Art Imitates Life

With all due respect to two of my favorite authors, the late Tom Clancy and Daniel Silva, I am noticing an unsettling pattern.  Tom Clancy's last novel, Command Authority co-authored with Mark Greaney is a Clancy blockbuster with weapons, action, espionage, and human drama.   It links now President Jack Ryan with his son Jack Jr. when a current nasty situation has its roots in Ryan's past.
It is a great read with lots of detail about weapons systems (OK  We paid for this stuff with our tax dollars.  We might as well be familiar with them) and enough action to leave you breathless.  The setting is Ukraine with Russia's current incursion into Crimea.  The scary part part is how plausible the plot is!
Next, Daniel Silva does a similar plot line with his spy and art restorer Gabriel Allon in The Heist.
Again, it is a great read with lots of action.  The setting is present day Syria with its current destabilization and refugee situation.  Once again, it is a great read, but a little too close to reality for comfort.

The Spy I Used to Love

When Tom Clancy's first novel The Hunt for Red October first burst upon the literacy scene, I stayed up all night reading it.  Year after year, I devoured his subsequent novels and followed the careers of the fictional characters Jack Ryan, John Clark and Diego Chavez.After Tom Clancy's passing last year, Mark Greaney continued the Jack Ryan series with the next generation of spies in the Ryan family.  While Jack Ryan Support and Defend, published this year, has all the action, technology, and government duplicity of a Ton Clancy novel,  I still miss Jack Ryan.  I know it is a current trend to keep pushing after an author has passed on, but it doesn't always work.  I miss the old Jack Ryan.  I miss the USSR - the enemy we loved to hate and I really miss a simpler world order.

MccEwan - The Children Act

I love courtroom drama. It is a holdover from my years of working in the courthouse in Virginia.  Best-selling author Ian McEwan  (Sweet Tooth, Atonment) has created another moving and controversial book.  Fiana Maye, a high court judge in Britain's Family Court has had her share of high stakes cases.  Sworn to uphold the law, she has rendered decisions in cases involving the separation of Siamese Twins, child kidnapping by a non-custodial parent and the usual divorces, child custody and protective orders.  However, as her own marriage is unraveling, she is unprepared for the emotional involvement in another controversial cases involving a young cancer patient who is refusing a live saving blood transfusion due to his religious convictions. I would not say that this book is uplifting, but the writing is exceptional.

Worthy Brown's Daughter

For fans of the legal thriller and courtroom drama, Philllip Margolin brings us something very unique.  Based on actual events, Worthy Brown's Daughter is an historical fiction set in Oregon on the eve of the Civil War.  Worthy Brown is a slave brought to Oregon which prohibits slavery.  He negotiates a deal with with his master that he will be free after a year of  unpaid work. His unscrupulous master agrees to free Worthy Brown, but keeps Worthy's daughter. Worthy proceeds to hire an attorney to sue in court for his daughter's freedom. Reminiscent of Dredd Scott, Margolin puts forth the Constitutional issues of whether or not a slave can sue for freedom after being transported to a a state that has outlawed slavery. That being said, can  he sue in a court of law when he has no legal rights?  The courtroom drama and the image of frontier justice will keep you focused until the last page.
Sometimes, the practice of law is about torts, mergers and acquisitions.  Sometimes, it is about justice.

Let's talk about race.

Race is often the proverbial elephant in the room among educated Americans.  We have a President who is a man of color, yet we had another unfortunate shooting of a black teenager  in Missouri. It seems we can talk about anything in this country except race.  It took an author from Nigeria - Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche to talk about race and how we see ourselves and other.
Adiche who is from Nigeria brings us Americanah, a love story, but a really effective book about race.  Her heroine, an educated, attractive, middle class young woman from Nigeria comes to the Unites States where she discovers that she is black. Told through a series of blog entries, our heroine Ifemelu relates the perceptions of Americans toward blacks, towards immigrants, towards Africans, towards anyone from a Third World Country. Do we see the person or the color? Which African country do you come from? Do you have schools there? How nice that you speak English! Why don't you straighten your hair?
Americanah is never preachy or judgmental.  It is, however, a good beginning for a meaningful dialog about race. And, by the way, it is a love story between two individuals for each other and for their homeland.

