One can’t help but like Charlie Noble, the live-aboard investigator in love with wooden boats, just learning to love a new woman after the painful death of his first wife, whom he still grieves.
“Phoenix Island” is one of those books I can’t decide whether to love or hate. The cover art implies a bodice ripper, and sex and violence both run an undercurrent through the book, yet neither erupt with the force that their foreshadowing imply. The writing verges on potboiler, but the survival story it tells is certainly relevant, and of widespread current interest. It sold a million copies in its day.
I’ve been reading Robert Fulghum’s “True Love,” a book of true love stories. Surprisingly, many of them are the stories of people who are in love with people they don’t know. I am one of those people this week. I am in love with Thor Hanson, the author of “The Impenetrable Forest: My Gorilla Years in Uganda.”
“MS and Your Feelings: Handling the Ups and Downs of Multiple Sclerosis,” by Allison Shadday; “Of the Law,” by Susan M. Wingate; “Naturally Attracted: Connecting with Michael J. Cohen,” by Michael J. Cohen; “Getting Around in China: Notes from an American Traveler,” by Fred Richardson
