In preparation for my trip to Rwanda, I read a number of books about the country's history of politics, which were all heavy reading.  While reading, it was hard to image what I know to be true about the country now.  This is the story of long-time President Kagame and his mission to move Rwanda beyond its history of genocide to a stable, safe, middle-class country within his lifetime.  It is at once a war story, a political thriller, and a biography.  At times, it is hard to track all the players involved and, of course, a lot of the book is filled with the terror and gore of the conflict that led to the 100 days of genocide in 1994.  Fascinating and hopeful by the end, I am glad I stuck with it.


Recommend.

This was an unusually well plotted story about a writing teacher who steals the plotline for a book from a student. It twists and turns and addresses themes of guilt, ownership of stories, and privacy in ways that were creative and enticing.  I really enjoyed the way the story unraveled, both in terms of plot, but also in terms of the character development and struggles.  It held up through the end of the book, too.


Recommend.

I can't recommend this book just on the basis of the very graphic nature of the violence, particular the sexualized violence and the violence against a very young child, but also just the regular violence that seemed out of proportion to what was warranted by the storyline.  That said, this is a very complicated thriller with a lot of characters to keep track of, some of whom become an important part of the plot at some point, but many of whom do not.  Because of this, it is sometimes hard to place everyone when they pop up, having been absent for many chapters only to return for another bit role at some point or to become a leading character.  This, plus the distraction of the horror of the various murders, the stalking, and the sexualized violence really took away from what would otherwise likely have been an interesting plot.

Not recommended.

A short, quick read about two young adults connecting with their grandparents on a road trip while the elders not so subtly try to set them up.  It is cute and light, but not sexy enough to be actual romance and too old for a young adult type romance. 


Not recommended

This is not at all what I expected going in.  The title made me think it would be another memoir with well-worn thoughts on the misguided use of the death penalty in the States.  After the first chapter, I was thinking that it was going to be a series of fictional short stories about executions, but eventually I discovered that it was actually a novel in multiple timelines and from multiple narrator perspectives that were converging on the opening chapter.  This caused me a significant amount of confusion for a significant amount of the book, which ended up being a distraction from the narrative.  It felt like it was trying to be deliberately obtuse, more like a murder mystery than was necessary since the mystery was revealed in chapter one.

That aside, the crime solving part of the story and, in particular, the young-at-the-beginning-of-the-book detective's story was particularly well done.  Her relationships (to people and her job) and tenacity were remarkably well explored.  The other voices, though, weren't as developed.  This made sense for the executed, since one of the main themes of the book is that despite being a serial killer of young women who fancied himself clever and charming, he was just ordinary an ordinary guy who killed women and girls because he could.  His mother, too, was less complicated, but it felt like her character could have been presented with more layers.   

In all, as a thriller it was a solid read.

Not not recommended.