Page 31 - CALIFORNIA WOMAN - SPRING EDITION 2024 - PDF Format

Below are three book reviews. I am in a book discussion group and these are the books we read in Janu-
ary, February and March.

The following books are available at your local library or via interlibrary loan. I suppose you could also
buy them on Amazon, but why do that when you can get them from your local library.

THE SPY COAST by Tess Gerritsen is the first in the Martini Club series featuring a former spy and
ex-CIA agents. Gerritsen wrote the book series about Rizzoli and Isles, which was a TV series. The book
is about a retired spy (Maggie) who has retired to a farm in Maine where she raises chickens and sells
eggs. Also, in the area are other retired spies that she knew. That is the reason she retired there. One
day a woman named Bianca shows up at her home. She is looking for Diana Ward, who was a spy that
Maggie knew as Diana has disappeared. Maggie does not know where she is. A couple days later when
Maggie returns home, she finds Bianca in her driveway. It looks like Bianca has been tortured and killed.
Jo is the Sheriff. She becomes suspicious of Maggie and the other former spies although she does not
know they are retired spies. From then on the story goes back 24 years earlier. The book skips back and
forth to that period of time and then to the current period of time. The former spies get involved. It does
keep you interested.

THE BOYS IN THE BOAT by Daniel James Brown is the true story of the University of Washington Rowing
Team, who won the 1936 Olympics in Berlin. The main back story is about Joe Rantz, who was one of
the rowers. There is also information on the other rowers, but not in as much detail. There is quite a bit
of information on the designer of the boat and how he made boats like those used. We learn about the
coaches. Interspersed is information about what was going on in Nazi Germany at the same time the
rowers were learning to row and to compete. The movie George Clooney directed is based on this book. I
have not seen the movie. It is interesting book.

THE MIDNIGHT LIBRARY by Matt Haig is somewhat strange. The main character Nora Seed thinks she
has failed at everything. One evening her neighbor comes by to report that her cat has been run over
and killed. This is the final event – she cannot even keep her cat alive and healthy. She decides to kill
herself by taking pills. She awakes in what is called “The Midnight Library” overseen by the librarian Mrs.
Elm. Mrs. Elm had been Nora’s school librarian who had comforted her after her father dies. The time is
midnight and the books are portals to other lives she could have lived. There is also a book of her re-
grets which she is given a chance to change. She tries different lives to overcome her regrets from being
an Olympic winning swimmer, a rock star, an inn keeper with a man she had jilted, a mother and wife to
a doctor, etc. Each of them has something wrong with the life so she returns to “The Midnight Library” to
try another life. After each life the clock advances a few seconds. Does she die or wake up at the end?
You need to read the book to find out. I was pretty sure of the ending from the start of the book. By the
way some libraries classify the book as science fiction. I would not. It is fiction.