Lucci's List: January 2021

Here are my top picks for the latest and greatest books to start your new year of reading.

"The Book of Life and Death" by Grace Talusan is the Boston Book Festival's choice for 2020's "One City One Story." It was published as a way to encourage people in Boston and beyond to read and discuss literature together and bond through books.

This short story grabs the reader's attention as the first person narrative immediately divulges the secret of the title. Marybelle has compiled a collection of scrapbooks dedicated to tracking the new lives and new deaths in her family. She places a marker halfway in each volume, so that the front is filled with newborn pictures, and the backs are marked by photos of caskets and newspaper clippings describing deadly accidents and incidents. This collection helps her feel connected to her family in the Philippines.

Marybelle left the Philippines as a young woman. Her newborn daughter was left in the care of her mother. As she travelled as a domestic helper throughout the globe, Marybelle devotes most of her time to working and saving money to send back home.

She watches her family change through clippings her mother sends her to add to her current Book of Life and Death. Before the technology that allowed her to experience video chats with her daughter, these manilla packages were the closest she got to feeling a connection with her family. To her, although she rarely got to visit, her family was the most important and cherished part of her life.

She scores a long-term job with an affluent childless couple, and forges a unique bond with them. The husband and wife treat her like the servant she was, but then a special friendship forms between her and the wife. They become like family, like sisters, but there is always that underlying fact that Marybelle is first and always a servant.

After an encounter at a social engagement, Marybelle questions her treatment and her choices in life. Through tears, packets of gold coins, and the pain and pride of family, she accepts her choices for what they were.

This timely tale gives a nod to the current ways of life during the pandemic, and investigates questions regarding the difference between an indentured servant, slave, and domestic worker.

"The Footsteps from Gilgal, The Lost Tribes of Israel Found," by Ann Marie Cologna, is a fast paced mystery entwined with action, romance, and history.

The story begins on a plane. Kohath is on a mission to prove or disprove the validity of a text he acquired through an antiques dealer. His research prompts him to board a plane form Tel Aviv to Denmark, where another copy of the manuscript has been discovered. En route, he meets a fellow traveller and chats about his mission. He arrives in Copenhagen, dead. Was it poison? Did he reveal too much to the wrong person? So begins the saga of mystery and suspense.

The novel flashes back to times BC, reveling snippets of believable excerpts from what could be the Torah. Then the author brings the reader back to the modern 2000s, and to a pair of professors keen on unravelling a mystery thousands of years old.

The cast of characters are realistic and genuine. The relationship between two academics, Hannah and Henry, is familial. Henry is a mentor to Hannah, and feels a fatherly attachment to her. This bond is a refreshing take on interconnections. Even when the lies begin.

Hannah and Jacob become paired up in their academic research in studying the lost scrolls. Working as a team to uncover the mystery they have discovered, they discover answers that could unravel both the Western and Eastern worlds. If their hypothesis is correct, major religions throughout the globe would be impacted so fiercely that they would be forced to relinquish eras of tradition, and perhaps crumble to dust like ancient papyrus.

Distinct in its descriptions and at some times poetic, this book keeps the flow of the past and the present snappy and driven. Prose smooths out the action delightfully.

"The rain stopped, the sky lightening to tallow and the roads less congested which allowed Hannah the leisure of reverie on her way back to New Haven."

I recommend this book to readers of mystery and historical fiction and who enjoy zestful tales of the past meeting the present.

"Drinking Lemonade in Hell: The Story of Gloria & Sadie" by C. Yvette Spencer, is a thrilling drama. From the very beginning, it is a fast-paced rush of action.

Gloria and Sadie are fraternal twins who grow up in the South during World War II. They combat and survive, always together, always rooting for each other. Victimized by incest, physical abuse, domestic violence, and more traumas, the sisters fall and rise together. Even when illness and unexpected death affects the family, they trudge on, choosing to follow their mother's advice of taking the sweet with the sour. Even when life was a living hell.

Every terrible thing imaginable in life was experienced by these two bonded sisters. Their relationship becomes more like mother and daughter as they face their challenges differently.

Christian themes run throughout the book, cementing the characters' outlooks and oppositional personalities.

Told in first person from Gloria's point of view, the dialogue is personable, natural, and effectively adds dimension to the characters. The non-stop action, mystery, mayhem, and suspense make this incredible story a quick read.

"Alter Ego, The Other Me," is part two of two of a graphic novel by Dave Terruso and Nick DeStefano.

Chris Club is a 30 something cop turned private investigator in the midst of a mystery. The local superhero, Blue, seems to emanate from a teen girl's dreams. When the girl, Annie, goes missing, Club must unravel a sinister plot that goes beyond morality and science.

Club's boss, Erika, is a psychopath into BSDM, to the extreme that she uses the blood of her victims for sexual lubricant. As much as Club despises her, a part of him wants her.

Club teams up with Adam, a young man with a secret weapons cache. Together, they outwit Erika and save Annie, but not before more mayhem ensues.

The illustrations tell tales behind the scenes, making this graphic novel read smoothly and quickly. The back stories of the characters, particularly Adam's, lend a genuine touch.

As in issue one, I am skewed out by the romance sparked between the young teen Annie and Club. It is subtle but nasty, and not in a good way.

All in all this is a fast-paced paranormal superhero adventure sure to boost your adrenaline.

"In Hiding" by Caroline Walker is a suspenseful crime thriller about a desperate woman on the run and the relentless bounty hunter who is hot on her trail.

Kate's revenge for her family's death was murder. Now she is running for her life, and from her life. Once a spoiled high class girl, she is now camping out in the woods, stealing motorcycles, and experiencing life on the edge.

Wayne is a bounty hunter with conflicted feelings. Usually, he has little empathy for his prey, but this time, his psychic gift is both helpful and detrimental. He can sense a connection between Kate and him, and can feel her frustration, her fear, and her pain. Even when he is shot, he cannot shake the inner view of her mind.

His place of peace is in the arms of his beloved Lou, the woman he has pledged his heart to. During lonely stressful nights, he reflects on their love; his saving grace.

Just when capture is imminent, a mystery unravels. Who is Kate really, and what are her true motives?

This book is a fast paced exciting read that will appeal to fans of crime novels, with some spicy romance.