Comic-Con 2012

On our way back from Baton Rouge the other day, we were listening to interviews from Comic-Con -- the program kept us captivated with interviews with Joss Whedon (my hero); Gale Ann Hurd (executive producer of The Walking Dead); Rian and Nathan Johnson about Looper, the concept and the musical score; comments on Farscape, the Australian science fiction series that I thoroughly enjoyed; an interview with Paolo Bacigalupi, author of The Drowned Cities, The Windup Girl, and Shipbreaker (I ordered The Windup Girl and Shipbreaker as soon as I got home); an interview with Tracy Hickman--and more!

Looper is definitely on my list of Must See Movies.



We listened on SiriusXM Comic-Con Radio.  Other interviews that we didn't get to hear were with Peter Jackson, Tim Burton, Stan Lee, and cast and crew members from Iron Man, Dr. Who, True Blood, and Twilight.

TBR

Recently arrived in the mail:  4 ARCs and 1 uncorrected proof.

The Wedding Guests by Meredith Goldstein:

"From Meredith Goldstein, the author of the Boston Globe's hilarious 'Love Letters' advice column, comes her debut novel The Wedding Guests. This light-hearted, witty tale about five tricky wedding guests is perfect for fans of the box office smash hit comedy Bridesmaids."

On the Island by Tracey Garvis Graves:  

"Anna Emerson is a thirty-year-old English teacher desperately in need of adventure. Worn down by the cold Chicago winters and a relationship that’s going nowhere, she jumps at the chance to spend the summer on a tropical island tutoring sixteen-year-old T.J.

T.J. Callahan has no desire to go anywhere. His cancer is in remission and he wants to get back to his normal life. But his parents are insisting he spend the summer in the Maldives catching up on all the school he missed last year.

Anna and T.J. board a private plane headed to the Callahan’s summer home, and as they fly over the Maldives’ twelve hundred islands, the unthinkable happens. Their plane crashes in shark-infested waters. They make it to shore, but soon discover that they’re stranded on an uninhabited island."

The Revised Fundamentals of Caregiving by Jonathan Evison:

Title will be released on August 28.  I read and enjoyed West of Here by Evison, so I'm interested in this one.

"Benjamin Benjamin has lost virtually everything—his wife, his family, his home, his livelihood. With few options, Ben enrolls in a night class called The Fundamentals of Caregiving, where he is instructed in the art of inserting catheters and avoiding liability, about professionalism, and on how to keep physical and emotional distance between client and provider.

But when Ben is assigned to tyrannical nineteen-year-old Trevor, who is in the advanced stages of Duchenne muscular dystrophy, he soon discovers that the endless mnemonics and service plan checklists have done little to prepare him for the reality of caring for a fiercely stubborn, sexually frustrated adolescent with an ax to grind with the world at large.

Though begun with mutual misgivings, the relationship between Trev and Ben evolves into a close camaraderie, and the traditional boundaries between patient and caregiver begin to blur as they embark on a road trip to visit Trev’s ailing father. A series of must-see roadside attractions divert them into an impulsive adventure interrupted by one birth, two arrests, a freakish dust storm, and a six-hundred-mile cat-and-mouse pursuit by a mysterious brown Buick Skylark.

Bursting with energy, this big-hearted and inspired novel ponders life’s terrible surprises and the heart’s uncanny capacity to mend."

Five O'Clock Follies (uncorrected proof) by Theasa Tuohy: 

Kirkus Review--"A freelance writer struggles to find her place among hard-nosed newsmen covering the Vietnam War in this depiction of wartime journalists.

In her debut, former Associated Press editor Tuohy describes the Vietnam War through a journalist’s lens. Freelance writer Angela Martinelli arrives in Saigon in 1968, wearing her “greenness” in the form of high-heeled shoes and a gorgeous mane of red hair. As one of the few women correspondents in a war zone, Angela is greeted with misogyny, skepticism or disdain by her male colleagues, except for Nick, who works for a Chicago newspaper and gives her the benefit of the doubt."

Night Watch by Linda Fairstein:

I've enjoyed several of Fairstein's Alexandra Cooper novels and look forward to this one.

