Category: Fiction

H

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Shepard, Elizabeth. H. New York: Viking, 1995.

Reason read: May has a Mental Health Day.

In a nutshell: H is an epistolary novel about a 12 year old boy named Benjamin. In the first third of the book (50+ pages) it is through a series of letters written by his parents and sister, a therapist and camp employees that we learn Benjamin has mental issues (Autism? Depression? Bipolar? It’s never fully explained.). For the rest of the book Benjamin gets to speak for himself via letters to “Elliot” his female stuffed letter H. These letters, found hidden under his camp bed, reveal just how disturbed Benjamin’s thoughts can be. After camp his condition worsens and he is sent to a psychiatric hospital where, under doctor supervision, he is finally medicated. But is he cured? Is there such a thing as cured?

Throughout the reading of H there was the constant bubbling up of questions. If Benjamin is twelve years old and is not already medicated for his issues, why not? His therapist says he is considering medication; why now? Has Benjamin’s condition worsened? How long has he been considered autistic and/or depressed? Is Camp Onianta specialized enough to handle mentally troubled campers? What kind of camp writes a letter to inform parents that the bus arrived? And if Benjamin is considered a mild case; mild enough to attend a generic camp, why so many letters of warning from his parents and therapist before the start of the season? And speaking of the parents, camp is supposed to be a sociable event. Why tell the directors Benjamin is happiest when left alone? Isn’t that the antithesis of “camp” atmosphere? Why is mommy the only one who writes? Why do Benjamin’s parents contradict one another about his interests in letters to the camp directors? Do they not know him? Or do they want different things for him?

I find it really interesting that the camp directors give in to Benjamin’s whim by referring to his stuffed H by name. It’s “Elliot is an obstacle” rather than “the stuffed H is an obstacle.”

As an aside, I have lost track on what is a short novel and what is a long short story. H is only 160 pages long. Nancy Pearl could have included this in her “Good Things Come in Small Packages” chapter.

Author fact: H is Shepard’s first book.

Book trivia: What makes H unique to me is the multiple points of view. Letters from camp directors, parents, counselors, siblings, even the stuffed ‘H’ paint a fuller picture.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called “Epistolary Novels: Take a Letter” (p 80). For those of you keeping score I know you are saying I just read a book from this chapter. But. But! But, it was for a different reason. Sometimes it just works out that way.

 

May I Read Another Book?

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Confessional: I don’t have any runs planned for May. I don’t have any travel planned for May (except going home-home). All I want to do is read, plant my gardens & master the grill. While the garden and the grill ambitions cannot be quantified, here are the books!

Fiction:

  •  Nerve by Dick Francis ~ in honor of the Kentucky Derby being in May
  • A Gay and Melancholy Sound by Merle Miller ~ in honor of Miller’s birth month. BTW – This is a behemoth (nearly 600 pages) so I am not confident I’ll finish it in time.
  • H by Elizabeth Shepard ! in honor of mental health month. This is barely 160 pages & will probably finish on a lunch break or two.

Nonfiction:

  • Age of Gold by H.W. Brands ~ in honor of History month being in May (confessional – this looks boring)
  • Lusitania: an epic tragedy by Diana Preston ~ in honor of the month the Lusitania sank
  • Goodbye to all That by Robert Graves ~ in honor of Memorial Day

Series continuations:

  • “Q” is for Quarry by Sue Grafton ~ to continue, and for me, finish the series started in April in honor of Grafton’s birth month (AB). Should be able to finish this in a weekend (AB + print)
  • Henry James: the Conquest of London (1870 – 1881) by Leon Edel ~ to continue the series started in April in honor of James’s birth month.

Early Review for LibraryThing:

  • At the Broken Places: —- by Mary and Donald Collins

Spring Sprung Titles

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What to say about April? I ran my fastest 10k while ill (go figure). I met two new runners and may have convinced someone to at least try. I don’t know where this acceptance to run with others is coming from. To share a conversation I had with someone: I asked where she runs. She replied she doesn’t have my pace, “nowhere near it” were her exact words. I answered I don’t have that pace all the time either. Me & my pace visit from time to time but we don’t make it a thing. She laughed and I saw myself ten years ago talking to someone who face-times with friends while running. I worried about her relationship with pace. But, this blog is turning into a thing different from reading.

