Face the Winter Naked: A Novel of the Great Depression by Bonnie Turner

(Posted for Ann Roberts)

This book was set in Missouri, and once again, great title.  I was all set to be hypercritical of this book until I read Rivers Last Longer.  This is actually a rather sweet story of a Missouri family during the Great Depression. Daniel Tomelin, a veteran of World War I, leaves his wife and children in Independence to ostensibly look for work at a time when there is little work to be found.  Through the telling of the story, we learn that Daniel is looking for more than work.  He is trying to escape from the horrors of war that still haunt him, the pain that poverty is causing his family, and the uncertainty of the future.  While some of the plot seems contrived and not entirely necessary, the characters are for the most part, fully realized and believable… and that title?  Fantastic!

Paperback, 283 pages

Rivers Last Longer by Richard Burgin

(Posted for Ann Roberts)

I determined that I should read more Missouri writers and chose this one because I read a few good reviews and the title intrigued me. You gotta admit, that’s a good title, and I have been known to judge a book by its title.  Rivers Last Longer is about the lifelong friendship of Barry and Elliot. Elliot is a fiction writer, teaching English at a college in Philadelphia, when he meets a charming young lady on a visit to see his old friend Barry in New York. Barry invites Elliot to stay rent-free in the apartment his recently deceased mother used to occupy in Beekman Place on Manhattan's east side, as well as launch the literary magazine he and Elliot have talked about for a long time.

Unbeknownst to Elliot, Barry has some latent sociopathic tendencies that his mother’s recent passing seem to have exacerbated and becomes himself, obsessed with Elliot’s new girl. While reading this book, I found myself asking, “How can someone just put their deranged fantasies on paper and call it writing?”  I guess they can, and I guess they do, and they get it published. So, as far as my reading Missouri authors experiment goes, I can only say, “Next, please!”

 

Hardback, 215 pages

Bootlegger's Daughter by Margaret Maron

(Posted for Ann Roberts)

          This book was recommended to me by a WRITER so I had great expectations for it and was, of course, disappointed.  I like whodunits.  I don’t know why.  But, I like well-written whodunits and this one fell short of the mark for me.  It is possible to write really nice, even what we might call beautiful prose in the course of divulging a mystery.  James Lee Burke can do it.  He writes beautifully descriptive passages about the landscape or a character, and it makes reading all his works compelling. Set in South Carolina, this book offers up the same kind of opportunity for descriptive writing as the setting in Burke’s novels, and Maron did eventually write some nice descriptive passages about the setting-but it was too little too late for me.  It almost felt like the last chapter started out as a stand alone essay, and evolved into a thrown together novel, employing cheap tricks and red herrings aplenty. 

          In the first of a series of mysteries involving the character Deborah Knott, a defense attorney, finds herself running for district court judge in the midst of trying to solve a cold case, the murder of the mother of a little girl for whom she once baby sat in her teens. Throwing her political career and life in jeopardy, Deborah uncovers the dark past of the murdered mom and stumbles upon troubling truths about many of the upstanding members of her community, including evidence of many unhappy domestic relationships. I will admit, the ending is a surprise, but it’s one of those “Seriously, this is the best you could come up with?”  surprise endings, that I can live without.  A few almost fully realized characters round out the tale, including Deborah’s “daddy”, the quite elderly and supportive former bootlegger of Colleton County. The figure of daddy offers the most complete, believable character this book has too offer.

          All that negativity aside, I might read more, just to see if the series improves and I have an idea that it might.

Paperback, 261 (typo ridden) pages

The Help, Kathryn Stockett

Intriguing integration era novel set from the viewpoint of three characters, two maids and Miss Skeeter, the "writer" of their "stories". Once you pick it up, its hard to put it down.

530 pages

Knit Fast, Die Young by Mary Kruger

Felicia Barr, the owner of Knit It Up magazine, has few friends and tons of enemies. Still, it is surprising when she winds up dead, having been stabbed in the back with a knitting needle. Since Felicia dies in the arms of our heroine, Ariadne Evans, what can Ari do but try to figure out who did the dastardly deed? A Knitting Mystery. 293 pages.

