Book Reviews

“Sarah From Alaska”

By Scott Conroy and Shushannah Walshe

Public Affairs

301 pages

Whether you support her, can’t stand her or dismiss her a one-shot wonder in a dysfunctional presidential campaign, Sarah Palin remains a force with her new job at Fox News and her recently published autobiography, “Going Rogue.”

For a more satisfying and more objective look at Palin’s career and political prospects than “Going Rogue,” try “Sarah From Alaska.”

The book was written and published late last year by two young reporters who are a credit to their profession, Scott Conroy and Shushannah Walshe, who write that they “doubt not” that Palin wants to become the first female president of the United States.

Conroy and Walshe covered Palin’s 2008 vice presidential campaign, Conroy for CBS News, Walshe for Fox News.

What’s refreshing about this book, with its well-documented sources, is that the authors don’t demean or ridicule the former Alaska governor, neither do they deify her. Instead they concentrate on facts and a remarkably even-handed analysis of her background (star basketball player in high school, student at four colleges, TV sportscaster, reformist mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, governor of Alaska, and John McCain’s surprising pick for veep.)

For the most part, the authors eschew details about Palin’s private and family life and focus on her record as a politician, her political philosophy, legislative agenda, accomplishments, faux pas and failures, and her relationship with key players in her native state and on the national stage.

Whatever Palin’s future may be , this book is well worth reading to learn more than the sound bites tell you about the real Sarah Palin.

— Kathy Engle

“Murder at Fire Bay”

By Ron Hess

Self-published

192 pages, paperback $16.95

Here’s a chance to learn about Alaska without getting cold, and to enjoy a good mystery. Ron Hess spins a yarn of Leo Bronski, a Vietnam vet and current postmaster of Howes Bluff, Alaska. He is transferred from Howes Bluff to Fire Bay after the Fire Bay postmistress is found floating in the bay, a victim of an apparent accident. Luckily, for the reader, Mr. Hess has given us information that the characters don’t have. The postmistress was murdered, he tells us in the prolog.

Leo, chasing his own demon alcohol, is severely missing his wife, and the security blanket of his small town, is now swimming with the sharks. His boss tells him, “Trust no one,” and on his second day he discovers that some packages have gone missing and no one has called the postal inspectors.

Bronski discovers that the post office is being used to move drugs. He knows crimes have been committed but he can’t solve them alone, so he befriends and trusts the town’s young newspaper reporter, Emily Jems. An unlikely choice, but then “Leo,” as his wife Jeanette says, “has always walked close to the edge.”

This is a nice tale that the reader will find suspenseful plus it gives a look at our most northern state. The story moves along swiftly and the writing is smooth.

— Ned Lord

Sneakaboard Press

“The White”

By Deborah Larsen

Publisher Vintage Books, 2003

219 pages, $19.95

“The White” is a moving story of 16-year-old Mary Jemison of south-central Pennsylvania, near what becomes Gettysburg. In 1758, she and her family are taken by a Shawnee Indian raiding party. Her family is murdered and scalped along the trail but Mary is spared and given to two young Shawnee girls as a replacement for their brother who was killed in battle.

Mary becomes a member of the Shawnee tribe. At first she is non-responsive. She manages to close her mind to all but a “pale blankness of non-thought.” She does as told but would not talk to or interact with anyone including her new Indian sisters. But slowly she assimilates into the tribe, and when given the chance to return to the whites and their life, she elects to live among the Shawnee. The book follows Mary, now called Two-Falling-Voices, through 50 years of her life. She marries twice, once to Sheninjee, the leader of the Delaware, and after his death, to Kiokatoo, a famous Shawnee warrior. The two marriages produce six children.

The book describes a life that is hard and often violent and cruel, but tempered with love. Ms. Larsen’s fluent writing takes the edge off the hard times, and the result is a book you will not forget.

The book is based on the true story of Mary Jemison, who after 50 years with the Shawnee, described her life to a physician and local historian. Later the real Mary reputedly said, “… but I did not tell them who wrote it down half of what it was.” Deborah Larsen’s imagination fills in the blanks.

I read this novel in one sitting. When I finished, I felt as if I had eaten a large piece of cake all at once. Satisfied, but a little sad there was no more.

— Ned Lord

Sneakaboard Press

“Wright on Time, Arizona”

By Lisa M. Cottrel-Bentley

Publisher Do Life Right, Inc.

87 pages, $13

“Wright on Time” is a series of books describing the Wright family’s trip around the United States. The reader gets to see how the parents, Stephanie and Harrison, use the adventures as lessons in their home-schooling curriculum for their children, 7-year-old Aidan and his older sister, Nadia.

While the books are designed for home schooling, they look like an exciting read for youngsters in the target age group, 5 to 12, even if they are being schooled in the traditional manner.

Book One is the story of the Wright family’s first stop in their 50-state RV adventure. They start in Arizona and the adventure is a daylong visit to a desert cave.

Book Two has just been released and the Wright’s are in Utah where, in addition to other adventures, they visit a dinosaur dig, have lots of fun and learn about the Allosaurus fragilis dinosaur.

As a reader, I’m wondering how they are going to get to Hawaii. How will they ever get that large motor home across the sea? I guess we’ll just have to wait and find out.

The illustrations are well done and kids should love them. In addition to the book’s illustrations, the Web site offers drawings for kids to download and color. My favorites were Flat Nadia and Flat Aidan. Anyone who was a kid a few years ago probably remembers the classroom contests to send their “Flat friend” on trips and adventures.

—Ned Lord

Sneakaboard Press

“Q is for Quarry”

By Sue Grafton

Putnam Publishers 2002

I’m one of those readers that love chronological mystery novels. Each time a book is released in a series I keep up with, I am granted a few days to catch up with a character that feels like an old friend. When I read that Sue Grafton had a new book out, U is for Undertow, I realized I was four books behind in the Kinsey Millhone alphabetically-titled detective novels.

Q needed to be read.

For those of you not familiar with this series let me briefly introduce you. Kinsey Millhone, born in 1950 in Santa Teresa, Calif., is a single, twice-divorced private investigator. As a former police officer she is procedurally and weapon-trained. She frequently uses her contacts and occasionally resorts to violence throughout the series. What I love most about her is her wry humor and the attitude she brings forth when dealing with bureaucracy. Grafton’s first in the series, A is for Alibi 1982, sets the tone for Kinsey’s life. The series remains in the 80s; no cell phones, minimal computers and a gumshoe pace investigative style.

“Q is for Quarry” finds Kinsey helping two older police officers, with health challenges, do the legwork on a cold case from 1969. Eighteen years ago, Officer Dolan and Officer Stacey Oliphant, stumble upon an unidentified female victim at a quarry on Kinsey’s estranged family’s vast property holdings. Kinsey hits the road with Dolan and Oliphant to revisit people and places noted in this old investigative file, trying to put the clues together and give a name to this young victim. Based on a true “Jane Doe” unsolved crime, Grafton takes us on a trip through small towns in southern California to the Arizona border, tracking down obscure clues and “persons of interest”. Multiple suspects and their family members are interviewed by the threesome — doggedly harassed until they slip up revealing clues and direction for the team to pursue. Family secrets and small town relationships create the unexpected twists that Sue Grafton is so well known for while you travel the dangerous road alongside Kinsey as the quest for Jane Doe’s identity turns into the hunt for her killer!

If you enjoy a good mystery that you can put down and pick back up without having to remember a convoluted plot or follow characters lost in time warps, give the “Alphabet” books a try and meet a new friend in Kinsey Millhone.

— Lacy Nathan

Second Look Books