So, without further ado, here are the finished books:

Fiction:

  • Diplomatic Lover by Elsie Lee – read in one day
  • Oxford Murders by Guillermo Martinez – read in two days
  • Celibate Season by Carol Shields and Blanche Howard – read in four days (this book annoyed me and I kept having to put it down)

Nonfiction:

  • Lost Upland: stories of the Dordogne Region by W.S. Merwin – confessional: DNF (bored, bored, bored)
  • Coming into the Country by John McPhee
  • Henry James: the Untried Years by Leon Edel
  • Another Part of the Wood by Kenneth Clark – this was cheeky!

Series continuations:

  • “F” is for Fugitive by Sue Grafton (I’m calling this a continuation even though I read “A” a long time ago.)
  • Rise of Endymion by Dan Simmons (AB + print so I could finish on time – today!)
  • Blue Lightning by Ann Cleeves – another quick read (finished in four days)

Early Review for LibraryThing:

  • My Life with Bob by Pamela Paul

Rise of Endymion

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Simmons, Dan. The Rise of Endymion. Read by Victor Bevine. Grand Haven, MI: Brilliance Audio, 2008.

Reason read: this finishes the Hyperion Cantos started in January in honor of Science Fiction month. I am actually sad to see this story end. Who knew?

Where did we leave off? At the end of Endymion Raul Endymion had saved Aenea from the Shrike (among other robot/monsters). As the potential New Messiah she definitely needed saving. All of humanity is depending on her to grow up. Now, in The Rise of Endymion, Aenea has undergone a training with a Cybrid personality reconstructed from a Pre-Hegira human architect; none other than Frank Lloyd Wright. She and Raul live with him and his strange group called “The Others” in a commune. As Aenea’s knowledge and powers grow, so does her legion of followers. One of the coolest of Aenea’s powers is the ability to “remember” the future. Sometimes only fragments of memory come into focus; details are missing and conclusions are incomplete but what she does remember helps Endymion navigate through trial and tribulations to keep her safe. Sort of. She does die. Sort of.
Meanwhile, in Father de Soya’s world, the Pope has died (again) and it’s time to pick a new one. The monster woman called Nemes now has a family of scariness to support her quest to find and destroy Aenea…and then there’s the Shrike. It’s still lurking around as well.
One of the best techniques of sci-fi suspense is the age-old good guy as the underdog (think Star Wars) & Rise of Endymion does not disappoint. Of course the good guy’s grungy-grimy starship is out of date while the enemy’s is gleaming high tech. Of course it is. They have all the best stuff. The good guys are a bumbling, easily injured human and an amputee android while the enemy can die a thousand times over and still have superpower skills to hunt and destroy. Classic. Another sci-fi trick is time travel. This plays a huge role in the final twist of Rise of Endymion. I won’t give it away except to say Raul’s time debt conveniently allows Aenea to turn 21 while he’s away…

My only complaint concerning this last installment? Lots of cardinal and pope names to keep track of.
My favorite part? The return of Rachel Weintraub.

Author fact: What have I told you so far? I told you about some of the other books Simmons has written. For my last author fact(s) I will tell you Simmons used to be a high school teacher (cool) and that at the time of publication he was living in Colorado (way cool).

Book trivia: this is my first time listening to an MP3 audio.

Nancy said: it bears repeating that Nancy called Rise of Endymion equally strong as the first book, Hyperion.

BookLust Twist: from More Book Lust in the chapter called “Space Operas” (p 211).

“F” is for Fugitive

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Grafton, Sue. “F” is for Fugitive. New York: Henry Holt & Company, 1989.

Reason read: Grafton’s birth month is in April. Read in her honor.

Seventeen years ago Bailey Fowler pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter for strangling his girlfriend. Despite this confession he was able to walk away from the San Luis Obispo prison and disappear into thin air. Then, thanks to a robbery gone sideways, the cops have Fowler in their possession again. This time, private investigator Kinsey Millhone is on the case, hired by Fowler’s family because they’ve known all along he was innocent. In his father’s eyes he may have robbed a gas station at gun point; yes, he did that…but he’s not a killer!
The rush to solve this case and clear Fowler’s name is expedited by Senior Fowler’s illness. Bailey’s dad suffers from a cancer that is spreading quickly. Can Kinsey reunite father and son before it’s too late? Or did Bailey really kill his pregnant girlfriend? All the blatant clues point to his guilt.

PS ~ It is not necessary to read every book in the Alphabet series to know what’s going on. Even though I hadn’t read “E” I knew Kinsey suffered injuries after her garage apartment was bombed at Christmastime. She was still dealing with the repercussions from both in “F”.

