'Project Hail Mary' a prayer for a human future

   PLANET ERID - It's hard at the moment to imagine the entire Earth pulling together to save humanity. Really.

     We are facing extinction, thanks largely to human greed and stupidity. (Check out any debate about how real climate change is for evidence of that.)

     But Andy Weir's new novel, Project Hail Mary, chronicles an extra-terrestrial threat that pushes earthlings into just such an unlikely planet Earth scenario - nations working together. The sun is losing its power and the Earth is, gasp!, cooling. Quite the turnaround from what we face today.

     Weir's first novel, The Martian, was a smash hit with readers. It eventually was made into a movie of the same name starring Matt Damon. It was a great film. And for lots of reasons I never read Weir's book.

     But Project Hail Mary has a movie in it certainly. I'll be in line early to see it. And the book is a best-seller.

     The premise is simple. The earth is threatened and the answer to saving the planet lies in the stars. Stars waaaaay away. This threat also presents a menace to other creatures in far-away galaxies. And those other creatures are chasing the solutions just as aggressively as Andy Weir's protagonist, Ryland Grace, a science teacher.

     Grace could be called "The Almost Accidental Astronaut." You will have to read the book to understand why.

    Project Hail Mary is told through Grace's eyes. The timeline bounces around slightly, going back and forth between Grace on the ground on Earth before leaving for his adventures in space, light years away.

     Did I mention Grace's intergalactic meetup with an alien spaceship - and an alien?

     Project Hail Mary gets a little technical in spots. Actually, it can be downright nerdy. But those nerd sections can be lightly scanned and not hurt the understanding of the overall plot. Some of the technical asides are fascinating. Given Weir's background, you can bet the science is real.

   This novel - like The Martian - has plenty of twists and turns providing life-threatening scenarios for both Grace and his newly found alien friend. Yes. Alien friend.

    In the end, most readers will go away satisfied having read a good yarn. And perhaps readers might even be slightly more optimistic about the possible future of humanity. Perhaps.

     Project Hail Mary is available at the Scappoose (Oregon) Public Library on the new book shelf and in bookstores and online everywhere.

(Review by Michael J. Fitzgerald)

'Lightning Strike' novel is electric for readers

 SCAPPOOSE, Oregon - William Kent Krueger's Lightning Strike begins with the trappings of a murder mystery - which it is, in part.

   But before the first chapter is finished, it's clear the novel is also a coming-of-age story, commentary on intermarriage between Native Americans and non-natives, and a sharply tuned look at the interplay of the ultra-rich with the poor.

   On top of all that it's a page turner that's almost impossible to put down.

   The story is set in the early 1960s in the area around Minnesota's Iron Lake - a real place you can look up if you want to see it though a non-fiction lens. But Krueger has created a detailed fictional world that should make most readers feel as if they visited.

   Lightning Strike also is a short course in the culture of the Native American Ojibwe tribe, highlighted by the clash between non-Ojibwe law enforcement and the tribal members over two Native American deaths. The clash pieces point out the beliefs of the Ojibwe and how difficult it is for the non-Objiwe to relate.

   The story is told through the eyes of 12-year-old Cork O'Connor, who is also the main character in other Krueger works.

   The chapters are relatively short. Some end with cliffhanger episodes, many have a philosophical ending that has readers pondering.

   Besides a solid mystery yarn, Lightning Strike is also often a warm family tale. But, a warning. There's plenty of heartache lurking, too.

 If this latest William Kent Krueger novel strikes a chord with you, Krueger has a long list of other books that have garnered excellent reviews, too. Krueger is a NY Times best-selling author and lives in St. Paul Minnesota with his family.

  Lightning Strike was published by Atria Books, an imprint of Simon and Schuster of NY. It's available on the new book shelf at the Scappoose Public Library in Scappoose, Oregon and bookstores.

(Review by Michael J. Fitzgerald)

Dipping a toe into the 'chick lit' genre

WATKINS GLEN, New York - When I picked up a copy of the novel Saving Grace (St. Martin's Press, 2014) the opening chapter grabbed me right away with a description of a cranky novelist and the tension between he and his cookbook-writing wife.