The Boys in the Boat

My sister recently recommended to me a new non fiction. The Boys in the Boat is about the  University of Washington crew team who qualified for the 1936 Olympics in Berlin. Writing good and readable non-fiction is difficult.  Laura Hillenbrand did it with Unbroken. Daniel James Brown did it with The Boys in the Boat.  The background stories of the crew members is both inspiring and touching.   These young men, children of the Great Depression, did not come from a life of privilege.  Instead, they milked cows, felled trees, paved roads and caught salmon.  Nonetheless, they succeeded in defeating the well-financed crew teams from elite California and East Coast schools for the privilege of representing the United States at the 1936 Olympics. Brown gives enough details about crew racing and boat building to add reality to the story without causing the reader to glaze over.  He also juxtaposes the crew team's preparations against the propaganda machine of Adolf Hitler. The result is a non fiction book that reads like a novel and is impossible to put down until the photo finish.

Two New Ones from Favorite Authors

Top Secret Twenty One by Janet Evanovich

Fans of Janet Evanovich will not be disappointed by this latest in the Stephanie Plum series. With exploding cars, rocket launchers, polonium,Russian thugs, feuding grandmothers and feral Chihuahuas, Evanovich continues to entertain readers.Once again, Stephanie’s romantic life careens between Trenton cop Joe Morelli and Ranger with his mysterious past.  This time, Ranger;s life is threatened by an assassin from his dark past.  It is up to Stephanie to save Ranger.

Sometimes, you need to laugh out loud and this book delivers the quirky characters and comic situations that make the Stephanie Plum series so enjoyable.

One Plus One by Jo Jo Moyes

On the surface, Jess Thomas has nothing going for her.  She is a single mother, working two jobs with no money, no education, no job skills, no child support. Her stepson is being bullied by the local toughs and her math prodigy daughter has just been accepting into an elite math school which they cannot afford.

Nonetheless, Jess possesses an unflagging sense of optimism and an unfailing faith in “doing the right thing.”

Ed is a millionaire software geek who inadvertently committed insider trading and is now faced with criminal charge and the loss of all his material goods.

Jess, her children, and smelly dog embark on a road-trip to a math Olympiad in Scotland where her daughter will hopefully win enough prize money to pay the entrance fees to the elite school.  When Jess’s car breaks down on the road, Ed rescues the group and drives them to Scotland. 

These four individuals embark on an odyssey that alternates between hilarity and and tragedy. At times touching, at times funny, this book would be an excellent choice for a book club. Moyes' last novel, Me Before You  required at least two boxes of tissues.  This one will only leave you with a few tears in your eyes.

What is Visible by Kimberly Elkins

We are all familiar with the inspiring story of Helen Keller, the first deaf/blind child to become educated in America.  Aided by her teacher, Annie Sullivan, Helen Keller graduated from Radcliffe College and launched a career as an author, speaker and advocate for the disabled.


However, in the mid-19th century, there was another deaf/blind child who was at one time the most famous woman in America.  Charles Dickens was one of many dignitaries who came to see Laura. Yet today, she has faded into obscurity. Laura Bridgman lost four of her five senses to scarlet fever at age 2.  At age seven, Laura was taken to the Perkins Institute for the Blind in Boston. 


Relying only on her sense of touch, Laura learned language skills and through her own intelligence and will communicated her thoughts on religion, philosophy, sex, and  the rights of handicapped people.  At the Perkins Institute, Laura was taken in by its founder the educator Samuel Gridley Howe. At times, Howe was her champion. At times, he used her to advance his own priorities.   Howe was married to the poet, suffragette, abolitionist and author, Julia Ward Howe.


This first novel is thought-provoking. Peopled with characters from real life such as Charles Sumner, John Brown, Charles Dickens, Dorothea Dix and Julia Ward Howe, this book gives great insight into Victorian era  America the author takes a great deal of literary license with Laura's inner thoughts and feelings, bur she explains her reasoning very well. More importantly, it really makes the reader think about the disable and how we treat them.  Do we allow handicapped people the human dignity make their own decisions? Can we see past the handicap and see the person inside?


For book discussion groups looking for an historical fiction, this book would be an excellent choice because it would generate a very meaningful discussion.

