Neshama’s Choices for August 5

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Three-inch Teeth by C. J. Box

I don’t read many mysteries but am fond of this series featuring Joe Pickett, a game warden, and the wild encounters he has in the wilds of Wyoming.  This time it’s a bear that kills his daughter Sheridan’s kind-of boyfriend.  But when more attacks occur in wide-spread locations, it has to be more than that one crazed animal. Actually, it’s Dallas, a newly released prisoner who has diabolical plans to destroy his enemies. He makes it look like a bear did the damage, but he has devised a bizarre contraption that mimics such attacks. Over-the-top plotting is sometimes formulaic, but it’s a little like going to the movies for me: sweeping landscapes, intense action, and plenty of entertainment.

Piglet by Lottie Hazell

Our protagonist got that nickname from childhood because of her bizarre eating habits that developed as a reaction to her family’s dysfunction. Now she edits cookbooks and is about to marry Kit, a well-fixed dreamboat. Their nuptial plans are charging along when he confesses he’s done something horrid (we never find out what).  Yet she doesn’t back out, though everything gets increasingly grotesque. An example: she’s determined to make her wedding cake, a croquembouche. She attempts to construct this complicated tower of puff pastry at the last minute amid an emotional meltdown. I had to suspend disbelief often but enjoyed the satire inherent in obsessions over food and the absurdity of overblown events. London setting.

Storms of the Inland Sea edited by Margaret Stawoway and Jim Cokes

Subtitled Poems of Alzheimer’s and Dementia Caregiving. This is an extraordinary collection, with every piece very accessible and finely focused. Perhaps it’s the rigor of tending, the deep sadness, and the wish to capture what’s been or being lost that hones the offerings. There’s healing in reflection and acceptance, a crucible that creates beauty from tragedy. And a number of the poems are very down-to-earth. I was blown away. Note: Stawoway is also a librarian at the San Rafael Library.

The Limits by Nell Freudenberger

Pia, 16, has been living in Tahiti with her mother Nathalie, a marine researcher.  Pia is obsessed with environmental issues and has fallen for Raffi, a native diver who’s trying to save the reef. Now she must attend a Lycée in New York City where her father lives with his new young wife, Kate, and deeply resents her displacement. Kate, who’s pregnant, is a schoolteacher. She tries to connect with Pia but it’s rough going. Pia vanishes and as her father searches for her, he discovers how little he knows about her doings. Lots of layers in the book, sometimes murky, but rich material that kept me engaged.