Another Mom selected book. At this point, I'm nearing the end of her book list, with the remaining books being not so interesting to me. This is one of the "bottom of the pile" books. Which is somewhat reasonable, given that it is book 3 of a 5 book series. Kinda makes me wonder if I'll read the whole series later, as I did with Jo Nesbo's Harry Hole series.

Anyway.

This book tells the story of three brothers Manuel, Angel, and Patrico, from a coffee-growing village, who try to mule drugs. One brother passes away, one brother is in jail, and the story follows the third brother who tries to understand the why of his brothers' choices.

Interwoven with this story is the story of Ann Lindell, who is actually the main character of the series. She's a cop solving a murder in her town, finding the links of the murder to the restaurant Dakar, which is unsurprising, given the victim worked at Dakar.

There are sub-plots and secondary characters who are woven into the story. There's desire and mystery and, hey, a lot of annoyance by Ann Lindell. That was what I took away from this book the most, that Ann Lindell is annoyed all the time. She's annoyed at her coworkers, those around her, the suspects, and the witnesses. Everyone annoys her.

And the ending, wow, something good, something bad, and yay for one part while cringe for another part. Well, not the end-end, there's a smidge at the end that seemed oddly added at the end. Essentially, things sorta work out for the sympathetic characters.

I bought this book this past weekend on my walk-about around San Francisco last Saturday. I had walked to a Paper Source (I know, shock, I went to a paper store), which turned out to be a newly-opened, concept store (which means it has new merchandise before it is generally available at other Paper Source stores) on the walk for specific Pokémon, and, well, if you're close, of course you have to go it.

I'm uncertain what page in particular caught my attention. I think it was the positive aspects the book: here's a list of all the crappy things that are the result of growing up, becoming an adult, and accepting responsibility for ones own life. And yet, here are the good things that come of those crappy things.

I kinda feel like we could use this format for our adulting book.

Anyway, reason 32 in particular moved me.

You'll Feel Lost.*

Upside, *You're on a journey -- getting lost is part of the fun.

And that is the way to view this life.

Yeah, takes five minutes to read the book. It was adorable.

Really now, I need to change this idea of a "Book Review" to "Mom Chose This Book and I Read It Review." This is another of Mom's selected books. I think I'm nearing the end of her pile. That just means, however, that I'll start in on my pile, which is significantly bigger than Mom's pile, to be sure.

This book is the story of a woman's journey around Indonesia, with her saying "Yes" to every adventure that presents itself. Elizabeth Pisani had previously worked in Indonesia, a couple decades before, so knew much about the country, and had lived through much of its recent turmoil. As she describes it, her journey was much like trying to show everyone why your bad boyfriend deserves a chance, look at his many good qualities.

While reading this book, I contrasted the history telling of this book to the history telling found in the Brief Wonderous Life of Oscar Mao. The latter was much richer in its telling, while Pisani's travels were much broader and more flavorful at the local, individual level.

I was surprised that I enjoyed the book, picking the book up more frequently than I thought I would. I had checked in with Mom when I first started the book, having discovered that Mom disliked one of the books we both read, and wanting to see if she had finished this book and liked it. She said, she had started the book, but had been distracted by another, so hadn't finished it yet. I think it's worth finishing if you'd started it, and an entertaining read if you're interested in a woman's year-long adventure in the world's largest nation.