Caution: “F” is for Fugitive is a little dated. Let’s put it this way; it’s during an era when you could still swing by the office, pick up your typewriter, and throw it into the trunk of your car.

Confessional: I connected with Kinsey the first time I met her for one reason and one reason only. Here’s what I remember from “A” is for Alibi: Kinsey keeps running gear in the trunk of her car because she never knows when she will come across a good place to get in a few miles. It was nice to know that despite her injuries she is still running in “F.” But, having said all that I didn’t really like Kinsey aside from her running. I disliked her aversion to fat people, ill people, poor people, sad people, ugly people. That went for places, too. Anyone or anywhere less than rich and beautiful was a distaste to Kinsey.

Quotes I could relate to: “I was never taught to be girlish, so here I am, at thirty-two, stuck with a face unadorned by cosmetic subterfuge” (p 12). As a runner this spoke to me: “Something in the sweat seems to bring cheer in its wake” (p 15). A good run will clear the clouds every single time.

Author fact: according the back cover of “F” is for Fugitive Grafton had a Volkswagen bug with the license plate “Kinsey M” at one time. That’s the same car Kinsey drives. Pretty cool.

Book trivia: I think it goes without saying “F” is for Fugitive is part of Grafton’s “Alphabet” series. I believe she’s up to X now. I’ve read “A” is for Alibi and after “F” I’ll read “Q” is for Quarry. Sadly, I’m not reading any other letter in the series.

Nancy said: Nancy called “F” is for Fugitive an “equally good puzzle” (p 123).

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the very long yet obvious chapter called “I Love a Mystery” (p 123).

The Oxford Murders

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Martinez, Guillermo. The Oxford Murders. Translated by Sonia Soto. Read by Jonathan Davis. Blackstone Audio, 2007.

Reason read: April is Mathematics, Science & Technology month. This would fall into the math category.

The mathematics behind a serial killer. This is one of those murder mysteries where the clues don’t add up to the crime. When an elderly woman is found dead everyone presumes a family member committed the crime for the money. The woman was going to die of cancer anyway. Someone just couldn’t wait for the inheritance. But, enter world renowned logician Arthur Seldom, author on the mathematics of serial killers, who describes a note left for him indicating this murder is only the first one. There will be more. The curious thing is each subsequent murder victim was already dying of an ailment and every death is accompanied by a strange series of mathematical symbols. It’s up to an Argentine math student (loosely based on the author) to crack the case.

My favorite part of the book – Seldom explaining how to hide a crime.

Author fact: Martinez has written a bunch of other stuff but only The Oxford Murders is on my Challenge list.

Narrator trivia: Jonathan Davis uses great accents to differentiate the characters. He is so much fun I have decided to actively seek out other audio books he has narrated.

Book trivia: The Oxford Murders was made into a movie in 2008.

Nancy said: Nancy called this book a “cerebral puzzle that always makes me wish I were smarter than I am” (p 171).

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust To Go in the chapter called “Oxford: Mysteries” (p 171).

A Celibate Season

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Shields, Carol and Blanche Howard. A Celibate Season. New York: Penguin Books, 1999.

Reason read: April is National Letter Writing month…or so they say.

In a nutshell, a couple is separated by a wife’s internship. The husband stays behind to care for the home life. Together, they decide to handle their separation with minimal phone calls and visits, choosing to communicate primarily through handwritten letters. In truth, I had a love-hate relationship with A Celibate Season. On the one hand, I am a big fan of the epistolary technique. I like the subtle voyeurism of reading someone’s mail, especially strangers. I also found it interesting that what remained impossible for the characters to disclose to one another went into an unsent letter, thus keeping with a true epistolary technique. What I didn’t appreciate was the obvious breakdown of the marriage very early in the exchange of letters. I hated to see it coming that soon. Was it obvious to anyone else when Chas starts moving furniture around as soon as Jock is gone? Or when both of them start criticizing the people (strangers to each other) in each other’s lives? Does Jock bait Chas by mentioning her boss’s inappropriate comments? Or does Chas poke at Jock by admitting the cleaning lady disliked Jock’s kitchen curtains enough to remove them? Before page 50 I predicted Jock would have an affair with Austin and Chas would sleep with Sue. Ugh.
Probably the most realistic argument Chas & Jock have is about money. Chas is an unemployed architect, taking care of their two children while Jock is the money maker. Chas can’t pay the furnace repair bill while Jock frets about needing a new dress for a House of Commons reception.
One last gripe – I don’t think quoting long conversations verbatim is realistic in a letter.

