Fear is Just a Word, by Azam Ahmed: I’m glad I read this for its comprehensive background on the Zeta drug cartel and the terror the residents of San Fernando, Tamaulipas, Mexico, have faced. The primary story – of a woman who becomes an activist after her daughter is kidnapped and murdered by the Zetas, one of many such kidnappings – was compelling, but could have made a much more compelling long-form article. Unfortunately, in book-length, the writing felt repetitive, and the shifts between timelines felt random. I found myself wishing for the style and substance of some of the great nonfiction works I’ve read; this felt at times like a catalog of facts.
Tom Lake, by Ann Patchett: Initially I found this “nice” – a bit tepid. I grew to enjoy it more, though it’s not the most memorable or earth-shattering. That’s okay! It was a lovely read, albeit with a few underdeveloped themes (climate change…) and a somewhat aloof narrator.
Safe, by Mark Daley: The personal narrative of fostering children combined with a medium-depth look at child protective services and foster care in California. I think I would have preferred this either as a more in-depth examination of foster care – sans personal narrative – or a completely journalistic take on one family’s story, like Random Family or Invisible Child. But I may have enjoyed it more if I had been more engaged by the prose and the voice, which struck me as a bit cloying.
The Last Word, by Taylor Adams: This…was silly. A hokey thriller with one hundred false endings. Yes, I should have stopped reading it. But it went fast!
American Kingpin, by Nick Bilton: I have to confess that although I was vaguely aware of the dark web/black market website Silk Road back when the Gawker article about it was published, I didn’t know the trajectory of the site or its founder. This was very well told – tracing the actions of both the founder and the various law enforcement agencies working to track him down – and interesting.
