Books 18 and 19

These are two books that aren't related by anything other than the place and time I read them. As I've noted before, my wife was in the hospital giving birth. She was there for about 4 days, and I was able to stay with her most of the time. I helped out with the baby where I could, but without the other kids around, it left a lot of time for reading between baby feedings and diaper changings. So I took advantage of it.

Book 18 was a book I had already started when we went to the hospital, The Boy in the Suitcase, by Lene Kaaberbol and Agnete Friis. This comes from the newly popular genre "Weird Scandinavian crime thrillers". I've had a vague notion of reading the popular Girl with the Dragon Tattoo series, but apparently that was checked out of the library at the time. At any rate, I found this, thought "Close enough," and checked it out.

The book is well named, as it is literally about a small boy who spends at least part of the book in a suitcase. More generally, it is about human trafficking. I found the set up interesting as the identity of the boy is not the central mystery, the reader knows where he comes from and about his mother's anguish and efforts to find him. The tension comes from the protagonist's efforts to solve the mystery and help the boy.

Speaking of the protagonist, she is a nurse named Nina Borg, and it looks like the authors plan to write a whole series about her. I found her a little annoying as a protagonist. Her quirks, such as an obsession with what time it is, or her insecurity with her family, don't come off as endearing. And her motivation for not involving the police is never really explained. Several other characters are thin in places, but on the whole they are adequate and believable. And the plot moves the action along nicely, making it easy to overlook any character weaknesses.

The book was translated into English from Danish by one of the authors. I read a review on Goodreads that called the translation "imperfect." This may be an apt description as I often found myself thinking, "No native English speaker would use that phrase." Of course I may be talking as a ugly American here, but it stood out a few times. And I don't want to sound like I'm piling on here. I did enjoy the book, despite it's dark subject matter. As a crime thriller it really kept me turning the pages. I wouldn't mind reading more by these authors.


Book 19 was one my wife brought with her to the hospital, and I picked it up when she was done. It was Shatner Rules: Your Guide to understanding the Shatnerverse and the World at Large, by William Shatner and Chris Regan. I found out later that Regan was a writer for the excellent The Daily Show, so he may be a big part of why I liked this book. At any rate, this is yet another memoir from Shatner, one in which he fully embraces his ego, yet convinces us to laugh with him, not at him.

My wife has been a Shatner fan since watching him on Boston Legal. I have enjoyed him since watching Star Trek reruns as a kid, but my wife is the one who convinced me to admit I was a fan. So I went into it on Shatner's side, so to speak. It does jump around a lot, and the "rules" he list barely qualify as a memoir, so those who aren't fans may not be converted. But my wife and I enjoyed it. The fact that the aging Shatner realizes he is closer to the end of his time on Earth than his prime adds a certain poignancy in some parts, and helps the reader empathize with the actor. Nothing too groundbreaking, but a good read for Shatner fans.