Note to self: stop reading the “Questions for Discussion” section of books before finishing the book itself. I was disappointed by the question about Chas and Jock’s marriage, “Has the “celibate season” made it weaker or stronger?” That to me implies a non-ending ending; one of those ambiguous yet ubiquitous, it’s-up-to-the-reader endings. Ugh. Ugh. Ugh.

Book trivia: A Celibate Season was a play before it was published as a novel.

Author(s) fact:
Carol Shields – Shields died in 2003.
Blanche Howard – Howard went on to write a memoir of her friendship with Shields in 2007.

Nancy said: not a lot. She just said A Celibate Season is a good epistolary to read, if you like the technique.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the intriguing chapter called “Epistolary Novels: Take a Letter” (p 80).

Blue Lightning

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Cleeves, Ann. Blue Lightning. New York: Minotaur Books, 2010.

Reason read: to finish the series started in January in honor of the Shetland Up Helly Aa festival.

In Blue Lightning Jimmy Perez, now engaged to Fran, the woman he met in Cleeves’s first book Raven Black, takes her home to meet his parents. He’s not looking forward to the trip because he doesn’t get along with his father and home is a smidgen of an island called Fair Isle. When Jimmy was younger he couldn’t wait to move away and escape the trappings of parental expectations. True to form, murder follows Jimmy & Fran (she found the murder victims in Raven Black). Thanks to terrible storms prohibiting people from coming to or leaving the island they are forced, along with Jimmy’s partner, Sandy, to solve the crime without help from the mainland. Things go from bad to worse when there is a second murder and shockingly, a third. This time the murders center around birds as the killer has woven bird feathers though the first victim’s hair & strewn feathers over the second victim’s body.

For the most part I enjoyed this fourth book in the Jimmy Perez series. It isn’t necessary to read the other three to understand or enjoy Blue Lightning. My only complaint? After the second death I knew when the third victim would die.

Book trivia: In the acknowledgments Cleeves makes reference to a crime scene saying, “probably the most awkward crime scene I’ve yet devised.” It made me curious to know if I would recognize the scene (spoiler alert: because in every Cleeves mystery so far multiple people have died, hence multiple crime scenes). What would make one particular crime scene awkward. Then, I got to it, recognized it & decided, yes it’s awkward.

Author fact:  I don’t have anything new to share about Ms. Cleeves except to say the series continues after Blue Lightning.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust To Go in the chapter called “Sheltering in the Shetlands” (p 205).

Diplomatic Lover

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Lee, Elsie. The Diplomatic Lover. New York: Zebra Books, 1971.

Reason read: Elsie Lee’s birth month is in April.

Confessional: this genre is not my cup of tea. I would say it’s even less so than science fiction or fantasy. I definitely was not looking forward to reading this genre. In fact, I squirmed so much I read it over the weekend. 4/1/17 – 4/2/17

Nonny is an oddball character. Early in Diplomatic Lover she convinces her roommate’s foster brother to take her to bed. She’s a virgin and she simply must have “lessons” from York, the outrageously handsome actor. The deflowering scene is nothing short of cringe-worthy if you are not into bodice rippers. But, Nonny (“Bambi” to the boys) got what she wanted from York: she needed to go from Nonny-no to Nonny-yes. What’s more, she then needs a fourteen day sailing adventure with York to “get him out of her system.” Do you think she succeeds? Insert eye roll here. After the loss of virginity and the sailing adventure are both out of the way, Nonny returns to a scandal at the office. Someone is leaking inside trader information and smuggling political information. As a translator for the British Embassy in Washington D.C. Nonny is brilliant and the perfect person to solve the mystery. She speaks a multitude of languages, including finances. She often gives her roommates advice on investments. In addition, her father is a New York City lawyer and her grandfather is a banker in Zurich. She only has one problem: blackmail. Someone knows of her torrid affair at sea and wants to expose her (literally).

Cringe worthy quote, “He was taking it at her pace, sticking to the rules of seduction, not rape” (p 80). Whaaa?

Book trivia: my copy of The Diplomatic Lover had to be rebound. The library adhered just the paperback’s old front cover to the new hard copy. And what a front cover it is! It features two very prominent stargazer lilies in the forefront and a couple locked in an odd embrace. She looks like she is about to swoon and he is ready to bite her ear off.

