Random Reading

Pretty books about books

2012-01-30T16:55:00.000-08:00

I got rather annoyed with the realtor who told us we had too many books and needed to pack some of them away (even some bookcases) before we started showing the house. So the next time we met, I auspiciously placed around the house some lovely coffee table books about decorating with and living with books. Living with Books by Alan Powers even has some plans for constructing bookcases from a variety of materials at the end. At Home with Books: How Booklovers Live with and Care for Their Libraries (Ellis, Seebohm & Sykes) is much more personal, showing the libraries of artists and writers, titled gentry in elegant stately homes and just ordinary bibliophiles. Resources for restoration of books, furnishing libraries and finding more information on great libraries follow the main pictorially rich text. I still have a couple of similar texts at home to peruse and drool over...trust me, these people ALL have a lot more books than I do!

The Innocent

2011-12-22T15:20:00.000-08:00

Ian McEwan receives uniformly rave reviews and this is the first book of his I have read, one written about mid-span of his career to date (1990). Set in Berlin in the depth of the Cold War (1955), the main character, 25-year old Leonard Marnham, is a British civil servant recruited to facilitate work on a joint venture between the Americans and the Brits. They are building a tunnel under the east-west Berlin border to eavesdrop on Russian communications--ostensibly a real event. Leonard is naive in almost every imaginable way. He is awkward around both the Americans, who are somewhat stereotypically portrayed as brash, over-confident bullies, and around the German woman who picks him up in a night club and seduces him. He falls in love with and eventually becomes engaged to Maria, and their relationship eventually leads to a dramatic and deadly confrontation with her abusive and drunken ex-husband. Desperate to save himself and Maria, Leonard engages in his own personal act of espionage. In spite of being well-crafted, I didn't ever really come to care for or about any of the characters, and felt as cold about the story as the bitter winter the characters must endure.

Seventeen and Eighteen

2011-12-22T14:48:00.000-08:00

I was a little put off by Janet Evanovich's Sizzling Sixteen, feeling it lacked some of the zany energy that her books usually have. But she seems to have regained her footing in Smokin' Seventeen and Explosive Eighteen. In Seventeen, Stephanie's mom is once again trying to set her up with a future mate since neither Morelli nor Ranger seem likely to make the commitment to marriage. While the burned out bail bonds office--temporarily replaced by Mooner's bus--is under construction, dead bodies start showing up in shallow graves on the construction site. The killer is apparently making this personal for Stephanie. Meanwhile, Morelli's grandmother puts the Vordo spell on Stephanie with wild results. Eighteen opens with Stephanie returning from a vacation in Hawaii one day ahead of both Ranger and Morelli--but no one is talking about what happened. Eventually we learn why she has a white tan line on her left hand ring finger, but it takes longer to find out why the photograph that mysteriously appeared in her purse on the flight back is bringing strangers out of the woodwork to threaten Stephanie if she doesn't return it. Except that she doesn't have it anymore. Cars and buses are destroyed, Lula takes a love potion by accident and falls in love with one of their more unsavory FTA's, and their investigations result in a lot of roosters being loosed on Trenton.

Agnes and the Hit Man

2011-12-05T12:37:00.000-08:00

I have SO lost track of what I have been reading. I haven't posted since August and yet I am NEVER without at least 2-3 books going. I have been doing a lot of review books for Library Journal Express Reviews and for the Children's Literature Database, but I'm sure I've been doing some personal reading in there somewhere. I listen to books on CD going and coming from work and those rarely find their way into the blog. Anyway, things have been stressful at home recently with health and other issues so when I finished my last batch of books for CLCD I dove into pure escapist fare. Agnes and the Hit Man, by Jennifer Crusie and Bob Mayer, is a bit like Stephanie Plum meets Goldie Schwartz (or Janet Evanovich meets Diane Mott Davidson if you want author names). Agnes is a bit of an entrepreneur, currently partnered with and afianced to Taylor, a man who turns out to be (a) already married, (b) trying to steal her house and business, and (c) murdered with a meat fork. Agnes, who writes the food column "Cranky Agnes" does have some issues with anger management, but who wouldn't in her situation. Agnes was essentially an orphan growing up until she met Lisa Livia at boarding school and was unofficially adopted into her home for holidays and summers. She seems to attract lying cheating men, Taylor being just the latest. She has moved back to this somewhat idyllic spot on the Blood River in S. Carolina and bought the house of her childhood summers from Lisa Livia's mother, Brenda. Oh, but wait a minute, Brenda is the one who married Taylor and is trying to ruin her granddaughter's wedding, upon which Agnes' keeping the house depends. If you think that's complicated, it's only just the start. A pseudo-uncle, Joey, is concerned about Agnes' safety and has called his pseudo-nephew, Shane, to come back and protect Agnes. Shane kills people for a living. He works for the U.S. government. He's very good at his job, and it's a good thing, because a string of unsavory characters show up trying to kill Agnes or kidnap her bloodhound Rhett--she's not exactly sure which. Predictably, Agnes and Shane get involved. Unpredictably, we find out lots of family secrets about Shane and who he really is. This is a fun read, highly recommended for anyone wanting to get away from it all. Great characters!

Heartless

2011-08-17T19:16:00.000-07:00

This fourth installment in the "Parasol Protectorate" series by Gail Carriger is another romp through an alternate Victorian England, where vampires, werewolves, and ghosts are all accepted parts of society, if not always cheerfully welcomed by regular mortals. Lady Maccon, a preternatural having no soul, is wife to Lord Maccon (a werewolf) and part of Victoria's secret council. She is also 8 months pregnant, which significantly interferes with her ability to get around as nimbly as she would like. The potential capabilities of the child she is carrying to threaten werewolves and vampires alike have made Alexia Maccon the target of numerous murder attempts and she is just getting tired of it all. A truce has finally been reached wherein the child will be raised by the flamboyant vampire, Lord Akeldama. Lord and Lady Maccon move into the house next door to facilite the arrangement. But in the meantime, there appears to be a threat to the Queen and a ghost on the verge of disintegration apparently holds the key to finding out more. Alexia's tedious sister has moved in with her and Lord Maccon and taken to wearing very sensible clothing--among other strange behaviors. Madame Lafoux has come up with an even more outrageous invention and the plot line is wild and fast-paced as always. This tongue in cheek series never fails to entertain me and make me laugh out loud.

Dragon's Lair

2011-08-17T18:50:00.000-07:00

Sharon Kay Penman writes historical novels and medieval mysteries and I learned about her from my friend Darcy MacPherson. She does her research and offers an author's note to indicate where her fiction has deviated from the historical facts as currently known. Her medieval mysteries center around Justin deQuincy, the illegitimate son of the Bishop of Chester, Awbrey deQuincy, who has only grudgingly admitted paternity to Justin and denies it to the rest of the world. Justin has become--through luck he admits--the Queen's Man, the Queen in this case being Eleanor. In this third installment of the series, the Queen is trying to gather an exorbitant ransom to gain the release of her favored son, Richard, from prison in Germany. Her other son, John, aspires to the throne and so seeks to prevent Richard's return. The ransom demanded of Wales has, according to a letter received by the Queen, gone missing in a murder/robbery and she is sending Justin to find and recover it. Ransom is not being paid in money but in silver and other valuables as well as bags of Cistercian wool. Justin finds that the robbery is not the work of a rebel seeking to overthrow the Welsh throne as the current Kind of Wales, Davydd, asserts, but it will take both cleverness and luck to find out who is really behind it and to find the missing ransom. Characters are well-developed, political intrigues are abundant, and the setting will draw you in carry you along. I am wishing now I had read the first book, The Queen's Man, more recently.

I Want to be Left Behind

2011-08-16T13:44:00.000-07:00

Brenda Peterson is a nature writer primarily, but this is a memoir of her life being raised by devout Southern Baptists who are part of the 47% of Americans ( according to her with no source cited for the figure) who believe in the Rapture. Her father worked for the US Forest Service and she was raised largely in and around national forests and grew to have a deep and abiding love for nature and the flora and fauna and waters and mountains that comprise it. She was the only one in her family who simply couldn't accept the idea of leaving the earth behind as an end goal, and her family always thought her ideas were definitely weird. This is her collection of memories of family get togethers and conversations that dealt with these conflicting philosophies.
Ms Peterson lives in Seattle, one of the most "unchurched" major cities in the US...no wonder I felt so at home there! For the remainder of us who don't believe in this version of the end of our days, and for myself who doesn't buy into organized religion of any stripe, this was a fairly painless way to learn a bit more about the devoutly religious. I know I should read the bible, but not sure I ever will, even though each chapter of this book opens with a scripture citation which made me wonder what I would find there. I finished the book because I wanted to understand how she reconciled these divergent forces in her life. I guess I would say that she accepts her family and values them for what is good in them, without buying into their beliefs. She is encouraged by the fact that the generation that comes after her (nieces and nephews) seem more attached to this earth and to trying to do good things here, rather than ignoring the problems as she fears many "true believers" do. The subtitle of the book is "Finding the Rapture Here on Earth" and that is the predominant thread in her personal belief system--that this earth and everything on it, is part of any divine spirit, and deserves our full attention to preserve it as best we can. A quote I loved that she included went something like this..."Extinction is not good stewardship." Indeed.

Thunderstruck

2011-08-15T17:10:00.000-07:00

I ran across this older work by Erik Larson on the sale table at Oregon State when I stopped by the campus to catch up with friends and former colleagues in July. Having just finished In the Garden of Beasts, I snatched it up and, although it was not as compelling to me as either Garden or Devil in the White City, it was nevertheless a trademark example of Larson's style, wherein he weaves together two lines of history--a murder and the development of wireless communication by Marconi. I would be fascinated to know how he decides exactly which two historical threads to pull on for any particular book, but as always, he has done extensive research and documented the accounts with plenty of primary source material addressed in chapter notes and the bibliography. I would agree with the NYTimes Book Review that this is not Larson's most successful effort, and that the story dragged at times. Marconi emerges as a much more complexly drawn character than does the supposedly mild-mannered homeopath, Dr. Crippen, who murdered his wife in spectacular fashion. I never considered not finishing the book, but it wouldn't be high on my recommended list unless the personalities and politics surrounding the development of wireless intrigue you.

In the Garden of Beasts

2011-08-15T16:48:00.000-07:00

I have been raving about this newest book by Erik Larson to anyone who would listen. Having been favorably impressed by Larson's Devil in the White City when I read it a couple years ago, I was easily persuaded by the NYTimes Book Review to hunt this book down. Focused around the 4-year term of historian William Dodd as American Ambassador to Berlin, the story of Hitler's rise to power takes on an immediate and horrifying reality. Larson has once again done a yeoman's job of research and includes excerpts from secondary and primary sources including memoirs, state documents, and even film footage and architectural blueprints. Bits and pieces of this documentation are woven into the narrative and the whole moves along so fast you can't believe it when you're done. There are abundant notes and an extensive bibliography at the end for library nerds like me. Of course all is clearer in hind sight, but the cavalier attitude of many high level politicians in the U. S. when Dodd tried to warn about Hitler is truly repulsive. They wanted Dodd out of the post because he refused to make nice after it became clear to him what Hitler really intended. Their primary concern was getting repayment of loans made by U.S. bankers to the German government, and they didn't seem to care at all about the blatant violation of civil rights in Germany. This chronologically organized and very personal perspective of the years from 1933-1937 also makes clear how Hitler succeeded in terrifying the German populace and disempowering German Jewish citizens a step at a time. Some of the parallels to more current events are unavoidably clear.

Sixkill

2011-08-15T16:22:00.000-07:00

It is with renewed sadness at the death of Robert Parker that I read this last book he wrote in the Spenser series. The dialog is always one of the main draws for me and this book just reminds me how much I enjoy the conversations between his characters. Spenser is asked by Quirk to look into the death of a young woman who appears to have died while having sex with movie star Jumbo Nelson. Everyone wants to hang the death on Jumbo--the press, the family, even the studio--because Jumbo is a thoroughly unlikable guy. But Quirk isn't so sure that justice would be served with this verdict and Spenser agrees to help, especially when he finds out that Rita Fiore, who is perpetually trying to seduce him, has been hired to defend Jumbo. But Spenser's unstoppable smart mouth pisses off Jumbo and he fires them both. That won't stop Spenser of course, because he's doing this for Quirk. Spenser knocks out Jumbo's bodyguard, a native American named Zebulon Sixkill, and so Jumbo fires him, too. Spenser takes Zee on as a project, teaching him how to box and maybe how to get off the dope and booze. The pair become the target of some people who don't want Spenser to look into the matter any further, but the bad guys are never any match for Spenser and his new backup man. Hawk is missing from this one, supposedly off in Asia somewhere, but a number of other familiar and slightly shady allies show up in the course of the investigation, and of course Susan and Pearl are present and accounted for. Zee has a sly sense of humor based on his native ancestry and seems to serve as a conversational stand-in for Hawk. We get glimpses into episodes of his past through entries interspersed between chapters--a different device for revealing character than I have seen in Parker's book previously. A righteous installment in the Spenser series, if a little bittersweet.

Long Gone

2011-08-15T15:37:00.000-07:00

If any of you are James Lee Burke fans, you will recognize the author of this book--Alafair Burke--his daughter. Her first name is also the name of the young adopted child in the Dave Robicheaux series by James Lee Burke. Alafair Burke has apparently been at this a while, having written six other books with a series protagonist named Ellie Hatcher, none of which I have read.
Alice Humphrey is trying to make it on her own, without relying on the reputation or largesse of her famous movie actor father and mother. Victim of the economic downturn, she has been jobless and struggling for several months when a chance meeting at an art gallery presents her with the offer to run a small gallery--a dream come true. The owner wishes to remain anonymous and the gallery must have a showing of one artist's work--for whom the own is apparently a patron and/or lover-- for a short few weeks and then Alice is free to run the gallery as she sees fit. The artist's works, however, generate a huge controversy & protest on the part of some conservative religious fanatics, but Alice is determined to stay the course. That is until she comes to work one morning to find the gallery stripped and the intermediary of the original job offer, Drew Campbell, dead on the floor. All efforts to establish the legitimacy of the gallery seem to hit dead ends and Alice quickly becomes the main suspect for the murder. In the process of trying to find the gallery's owner, Alice uncovers some dark secrets from her family's past. Still, Alice has friends and family trying to help her get to the bottom of things--or perhaps they have an agenda of their own.

The Savage Garden

2011-08-15T15:10:00.000-07:00

I am woefully behind on posting about this summer's reading and so I am just jumping in with the 3rd Mark Mills book I read, The Savage Garden. Set in Tuscany, about 8 years after WWII (do you detect a certain partiality for the era by Mr. Mills??), a graduate student in art history at Cambridge is offered (ordered?) by his major professor to undertake a special summer project. He is to go to Italy for 2 weeks and research and write up the memorial garden at the Villa Docci as the basis for his thesis. Built nearly 400 years ago--30 years after the untimely death of his much younger wife--the garden is a memorial from Lord Docci, the bereaved husband. But as Adam begins to investigate the anomalies in the garden statuary and layout, he is troubled by what he finds and begins to think the death may have been murder, and the garden not so much a tribute as a series of clues. At the same time, Adam is intrigued by the current Docci family and the villa itself, which preserves the details of another tragic death. The current Signora Docci's son was shot on the third floor by occupying Nazis, just as Italy was being liberated by the allies. The entire floor of the villa was sealed off by her dead husband with strict instructions that it remain that way in perpetuity. Adam begins to feel he is being manipulated in his investigations, by the spirit of the dead nobleman's wife, and by the present day Docci family.
The characters and relationships in this book are more fully developed than in The Information Officer, the bits of history around collaborators and partisans provide political context, and the setting is evoked with careful detail. I was engaged throughout, and as surprised as Adam by the twist at the end.

