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Review of Permanent Record by Edward Snowden

January 30, 2020 by Roger Hyttinen Leave a Comment

It’s actually kind of funny how I stumbled on this book. I was searching my library database for another book with the same title — Permanent Record — and when this one popped up, I requested it straight away. I had heard quite a bit of conversation surrounding this book, so I was eager to delve into it.

Now I realize that some people regard Edward Snowden — one of the most infamous whistleblowers of our time — as a hero, whereas others consider him a traitor. Still, regardless of your stance on Mr. Snowden, his story is fascinating. So Ed Snowden is the person who risked everything to expose the US Government’s enormous system of secret mass surveillance that has the ability to pry into the private lives — including every single text message, phone call, GPS whereabouts, and email — of every single person on earth.

So in Permanent Record, Mr. Snowden tells his story, including his part in building this surveillance system as well as what prompted him to expose it to the public. We also learned about the events leading up to his current exile in Moscow.

I loved the story of his beginnings as a low-level IT working and was amazed at how much his path paralleled my own (I also ran a BBS back on the ’90s and was so excited when I got my blazing fast 2400 baud modem (which means it was capable of transferring a maximum of 2400 bits of data per second. My first modem was 300 baud).

Now there are some parts of the book — especially in the beginning — that may seem overly technical for someone without an IT background. But it’s worth it to stick with the book because his story ends up to be utterly engrossing and quite readable (or at least I thought so).

It was riveting to get the inside scoop from someone who worked in these massive surveillance data centers and to watch the months of careful and meticulous preparation he took before arriving at the day where he let the cat out of the bag.

I also loved the fact that he delves into the subject of how we can protect our privacy — or at least limit the amount of data collected on us. This kind of reminded me of another book entitled “The Art of Invisibility” by Kevin Mitnik, which I consider an essential book for anyone wishing to protect themselves and their privacy while online.

Mr. Snowden also provides a compelling and important response to the all too common reaction of, “I don’t care about privacy. I have nothing to hide.” He clearly illustrates why we should care about our privacy and what it could mean for us if we don’t.

This book touched upon so many different themes: corporate surveillance, government surveillance, our freedom, the role of national security, the role of the press, the NSA, and whistleblowing. So yes, I ended up loving this book, and though I hate to use a cliched term, I do feel that this is an important book for our contemporary society — and not only for those living in the US.

I always find it difficult to rate non-fiction books, especially memoirs, but to me, this one for me is deserving of 5 stars.

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The Rattled Bones by S.M. Parker

January 28, 2020 by Roger Hyttinen Leave a Comment

32033642 SY475 The Rattled Bones is a super-atmospheric ghost story that follows a young woman named Rilla Brae who has recently lost her father and is struggling with her grief as well as her uncertain future. The story takes place in a small Maine fishing community and visible to the town is a mysterious uninhabited island.

One night Rilla sees the apparition of a ghostly girl floating over the nearby island and her haunting yet familiar song reaches Rilla, beckoning her.

The ghosts pull grows stronger until intrigued, Rilla boats over to the island. There she meets a young man named Sam, a university student who’s excavating the island and searching for clues about the island people who were evicted from the island 80 years earlier.

Now, this is news to her, as Rilla has never heard of anyone living on the island, and she is determined and excited to investigate the island’s history. Bit the bit, the island’s horrifying past — and a tragedy that has been kept secret – finally comes to light — a disaster that has a strong connection to Rilla’s own past.

So there’s a lot going on with this story: long-held secrets, grief, and loss, there’s a mystery to solve, there’s the struggle between tradition and moving forward, the connection between the past and present, there’s the horror of racial prejudice and even a touch of romance. And given that this is a ghost story, there’s a delightful creep factor to it as well.

It was so much fun journeying with Rilla, and she began to uncover the island’s strange and unsettling past and discover herself in the process. It’s also an excellent example of how an unnerving and distressing past can resound right into the present in a variety of ways with the uneasy suspense building page after page.

One of the things I loved most about this book was the way the author developed the mystery and then slowly weaved together its strands, bringing the characters closer to each other in the process. This is an atmospheric book that is vibrant with life, rich in culture, and yet, is followed by haunting shadows that make your spine tingle.