Author fact: Elsie Lee was a member of Mensa.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the obvious chapter called “Romance Novels: Our Love is Here To Stay” (p 205).

April Snow Job

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As we move into April I am not confident we won’t get another 26″ snow storm. If we ever joked in the past about not being able to predict the weather, now it is impossible. It’s no laughing matter. My rose bushes, right now struggling under the weight of frozen water, could tell you that. But never mind the weather. Let’s talk about the month of April. April is another 10k for cancer. I’m hoping to break the hour time since I was five seconds away in March. April is also Easter. April is my sister’s birth month. April is also books, books and more books…of course:

Fiction:

  • ‘F’ is For Fugitive by Sue Grafton ~ in honor of Grafton’s birth month. Technically, I should have read all the “alphabet” books by Grafton one right after the other, but I didn’t have that system when I read “A” is for Alibi. I think it goes without saying I do now.
  • The Diplomatic Lover by Elsie Lee ~ in honor of Lee’s birth month. I am not looking forward to this one even though it looks like a quick read.
  • A Celibate Season by Carol Shields ~ in honor of April being Letter Writing Month. This is so short I should be able to read it in one sitting.

Nonfiction:

  • Henry James: the Untried Years (1843 – 1870) by Leon Edel ~ in honor of James’s birth month. This first volume chronicles James’s childhood and youth.
  • Coming into the Country by John McPhee ~ in honor of the Alaska trip I’m taking in August.

Series continuations:

  • The Rise of Endymion by Dan Simmons ~ this is to finish the series started in January, in honor of Science Fiction month. I liked Endymion the best so I have high hopes for The Rise of Endymion. I am listening to this on audio and reading the print because I know I will never finish the 575+ pages by April 30th.
  • Blue Lightning by Ann Cleeves ~ this is to finish the series started in January, in honor of Shetland’s fire festival, Up Helly Aa. This is another one I should be able to finish in a day or two.

Early Review for LibraryThing:

  • My Life with Bob by Pamela Paul

Extra (for fun):

  • Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara- ~ my sister sent this in my belated birthday package. Whatever she recommends I usually end up liking whether it be music or books. For those of you who really know me – I know what you’re thinking. Yes, my birthday was in February. I got the birthday package over a month later. It’s what we do.

If there is time (since three books are really, really short):

  • Another Part of the Wood by Kenneth Clark ~ in honor of National Library Week
  • The Oxford Murders by Guillermo Martinez ~ in honor of April’s Mathematics, Science and Technology Week
  • Lost Upland by WS Merwin ~ in honor of well, you know the song…April in Paris. Cheesy, I know.

March of the Books

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Here’s the singular thing I love, love, love about March: the St. Patrick’s Day Road Race in Holyoke, MA. I adore running this race. Runner’s World magazine has mentioned it more than once, calling it the mini Boston Marathon for it’s toughness. I PR’ed this year! But what I am more excited about is that this time I was only five seconds away from breaking an hour. Unlike last year (1:07:and something seconds) I was 1 hour and a measly four seconds. But, enough about running! Here are the books finished for March, 2017:

  • Breakfast at Tiffany’s by Truman Capote (AB +EB)*
  • Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel (AB + print)
  • Falling Angels by Barbara Gowdy*
  • Treachery in the Yard by Adimchinma Ibe*

Nonfiction:

  • Breaks of the Game by David Halberstam (DNF)
  • Big Empty edited by Ladette Randolph and Nina Shevchuk-Murray (EB)
  • No Ordinary Time by Doris Kearns Goodwin (AB)

Series continuations:

  • Red Bones by Ann Cleeves
  • Hall of a Thousand Columns by Tim Mackintosh-Smith (DNF)
  • Endymion by Dan Simmons

Early Review “won”:

  • Ma Speaks Up by Marianne Leone (received and finished)
  • My Life with Bob by Pamela Paul (This has arrived & I have started it)

*Short enough to read in one day.

Endymion

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Simmons, Dan. Endymion. New York: Bantam Books, 1996.

Reason: I am a glutton for punishment. No, not really (even though I have admitted sci-fi is not my forte). The reason I am reading this is I am continuing the series started in January in honor of Science Fiction month. This is the third in the cantos and so far, my favorite.