"Forty-eight hours after Alexandra Cooper arrives in France to visit her boyfriend and famed restaurateur, Luc Rouget, her vacation in paradise is cut short when a young woman from the village is found murdered. The only evidence discovered on the body is one of Luc’s matchboxes promoting his new restaurant in New York. But before the investigation begins, Alex is summoned back to New York to handle a high profile case."

---

I'm really interested in the Evison and Fairstein novels because I'm familiar with the authors.  The other three sound more like romance novels, so I'm not too sure about them.

Spider Bones by Kathy Reichs

I'm a lover of mysteries and read the good, the bad, and the indifferent.   New authors are fun, and I'm always hopeful of finding new authors (or new-to-me authors), but there are certain authors to whom I return.  Kathy Reichs is one of those, so when I saw Spider Bones at the library, it went into the bag.

As it turned out, this one was not one of my favorites.   Reichs' plots have developed a predictable pattern, and while it is commendable to have characters act and react in ways that are consistent with the personalities that have been developed, if there is no stretching, spontaneity, or growth in the character--if both plot and characters are predictable--there is little suspense or anticipation.

The most interesting element of the book was the information of the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command.   In the case of this novel, the discovery and return of bodies from various wars (in this case, Viet Nam) and the process, a thorough and arduous process, to be sure of correct identification.

Reichs is always good about including factual information of some sort, and I love to learn while enjoying an entertaining story.  In this novel, the information is not as well interwoven as in previous novels and comes across as very dry.  Nevertheless, I learned some interesting information, which is always a good thing.

Another point of dissatisfaction for me was that the body that begins the mystery is found in a grotesque situation of his own devising.  Because of the manner of death, it was difficult to care about the victim.

None of this means that I will not return Reichs.  While I was not as satisfied with this novel, I have enjoyed most her novels and will certainly read more.

Fiction.  Mystery.  2010.  320 pages.

Dark Horse by Craig Johnson

Dark Horse  is another Walt Longmire novel, and you probably know by now that I enjoy these novels by Craig Johnson.  Longmire is the sheriff of the fictional Absaroka County in Wyoming and with his friend Henry Standing Bear, Longmire takes up the causes of the weak, the helpless, the underdog, the victimized.

Mary Barsad is transferred to his jail from another county, accused of killing her husband who set fire to their locked barn killing all of Mary's beloved horses.   Her husband's death causes no tears for any who knew the brutal man, but Mary confessed and will be held responsible for his murder.


Longmire, however, senses something amiss and goes undercover as an insurance agent to discover exactly what happened the night of the murder.

Told in two time periods--Longmire's current undercover attempts to discover what really happened  that night and flashbacks to the previous ten days--the reader is moved back and forth from present to past until nearly the end of the novel.


Johnson's novels are character driven, and he excels at bringing both primary and secondary characters to life.  Both familiar characters and new characters seem to breathe on their own, and the Wyoming landscape is always well done, becoming a character in its own right.


I highly recommend this series which is highly entertaining in a number of ways.

Biography

Craig Johnson has received both critical and popular praise for his novels The Cold Dish, Death Without Company, Kindness Goes Unpunished, Another Man's Moccasins and The Dark Horse. All five novels have been made selections by the Independent Booksellers Association, and The Cold Dish was a DILYS Award Finalist and was translated into French in 2009 as Little Bird and was just named one of the top ten mysteries of the year by Lire magazine and won the Prix du Roman Noir as the best mystery novel translated into French for 2010.

Death Without Company was selected by Booklist as one of the top-ten mysteries of 2006, won the Wyoming Historical Society's fiction book of the year. The short story, Old Indian Trick, won the Tony Hillerman Mystery Short Story Award and appeared in Cowboys & Indians Magazine.

Kindness Goes Unpunished, the third in the Walt Longmire series, was number 38 on the American Bookseller's Association's hardcover best seller list.

Another Man's Moccasins, was the recipient of Western Writer's of America's Spur Award as Novel of the Year and the Mountains and Plains Book of the Year. 

The Dark Horse, the fifth in the series has garnered starred reviews by all four prepublication review services, one of the only novels to receive that honor and was named by Publisher's Weekly as one of the top one hundred books of the year.

Craig lives with his wife Judy on their ranch in Ucross, Wyoming, population 25.

Fiction.  Mystery.  2010.  368 pages.

