New hero for coffee addicts

The Monk of Mokha by Dave Eggers
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I don't even drink coffee, but I love it when I can learn a lot and still be entertained. This book tells an interesting history of coffee and the many processing steps and the tasting process as complicated as wine. I also appreciated learning more about Yemen which I had previously only known from reports of war and famine. This is the semi true story of Mokhtar Alkhanshali, an immigrant from Yemen who grew up in the San Francisco area, sort of ditzi and lacking direction. Then he reads the history of coffee tracing back to Yemen and discovers that his grandfather was actually a coffee farmer back in Yemen. Suddenly Mokhtar has a quest. He infiltrates the coffee culture in San Francisco, returns to Yemen and gets to know the coffee farmers in the different parts of his country. War breaks out and he has to fight just to make it down the street. But he manages to take some samples out of the country and get the experts in San Francisco to agree his country's coffee is extra special. I was cheering for him in the end.

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Return to Mackinac

The Dockporter: A Mackinac Island Novel by Dave McVeigh
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

For those of us who know and love Mackinac Island, revisiting through this book brings all those memories to life again. The fudge shops. The porch of the Grand Hotel. The rock formations. The booming cannon. And, of course, the poor guy shoveling up the inevitable horse droppings. And for those who have never been to Mackinac, the tale revives those days of young abandon, of friends and foes, pranks and hangovers and warm, sweet love. The book is written as a story within a story. Big city photographer Jack McGuinn is returning to the island after a 10-year absence, for a reunion with his dockporter buddies who, as young men, met the ferries to the island and ported baggage to the hotels on their bikes. On the slow freight ferry to the reunion Jack tells a fellow passenger the tale of his final summer on the island, which becomes the bulk of the book. It is an awkward arrangement sometimes when the passenger interrupts the storyteller to remind the reader of the story-within-a-story format but it pays off in the end when the exciting finale of Jack's last summer on the island melds into a surprising denouement at the reunion.

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Patterson and Parton

Run Rose Run by Dolly Parton
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Combine the talents of one of my favorite country singers with those of the best mystery/thriller author and you're bound to get something wonderful. I listened to Run Rose Run on a car trip and was thoroughly entertained for two days. Dolly narrates the Ruthanne character on the audio version so it's easy to picture her. But the story is really about a scrappy wannabe singer, AnnieLee, who rises to fame with the help of a retired star (Ruthanne). Annielee is full of surprises, pulling a gun out of her backpack, walking out on Ruthanne and turning down fancy clothes. Although her choices are not always the best her spunk is endearing. Though her career gets a big boost from Ruthanne, the cloud of her unrevealed past keeps interrupting with thugs attacking her repeatedly and following her. When the past is finally revealed it doesn't really seem worthy of so many thugs chasing her but it wouldn't be a thriller without all those encounters. The title is disappointing since the name Rose isn't mentioned until the past is revealed near the end of the book. But now I need to get the Dolly Parton album that goes along with the book so I can hear the songs that are mentioned in the story.

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