25.
In a Handful of Dust, by Mindy McGinnis
In this sequel to
Not a Drop to Drink, the protagonist of that book, Lynn, travels with the girl she adopted, Lucy, in search of the rumored desalinization plants and normalcy in California. Since they are in Ohio, it's a long trip, with dangers from man, beast, and nature.
I liked the concept of these books (basically, they're post-apocalyptic westerns), but there are too many things that don't add up. The book says there's a shortage of water, but never really shows it, except to state that the water was turned off in the cities. There seem to be ample lakes, rivers, and streams, except in the desert (where lack of water is the norm in real life). The lack of research where medical issues are concerned stood out, too:
An entire city was dead from cholera. That would have to be one heck of a strain of cholera, because in reality, untreated cholera has a 50-60% mortality rate, not 100% (there are very few diseases that have a 100% mortality rate). With proper treatment, the mortality rate falls to about 1%, and since cities can still exist, there must be enough of a distribution network left to support them. Even partial treatment would lower the mortality rate, and a lot of people who are infected never show symptoms or have symptoms mild enough that the immune system readily resolves the problem.
Some parts of this book remind me of other dystopias, namely
The Road,
Soylent Green,
The Stand, and
The Handmaid's Tale.
26.
O, Juliet, by Robin Maxwell
This book is a novelization of the story of Romeo and Juliet, but set in Florence, Italy on the cusp of the Renaissance. The story plays out in much the same way (and ends the same way), but Romeo and Juliet are quite a bit older (he's 25, she's 18, which was apparently quite normal for marriage in 15th century Florence), and Juliet's betrothed (named Jacopo Strozzi in this version) is the villain of the piece. Both Romeo and Juliet are poets, and there are multiple quotes from Dante Alighieri (and not
The Divine Comedy, either, but rather
The New Life, or
La Vita Nuova, which tells the story of his love for a woman named Beatrice Portinari).
I learned a lot from this book, both about the background of the story (there are similar tales from all over the world) and about Renaissance Florence. I also learned a lot about Dante. Amazingly, I'd never known about
La Vita Nuova, despite working as a librarian for 17 years. (I did know about
The Divine Comedy, and that one is actually fairly popular amongst my teenage students.)
27.
The Trial of Mary Lou, by Ron Carter
One warm June day back in 1931, Mary Lou Hubbard took the worn family Winchester .30-30 from the peg on the wall of her family's cabin in Settlement, Idaho. Her sights rested on the form of Corvis Lumley rowing his way across the Snake River. He was intent on making trouble, and Mary Lou knew it. Although she loaded only enough ammunition to sink Lumley's boat and humiliate him as he sunk 20 yards from shore, he wasn't going to let her get away with it. Lumley claimed attempted murder, and so began the trial of Mary Lou Hubbard -- a trial that brought together the unlikely combination of a Harvard graduate, an eighty-nine-year-old defense counselor, and a grizzled old clerk who wore the judge's black robes because the judge refused to.
This book was pretty funny. The slick new lawyer from Boston, eager to make a name for himself, discovers how things are done in the back country. In the process, he discovers how much he doesn't know, all in a farcical manner.