Not that I am a cranky novelist. You hear me? I'm not!

But the compelling story about their relationship gradually shifts into a tale about mental illness, jealousy, betrayal and evil intrigue.

Lots of evil intrigue. (Oh! And for the record, the husband/novelist is not the one with mental problems.)

Early on, Saving Grace author Jane Green introduces a young woman to work with she and her husband as a family assistant. Readers of novels like this immediately see the red flags and think they know what's going to happen.

They're wrong.

But I said readers of novels like this because Jane Green is considered practically the inventor of the genre of literature known as 'chick lit,' focusing on women and relationships in novels that are snapped up by women. (Please note, I resisted all temptations here to inject some stereotypical male comment about the proclivities and habits of women.)

I didn't realize I was reading chick lit until I looked up Ms. Green's other work and to contact her about a detail that disturbed me in the book.

As write my novels, I am extremely careful to ensure that details are, well, as truthful as can be. I don't change the speed of light, alter gravity, make up statistics or have Lincoln assassinated by a cruise missile.

Author Jane Green

What caught my eye was a section in which the author's wife is discussing bi-polar disorder with her doctor. In the course of that conversation, the doctor says that in 1996 the number of people diagnosed as being bi-polar was 1 in 20,000 in the U.S. In 2014 (presumably) that number had jumped to 1 in 20.

Sweet Jesus!

I contacted Ms. Green and asked if we could chat about that detail, which, so far, I haven't been able to track down.

Saving Grace is good read, fast-paced, and transcends any publisher's marketing labels to entice readers to buy a copy.

And it's on the new book shelf at the Watkins Glen public library, too.

Empire of the Summer Moon - and American tragedy

CACHE, Oklahoma - Empire of the Summer Moon (Scribner, 2010) chronicles the rise and fall of the Comanche nation, which author S.C. Gwynne calls "the most powerful Indian tribe in American history."

Empire's cover - with Quanah Parker

This non-fiction book reads like a thriller novel. If only it were fiction, at least the parts about what the United States did to the Native Americans of the Old West. (We weren't any kinder to the tribes of the east, but that's another long tale of avarice, greed and evil.)

This book fell into my lap, literally, while I was moving some books off a bookshelf at a friend's condo in Coconut Creek, Florida. I started reading it and was transfixed. I left that copy on the bookshelf there but was fortunate in that the Watkins Glen Public Library had Empire of the Summer Moon waiting for me when I returned from my trip.

A lot of familiar (and painful) cultural ground is covered in this book. But the writing style of Gwynne has a pulsing beat to it that makes it as compelling as a book designed as a page turner. I suspect he wrote it that way knowing how powerful it would be. There is no dry history in this tome. All the stories he recounts are lively and rich in detail, told through the personal lives of settlers, soldiers, Native Americans and captives.

Oh yes, the captives.

S.C. Gwynne

There are many horrific details in the book about how captives were treated, not just by Comanches, but by almost all of the tribes. Likewise the fate of Native Americans at the hands of U.S. Army are shown, too.

But a major focus of Gwynne's narrative highlights the life of Quanah Parker (whose photo is on the book's cover), once the chief of all the Comanche tribes. His caucasian mother (Cynthia) had been taken in a raid and became the wife of a Comanche chief, giving birth to Quanah before she was brought (unwillingly) to a white settlement.

If you have ever seen the film The Searchers, starring John Wayne, it was based on the raid in which Cynthia Parker was taken from her Texas home.

As a Comanche war chief, Quanah led the U.S. Army on many a wild chase and was feared, hated and by some Army officers, admired for his tactical abilities.

In his later years Quanah became a thoroughly modern American man at the turn of the 20th Century, even once dining with President Teddy Roosevelt.

But I am giving away way too much of the tale.

Empire of the Summer Moon is a riveting story that probably should be required reading in every American high school. But then, it would likely never get approved for any "Common Core."