Four on the Floor

Black and Blue
Ian Rankin
Orion

I'm giving some serious thought to shutting down my blog.   I haven't been feeling that creative lately and while I've been reading a tonne, I find that I don't have too much new or inspiring to say.  You guys can only take so many "wow -- that book was awesome!" or "wow -- that booked totally sucked" reviews, right? 

Maybe I just need to shake it up a bit and read something that really knocks my socks off.   Ugh.  So hard to know what to do.  That said, I'm here now and I might as well get down to business and give you the skinny on Rankin's Black & Blue.

I would consider this novel to be Rankin's best that I've read so far.  Rebus' professional life is a bit of a wreck -- he's been kicked out of his precinct and assigned a new home, he's under investigation for helping a colleague who is suspected of planting evidence, the media is hounding him about a wrongful conviction, and he's working four cases.  Sigh. Yes, he's still the perfect man.  Well, aside from the drinking.  Since I'm over 40 now, I guess I'm not supposed to be that picky.

With so much going on in Black & Blue, you would almost expect the narrative to be somewhat choppy and episodic.  Rankin defies expectation and writes a tight, dark, action-packed story that flows from location to location, case to case, emotion to emotion.  Four hard-boiled detectives out of five.

So many books, so little time

The Hunger Games
Catching Fire
The Mockingjay
Suzanne Collins
Scholastic

According to Dictionary.com, the word "addict" can be used to describe someone who habituates or abandons him/herself to something compulsively or obsessively.  It can also be used in the context of physiological or psychological dependence on a substance or thing.  Is this definition ringing bells with anyone else?  Apparently, I have a problem.
I came to this deep and penetrating insight late a couple of Fridays ago  when I was downloading book two of the Hunger Game trilogy by Suzanne Collins.  It was almost three o'clock in the morning and I had just whizzed through the first novel in the series.  Even though I could barely keep my head off the pillow, I had to read on.   It was that good.

Set in post-apocalyptic America, the novel opens in District 12.  We are introduced to a young woman named Katniss Everdeen.  Katniss is an aloof girl -- mostly keeping her thoughts to herself and oblivious to her impact on others.  Her world completely changes when  the government comes to town to pick two "warriors" -- one boy and one girl -- as the District's tribute to the Hunger Games.  "Required watching" for everyone in the country, the Hunger Games is a reality show where the tributes (two from each of the country's twelve districts) battle to the death.  The tributes are plucked from their regions, made over into heroes (with compelling back stories, of course) and then set in an arena with instructions to kill or be killed.  It is all quite gruesome, but happily packaged for TV.  Katniss volunteers to be the tribute from District 12 when her younger sister is picked in the lottery.  The baker's son, Peeta, is the other "winner" and the two teens head to the Capitol to take part in the games.

I loved the premise of these novels (as disturbing as it was) and can guarantee that I will be reading the entire trilogy again.  Katniss is smart, resourceful, naive, and unrelenting.   Peeta is kind, focused, loving, and equally as unrelenting.  They make a good team, but unfortunately, there can only ever be one winner, or can there?  The Hunger Games, Catching Fire and Mockingjay get five fiery manticores out of five.

Brains!  Brains!  (I promise this is not a zombie entry)

The Brain the Changes Itself
Norman Doidge
Penguin

Depending on how old you are, you might remember your biology teacher telling you that once you get through early childhood, your brain is pretty done changing and that it is very hard to teach the old dog new tricks.  Well, researchh in the 20th century has disproven this theory and now neuroplasticity, the term for the brain's ability to re-map itself, is its own field of study.

The Brain that Changes Itself is a very consumable read in which Doidge, a researcher and psychiatrist, makes some enthusiastic claims about the capabilities of the human brain.   He describes how stroke victims have managed to remap their brains to perform functions that had formerly been controlled by now "dead" sections of their brains.  He chronicles how researchers have used simple devices to eliminate the pains (and itching!) in phantom limbs.  And most importantly, he tells compelling stories about real people that makes hard-core science into a can't-put-it-down page-turner.  Three point five neruoplasticity tongue twisters out of five.

And Then There Were Two

The Graveyard Book
Neil Gaiman
Harper Collins

My friend Jill loaned me her copy of this book in August of 2009.  I adore Neil Gaiman (have you read his blog?) and I had heard nothing but good things about his most recent novel.  When I got home from Kemptville, I put the book on my beside table fully intending that it would be the next one on my list.  And there it sat.  Unread and unloved.  Poor, wee book.

Flash forward to the fall of 2010.  I was out for a birthday dinner with my mostly best friend and in addition to showering me with love and laughs and decent grub, he brought me gifts.  Included in the red paper bag (he's a boy, they don't do pretty with friends) was my Christmas gift from 2009.  And yes, it was a copy of the Graveyard book.

