HER EVERY FEAR by Peter Swanson

We enjoyed a beautiful day out on the Pinery patio discussing “Her Every Fear” by Peter Swanson.  The character development in the book was good although we would have liked to have known more about Corbin and Henry growing up.  We all agreed that Kate was a weak character with all of her anxiety issues.  One of the biggest surprises in the book was that Kate got together with Alan at the end of the book so that was a bit of a shocker.

There were some subtle clues in the book, such as Kate’s drawings being changed, Sanders mysteriously gaining entrance into Corbin’s apartment, and Audrey’s key in Corbin’s apartment disappearing which all came together at the end of the book when we discovered that Henry had been secretly hiding in Corbin’s apartment while Kate was there.  The book had a few twists and turns throughout but we questioned the plausibility of specific events that occurred during the book so the plot was not as well composed as “The Kind Worth Killing”.  

Five of us rated the book and the average rating was 3.15.  Most of us agreed we would not recommend this book to a friend to read. 

We will be meeting on Friday, Sept 15^th and will be reading “Euphoria” by Lily King. 

Glory Over Everything by Kathleen Grissom

Our annual evening party was held and we had a short discussion on July’s book, Glory Over Everything by Kathleen Grissom who also wrote The Kitchen House which all of us had read and loved a few years ago.  Glory Over Everything is the sequel to The Kitchen House.  The average rating was 3.75 so a fairly good rating but the book was not as well written as her previous book in our opinion. 

All of us found the book to be engaging and enjoyed the Underground Railroad journey that Jamie takes to rescue Pan.  The main criticism was that no one really liked the main character, Jamie Pyke.  Jamie was a weak and flawed person that made several poor decisions during the book so it was difficult to embrace him as a lead character.  We did like the love story between Jamie and Caroline as well as most of the outlying characters such as Pan, Robert and Sukey.  Some of us questioned the ending of the book and how plausible it was that Jamie could live with his a white baby, Pan and Robert without drawing attention to themselves so the author could have done more to tighten up the book’s finish.  

We will be reading Her Every Fear by Peter Swanson for August.

Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson

June's book was JUST MERCY by Bryan Stevenson. We all gave it a score of either a 3.75 or a 4 so, that averaged out to a 3.85.

When starting the book we all knew that our prison system certainly wasn't perfect but, I think we were hoping that cases like Walter McMillians' were exceptional. However, the fact Bryan has made this his mission/career for more than thirty years, proves otherwise. This book was incredibly thought provoking and brought all of us to tears, on more than one occasion, and ultimately changed Pam's mind towards that death penalty. 

Bryan Stevenson’s Just Mercy was compelling. His assertion that “we are more than the worst thing that we have done” was provocative.  Stevenson’s Methodist (AME) faith informs his profound belief in the possibilities of redemption, and I found his perspective moving.  He presents a series of vignettes that highlight the injustices in the criminal justice system in the Deep South that persisted into the 1980s and beyond. His narrative was particularly moving when he documented the cases of innocent people who were falsely indicted for murder and were incarcerated for crimes that they did not commit.  Stevenson successfully revealed the humanity of people like Walter McMillian and the terrible personal consequences of his time in prison.  It was painful to read about McMillian’s inability to reconstruct his pre-prison family life and business successes after he was released.  His freedom from prison was simultaneously heartwarming and tragic. 

However, Stevenson fails to show the many cases where the sentences were just and the criminals were unrepentant, which might cause the reader to assume that all life sentences are unjust. Nonetheless, Stevenson’s nonprofit organization, Equal Justice Initiative, provides support and hope for people who are improperly sentenced.