Reading in Transit

 Street Photos of Commuters Reading on the Subway. ( via Read in a Single Sitting)

And here is a Facebook site of the subway readers.  I love seeing people of all ages reading on the subway, totally absorbed, sometimes with book titles showing, sometimes not.



Sam has an interesting, and a bit disturbing, post about the way our Kindle and Nook e- readers provide information about our reading choices and habits.

I was pleased to see that Nan of Letters from a Hill Farm found Midnight in Peking as interesting as I did.  Click the link to read her review; my review is here.  Author Paul French happens on an account of an unsolved murder in Peking in 1937 and investigates the story.

French uncovers a great deal of information and relates this true crime story, revealing the time period and the cover-ups, in an entirely readable way.




Another gem via Read in a Single Sitting:  Ten Unusual Micro Libraries.  I Love this one...

Photo by SuperFurryLibrarian/Flickr

This is the kind of thing that occupies me when I don't want to write reviews.

Throne of Glass by Sarah Maas

Throne of Glass   is a YA fantasy novel published by Bloomsbury Children's Books and scheduled for an August release.

Assassin Celaena Sardothien is serving her sentence of hard labor in the salt mines of Endovier, when she is chosen by the Crown Prince to act as his champion in a competition to become the King's Assassin.  If she wins the competition and serves four years as the Royal Assassin, she will be granted her freedom.

Despite her hatred of the king, Celaena agrees.  Her choice is literally between the prospect of a slow death in Endovier or using her extraordinary skills in the hope of gaining her eventual freedom.

She is cleaned up, dressed, and escorted to the Glass Castle under heavy guard.  The few who know who she is are justifiably afraid of her and every precaution is taken to keep Celaena from using her trade to escape.


Then, one by one, several of the competitors are savagely murdered.  What must Celaena do to stay alive, win the competition, and gain her freedom?  And is magic, outlawed throughout the kingdom,  somehow involved in the murders?


I have to admit that I fell readily into this fantasy and thoroughly enjoyed it.  The Assassin, the Crown Prince, and Captain Westfall are very well done, and Maas does a good job with their complex relationships.  It is a YA novel, and I could nitpick a little, but I won't because the problems really didn't interfere at all with my enjoyment.   Throne of Glass is a fun read with plenty of excitement, and evidently, the first in a trilogy.  I look forward to the next one!


A Net Galley title, read on my Kindle.


Fiction.  Fantasy/YA.  August 2012.  416 pages.

Teasers on Books to Be Released in the Next Few Months

Some of my recent reading has been from Net Galley sent to my Kindle.  Some are excellent, of course, and some are not.  I've  enjoyed the following, though I haven't reviewed them yet, and haven't even finished The Secret Lives of Codebreakers.

 The Secret Lives of Codebreakers:  The Men and Women Who Cracked the Enigma Code at Bletchley Park by Sinclair McKay is my current read.  The book won't be released until Sept. 25--so my review will have to wait until closer to publication, but I can tell you that it is one of the most interesting books I've read in a long time.  The nonfiction account of Bletchley Park is fascinating; I'm about 1/2 way through and have highlighted something on almost every page.

McKay writes nonfiction with the same attention to detail and suspense that you might find in a spy novel.  I've mentioned before my interest in Bletchley Park and the Enigma machine (and cryptography and code breakers in general), but I have to admit that I expected the book to be on the dry side.  Not at all the case!  Codebreakers is an absolute pleasure to read, and I return to it with enthusiasm each time.

I've finished, but must also hold the review for Peaches for Father Francis by Joanne Harris which continues the story of Vienne Rocher that Harris began with Chocolate and continued with  The Girl with No Shadow.  I've enjoyed all three of these books and several others by Harris.  They are all light reading, magical realism.














The Joy Brigade by Martin Limon is due out at the end of this month and is set in North Korea in the 1970s.  The information about North Korea and the Joy Brigade (distasteful as it is) was worth the read, but I found the story itself less satisfying.  As I know little about North Korea other than the what I read in the news or know about the Korean War from brief comments, books about North Korea interest me.

I did a little research to see if there really is a Joy Brigade-- unfortunately, yes.  However, the Manchurian Battalion did not exist.