The Information Officer

2011-08-11T17:24:00.000-07:00

Ah well, the usual consequence of turning me on to a new author (Mark Mills) and turning me loose in Powell's bookstore has happened. I bought the two books he previously published (prior to Amagansett) and devoured them both. The Information Officer is set in Malta during WWII with the major players being British soldiers/aviators--along with one American "liaison" officer. Having also just bought and read Erik Larson's non-fiction account of Berlin from 1933-37 (In the Garden of Beasts), I was in a receptive frame of mind for this historically based murder mystery. Mills claims, through his main character British Army Information Officer Max Chadwick, that more bombs were dropped on Malta in a few months than on all of London in the Blitz. Wikipedia claims (and other sources back this) that "Between 20 March and 28 April 1942, the Germans flew 11,819 sorties against the island and dropped 6,557 tons of bombs (3,150 tons on Valletta)"--Valletta being the main city and main harbor. Mills has done his historical research. Suffice to say that the residents of Malta experienced death and destruction on a daily basis, so it's no wonder that the deaths of a few dance hall girls might go unnoticed amid the carnage, especially as they have been artfully disguised to look like collateral damage from the bombings. That is until the local military doctor/surgeon (Freddie Lambert) brings the latest victim to the attention of Max, along with "evidence" that the murderer is a British submariner. Our protagonist is torn between wanting to keep up morale through his positive spins on information, and bringing the matter to the attention of the authorities. He finally decides to do the latter, but in secret, through local contacts. It is only when his own lover disappears, along with the local detective who had been investigating the deaths, that the case gets really personal for Max. Meanwhile, interspersed throughout the commentary, are excerpts from the killer's journal which range from the original impetus for his first kill to the latter entries where he gloats at getting away with the murders and wanting to up the challenge for himself. We also learn that he is spying and sowing disinformation on behalf of the Germans. The identity of the killer is a surprise, partly due to the fact that few of the characters are fully developed, and I found the novel is more evocative (of time and place and social manners) than satisfying. I would still recommend it, and it spurred me on to read another novel by Mill, The Savage Garden.

Amagansett

2011-07-14T17:16:00.000-07:00

I was reminded of John Dunning's Two O'Clock Eastern Wartime when I read Mark Mills' period mystery set on the south fork of Long Island right after WWII ( Also published under the title The Whaleboat House). Place is richly drawn and the history of the area and the cultures are well-researched and handed out in digestible chunks. Son of a Basque fisherman, Conrad Labarde, immigrated to this country when a child, and continues the tradition of fishing for a living. When the book opens, his catch includes the body of a beautiful and wealthy young woman, who we eventually learn was Conrad's love and lover. So we are introduced to the class wars that prevail between the rich (the "summer people") and...just about everyone else, but especially the locals. Although the death is apparently a drowning in treacherous currents, both Conrad and the Deputy Chief of police, Tom Hollis, find it odd that the woman, Lillian Wallace, was wearing pearl earrings for her swim. Independently, they undertake to find out who killed her and why. Hollis is hampered by being new to the area and by having a lazy and corrupt boss; he must undertake the investigation without really seeming to, and without ruffling the feathers of her wealthy family, who we come to suspect pretty quickly are involved in Lillian's death. Conrad is hampered by being a local who had a secret and unacceptable affair with a wealthy woman, and by a past that haunts him. His war experience involved working behind enemy lines in a special forces unit, so he is not your ordinary fisherman, and eventually he stages the drama that will reveal those responsible for the murder. There are many additional characters of note who are also well-developed and intriguing: Conrad's fishing partner Rollo Kemp, Hollis' friend and local photographer Abel, Hollis's love interest Mary, the wealthy Wallaces and their "fix-it" man, and the local fishing family scions. You will not regret reading this book--in fact, I'm tempted to sit down and read it again! Fortunately, Mills already has 3 other books published, so I may read those first ;-)

The Darling

2011-07-14T15:51:00.000-07:00

I have not read any other novels by Russel Banks, so I wasn't going on reputation; either my pal Anne Zald or I picked this up at ALA Midwinter and it rose to the top of my reading pile this summer. It was challenging to start but eventually so compelling that I had to finish. It is set largely in Liberia between 1975 and 1991, with some portions set in New England prior to that, and in upstate New York 10 years after that period. The plot is incredibly complicated, but revolves mainly around Hannah Musgrave, who was raised by a liberal white family, and left medical school to become a political radical. Her activities resulted in her having to go underground and assume a new name, and eventually events required her to leave the country--or so she thought. Because of her medical training, she was always able to find low level lab work and eventually she ended up in Liberia, when Tolbert is president, and marries a minor government minister, Woodrow Sundiata. She bears him three sons and becomes the opposite of what she been heretofore; where she was outspoken, opinionated and independent, now she is nearly silent and directionless. Some of this is no doubt due to finding herself part of a tiny minority of whites in a country ruled by one corrupt government after another. The CIA, Russia and anyone else interested in the diamonds and other resources of this tiny West African nation are constantly bribing and pulling strings and the ordinary people as always suffer; while those at the top become abusive in their power. Tolbert is assassinated in 1980 and succeeded by Samuel Doe, who is in turn murdered by Charles Taylor's rebels 10 years later. (I found a brief chronology here.) Although her husband survives the first coup, he does not survive the 2nd and we know early on in the book that he is dead. We also know that she abandoned her sons and a sanctuary she had created for chimps, and came back to America to buy and run a farm in the Adirondacks. What we don't know initially is why and how these things happened and that is what keeps you coming back. I was reminded of the award winning movie, Pray the Devil Back to Hell, about a group of women who finally put a stop to the killing under Taylor's regime. The incredible cruelty and violence --to men, women, children and animals--simply sets me back on my heels. The NYT Review describes the protagonist in this way, "Banks takes the risk of evoking the kind of woman whose love for animals is more passionate than her love for humans -- including her children. But he succeeds in making Hannah sympathetic, if not always likable." I couldn't agree more.

Portraits of Creative Aging

2011-07-14T15:15:00.000-07:00

As I approach my 60th birthday and hopefully a not-too-distant retirement from my current job, I can't help but wonder, "What comes next?" This book by Joan Kadri Zald (the sociologist aunt of my colleague Anne Zald) is a collection of interviews with people who have retired and gone on to new careers, expanded interests and hobbies, and/or social activism. They inspire the reader with multiple examples of finding tremendous satisfaction in service to others, pursuing previously unfulfilled passions, or finding new directions altogether. She sought to represent elders from ages 60-90's, of various cultures/ethnicities and geographic bases. A concluding chapter pulls together her observations about what characteristics these folks have in common: "passion and commitment...for the activities in which they were engaged" (p.221), meaningful and important endeavors that added "excitement and zest to their lives" (p.221). There were also some necessary preconditions: financial security, freedom from a full-time caregiving role, social connections, maintenance of cognitive and physical functioning. Their paths and undertakings are diverse and there is a lot here to chew on...I recommend it for all my fellow agers.

The Midnight Palace

2011-07-14T14:39:00.000-07:00

Another YA novel from Carlos Ruiz Zafón, The Midnight Palace did not engage me to the degree that The Prince of Mists or Shadow of the Wind did. As always, Zafón does an excellent job of capturing and conveying atmosphere and setting, this time of Calcutta, India in 1932. But the characters are not as well developed or engaging, and the plot feels more labored with a Star Wars revelation of paternity in the end that was somewhat predictable and not very satisfying. The protagonists are all just turning 16 years old, a time when they must leave the haven of St. Patrick's orphanage; these seven (6 boys and a girl) have bonded as friends and formed a secret club they call the Chowbar Society that meets periodically in an abandoned mansion--their "midnight palace." The leader of this group, Ben, is reunited with his heretofore unknown twin sister when their grandmother, Aryami Bose, returns to warn Father Carter that Ben is in danger from a mysterious man who wants to kill the twins. This threat, which began with the murder of the twins' parents, was the reason the infant Ben was left at the orphanage and Aryami fled with the other twin, Sheere, in 1916. Sheere is made an honorary member of the Chowbar Society and the group agrees to help the twins get to the bottom of the mystery and defeat the evil man who seems able to materialize at will in his quest to destroy them. The story is told as a sort of memoir by one of the original group of orphans, and closes in modern times with a post-scripted update on the fate of the other members of the Chowbar Society.

Born Under a Lucky Moon

2011-06-03T13:42:00.000-07:00

First novel by Dana Precious who lives in L.A. but was born in North Muskegon, MI, the major setting of this book. Jeannie is one of 4 girls and 1 boy in the Thompson family. Told from her perspective, the story moves back and forth between one very eventful year in her family's life, 1986, and her current life 20 years later. It's almost impossible to imagine a house with 5 women and only one bathroom, but that seems to be the least of their problems. This family has over the top things happen to them along with all the ordinary challenges and joys of living. When grandma's nursing home has to close for 2 months to renovate, they do not hesitate to take her in...even though she is prone to running out of the house without clothes, and finally, in her deteriorated mental state, tries to blow up the house by jimmying a gas line. It's a little hard to believe that children raised in such a loving and supportive family nevertheless seem to pick really bad marriage partners and live such out of control lives. But I could not walk away from the book, simply because I wanted to know what was going to happen next, and kept hoping things would end well--which they did. There are some--in my opinion--laugh-out-loud scenes, like that of Jeannie's dad trying to rescue a squirrel who has gotten his head trapped in the supposedly squirrel-proof bird feeder. The major characters are reasonably well-developed, especially Jeannie, her mom and dad, and the sense of small town place is palpable. Definitely an enjoyably read.

Her Fearful Symmetry

2011-05-03T09:57:00.000-07:00

I keep meaning to read The Time Traveler's Wife, or go see the movie, but neither of these has happened. Nevertheless, I jumped into another book by that book's author, Audrey Niffenegger, and am now re-motivated to find TTW. Her Fearful Symmetry is an intriguing ghost story, filled with dysfunctional but mostly sympathetic characters, set in London in contemporary times. It opens with the loss of a love. Robert Fanshaw is writing the penultimate history of a nearby and venerable cemetary, Highgate, where lie buried some eminent remains, e.g., Karl Marx and Michael Faraday. His older lover, Elspeth Noblin, dies of cancer, but eventually finds that her spirit is still alive and aware and trapped in her old flat, one floor below Robert's. On the top floor of the building lives Martin, who has also been abandoned by a very much alive but fed up wife who can no longer cope with the restrictions imposed by her husband's obsessive compulsive disorder. Elspeth has left a peculiar bequest. Her flat and estate is to go to twin nieces, Valentina and Julia, who she has never met. The conditions of the will are that they must live in the flat for one year before disposing of her estate, and they must never allow their parents into the flat. Their mother was Elspeth's estranged twin. Until this time, the twins have never ventured very far from their home in a posh suburb of Illinois, except for a couple of abortive attempts at college. The plot thickens as the twins arrive and begin to grow apart, Elspeth finds she can make her presence known in increasingly obvious ways, Robert begins to fall in love with Valentina who is perhaps not really Elspeth's niece, Julia befriends Max and starts slipping him drugs, and a wild kitten is temporarily tamed before its spirit is stolen. The plot is ingenious and you won't know all the intricate twists until the end.

Bamboo and Blood

2011-04-18T17:08:00.000-07:00

Inspector O, James Church's North Korean protagonist, has gone back in time -- making this a prequel of sorts to his other novels in this series (Corpse in the Koryo and Hidden Moon). All the essential elements are there: clues that aren't supposed to be followed, cases that aren't supposed to be solved, intricate maneuvers and manipulations aplenty. Set during the famine years of the 90's in North Korea, people talk about loved ones starving to death with seeming resignation. There simply is no food--and that is the driver behind what turns out to be intricate attempts to buy, bribe or blackmail other countries into giving North Korea food. It strains credulity to someone raised in an ostensibly democratic society like the United States that Inspector O does not seriously consider defecting when he is given ample motive and opportunity. He is the most dogged of investigators following each thread until he can weave them into whole cloth, in spite of people kidnapping and even trying to kill him. As a reader, I am drawn in with him, never giving up on trying to figure out how everything is connected, even though the odds are against a solution.

Reading for the NYRA

2011-04-04T10:54:00.000-07:00

Although I haven't posted much here lately, it was because I was swamped with reading books for the Nevada Young Readers Award--NYRA (we were working from the 2012 reading list). Lots of grown ups (mostly librarians) read books nominated by kids in different age categories and then have a video conference to narrow down the nominees to about 6-8 in each bracket for final voting. I read in two categories--though not all of them in any category--the final nominees haven't been posted yet. Most of them I could definitely leave rather than take, but these are my personal favorites of those I read:
Junkyard Wonders by Patricia Palacco. Young Readers level with beautiful colored drawings. Wonderful autobiographical portrayal of special needs kids and one truly inspirational teacher.
Two books by Peg Kehret, Runaway Twin and Stolen Children. Middle readers with positive girl role models. The latter was my preferred book, but there was a good dog character in the former.
The Clone Codes by the McKissacks. Also middle reader set 160 years in the future when clones are discriminated against and treated as non-human, much as slaves were in earlier times. A little heavy handed on the didactic message, but still an interesting read.

The Popularity Papers by Amy Ignatow (also the illustrator). Middle Reader. This is definitely one of the best books I read—very funny and with a genuine sense of the voice, dialog, perspective of two 5^th grade girls trying to figure out how to be popular before they move to junior high next year. Done as a collaborative journal, complete with passed notes, drawings that vary in quality depending on the artist, and unique handwriting for the two main characters. They learn a lot about friendship. I love Julie’s observation about their attempts to become popular, “Just because you are next to a tomato doesn’t make you a tomato.”

The Lost Children by Carolyn Cohagan. Middle Reader. Tend to agree with Kirkus Reviews that this is rough with missing transitions, but also has a lot of promise. The opening line is great, “ Josephine Russing owned 387 pairs of gloves.” The ending is contrived and confusing. But the heroine is brave and loyal and those are good things.

The Immortal Fire by Anne Ursu. Middle Reader. Snarky and tongue in cheek narration make this romping adventure to save the world from mythical creatures gone bad pretty enjoyable. Similar to Percy Jackson’s books but with a MUCH more jaded view of the Greek gods who are depicted as a bunch of spoiled brats. Strong teen characters, a little confusing about who is supposed to be the lead character. Both Charlotte and cousin Zee (Zachary) –aged 13, eighth graders--at times feel they are responsible for what appears to be the impending destruction of the world or the end of humanity—or both.

Hidden Moon

2011-04-04T10:23:00.000-07:00

Second in the "Inspector O" series by pseudonymous author James Church, we are once again immersed in the Kafka-esque unreality of life in North Korea. A bank robbery--perhaps the first ever in the city of Pyongyang--leaves both O and his new boss Min guessing whether anyone really wants it solved. Everytime O pursues a clue, bodies disappear from the morgue, doors of ministries are shut in his face, suspects turn up dead or disappear. Then he starts disappearing. For days at a time he is taken and questioned in a dark room and beaten when the interrogators don't like the answers. Is this supposed to dissuade him from solving the robbery or "encourage" him to speed up his investigation. As with the first book, there is rampant mistrust and suspicion between government agencies and between representatives of government agencies and the rest of the populace. This book continues the amazing insights into a very secretive country that began with A Corpse in the Koryo. And Inspector O picks up where he left off in educating the reader about the particular qualities of wood--"there's a certain smugness to walnut that you can feel," whereas "acacia knew how to mind its own business and let a person think," chestnut is "very self-possessed wood," while persimmon is "very complicated. Difficult to understand." Who knew?! Thanks Anne for the loan!

Corpse in the Koryo

2011-02-28T17:04:00.000-08:00

North Korean police Inspector O is in the unlovely position of being asked to investigate events that no one really wants the answers to. Much like Sonchai Jitpleecheep in Jon Burdett's books, or Shan Tao Yun in Eliot Pattison's series, there is danger is looking too closely when other government agencies want to keep things hidden. The book moves us back and forth between the interview room where Inspector O is being interrogated by an intelligence agent from the West and the portrayal of the events he is recalling. In the cat and mouse game, it is never entirely clear who is on his side and who is manipulating him for their own benefit. We learn relatively early that his boss has died as has another government official of interest to his interrogator, so Inspector O seems freed to reveal what he knows. But he has been cagey so long, it's hard to stop. He has also not given up altogether on his country, in spite of the terrible abuses of power and rampant corruption. Although orthodox religion is never mentioned as a means of coping as it is with Buddhist protagonist Jitpleecheep, Inspector O does seem to rely on a connection with nature--specifically wood--instilled by his grandfather, to ground him when all else falls apart. I plan on reading the sequels, especially if I can entice my friend Anne--who turned me on to this book--to loan me her copies :-)

The Cobra

2011-01-30T13:28:00.000-08:00

Frederick Forsyth burst onto the espionage and thriller scene with The Day of the Jackal in the early 70's and has consistently produced primarily clandestine operations best sellers in the ensuing years. The Cobra is his newest and, I found, somewhat disappointing novel. But then, perhaps that's the point. The writing, the details, the plot are not disappointing--just the outcome. There is no happy ending here. If the president of the United States gave you unlimited power and a virtually unlimited budget, could you stop the traffic in cocaine? That's the question posed to retired CIA operative, Paul Devereux, who was nicknamed The Cobra for his less than diplomatic dealings with people. After careful study, he agrees that he could, and through careful preparation, he proceeds to disrupt the flow of cocaine and turn the enemy inward to consume itself. But innocent people do die as the gangs begin to war with one another in response to diminishing drug supplies and strategically placed disinformation. And the United States would rather that kind of thing happened somewhere else, so Devereux is called off before the cocaine industry can completely self-destruct. It's fascinating to watch the man's mind work its way through what would be required. He does his research and keeps you reading as the machinations of his plan are revealed. The ending is probably realistic, even if the premise of the story stretches credibility--but I still wish it had turned out differently.