Alan Furst brings us another one - Midnight in Europe

Alan Furst, author of over a dozen historical spy novels, has brought us a new one.  Furst often starts at the Spanish Civil War which was a rehearsal for Nazi Germany.  In his latest novel, Midnight in Europe,  Furst  takes us through Europe in the years immediately preceding the invasion of Poland.  As stated by Sir Edmond Grey, British Foreign Secretary in 1914, "The lamps are going out all over Europe." Furst takes this quote as the theme of his book in which people and places are not what they seem and the treat of war is almost palpable.  Ordinary people such as the protagonist, Christian Ferrar, an international attorney, are drawn into the dangerous game of espionage and weapons smuggling in order to protect what is still honorable. 
Anyone taking one of those Europeans river cruises should read Alan Furst.  His scenes in cities such as Istanbul, Warsaw, Gdansk and Brno give a unique insight into Europe then and now.

Two little known, but extraordinary women- The Invention of Wings

When we think of abolitionists, we remember some familiar names from our history books - William Lloyd Garrison, Frederick Douglass, Sojourner Truth, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Robert Gould Shaw and the Massachusetts 54th, Bronson Alcott(father of Louisa May).  Of these folks who were white, they were all upper class, Northeast liberals. However,  two women from South Carolina, Sarah and Angelina Grimke, who were born into a wealthy slave-owning family came to abhor the South's "peculiar institution."  These two remarkable sisters opposed their family, friends and society to speak their conscience about the evils of slavery which they personally witnessed.  Moreover, they campaigned for the abolition of slavery, racial equality and women's rights years before Seneca Falls!


In her latest novel, The Invention of  Wings,Sue Monk Kidd, author of the Secret Life of Bees and The Mermaid Chair,  gives voice to the Grimke sisters as well as a fictionalized slave who was given to Sarah Grimke as a birthday gift on her eleventh birthday. In beautifully written dialog, Kidde brings to the page a woman born into slavery who managed to survive a brutal system which divided families and dehumanized both  the slave and the slave owner. Kidd also uses the quilts often made by slave women to tell their stories, several of which are currently on display in Washington and Boston.  Denmark Vesey, a freed slave, who organized one of the few documented slave revolts is also a character in this book.


All in all, this is an eye-opening book, which is difficult to put down.  This would be an excellent choice for a book discussion group and I hope Hollywood starts working on a movie version.

Another famous couple

Nancy Horan, who brought us into the lives of Frank Lloyd Wright and Mamah Borthwick Cheney in Loving Frank, once again brings us into the lives of another famous couple.  Her latest work is Under the Wide and Starry Sky which is the evolving saga of the marriage of Robert Louis Stevenson and Fanny van de Grift Osbourne. Stevenson has spent his life fighting the lung ailments which often rendered him an invalid.  While vacationing among the Bohemian set in France, he meet Fanny van de Grift Osbourne, an American divorce with children who is many years his senior.  Nonetheless, Stevenson falls in love with Fanny.  They spend their lives together creating art and literature, fighting insolvency and Stevenson's declining health.  Stevenson was a prolific writer of novels (Treasure Island, Kidnapped, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde), travel writings, letters and poetry which is an amazing body of work considering his ill health.


So, my offspring tell me that retro is in - in terms of cocktails, jewelry, accessories and interior design.   Let's extend retro to literature.  For all of us who were regaled with the antics of Johnny Depp and Orlando Bloom in Pirates of the Caribbean, pick up the original pirate story - Treasure Island.  Shiver me timbers!  Yo ho ho!

Ode to Libraries

For Mother's Day, one of my offspring gave me a copy of a recently published book The Public Library a Photographic Essay by Robert Dawson.  I recommend that you pick it up and browse through it.  Dawson and his son travelled throughout the United States taking photos of representative public libraries.  The photos are stunning - from the neoclassical buildings in the Northeast to the ultramodern libraries on the west coast.  More impressive are the photos of the decrepit and abandoned libraries in inner cites and the stark realities of the corrugated buildings on desolate Indian reservations.  In addition to photos, there are essays about libraries in some cases by noted authors such as Amy Tan and Barbara Kingsolver.  There are stories about libraries.  My favorite was the inspiring story of The Northeast Nevada Regional Bookmobile which brings books to some of the most remote areas of the United States.  I nearly reverted to the 1960's over the story of the proposed closing of the Salinas Library due to budget cutbacks.  John Steinbeck was truly spinning in his grave.


