Editor’s note: I chose this book while looking for fiction, a crime story in the bestseller section. What I found was so much more. It takes a few chapters to get used to Whitehead’s writing style (perhaps why he’s won two Pulitzer Prizes) but applying such literary skill to a quirky 1960s crime saga is delightful. Lead character Ray Carney is a bit like Walter White in Breaking Bad (good guy going bad) and following his life in three parts is fun.
Editor’s Note: I walked into a mom-and-pop bookshop in California recently. The owner asked about titles I liked, then handed me this book after some thought. It’s historical fiction drama about two young Russians caught in the siege of Leningrad (1941). (I found out later that Benioff is best known as screenwriter of “Game of Thrones”.) The story’s details can be rough at times, reflecting the true history of the siege but if you’re looking for a well-written page turner, this is it.
Editor’s note: It’s funny that I was told this book is “easy to read” because for me, it was not. Small is a scientist and therefore while more reachable than most, it was still a slog for me, albeit a worthwhile slog. Perhaps you, like me, worry on both sides of the memory equation; forgetting and/or remembering too much. Dr. Small made me understand a bit of brain science and that the absence of balance are the extreme mental diseases dementia and autism. The kind of stuff most of us deal with is just the regular functioning brain, remembering and forgetting as needed for a healthy life.
Editor’s comment: Isaacson rides again, making a well-chronicled figure interesting in a different way, as he did with Einstein and Jobs. His research is outstanding and it helps a non-artist like me that he accompanies most references with pencils, diagrams, notes, paintings and sculptures of the great master.