Also found some sad, but interesting info about an incident called the Axe Murders in which two unarmed American officers were slain by North Korean soldiers in 1976.  Not connected to the book's narrative, but provide interesting insight to the existing tensions at the DMZ.

Another interesting look at life in the closed society of North Korea is A Corpse in the Koryo by James Church.

The Art Forger by B.A. Shapiro (due out in Oct.) provides an intriguing look at art theft and art forgery.  There really is an Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, but the story is fiction.  Claire Roth is a young artist, who due to a difficult situation in the past, finds herself pretty much blacklisted by galleries.  She makes a living reproducing famous works of art for an online retailer.  The works are reproductions, not forgeries, but the skills are similar, and when a gallery owner approaches Claire with a dubious project, Claire had decisions to make.

I enjoyed both the story and the sections on art in this one.


The above Net Galley teasers (along with others that I've reviewed fully) have been both entertaining and educational.  There have, of course, been some real duds, books that whether I  finished them or abandoned them don't really rate reviews or mention, but the majority of my Net Galley ebooks have been a pleasure.

The Broken Token by Chris Nickson

The Broken Token  is the first in a series by Nickson featuring Richard Nottingham, the constable of Leeds in the 1730s.

An early morning knock on his door calls Nottingham to the scene of a double murder with the victims posed in a sexual manner.  If this were not shocking enough, the female victim is a young woman who once worked in Nottingham's home.

The murder is itself appalling, but as it turns out, it is only the first in a series.  Each new outrage puts more pressure on Nottingham.  The pressure to catch the killer is personal for the constable, whose family treasured the young woman.  In addition to this, his job is endangered;  if he doesn't make an arrest soon, he could be dismissed from his position.

Nottingham, a devoted husband and father, is a likable protagonist, as is John Sedgwick, his devoted deputy, whose family life is not as successful as Nottingham's, but whose dedication to finding the murderer is almost as strong as that of his superior-- despite their different views concerning the case.

An interesting and entertaining historical mystery.

Library book.

Fiction.  Historical Mystery.  2010.  269 pages.

Istanbul Passage by Joseph Kanon

Istanbul Passage  evokes the atmosphere of late 1945, shortly after the end of the war.  During the war Istanbul remained neutral, and spies from all sides gathered there, but at the time the novel takes place most have departed.

Which is not to mean that unusual machinations had ceased.  Istanbul served as a kind of way station in the efforts to aid Jewish refugees in their efforts to reach Palestine.

After the war millions of displaced Jews who had survived the Nazi regime sought refuge in the newly established Jewish state.  The British had set up quotas that were minuscule to the numbers of survivors seeking to enter.  The story involves not only the smuggling of Jews into Palestine, avoiding the British blockade, but also the effort to smuggle a notorious Nazi collaborator to the U.S.    

Leon Baur finds himself caught up in a number of deceptions that threaten his ethics, his life, and his livelihood.  

Guilt, love, deception, and ethical questions abound in this story of a turbulent time; Leon Baur's difficulties mirror, in a way, the larger difficulties of nations.  Tense drama and great characterization.

Joseph Kanon's novels include Los Alamos (received an Edgar for Best First Novel) and The Good German (made into a film with George Clooney and Cate Blanchett).

I found the novel interesting on a number of levels and thoroughly enjoyed it.

This one was from Net Galley.

Fiction.  Suspense.  2012.  print version -  416 pages.

Under Oath by Margaret McLean

Under Oath is largely a courtroom drama.

"McLean's first novel takes the reader on a terrific journey through the machinations of Boston law. Under Fire is a compelling legal thriller with vivid characters, a realistic feel to the proceedings, and a case that ignites our interest practically on the first page. McLean, a law professor and former criminal prosecutor, knows her stuff and, even better, knows how to translate it to fiction."

—Booklist

 I didn't find the book the courtroom proceedings that believable, but evidently most people did.  

Not a bad way to spend an evening, but perhaps (for me, at least) not the best way, either.  I'll stick to John Lescroart for legal thrillers.

Fiction.  Courtroom Drama/Mystery.  2012.  380 pages.

The Aleppo Codex by Matti Friedman

I've always been curious about ancient manuscripts, and some of the most ancient include those connected to religion.  When Algonquin Press sent me a copy of The Aleppo Codex:  A True Story of Obsession, Faith, and the Pursuit of an Ancient Bible, I was intrigued.