Mrs. Jeffries Rocks the Boat by Emily Brightwell

Inspector Witherspoon is confronted with a very mysterious death involving a locked garden, an unidentified murder victim and a lack of suspects. Once again, head housekeeper Mrs. Jeffries and her band of co-workers are determined to assist their kindly employer in solving the case. A Mrs. Jeffries Victorian Mystery. (No need to read them in order although there is somewhat of a storyline that threads its way between the books.) 188 pages.

A Carol for a Corpse by Claudia Bishop

Once again it looks like Quill and Meg might have to give up their beloved Inn at Hemlock Falls unless something drastic happens. Enter L'Apertiff gourmet magazine with an offer to lease the Inn, start a new line of food products created by the Inn and feature the Inn on four shows a season on the TV series, Good Taste. Too good to be true? You bet! Especially when the owner of the company that publishes L'Apertiff turns up dead on the Inn's ski slopes. Could it be murder? Well, of course! This is a Hemlock Falls Mystery, afterall. About halfway through the book I realized I had read it before, but finished it anyway since I couldn't quite remember "who dunnit?" 207 pages.

A clash of kings, by George R.R. Martin

This is book 2 of the Song of Ice and Fire series.
I enjoyed this installment almost as much as the first.
Book 2 continues the saga of the 7 kingdoms of Westeros.
There's a lot of military and political positioning, but there's also some magic. Melisandre of Asshai shows a talent for birthing demons that assassinate kings. Lords Stanis, Rob, Renly, Theon, and King Joffrey each position their armies to take the crown. Tyrion bravely leads a group of men into battle.
The lives of Sansa and Arya teeter on the edge of a knife, and I found no relief to my worries for their safety.
The Mother of Dragons makes her way through the East, trying to raise an army and her dragons.
There's plenty of knightly valor and medieval superstition in this series so far, but it avoids tedium by throwing in some unconventional characters, like a female knight, an "onion" knight, and a swashbuckling seawoman. I'm looking forward to book 3.
audio: 37.25 hours
print: 768 pages

Harry Potter 1-7, J K Rowling

I did it! Everyone start singing "We are the champions!". Just Kidding! Well, maybe... Any how I managed my goal of Sorcerer's Stone to the Deathly Hallows. It was wonderful, as it always is.

4,167 pages total

The Saturday Big Tent Wedding Party by Alexander McCall Smith

In this twelfth installment of the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, Precious Ramotswe must figure out who is hurting a client's cattle while Grace Makutsi is preoccupied with her upcoming wedding. Like usual, the solution is found through quiet perseverance, conversation and observation. I think what I like best about this series is the kindness, gentleness and integrity found in the main characters. The series is as much about human nature and relationships as it is about solving the case. 224 pages.

Here on Earth, a natural history of the planet by Tim Flannery

A fascinating view of how the earth evolved, and how all creatures but especially we humans are rapidly changing the balance of nature. Flannery begins with a review of the theory of evolution, but moves on to a fresh look at Earth as one great ecosystem. He describes how man has upset the balance of nature from the time we began to expand beyond the African plains, by hunting the largest mammals to extinction. Trouble is, those creatures were essential to the balance of some ecosystems, and without them areas like Siberia became frozen wastes. Now of course humans have overrun the planet and have radically changed much of the planet. He concludes with an assessment of the steps humanity needs to take to avoid catastrophe from latent chemical pollution and rapid climate changes, and his hope we will gather the political will to act in time. This is a very readable overview of a very broad topic, recommended. 281 p.

"The Science of Evil: On Empathy and the Origins of Cruelty" by Simon Baron-Cohen

After reading a good review of this book in one of our routed journals, I decided to check it out for myself because I am interested in why some people seem to have a great deal of empathy and others do not.  Baron-Cohen and his colleagues investigated a lack of empathy in relation to cruelty by studying the brain, trying to find those pathways, and how they differ in people with different degrees of empathy.  He also looked at environmental and genetic factors that influence the empathy mechanism.