I have been a librarian for a very long time and I have seen many changes in technology.  But I have always maintained that libraries are there for the "have nots" as well as the "haves."  It has been a privilege to meet and serve the folks who have come to me at the reference desk.  Yes, I have called the police when  the need arose.  I have banned more than one person for inappropriate and dangerous behavior. But libraries are there to serve those who do not have a computer or Internet access or books or formal education or the ability to read English. We libraries look everyone in the eye equally. We have been at the forefront of defending the Freedom to Read.  The First Amendment is in very good hands in American public libraries.


Public libraries today are facing their greatest challenge in funding.  Many municipalities are faced with  the unpleasant choice between libraries and public safety.  The local library should not be viewed as a nice extravagance.  Libraries change lives and libraries save lives.  So if it is within your means, send a donation, volunteer with the Friends, serve on the Board or buy used books at your local book sales. It will make a difference in somebody's life.

More mayhem in old New York

I have another addition to my post about murder mysteries set in old New York.  I started a series in the middle. Seven for a Secret by Lindsay Faye is the second in her series.  The first is The Gods of Gotham which I must pick up this week. 


By now, we have all read or seen Solomon Northup's moving account in Twelve Years a Slave.  Sadly, Mr. Northup's experience was not an isolated incident.  In 1846, slave catching was not a crime, it was law enforcement.  In the years before the Civil War, slave catchers made it a practice to capture black citizens in New York City.  The only defense for these unfortunate victims was Freedom Papers which could be lost, forged,  or ignored. Free black people in New York formed secret Committees of Vigilance to protect themselves.


The New York City Police Department was founded in 1845.  At the time, the newly minted police officers were greeted with  disdain and hostility from the public.


Into this scene, steps Timothy Wilde a new "copper star" or police detective who tries to protect those who cannot protect themselves. As a man with abolitionist sentiment, he is requested to locate the missing family of an African-American woman posing as a white woman. Timothy is hampered in his investigation by social and political events such as police corruption, political corruption, Tammany Hall, the arrival of Irish following the potato famine, prostitution, the sex trade, racial tension, and his irascible brother Valentine.


Adding to the book's interest is the inclusion of George Matsell's Flash Terminology or the language of the streets some of which has become part of our language.


I hope  you enjoy this one!

Murder, Mystery and Mayhem in old New York

There are three fabulous new historical novels about old New York,  When I say old, I mean old as in New Amsterdam in the 1600's.


First in order of history.


The Orphanmaster by Jean Zimmerman (2013)


The year is 1663. The Dutch are barely eking out an existence at the tip of Manhattan Island.  The British are set to invade and the Indians are not always friendly. Into this precarious world, Blandine  von Couvering a young female trader makes her living.  Surprisingly, Dutch women at this time had many more rights than their British counterparts.  But Bandine is faced with more challenges than making a living.  She realizes that orphans are disappearing and she suspects foul play.  Aided by dashing English spy Edward Drummond, Blandine sets about discovering the fate of the missing orphans and in doing so uncovers a very early serial killer.




Americans have always loved sensational trials.  Before OJ, there was Levi Weeks. Of course you never heard of Levi Weeks.  But  you have heard of Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton. Paul Collins'  Duel with the Devil takes us back to the year 1800 when Americans were wrapped up in the trail of Levi Weeks accused of murdering a young Quaker woman Elma Sands whose body was discovered in a well.  Levi Weeks's defending attorneys were no less than Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr. Collins takes us back to 1800 to a Hamilton and Burr we never learned about in school.  The two men were loyal patriots, brilliant attorneys, passionate politicians and flat broke.  Indeed the well in which the body was found was part of Burr's get rich quick schemes.  Tragically, the two defense attorney met in a duel a short time later.  Great courtroom drama and insightful history.


Caleb Carr's The Alienist (2006) is an oldie, but goody.  The year is 1896 and New York is plagued by a grisly murder. Police chief Theodore Roosevelt enlists the aid of New York Times reporter  and Dr. Laszlo Kreizler a psychologist or alienist as he was called in his time.  The two men create a profile of the murderer and take us through New York's  underbelly of crime, prostitution and drugs.




Alice Hoffmann is a prolific writer of historical novels with a touch of the supernatural.  Her novels such as The Probable Future, The Red Garden, Here on Earth and the Dovekeepers have earned rave reviews.  Her latest novel The Museum of Extraordinary Things is set in New York in 1911. It is the year of the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire and the fire at Coney Island.  It is the ending of an era when the sturgeon still ran in the Hudson River and there were still wild areas in the northern part of Manhattan.  Eddie Cohen is a photography who is running from the grinding poverty of his youth as well as the Orthodox Judaism of his father. Coralie Sardie is a young woman swimmer whose magician father has a Svengali-like hold on her. The two meet in this lovely novel of mystery, tragedy, murder and finally love and forgiveness.  It is truly a gem.