Endymion takes place 274 years after The Fall of Hyperion and yet Martin Silenus is still alive, thanks to life extension treatments called Poulsens. In truth, I was kind of glad to see the old bastard. As soon as the nameless character started using profanity I knew the old poet was back! But, let me start from the beginning. Raul Endymion is the first character we meet in Endymion. He is a hunting guide framed for, and convicted of, the murder of a wealthy client. After a ridiculous trial he is ultimately sentenced (read: framed) to die. Only he does not die. He has been “saved” from execution in order to do Martin Silenus a favor. Well, more than a few favors:

  1. Save this one child, Aenea, from the Swiss Guard and the Pax
  2. Keep Aenea safe until she becomes old enough to be The One Who Teaches
  3. Find Earth and bring it back (back from where, I don’t know)
  4. Stop the TechnoCore from its activities
  5. Convince the Ousters to give Martin real immortality and not this life support crap
  6. Destroy the Pax and put an end to the Church’s power
  7. Stop the Shrike…ah, the Shrike is back!

At the same time Raul is attempting to complete his honeydew list, the resurrection of Father Captain de Soya is also playing out. His story isn’t half as interesting as Raul’s, but he’s also after the future One Who Teaches so their stories run parallel to one another and intersect from time to time. A real cat and mouse thriller, only it’s hard to determine who is the real mouse and who is the cat. And, if I thought all the dying and resurrection in Fall of Hyperion was crazy, that’s nothing compared to how many times Father Captain de Soya is “reborn.” Don’t worry. You get used to it.

Endymion reads much differently than the two previous books in the Cantos. There aren’t any crazy sex scenes (sorry, spoiler alert), and even though the Shrike makes an appearance, it isn’t half as scary as the wraiths or Nemes. I was half expecting a shrike/wraith battle but it didn’t happen, much like the sex.

As an aside, the description of A. Bettik makes him sound like  a member of the Blue Man Group. And. And! And, I know the Shrike is supposed to be the scariest thing in the universe but I was pretty unnerved by the description of the wraiths on the Sol Draconi System.

Line I liked, “I suppose one is surprised only when one awakens dead” (p 20). I would have to agree.

Best passage to sum up Endymion: “For years my life had been as calm and predictable as most people’s. This week I had accidentally killed a man, been condemned and executed and had awaken in Grandam’s favorite myth. Why stop there?” (p 45).

Author fact: to date I have told you Dan Simmons wrote five books which are on my Challenge list and he won the Locus Award for Fall of Hyperion. This time I learned he also wrote a book titled The Hollow Man. I won’t be reading it, though. It’s not on my list.

Book trivia: Endymion is the longest Simmons book to date. 578 pages to be exact.

BookLust Twist: again, from More Book Lust in the chapter called “Space Operas” (p 211).

Red Bones

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Cleeves, Ann. Red Bones. New York: Minotaur Press, 2009.

Reason read: I started the Cleeves series in January in honor of the Up Helly Aa festival. This is the third book in the series.

Detective Jimmy Perez has a new case. At first it is a simple open and shut accidental shooting involving his partner’s grandmother and a rabbit hunt gone wrong. Sandy’s grandmother has been found dead of a gunshot wound and Sandy’s own cousin, Ronald Clouston, confessed to hunting rabbits by moonlight. It was just a horrible mistake. Or was it? Weird coincidences start piling up. Just days before Mina’s death old pieces of a skeleton were found on her property. She had approved an archaeology dig just steps from her front door and a student, hoping to prove existence of an ancient estate on the property, discovered the bones. This same student later discovers ancient coins, proving her theory. She is elated. So, when she is found dead of an apparent suicide, supposedly despondent over Mina’s death, everyone is shocked. What is going on? It’s up to Jimmy to figure it out. While his love interest (Fran from the other Cleeves mysteries) is away in London, he has plenty of time.
A bonus to Red Bones is that Jimmy’s partner, Sandy, plays a bigger role in this mystery. Because it involves his family we get to see more of his character.

As an aside, I can see why Raven Black was everyone’s favorite. I found Red Bones a bit whiny for lack of a better term. Everyone seems really emotional, especially Sandy and not just because his grandmother died. And. And! And, why is it that Jimmy Perez is the only murder investigator in all of the Shetland Islands? He never seems to work with anyone else on a case.

Author fact: My first fact was about how Cleeves is the reader-in residence at a crime writing festival. My second fact was about the awards she either has been short listed for or has won. My third fact, taken from the dust jacket, is that she lives in Yorkshire, England (as of 2009).