Bury Your Dead

2011-01-30T13:12:00.000-08:00

The most recent of Louise Penny's "Inspector Gamache" series shows her in fine form and Inspector Gamache at a low point. We catch up with him in Quebec City just as winter Carnaval is getting underway. You can feel the sub-zero temperatures reaching right down to your bones. He has come to stay with his former chief and mentor, while he ostensibly does some early historical research at a local English library. But the reality is that he is recovering from a Surete operation that went wrong in ways Gamache feels responsible for...we only gradually learn the outlines of that story. Meanwhile, Jean Guy, also recovering from physical wounds, is sent by Gamache to Three Pines to re-open the previous case (The Brutal Telling ). Three Pines bistro and B & B owner Gabri sends daily letters to Gamache asking this vexing question, if his partner Olivier had really killed the old man in the cabin, why would he move the body where it could be found. Gamache, too, has wrestled with this inconsistency since sending Olivier to prison. Meanwhile, in Quebec City, the body of a well-known local figure is found in the basement of the Literary and Historical society where Gamache has been researching, and he is asked by the staff and by the local police to lend a hand. We begin to see the dimensions of a long-standing animosity between the English and the French in this tale, as it colors everything about how the case is being handled and publicized. Penny does a masterful job of revealing the three stories in parallel and developing the relationships between her characters with even more richness, so that I can hardly wait to see what will come next. Having discovered Penny when she was already four novels into her series, I could indulge myself on a regular basis; not sure how I will endure having to wait for her to actually write another book.

Grave Surprise

2011-01-30T12:38:00.000-08:00

Although I have friends who really like the Sookie Stackhouse series ( the basis of the "True Blood" TV series I think) by Charlaine Harris, I haven't read them, but since I was familiar with her name, I grabbed this audiobook from another series of hers. The protagonist, Harper Connelly, was struck by lightning as a teen and has, ever since, been able to "read" the dead. That is, when in proximity to a dead body, she knows who it is (was) and what killed him/her. She is a "consultant" of sorts, often brought in to find the missing or known dead. Accompanied by her brother and manager, Tolivar Lang, she is now in Memphis to do a demonstration of her abilities for a college class on the paranormal. While "reading" a very old graveyard, she encounters a new body; in fact, it is the body of a young girl she was brought to Nashville to search for the previous year and never found. Needless to say, that connection places Harper and her brother high on the police's list of persons of interest. The premise behind this particular protagonist's talents are somewhat unusual and the aftereffects of her experience and subsequent dealings with people's skepticism are dealt with matter of factly, although it is clear what an emotional price she pays. Competently written with well-developed characters and setting, I would definitely seek out more of this series to find out how Harper and Tolivar are getting along.

Gone Tomorrow

2011-01-22T15:27:00.000-08:00

This installment in Lee Child's "Jack Reacher" series precedes the one I just read and wrote about, 61 Hours, and so I grabbed it off the sale table in Borders while in San Diego. Reacher's old anti-terrorism training kicks in while riding the subway in New York in the wee hours of the morning. A woman is clutching a bag, mumbling to herself and wearing a large down jacket even though it is the height of summer. She meets all the criteria for a suicide bomber. Unsure what to do, Reacher approaches and tries to talk to her, tells her he's a cop, and she pulls out--not a detonator switch but a loaded gun with which she proceeds to shoot herself. In the ensuing investigation, a lot of people--including federal types and some private muscle--want to rule the whole thing a suicide and most especially want Reacher to walk away. But too many anomalies are bugging Reacher about this case and he keeps digging, getting in way over his head with international terrorists and federal agents all trying to silence him. He uses astute deduction to track down the major players, and all his military training to try and stay alive. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend these books as well written with good character and setting development and plots that will keep you guessing til the very end.

Necromancer

2011-01-22T15:09:00.000-08:00

What's absolutely astounding about these books by Michael Scott is that nearly 400 pages covers only a couple days and you just can't believe that so much can happen in such a short time. Of course it helps that a LOT of things are going on simultaneously in other realms...This is the 4th in the series "The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel" and the fate of the world as we know it is growing more dire by the hour. Evil forces appear to be getting the upper hand if for no other reason than Flamel has lost the diary pages that would allow him to remain immortal, and he is losing power as old age arrives at an accelerated pace--after all, he is several hundred years old. Twins Josh and Sophie try to go home again after the adventures of the first three novels, but it is not to be. Scathatch is missing as is Joan of Arc and Dr. Dee is finding a way to capitalize on Josh's mistrust of Flamel and bend Josh's growing powers to his dark ends. The action is non-stop, and the ending will leave you groaning for resolution--maybe in the next volume, The Warlock. Historical and mythological figures rub shoulders in these incredibly complicated casts of characters (think Machiavelli, Billy the Kid, the god Mars, and Prometheus just to name a few). You must read the previous books to have any idea what is going on here, but it will be an enjoyable task: The Alchemyst, The Magician, and The Sorceress.

Artemis Fowl: The Eternity Code

2011-01-22T14:33:00.000-08:00

I actually spent part of my Powell's holiday gift on this one because I was in the mood for something really entertaining and yet well-written. Eoin Colfer's protagonist, Artemis Fowl, is a teenage master criminal. Or at least he was in the two previous books (Artemis Fowl and AF: The Arctic Incident). But now that they fairies have helped rescue his father and brought him back to life in more ways than one, Fowl senior is rethinking his previous life of crime and wants his son to follow him in doing good deeds. Artemis wants to score just one more really BIG deal so there will be cushion in the family bank account before he goes straight, however. For once, both Artemis and his loyal bodyguard are outsmarted and outflanked. As they meet the highly shady business mogul, Jon Spiro, to negotiate the sale of a miniature supercomputer Artemis built using stolen fairy technology, Butler is mortally wounded and Spiro steals the computer. Fast thinking and a major dose of fairy magic might be able to save Butler, but the C-Cube computer in the wrong hands will concentrate power in ways too terrible to contemplate AND probably reveal the hidden world of the fairies. The LEPrecon want the computer and all Artemis' memories of the fairy world destroyed in exchange for helping Artemis save his friend--a high price to pay. And it's going to take the genius of Fowl plus the talents of fairies, dwarves and centaurs to pull off this heist.

Reading (and listening to) Elizabeth Peters

2011-01-21T18:11:00.000-08:00

If you haven't read Peter's series starring archaeologists Amelia Peabody Emerson and husband Radcliff Emerson, you've missed a treat. There are nearly twenty of them and they are not only wildly entertaining adventure stories, but full of great factual information since Peters is a PhD in Egyptology from the University of Chicago. Set in Victorian era England and Egypt, you can follow them through from the initial meeting of Emerson and Peabody (Crocodile on the Sandbank) to their son being grown, married and with children of his own--well worth the effort to read them in order. Cool website with chronological listing of the series and character backgrounds is here. Along with great settings, character development is wonderful--they are all extraordinarily feisty and endearing along with supplementary characters Ramses, "master criminal" Sethos, Evelyn & Walter Emerson, Gargery the butler, adopted daughter Nefret, and Bastet (a cat) typically rounding out the cast. The most recently consumed was Guardian of the Horizon (several published since this one) which involves an emissary from the Lost Oasis that was Nefret's home until she was rescued by the Emersons and adopted as their daughter. Now they are going back, ostensibly on another errand of mercy to help Tarek, the ruler of this secret place. But it is a trap and they will need to use all their tricks and talents to make good their escape. I really also enjoy listening to these books on CD as Barbara Rosenblatt does such an outstanding job with the voices of the character that you really forget it is only one person speaking all the dialog. I also recently dipped back into the Vicky Bliss series (The Laughter of Dead Kings) by Peters, with another indomitable female--an art historian-- as the .protagonist. These adventures are set in contemporary times, taking place largely in Europe and occasionally in Egypt. An overview of the series is provided in Wikipedia.

The Titian Committee

2011-01-01T17:33:00.000-08:00

This is one of Iain Pear's art theft mysteries featuring Flavia de Stefano of Rome's Art Theft Squad and Jonathan Argyll, art dealer. A member of the Titian Committee, the only woman, is murdered in a public garden in Venice. Although murder is normally outside the realm of the Art Theft Squad, but the future of the department is at risk in the next budget cycle so Flavia's boss sends her help out in any way she can--hopefully without ruffling any feathers. That's pretty much impossible as the investigating detective takes umbrage at everything, especially Flavia being involved with his murder investigation. He foists her off by sending her to re-interview the other members of the committee. The committee is state sponsored and charged with locating, inventorying and authenticating all the works of the great painter Titian. Jonathan is supposed to be buying a small collection of relatively unimportant paintings from a Venetian marchesa, except that now her companion/secretary is asking him to get the works out of the country illegally instead of paying the relevant taxes and Jonathan has balked. Then the collection is apparently stolen and to top it off, the dead woman appears to have been very interested in one of the portraits in the collection. When two more members of the committee are dispatched, along with a former member, things go way beyond the local police force's convenient explanation of a mugging gone wrong. Working on separate lines of inquiry, Jonathan and Flavia uncover all the pieces that finally allow the puzzle to be solved. Once again Pears brings his extensive expertise on art and history together in a well-plotted tale that will keep you guessing til the end. See related review: "Italian Mysteries." I also highly recommend his other historical novels, such as Stone's Fall and An Instance of the Fingerpost.

The Graveyard Book

2011-01-01T16:55:00.000-08:00

I have been wanting to read this YA book by Neil Gaiman for quite some time so it also went into the Powell's basket last weekend when I was on a sponsored shopping spree. A toddler is awakened by a noise downstairs and so clambers out of his crib, down the stairs, through the open front door, and up the hill to an historic graveyard. The cause of his disturbance is a murderer dispatching his parents and older sister and who is now hunting for him. As the child wanders into the locked graveyard he begins to see and hear things--ghosts--although he doesn't know that. Still the long dead take pity on the child and just as they are trying to decide what to do, the newly dead spirits of his parents appear and beseech them to protect the boy from the man seeking to kill him. The guardian Silas, neither dead nor alive, distracts the killer who has followed his keen sense of smell in pursuit of his prey and the dead meanwhile vote to let the Owens couple take the child on. Silas agrees to be the child's guardian until he is no longer needed for he can move back and forth between the world of the dead and that of the living in order to meet the boy's needs for food and clothing. And so begins the most unorthodox upbringing of Nobody Owens, who lives almost exclusively with the dead until he becomes a young man and decides he wants to go to school. In defending the victimized younger children at school, he becomes noticed and, as Silas has said many times, danger is waiting. The hunter befriends a friend of Bod's (short for Nobody) and finds where he has been hiding all these years. He is accompanied by other members of the Convocation who sanctioned the murder of Bod's family all those years ago. But Bod has learned some tricks that he can use to defend himself and the graveyard from these evil men, thus eliminating the imminent threat. Silas decides it is time for Bod to make his own life and sends him off to create his own adventures. This is a very endearing story that gives a new meaning to the phrase, "it takes a village to raise a child."

61 Hours

2011-01-01T13:03:00.000-08:00

I haven't picked up a Jack Reacher novel by Lee Childs for quite some time but I bought this at Powell's a few days ago on a shopping spree fueled by a gift card from sis and brother-in-law Joan and Mickey. I won't try to explain Jack Reacher in detail if you haven't met him, but briefly he is ex-military, managed an elite unit of the military police and now lives an itinerant life free of belongings and personal attachments. He hitches a ride on a tour bus carrying a couple dozen elderly folk towards Mt. Rushmore on a Dakota's winter day when a patch of ice changes course for him. The bus is wrecked and the passenger's all become stranded in the small town of Bolton, SD, by a blizzard. The deputy sheriff first interrogates Reacher and then begins to use him in helping the town deal with protection of their only witness to a drug buy. She is a retired Oxford and Yale university librarian and Reacher befriends her as he joins in trying to protect her from a hit contracted by Mexican drug king pin, Plato. The drug dealers are based at an abandoned Air Force facility outside of town and they are selling huge quantities of methamphetamine, so it is assumed that there must be some subterranean facilities that are being used as a lab. But then the gang up and leaves town, and an examination of the site reveals only a mysteriously locked small stone building. Reacher contacts his successor back in Virginia to gather intel and begins a conversation he may want to pursue after this is all over. The brutal cold becomes a character in its own right and threatens to kill Reacher if someone else doesn't get there first. No one is to be trusted in this town because big money and very scarey people are calling the shots from Mexico. Although there's a hint early on that something is not as it seems, the ending will still surprise most readers. This is a tightly crafted and suspenseful tale well worth reading whether or not you are familiar with the series.

Resolution

2011-01-01T12:30:00.000-08:00

This is the 2nd in a series by Robert Parker set in the Old West. I actually listened to the first--Appaloosa-- some months back on audiotape and was so taken with the quintessentially laconic dialog that I jumped at the chance to buy this off the sale table at B & N over Thanksgiving. The books are wonderful to read, but also wonderful to hear read well, so take your choice. With Appaloosa, you can also watch the movie with Ed Harris and Viggo Mortenson if you want. Virgil Cole and Everett Hitch have been providing itinerant law man services for several years now, riding together and backing up one another when push comes to shove. Everett has made the ultimate sacrifice in Appaloosa ( a small town) to keep his friend Everett from having to break the law over his new lady friend's infidelity. Everett calls out the interloper, there is a gunfight that Everett wins, and he leaves town because he has broken the law and Virgil would feel honor bound to uphold it and take Everett in. Everett has moved on to the even tinier town of Resolution which has several saloons, but no mayor, town council or marshal. He signs on to be the peacekeeper in one of these saloons, run by a man named Wolfson, who not only has designs to take over the saloon across the street, but also the whole town and surrounding ranches, mines, lumber mill, etc. Just as things are starting to heat up, with competing hired guns brought in by the mine owner, Virgil surfaces with his own problems--he shot a man who left town with Vigil's lady friend Allie and then abandoned her in Texas. This provides the fodder for some thought-provoking conversations about the meaning of the law, justice, and friendship. Meanwhile. Cole and Hitch align themselves with two of the hired guns, Cato and Rose, when Wolfson decides they are not stepping smartly enough in response to his time line for taking over the town. All comes out as it should and Cole and Hitch head off to Texas to find Vigils's wayward woman. As with all Parker's books, the dialog establishes the characters and defines the relationships--which is true of life also if people only realized that.

Brutal Telling

2010-12-26T12:16:00.000-08:00

Fifth in the Inspector Gamache series by Louis Penny, we find ourselves once again in Three Pines. This is a series that really must be taken in order to fully understand the dynamics between the characters--between husband and wife Peter and Clara Morrow for example. The Hadley house again plays a role in the murder--almost as another character--although this time brought back to life by yet another family that has fallen for the seemingly idyllic village. I have to say that the book, although still loving portrayal the characters and setting, is a bit of a disappointment and even a heartbreaker in the end. We don't really get much interaction with Armand Gamache except in his role as head of the homicide division. And a character who has been a benign and endearing presence in previous Three Pines mysteries turns out to have a dark side that even his partner and lover did not know about. So many hearts are broken--those who love this character in the story as well as those who have fallen in love as readers. We are launched into another investigation of the emotions that corrode in the dark and turn to murderous action when a body turns up in Olivier and Gabri's bistro. The new family in town--the Gilbert's--have poured money into the Hadley house in preparation for turning it into a high end restaurant, inn and spa. Perhaps they would take customers away from the bistro and B and B run by Gabri and Olivier, and perhaps not. But the enmity between the two sets of proprietors has developed and they are currently not on speaking terms. Clara meanwhile has been "discovered" by Denis Fortin, notable art dealer, and is scheduled for her own show. But during the negotiations, Denis insults Gabri and Clara is torn about whether or not to stand up for her friend and potentially damage her relationship with Fortin in the process. Husband Peter's advice, as always, is suspect due to his fear of being eclipsed in reputation by his wife's art. Gamache listens intently and follows where the clues and his understanding of human nature take him, even though we are reluctant to follow. Worthwhile as always and I am no less keen to pursue the next in the series, but a little sadder, nevertheless. Three Pines will never be the same.