A Classic

I recently had the pleasure of participating in a book discussion on one of my favorite classics, Rebecca by Daphne duMaurier.  If you read the book in  high school, it is definitely worth a second read.  Du Mauieir's characters,  Rebecca, Max deWinter and the evil Mrs. Danvers could put Downton Abbey to shame.  In how many novels, does the narrator remain nameless?  The opening sentence alone grabs you on the first page. The overshadowing of disaster and evil is worthy of Hitchcock.  He did make a movie.  Mrs. Danvers is one of the most consummately evil characters in literature.  Rebecca is a classic romance/mystery/suspense novel.   If you have not read it, the ending is a complete surprise. Some participants in our discussion group thought the author put in too much description.  However, I think you really got a picture of the estate and the English countryside. One of our participants was a law enforcement officer with a refreshing insight on guilt and motive. If your book group is looking for a classic, try Rebecca. It is an excellent choice for a contemporary discussion.

Moved, Unpacked and Reading Again...

Wow! It has been nearly a month since I have posted anything.  On March 1, we successfully moved from Pennsylvania to Hampton, NH.  We took two trucks because the first truck was not big enough.  Oh well, in the spirit of Yankee thriftiness, we moved ourselves. We spent the month of March  unpacking, unloading and putting things away.  We are enjoying out new home  very much. Despite the cold weather, I have been waling 1-3 miles every day.  You know what Nietzsche said, "that which does not kill us makes us stronger."  We won't comment on the fact that Nietzsche died a raving lunatic chained to his bed.


I did read three new books during the mover.


First, John Grisham's Sycamore Row is a riveting courtroom drama in true Grisham style.  It is a sequel to John Grisham's first novel, A Time to Kill.


Robert Harries is one of my favorite authors.  He writes historical fiction about some lesser know incidents in history. For example, his Enigma brought us back to the code breakers of England during the Second World War.  Fatherland is an alternative reality in which the Nazis win. His latest novel is An Officer and a Spy.  It describes the Dreyfus affair in 19th century France which was immortalized by Emile Zola in J'Accuse. Alfred Dreyfus was an Army officer accused and convicted of treason on circumstantial evidence.  In actuality, Dreyfus was Jewish and he was a victim of virulent anti-Semitism in the French Army. Harris' latest novel details the courageous efforts of a young Army colonel who risks his own life and career to correct a miscarriage of justice.


Diane Setterfield's previous novel The Thirteenth Tale was a bestseller. Her latest book Bellman and Black is a mystery with overtures of the supernatural.  As a ten year old child, William Bellman killed a bird.  He grows up to become a respected member of the community, happily married with four young children.  Yet, something overshadows his life - guilt? revenge? something supernatural?
Setterfield's novel is reminiscent of Hitchcock. This book would work very well as a horror movie with the right director.


Cheers and happy reading!

I am a little behind on my bestseller reading.  There are a few items on the NYT bestseller list that I am looking forward to.  The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd is an historical fiction about a woman who grew up to become a prominent abolitionist, but who was given the gift of a slave girl for her 11th birthday.  Nancy Horan has written another book about a famous couple.  She had previously given us Loving Frank about the architect Frank Lloyd Wright.  This year, she has published Under the Wide and Starry Sky about Robert Louis Stevenson's troubled marriage.  Stephen King has a new release for all of us who were terrified by The Shining.  Doctor Sleep is his newest book which continues the life of Dan the boy with powers in The Shining as a grown up.
For those of you who like British mysteries, Alan Bradley has a new book in the Flavia DeLuce series The Dead in their Vaulted Arches.  After all, who would not like a detective who is a 12 year old prodigy with an interest in poison?
If it keeps snowing, I will keep reading!

