Guilty, as charged. This was a remarkable reaction to unspeakable horror.

#Aserialkillersdaughter #NetGalley

CHARGE (What is the author trying to say?): How is love affected by loss, reconciliation, and a 1953 coup in Iran that will change their country forever?

FACTS: The book looks back on Bahman and Roya, two seventeen-year-old students who fall in love in a stationery shop in Tehran in the midst of a city in political turmoil. From the way the book is structured, we know from the beginning that their love is ill-fated and as the book unfolds, we find out why. Bahman disappears in the months leading up to their summer wedding. With this disappearance, the book shifts back into the more distant past, to the life of the owner of the stationery shop who will take on more significance than just their matchmaker. His life will prove intertwined with them in ways that can only be determined by examining the past. Unexpected relationships, twists of fate, breathtaking losses, and poignant reunions punctuate the book. The beautiful descriptions transport you to another place and another time. Emotions run the gamut in a book I couldn’t put down.

VERDICT (Was the author successful?): Guilty, as charged. This book is a jewel – one you won’t soon forget!

#NetGalley #StationeryShop

CHARGE (What was the author trying to say?): To tell the story of the orphan trains of the late 19th and early 20th century, transporting “orphans” from the East Coast of the US to the Midwest.

FACTS: A troubled teen-aged foster child, a 93 year-old woman, and an attic full of memories make an unlikely plot line. Based on the true stories of orphans and other poverty-stricken children removed from big cities and relocated to the mid-West, the novel compresses many of the facts into the story of a survivor of the Orphan Train. As she unravels her story, the retelling acts a catharsis for both the the old woman and the young girl. “What up until this minute has felt like a random, disconnected series of unhappy events she now views as necessary steps in a journey toward…enlightenment is perhaps too strong a word, but there are other less lofty, like self-acceptance and perspective.”

VERDICT (Was the author successful?): Guilty, as charged. This is a beautiful story about a very difficult subject.

CHARGE (What is the author trying to say?): To write a biography of Sandra Day O’Connor, the first woman justice of the US Supreme Court that strikes a balance between her personal relationships and her judicial philosophy.

FACTS: This is an excellent biography of Sandra Day O’Connor, based upon exclusive interviews and first-time access to her archives. She grew up on a ranch in Arizona, as her father’s pet, and graduated from Stanford and Stanford Law School as an excellent student. She was surprised to learn that no law firm would hire her, only being offered a position as a secretary. During law school I was surprised to learn she dated William Rehnquist, and he even proposed to her, but she ultimately married another law student, John O’Connor.

Through stints in private practice, the Arizona State Legislature, and the Superior Court bench, O’Connor raised three sons, was a member of the Junior League, and managed a household. Through snippets of actual conversations, news articles, and correspondence, the author tells a highly readable and credible story of the coming of age of female attorneys in the US.

When Ken Starr and Jon Rose came to interview O’Connor as a candidate for the US Supreme Court, she wowed them with her judicial knowledge, personality, and also her salmon mousse. Her nomination by President Reagan on July 6, 1981, gave women a glimpse into a future that had once been inaccessible to them. The book chronicles many of the cases which came before O’Connor on the court, including abortion rights and probably her most difficult – Bush v. Gore.

The author achingly describes her husband John’s Alzheimer’s diagnosis, which ultimately led to her retirement from the court. Her brief time with John before his illness overtook him and her own Alzheimer’s diagnosis, work to end the book on a low note. Perhaps a more detailed recollection of her achievements would have brought the book to a less abrupt and more satisfying conclusion.

VERDICT (Was the author successful?): Guilty, as charged. This is a definitive biography of O’Connor and a must-read for anyone interested in the evolution of the US Supreme Court.

#NetGalley #First

CHARGE (What is the author trying to say?): To explore the true nature of insanity

FACTS: On an oppressive New Orleans afternoon, the middle Fayette sister disappears. Her disappearance is ultimately traced to a family with secrets – a family wrestling with insanity. The prose is beautiful, but the story is improbable. If you can suspend reality, the plot twists will entertain.

VERDICT (Was the author successful?): Not guilty. The story was unrealistic, more in the nature of fantasy.

#NetGalley #BonavereHowl