Top Five Books of 2014

Garp83: Ostensibly about the Spanish Civil War, this book has more to say about several sets of fascinating characters whose lives become enmeshed with, especially Ernest Hemingway. But the intertwined tale of love and tragedy of the photographers Robert Capa and Gerda Taro steal the show. An amazing work of both history and literature.

Garp83: Every Murakami novel is an often bewildering set of characters and circumstances that frequently leave the reader frustrated with the loose ends while haunted by the concepts and romanced by the writing style. This was certainly one of those!

Garp83: The chief character is much like a malevolent Forrest Gump who has met everyone and been everywhere -- Papa Pilgrim's dad was an FBI agent who spied on Jack Kennedy's liasons, his mom got Lee Harvey Oswald his first job, they are involved in a break-in in Judith Exner's home, and Papa himself as a young man elopes and then murders John Connally's daughter, although it is ruled an accident. When he shows up in an Alaskan ghost town now incorporated in a National Park many decades later as a Bible-thumper with his clan of kids who seem to have fallen to earth from another century,he becomes the darling of the right-wing who champion his piety and rugged individualism -- until it comes out that the patriarch is actually a crazed abuser who beats his wife and kids for disobedience and rapes his eldest daughter. A lesson for all of us here -- especially those who watch FOX NEWS.

Garp83: The Shenandoah Valley of Northern Virginia and Southern Pennsylvania had a shared culture that exploded with the coming of the Civil War. This outstanding history explores how people with so much in common come apart in a conflict that hijacked their otherwise shared destiny.

Garp83: An extremely well-written first novel that while far from perfect -- I was left disappointed by the ending -- promises a great future. The writing style and sense of presence is what put this book on my top five.