To fiction or not fiction

Last January I joined Highland Fitness Center. A couple good things have come of it. Foremost is that I’m exercising regularly again. And, during part of my workout (stationary bike) I read – physical books…with paper pages! Because I didn’t own any myself, I had to make selections from my husband’s bookshelf. I read a number of Michael Connely’s books.

Recently, I decided to order a few for myself. I ordered the first two of William Kent Krueger’s books (Cork O’Connor series). In the last month or so, I’ve finished Iron Lake and Boundary Waters. In Iron Lake, I loved the descriptions of winter and snow, and in Boundary Waters, winter is again on its way. It’s clear Krueger knows and loves this part of the country. I also liked his weaving in of Anishinaabe culture and stories.

What I didn’t like is the number of bodies that had piled up by the end of each book. It seemed unnecessary, excessive. I’ll try one more book by him. If the body count is high, I’m done with the series.

Back to my husband’s bookshelf for Harlan Coben: Tell No One. I like the mystery of this one – complicated and twisty! But that’s it.

The narrator frequently says things like “I’ll spare you the clichés…” and then says them anyway. Or, “I know this sounds cliché, but…” Yes, yes, it does. You’re a prolific writer, come up with something else. It happens WAY too often in the first half of the book.  And, by the end of the book….the body count! Crazy!

Obviously, the fiction that I’ve been reading lately has been dissatisfying. So, I downloaded some non-fiction.

Pretty Jane and the Viper of Kidbrooke Lane tells the story of a maid-of-all-work in England who was murdered in 1871. Through police and court bungling and the financial resources of the accused, her assailant was never found. The author, Paul Thomas Murphy, makes a clear case for the son of her employer as the culprit. At about 60% through the book, I was beginning to wonder what else the author could do with this topic and then it ended. The last 34% of the book contains references and notes. Murphy did an amazing amount of research.

Starting with a Ted Talk and ending 19 clicks later, I purchased Why Won’t You Apologize: Healing Big Betrayals and Everyday Hurts by Harriet Lerner. This is a short, fairly common sense book. She discusses the roles of both shame and guilt play in whether someone apologizes or not. She also give a number of concrete examples of non-apologies (e.g., “I’m sorry, but I was only trying to help" – “but” signaling the cancellation of the apology.)

Finally, I’m currently reading Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption. Bryan Stevenson, the author is a southern lawyer who has spent many years fighting for children, mentally ill, poor, and minority people sentenced to life or on death row. We know that these are groups disproportionately represented in prisons. It’s one thing to hear the statistics, it’s quite another to have Stevenson tell a few of the stories and bring the people to life.

For now, then, my favorite books have been non-fiction.