Back in the USSR.....
Watching the Sochi Olympics made me reach for one of my favorite authors.  Martin Cruz Smith published a new thriller in the Arkady Renko series.  Tatiana is his latest addition to this series featuring detective Arkady Renko.  We met Arkady in 2007 in Smith's first novel in the series Gorky Park.  Renko is a police detective in Moscow.  He has survived bullets, corruption, the evolution into the new Russia and the remnants of the Great Patriotic War. If we were to make a movie, we would need to revive Humphrey Bogart to play Arkady. Only he could match cynicism with a moral compass like Rick in Casablanca.  In Tatiana, Renko is suspicious about the supposed suicide of an  investigative reporter and the assassination of a Russian crime lord.  His investigations take him to Kaliningrad on the Baltic Coast where he encounters organized crime, a murderous butcher, a secret code, children searching for amber on the coast and a government cover-up of epic proportions. Smith captures contemporary geopolitics with a thriller that will have you guessing.

International Detectives

The detective story is an American invention pioneered by Edgar Allen Poe in The Murders in the Rue Morgue. Poe's Auguste Dupin was the first detective in popular literature.  He was followed in short order by our cousins across the pond with Sherlock Holmes and Hercule Poirot.  The United States has enough regional differences to warrant local detective series and we have everything from Dana Stabenow's mysteries set in Alaska to Tony Hillerman's Navaho Nation novels.  But the world is a global community and other authors in other countries have been developing the  detective novel set in their local community.  Beside the entertainment value, many of these novels offer the reader insight into the political social and cultural features of other countries.


Oh, those Scandinavians...


I do not know if it is the cold, the rain or the limited daylight that makes Scandinavian authors create detectives who are dark, flawed and in some cases anti-heroes. If you ever find a copy of Peter Hoeg's Smilla's Sense of Snow (1994)  on a used book rack, buy it. Smilla is half Danish and half native Greenlander.  She is a scientist whose knowledge of ice and snow and determination lead her to crime and betrayal above the Arctic Circle.  Jo Nesbo's Harry Hole battles his own demons as well as crime.  Henning Mankell brought us Kurt Wallander.  Karin Fossum's has Inspector Sejer.  Which of us will ever forget Lisbeth Salander in Stieg Larsson's Girl with the Dragon Tattoo?


And of course, the Germans...
Not to be outdone, German author Nele Neuhaus's Snow White Must Die  recently won rave reviews in Europe and in the US.


Not really Israeli, but close enough...
American author Daniel Silva created the character of Gabriel Allon, an art-restorer and assassin for the Israeli government.  The Allon series brings you through museums, and galleries through Europe.  When he is not restoring works of art, Allon is exacting revenge on terrorists.


Straddling two worlds...
Istanbul has been described as the literal  and metaphorical bridge between east and west, Christian and Islam, tradition and technology.  Barbara Nadel has crafted a series of books with Inspector Ikmen who like his country straddles two worlds.  Nadel's descriptions of Istanbul will appeal to anyone who has traveled in that part off the world.


The sunny south...
Italian authors have been at the detective genre for a long time.  Andrea Camilleri 's Inspector Montalbano takes us through the intricacies of fighting crime in Sicily. New author Marco Vichi's Inspector Bordelli investigates Death in Sardinia.
But, my all-time favorite Italian detective is Commisario Guido Brunetti who investigates crime in the exotic city of Venice. Written by Donna Leon, the Brunetti series does not hesitate to cover Italy's social ills, poor economy, organized crime, environmental issues and relations with guest workers. Of course, it is easy to read books where Brunetti retreats to his loving home with his wife Paola who cooks wonderful meals and just happens to be a university professor and a descendent of Venice's aristocracy.


The Middle East...
If you can find them, pick up Zoe Ferraris's Finding Nouf and City of Veils. Her books are set in Saudi Arabia and give amazing insight into the society of Saudi's and Bedouins.


Finally, Africa...
Alexander McCall Smith has created a series of mysteries set in Botswana.  Okay, I will admit that I needed an atlas to remind me where Botswana is located.  McCall Smith's detective is a "woman of tribal proportions" Prescious Ramotse who is the proprietor of the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency.  Mme. Ramotse solves crimes with wisdom and insight into the human heart. After one or two of these books, you can appreciate the fragile beauty of the Okavanga Delta and you come away with admiration for the citizens of Botswana whose pride in their county and traditions is a welcome respite from much of the violence in Africa.


Translated from Afrikaaner, Deon Meier has a series of novels set in South Africa. His books are violent and graphic, but he brings us through the many levels of society and culture in South Africa.  His characters are fascinating, but flawed. Often battling alcoholism, past lives of crime and overall corruption, his various detectives will grip the reader with their intensity.