Book trivia: this time there is a map of the Shetland Islands in the book (no need to go to Cleeves’ website this time).

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust To Go again, in the chapter called “Sheltering in the Shetlands” (p 204).

Falling Angels

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Gowdy, Barbara. Falling Angels. New York: Soho Press, 1990.

Reason read: On March 29th in 1848 Niagara Falls stopped flowing.

First and foremost I have to say this is a tragic book. I was not expecting it to be so violent, so scary or so very, very sad. The terrible thing is this: I realize there are probably hundreds of thousands of households just like the Fields out there. That thought alone makes the book all the scarier.
Second comment: Nancy included this in the chapter called “Niagara Falls” and yet Niagara Falls isn’t really in the book. It’s a memory and an end.
From the outside, the Fields family looks like your typical suburban household. Dad goes to work everyday. Mom stays home and looks after their three daughters, Sandy age eight, Lou age nine and Norma, ten. The children go to school and occasionally are seen around the neighborhood. No one questions when the family disappears for two weeks. What they don’t know is instead of going to Disney for a family vacation militant and World War III-expectant dad forces them to live in an underground bunker as training for a nuclear disaster. It is the post-war early 60s after all. No one seems to notice middle daughter, Lou, as she does all the grocery shopping for the family, or that the mother is rarely seen outside.
Go inside and the Fields household is even less of a pretty sight. Mom, practically comatose, drinks to erase a terrible memory (involving Niagara Falls). Dad has a violent temper and is prone to attack whomever is in reach when he’s in between girlfriends.
In the ten year span of the story the daughters get older and experience puberty and do so without a responsible parent to guide them. They are on their own. Each daughter copes in her own way. The end results are disastrous.

Scary line, “He was as unpredictable as a police dog”. For one, police dogs are not supposed to be unpredictable to anyone except a criminal.
Two more sad lines, “But his eyes are her eyes gone to hell” (p 105) and “Extreme happiness and terror have always felt the same to her” (p 150).

Author fact: Gowdy has her own website here.

Book trivia: Falling Angels was made into a movie in 2003 and why not? the book has sex, drugs, and death. All that’s missing is a good car chase.

Nancy said: absolutely nothing. But, as an aside: she could have included this in Book Lust in the chapter “Families in Trouble” (p 86).

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust To Go in the short chapter “Niagara Falls” (p 156).

Breakfast at Tiffany’s

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Capote, Truman. Breakfast at Tiffany’s. Read by Michael C. Hall. Grand Haven MI: Brilliance Audion, 1986.

Reason read: Because I read Like Water for Chocolate in honor of March being the best time to visit Mexico instead of in honor of the Oscars I decided to chose Breakfast for the Oscars even though this year the awards were dished out in February.

Everyone loves Holiday Golightly. Holly, as she is known to her friends, seems to appeal to all kinds of men and a certain kind of woman. This sassy and shallow teenager makes her way through a Manhattan existence surviving as a society girl, an “American Geisha” as Capote called his creation. She is eye candy to dangle on the arm of a wealthy gentleman so that he might buy her dinners in fancy restaurants, expensive gifts, and maybe, breakfast or two at Tiffany’s. Holly Golightly wants to be taken seriously but she is seen as more of an unusual mystery than anything else.
Told from the point of view of her neighbor, a writer who befriends her and becomes enthralled with her (like everyone else), he wants to believe his relationship with her is different. He believes she isn’t using him because he has nothing to offer…until she has nothing to offer him.

As an aside, I am betting many more people have seen the movie than read the book.

Favorite line, “Certain shades of limelight wreck a girl’s complexion” (p 134).

Author fact: Truman Capote also wrote the short story A Christmas Memory which I make my staff watch every year because I love it so much.

Book trivia: this is actually a novella. Short. Short . Short. You can read it in one sitting.

Narrator trivia: Michael C. Hall is the same actor who played serial killer Dexter.

Nancy said: The curious thing about what Nancy said about BAT is this – she includes Breakfast at Tiffany’s in the “American Girls” chapter and then discredits the choice by saying, …all novels about female Americans abroad owe a debt to Henry James…Many of them owe at least a little something to Truman Capote’s greatest invention, Holly Golightly, heroine and heartbreaker of Breakfast at Tiffany’s, but that’s not my subject here” (p 18). Does Holly belong in this chapter or not?

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust To Go in the chapter called “American Girls” (p 18). See previous paragraph for my comment on this.