Weekend picks for book lovers
What should you read this weekend? Paste BN’s picks for book lovers include a new thriller by Presumed Innocent author Scott Turow.
Testimony by Scott Turow; Grand Central, 483 pp.; fiction
Escaping Kindle County seems to have had a rejuvenating effect on novelist Scott Turow and his attorney hero, 54-year-old Bill ten Boom, who gets the case of a lifetime at The Hague and some mind-blowing sex along the way.
Testimony — which, don’t get me wrong, is quite entertaining — sometimes veers into Cialis ad territory. After all, what’s more urgent: middle-age male sexual angst, or the possible massacre of 400 gypsies in a refugee camp after the Bosnian war?
Bill, who goes by “Boom,” has left his marriage and packed up his Illinois law office, and is wrestling with the age-old “Is that all there is?” question when he’s tapped by the International Criminal Court to investigate the massacre claims. Is Ferko Rincic, apparently the sole survivor, telling the truth when he testifies that armed, unidentified soldiers rounded up hundreds of Roma in 2004, herded them into a cave and set off explosives?
It’s 2015 and Boom is in Holland, feeling “flighty as a teenager” post-divorce. Watch out Boom! Here comes Esma Czarini, the va-va-voom Roma legal advocate who has only to breathe the word “Bill” to ensnare our horn-dog hero.
Paste BN says *** out of four stars. “Lively prose and terrific cast of supporting characters make Testimony one for the beach bag… a fun ride.”
The Road to Camelot: Inside JFK's Five-Year Campaign by Thomas Oliphant and Curtis Wilkie; Simon & Schuster, 448 pp.; non-fiction
The authors, reporters for The Boston Globe, debunk much of the conventional wisdom surrounding the 1960 presidential election by exploring how Kennedy engineered his way to the White House.
Paste BN says **** stars. “A must-read for fans of presidential history.”
Mr. Rochester by Sarah Shoemaker; Grand Central, 449 pp.; fiction
This novel imagines the back story of Edward Fairfax Rochester, the tormented employer from Charlotte Bronte’s revered novel, Jane Eyre.
Paste BN says *** stars. “Satisfying… there is a distinct pleasure in encountering Jane Eyre’s characters from another angle.”
Into the Water by Paula Hawkins; Riverhead, 388 pp.; fiction
Jules (Julia) Abbott is summoned back to the English riverside town of Beckford after her estranged sister, Nel, is found dead in the “Drowning Pool,” as the infamous bend in the river is called; by the author of The Girl on the Train.
Paste BN says *** stars. “Succulent… Hawkins, influenced by Hitchcock, has a cinematic eye and an ear for eerie, evocative language.”
Letterman: The Last Giant of Late Night by Jason Zinoman; Harper, 301 pp.; non-fiction
The New York Times’ comedy critic looks at Letterman’s life and late-night legacy.
Paste BN says ***½ stars. “A behind-the-scenes examination of the show and the man that amounts to the last word on both.”
Contributing reviewers: Jocelyn McClurg, Ray Locker, Emily Gray Tedrowe, James Endrst