What he found is that all three influence how empathetic we are.  He also discovered that people who lack empathy are not automatically negative to our society.  People who suffer from Asperberger Syndrome and other forms of autism do not have much empathy but, because of the way their brains process information, they can have special talents.  However, there are immoral people whose lack of empathy leads them to commit cruel and even evil acts.  Baron-Cohen explains three different personality disorders in which this is the case:  borderline, psychopathic, and narcissistic.

I would recommend this book to anyone interested in empathy and how the lack of it can lead to destructive behavior.  My favorite parts were about the three personality disorders and how the lack of empathy can be seen in each one.  206 pages including notes.

(The author is an expert on autism and the cousin of comedian Sacha Baron-Cohen.)

Aftershock: The next economy and America's Future by Robert Reich

You've heard or read much of this theory before - how the recession was partly caused by the middle class running out of buying power, going too far into debt, and then having little resource when the tipping point of bad debts and too much leveraging hit. Reich puts his analysis into that context, and compares current conditions to past periods in America's history. He goes one step further to forecast more pending political upheaval as people become more outraged by their declining standard of living, but expresses hope we would be able to address the income disparities at the heart of the problem before that happens. This book was published in April, before the debt ceiling circus, but after the Republican takeover over of the House. Reich also proposes some interesting solutions to evening out the wealth disparity in the country, to get it back to where the economy can grow. A quick read, but definitely with a Democratic, populist viewpoint. 192 p.

Died in the Wool by Mary Kruger

I found this title at a book sale at the Christian County Library in Ozark. Turns out it was a good selection. It is the first in Kruger's Knitting Mystery series. The characters are quickly introduced and the mayhem rapidly ensues. Ariadne Jorgensen finds it hard to believe when she walks into her knitting store one morning and discovers a body. When the authorities suspect her best friend, Diane, as the murderess, Ari is flabbergasted and vows to get to the heart of the matter. I found it a quick read that left me wanting more. (Hence, I will be putting the MRRL courier service to use!) 336 pages.

Bram Stoker's Dracula

Yes, I'm not straying far from the vampire fiction, it seems.  Here he is, Bram Stoker, the grandaddy of the genre.  I really didn't think I would have anything new to say, but a classic is always new when you read it with an open mind.  Some things surprised me, some things didn't.  For instance, I've seen the 1992 Coppola-directed adaptation of this novel, and I was very surprised at how closely the film followed the book-with one exception--the romantic interludes between our favorite blood-sucker and Wilhelmina Murray (Gary Oldman and Winona Ryder) were completely manufactured by the screenwriters.

One thing that didn't surprise me was the experience of reading the book was very much colored by all the many Dracula images western culture has dished up over the decades.  I had alternating visions of Christopher Lee and Gary Oldman dancing around in my head while I read this and, unfortunately, I could not get Keanu Reeves as Jonathan Harker out of my head either.

The most surprising thing, however, came as I read the chapters that detailed the whole vampire hunting gang as they put their many pieces of the puzzle together, with Mina typing up everyone's diaries and creating a narrative.  This is an epistolary, and as such it is made up of letters and journal entries (Dr. Seward uses the "phonograph" for journaling, Mina uses shorthand), so you get a new pov on every other page.  Mina, with her "brain like a man," is at one point cut out of the vampire hunting strategy sessions due to her female delicacy.

This turns out to be a very bad idea, for the Count likes the ladies, and finds his way into her boudoir while all the stodgies are puffing tobacco, swilling brandy, and theorizing in the man-chamber.  After her blood is nearly drained one evening, the men finally learn their lesson and bring Mina back into the fold.  This is good, because Mina's strong intellect is the only thing keeping this ragtag operation one step ahead of the Count.