Cat of the Century

2010-11-18T10:03:00.000-08:00

I was so infatuated with this series by Rita Mae Brown and Sneaky Pie Brown (her cat) when it first rolled out that I bought them all. I drifted away but when I saw her newest episode among the new audiobooks at the library, I grabbed it. What a disappointment. The polemics of her politics just weighed this down and overshadowed the thin thread of plot. Whether they were positions with which I agreed (humans are making a mess of the environment) or disagreed (all government and especially taxes are BAD), they were repeated so often and so pedantically--with no specific support for claims--that they just grew wearisome and eventually annoying. I am all for using literature to engage people through alternative and less threatening means in thinking deeply and sometimes differently about controversial issues. Carl Hiaasen's books for young adults that deal with ecological issues come to mind as good examples. But Brown has failed, both through her tone and her overly simplistic presentation of the issues. That being said, this book, like many of her other works, is a heartfelt and loving portrayal of her part of the country (Virginia) and offers an interesting cast of characters. Her early book, Six of One, is still in my top 10 list because it is so funny.

The Cruelest Month

2010-10-23T13:52:00.000-07:00

If you can get past the unlikelihood of three murders occurring in such a tiny Canadian village in as many years, this third Inspector Gamache installment in the Three Pines series by Louise Penny is most satisfying. Gamache and his team are called in to solve a bizarre death --as with the two earlier mysteries, this one is connected with the old Hadley House which overlooks the village. It has fallen into disrepair after the murder of the last owner, and as Easter approaches, the villagers decide to try and exorcise the evil spirits of the place through a seance. Except that one of the seance participants is apparently frightened to death--literally . Or perhaps someone helped her along. The subplot about a colleague at the Surete maneuvering behind the scenes to fully and finally discredit Gamache is brought to a head as slanderous stories about Gamache's family appear in the press. The provocative Agent Nichol remains for almost the entire book a question mark, although Lemieux reveals his true colors early on. The real traitor, who Gamache had called a friend all his life, realizes too late that his jealousy has destroyed one of the few things that ever brought him happiness, his friendship with Gamache. Throughout, Gamache remains a truly human being with fears and failings, but with his integrity and compassion always intact. Would that we could all grow up to be as kind, as steady, as insightful as this man.

A diversion--Tell No One

2010-10-11T15:59:00.000-07:00

Not sure who turned me on to this movie, and I don't usually talk about movies here, but this one was so good that I can't resist. I recognized Kristin Scott Thomas as a co-star, but given that it's a French film (with sub-titles) it's no surprise that my pedestrian experience does not include having seen the lead (Francois Cluzet) or knowing the director (Guillame Canet). It was suspenseful, action filled and tightly plotted. The cinematography was great. A physician whose wife was murdered 8 years ago has come under renewed suspicion from the police when two dead bodies are discovered on land near the old crime scene. Even though it seemed he couldn't and wouldn't have killed his wife, certain facts of the crime just don't add up. And now too many facts are starting to point to him as the killer of not only his wife, but the two dead bodies and a new murder where the evidence is found in his apartment. Altogether too tidy for at least one policeman's taste. The parallel story is that the doctor has received a video via e-mail showing his wife alive and well and 8 years olders accompanied by the admonistion, "tell no one, they are watching." Riveting and absolutely recommended.

The Mapping of Love and Death

2010-09-24T14:28:00.000-07:00

This is the 7th in the Maisie Dobbs series, and I admit I have not read all the intervening ones--in fact I may have missed about 3 or 4 of them. That did not detract from my enjoyment of this audiobook, however, although I did get some surprises. In this installment, Maisie is well-established in her private investigator cum psychologist consulting practice. She is contacted by an elderly American couple who have recently learned that their son, who was MIA in The Great War, has been found, buried in a farmer's field. The remains of Michael Clifton and several of his fellow soldiers have been uncovered in a collapsed dugout. Although Michael was American by birth, his father was British and so, when the war starts, he heads for England to serve. Because he is a trained cartographer and surveyor, his skills are sorely needed and he is accepted into the British forces. His parents have also received a packet of letters that was on the body, apparently from a woman he was involved with, and they want Maisie to find her. They have come to Maisie at the recommendation of an American doctor with whom she worked during the war. Both Dr. Hayden and Maisie recognize from the post-mortem report, that something is amiss; for it appears Michael Clifton was bashed over the head--murdered--before the dugout was bombed. As with so many of her books, the plot is complicated but well-drawn, the creation of characters, place and time is faultless. It appears that someone does not want this mystery investigated, for the Cliftons are subsequently attacked in their hotel room and left for dead, and Maisie herself is attacked and her document case is stolen. Trusty associate, Billie, and Maisie both must deal with significant challenges in their personal lives as well. If you are a Maisie Dobbs fan, you won't want to miss this. If you're not a fan, get started with the first book so you'll become one.

Committed

2010-09-24T14:10:00.000-07:00

I didn't even read Elizabeth Gilbert's book before I went to see the movie version, Eat, Pray, Love. I'm pretty sure every woman I know--at least all the ones I talked to--HAD read the book. But based on rave reviews of that book by friends, and a favorable impression of the movie, when my friend Marianne offered to loan me the follow up to that story in audiobook form, I took it. It is basically about Gilbert's year long quest to learn everything she could about marriage in order to come to terms with the situation faced by her and her partner, Felipe. For reasons unknown, Homeland Security decided at some point in their commuter relationship that Felipe could no longer come to the United States. Didn't matter that he was an Australian citizen, that he had done business in the United States for years. He simply couldn't return. And they found this out while on the way home to Philadelphia when he was detained and questioned for several hours, then imprisoned until he could be flown out of the country. The only option was for them to marry, but neither of them really wanted to, due to bad divorces from their first spouses, and it wasn't all that easy to get permission. So in the intervening months, while an immigration lawyer worked on the beaurocratic hurdles, they tried to live as cheaply as possible in southeast Asia, eventually returning to Felipe's previous home in Bali. But in the meantime, Gilbert engaged in an unrelenting research project, reading everything she could get hands on and interviewing every person she came across. And we learn what she learns. I was reminded at times of starting to read Karen Armstrong's A History of God. I realized afresh, in connection with this specific social institution, that what we know today, what people tell us has been the history of marriage, is but a small fraction of it's overall role in the course of human civilization. The reasons people marry have changed, who gets to decide who gets married has changed, even whether or not marriage is a good thing has changed. Contrary to popular religious rhetoric, the Christian churches originally sought to stop all marriage--and of course sexual behavior. The pace of the book ebbs and flows, and occasionally her dithering gets a bit tedious, but I learned so much at an intellectual level, and resonated so often at a personal level, that I wouldn't hesitate to recommend Committed. She writes wonderfully and that in and of itself is a treat.

Blameless

2010-09-12T19:26:00.000-07:00

This is the third installment in Gail Carriger's "Parasol Protectorate." Alexia Tarabotti, aka Lady Maccon, aka the Queen's (Victoria) muhjah, is up to her usual outrageous adventures, accompanied by a newish cast of protectors: Floote, her father's mysterious valet, and now Alexia's secretary, Madame Lefoux, the inventor cum milliner, along with assorted other members of the order of the Brass Octopus, and Major Channing Channing, in wolf form. Oh and let's not forget the "infant inconvenience" which (who?) seems, after all, to be at the very root of Alexia's problems. First of all he/she/it has precipitated Lord Maccon throwing her out of the manor and the pack, convinced of her infidelity; for no werewolf has ever sired a child. Her indiscreet sister has also made the situation the scandal of London society, resulting in the Queen's dismissal of Alexia from the Shadow Council. Secondly, this embryonic mystery seems to be the reason that the vampires have put on a full court press to kill Alexia. And then there are the Templars whose God given duty is to eliminate all supernaturals and who see Alexia as a potential weapon in their centuries-old battle--until they find out about her delicate condition. Alexia just wants to find out how this has happened, aside from the obvious "bed sports," and is determined to find some historical documentation to similar events so that she might convince her idiotic husband of just how stupid he is for believing she could be unfaithful. All sorts of steampunk inventions are used for good and evil purposes (e.g., poisonous mechanical ladybugs) and the amazingly versatile parasol created by Madame Lefoux saves their lives on more than one occasion. Lord Akeldama, usually Alexia's staunchest ally, has inexplicably fled London with his entire retinue of drones and so Alexia is forced to leave the country, in search of safety and of answers. But what she finds out may not be terribly comforting, for the unborn infant may be a rare breed of being not seen for hundreds of years. We will all have to wait to find out in the forthcoming book, Heartless.

A Fatal Grace

2010-09-12T18:30:00.000-07:00

I am so well and truly hooked on this series by Louise Penny that, having finished this, the second installment of the Inspector Gamache// Three Pines mysteries, I feel like an addict in withdrawal . A little over a year has passed since Inspector Gamache came at Thanksgiving to solve a murder whose necessary ingredients had been simmering for decades. Now, at Christmastime, with the cold descending into killing sub-zero temperatures, repressed fury once again boils over in an incredibly complex and planful murder of the newest resident of Three Pines, CC de Poitiers. Everyone hated her, so the cast of initial suspects is large--her husband and daughter, her lover, the entire town. As usual, it all comes down to motive. CC is killed in plain view, at a curling match, by grabbing hold of an electrified lawn chair, sitting in a puddle of water on a frozen lake, without her gloves on--when it is freezing outside. No small feat, you will admit, to make that happen.
Intriguingly, the death of a homeless woman in Montreal may be intimately tied to this one, and serve to reveal who the murderer is. Three characters who played minimal roles in the first novel emerge as key witnesses here: Emilie, Beatrice, and Kaye. Along with the dead woman in Montreal, Elle, they all have names that can be reduced to letters: M, B, K and L. What a busy mind our author has. Like a snake curled around the base of the toilet, waiting to bite you in the butt, there is another line of trouble coiling around Gamache's life. The Arnot affair, mentioned only briefly in the previous book, is coming back to threaten him, although we do not find out exactly how that will happen in this book. We are surprised, in the end, at who is plotting against our dear Inspector. For he is irresistible, this thoughtful, compassionate, and highly ethical individual, who loves his wife and seems to consider himself a lucky and contented man. He cannot compromise for the sake of politics, however, and powerful forces hold this against him. Fortunately for me, there are more books in the series already out there, just waiting for me to get my next fix.
I don't entirely understand why, in this particular case, they needed to change the original title in England, Dead Cold, to A Fatal Grace. But under either title, you will be bound to fall in love with Three Pines, its inhabitants, and Inspector Gamache once you start reading.

Patriot Acts

2010-09-04T16:15:00.000-07:00

Not too hard to surmise from the title that this is a plot line where people who always thought they loved their country are challenged in that belief when their country appears to have turned on them. A later entry in the Atticus Kodiak series by Greg Rucka, Atticus has gone from being a reputable, competent bodyguard to being labelled as one of the ten most wanted assassins in the world, and the source of this misinformation seems to be someone very high up in the U.S. government. His partner and dear friend, Natalie Trent is killed in one of multiple attempts on his life, and so far his efforts to find out who is behind it all have fallen short. He has teamed up, romantically as well as professionally, with a former enemy, Drama, aka Alena Cizkova. They are alternately the hunted and the hunters, as they work to track down the master puppeteer, covering ground from a remote village in Russian Georgia to Portland, Oregon. In the process of their association, Alena has become more human, and Atticus has become a little more cold-blooded. Alena has taught him ballet and yoga as a way to master and control his body, and he needs every bit of this unorthodox training to survive what comes at him in this book.

Mystery Mile

2010-09-04T15:51:00.000-07:00

Consumed a couple of audiobooks on my daily commute in the last 3 weeks. One, Death of a Celebrity, was another in M.C. Beaton's Hamish MacBeth series which I always enjoy. The other was by Marjorie Allingham, one of the British mystery dames I had heard a lot about but never actually connected with. Her protagonist, Albert Campion, is a complex and fairly bizarre character. His career is obviously one I have not been privy to follow as this book finds him well-ensconced in a flat above a police station, in the good regard of Scotland Yard, with a well-developed network of small-time and big-time criminal contacts. That all takes time to nurture. But his presentation is as a fop, for lack of a better word. He is frequently described as having a vacuous expression, engaging in the most meaningless and banal chatter, and yet underneath has a creative, calculating, and lightning fast mind that keeps him miles ahead of the really bad guys--at least most of the time. In this novel, he is hired to protect an American judge who appears to have evidence that would help identify the head of a major crime ring. Campion initially tries to hide him in the long-time home of a couple friends on a small isthmus in Suffolk, thinking that the small village is not only off the beaten path but also that villagers are likely to be acutely aware of any unwanted strangers in the vicinity. Nevertheless, it is only hours after their arrival that the first death takes place and plans must change. This is a satisfying mix: country cozy setting, a large cast of characters, some romance, and a fairly challenging plot. And of course very British. I'm not sure Allingham will replace PD James or Ngaio Marsh at the top of my list of British mystery writers, but I wouldn't mind meeting Mr. Campion again. There is a competent plot summary in Wikipedia.

Still LIfe

2010-08-29T15:15:00.000-07:00

Oh boy I am in love with a new writer and can hardly wait to read more in the Inspector Gamache series. Still Life is the first featuring said protagonist by Louise Penny, set in the idyllic village of Three Pines, somewhat south of Montreal and just north of the U.S.-Canadian border. Inspector Gamache, of the Surete du Quebec, is called in to investigate what appears at first to be a hunting accident, except that no one has stepped forward to admit the fatal mistake. Jane Neal, retired school teacher and perhaps unrevealed artist, was beloved by all--or was she? Inspector Gamache methodically observes, quietly directs his team to investigate, and comes to the conclusion that this was no accident. The town is lovingly portrayed--I wanted to move there right away--with a diverse and well-drawn cast of characters. Inspector Gamache is a policeman with intelligence and integrity who surrounds himself with like-minded officers when at all possible. His insistence on following his conscience has apparently landed him in hot water with his superiors at the Surete and put some significant limits on his career advancement. Nevertheless, he adores his wife, has subordinate who admire and value him, and seems a contented man overall, rather than a tortured soul like one of my other thinking woman's mystery series' protagonists (Adam Dalgliesh mysteries, by P.D.James). One of the village locals, a retired psychologist and now used-book store owner (what a dream!) is used by Penny to reveal Gamache's penchant for understanding the motivation of crime. I've already ordered the next book, A Fatal Grace/ Dead Cold.

Changeless

2010-08-21T13:43:00.000-07:00

This second installment in the "Parasol Protectorate" by Gail Carriger finds Alexia Tarabotti now firmly ensconced as Lady Maccon and Muhjuh to Queen Victoria. Something very strange is going on because all the supernaturals in a part of London have lost their powers. Vampires and werewolves are suddenly mortal and the ghosts they rely on for information have all been exorcised. This epidemic or weapon becomes the focus of Alexia's and her husband's investigations and takes them to Scotland, his former home. We learn about his former pack and why he left them, bereft of an alpha--a seemingly unforgivable act. We meet his great great great grandaughter who desperately wants to be converted and tries to enlist Alexia's help to convince Connall to do it. We also meet a mysterious female French scientist, Madame Lefoux, commissioned by Lord Maccon to create an extraordinary parasol for Alexia, who dresses like a man and seems quite attracted to Alexia. You really need to read the first book, Soulless, to have a good handle on this one, and you will be rewarded by greater depth of characterization and an engrossing storyline here. The wonderful cast of ancillary characters--Lord Akeldama, Miss Hisselpenny, Professor Lyall-- are all still present and accounted for. This book qualifies as steampunk with its infatuation with machanical, pseudo-scientific gizmos and machines. Alexia takes her first, and almost fatal, trip in a dirigible and learns to operate an aetherograph machine. There is a twist in the plot at the end that surprise and distress you--fortunately the sequel, Blameless, is already in the works.

Sizzling Sixteen

2010-08-21T13:16:00.000-07:00

Nothing unpredictable in the newest Stephanie Plum episode and it's apparently pissing off a lot of series readers. Grandma Mazer is a little more subdued than usual in this episode and even the Joe - Stephanie and Ranger - Stephanie dynamics are a little in the background. I also wish she would just pick one of them and get on with it, but it doesn't happen here. Of course Stephanie messes up cars and ends up in totally ridiculous situations trying to retrieve FTA's. But this time the focus is on rescuing her boss, Vinnie, who has been a colorful but relatively unimportant character heretofore. Vinnie has been kidnapped by people to whom he is deeply in debt and they are threatening to kill him if Connie, Lula and Stephanie don't come up with a million plus dollars. So they set out to rob the bad guys in order to pay off the bad guys and hopefully not get caught at it. They depend on buckets of fried chicken to lure away guard alligators and Connie's tried and true stink bombs. Just the usual stuff in Trenton, New Jersey. Ranger's got her back the entire time so we never have to really worry...just go along for the ride and have a good time.