Aleppo is located in Syria, and the Great Synagogue of Aleppo served the Jewish population of Aleppo since the 5th century.  The synagogue housed the Aleppo Codex (or The Crown), the oldest extant copy of the Bible, the most authoritative and the most precise, for over five hundred years.  Written circa 930 C.E., the Aleppo Codex remained in tact for a thousand years, despite being moved, stolen once, and ransomed.  The Jews of Aleppo continued to keep the codex safe for another 500 years.

A pogrom in 1947, however, resulted in the burning of the Great Synagogue, and although the codex was rescued, there were pages missing.  How the codex was saved and eventually carried to Jerusalem, how many pages were missing and when, and what happened to those pages is what Matti Friedman pursues over the course of four years.

Originally, Friedman intended to tell the story of rescue of the codex from the fire and the details of how it eventually made its way to Jerusalem and into the hands of the Israeli authorities rather than back in the possession of the Aleppo community.  He got much more than he bargained for.  At almost every turn he met problems:  by 2008 many of those involved in the original tale were dead, some stories had serious flaws, government officials and others refused access to documents.

His research paid off in unexpected ways, revealing a story of intrigue and deception, solving some of the mysteries of the Crown's recent history, but not all.  Friedman raises the questions of ownership in regard to religious and historical documents, the ethics of appropriation of manuscripts belonging to various sects, the location of the missing codex pages, official neglect of ancient manuscripts, and what can be discovered about a manuscript when undergoing expert preservation.

An engrossing read if you like history or mystery--both are in abundance here.

Nonfiction.  History.  2012.  320 pages.

The Alloy of Law by Brandon Sanderson

I know a lot of people participated in the Mistborn trilogy read-along, but I quickly skimmed through those posts because I thought I might want to read the series and didn't want to know too much.  The library didn't have the books, but they did have The Alloy of Law, a Mistborn novel, but one that is not part of the original trilogy.  The Alloy of Law is set in a different time period, centuries in the future of Scadrial, and it is a stand-alone novel that doesn't require one to have read the earlier series.

The cover is very steampunk, and the content follows in this vein as well.  It opens in the Roughs, the equivalent of the Wild West.  Waxillium Ladrian is a law man in this wide-open country, taking care of the bad guys and keeping order in the turbulent and relatively untamed hinterland--until two events cause him to abandon his role and return to the city where he must reluctantly change his role from free-for-all law man to head of the House of Ladrian.

I wasn't much taken with the magic of allomancy and feruchemy which seemed contrived and self-conscious--as if trying to find a new way to present magic was the main intention.  The villains were certainly bad guys, but they were pretty much cardboard figures to promote or explain the action.

Words have great power of connotation (home, hearth, apple pie), and it is always fun to see authors give power to the word itself and not just to the content of the sentence.  Dickens was a master of this, and the example that comes to mind is the use of "brass" in Hard Times.  He used the word in so many ways:  the metal itself (brass door knocker), authority (top brass), counterfeit (as in coin), brazeness (brassy), audacity, arrogance, etc.

All that to explain the unpleasant connotation I felt (for some unknown reason) to the name Waxillium.  When the author referred to him as Wax, I was fine, but each time he used Waxillium, my skin crawled.

The novel felt like it tried too hard, and I think I'd have liked it better without the over-the-top incidents, but there were some things that worked for me.

Wax was a likable character, with potential to gain substance if there is a sequel.  My favorite character, however, was Wayne, the sidekick.  Wayne was funny, charming and pretty much a chameleon, changing his accent and persona with ease.  Marasi, the female protagonist, was good with a rifle, but for some reason  in spite of a large role, she never felt solid.  On the other hand, Steris, the woman whom Wax is to marry (he for money, she for status), played only a very small role, but has inherent possibilities.

If there is a sequel, I would read it just to see if Sanderson does something interesting with Steris.

I'll give Sanderson another try and see how it goes.

Fiction.  SF/Fantasy.  2011.  336 pages.  library book.

Elegy for Eddie by Jacqueline Winspear

Elegy for Eddie is the 9th book in the Maisie Dobbs series, which I usually enjoy.