Could it be that Bram was an early feminist?  I can't help thinking that he had no compunction about showing what boobs the men-folk were for their exclusion of Mina.  Though Van Helsing frequently shines as the man of the moment, he'd be nothing if he didn't recognize what he had in Mina and the two form a partnership of sorts.  Stoker really drove it home over and over again with Mina using maps and her many notes to divine what the Count would do next, using her psychic connection with the Count to track him over land and sea, and fighting the metamorphosis from human to vampire as the Count's blood took hold...it's very clear that Mina is far more worthy, intelligent, and at least as brave as her male companions.  You go, Bram!

448 pages

Broken English by P. L. Gaus

Millersburg, Ohio is rocked by two murders. One victim appears to be someone who was at the wrong place at the wrong time; the second might be a coverup for an act of revenge yet to come. Professor Michael Brandon, Sheriff Bruce Robertson and Pastor Cal Troyer return in this second in the Amish Country Mystery series to bring justice and restore order to the community. I again found the writing to be fairly uneven, so I don't plan on reading the next installment. 224 pages.

Hide in Plain Sight by Marta Perry

It had been a long time since I last read a Harlequin romance, so when this showed up as a free download on the Barnes and Noble site, I decided to give it a whirl. This book is set in an Amish community where the emphasis is on friendship and loyalty. Andrea, on the other hand, has a corporate job in the big city where dreams of promotions and financial security rule her life. Family becomes paramount, however, when her sister Rachel has an accident, so Andrea races to her side. It soon becomes apparent that it is more than Rachel that is in trouble. All is not well at their family home, soon to be bed-and-breakfast, where other accidents keep happening. Could the Amish be behind it, simply because they do not want to have another bed-and-breakfast in their midst or is there more at play than meets the eye? And what of the mysterious tenant, Cal Burke? How does he fit into the mix? An easy, undemanding read. 256 pages.

Dark Lover (a novel of the Black Dagger Brotherhood) by J.R. Ward

I'm not normally a romance reader, let alone paranormal romance, but I wanted something spicy, so I gave this well-reviewed 1st book in the Black Dagger Brotherhood series a shot.  First, I just wanna say, do not start your reading by going over the rather silly glossary placed in the front of the paperback edition.  You will find it confusing and unintentionally comical.  Terms like 'leelan' and 'shellan' and 'hellan' vaguely sound like Celtic-isms or the names people make up for their unfortunate progeny these days.  Still, the author is creating a secret culture complete with its own separate language and customs and you gotta give her props for inventing something that sounds halfway plausible even if it is amusing outside of context of the book.  It will be easy enough to pick up on definition of these terms as you read, so don't worry about the glossary.

Second, I foolishly did not anticipate so much blood, gore, and violence in a paranormal romance.  Maybe I was expecting a brooding ephemeral vampire dude, but what I got instead was a rather unsophisticated and brutish vampire, frequently described in terms of his immense size and black leather wardrobe.  'Wrath' (don't you love the name?) and his brothers are armed to the teeth, have problems expressing themselves, and pump hard core rap on their SUV sound systems.  Yes, these are BAD dudes.  So very, very bad.  Can't you smell the testosterone?  The smelly leather?  Can't you hear the tough locker-room banter?  If you read this book, you will.

Along with the dark and deadly subculture of the brotherhood, we learn of the 'lessers'; soulless former humans turned vampire hunters who have been unleashed by the mysterious 'Omega,' which I am assuming we learn more of later in the series.  Mr. X is the central lesser, or 'fore-lesser' in this novel and I applaud J.R. Ward for bravely depicting, or attempting to depict the inner workings of a soulless psychopath and giving us a first-hand view of what goes on in his mind as he plots his rise within the lesser ranks, his recruitment of a young aspiring sociopath, and his methodical yet cowardly approach to vampire hunting.  While generally distasteful, I found his sections of the book somewhat intriguing.

