Staff reviews of books you may be interested in reading.

The Last Campaign : Robert F. Kennedy and 82 Days that Inspired America     By Thurston Clarke

            Forty years ago, another fateful and historic presidential campaign was being waged.  This book relates the tumultuous, and ultimately tragic events of Robert F. Kennedy’s 82-day run for the presidency in 1968.  Kennedy is shown to be a complex and conflicted man, who seemed to know that running for president could result in his sharing his assassinated brother’s fate.  Yet he decided to run, and during his campaign, he touched thousands of Americans who felt he was the last, best hope for our country.

            In telling the story of RFK’s  campaign, Thurston Clarke paints a vivid picture of America in the late 1960s.  He also humanizes the iconic figure of Bobby Kennedy, who liked nothing better at the end of a long day of campaigning than eating a bowl of chocolate ice cream smothered in chocolate sauce.  Kennedy was known for telling his audiences things they didn’t want to hear; for example, he made plain to college students that he thought student deferments from the draft were unfair and placed the burden of fighting the Vietnam War disproportionately on the poor and minorities.  He was an advocate for the blacks in the ghettos, the Indians on reservations, and the poor in Appalachia.

            Many people have speculated about how America’s history would have been different if Kennedy had gone on to defeat Richard Nixon in the 1968 election.  This book allows us to glimpse something that never was, and say why not, to paraphrase RFK’s favorite quote from George Bernard Shaw.  It is appropriate and stimulating reading in an election year.

            Thurston Clarke has written10 other non-fiction books on topics in American and modern European history, including one on JFK. 

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Certain Girls   by Jennifer Weiner 

The sequel to Good in Bed-13 years later-is the story of Cannie Shapiro and her now teenage daughter Joy, and the complex relationship of a mother and new teenage daughter.  It tells the story of Cannie planning her daughter’s Bat Mitzvah and also planning the birth of a new child with her husband Peter. 

After years of ignoring her mother’s book, Joy reads the book and decides for herself that this story is word-for-word the truth about her mom and how she was born.  This really turns her against her mother until she finds out the real truth that brings them closer than ever with each other.

It’s difficult being a teen these days and being accepted by your peers and this tells of those difficulties even if these teens were “rich kids.”  Toward the end the book got really serious and a little depressing but the ending was good and very hopeful for the future of Cannie and Joy. The book made me laugh out loud and it made me cry.  In addition, the book is largely set in Philadelphia and this adds some local flavor.  I’m a big fan of Weiner’s books and I really enjoyed this one.

Jennifer Weiner is the author of five novels and a short story collection,  previously wrote for the Philadelphia Inquirer and was married in the Mutter Museum.

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A Pale Horse,  by Charles Todd  (2008) (Mystery)

Ian Rutledge returned from the trenches of France severely shell shocked and with a secret.  But neither his condition nor his secret have prevented him from returning to work as an Inspector for Scotland Yard.  In the latest entry in the series, Rutledge is sent to a small village to find out why one of the residents hasn’t been seen for several days.   When he finds nothing helpful, he returns home, only to be immediately sent to still another village where an unidentified dead body has turned up under bizarre and eerie circumstances.

Relationships, especially old relationships, are more important than fingerprints in this series and this is never truer than in A Pale Horse.   Relationships between neighbors, former lovers, and family members all figure in the solution to the mystery (mysteries?).   There are no fingerprints to use for identifying bodies, no crime scene photos or forensic trace.  (When a picture of the dead man is required, the local innkeeper’s assistant who has a flair for charcoal sketching is called on to do the job.)  Rutledge is certain that only by understanding these relationships will he find the answers he needs.

Todd creates an atmosphere that is both Old World and other wordly, where the pale horse carved into cliffs is as real a character as any human being.   England between the wars is a country wondering whether victory was worth the price, and harboring an uncomfortable sense that it’s not over yet.  Rutledge’s secret colors his every action and continually raises a question bigger than who did it.  When a good man has done bad things, is he still a good man?  And how can he keep going?

Charles Todd has written nine books starring Inspector Ian Rutledge.