That decided it.  As soon as I got home, I picked up Jill's copy -- still sitting on my nightstand -- and was immediately lost.  The book opens with the mysterious murder of the protagonist's family.  Somehow, the toddler (yes, I typed toddler) escapes and wanders into the graveyard that is up the street from him home.  Understanding that the baby is still being pursued by his family's attackers, the graveyard occupants -- ghosts from across different centuries -- decide to bend the rules in this place of the dead and raise the baby themselves.  The toddler, who is renamed Nobody Owens, grows up in a rather unconventional environment and goes on to do some rather extraordinary things.

Bod (well ... you can't be Nobody forever) is heroic, gentle, loving, funny, sad, kind, wise, naive, and beautiful.  He's definitely worth getting to know and I'm glad that I read the book when I did.  Thanks for sharing Jilly Bean.  I  get why you gave it to me when you -- I just wasn't ready.

Five beautiful fairy tales out of five.  And oh yeah -- as for the the title of this post, please say hello to the next contender for the DES book of the year.

Friends don't let friends blog drunk ...

Let Me In
John Ajvide Lindqvist
St. Martin's Press

Please accept my heartfelt apologies for my most recent post.   I submitted it after having had a few (okay, nine) drinks and well, apparently my proof reading skills aren't exactly up to snuff when I've been into the brew.  Honestly, I have no idea why I was so desperate to publish the review of that awful work of fiction, but, I'm sure there was a good reason at the time.  One of my drinking companions did happen to suggest the word "vomitous" -- maybe I was just trying to go with the flow.

Moving on ... the subject for this entry is a book called Let Me In.  I know I promised that I would lay off the vampire novels, but this one is actually worth reading.  Set in a Stockholm suburb, the novel tells the story of Oskar and Eli.  Oskar is a schoolboy with a lot of problems -- he's lies, he steals, and he keeps a scrapbook of serial killer newspaper clippings.  Eli, his next door neighbour, is a little girl who only comes out at night, is impervious to cold, and has fangs.  The two form an unusual, disturbing, and often touching relationship.   

There is a great deal to recommend this novel.  The writing was spare, the story compelling, and the end surprising.  A word of warning, however, this book did manage to give me the creeps.  Twice I had to stop reading and put it away for another day -- horror is not my thing.  Three dripping fangs out of five.

V for Vomitous?  How about Vile?

The Paris Vendetta
Steve Berry
Ballantine

I travel a lot and, well, frankly, I'm nosy.  When I'm in the lounge, at the gate, or even sitting on the plane I often take a good look around and see what people are reading.  I run across quite of Nora Roberts -- either writing as herself for the women travellers and as J.D. Robb for the men.  Sadly, I still see a lot of Dan Brown.  (Did I tell you that when I joined a dating site I automatically closed matches where the "best book" read was The Davinci Code?)  Lately, I have also noticed that a lot of people are carrying around novels by Steve Berry.  They seemed like something that might interest me, so I picked one up.

OMG -- what a mistake.  Let's just say The Paris Vendetta was not a work of literature.  Former spy, Cotton Malone, gets pulled into a web of intrigue by one of his close friends and allies, some Dane name.  Dane is looking to avenge the senseless of his son and Cotton agrees to help.  The murderers, as it turns out, belong to The Paris Group, a collective of extremely wealthy individuals who are hatching a plan to manipulate the global stock markets to their advantage.  Throw in a Corsican connection, Napoleon, and a little bit of conspiracy and voila!  Yeah, it is a stupid as it sounds.

I'm not going to pollute the grading system that I have established on this blog by giving this book a rating.  Maybe it suffered because it was what I read directly following The Power of One.  Maybe it just sucked.  I will leave it to you to decide -- if you go there, caveat emptor definitely applies.

Heroes

The Power of One
Bryce Courtenay
McArthur & Co

It's hard to be believe, but I first read The Power of One over a decade ago.  My then boyfriend and I were still in the early stages of our relationship and I was completely blown away by the fact that I had found a "reader".  I remember asking him, all cow-eyed, of course, what book had most moved him in the last couple of years.  He pulled out a worn copy of Courtenay's novel and told me to read.

The Power of One was then, and probably still is now, one of the best books that I have ever read.  The story opens in the 1940s somewhere in rural South Africa.  Our hero, who later names himself Peekay, is five years old and heading off to an Afrikaner boarding school for the first time.  He's English and if you know anything about the history of the Boer War, you realize that poor little Peekay is in for a world of hurt.

What impressed me most about this novel was the fact that Courtenay made every character count.  As Peekay grows up, he (and therefore the reader) learns an important lesson from every single person who inhabits this book. Even when the interaction only lasts a few pages, the characters still resonate.  I have gone on to read other novels that this author has penned, and none have left me as breathless, as energized, as hopeful or as sad as The Power of One.  Five welterweight champions of the world out of five.

We have a Contender!