When a group of costermongers approach Maisie about investigating the death of Eddie Pettit, a gentle and simple man, Maisie feels that her background with the men and their families deserve her time and effort.

Maisie undertakes the investigation and gradually comes to the conclusion that there was a deliberateness in the "accident."  I never felt the evidence for a deliberate accident was clear, but Maisie made enough connections to convince herself, and of course, we have a handy villain on the scene.  Whether Eddie's death was a result of an intentional murder or a warning gone wrong, Maisie is determined to discover the culprit or culprits.  While she may suspect the individual who actually caused Eddie's death, she wants to know if that person acted on his own or was given orders.

The investigation into Eddie's death leads Maisie to question the death of a young reporter who was acquainted with Eddie, and who supposedly committed suicide a short time prior to Eddie's death.

I'm afraid that I did not find this as satisfying a read as most of the Maisie novels have been.  The dialogue seemed stilted, Maisie's character seemed to be regressing (as did James' character), and there were a number of ethical dilemmas whose resolutions were tacitly approved.

After reading the novel, I looked for other reviews and found that most felt this was one of best in the series.  So there you go...I'm certainly in the minority.

One character that I did like was Eve.  She had color and verve despite her grief and was much more vibrant (even in her very minor role) than Maisie, who seemed like lukewarm milk toast in this novel.

Fiction.  Mystery.  2012.  331 pages.  library book.

Midnight in Peking by Paul French

Midnight in Peking is a true-crime novel set in Peking in 1937 in the midst of China's civil war and shortly before the invasion of Japan.  In fact, the Japanese have already begun preparations and are encamped right outside the city.

When the body of a foreigner, a young woman, is discovered brutally murdered, the situation is fraught with political ramifications.  Not only is the victim a young white woman, nineteen-year-old Pamela Werner, daughter of a former British consul,  but the murder is so savage that even experienced policemen are appalled.

French researched the events thoroughly and presents the evidence discovered, the obstacles  presented by the British Legation, the cover-ups, the attempts to save face, and the corruption.

When both the British and Chinese detectives were stymied by circumstances and the investigation closed, Pamela's father, the seventy-five-year-old E.T.C. Werner, began his own investigation, spending the last years of his life pursuing the evidence and the leads that might bring his daughter's murderer to justice.

 What the official detectives failed to discover, Pamela's father doggedly seeks, using his own money to follow the trail and to hire private detectives to aid in the search.  The characters he encounters are often seedy, sinister, and in the case of the White Russian hermaphrodite, bizarre.

The story French reveals is based largely on Werner's notes and letters to the authorities as he relentlessly tracks down anyone with information about what really happened that January night in 1937.

The book reads like something between a case history and a novel.  The story, the villains, the collusions and deceptions, even the characters are almost more fantastic than fiction.

I think I first read about this novel at Mary's Library, and I'm glad I added it to my TBR list and found it at the library.

Nonfiction.  Crime.  2012.  272 pages.

Internet Absence and Three Reviews

I took a bit of a blogging break, for various reasons, but I had several reviews scheduled to occupy about a little more than a week.

Which was a good thing, as I've since had both computer problems and internet problems.  When SuddenLink did an upgrade, their instructions about getting connected again didn't work.

Of course, as a technodunce of the first order, my efforts were fruitless.  However, even my husband had difficulty and several phone calls were required.   I may go days without wanting to use the computer, but as soon as it is unavailable...I'm frantic.

Finally, Fee got us connected again, and I'm sighing with relief.

Three short reviews:

 Safe Harbor  by Rosemary McCracken is another debut novel.  Here is the book description:

Financial advisor Pat Tierney’s world is shattered when a visitor to her office tells her that Pat's late husband is the father of a seven-year-old boy. Stunned by the revelation of her husband's affair, Pat is even more shocked when the woman bolts from the office, leaving young Tommy behind. 

When Tommy's mother is murdered, police tell Pat that the boy may be the killer's next target. In a desperate race to protect Tommy, Pat's searches for the truth.... (I omitted spoilers)


 Set in Toronto, the novel deals with legal and illegal immigration as well as the personal crisis Pat faces when she learns about her husband's affair and must deal with the sense of betrayal she feels.  The novel also deals with parent-child relationships.

Overall--a moderately entertaining mystery and a fast read.