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Review of The Night Tiger by Yangsze Choo

January 27, 2020 by Roger Hyttinen Leave a Comment

The Night Tiger takes place in Malaya in the town of Ipoh during the 1930s and opens to a scene in which Dr. MacFarlane, the employer of an orphaned Chinese houseboy named Ren, is about to die. Before passing, the doctor makes one final request of the boy: that he find his missing severed finger lost years ago and reunite it with his body. Now there’s a strong sense of urgency here as Ren only has 49 days to complete the task; if he fails, his master’s spirit will roam the earth forever, unable to rest. Ren then arrives at the home of less-than-respectable surgeon William Acton with a letter of recommendation from MacFarlane, who told Ren before his death that he believed Acton will still have the finger that was amputated during an exploration years before but he needs to find the finger on his own and must not mention it to Acton.

So then we meet a young woman named Ji Lin who, though she has dreams of becoming a nurse, works instead as an apprentice dressmaker to adhere to her oppressive and abusive stepfather’s demands. Because of her mother’s gambling debts, however, Ji Lin also moonlights as a dancehall girl to help pay them off.

One evening, Ji Lin dances with a man and accidentally takes a small container from his pocket, only to discover later on that the object is a test tube with a shriveled severed finger inside. So we can only assume that this is the finger Ren must find and that now her fate will be linked with Ren’s. Desperate to get rid of it, she enlists the help of her step-brother Shin to help get it to its rightful owner.

There is also the fact that a tiger is prowling the town which is blamed on the several bizarre deaths that occurred in the village recently.

There are some who believe that the creature is, in fact, a were-tiger, a creature of Chinese superstition that has the ability to shapeshift into human form. It’s kind of the opposite of a werewolf because here we have an animal that shifts into a human rather than the other way around. At some point in the story, all three of their lives intertwine – the boy, the girl, and the tiger, creating danger for our two main characters. It’s also interesting how Ren and Ji Lin’s lives become linked through dreams and the events in the story.

This was such an atmospheric book with beautiful imagery, and the author has a knack for sucking you right into the story. There were several other interesting motifs as well, such as the repeated theme of the five Confucian virtues as well as the theme of actual twins.

I thought this was a lovely adventurous Asian-inspired fantasy steeped with mythology and it was a blast to read, with its blend of historical fiction, magical realism, mystery, possible murder and even a touch of romance, though the romance was a bit strange, to be sure.

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Review of Cemetery Road by Greg Iles

January 24, 2020 by Roger Hyttinen Leave a Comment

This is my first Greg Iles novel, and I’m so glad I had the opportunity to read it. Holy. Freaking. Moly. What a tale! The story sucked me in right from the opening lines:

“I never meant to kill my brother. I never set out to hate my father. I never dreamed I would bury my own son. Nor could I have imagined that I would betray the childhood friend who saved my life, or win a Pulitzer Prize for telling a lie. All these things I have done, yet most people I know would call me an honorable man.”

Cemetery Road follows Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Marshall McEwan, a man with a somewhat dark and painful past, who has recently returned to Bienville, Mississippi, to take care of his ailing alcoholic father and provide support to his mother. Once in town, he connects with his former lover, Jet, who has married Paul Matheson, Marshall’s best friend.

But when Buck Ferris, who has been a father figure/mentor to Marshall, is found dead, Marshall is convinced that it was no accident and that foul play was involved. Moreover, he suspects that a The Poker Club, the group of rich, powerful, corrupt, and ruthless men who pretty much run the town, is connected.

Marshall suspects that Buck may have made a discovery that could put the kibosh on the new paper mill that is close to opening — a deal that could bring in a billion dollars to the town and greatly enrich the Poker Club members.

Marshall and Jet join forces to figure out what really happened to Buck Ferris and who was responsible.

In so doing, they draw the attention of The Poker Club who doesn’t hesitate to bully, intimidate, blackmail and threaten anyone who stands in their way, especially once Marshall and Jet begin to unearth their dangerous secrets that could no doubt lead to more murder, especially once they uncover Marshall’s own dark secrets.

