The People Smuggler by Robin de Crespigny

This is the true story of Ali Al Jenabi, the eldest son of a middle class Iraqi family, raised while Saddam Hussein was in power. Ali's father was in the army but openly critical of Saddam. When he was sent  to Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad, Ali and his brother Ahmad had to support their large family by selling cigarettes at the market after school. Ali was always in danger of being sent to prison himself, either for failing to join the army or for his suspected opposition to Saddam.

After a long stint in Abu Ghraib, Ali worked in the resistance movement. This put his family in danger and they were all forced to flee to Iran. They then tried to find somewhere more permanent.

Ali eventually made it to Indonesia. He tried to get to Australia by boat, but he was cheated out of his money by a people smuggler. He decided that the only way to get his whole family to Australia was to organise his own boats and use the profit to pay for their passage. He was eventually captured by the Australian Federal Police and tried in Australia as a people smuggler.

This is not a happy story. It depicts the appalling reality many Iraqis and other refugees have faced. It shows the effect fear and poverty can have on people. Sometimes people risk their life for strangers and other times children turn their own parents over to the police.

The accounts of life in Abu Ghraib prison made me wonder how anyone survived. When they weren't  being tortured and beaten, the prisoners were forced to sleep on their sides, thirty to a cell, packed so close together no one could turn or get up. If they vomited or needed to defecate they had to do it where they were. Prisoners lived like this for years on end.

Some people call Ali Al Jenabi a saviour, the Oskar Schindler of Asia, others call him a criminal. Having read the book, I'll go with hero. Ali is currently living in Sydney but could be sent back to Iraq at any time. I hope the Australian government grants him permanent residency and soon.

A Wicked Snow by Gregg Olsen

When firefighters arrive at a blaze at a Christmas tree farm in Oregon they find the burnt bodies of two twin boys and a headless women. They also find the bodies of 17 older men, long since buried,  around the grounds.

It is unclear whether the headless body is that of farm owner Claire Logan, who is suspected of killing the men. He boyfriend Marcus Wheaton is sent to prison for 20 years for starting the fire. The story is told through the eyes of Helen, Claire's daughter, who was 13 at the time of the fire. Twenty years on, she is a CSI (Crime Scene Investigator), married with a daughter. Marcus Wheaton is dying and about to finish his 20 year prison sentence. Helen and the original FBI agent who investigated the case, Jack Bauer, visit Wheaton in prison to try and find out if Claire is alive and where she might be.

Author Gregg Olsen usually writes true crime stories. This is his first novel. The crime details are excellent. Olsen also shows how people touched by notorious crimes have to keep living with them. Helen has started a new life, her daughter and her work colleagues don't know she's the daughter of Claire Logan, yet journalists are always trying to track her down.

It's a great story, well told. It doesn't have lots of plot twists, you just slowly find out what happened and why; I was a little disappointed with the ending. That said, Olsen has written two more 'chiller thriller' books and I'm looking forward to reading them.

The One Plus One by Jojo Moyes

Jess is a single mum in her mid 20s, struggling to make ends meet. Her goth stepson Nicky keeps getting beaten up and her daughter Tanzie is a maths prodigy. Ed is a workaholic computer geek who naively got involved in insider trading and now faces a possible prison sentence. Jess is Ed's cleaner. In an impulsive moment, Ed offers to drive Jess, Nicky, Tanzie and their huge dog, from Southampton to Aberdeen so that Tanzie can enter a maths competition.

The story reveals the frustrations of being poor. There seems to be no escaping the local state school and the bullies who attack anyone who is different. Yet Jess is trying to be positive and teach her children that they can overcome whatever trials they may face. The book is not so gritty that it's depressing. Overall it's entertaining and heartwarming; it would make a great holiday read.

When I Found you by Catherine Ryan Hyde

The book tells the story of Nathan, a married, childless, middle age bookkeeper who finds a baby in the woods when he is out hunting. He would like to raise the child but the baby's grandmother steps in. Fifteen years later, when she finds the boy (Nat) too difficult to handle, she asks Nathan if he's changed his mind. Nathan takes Nat in and commits to raising him come what may.

I enjoyed the book but Nat wants to be a boxer and the boxing storyline reminded me of many a dull boxing movie. I was also bothered by the book's suggestion that middle age couples who dedicate themselves to helping troubled teens may just be trying to find some excitement, or create meaning, in their otherwise boring lives. When asked why he goes to extraordinary lengths for Nat, Nathan says something along the lines of "what else have I done that's extraordinary?"

I doubt the story would inspire anyone to take in a stranger's child; that doesn't seem to be the aim.  It has a more general message about helping people not because you have to, but because you can.

What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty

This is the third book I've read by Liane Moriarty (the other two were The Husband's Secret and Big Little Lies). They're all witty and entertaining stories. I enjoy that they feature places and situations I'm familiar with e.g. Sydney mums doing the school run etc.

Alice is about to turn 40, has three children, and is getting divorced. She bumps her head at the gym and wakes up thinking she's 29 and pregnant with her first child. She has no recollection of her children or what went wrong in her marriage.

The book looks at the stress of having children and what that can do a marriage. It also looks at the stress of not having them (Alice's sister has had multiple miscarriages). As the story unfolds we find out how a happy carefree young wife and her doting husband turned into a workaholic executive and a high-maintenance, helicopter mother, who hate each other!

There are lots of other great characters in the book including Alice's 'grandmother' Frannie who writes a blog, Alice's mother who has remarried and taken up salsa dancing and Alice's children who include a rebel, a princess and a geek.

The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins

The girl on the Train is a whodunnit on a par with Gone Girl, but set in the UK. It's a riveting tale about the impact of adultery. The two main characters are Megan, an attractive, screwed up, young wife and Rachel, an equally screwed up, dumped, ex-wife. Both women use self-destructive coping methods to deal with emotional pain; Megan plays around and Rachel drinks.

Rachel sees Megan in the garden each morning from the window of a London commuter train and wonders what her life is like. When Megan disappears Rachel becomes involved in her story.

Other characters include Scott, Megan's husband; Tom and Anna, Rachel's ex-husband and his new wife; Cathy, Rachel's flatmate and Dr Kamal Abdic, Rachel's therapist.

This is definitely the best book I've read in a while!

The Catcher in the Rye by J.D Salinger

The book is set in the early 50s. Fictional narrator Holden Caulfield is the handsome 17 year old son of a wealthy New York lawyer. He tells the story of when he was 16 and got kicked out of yet another fancy boarding school. He was expelled 3 days before the end of term and spent those days hanging out on his own in New York. Descriptions of the characters he meets in New York are interspersed with tales from boarding school. His time in New York involves a lot of smoking and drinking; he seems unable to stop moving from one depressing bar to the next.

Holden's younger brother died a few years earlier and he is obviously lost and depressed. He is looking for someone who might provide emotional support but they all come up short. On the verge of adulthood, he flits between a need for intellectual conversation and the desire to horse around. He finds almost everyone he meets to be a phoney and every event depresses him.

The only joy in Holden's life is his sister Phoebe who he adores, and a girl named Jane who he keeps meaning to phone. By the end of the book I felt concern for Holden. He comes across as smart, genuine and generous but at the same time immature, judgemental and not much fun to be around. The moral of the story seemed to me to be that when children go off the rails it's often the adults that have failed the child and not the other way around.