Fiction.  Mystery.  2012.  220 pages.  library book.

The Chaperone by Laura Moriarty is the story of Cora Carlisle, a housewife from Wichita, Kansas who accompanies the fifteen-year-old Louise Brooks to New York City in 1922.

I really liked that Cora was one of the orphans on an Orphan Train from New York.  I wrote about this fascinating and neglected part of American history here after seeing the documentary.

I also liked the parts about Louise Brooks, that icon of silent movies from the twenties and thirties.  I really want to read her autobiography LuLu in Hollywood.  Brooks was intelligent, beautiful, arrogant, and unconventional.

An entirely readable novel that involves a kind of coming of age for  the thirty-six-year-old Cora who has never questioned much about convention or how to manage certain difficulties in her own life. I enjoyed this one.

An ARC from the Penguin Group.

Historical Fiction.  2012.  423 pages (with extensive bibliography).

The Last Good Man by A.J. Kazinski.  I'm only mentioning this one because of the Lamed- Vav Tzadikim (or Tzadikim Nistarim), who in Jewish tradition are the "thirty six righteous ones" in each generation that are responsible for saving the world.

The book was pretty awful, but the coincidence of reading the book at the same time I was watching the last episode of Touched  with Kiefer Southerland on Hulu was interesting.  I was not familiar with this idea and to have it show up at the same time in a book and a television series was one of those synchronicitous occasions that catch your attention.

When doing a little research on Wikipedia, I discovered that Jodie Picoult, Sam Bourne, Neil Gaiman, and Michael Chabon have all made use of the Talmudic statement about the Lamed-Vav Tzadikim.

I wouldn't even have mentioned this book if it had not been for the fact that the Lamed-Vav Tzadikim was such an intriguing concept.

Mystery. 2012.  480 pages.  library book.

The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach

The Art of Fielding  is one of my favorite books this year.  Not because of the plot, but because of the baseball.  My favorite parts were the descriptions of Henry Skrimshander's fielding ability, the practices, and the games.  Harbach can romance the action on the field with remarkable clarity, and I love these sections.

Another favorite part--the excerpts from the fictitious book The Art of Fielding by Aparicio Rodriguez:

"The glove is not an object in the usual sense," said Aparicio in The Art of Fielding.  "For the infielder to divide it from himself, even in thought, is one of the roots of error."

"The shortstop is a source of stillness at the center of the defense.  He projects this stillness and his teammates respond."

"To field a ground ball must be considered a generous act and an act of comprehension...." 

Aparicio's book is the only book that Henry takes with him to Westish College, but for him, the book is a mentor and a philosophy.

The first half of the book was excellent, and I enjoyed all of the Melville connections, even the name Skrimshander evokes scrimshaw and images of whaling.  As the complications involving the relationships began taking more precedence, however, I felt much less attached.

Nominated for a Pulitzer (although it did not win), the book has garnered great praise and severe criticism.  I loved the book, but did feel that some of the relationships off the field were a bit forced, nor did the last few chapters work that well for me.

It isn't a book that I'll forget; it will linger much longer than many of the books I read.

Fiction.  Contemporary Lit.  2011.  512 pages.

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

The Night Circus has been on my list for quite a while, and recently, the library had an available copy.  This one has been read and reviewed so many times that you may not want to bother with reading another review.

I can say that it didn't disappoint in the realm of imagery.  The Night Circus is a visual feast that makes black and white magical and chimerical.  The descriptions are beautiful, enticing, seductive, and you want to experience the magic for yourself, to wander among the tents, have your fortune told, and to marvel at the illusions.

My relationship with magical realism is ambivalent, and while  I've loved some books in this category, others have left me cold.  The Night Circus falls on the more positive side of this division, but as lovely as the package, the content was not completely satisfying.

The language, the descriptions, the originality, and the creative imagination of the book are tremendously appealing, but the pacing, the chronological shifts, and the thin characters are a drawback.

I really enjoyed the book, but I did want it to be more, to be fuller in some way.  Morgenstern is a conjurer herself, creating a beautiful and enticing atmosphere that the reader gladly enters with all of the curiosity and amazement of the reveurs who follow the circus from place to place.  If only I could have connected more with the characters....

This is, however, Morgenstern's first novel, and she has created a work of remarkable art and beauty.  I definitely look forward to more from this author.