Lost Lake

2010-08-09T15:20:00.000-07:00

This is one of Philip Margolin's twisty thrillers with a complicated set of characters and motivations, and a storyline that spins back and forth across several decades of time to weave a tapestry of conspiracy. A congressman is brutally murdered at his home in Lost Lake, California and his congressional aide and houseguest, Vanessa Kohler, walks in on the scene. She recognizes an old high school friend, Carl Rice, as the slayer and runs screaming from the house. Rice disappears--only to resurface more than two decades later in Portland, Oregon, under a different name, as an off-the-grid itinerant fine furniture maker. Single mom and new attorney, Amy Vergano, is impressed with his mild manner and quality work at a craft fair where they share neighboring booths, and she volunteers to rent a garage apartment to him when he mentions needing a place to stay. He becomes a positive role model in her son's life and so Amy is shocked when an argument at a little league game turns violent and nearly deadly because of this same man. Meanwhile back in Washington, DC, the news coverage alerts Vanessa that the man she thought long dead is still alive, and may be her only key to proving that her father, General Wingate, ran a clandestine and illegal team of assassins during the Vietnam war and afterwards. He is now a candidate for President and she has written a book warning people of his past activities. However, no one really believes Vanessa's stories, and no publisher will accept the manuscript, because word is out that she was confined to a mental institution after witnessing the murder, and that now she works as a tabloid reporter. She heads to Oregon to try and talk to Carl and to ask Amy to defend him in the upcoming trial. More people die, and certainly Carl has killed in his past, but everyone is being manipulated into believing something other than the truth.

Girl who Kicked the Hornets Nest

2010-08-09T07:51:00.000-07:00

Stieg Larsson does not let us down in this third installment featuring Lisbeth Salander and Mikael Blomkvist. In fact, he spares us the usual red herrings that characterized the first two books and keeps everything relentlessly focused on the powerful machinations to sweep Zalachenko and his inconvenient daughter under the rug. That's not to say that there aren't subplots a plenty, e.g., Erika Berger's move to head a major newspaper initiates a series of stalker episodes, and Salander's half-brother is also the object of a police manhunt and far from being out of the picture. But the storyline around Erika results in a truce with Salander and makes Berger a much more three dimensional character than previously. Mikael stubbornly and resourcefully continues to probe the extensive and deadly cover-up that now has Lisbeth at its center. With his help, and the help of other allies (Palmgren, Armansky), Salander once again uses her unique talents to topple those who would abuse power at the expense of the seemingly powerless. The lingering question is, what will Salander do with herself when she no longer has to spend all her time fighting to survive...

Dark Tort

2010-08-07T19:50:00.000-07:00

I think I have outgrown Diane Mott Davidson. Her books are like the comfort food protagonist, caterer Goldy Bear Schultz, makes in each episode of the series. She has a likable family at the center of this series--Sheriff's Dept investigator and husband Tom, son Arch, catering whiz and partner Julian, and a new half-brother to Arch-- with a trusty best friend Marla. She always does a decent job of creating her Aspen Meadows setting near Boulder, Colorado, and Goldie always solves the crime ahead of the officials who don't have her penchant for poking her nose in where it could get her in trouble. One evening as Goldie goes into a local law firm to help prepare foods for an early morning breakfast for clients, she trips over the body of the firm's paralegal and Goldy's neighbor, Dusty Routt. Distraught at losing her young friend, Goldy is asked by the girl's mother to find out who did it. She claims the law firm where Dusty worked was a "nest of vipers." The story also involves a recently deceased chef and painter whose wild success as an artist barely preceded his diagnosis with pancreatic cancer. But his demise is from what is assumed to be an accidental fall. Another apparently random death gets pulled into the mix before this is all over. If you like mysteries with tasty recipe thrown in, this is for you. They just move a little too slow--without enough compensation in character or setting, etc.--to make these worthwhile for me anymore. Of course I have read at least half a dozen so take my grumping with a grain of salt.

Artemis Fowl: The Arctic Incident

2010-08-07T19:06:00.000-07:00

This book series for young adults by Eoin Colfer is an absolute hoot. The Arctic Incident is book 2 in the series and you will seriously struggle with some of the relationships between characters if you haven't read the first book, just called Artemis Fowl. In that book, 12-year old Fowl, a criminal mastermind, decides to go after the gold of the fairies, but has to outwit Captain Holly Short of the LEPrecon (Lower Elements Police Reconnaisance) Unit. In this book, the fairies and the "Mud People" (i.e., humans) have to team up to solve a crime that involves smuggling batteries from the upper world to the lower world. If Artemis can help them track down the source of the batteries, which are being used to power now outlawed weapons in the lower world, then they might use some fairy magic to help Artemis find and rescue his father, who he has reason to believe is still alive. If you enjoy a little supernatural flavor and some tongue in cheek humor, you can't go wrong with these books.

Death of a Maid

2010-08-07T18:51:00.000-07:00

My dear great aunt in Caldwell was kind enough to let us borrow some audio books on her account for the drive to Bend and then on home to LV. I love listening to the Hamish Macbeth books by M.C. Beaton because the readers have such wonderful accents. This one had a good plot dealing with, not surprisingly, a cleaning woman--Mrs. Gillespie-- who nobody liked but kept employing nevertheless, until someone hit her over the head with her own mop bucket. Her husband was joyous and immediately went into remission from his cancer. Her daughter was reunited with a husband after a divorce which her mother had precipitated. Hamish is pursuing leads and hunches, joined occasionally by former flame Elspeth who has come home for a visit. At the same time he is trying to avoid anyone figuring out that he is the one making progress, because to be noticed means potentially to be promoted, which would mean leaving his beloved Lochdubh. The suspects are thick on the ground for it turns out that not only was she an unpleasant woman, but she was also a nosy person who used what she found to blackmail her clients. Hamish remains resolutely a bachelor even though at one point he goes out and buys Elspeth an engagement ring. Poor Elspeth, having despaired of Hamish ever asking, accepts a marriage proposal from a fellow reporter who jilts her at the altar. Hamish's cat and dog, Lugs and Sonsie play a central role in Hamish's life and always add a quirky element to the tales of this quirky anti-hero. There is a rather distracting side plot in this book, after the main murder is solved, involving a crime lord trying to have Hamish killed. Of course Hamish turns this to advantage, too, capturing the criminal and several of his henchmen--but giving the credit to another inspector from Inverness. A fun listen/read as are all the books inthis series.

Undone

2010-08-04T17:14:00.000-07:00

I've not followed Karin Slaughter's work though her name comes up often in the realm of police procedurals/crime fiction and she has a lot of fans. The characters of Undone are quirky and interesting: two agents with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, Will and Faith, both come from bad childhoods. Will is dyslexic and Sara had a kid while still a kid herself. They apparently appeared in a number of her other books (e.g., Fractured). In this one, Faith passes out inexplicably and is taken to the hospital where we encounter another character from a different Slaughter book (Faithless), the on call emergency doctor Sara Linton. Sara is a widow; her dead husband was a cop, and she is damaged goods. In fact, they all are, but more endearing for all of that. Faith, it turns out, is pregnant and going into full-blown diabetes and she's having a hard time with both diagnoses. The three are brought back together when a horribly tortured woman is brought into the emergency room and it starts to look like she's only one in a string of victims. Personally, I had a hard time with all the grisly details of the torture, although told from a forensic perspective rather than from the serial killer's, they were off-putting. Enter with caution.

Two by Harlan Coben

2010-08-04T16:46:00.000-07:00

Coben is a solid mystery writer with tricky plots and a regular cast of characters that reappear in many of his books. So it felt like a lucky find to run across one of his paperbacks in the trading library at the resort on Crete. The Woods revolves around a cold case involving 4 teenagers who disappeared into the area surrounding a co-ed summer camp and presumably all died. Except two of them were never found. One of the missing ones was the sister of our protagonist, Paul Copeland, who also happens to be the county prosecutor in Essex County, NJ . Old memories are stirred up when a murdered man with Paul's card in his pockets, is tentatively identified by Paul as the other missing teen from that night long ago. Does that mean his sister could also be alive? And did we mention that Paul had been one of the counselors in charge at the camp the night the murders and disappearances took place, and that he hasn't seen or heard from the girl he sneaked off with that night in all these years, until now?

Long Lost is one I listened to on our travels to and from Bend a couple weeks ago. Myron Bolitar, sports agent (and a regular fixture of many Coben novels) gets a 5 am wake-up call from a long-lost love, Teresa Collins, inviting him to Paris for a few fun filled days, “'Think about it,” she went on. “The City of Lights. We could make love all night long'...What’s wrong, Terese?'... 'Nothing’s wrong. I want to spend a romantic, sensual, fantasy-filled weekend with you in Paris.'Another swallow. 'I haven’t heard from you in, what, seven years?" But indeed something is very wrong. Her husband is missing and eventually turns up--dead. Events start to make it look like the daughter she thought died years ago in a car wreck might not be dead. But it's oh so much more complicated than this. It's all about a plot to grow terrorists who can go anywhere because they look just like...well, read it and find out.
”

The King Must Die

2010-08-04T16:11:00.000-07:00

An oldie but goodie by Mary Renault and another gift from my sis-in-law in honor of our Greece trip. It does give you a whole other perspective on viewing ruins that are thousands of years old to think of people actually living, loving, working in those places. For those of you not familiar, this is Renault's version of the Theseus legend. Was he the son of the god Poseidon? or of mortal king Aigeus and priestess Aithra. The story goes that Theseus was sent to Crete as part of Athens tribute--usually 7 girls and 7 boys--which was paid to avoid having Crete attack them. The youths were sent to the "Bull Court" where they "danced" with the bulls and usually didn't live very long, although they often lived well. The frescoes recovered from Knossos show the bull dancers. In the legend, Theseus manages to navigate the labyrinth and defeat the minotaur--half man, half bull--and sail home. But he forgets to change the colors of his sails to white. When his father the king spies the returning ships with dark sails, he despairs at his lost son and throws himself down the cliff to his death. In Renault's version, Theseus has already become a king in his own right by the time he volunteers to become part of Athen's tribute. He finds the Cretans have fallen away from the gods and become bored and irreverent, hence their eventual demise is inevitable. Knossos, once a city of 100,000 people according to historians, was in fact wiped out, perhaps by a tidal wave resulting from a cataclysmic volcanic explosion on Thera, followed by invasion by the Myceneans. There is no agreed upon explanation for the decline of a robust civilization that lasted for over 1600 years.

The Skull Mantra

2010-07-22T11:01:00.000-07:00

My lovely sis-in-law had recommended this book and it was well worth the read. Written by Eliot Pattison, the story is set in Tibet after the Communists took over, a fairly uncommon setting for a mystery. We are introduced to the prisoners of a labor camp, mostly monks and other dissidents, but also a few Chinese communists who just didn't have the right brand of politics. Former inspector Shan Tao Yun apparently made the mistake of going after one too many corrupt officials and is now building roads under the worst physical conditions--cold, hunger, occasional torture, and ongoing physical and psychological brutality by the guards. But then the laborers discover the headless body of a well-dressed Chinese who turns out to be a high ranking official, and now the former inspector is brought out of forced retirement to unofficially investigate and write a quick report that will leave local officials in the clear. Much of the detail involves the practitioners and beliefs of Buddhism which make for fascinating reading--and apparently there are several more books in this series once you're hooked as I was.

A Venetian Reckoning/ Death and Judgement

2010-07-22T10:41:00.000-07:00

Along with all the wonderful historical info and daily activity notes lost with my travel journal was a record of my vacation reading...but will do my best to reconstruct at least some of them. This book was found in the hand-me-down library at the last place we stayed on Crete and it turned out to be quite a treat. Apparently the 4th installment of a series by Donna Leon about police Commissario Guido Brunetti, it was originally published under the title Death and Judgement. The basic plot line involves investigating the murders of several highly prominent businessmen, who turn out to have a decidedly dark side to their business dealings--trafficking in prostitutes and worse. The story line is intriguing, the characterization of the protagonist and his family are engaging and the description of the city (Venice) is yummy snacking for armchair travellers.

2010-06-07T11:35:00.000-07:00

Brian Freemantle has written a whole series of books about Charlie Muffin, who really dislikes being called Charles. I'd never heard of them, and can't honestly remember now how I found out about the series, but it sounded like he'd found a winning formula so thought I'd check it out by reading the first one. Set during the Cold War, Charlie is a spy--a leftover from a previous regime that apparently had some embarrassing events which resulted in a new Director and a wholesale housecleaning of the staff. Charlie cultivates a rumpled, even shabby appearance, but is still the most knowledgable agent they have. His ruthlessly ambitious and probably sociopathic new boss, Cuthbertson, sets Charlie up to get captured while crossing from East Berlin. Charlie, ever a survivor, outwits the treachery, although a man Charlie was trying to help escape to the West gets killed in his place. His new boss also attempts to diminish the importance of Charlie's recent capture of a major Russian spymaster operating in Great Britain, but this backfires, so Cuthbertson is forced to keep Charlie on staff. He does manage to shove Charlie into a former broom closet of an office and is threatening a demotion. Now a major player in the KGB is making noises about defecting, and after Cuthbertson's still wet-behind-the-ears agents get killed or captured, Charlie is brought in to save the play. I was caught totally unawares by the plot twist in this first novel of the series and I'm definitely curious to see where things go from here.

The Prince of Mist

2010-06-04T12:29:00.000-07:00

A year or so ago, I read and wrote a post on The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon. I just finished reading a translation of his first book, which was written specifically for young adults and I'm copying the review I wrote for Children's Literature database.
When Max and Alicia’s father decides they must move from the city to a small coastal town in England to be safer from the war (WWII), the family is less than excited. Thirteen year old Max, our narrator, is distraught at leaving behind friends and familiar places, and older sister Alicia withdraws even more into herself. The suspense begins the moment they arrive at the village train station when a large cat adopts their younger sister Irina and then seems to be keeping an eye on the family once they move into their new beach house. The house and grounds also seem to be watching and maneuvering family members in mysterious way. While exploring town, Max becomes acquainted with Roland, a young man who will be going off to war in the fall. Roland introduces Max to diving in the bay and shows him a wrecked ship, the Orpheus. Once Alicia and Roland meet, a tentative romance is begun, but events really begin to spin out of control when Irina is rushed to the hospital after an apparently accidental fall down the stairs. Alicia, Roland and Max all discover that they are being haunted by the same images of a malevolent clown—in their dreams, in a statue that seems to move in the overgrown garden, and even on some old family movies discovered in the garden shed. Roland’s adoptive grandfather, the self-appointed lighthouse keeper Victor Kray, reveals under pressure the story of his escape from the wrecked ship. Kray had been in pursuit of an evil man named Cain who was responsible for the death of a childhood friend, and originally believed Cain had died in the shipwreck, but now he’s not so sure. Cain, also known as the Prince of Mist, has come back to reclaim a promised prize, the firstborn child of the beach house’s former owner. Supposedly the child, Jacob, drowned when he was seven years old, but Max discovers from viewing the old films that Jacob is in fact Roland, who Kray has been attempting to hide and protect for over 10 years. This is a quick reading suspenseful story from beginning to end, with a believably brave young male narrator who will appeal to boy readers.
The Prince of Mist by Carlos Ruiz Zafon (Translated by Lucia Graves)
BIBLIO: 2010 (originally published in Spanish, 1992), Little. Brown and Company/Hachette Book Group. Ages 13 to18, $17.99.

The Girl Who Played with Fire

2010-05-23T13:15:00.000-07:00

Perhaps even more compelling than the first book, or maybe more compelling because of the first book, Stieg Larsson's 2nd entry in the Millenium trilogy focuses largely on Lisbeth Salander who early on becomes the focus of a manhunt in a triple murder investigation. The complicated background that has created this socially phobic but uniquely brilliant character is revealed and boy is this a doozy of a twisty plot--imagine your most nightmarish conspiracy theory if you were the target. And then imagine you were just 12 years old when it all started. But if you liked the first book, you will love this one. Lisbeth eventually has some very powerful people on her side, which is amazing given how little she is able to offer in the way of normal personal relationships. Salander engineers several major changes in her life, and the book leaves us knowing there are more changes on the waqy for these characters .
Perhaps even more amazing than reading the book was finding out that the Swedish film version of Girl with the Dragon Tattoo was playing on the other side of town and we got to see it this weekend. The cast was absolutely superb and they didn't pull any punches on some of the more gut-wrenching scenes from the book. Of course no movie can ever develop the complexity of relationships and events that comprise a good novel, but they did an outstanding job of capturing the essence. They even corrected one of my minor gripes about the book--the disappearance from the storyline of the police detective originally assigned to the Harriet Vanger case. There is some foreshadowing of the 2nd novel in the movie, but you will want to see this if you possibly can no matter how many of the books in this trilogy you have or haven't read. Two members of our group knew nothing about the books and were still enthralled.

