Find You First

Finished May 6

Find You First by Linwood Barclay

I find Barclay's books real page turners, and read this one very quickly. It is a standalone novel with stories and characters that eventually cross paths.

One of the key characters, Miles Cookson, a self-made millionaire and technology entrepreneur in his forties has just been diagnosed with ALS. He thinks of his limited future, and what plans he must make. He makes plans to get his brother tested for the disease as well, hoping that it missed him. He also realizes that a decision he made around 20 years ago has ramifications now. When he was tight for money in college, he donated sperm for money. He is worried about any children created with his donations. He is determined to ensure that if they exist, they will be able to afford to get the best healthcare they can. But when he approaches the clinic, he is stonewalled and told that they will not release any information to him. 

As he tries to find a way to reach them, as quickly as he can, we start to learn the stories of other key characters. 

One is Chloe Swanson, a young aspiring filmmaker. Chloe, who was raised by a loving single mom, has recently decided to try and find her biological father, and she is documenting the journey by filming it. She has recently found a half-brother and met him, and is eager to find more information. She is an interesting young woman, bright and thoughtful. 

We get glimpses of other lives, a teen girl who has been drawn into the circle of a man very like Jeffrey Epstein. She wants to get out of the situation that she has found herself in, but doesn't know how. There is also a wealthy New York financier who has a big ego and odd tastes, such as craning a classic Winnebago into his home office. There is a young man, recently moved out on his own, who has been making money through somewhat dubious practices. 

The plot moves quickly and yet the characters have depth as well. You see what motivates them, and why they make the choices that they do. There is lots of action and many edge of the seat moments that will keep you wondering what will happen next and who is behind some of those actions. 

I enjoy this author a lot as he comes up with very intriguing plots that often relate to current events, as well as interesting and complex characters, especially in the series novels. He also includes lighthearted moments of humour. A great read.  

Parallel Lines

Finished October 29

Parallel Lines by Steven Savile

This suspense novel has a unique plot. Adam Shaw is dying of ALS, and his is worried about what will happen to his eleven-year-old son Jake when he can no longer care for him. Jake has Down's syndrome and Adam's wife Lily has predeceased him. Adam works for an insurance company and calculates numbers for a living, and he has determined that he needs 2.5 million dollars to ensure Jake is cared for. Adam can see no way of getting this outside of a unique way of robbing a bank, and so armed with a gun for show, he puts his plan in motion. 

The branch of the bank he chooses is a small one, and he's visited a couple of times before to get the lay of the land, but now that he has put his plan in motion, the other people in the bank and those connected to them also play a role and he can't predict their actions. There are two customers in the bank, a man and a woman, one of whom tries to interfere with his plans. The bank manager has issues and worries that go beyond the current situation. Of the four tellers, one is a widow with a secret friend and a regret, one is just out of a relationship and wonders about her future, one has a strong moral center, and one has a past that makes her a threat. The loan officer has recently had a series of losses in her life and during the robbery has a revelation that is unexpectedly hopeful. The security guard has a past as well, one that feeds directly into the current situation. 

Adam's own body is also unreliable, even with his medications, and he must rely on these strangers in ways he never expected. 

I read this book in one sitting, needing to know what happened to each character

Survivor

Finished April 20

The Survivor by Gregg Hurwitz

This suspense thriller begins with a man standing on the ledge of a high-rise in Los Angeles. He is there because he plans to kill himself, but while he's out there the bank inside is robbed. Nate Overbay, the man on the ledge has rushed in to save people before, but he is haunted by a time he didn't rush in, and his best friend did, and died for it. 

When he looks in and makes a connection with a dying bank employee and realizes more people will die if the men robbing the bank aren't stopped, he looks for a chance and finds one. He stops the robbery, and prevents more deaths, but he becomes known to the man behind the crime, and that is a dangerous place to be. 