Fiction.  Fantasy/Magical Realism.  2011.  387 pages.

The Girl in the Garden by Kamala Nair

The Girl in the Garden  begins with a long letter that Rakhee Singh leaves her fiance before leaving on a flight to India.  On top of the letter sits her engagement ring.

In the letter, Rakhee explains that she cannot marry him until she has  confronted the problems she has wrestled with for years and resolved some issues from her past.

She begins by telling about her childhood, the relationship of her parents in their small Minnesota town, her sense of being different from the blonde and blue-eyed children at school, her mother's unhappiness, and the sudden trip to India when she was ten.

The writing is effortless, and it was easy to fall headlong into this story of a child who visits the ancestral home in India one fateful summer.  Nair's descriptions of the family she meets in India--her grandmother, her aunt and uncle, and her cousins--and the differences between life in India and life in Minnesota are vivid enough to make you feel the scorching heat, the incipient friendships of the cousins, and the feeling of something unsaid and mysterious behind the family relationships.

When Rakhee ventures alone into the jungle and discovers a house with a walled garden, events begin to slowly unravel the intricate secrets the family has been keeping.  Rakhee's courage and persistence bring to light truths that are painful to confront and with which the adult Rakhee is still  struggling and must resolve before she can marry the young man she left behind.

I loved Nair's writing and watching the story unfold from Rakhee's childhood viewpoint.  Of the family secrets that are eventually revealed, there was one that I wished the author had avoided, but it diminished my pleasure in the novel only slightly.

Fiction.  Contemporary Lit./India.  2011.  305 pages.

Cambridge Blue by Alison Bruce

Cambridge Blue, first published in the UK in 2008, was a debut novel for Alison Bruce.  She has written two more in this series featuring Gary Goodhew, the young DC whose eagerness to solve crimes sometimes leads him to unauthorized behavior.

DC Goodhew is well-liked by most of the department, but remains something of a loner.  His unorthodox actions have him in hot water with his superior DI Marks, and I can't disagree with Marks' irritation.  In fact, although Goodhew shows promise as a developing character,  DI Marks has a distinctive personality that I hope is developed in the next two novels.  He certainly deserves more time.

Not a novel in which you can easily determine the murderer, as Bruce keeps the information she releases under tight control to keep you guessing.  A cast of unpleasant characters and a truly dysfunctional family provide many possibilities for a guilty party.

In addition to her fictional series featuring DC Goodhew, Bruce has written two nonfiction books:  Cambridgeshire Murders and Billington: Victorian Executioner.

Fiction.  Mystery/Police Procedural.  2009.  256 pages.

Bone Reapers by Jeanne Matthews

I was doing a fair job keeping up with and scheduling my reviews for a while, then fell down on the job and have 4 or 5 reviews to write and schedule.  Hate it when that happens.

Bone Reapers initially caught my interest because the blurb mentions a seed repository to preserve seeds in case of a catastrophic event or gradual climate change that could potentially destroy our current agricultural systems and eliminate countless species of plants.  There are various gene banks around the world, but the one in Svalbard, Norway is the last-ditch hope, built to preserve the seeds in all foreseeable disasters.


The Svalbard Global Seed Vault does exist, and the author uses both the vault and the town of Longyearbyen--located not terribly far from the Arctic Circle--as part of  setting and plot.  Dinah Pelerin is a minor part of a U.S. delegation delivering seeds to the plant.   Her superior at the University of Hawaii is a bit suspicious about the safeguarding of the seeds (think genetically modified crops) and sends Dinah to discover more about the procedures, contracts, etc.

Matthews descriptions of the town, the formidable cold (in January, the average low in Longyearbyen is -20 and the average high is -13), and the effects of Polar Night are very well done.  Also interesting are the possibilities for corruption and mismanagement concerning gene banks and seed repositories that Matthews employs in her mystery.

While some of the corruption possibilities seem far-fetched at first glance, it is interesting that a large part of the funding for the Svalbard Vault comes from Monsanto.  Gives one pause.

I liked this book mostly because of the information about the seed vault and the location, but the mystery was just OK.




Poisoned Pen Press.  Net Galley.

Fiction.  Mystery.  June 2012.  250 pages (print version)