I have (almost) forgiven Elizabeth George for killing one of my favorite characters a few books ago. And when I read her latest Inspector Lynley novel, I am reminded why it is important to forgive and forget!
If you are looking for a hard-boiled mystery, Believing the Lie isn’t it. The “mystery” is completely secondary to George’s exploration of families and other dysfunctional human alliances. A page turner but not in a Lee Child kind of way.
See Jack visit Manhattan. See Jack enjoy fine cuisine; see Jack shop on Madison Avenue.
See pigs fly.
This is not Jack Reacher’s Manhattan. Most of the action in Lee Child’s Gone Tomorrow takes place in decidedly less upscale NYC locales– Penn Station, the 14th Precinct, the subway (trains and tracks), alleyways, and (exception noted) The Four Seasons Hotel. (But don’t get your hopes up regarding the latter; Reacher is not a guest there.)
You don’t need to know the plot specifics. Gone Tomorrow is comfortingly similar to the 19 (?) other Reacher thrillers, complicated, suspenseful, violent, and informative (ask me about subway car design.)
Don’t start this one too late in the evening; you’ll be up all night!
I was thrilled to discover the novel Still Life for two reasons. First it is an excellent crime novel. Secondly, it is the first in author Louise Penny’s Three Pines mystery series, which means that there are more novels featuring Chief Inspector Armand Gamache available for immediate consumption!
Still Life starts off conventionally enough. On the outskirts of the quaint Canadian village, Three Pines, an elderly lady is found dead in the woods. The Poirot-like Gamache and his team of homicide investigators are sent from Montreal to investigate the suspicious death.
At first glance, the case is a non-starter. The villagers are convinced that Ms. Neal’s demise is nothing more than a tragic hunting accident, but Gamache is not so sure. In fact, nothing in Three Pines is a sure thing.
Still Life is a quintessential “English cozy,” albeit set in Canada. But with her convincing characters and sly dialogue, Penny transcends the tea and crumpets crime novel.
When I find a new crime series, I tend to gobble them up all at once. So, of course, I have already started the second Chief Inspector Gamache mystery, A Fatal Grace. But after this one, I promise to pace myself!
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The Buddha in the Attic by Julie Otsuka was one of our most controversial book club reads. Half the group hated it.
And I understand why. We were under the impression that Buddha was a novel. After all, it is packaged like a novel, it is promoted as a novel, but does this sound like an excerpt from a traditional novel?
We gave birth under oak trees, in summer, in 113-degree heat. We gave birth beside wood stoves in one-room shacks on the coldest nights of the year. We gave birth on windy islands in the Delta, six months after we arrived, and the babies were tiny, and translucent, and after three days they died. We gave birth nine months after we arrived to perfect babies with full heads of black hair. We gave birth in dusty vineyard camps in Elk Grove and Florin. We gave birth on remote farms in the Imperial Valley with the help of only our husbands, who had learned from The Housewife’s Companionwhat to do.
If I had to pick a genre, I’d call Buddha a poem, a really long poem.
Once you get accustomed to the complete absence of anything resembling a conventional novel, such as individual characters or an action driven plot, Buddha is an emotional story of the young Japanese women who were brought to California as “picture brides” in the early 20th C. I recommend it, over the objections of some of my book club cronies!
(As an aside, the book club member who most enjoyed the book listened to it on audio, a format especially well suited to the book’s rhythmic style.)
Having a nasty cold has some drawbacks, but the opportunity to stay in bed all afternoon with deliciously silly mystery is not one of them!
I discovered the Royal Spyness Mystery series by Rhys Bowen last year, but didn’t fully appreciate their soothing qualities until my recently enforced bed rest.
The protagonist Lady Victoria Georgiana Charlotte Eugenie of Glen Garry and Rannoch (Georgie to her friends) is 34th in line to the British throne, but she is also broke and single, an awkward position for the sister of a Duke.
While searching for a husband and a way to make a living in depression era London, Georgie engages in a bit of sleuthing on the side, usually at the behest of Queen Mary.
In the course of her investigations, Georgie hunts at Balmoral, models for Coco Chanel, parties in Romania, runs a short lived house cleaning service, and captures nefarious criminals. At the same time, she pines for an unsuitable but attractive Irish Lord named Darcy (seriously!)
If you enjoy period mysteries with a touch of romance, I recommend the Royal Spyness series. Very escape fiction!
After much spirited discussion, the NCN Book Club finalized our 2012 reading list last month. Why don’t you read along with us?