Thanks to my friend Wendy Starkweather for the lead to this lengthy article in the New York Time Magazine to a lengthy bio piece on Larsson and the controversy surrounding his literary heritage.

Bangkok Haunts

2010-04-25T17:52:00.000-07:00

This time there is an even bigger dose of ghosts in John Burdett's 3rd Sonchai Jitpleecheep installment. One of Sonchai's former lovers has been murdered in a snuff film and someone thoughtfully sent him a copy of the film. His corrupt and greedy boss, Colonel Vikorn, can as usual only think of how to turn a profit and decides to expand his money making ventures into pornography. He instructs Sonchai to release from prison a man that Vikorn framed who is awaiting what could be a death sentence; he just happens to be a film maker and the deal offered is his freedom in exchange for making "classy" porno films. Sonchai's wife is very pregnant with the reincarnation of his former partner, and the ghost of the dead prostitute in the snuff film is regularly visiting Sonchai at night in a most physical way. Elephant games, a particularly gruesome form of murder, is planned for the masterminds behind the film by the ghost of the dead woman. As always, Burdett creates a compelling picture of Bangkok, the folly of farang tourists, the not very underworld of prostitution and corruption, all mixed with Jitplecheep's Buddhist beliefs. I can't say it makes me want to visit the country, but it certainly creates a vivid picture of life there. See earlier review of his other books: Bangkok 8, Bangkok Tattoo, and the non-series book, The Last Six Million Seconds.

Snow Crash

2010-04-19T09:06:00.000-07:00

For starters, this is a great title for a book . I just happened upon the author, Neal Stephenson (there are links to interviews with him on his homepage), when someone left a book written by him in a hotel room. That book, Cryptonomicon, just grabbed me and didn't let go until several hundred pages later. I was gratified to learn, through an NPR piece, that it was among Nancy Pearl's favorite books in the sci-fi/fantasy genre (although clearly there are large doses of history wrapped up in there). Snow Crash is clearly set in a future world that doesn't sound all that pleasant; I'm reminded of the bleak picture of our future presented in Blade Runner (the movie based on Dick's novel: Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep). Those who can afford it, escape to an elaborate virtual world, the Metaverse--something that wouldn't seem foreign to inhabitants of Second Life--all the more remarkable because this book was written almost 20 years ago. Hiro Protagonist (nice name :-) is a sometimes computer programmer, sometimes pizza delivery person, and sometimes information source for the CIA; he's adept with samurai swords. The US government is holed up in a compound. Megachurches and megacorporations are running the world. Hiro's sidekick is a 15-year old Kourier who delivers packages on her skateboard--don't even think you know about skateboards until you read about her model. They are trying to figure out who or what is behind the attack on one of the world's leading computer programmers, causing him become a gibbering idiot in a hospital after he watched black and white "snow" on a computer in the Metaverse. It's a wild ride in more ways than one and wildly creative, with just one serious flaw. There is a much too elaborated tie in to the ancient Sumerian language and various biblical and other mythology that just drags, sometimes for several pages. Normally, I like this kind of historical fiction reference, but I was lost and got annoyed. So you either need to really be into this particular brand of religious mythology or just skim over it like I did. It's definitely worth reading. There's a lengthy and excellent overview of the story line at the Complete Review.

Mugwump and Bookbags

2010-04-06T13:17:00.000-07:00

NOT a book review...
My friend Mary Caughey gave me a wonderful little purse made from the covers of an old children's book and I get compliments on it every time I carry it. It's from a company called Mugwump which recycles books, board games, old maps, etc. to make useful everyday items. Today I ran across another company, Bookbags, that also makes purses and totes using the covers of discarded books. Very fun and very ecological.

Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

2010-04-05T09:49:00.000-07:00

It was my friend Bob Nye's recommendation that finally pushed me into reading this book by Stieg Larsson...not that it took much of a push. I tend to like Scandinavian mysteries (see my post for What Never Happens) and this was really satisfying in some ways and disappointing in others. After the 2nd chapter, I was hooked, couldn't put the book down and went on a book reading binge for about 6 hours til I finished. The characters are compelling and I'm discovering that I need to really care what happens to the characters in order to like a book these days. Through no fault of his own, invesigative financial reporter and magazine publisher Mikael Blomkvist has just lost a libel case in court and decides that leaving his magazine's editorial board is the best strateg to get the target of his investigation--corporate mogul Hans-Erik Wennerstrom-- off the warpath. His co-owner, Erika Berger, feels abandoned, and Wennerstrom hasn't given up trying to destroy the magazine by a long shot. Blomkvist is at loose ends, facing a stiff fine and several months jail time, so he's ripe to be plucked by another major Swedish industrialist for a personal project. Henrik Vanger wants Mikael to write his family's history as a cover story and find out who murdered his niece four decades ago. Harriet Vanger disappeared off an isolated island during a company/family conclave and Henrik is sure one of his family members killed her. The Vanger family turns out to have a whole host of unpleasant personalities and dark secrets. The other well developed character in the mix is a computer hacking genius and social misfit named Lisbeth Solander who does investigative work for a security agency through some fairly unorthodox means. She eventually get roped into the investigation of the missing Harriet, also. Which brings up one of my bitches about the book--Solander was badly treated in the end by Larsson and it's unforgiveable given the shitty life she's had. Not that she isn't perfectly capable of looking after herself, but ...well you'll see when you read the book. And you must read the book. There are some provocative issues raised about personal responsibility--and the behaviors that test this principle range from the unethical to the horrific. Another pet peeves is that a character is introduced at the beginning of the book, the police investigator of the niece's disappearance, and then himself disappears from the remainder of the story, even when he could logically have been brought back in. There are also some characters whose motivations simply go unexplained and feel incomplete, like Cecelia Vanger. Overall though, I'm hooked and will round up the remaining books published posthumously, The Girl Who Played with Fire and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest.

The Ask and the Answer

2010-03-27T11:06:00.000-07:00

Perhaps it should be called The Great Questions. This is the second installment in a planned science fiction trilogy titled "Chaos Walking" ( how could I resist?) from Patrick Ness. I ran across this one on a sale cart and, even though I hadn't read the first book in the series, picked it up just because it got so much chatter on the YA listservs. Complex characters, plots and interactions between characters are mixed in with non-stop action on this outpost of human exploration called New World. The native species, the Spackle, have apparently been defeated in a brutal war and now civil war among the settlers has broken out with one man--Mayor Prentiss-- apparently stopping at nothing to become leader. He recognizes the potential threat from the anticipated arrival of new ships with additional settlers, and so it is essential that he get information from Viola, who was the lone survivor of a scout ship that crashed. She has been befriended by Todd, and they are on the run, when Viola is shot and they desperately seek help in the town of New Haven. That's what I was able to surmise about the first installment, The Knife of Never Letting Go. This book takes up as they are captured in New Haven which has already surrendered to the invading army. Todd and Viola are separated and skillfully--and horribly--manipulated by two strong leaders, Prentiss and Mistress Coyle, a former leader of the resistance (aka the Answer)and also a healer by training. The moral issues are complex and one despairs of anything coming right as we alternately take our place in the action from first Todd's and then Viola's perspective. This is one where I would definitely recommend reading the first book before jumping into the second. Although it was a compelling read, you can't help but feel that you've missed a lot. But get busy because the next book is coming out this spring!

Brida

2010-03-18T11:26:00.000-07:00

I read all but the last 75 pages or so and I never really cared what happened to any of the characters, so I quit. I have liked other books by Paulo Coelho (e.g., The Alchemist) so I persisted, but something was missing. Set in relatively contemporary time, it seemed promising: a young woman is looking for a way to realize her gifts and find her soulmate; there are magi and witches; it's set in Ireland. Lots of my favorite elements, but just no spark. Ah well. I'm trying not to see my lack of enthusiasm as a character flaw...

Two O'Clock Eastern Wartime

2010-03-06T07:48:00.000-08:00

Another really satisfying offering from John Dunning that draws on his considerable expertise in the history of radio in America. His usual blend of detailed setting, well-developed characters and complex plotting made me feel I had indulged in a somewhat higher level of my addiction to mysteries. I love a good story that also makes me feel like I've learned something in the process and this tale set on the New Jersey coast during WWII has revealed a brief period when radio ruled and the best writers and actors wanted to be doing the shows. You get to see how things happen from the inside, the points of view of writers, actors, sound effects people and show producers. Jack Dulaney is trying to help the woman he loves, Holly, find her missing father. At the same time he is finding a new passion and talent for script writing with the support of a reclusvie station owner who dares him to push the limits of network censors who don't want to hear anything controversial or vaguely unpatriotic on the airwaves. In the context of our protagonist's zeal for telling compelling and uncomfortable stories about real people we also get bits of history about various atrocities against "the other"--Kitchener's invention of concentration camps in the Boer Wars, the inhumane treatment of blacks and other soldiers at Florence and Andersonville, the rumored Nazi camps in Europe, and of course the Americans' imprisonment of Japanese American citizens after Pearl Harbor. Murder, conspiracies, romance--it's all here. For other wonderful mysteries by Dunning, that draw on his years as a rare and antiquarian book dealer, check out Booked to Die or The Bookman's Wake.

The Wall

2010-02-16T10:44:00.000-08:00

Originally published in German, this translation of Die Wand by Shaun Whiteside is the only English language translation of any of Marlen Haushofer's novels, even though she has won several literary awards at home in Austria. Considered a "feminist novel" we are ostensibly reading a report written by the main character who remains nameless throughout. She is a wife and mother of two nearly grown daughters, and has come with her sister (Luise) and her brother-in-law (Hugo) to their hunting lodge in the mountains for the weekend. Luise and Hugo go down to the village for some socializing and never return, although their dog does. Next morning, our reporter begins to worry and as she heads down to the village, she runs into an invisible barrier, transparent and apparently stretching for miles in either direction. The first part of the book focuses on her efforts to understand what has happened and conjecturing about what will happen when the creators of this terrible weapon come to check on their work--for she figures out that whatever happened, it has killed all the fauna (human, animal, bird, insect) living on the other side. This chapterless book (which I found maddening when I needed to quit reading of an evening) shifts focus to how she makes her life alone in the mountains with only the dog, a cow and a cat for companions. It was hard to get started (it would have failed Nancy Pearl's Rule of 50 for me) but eventually I couldn't stop. She copes, although not well at times. Certainly we have to wonder what we ourselves would do in such a situation. What is the point of living, after all? She eventually realizes that no one is left alive to read her report, so why write it? Although the reader will anticipate the climax, such as it is, for most of the book, it's still profound in its implications.

Monstrumologist

2010-02-13T13:22:00.000-08:00

Monstrumology: (noun) The study of life forms generally malevolent to humans and not recognized by science as actual organisms, specificallly those considered products of myth and folklore. (verb) the act of hunting such creatures. Like his father before him, Pellinore Warthrop is a monstrumologist and Will Henry, his 12-year old ward, is his assistant apprentice. Will Henry tells the story through his diaries which come to light when he dies--apparently at the age of 131--an indigent in a small New England town. Will Henry's father had served Dr. Warthrop as assistant in his travels to far reaches and his investigations into strange creatures. So when both parents die in a fire, Will Henry is orphaned and now serves the monstrumologist in turn. Set in the late 1800's, the book is gory--there are indeed man-eating monsters and they have apparently infested the cemetery of the town in which the story is set, which in Will's diaries is known by the pseudonym of New Jerusalem. Is it just coincidence that these monsters have shown up in the same town where one of the world's eminent monstrumologists lives?? Probably not. The story is based on the first 3 folios of 7 diaries, so you can count on a sequel or two if you like this. The author, Rick Yancey, cunningly only claims editorship of the book.

On Cats

2010-02-07T13:44:00.000-08:00

Doris Lessing can always make me care about her subject and in this small volume she reveals her own intense feelings for the cats that have touched her life. I already think cats are amazing creatures so I sometimes found it hard to deal with certain of the events she describes. She was surrounded by semi-feral cats while growing up in Africa and it's wrenching to read about killing off the ones who became problematic--a painful task often delegated to her mother. As an adult however, she makes other decisions I find hard to tolerate, such as letting cats continue to have kittens (instead of neutering them) and then killing the kittens. Admittedly it was hard for her, too. She admires them, she often expends extraordinary resources to save and heal them, she admires their unique personalities. And it is her waxing eloquent about the individual personalities that drew me and kept me reading. The tale of one particular animal "Rufus the Survivor" is the most poignant; though he may not be the one she loved the most, it is in his story that she creates the most heartfelt connection.

The Lost Conspiracy

2010-01-24T13:21:00.000-08:00

Contrary to what you might imagine, Lost in the title of this lengthy young adult novel by Frances Hardinge refers to a special group of people who can send their senses out of their physical bodies to hear, see, and feel things at a great distance. In any world, such abilities would be valued, but in this fantasy world of Gullstruck Island, where technology is still rudimentary, they are invaluable for predicting the weather, apprehending criminals, and just general communication. The island was invaded decades ago and, as so often happens in the process of colonization, the native peoples have been persecuted and often treated as less than human. The coastal village of one such native group, the Lace, is home to a Lost, which brings them prestige, money, and protection. But is Arilou really a Lost, or just mentally deficient? The entire village, and especially her sister Hathin, are complicit in keeping the story viable until the day when all the Lost on the entire island die--except Arilou. Determining who is behind the conspiracy and the subsequent hunt for Arilou becomes the driving force of this book. Hardinge has drawn from various native lores, especially about volcano spirits, to bring life to the indigenous belief systems and the tensions between aboriginals and invaders. It's a fascinating world, compellingly drawn and you'll find it hard to put this one down.

Holiday reading

2010-01-14T14:00:00.000-08:00

Not that the reading was about holidays, mind you, just that I had a wee bit of time to do a little non-work related reading over the short break. Sue Grafton was in fine form with her newest alphabet mystery, U is for Undertow. The book segued smoothly between past and present and then all came together in a bit of a rush at the end. Kinsey seems finally to be aging a bit--some consolation to those readers who have been relentlessly getting older while she seemed not to. Kinsey gets involved in a "cold case" kidnapping of a young girl when a client comes to her believing he saw the girl's body being buried years ago. He just now recalls the memory because of a newspaper article commemorating the anniversary of her disappearance. Turns out he's not such a reliable witness, but he also turns up dead so there must be fire somewhere in all the smoke he was blowing.

My other diversion was a totally frivolous dip into the vampirish genre with Soulless by Gail Carriger. Her protagonist, Alexia Tarabotti, is a preternatural, whose soulless state neutralizes the supernatural powers of any werewolves or vampires she encounters. Set in Victorian England, there is lots of fun here for Anglophiles and lots of bawdy romance for those who lust after that. From the back cover,
"Alexia Tarabotti is laboring under a great many social tribulations. First, she has no soul. Second, she's a spinster whose father is both Italian and dead. Third, she was rudely attacked by a vampire, breaking all standards of social etiquette."

Doesn't that just put the "pudding in the puff"?! Great supporting cast including a handsome werewolf Lord Maccon with whom she has a love/hate relationship, and her flamboyantly gay vampire best friend, Lord Akeldama. Did I mention that vampires and werewolves are part of high society in Carriger's world?? You can read the first chapter here. Carriger's homepage is here.

A Whole New Mind

2009-10-22T10:35:00.000-07:00

Ah, the beauty of bookgroups is that you read what you otherwise might not have. Let me admit right up front that I dipped and skimmed this book, but found it intriguing enough that I want to go back and re-read it. Daniel Pink is advocating for the development and employment of more right-brain directed types of activities in the work world, claiming that most of the left-brain directed stuff has been largely outsourced (computer programming, accounting, etc.) to developing nations where the labor is cheaper. He focuses on Empathy, Design, Symphony, Play, Story, and Meaning; he offers a bit of independent research, a lot of summarizing of other people's work, and some nice activities and resources at the end of each chapter. Some of the quote (almost all taken from other people) that I really loved are:"listening is an act of love" and "we are the authors of our own lives." He talked about labyrinths, and gratitude, and learning through stories...in short, a lot of things that resonated with me personally. I even got some good ideas to try out in classes and meetings and right now I'm needing all the help I can get with meetings. There's a 5 minute video of him talking about the book here.

