Friday, May 28, 2010

Child 44

I just finished the book Child 44, the story of a Secret Police Operative in Communist Russia, Leo. Leo is at the top of the game with a promising career until he receives the order to investigate his wife Raisa under suspicion of being a traitor. He knows that if he claims Raisa is a traitor, then she will be killed but he will survive. If he denounces Raisa, then not only he but his parents as well will be killed or sent to work camps. Leo is prepared to denounce her when he finds out that she is present. He decides to say that she was not a traitor, and waits to be arrested. But it is months before that day comes. Finally, when he believes that he is about to be executed, he is taken in to headquarters and reassigned. He is sent down to a small town where he is given the role of simple beat cop. He thinks his life is over, until he stumbles upon the murder of a child. Then another. And another, all killed in the same way. Suddenly, he and his wife are deep into an investigation that leads them back to their old life in Moscow. With all the odds against them, they still must find a way to stop a cold-blooded child killer.

Thursday, May 13, 2010

American Hunger (Black Boy Book II)

After eading Book 1 of Black Boy in class, I decided that I wanted to go on and read Book 2 on my own as an independent reading book, and I loved it. Book 2 continues on with the story of Richard Wright into his years living in Chicago with his family. He struggles through a number of dead-end dishwashing type jobs, and is finally forced to go on the relief system. He cleans hospitals and sweeps the streets for meager pay, all the while beginning his career as a communist. He joins the local John Reed club (affiliated with the communists), and is soon elected president. However, from here, things begin to go downhill. There is much tension between the communist and non-communist members of the club. Fighting breaks out, accusations are tossed around, and Wright finds himself in the middle of it all. As a writer, he recieves criticism for being an intellectual, and is constantly accused of being against the working class. Eventually he is thrown out of the party and the club, and the communists refuse to even talk to him. Even throughout the hardships he has faced, he continues to stay strong and support his family.

Saturday, May 1, 2010

The Enemy

I just finished the next book in the Jack Reacher series by Lee Child, The Enemy. This was different from the rest of the books in the series, where Reacher is an ex-miltary policeman. This book is a throwbackback to New Year's Eve 1989, and continues in to 1990. Reacher is the Military Police Commanding Officer in Fort Bird, North Carolina. He has just been transferred there from Operation Just Cause in Panama, and is not sure why. On New Years Eve, he recieves a phone call about a dead General who died of a heart attack in a sleazy motel room a few miles away from the base. A few hours later, he recieves another call of a murdered Delta Force soldier in the woods around the base. The next day, there is another call that the commanding officer of Delta Force has been murdered in a town a few hundred miles away. Reacher is suspected by the Delta Force members of having involvement, and they will get their revenge if Reacher can not find the real murderer first.