I seem to be missing works from Asia and Latin America.  If anyone has some authors to add, I would love to hear from you.

I am not supposed to like it....

I am a self-proclaimed Sherlock Holmes geek. It all started over forty years ago when Mrs. Tallman, the children's librarian in my home town of Fort Lee, NJ, presented me with the complete works of Sherlock Holmes as a reward for completing the summer reading program.  Throughout my  academic and professional career, I have read countless books in English and French.  To this day, when I want to escape into a world of logic and deduction, I pull out Arthur Conan Doyle.  True, not all Conan Doyle's writings met with literary success.  Even I struggled through Professor Challenger.  And Conan Doyle dabbled in spiritualism and believed in fairies. We all have our foibles.


If you are ever in Toronto, Canada, take some time to visit the  Arthur Conan Doyle Room at the Toronto Public Library.  It is a fitting tribute to an author who has inspired and entertained so many children and adults through the world.


It was with some trepidation that I first picked up Laurie R. King's Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes series.  If Holmes should marry, what sort of woman would she be?  Laurie King proposes Mary Russell who is every bit Holmes' intellectual equal.  By the way, she is also much younger, American and Jewish.


The series works and works well.  There are currently 12 books in the series starting with The Beekeeper's Apprentice. Holmes and Russell (of course she keeps her own name and identity) thwart criminals around the world in true Holmesian fashion.


I would be remiss if I did not include the latest on-screen Sherlock.  The BBC has continued Sherlock with Benedict Cumberbatch.  This is arguably the best screen portrayal of Holmes. Cumberbatch's Sherlock is an ascetic, fiercely intellectual and unflappable. In addition to his intellect, he makes use of technology.  Martin Freeman's depiction of Dr. Watson is my favorite.  Watson is not a bumbling sidekick.  He is a wounded warrior with injuries and PTSD home from the wars in Afghanistan.  Watson offers the one thing Holmes cannot conceive - simple human friendship.  Holmes is larger than life and that is what we expect.  Cumberbatch brings us  a Holmes for the 21st Century who is neither campy nor kitschy.  Enjoy!

A Heavy and a Light

I have two more books for you which will require tissues.   One will have you sniffling and one will leave you sobbing at the end.


Jojo Moyes'  Me before You (2013) is one of the most heart-wrenching books I have ever read.  Louisa Clark, an employed, working class young woman in England, accepts a six month job as a caregiver for a quadriplegic.  In a prior life, her charge Will  was at the top of his game, wealthy, handsome, successful, athletic. He had it all - promising career, gorgeous girlfriend, extreme sports and lots of friends.  He lost it all after being paralyzed in an accident.  Now, confined to a wheelchair and despondent, he plans an assisted suicide in six months. Louisa is unaware of the reason for her six month tenure when she takes the job.  We share her horror when she discovers the reasons behind her employment.  However, in the time allotted, Louisa ignores the sarcasm, depressions and acerbic wit of Will, her patient. In an attempt to dissuade him from his choice, she makes contact with other quadriplegics and tries to give Will a reason to live.  Unexpectedly, Will saves Louisa from live choices that are less than ideal.  You will laugh.  You will cry.  Alright, you will cry a lot.  Sometimes in life, love is not enough.


The All-Girl Filling Station's Last Reunion by Fannie Flagg (2013)
Whenever I want a feel-good book, I reach for Fannie Flagg.  Although I am not from the South and Southern culture is often lost on me, Fannie Flagg fills her books with such quirky and heart-warming characters, that I cannot help but smile.  Sookie is a 50-ish Alabama woman who has just survived the weddings of three daughters and is looking forward to her empty nest time if she can escape her domineering mother next door. Sookie's life is turned upside down when she receives a mysterious phone calling telling her that "you are not who you think you are."  Imagine her surprise when she discovers that she is not a card-carrying, daughter of the South and  a Southern sorority  queen, but instead she is the illegitimate daughter of a Polish Catholic woman. Sookie begins the inevitable search for her birth mother.  Her search leads her to the courageous young women who flew airplanes in the early days of the Army Air Corps and ran male-dominated business during the Second World War. You will wipe away a tear, but you will cheer for these remarkable women who gave so much for their country.