Cemetery Road is a gritty story with many, many twists, as well as layers upon layers of deception, treachery, and corruption, and the surprises come fast and furious. The author certainly has a knack for making the reader care about their characters, probably because they are so well-fleshed out and fascinating.

I love how multidimensional they all were. They were also all very much flawed — including Marshall, the main character – and as we quickly learn, nobody is what they appear on the surface.

The writing is evocative and atmospheric, which lent a richness to the story, as did the complexity of the plot and had me hypnotized from the outset. Though the plot is complex and the prose eloquent, it is not at all difficult to follow.

The author has spun here a genuinely creepy and unsettling crime and mystery tale full of dastardly characters and a setting where nobody can be trusted, and I found the characters and their motives utterly enticing.

This is quite a lengthy novel — almost 600 pages of dense prose — but it’s well worth the effort because I feel that the story is phenomenal.

The author leads us on an unforgettable journey and in the process, explores numerous themes such as courage, betrayal, grief, family, shame, corruption, murder, greed, friendship, trust, secrets, injustice, and the power of wealth.

The intoxicating combination of an atmospheric setting, morally ambiguous main characters, dangerous secondary characters without scruples, complicated personal relationships, and the overall unpredictability of the tale serves up a genuinely compelling narrative that refuses to leave your mind long after you have finished.

All in all, a diabolically clever saga of murder, corruption, and deception and a solid five star read for me.

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Review of Behind Closed Doors by B.A. Paris

January 23, 2020 by Roger Hyttinen Leave a Comment

29437949 Behind Closed Doors follows a married couple, Jack and Grace, and from the outside, it looks like they have the perfect marriage and that Grace has the perfect life — she has a beautiful home and a handsome, successful husband who never leaves her side. The people who know them call it true love. But things are not as they appear as hinted at by the title, and that is the premise for this heart-in-your-throat domestic psychological thriller. Right from the very start, there is this intense sense of foreboding that grabs you right by the throat and doesn’t let go until the end.

From reading the blurb, it’s pretty easy to figure out what’s really going on. But the extent of it and the diabolical manner in which it’s executed is what’s shocking. I actually thought the blurb gave too much away, and I wish I’d gone into this book without having read it. Still, it was one hell of a hair-raising journey.

I enjoyed how the story alternated between past and present, told from Grace’s point of view. Here we see how Grace met Jack; we see the early days of their relationship and how things ended up the way they are in the present — a living nightmare.

Now there’s really no jaw-dropping twists, turns or surprises (though the ending was fantastic!) and no great mystery to solve. Instead, we follow along with our heroine as she struggles through her terror to find a way out, and it was the anticipation of the unknown — the anticipation of what may be coming that ratchets up the tension in the book. The suspense level is off the charts.

What I found especially terrifying about this story how easily our heroine found herself trapped and isolated, and the realization while reading it that this could, under the right circumstances, happen to anyone was bone-chilling.

It’s quite an intense story and found it difficult to read at times, not because the content was graphic or gory because it wasn’t. Instead, it was the situation of our heroine — one in which every day was filled with terror — how every taste of certain imminent freedom ended in utter disappointment and frustration.

It’s how the author gave us just enough information to imagine the worst — and just when we think Grace’s situation cannot get any worse, it does.

This harrowing, fast-paced super-claustrophobic story was a page-turner for me. The characters of Grace and Jack were extremely well-fleshed out, complex, and believable. As for the story, it was disturbing on so many levels that it made me feel during several places throughout the book as though I’d been sucker-punched.

It’s a sick, twisted, depraved little book with a villain that is pure evil, and yet, I couldn’t put it down. This phenomenal story about mental abuse taken to the extreme was so expertly plotted and drawn out that I was stunned to learn later that this was the author’s debut novel.

The pacing is flawless; the characterization splendid; but what really stood out for me with this book is the tension that the author creates. It had my heart-pounding most of the time I was reading.

Behind Closed Doors is so incredibly nightmarish, raw, gut-wrenching, and unsettling that it’s impossible not to be taken on a wild emotional ride.