Finally, to the love story/sex scenes.  The two main characters are Wrath, king of vampires and Beth, the half-vampire daughter of a recently eliminated vampire aristocrat.  These two are supposed to fall in love, but their first scene together is all about lust.  Nary a word transpires between the two before they get to know each other in the most intimate manner.  Lust at first sight.  Tenderness eventually develops and the four or five sex scenes throughout the book, on a scale that ranges from 'missionary' to 'suspended from the ceiling,' I'd rate solidly as missionary.  The sex was extremely unimaginative and the author used a lot of "jolts of lust" and bodies "raging for release" to express the urgency and carnal desires gripping the two characters as they encounter each other.  There are two scenes of oral sex (presumably to demonstrate the give-and-take nature of their relationship), but all in all, pretty missionary in nature.

Ultimately, this book is a page-turner.  You're reading it to find out what happens next, although whether you develop any sympathy for these characters might depend on how well you want to credit a violent brotherhood with qualities worth caring about.  The 'lessers' certainly present you with a foil--a grasping group of power-hungry murderers and psychopaths who smell like baby powder and lack the strict code of honor as followed by the brotherhood.  If anything, they certainly appear to have less redeeming qualities than the vampire brothers.  In fact, we do see Wrath re-engage in the more constructive behaviors required of a true king as he realizes his love for Beth.  And we also see some of the brothers move away from sheer nihilistic behavior to something resembling brotherly love, and that's probably enough to keep turning those pages.

400 pages

The Manual of Detection by Jedediah Berry

What... the... he**?
I'm not going to pretend that I understand this one. I'm still scratching my head. This is a work of fiction regarding oneiric detection. If you're a language or word nerd, you might like this just for the expansive use of vocabulary. But then, you might just understand it better than I do. "Walter Mitty", "Twilight Zone" and "Matrix" all came to mind as I listened to this book.
This book is also obsessed with procedures, documentation, protocols and the like. Written (and narrated) much in the style of an old radio play, it had its attractions.
audio: 9.25 hours
print: 288 pages

About Face (A Commissario Guido Brunetti Mystery) by Donna Leon

Brunetti is called upon to help with an investigation into illegal trash dumping and trade in hazardous substances. What has him truly baffled is a request from his father-in-law to help with a business decision. Though they get on well enough, they don't really talk to each other much. The two problems turn out to be related, and Brunetti solves both, though he doesn't actually catch the criminal. Not that it matters much. The government agencies involved are corrupt and will simply swap out one crime family for another. All this against the backdrop of Venice in Winter.
audio: 9.5 hours
print: 272 pages

A Game of Thrones, by George R.R. Martin

I can't wait for book 2!
I've seen some reviews that compare this to the Lord of the Rings trilogy, and I see why they make that comparison: a medieval world with magic and mayhem. But Tolkien tends toward dichotomies of good/evil and white/black, whereas Martin's world is comprised of shades of grey. Events are observed from many different perspectives, and seldom are any of the characters truly good or bad. I do have clear favorites, though. Tyrion Lannister may be small in stature and nearly crippled, but his wit and intelligence more than compensate for any physical shortcomings. A self-proclaimed friend to "misfits and bastards", he was instantly my favorite, though he is not exactly a role model. And plucky little Arya, who couldn't bear learning the petty courtesies and fripperies of court life, but derived such satisfaction in learning to wield a blade. (Actually, where Thrones leaves off, Arya was living in a bad section of town with no guardian. I'm worried for her and must know if she fights her way out all right!) Prince Joffrey, however, is cruel, petulant and petty, and I have yet to find any redeeming qualities in him.
There are plots within plots, rogue agents and enough intrigue to leave you wondering which way is up. It is a long book, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. The audiobook, narrated by Roy Dotrice, was particularly well done.
Toward the end of the book, a princess who has been meek and scared all her life has found her power... and called forth 3 dragons while she was at it. I wonder what she will do now....
Sorry this post is so long, but I found my self pleasantly lost in the world of Westeros, and was hesitant to leave it. I'm not the only one addicted. See what natejmaster from U City PL has to say about it.
audio: 34 hours
print: 704 pages

The Parsifal Mosaic, by Robert Ludlum

Not going to lie, this took me a while to get into. I'm not really sure why. It was very intriguing and kept me interested after I did. If you are NOT into books that feature a lot of foreign words don't pick this one up. Great murder/mystery/CIA book.

704 pages