Rough Weather

2009-10-22T10:27:00.001-07:00

Oooohhh-- I sneaked a little indulgence in between all the reading I've been doing for review sources and writing projects of late. I haven't read a Robert Parker Spenser novel in ages and it was a treat. I just never get tired of Spenser's smart alecky remarks and his repartee with Hawk. Like the Evanovich novels, fairly predictable but highly enjoyable. In this book, Spenser gets hired to be a stand-in date for a seemingly wealthy woman whose daughter is getting married. His old nemesis, the Gray Man, shows up with several men toting automatic weapons and kills the security guards and the groom (right after the vows--that's significant) and then kidnaps the bride. The whole thing seems very staged and not at all consistent with the Gray Man's usual MO. Spenser thinks the mother of the bride knows way more than she's telling and he's trying to get to the bottom of things while not getting killed by the Gray Man. Hawk is enlisted as his back-up and straight man. There's more relationship between Hawk and Susan than I remember from previous books, which was also fun. It was a pleasure to get reacquainted!

Rain Gods

2009-09-25T18:19:00.000-07:00

I don't know why I have stayed away from James Lee Burke for so long. He is a master of character and setting and this book is no exception. Set in the Rio Grande borderlands of Texas, there are bad people out there killing Asian women behind an abandoned church and a few good ones like Sheriff Hack Holland who is bound and determined to bring them to justice. And the nature of justice is certainly a question at play here. Even the bad guy has his own "code"--somewhat reminiscent of the psychopath in No Country for Old Men-- but that doesn't mean you would want him to date your daughter. Hack is a pretty tortured soul after the death of his 2nd wife, trying to find peace in a simple existence that includes creating beautiful gardens in the inhospitable Texas hardpan. He carries a load of guilt for past transgressions both as a husband to his first wife and as a prisoner in a Chinese camp. Nevertheless, the people who work with him see his integrity and compassion and are drawn to him, in spite of his prickly stubborness. Human beings are complicated and so are their relationships; Burke's ability to draw you into knowing his characters is what sets these novels apart from lesser police/detective procedurals, much as with P.D. James' work. I was a big fan of the Dave Robichaux novels (Burke's earliest protagonist) and I think I will get to know some of his newer ones now that I've reconnected. This is a thoughtful book that takes time to read and digest, and it's worth savoring.

Finger Lickin' Fifteen

2009-09-25T18:10:00.000-07:00

Stephanie Plum is at it again in the latest of the numbered series from Janet Evanovich. As I read in an interview with the author, she just can't decide whether Stephanie should go marry Joe Morelli and have lots of kids or live dangerously with Ranger, and that indecision is evident in this episode. True to form, Stephanie destroys cars--more than usual--and ends up in truly ridiculous and humiliating situations, like being in a hot dog costume and then falling over and not being able to get up. This time Lula is also setting things on fire in her quest to win the big barbecue contest with Grandma Mazur as her assistant chef. And as usual, the book is just laugh-out-loud funny, even if totally predictable. As long as she keeps writing them, I'll keep reading them.

Sworn to Silence

2009-08-28T15:37:00.000-07:00

This is the first book I've read by Linda Castillo who apparently intends to write other episodes with the same protagonist, Kate Burkholder. Burkholder was raised Amish near Painters Mill, Ohio, and only left after a rape and a self-defense murder sent her off the deep end. She was shunned and ran away to the big city, but eventually found her footing, worked her way into law enforcement, and took a job back in her home town as chief of police. In this book, a serial murderer has resurfaced. She thought the person responsible for the first series of murders 16 years ago was the man she had killed as a young woman, but the MO is identical and so Kate is now uncertain--did the man she shot really die? Her siblings, who also knew of the death and were sworn to silence by Kate's parents, are dragged into Kate's conundrum about finding out if the man she shot is really dead before she brings in outside law enforcement agencies to help solve these new killings. The murders are absolutely grisly so if that isn't something you can stomach, stay away. But the character is engaging, place is well established and the plotting will keep you on the edge of your seat. And you get a little love interest, fairly predictable, in the end.

The Sorceress

2009-08-01T10:59:00.000-07:00

This is the third installment in The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel series by folklorist Michael Scott (you need to read The Alchemyst and The Magician -- in that order before you read this) and I had imagined that it would be the end of a trilogy. No such luck! The Sorceress is Perenelle, Flamel's wife and she doesn't really figure any more prominently in this volume than in the previous ones. Nevertheless this is a fun read. All the action takes place in just a few short days, and nothing less than the continued existence of the humani (that's us) is at stake. The Dark Elders are bound and determined to re-assert dominance over the earth and they have summoned and collected every imaginable monster of myth and legend to move forward their plans. The first task is to get rid of Nicholas Flamel who is desperately trying to protect and train the "twins of legend", aka Josh and Sophie, who thought that they were just two ordinary teenagers living with an aunt in the bay area while their parents were on an archaeological dig. Now Sophie has mastered two of the elemental magics and Josh is learning as well. They battle the evil forces with their growing powers, with enchanted swords, and through sheer determination. Perry is trapped on Alcatraz with a whole array of creatures intent on her demise, the ghost of an old Spanish explorer who is trying to protect her, and a giant spider and a crow goddess who have become unlikely allies. Immortals in the employ of the Dark Elders have also been sent to kill her. Consequently, she is unable to assist in the action taking place in England as Flamel tries to reach the ley lines at Stonehenge that will return them to San Francisco before they are captured or murdered. William Shakespeare, Billy the Kid, and Machiavelli are just a few of the immortals who round out this colorful cast of characters.

Abide with Me

2009-08-01T10:37:00.000-07:00

Written by Elizabeth Strout, Abide with Me tells the story of Tyler Caskey, who has come to be the minister for the small town of West Annette in upper New England. He loves God and his congregation, his wife and their daughters. But his wife does not take to small town life or to the confines of being a minister's wife. She spends more money on clothes and make-up than Tyler earns, refuses to socialize with the townsfolk, and then has the audacity to get cancer and die. Tyler goes from grief to depression, while his older daughter, Katherine, becomes mute and angry. His congregation also loses its way as his sermons become repetitions of old work rather than inspirations flowing from Tyler's former sense of grace and goodness in the world. Negative rumors about Tyler's behavior and his suitability as a father and minister are started as people imagine slights based on his unresponsiveness. People act badly and then pull themselves together. We are reminded that everyone has feet of clay and yet most of us are capable of tremendous compassion. The beautyof this book is in the small descriptive details, the pacing, and the ordinarinous of life made significant.

Dog Stories

2009-08-01T09:40:00.000-07:00

I've been on vacation and reading just for fun. My sister-in-law handed me a couple of books where dogs figure prominently: The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski and The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein.
Edgar Sawtelle introduces us to one family that for several generations has worked to selectively breed and train dogs that are highly intuitive in relation to their humans. Edgar's grandfather started out selecting promising dogs through chance encounters, based on stories (e.g., the tale of the Japanese dog who came back to meet his master at the train station for years after the man had died), and occasionally from respected kennels. The dogs were then bred and trained for an extended period of time before they were sold. They were tracked for their entire lifespan and reports of their behavior helped refine the breeding program for what became known as the Sawtelle dogs. Young Edgar, his father was also Edgar but went by Gar, is in early adolescence for most of this story; although we do hear of his early years. He was born mute, but not deaf, and has his own special dog that grew up with him, Almondine. From several perspectives--including that of the dogs--we learn of a family's devotion to creating an extraordinary group of dogs, and about the relationships between the family members, and between the dogs and the people. Edgar's father dies suddenly and his paternal uncle, Claude, who has recently re-entered the picture, begins to take over the running of the kennel and Edgar's mother's affections. Edgar is extremely intuitive in his own right and has an encounter with his father's ghost during a rainstorm; his father points Edgar to evidence that Claude killed him. Edgar's attempts to prove the murder have disastrous consequences and he runs away with several of the younger dogs; however, he can't stay away from his mother and Almondine. I couldn't stop reading the book. It is beautifully written, occasionally the phrasing and descriptions are just exquisite. But it is also the second "Oprah" recommended book I've read (She's Come Undone by Wally Lamb was the first) with such an irredeemably grim ending that I am swearing off reading anything on her list--again. One evil person is allowed to manipulate and then destroy everything good this family created. I guess that means I don't like books that offer no glimpse of hope.
Racing in the Rain, on the other hand, is infinitely hopeful, although bad things happen to one of the protagonists, and the narrator dies in the end. This is also a family story, about Denny Swift, an aspiring and gifted race car driver, his wife Eve, whose parents think she has married beneath her class, their daughter Zoe, and Enzo the narrator. Enzo happens to be Denny's dog but is at heart a philosopher who firmly believes the Mongolian legend that a dog who is ready to leave his dogness behind will be reborn as a man. He saw it once in a documentary on TV, which he watches during the day to learn how to be a person in his next life. There is a lot about car racing, but it is all tied to how one lives life with integrity and awareness. I loved this story. Don't be deterred by Enzo's death; he has learned what he needed to learn in this lifetime and he is happy to go.

Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World

2009-07-14T15:09:00.000-07:00

A big claim to be sure, but in fact, people did come from all over the U.S. and even from countries as far away as Japan to meet this remarkable orange cat in Spencer, Iowa. This is not only the story of a amazing cat, but also a semi-autobiography of the library's director and author of the book, Vicki Myron. Additionally, we learn about the town of Spencer, and its economic trials and tribulations, as family farms became an endangered species.
As a young kitten, Dewey Readmore Books (his full name) was found in the book drop-box one morning after a night of sub-freezing temperatures, with frost-bitten feet that required weeks of recovery. But he quickly took possession of the library, won the hearts of staff and patrons, and seemed intuitively to know who needed a cat on their lap at any given hour. He had a bad habit of eating rubber bands and so they were banned from the library. He roamed the light fixtures high overhead at will. He greeted people at the door. He excited the children of all ages and even some oldsters. This is an absolutely touching story about the amazing impact that one animal can have on individual lives and the community as a whole.

NEWS UPDATE: There's an upcoming picture book and maybe even a movie (supposedly starring Meryl Streep --man she's busy). Here's the article in Publisher's Weekly.

The Devil in the White City

2009-07-14T13:53:00.000-07:00

Thanks to my friends Pete and Betsy (formerly of Seattle, and now in Boise), I got to read this book by Erik Larson right before going to my library conference in Chicago. It interweaves the two stories of the creation of the Columbian Exposition, aka the 1893 World's Fair, in Chicago (see photo at right) and the story of a serial killer operating in the area at the same time. The book opens with two quotes:
"Make no little plans; they have no magic to stir men's blood," spoken by Daniel Burnham, Director of Works for the Exposition.
And this from the confession of H.H.Holmes, "I was born with the devil in me. I could not help the fact that I was murderer, no more than the poet can help the inspiration to sing."

Although I expected the opposite, I found the account of building the World's Fair infinitely more interesting. Neither of these tales is fictionalized; both are based on documentary evidence and detailed research. I have to say that my visit to Chicago was enormously enriched by reading this book, which alerted me to the seminal role that Chicago played in American architecture. It was the home of the first skyscrapers--by ten years! Many of the major architectural styles, such as modernism, received critical impetus from the work of local architects. Everyone knows that Louis Sullivan and Frank Lloyd Wright also started their careers here. Chicago was celebrating the 100th anniversary of Burnham's design for the whole city while I was there and so posters of him, as well as books about him, and about the Exposition, were abundant at the Architecture Foundation's gift shop. I also found there a book of postcard with paintings and archival photographs of the "White City" and I have to say that my major criticism of the book is that more of these were not included in the book. Chicago's architecture is truly monumental and it's definitely worth taking either the land or water tour sponsored by the Architecture Foundation next time you go. Oh, and read the book, too, so you can learn about how the first Ferris Wheel almost didn't get created, or why the Exposition was called the White City, or how a serial killer almost got away unnoticed.

Blindfold Game

2009-06-08T12:36:00.000-07:00

Dana Stabenow is one of my long-time favorite mystery writers; I have read and enjoyed a number of her series featuring Kate Shugak, Aleut native who homesteads in Alaska and occasionally works as a private investigator. This novel is a departure from the series and tackles an international terrorist plot to explode a dirty bomb over southern Alaska. Two strong protagonists, married but living apart, each carry a significant part of the action. Hugh Rincon is a CIA analyst who can't seem to convince his superiors that there really is a threat. Sara Lange is second in command on a Coast Guard cutter working in the Bering Sea, and it is to her that Hugh turns when the information suggests the bomb is headed for their home state. As engrossing and atmospheric as everything else of hers I've read.

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

2009-06-08T12:15:00.000-07:00

I was so impressed by hearing Sherman Alexie's keynote address at the Association of College and Research Libraries conference in Seattle this March, that I determined to actually read some of his books. What better way to start than with his new YA (young adult) book! As with so many high quality YA books, this one deserves to be read by adults as well, although the abundance of gross boy humor will certainly make it appealing to male teens. Arnold aka "Junior" Spirit lives on the Spokane Indian reservation with his parents and older sister Mary. The rez is a close knit community but Arnold has been singled out for abuse by peers and even adults because he was born with hydrocephalus (water on the brain). He is both verbally and physically abused by all and sundry except for his best friend Rowdy who defends Arnold against all comers--usually pretty successfully since Rowdy is strong and mean. A fit of anger precipitates a conversation with one of his teachers, and Arnold decides to attend school off the rez, and thereby earns the enmity of an even larger proportion of the tribe, including his former best friend Rowdy. Like Alexie's speech at ACRL, this book is painful and funny and eye-opening. Hear Alexie read a portion of the book.

The Master and the Margarita

2009-04-26T17:09:00.000-07:00

Written by Russian dissident Mikhail Bulgakov in the final 12 years of his life, The Master and the Margarita was not published until 26 years after his death (in 1940). From 1930 on he was unable to publish at all in Russia although, strangely enough, he was allowed to produce others' plays as literary consultant to the Moscow Art Theatre. For a quick overview of his work and life, see the Wikipedia entry. The translation I read was by Mirra Ginsburg. I have to say this is not my favorite genre. Bulgakov is taking the atheist state on with a tale about the devil coming to Moscow and wreaking havoc with the lives of those who profess not to believe in either God or the devil. There are lots of plays on words, which are surely influenced strongly by the translation. There is a second story within the main one about the crucifixtion of Jesus. The devil was present and a contemporary author in Moscow, the Master, has written the story. The tale culminates with Satan's ball over which the Master's lover, Margarita, presides in the form of a beautiful witch. All the people the devil considers to have integrity (i.e., the Master and Margarita) get to go off to their own private paradise in the end. And the citizens of Moscow are left trying to make sense of the whole series of puzzling events that the devil whipped up while he and his entourage were in town. The hypocrites--again according to the devil's evaluation--all get their come-uppance.

Some stray YA books

2009-04-10T13:06:00.000-07:00

I picked up a couple of books by well-known young adult authors at the big book sale at CML a couple of weeks ago and since I won't be submitting reviews for them to the children's lit database, I thought I would make notes about them here.
The Rogues (alternate title is Rogue's Apprentice) is apparently the 4th in a series collaboration between Jane Yolen and Robert J. Harris. These are historic adventure stories set in Scotland, this particular one being centered around the Highland Clearances that took place in the 18th century. As the large landowners enjoyed the benefits of more peaceful times, they no longer needed to be able to call on their clans, usually tenant farmers, for defense. And they found that money was to be made by grazing a new breed of English sheep. Many of them drove the farmers off their land in most brutal fashion, by burning people out of the homes and off the farms that had sustained them for generations. Many went to cities and many came to the New World, i.e., America. This tale revolves around the son of one such family--Roddy Macallan-- as he throws his lot in with a bootlegger in order to try and recover a family heirloom also stolen by the laird who burned his village and tried to kill him. I enjoy historical fiction because I learn new things in a richer fashion. I never knew why there was a wave of Scottish immigration to North America, prior to reading this, or at least I didn't remember if I ever did know.
The other "oldie but goody" I read was Eoin Colfer's first in the Artemis Fowl series. Artemis is a 12-year old criminal mastermind trying to re-establish the family's ill-gotten fortune after some bad investments by his late father left them somewhat strapped for cash. His plan is to kidnap a faery and ransom him/her for gold. He is indeed brilliant and the brawn is supplied by his bodyguard manservant, Butler. But even their combined resources are no match for Holly Short, an officer in the Lower Elements Police (aka LEPrecon) once she gets her magic back. This is really a great bit of fun filled with magical characters, action, and a lot of tongue in cheek humor. I'll definitely go on to read the sequels--of which there are many.