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Review of The World That We Knew by Alice Hoffman

January 14, 2020 by Roger Hyttinen Leave a Comment

The World That We Knew is a historical fiction story that opens in 1941 in Berlin during the time when the Nazi Regime is coming into power. Aware of how bad things are becoming for Jewish people, a woman named Hanni visits the local Rabbi and begs him to create a Golem — a mystical Jewish creature made from mud and clay — to protect her daughter. The Rabbi refuses, but his young daughter Ettie overhears the conversation and agrees, in secret, to create a Golem for Hanni’s daughter Lea. So Ettie accomplishes what is said that only men can do, and she brings her special golem to life. The golem is given the name of Ava, and she (it’s a female golem) is sworn to protect Lea. Lea and Ava flee Germany for Paris, but as it turns out, there aren’t safe there for very long, and soon, they are running for their lives.

Though there is a magical realism aspect to the story, this is far from being a fairy tale. It’s a heartbreaking story as Lea, Ava, and the other characters in the story witness one horrifying atrocity after another at the hands of the monstrous Nazis. Through the author’s brilliant storytelling and memorable characters, we really get a feeling for the depth of the suffering that the Nazis imposed on innocent people.

And that’s what really made this novel stand out for me — it was the deep, intense, and meaningful relationships between the characters and how their lives all intertwined and collided. I also thought that it was a heartfelt tribute to those brave souls who, in a time marked by evil and death, risked their lives to help the many Jewish people to safety.

In these characters, we see heart-warming kindness, beauty, and sacrifice as they all fought the evil in their own way: by saving lives. In this way, the author gives us the best of humanity in these heroes juxtaposed with the monstrous insanity of the Nazi regime. We have a doctor who treats resistance fighters, nuns who protect refugees, underground groups who lead people to safety across the borders, individual people who house and feed the persecuted, and many, many more.

This was such an emotionally engaging story, and I teared up many times throughout. I’ll admit that there were many passages that I found difficult to read – passages about those who didn’t escape, those who were rounded up and taken to the death camps, and those allies and resistance members who ended up murdered. And yes, many of our favorite characters ended up among the dead. But though it was undoubtedly bleak in parts, there was always the thread of love, hope, and humanity at its core — all of which kept people moving forward even in those darkest of times.

In the midst of these chilling atrocities, the author shows us the kindness, compassion, and love of the many honorable characters and in so doing, transforms this into an uplifting and moving story. The theme of love was also quite prevalent throughout the story — the characters’ love for each other and their love for life. The book explores themes of cruelty, war, humanity, of mothers and daughters, faith, fear, sacrifice, and loss but also illustrates courage, bravery, love, and humanity as well as the extraordinary resilience of the human spirit.

Though Ava the golem played a big part in this story, the horror that the Nazis brought down upon millions of people was always at the forefront of this novel. The use of the golem as a plot device in no way dilutes the unimaginable crimes of the Nazis, who were referred to as demons in the story — living monsters. What was interesting is that Ava, the actual “monster” in this story, turns out to be more human than many of the humans, and she ends up representing for Lea a mother’s love. I felt that the magical realism aspect actually helped the reader to get through some of the more gut-wrenching and emotionally overpowering scenes. In addition to the golem, there was the appearance of The Angel of Death and of a dancing Heron, both who played fascinating roles in the story.

The book is also meticulously researched, and I learned a lot about this time period that I didn’t know before. Hoffman stated that she traveled to France and visited many of the places that hid refugees. She also met with and interviewed Holocaust survivors both in France and in the United States, and I was surprised by the amount of history that the author incorporated in the story.

All in all, The World That We Knew is an intense, sometimes brutal, no-holds-barred historical fiction novel of courage and sacrifice featuring characters unlike any you’ve ever seen. In my opinion, the beauty of the story lies in the successful balance between Historical Fiction and Mythology, and the author blends the ‘real’ and the mythic seamlessly.

Yes, it will also break your heart in a million pieces but then will slowly glue it back together, so in this way, it’s simultaneously heartbreaking and heart-mending with an underlying current of hope throughout. Additionally, I found Hoffman’s writing to be evocative, eloquent and stirring, and is overflowing with gorgeous imagery and lyrical prose. Though heavier than some of her other novels, I’m so glad that this book crossed my path, and for me, it’s a solid 5-star read.

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