Endangered by Eliot Schrefer

When Sophie's parents divorced, she was eight years old, and moved with her father to Miami.  Now  she spends every summer with her mother in the Democratic Republic of the Congo at the bonobo sanctuary.  Her mother has spent her life building this sanctuary which takes in the orphaned bonobo apes, and raises them to be released into the safety of a bonobo reserve on an isolated island in the Congo river far to the north of the Kinshasa sanctuary.  Bonobos are close cousins to chimpanzees and were called pygmy chimpanzees until 1954 when they were renamed bonobos.  The Congo  river separates the homeland of the chimpanzees and gorillas on the north side of the Congo from the bonobo homeland on the south side of the Congo.  Bonobos are a gentler and less hostile ape due to their separate homeland with fewer competitive species to share the jungle.  But they are endangered due to the extreme poverty of the people of the Congo, who hunt them for meat and kill the adults then sell the orphans on the streets to make money.

Fourteen year old Sophie saw one of these bonobo orphans,  being dragged through the streets  as she was  being taken to the sanctuary from the airport in Kinshasa.  She demanded the driver to stop and she paid the peasant for the orphan to rescue him and take it to her mother.  This was the beginning of Sophie's summer and it would be the most dangerous summer of her life.

Her mother gave Sophie the responsibility of being the surrogate mother for the orphan, Otto.  He was close to death, and it would be her job to nurse him back to health.  The attachment between the two quickly changed Sophie's life forever.  

A month after her arrival, her mother left Kinshasa to take the adult orphans up north to the reserve to release them back into the wild.  The next day, the volatile government was overthrown,  and soon  rebel soldiers invaded the sanctuary, brutally killing all the staff.  Sophie and Otto survived by entering the sanctury jungle area that was surrounded by a solar powered electric fence.  The bonobos who lived within this fence were not yet ready for release into the reserve, but were possibly as big a threat to Sophie as the rebels if they rejected her entering their world.

Sophie learns to live with them, to eat what they eat, sleep in their tree nests, and stay well hidden from the rebels until the electricity in the fence died, and Sophie knew she must get away before the rebels discover that it is off.  She finds herself, and the bonobos who follow her, making their way outside to escape certain death.  But the journey to find her mother leads through many heart-stopping dangers.   Sophie must use all her strength, courage and knowledge of the Congo to survive. Now she is the one who is endangered!

Chris Fabry Writes Another Outstanding Book!

Not In The Heart by Chris Fabry does not disappoint!

Truman Wiley, a washed out news reporter, father and husband, is running, no hiding, from the reality of his own failures. But there is something he can't totally block out and that is the fact that his son may soon die if a heart transplant doesn't come through and soon.

Wiley's estranged wife throws something surprising into the pot and that is the opportunity for Truman to write the story of a death row man who is actually wanting to donate his heart to Wiley's son!

As execution time gets closer, Wiley and his daughter, who is helping dad write the story, discover some surprising evidence that just might prove the death-row man is actually innocent.

Truman Wiley is forced to face the question:  must an innocent man die for his son?  In the process, he must face the personal question of what is "not in his heart" but could be.  With that decision the destiny of many will be changed forever!

DADDY'S GONE A HUNTING by Mary Higgins Clark

     In her latest novel Mary Higgins Clark, the beloved "Queen of Suspense", exposes a dark secret from a family's past that threatens the lives of two sisters, Kate and Hannah Connelly, when the family-owned furniture firm in Long Island City, founded by their grandfather and famous for its fine reproductions of antiques, explodes into flames in the middle of the night, leveling the buildings to the ground, including the museum where priceless antiques have been on permanent display for years.
     What was Kate Connelly and Gus (a retired and disgruntled craftsman), doing in the museum when it burst into flames? The ashes reveal a startling and grisly discovery, and provoke a host of suspicions and questions.  Was the explosion deliberately set? 
     Now Gus is dead, and Kate lies in the hospital badly injured and in a coma, so neither can tell what drew them there, or what the tragedy may have to do with the hunt for a young woman missing for many years, nor can they warn that somebody may be covering his tracks, willing to kill to save himself.
     Step by step, in a novel dazzling with suspense and excitement, Mary Higgins Clark once again demonstrates the mastery of her craft that has made her books international bestsellers for years.
She presents the reader with a perplexing mystery, a puzzling question of identity, and a fascinating cast of characters-one of whom may be a ruthless killer.

    
    

Look Me In the Eye: My life with Asperger’s

by John Elder Robison

 At an early age John Elder Robison sensed that he was different. In pre-school he longed to make friends and engage in activities with other kids but could never get anyone to play with him. Instead he spent time in his own world playing with and naming his toys. His first real friend was a toy dump truck that he named ‘Chippy’.

Entangled in a caustic home life with an alcoholic father and a mother who teetered on the brink of mental break-down, John’s childhood was an uphill battle that was only compounded by Asperger syndrome.  Unable to rely on his parents or to establish relationships with others, John was soon labeled a ‘social deviant’ and spent most of his time tinkering with electronics and commandeering the attention of his much younger brother (Augusten Burroughs, author of ‘Running with Scissors’).  John dismantled radios, dug five feet holes in his yard to trap his brother, and even built from his Erector set a tall crane that could lift blocks into his brother’s crib. When he dropped out of high school and began pursuing employment, his electronic experimentation paid off. He was soon on the road (literally and figuratively) with various rock bands using his skills to improve their sound by tweaking amplifiers. His last and most famous tour was with the band KISS. It was Robison who designed and executed the spinning and rocket shooting guitars and pyrotechnics that was synonymous with the band.

This book is a fascinating read and one that left me marveling at a resilient nature of a man who overcame huge obstacles and in the end, built a pretty remarkable life. It is a funny, sincere and eye-opening account of Asperger syndrome and a family spiraling out of control.

The Reunion

Aaron Miller is an honorable Vietnam veteran who was cut off from his wife and children after the war.  His children grow up thinking he never cared to be part of their lives.   He's a handyman at a trailer park, loved and respected by everyone he knows.

An investigative reporter is hired to find Aaron and in the process, he finds Aaron's son and daughter.  The son is more open to the idea of learning more about Aaron, but the daughter is much more resistant.  She's not exactly in the mood to discuss her father when she is still trying to nheal from her husband's affair and their subsequent divorce.  In this relatively short novel, Dan expertly weaves the lives of many individuals into tearful closure.

Reunion is an incredible story that reminds us to honor our veterans.  When the Vietnam vets returned, they were spit on and protested and services were lacking.   I can't remember the statistics for the number of veterans who are homeless, but I do know that a good number of them are due to substance abuse and mental illness.   Think of the implications of those who just returned from Iraq and Afghanistan.  Many of us will never be able to comprehend all that they have endured.  Not everyone will receive the recognition they deserve, either.   This book is a glimpse into the "what if."