For he is Pavlo, a powerful Ukrainian gangster, a man the cops would like to catch but haven't been able to pin anything on, and when he finds Nate, he gives him a task and a deadline, and Nate's teenage daughter Cielle's life is in the balance. The men that Pavlo works with are dangerous and violent and Nate is fighting his own body. 

Nate's PTSD from his time in the military has estranged him from his wife and daughter, but now he is back in their lives, trying to protect them from the attention he has brought on himself. He doesn't know who he can trust, and he has his own demons to deal with. 

But when he discovers the reality behind his task, he wants to find a way to do the right thing and still save his family. 

Nate survived childhood loss, losing his best friend, and his family, but this will be the biggest test of survival for him yet. This is an edge of the seat read, hard to put down and with lots of action and violence. It also has moment of love, intimacy, and truth. 

Last Things

Finished April 20
Last Things: a graphic memoir of loss and love by Marissa Moss

This heart-wrenching memoir tracks Marissa's family life from shortly before her husband was diagnosed with ALS to the time after his death. Marissa and her husband Harvey are on a sabbatical year in Rome when his symptoms begin. Harvey was a medieval art historian, a curator at the Metropolitan Museum in New York City, and a full-time university professor in California. He was working on a long term book project about Louis IX's personal prayer book. The couple celebrated their Jewish heritage and once they return home are immersed in planning for their oldest son's bar mitzvah. The day after the event, Harvey collapses and is rushed to the hospital. They stabilize him and determine that it is some sort of neurological problem. The following month his diagnosis arrives. It's another month before their first visit to the ALS clinic in San Francisco, near their home. Harvey has a particular type of ALS called Bulbar ALS that starts with the tongue and throat muscles. Breathing often weakens before the arms and legs, which explains Harvey's symptoms in the summer. It also advances more quickly than other forms of the disease.
As Marissa is open about the reactions of various family members from anger to distancing to denial, she shows the devastating effects the situation has on her entire family. One of Harvey's legacies to his children is his book, and Marissa works with the assistance of other scholars and finished the book four years after his death. She deals with each of their sons individual reaction to the loss, and on her own life as one of the still living.
The diagnosis and quick pace of Harvey's decline didn't allow for the time she would have wished for to come to terms with it. All they did at the time was react. Writing the memoir helped her to sort it out for herself so she understood it better, deal with her guilt at not doing better in the moment.
In the preface, Marissa is clear about her reasons for writing this book. She shares her story to show that what seems at times impossible pain can be lived through and make you stronger. She wants readers to feel her family's pain, bear witness to it, and gain some of that strength for themselves.
The drawings are simple, but evocative, expressing the emotions of the situations. A moving read.

Every Note Played

Finished June 28
Every Note Played by Lisa Genova, read by Dennis Boutsikaris and Dogmara Dominczyk

This novel was amazing. Along with her own knowledge of neurological diseases, Lisa Genova has really done a lot of research for this book, and you get a definite sense of the awfulness of this disease, ALS, for both those who suffer from it, and those who care for them.
Here Richard, a reknowned classical pianist, is diagnosed with ALS, and we watch how he deals with this, at first alone, until he needs to acknowledge that he needs help.
Karina is his ex-wife, and the two had a long, but difficult marriage, marred with resentment on both sides, lies, betrayal, and unfulfilled dreams. Each had a hand in the derailment of the other's dreams, and the breakup was not an amicable one.
Their only child, Grace, is away at her first year of college, and is at first unaware of the situation her father is now in.
As we move from Richard's point of view to Karina's, we see how the love of music, of piano, that first brought them together, is still a link between them. We see how each struggles with both resentment and guilt over the missteps of their history together. ALS is a disease both predictable and unpredictable, in that you know where it will end, but not necessarily how it will get there. For Richard it starts with his right arm and hand, but he doesn't know when or what the next loss will be. As the disease progresses, we see how he deals with the new loss, and how Karina comes to terms with her role as caregiver.
Each story that I've read by Genova brings me understanding and empathy for those who suffer from these neurological ailments. ALS is a particularly horrible one, and this book makes that clear.