The NCN Book Club 2012 Reading List
|
Title |
Author | Genre | Locale |
|
The Buddha in the Attic |
Julie Otsuka | Fiction | USA |
|
Peace Like a River |
Leif Enger | Fiction | Minnesota c. 1962 |
|
El Narco |
Ioan Grillo | Non-Fiction | Mexico |
|
Still Life |
Louise Penny | Mystery | Quebec |
|
Thinking Fast & Slow |
Daniel Kahneman | Business | |
|
City of Thieves |
David Benioff | Fiction | Leningrad during the siege |
|
Warmth of Other Suns |
Isabel Wilkerson | Non-Fiction | USA 1915-1970 |
|
The All of it |
Jeannette Haien | Fiction | Ireland |
|
The Tiger |
John Vaillant | Non-Fiction | Russia |
|
The Submission |
Amy Waldman | Fiction | Contemporary USA |
|
Country of my Skull |
Antjie Krog | Non-Fiction | S. Africa |
Robert Massie (Catherine the Great) and Erin Morgenstern (The Night Circus) are the Salon@615 visiting authors at the Nashville Public Library this month.
For more information about the Massie and Morgenstern events, click here.
Salon@615 is a partnership among Nashville Public Library, Humanities Tennessee, the Nashville Public Library Foundation, and Barnes and Noble Booksellers.
Authors visit the Main Library for a talk or reading followed by a book signing.
Past Salon@615 authors include: Hampton Sides, Jean Auel, Andrea Wulf, Erik Larson, Madison Smartt Bell, Meg Cabot, Will Kaufman, and Ann Patchett.
When in NYC last month, I visited my new favorite bookstore, Crawford Doyle. In addition to the usual bestsellers, CD offers a carefully curated selection of books not readily found at Costco or B&N. I scooped up the following four books immediately!
Foreign Bodies by Cynthia Ozick
Inspired by The Ambassadors, Foreign Bodies is the story of schoolteacher Bea Nightingale. At the behest of her bossy brother, Bea travels to Europe to retrieve brother’s errant son and is irrevocably changed by the experience.
Author Cynthia Ozick is hardly an unknown writer (she was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the Man Booker International Prize,) but I wasn’t familiar with her work. Having enjoyed this polished and poignant novel, I look forward to reading Ozick’s other novels.
Citizens of London: The Americans Who Stood With Britain in its Darkest, Finest Hour by Lynne Olson
Lynne Olson’s previous nonfiction book, Troublesome Young Men, is one of my favorites, so I eagerly added this to my purchases.
And The Show Went On: Cultural Life in Nazi-Occupied Paris by Alan Riding
How did the artists of Paris respond to the German occupation? For many it was business as usual. Theaters, music halls, opera houses, haute couture businesses, and movie theaters reopened soon after the French surrender.
The creative community’s relationship with the occupiers not only shaped the cultural life of the city, but influenced each artist’s creative output, lifestyle, and reputation for years.
Westwood by Stella Gibbons
Stella Gibbons is best known (and often solely known) for her hugely successful comic novel Cold Comfort Farm. (Also a wonderful 1995 BBC film) In fact, Gibbons wrote 20 more novels one of which is Westwood. 
Lots of books under the tree at #108! Here is what I’ll be reading over the next few months.
The Litigators by John Grisham
I’ve almost finished this one. Classic Grisham—underdog young lawyer triumphs over duplicitous colleagues and corporations.
In the Garden of Beasts by Erik Larson
A master of narrative nonfiction, Erik Larson (The Devil in the White City,) has written the story of American ambassador William Dodd and his family’s experiences in Berlin in 1933.
One Writer’s Garden: Eudora Welty’s Home Place by Susan Haltom and Jane Roy Brown
In addition to a distinguished literary career, Welty was a passionate gardener. This beautifully illustrated book is interspersed with passages from Welty’s personal letters and unpublished writings.
V is for Vengeance by Sue Grafton
Santa didn’t realize that I’d already read the latest Grafton! I think it is one of Grafton’s best Kinsey Millhone novels.
Catherine the Great by Robert K. Massie
Can’t wait to read the biography of Russia’s brilliant and ambitious empress by the author of Peter the Great and Nicholas and Alexandra.
Yeah! The Holiday Gift Guide-Books was published in The New York Times yesterday.
Sooooo many good reads, but here are a few I am considering as gifts or (more likely) for my own library!
FICTION
You Know When The Men Are Gone, a short story collection by Siobhan Fallon about military spouses.
The Tiger’s Wife, Tea Obreht’s debut novel about a politically unstable Balkan country.
NONFICTION
In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror and an American Family In Hitler’s Berlin by Erik Larson (Devil in the White City,) a novelistic nonfiction account of the experiences of the U.S. Ambasador to Berlin William Dodd & his family in 1933.
HOME
Food Rules: An Eater’s Manual, Michael Pollan’s updated manifesto.
The Perfectly Imperfect Home: How To Decorate & Live Well by the founding editor of the late lamented Domino magazine, Deborah Needleman.
COFFEE TABLE
Chicks With Guns, a self explanatory book of photographs whose title alone makes it worth a look!
Temples of Cambodia: The Heart Of Angkor, lush photographs, perfect for the traveler, armchair or otherwise.