Three Famous Couples

Last year, I did a presentation to the Dillsburg Womans Club in which I described three books about three famous American couples.  For those of you who like to read in a series, here are my notes:


Loving Frank by Nancy Horan (2007)
To many of us, Frank Lloyd Wright was the seminal American architect who introduced mission style or prairie style architecture.  Wright built a number of private and public buildings through the United States.  Most of us have toured one or other of them.  In 1903, Wright built a house for a wealthy family in Chicago.  During the project, he and the wife of the homeowner  Mamah  Borthwick Cheney fell in love.  Their adulterous relationship rocked Chicago society.  This novel is a fascinating insight into their relationship and Cheney's struggles to be recognized as a scholar in her own right.  The book's dramatic ending will leave you speechless.


The Paris Wife by Paula McLain (2011)
Ernest Hemingway - either you love him or hate him.  It has been said that Hemingway had a wife for every novel. This is the story of his first wife Hadley Richardson who accompanied him during his years in Paris in the 1920's. As part of the Lost Generation, Ernest and Hadley interacted with such personalities as F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald, Ezra Pound, and Gertrude Stein.  The Hemingway's marriage came to a tragic end, but throughout the years of alcohol abuse, womanizing, depression and illness, Hemmingway retained his affection for Hadley and she for him.


The Aviator's Wife by Melanie Benjamin (2013)
Charles and Anne Morrow Lindbergh were the Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie of their time.  Pursued by reporters and adoring fans, the Lindbergh's lived their lives in the public spotlight.  Charles Lindbergh was the golden boy who was the first to cross the Atlantic in an airplane and who pioneered American aviation. However, their lives took a tragic turn when their baby was kidnapped and murdered. In addition, Lindbergh had a dark side.  He had fathered other children and was a Nazi sympathizer. Anne Morrow was an ambassador's daughter who was an author and pilot in her own right.  Their very public marriage was fodder for tabloids and makes for a very interesting read.

Midwife of Hope River

For those of you who like to read in historical eras, there is a fabulous first novel by Patricia Harmon, The Midwife of Hope River. Patience Murphy is a midwife in Appalachia during the Great Depression. But Patience has a past and her past threatens to catch up with her.  The author fills this very credible story with scenes from the Labor Movement in Pittsburgh as well as the courageous women who delivered babies in mountain cabins in West Virginia. Patience Murphy is an unforgettable character whose story will keep you up until you finish the book.

More good reads

After struggling through The Worst Hard Time, I indulged in Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline.  From 1854 to 1929, over two hundred thousand orphaned or abandoned children were transported by train from cities on the East Coast to the Midwest.  The charitable organizations which organized these transports were attempting to find wholesome, loving homes for these children among families in the Midwest.  Many of the children were the children of immigrants whose parents either died or could not care for them.  In some cases, the orphans did, indeed, find loving homes.  In other cases, the children were abused and overworked.


Orphan Train contains two parallel stories, one of an Irish girl who was sent west on one of the trains and went through a series of foster homes.  The other protagonist is a girl of Native American origin who experiences the current foster care system.


Kline artfully blends the two stories together. The characters are memorable.  This best seller should be popular book discussion selection.

Dust Bowl

Hello all,
I just finished the 2014 One Book One Community selection for south-central Pennsylvania.  This year's selection, The Worst Hard Time by Timothy Egan follows a different format from previous selections. The book was selected by readers from a list of three titles. I believe those who voted for this title were expecting a sequel to the Steinbeck's classic The Grapes of Wrath.  However, Egan' treatment of the Dust Bowl takes a different track.  Egan is a Pulitzer-prize winning New York Times investigative reporter.  As such, he investigates the causes of the Dust Bowl. He holds nothing sacred as he describes in cold detail the improper farming methods, ineffective USDA policies, land speculation, profiteering and virtual displacement and extermination of native Peoples, plants and animals.  The Dust Bowl is arguably the worst man-made ecological disaster in US history.  As such, this book has more in common with Rachel Carson's Silent Spring than The Grapes of Wrath. 


Egan includes vignettes with various people who were victims of the Dust Bowl.  Many of us do not realize that the dust caused health issues and death in addition to  bankruptcy and displacement. 


The purpose of book discussion programs such as One Book One Community is to engage readers in a book that is often outside their comfort zone in order to promote discussion and civic engagement.  In that respect, The Worst Hard Time was a good selection. 


However, for those of you looking for a book with more readability and memorable characters, I am starting Christina Baker Kline's Orphan Train which will be the topic of the next entry.