The Hounds and the Fury

2009-03-29T18:51:00.000-07:00

This is one of a great series of books by Rita Mae Brown featuring master of the hounds, Jane Arnold, aka "Sister" and other members of the Jefferson Hunt Club. Sister is a most endearing character, smart, 73 years old, still riding to hunt several times a week, and running her farm in the between. She is a true friend to those she cares about, young and old. These books have given me a totally new perspective on fox hunting, at least as it is carried out in the United States. Sister not only makes sure the foxes don't go hungry in winter by supplementing their wild catch with kibble laced with vitamins and, periodically, worming medicine, but she knows and loves each of the hounds in her pack. And they all have voices! Delia, Dragon, Cora--each with a distinct personality--share their opinions of the humans who ride behind them and the wily foxes who run in front of them. We also hear from the horses, a couple of neighborhood owls, the foxes of course, Sister's household dogs and cat and...well, you get the picture. But Sister is the only human talking so that keeps the story centered. As in all her book series, she creates a rich and engaging picture of the South through the characters who live there and their relationships with one another. As mentioned in earlier posts, Brown also co-authors a series of books with her cat, Sneaky Pie Brown, that feature two felines and a corgi as the protagonists and their owner, Mary Harristeen, as their nosy owner who is always getting in over her head. And if you want to read one of my top ten favorite books of all time, read Six of One by Brown. It is one of the few books that just makes me laugh out loud.

Shadow of the Wind

2009-03-24T08:13:00.000-07:00

Magical realism has never been my thing and yet I really enjoyed this story within a story by Carlos Ruiz Zafon. In post WWI Barcelona, a young boy lays claim to a work by Julian Carax in the "Cemetery of Forgotten Books" that becomes his sole responsibility to preserve. He stays awake all night reading the tale of a boy searching for his father and vows to find everything the author has written. As the son of an antiquarian book dealer with lots of contacts, it should be a fairly easy task, but, in fact, it turns out that someone has been systematically searching out the works of Carax and burning them. Motherless Daniel falls in love with the blind (and much older) daughter of another book dealer as he reads the book to her and is later broken hearted to find she has taken a lover. In the course of his quest to solve the mystery of the disappearing books, he is threatened by a character from the book, rescues and partners with a homeless man who is really a former spy, tracks down and gets involved with several people who knew Carax, and eventually finds his true love. This is a richly detailed, darkly Gothic and engrossing novel. Well-translated and sumptuous in creating the atmosphere of a city steeped in history and struggling to find a future.

Another book I didn't finish

2009-03-24T07:55:00.000-07:00

I hardly ever stop reading part-way through, so it was with heavy heart that I laid aside Phantom by Terry Goodkind, a respected fantasy author. I am a big fan of the genre that involves alternate worlds told in saga like format (think LOTR or The Golden Compass) but this one was just too ponderous. It suffered from lack of good editing in my personal opinion. Maybe if it had been told in half the number of pages I could have stayed with it, but each event seemed to be belabored endlessly, much as I am doing now with this non-recommendation. The premise is interesting enough. The phantom is a woman who has disappeared from everyone's memory as a consequence of evil machinations to control powerful tools of magic. But it's only part of a chain of events that are unwinding the power of magic throughout the world, leaving it vulnerable to a takeover by a life-negating philosophy and army. The particular religious order that fuels this destructive force rings remarkably similar to most organized religions that have been used to wreak havoc on a massive scale through the course of human history. The book is also rife with detailed explanations of magic that are too complex for someone jumping in without being grounded through prequels. The last chapter sets it up for a sequel, but don't think I'll go there.

Bangkok Tattoo

2009-03-07T18:08:00.000-08:00

I was so intrigued by the worlds revealed in John Burdett's other two books (see Bangkok 8 and The Last Six Million Seconds) that I came back for more. This is the sequel to Bangkok 8 and continues with protagonist detective Sonchai Jitpleecheep of the Royal Thai Police Force, who is now a partner (with his mother and his commanding officer, Commander Vikorn) in a brothel that caters to older foreigners--they can get Viagra and dope for just a small extra fee. Predictably, the book opens with a grisly murder--this time of an American CIA agent--but I won't try to convey the elaborate plot except to note that the prime suspect is one of the brothel's star employees and a soul mate of Sonchai's. He is sure they shared a former life, so he is determined to find out if she in fact committed the murder --which she neither denies nor admits--and if so, why. What keeps me engaged are the occasional insertions of a uniquely non-American (sometimes Thai/ Buddhist, or in this book occasionally Muslim) perspective on the events and characters. Some examples:

In speaking to Sonchai about the dead agent, a Muslim imam who knew him says, "The Western mind is wild and unpredictable, devoid of center. You Buddhists have your nirvana, we have Allah, even true Christians have a path of sorts, beset though it is by childish miracles. But what of these products of Capitalism like Mr. Turner? Human souls locked out from God forever. One hears their screams of anguish even while they drop their bombs, these young people who have no idea who they are. They think they are killing others. They are killing themsleves" (p. 53).
Later, through his son, the imam also says, "...without a war [speaking of the 'war on terrorism'], America would descend into total confusion and would have to turn itself into a police state to survive, because its people no longer have any internal structure. Americans can never be defeated by war. It is peace they find intolderable" (p.73).
In her diary, Chanya, the prostitute and suspected murderer, notes during her time in America that "Even bag people walk with purpose and energy and with total certainty about the direction they want to go in...They don't know where they're going, they just know how to look as if they do. They walk like that because they're scared. Some demon is whipping them from inside." (p.173).
Another CIA agent who is investigating the murder, says in a drunken entreaty to Sonchai, "Freedom? What kind of dumb all-purpose Band-Aid is that? ...what are we selling exactly? Money is the state religion of the West. We pray to it every waking minute--and we're gonna make damned sure every last human on earth gets down on their knees with us . All our wars are wars of religion" (p.202).
Finally, Sonchai himself, listening to one of his favorite radio talk shows, begins to rant about how far we are from enlightenment, "You see dear reader, you are a ramshackle collection of coincidences held together by a desperate and irrational clinging, there is no center at all...In a bumper sticker: The fear of letting go prevents you from letting go of the fear of letting go" (p.214).

This one took a little more determination to keep going, but it was worth the effort.

Gertrude Bell -- revisited

2009-02-25T12:10:00.000-08:00

This is NOT a book review, although it is related to my earlier book review of Gertrude Bell: Queen of the Desert, Shaper of Nations. This website is a collection of primary source materials--pictures, letters, etc.--from and about Gertrude. She is definitely one of my heroines, right up there with Amelia Earhart and Eleanor Roosevelt. They were so brave in ways I wish I was. Here's the review from Choice (authored by S. Kowtko from Spokane CC) which pretty much says it all: "The Gertrude Bell Project is a representative example of the future of Internet research and primary source access. The University of Newcastle upon Tyne Robinson Library worked for four years to complete the transcription of manuscripts and recatalog and digitize photographs to make this resource available to the general public through a basic, user-friendly Web site. The goal was not to analyze and interpret the masses of documents left by Gertrude Bell, but to make a full digital collection available to those who could use these sources for their own academic pursuits. As a female traveler at the turn of the century who did not stick to standard patterns of Western travel, Gertrude Bell's life and experience offer researchers a unique look through Western eyes at the world, especially the Middle East. With over 1,600 letters to her parents, 16 diaries, 7,000 photographs, and other miscellaneous items, this archive is a rich resource quickly becoming fully digitally available. The layout of the home page consists of a short introduction to Gertrude Bell and her life, as well as links to the collection itself. At the bottom of the page, there are links to a help page, the photos, the diaries, and the letter collection. The help page is an especially useful and rather detailed introduction to the storage, layout, and presentation of the archival material. The search option is also basic, but useful if users have an idea of the subjects they are looking for in the documents..."

Goodies for word sluts

2009-02-04T15:41:00.000-08:00

I'll tell you right (write!) now that this is NOT a book review, but I justify putting this here because I'm convinced that at least part of my addiction to reading is word lust.
Lake Superior State University is known for its annual List of Words to Be Banished from the Queen’s English for Mis-use, Over-use and General Uselessness. Read people's comments about why they want to send the words/phrases packing.
On the other end of the spectrum, is Wayne State University's endeavor to revitalize underused words of merit, Word Warrior. You can engage in an abecedarian activity byreading through the whole list.

Plum Spooky

2009-01-22T17:15:00.000-08:00

Just like all the men in her life, you have to love Stephanie Plum, Janet Evanovich's indominable protagonist because she's just so...well...spunky. She never lets her lack of skill or penchant for being in the wrong place at the wrong time get in the way of pursuing those pesky FTA's (failure to appear) that are the source of income for a bounty hunter. Something always blows up, her car always gets trashed, there are always too many gorgeous sexy men vying for her attention, Grandma Mazur and other incredibly weird and wonderful characters always make you laugh. How can you argue with a formula like that. The main hunk in this book is one I hadn't met before--Diesel (with no last name). He has an uncanny ability to open locked doors, start cars without keys and just general spooky things ordinary humans can't. But his cousin Wolf, who Diesel is hunting, and who is hunting Stephanie for not good motives, is even spookier. He can kill just by touching you, so you don't want to piss him off. Have fun--I did!

Pillars of the Earth

2009-01-22T17:05:00.000-08:00

I haven't read Ken Follett in a very long time (think Eye of the Needle, or Key to Rebecca) but I wanted something that would last the length of time I had to spend in airports and planes while travelling in December, and this certainly met the bill. You would have to say this is a "meaty" work with substantial amounts of detail, not just about the political maneuverings during this time period (England from 1123 - 1174), but about the nitty gritty of how to build a cathedral. I certainly can't fault Follett on his research, but I did feel bogged down occasionally. You did truly come to know the characters and there is quite a cast, including some wonderful strong women who broke the mold and paid the consequences; however, I doubt that they would have chosen to try and conform if they had it to do over. Some wielded power by manipulating men, some by gaining money, and some by withdrawing from general society. Apparently there is now (18 years after Pillars) a sequel to this work called World without End.

My Cat Saved My Life

2008-12-29T08:31:00.000-08:00

Why would you read this book? Have you ever lost a loved companion, parent, sibling, friend? Perhaps you felt that societal restrictions on how you grieved didn't really provide sufficient room for your experience. Have you ever believed that soul is not the exclusive realm of humans? Have you ever been lost in a well of depression so deep that the light cannot reach you? Do you occasionally believe that animals know more about living than we (humans) do? Then this account will resonate with you. This heartfelt little book is written by Phillip Schreibman, who lost his emotional and spiritual footing following the deaths of his father and then his mother. He describes better than anyone I've read what it is like to experience someone dying. " A miracle of experiences, hopes, stories, thoughts, a way of smiling, a voice, vanished in the smallest fraction of a second." One minute they were there and the next they were not. "Now all the parts of me where my day-to-day living had once entwined with theirs were reaching out into nothing." But then he rescued a six-week old kitten and she, in turn, rescued him.

Love Walked In

2008-12-10T07:06:00.000-08:00

At first you'll think that love walked into Cornelia's life and coffee shop in the form of a Cary Grant look-alike. She really wanted to be in love with Martin Grace because there were so many things to love about him. But the real fall comes when Cornelia meets Martin's estranged daughter, Clare. I'd be surprised if you don't fall in love with Cornelia as I did, and for the same reasons she fell in love with Clare -- because she's thoughtful, emotionally courageous, ultimately stays true to herself, and is willing to risk it all for what she wants. The characters are occasionally quirky, very well drawn, enormously endearing. We are reminded that, whether in families, friendships, or love affairs, there is no happiness without some cost, but it's usually worth it. Set predominantly in Philadephia, punctuated by delightful dialog and frequent classic film references, this first novel from Maria de los Santos is a most satisfying read.

Evil Genes--a plunge into non-fiction

2008-11-11T08:39:00.000-08:00

The full title of the book is Evil genes : why Rome fell, Hitler rose, Enron failed and my sister stole my mother's boyfriend by Barbara Oakley. Although she deals with some genetic research, this is primarily an overview of the research on the neurophysiology and neurochemistry of various psychiatric disorders. Personal anecdotes are sprinkled throughout as her interest in the area did come from her puzzlement over her sister's often amoral and Machiavellian behavior. She focuses initially on the development of the construct of Machiavelliamism and then moves on to its relationship to various personality disorders, e.g., narcissistic, borderline, sociopathic and psychopathic disorders. She has separate chapters on Mao Zedong, Adolf Hitler, and Slobodan Milosevic. She posits that some personality disorders may actually be adaptive, helping certain people rise to the top and gain the power and influence to expand their gene pool. She has lots of interesting side notes on things like the neurobiology of religiosity and political beliefs. Her background is as a systems engineer and she does a reasonably good job of bringing some diverse areas of research together, but it is dense and technical reading and I wouldn't recommend it unless you yourself feel compelled to learn more about someone you think might be personality disordered. Her conclusions are that people really are determined more by inheritance than nurture--undoubtedly a comfort to parents/family of those with serious personality disorders. And so I am reminded that people do not change awfully much, and that wishing they would behave differently is just that--wishing.

Back to some old favorites -- Candace Robb

2008-11-11T07:50:00.000-08:00

I thoroughly enjoy the Own Archer and Lucie Wilton series, partly because they are a series and the characters develop over time and you feel like you get to know them. I haven't actually read the immediate predecessor (A Gift of Sanctuary) to A Spy for the Redeemer, which apparently sets Owen off to Wales in the company of his father-in-law, Lucie's father. In this book, the impending revolt of Welsh rebels confronts Owen with his conflicting loyalties -- England vs. Wales. A mysterious suicide involves Owen directly with the various political factions and delays his return when he is ordered by the local Archdeacon to investigate. His long absence raises doubts in Lucie as well about Owen's love and commitment to her and their children, especially as rumors begin to circulate that Owen has joined the rebels. She is tempted by attentive men, some with good motives and some not. Lucie is distraught to learn her father has died on the trip and when she goes to check on his estate, run by her aunt, robbers attack, leaving Lucie unsure of what to do. What I like in general about historical mysteries--at least well-done ones like Robb's--is the opportunity to really get a feel for the events and settings and day-to-day lives of the people in a particular time and place, in this case, 14th C England (York especially) and Wales. Graduate work in medieval literature launched her interests in writing about the period and her literary career.

On Edge

2008-09-08T09:26:00.000-07:00

This is the first crime novel that was written by Barbara Fister and I was finally able to track down a copy to buy and read, several weeks after I had read her 2nd book, In the Wind. This is also a police procedural with the protagonist a detective, Konstantin Slovo, who is currently on leave from the Chicago PD and under suspicion in the shooting death of his former partner. He is trying to restore a precarious emotional balance as well as recover from a serious gunshot wound he received in the same incident. On the flip of a coin, he heads east and stumbles into a small Maine town that is nearing mass hysteria after the kidnapping and murders of two young girls. The focus is on plot and the complex social psychology of groups getting crazy for any sort of action in the face of such horrible events that seem so out of their control. Slovo is haunted by the child abuse cases he has investigated in the past, especially the last one that he could never solve; it is therefore especially ironic that he becomes a victim of the town's vigilante group that is taking matters into their own hands. In the process of trying to help with the investigation--unofficially of course--he befriends local doctor Hari Chakravarty (the only source of any humor in the tale), the chief of police's daughter Ruth, and, it turns out, the killer.

Murder and Mayhem in Hong Kong

2008-09-07T10:59:00.000-07:00

I recently wrote about the forces aligning that led me to John Burdett's Bangkok 8. I investigated what else he had written and discovered that the movie rights to his series of three books set in Bangkok (also Bangkok Haunts and BangkokTattoo) had been bought and are slated to start filming soon. But I also ran across this title, The Last Six Million Seconds, and after messing around with how much time that really was (about 2 months), was curious to find out its significance. The book is set in Hong Kong prior to the handover from Great Britain to mainland China and clocks everywhere are counting out the days, hours, minutes and seconds to June 30, 1997. Our protagonist, Chief Inspector Chan Siu-kai ("Charlie"), is another character defined by others and struggling with himself due to being only half of his chosen national identity, i.e., Chinese. The other half is Irish, but all of him is vehemently anti-communist since he attributes the murder of his mother Mai-Mai, to one of their many purges. Like the detective in the Bangkok series, he is incorruptible and therefore problematic for those who consider political expediencies a higher priority than solving crimes. The grisly murders that anchor this story are dubbed by the press as the "Mincer Murders" since 3 bodies were run through commercial meat grinders while still alive. A tip leads Chan to retrieve 3 heads, sealed in a plastic bag, floating in the sea on the jurisdictional border between Hong Kong and mainland China--raising hopes that the hamburger leftovers might be identified and help solve the murders. The plot is truly labyrinthine and involves the highest levels of government interfering in Chan's investigation. Absolutely no character is all good or all bad, although you would never want to cross paths with most of them. They are driven by history and greed and hopeless passions. Like Bangkok 8, this is not for the faint of heart but an absolutely engrossing thriller, with complex characters and atmospheric settings.