Jury Duty and Book Reviews

I was on jury duty for the past three weeks and I was actually selected for a trial. It was a federal criminal case and I commuted daily to San Francisco on BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit). I have a renewed respect for daily commuters. I left my house at 6 a.m. each morning to be assured I could get a parking spot at the train station. We jurors were generally dismissed by 4 p.m. so thankfully I was just on the front end of the evening commute back home.

For three weeks I joined the throngs of San Francisco commuters.

The gotcha was that I was an alternate juror and after all my extensive note taking and exhaustive listening and paying attention to detail I was not in on the deliberations. I kind of missed being part of the process that matched evidence with proof of guilt or confirmed innocence. My fellow jurors were great though. I was fortunate to be associated with a stand up, dedicated, intelligent group of jurors who e-mailed me the results afterward and I am happy to say the outcome was as I would have voted.

One perk of being on jury duty is that I got a lot of reading done. I read Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Book Store by Robin Sloan, which I highly recommend. I thought it was very creative and innovative, and the main characters reminded me of the trio of crusaders Harry, Ron, and Hermione from the Harry Potter series. The overall clandestine theme was not wizardry however but rather bibliophily. Each crusader brought different strengths to the adventure and any reader who feels strongly about Google or likes role playing games will get a kick out of this book.

Techies and lovers of the printed page alike will enjoy this book.

Next I read Someday This Pain Will Be Useful to You by Peter Cameron. Perhaps it was because I was somewhat of a captive audience on my commute, but I liked this one, too. After all, sleeping was always an option and the book was good enough I chose to read rather than sleep on the train, despite my tiredness. This book is a coming of age story about a very bright young man who is about to head off to college... maybe. It is not big on plot but the reasoning sequences where the main character mentally justifies or explains his actions and feelings to himself and others are very humorous and often times amazingly on the mark. It was the type of book that if you are sitting next to someone that you know (i.e., not a stranger on a train) you want to read the section to them out loud right then and there. This is a short read and worth your time.

This book is not as angst heavy as one might be led to believe.
It has a tongue in cheek type of humor.

A third book I read was The Weird Sisters by Eleanor Brown. I found this book a bit hard to get into. I had started it twice before, weeks before I was a captive audience on a commuter train and in a jury room. Since I now read for pleasure, I no longer feel the compulsion to complete a book just because I started it. There is too much out there enjoyable to read to plow through something that is a drudgery. Once I got into this book however, I was engaged and wanted to complete it. To summarize, it is the relationship among three very different sisters, the eldest an organized control freak, the middle one more of a yuppie with expensive New York fashions and lifestyle, and the youngest a free-spirited hippie type. It is set in a college town where the father is a professor and a die-hard fanatic about Shakespeare. Shakespearean references permeate their conversations and the daughters are even named after Shakespearean heroines. The three daughters say they love each other but do not like each other. The daughters re-convene at their childhood home, ostensibly to help with their mother's illness, but more pointedly to address their own needs. I found it a clever, yet subtle, exploration of generalizations about birth order influences. Even more interesting is the voice in which this book was written - first person plural. I have never known of a book written in first person plural... "we" did this, and that happened to "us", even when the portion of the tale relates to only one of the sisters. It catches you off guard as you read. I finished this book and I am glad I read it mainly because of the quirky bond among the sisters. I'll refrain from recommending it, however, because I do not want to be blamed if someone else does not like it and doesn't resonate with its redeeming qualities. If I have raised your curiosity though, read the Amazon reviews and go for it.

 I found this book a worthy read. Though heavy in Shakespeare references,
 my ignorance of the bard did hamper my reading experience.

The fourth book I read while on jury duty was Innocence by Dean Koontz. Koontz is an author I love to read but have no desire whatsoever to see any movies made out of his books. They would scare the bejesus out of me. My own imagination I can handle but not the shocking special effects of some Hollywood movie producer who interprets the book. I love how Koontz immerses the readers in the settings he paints, how he maintains an aura of suspense throughout his novels, and how he manages to save a big reveal until the very final chapters. This book was a page turner. There is something about the main character that prohibits him from revealing his visual appearance to humanity, forcing him to live hidden in isolation. A huge snow storm envelops the city, adding to the swirling, blanketing secret. He pairs up with someone who cannot be touched, a counterpart to he who cannot be seen. Good reading. Very good reading. Classic good vs. evil reading!

The title says it all while giving away nothing.

So here is my summary of the best feature of each book:

• Mr. Penumbra's24-Hour Book Store for plot and creativity
• Someday This Pain Will Be Useful to You for humor and coming of age
• Weird Sisters for birth order relationships and unique voice
• Innocence for mood evoking suspense and page turning conflict