The Angel's Game
Carlos Ruiz Zafón
Doubleday Canada

So here's the thing -- I am way, waaaay behind on my blog.  I got seriously sick a few weeks ago and since then, I haven't really had it in me to write.  I have, however, been reading like a fiend and as a result, your inboxes, Facebook pages, and RSS feeds are about to be deluged.  I have made it a goal to get caught up by week's end.  That's about an entry a day ... we'll see it how it goes.

Okay -- so let's talk about The Angel's Game.  David Martín, the story's hero, is a young writer who earns his way by churning out penny dreadfuls -- baroque tales of Barcelona's seedy, and somewhat mysterious underworld.  While he longs to write something of more substance, he is under contract to a pair of unscrupulous publishers who keep him busy with the popular, serialized stories 

David's future seems desolate and unrelenting.  It all changes, however, when he gets a letter from the reclusive Andreas Corelli.  Corelli promises David an extraordinary amount of money if David were to write him a book that creates a new myth -- one that can change the hearts and minds of all mankind.  David accepts Corelli's terms and enters into a world of darkness, passion, paranoia, and mystery.  It would seem that he has made a deal with the Devil.

I will be honest and tell you that I could not put this book down.  The weather outside was cold and gloomy and it was just the excuse I needed to stay snuggled in bed (and later on the couch) reading.  I've definitely found a candidate for the DES Book of the Year -- in fact, I think we have a front runner.  The Angel's Game gets five soul-shivering passages out of five.

Uh, Forgettable

I Remember You
Harriet Evans
Simon and Schuster

Can someone please explain to me why I feel like I have to finish a book even though it is absolute crap?  What is it about my personality that prevents me from walking away?  I can count on one hand the number of books that I have started and haven't finished.  In fact, let me share the list with you:

• Anna Karenina -- I tried to read this book when I was in Russia earlier this year, but reading about Moscow, when I was in St. Petersburg, didn't seem quite the thing.  I might have finished it on the way home, but I needed room in my luggage for souvenirs (I only took one bag).  Leaving it there, mostly unread, hurt me a little, but I take both comfort and secret delight in the fact that I ditched my copy on a nightstand in the Hotel Dostoevsky. 
• Ulysses -- Can you say Joyce at his most impenetrable?  I attempted to read it one summer in university and gave up.  I tried again in my early thirties and survived the experience.  Gotta love the snotgreen sea.
• Bridget Jones' Diary -- The only book that I have ever thrown away.  I was in Tokyo at the time and desperate for anything English as I was having a horrible case of culture shock.  Turns out I wasn't that desperate.  I pitched the book after the first ten pages, left the hotel and found an English bookstore.  What did I read instead?  The first two books of the Lord of the Rings trilogy.  I was angling for a Godzilla novel, but couldn't find one in English.

Nice list, huh?  Forty years of living and I have given up on only three novels.   Ugh -- think of all the hours I have wasted reading bad, bad writing.  I should have spared myself some head shaking and given up on I Remember You.  It was terrible!  So much so, in fact, that I'm not even going to bore you with the details. Minus one navel-gazing examples of badly written Chick Lit out of five.

Moon Walker

The Boy in the Moon:  A Father's Search for his Disabled Son
Ian Brown
Vintage Canada

The Boy in the Moon, a memoir by journalist and broadcaster Ian Brown, tells the story of Brown and his relationship with his son Walker, a severely disabled tween, who cannot talk, cannot thrive without the help of a feeding tube, is still in diapers and who has the intellectual capacity of a toddler.  Walker belongs to an exclusive group -- only three hundred people in the entire world suffer from caridiofaciocutaneous syndrome -- a rare genetic condition that causes its suffers to self-abuse (Walker if left unattended would smash his head to a pulp) and often, but not always traps them and makes them unknowable inside their uncooperative bodies.

I picked this book up because I had heard a interview with the author on CBC radio.  Always charming and articulate, Brown, on whom I will admit to having a slight intellectual crush, told his story without seeming like either a martyr or a cheerleader for the disabled.  Physically caring for Walker sounded like hard business and Brown and his wife, writer Johanna Schneller, shifted their lives to accommodate the demands of their profoundly disabled son.  Trying to find the meaning of Walker's life, sounded like even harder business, and after listening to him speak, I wanted to know how Brown's journey turned.

This is a magnificent book.  It is beautiful and raw and it is so full of love that it makes my heart ache.  Brown speaks so honestly about Walker, about how terrible and terrifying it can be, that the reader can't help but be drawn in.  I am glad that I read this story.  Thank you, Mr. Brown, for sharing Walker with all of us.  Five beautiful boys out of five. 

Get UR Freak On - The Remix

SuperFreakonomics
Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner
Harper Collins

As it happens, one of the very first books that I reviewed on this blog was Levitt and Dubner's Freakonomics.  I may have mentioned at the time that I'm not a huge consumer of non-fiction.  I often set out to read things in the spirit of improving my business acumen, however, I find that when it comes right down to it, I'm a geek and my non-fiction tastes run to the zany and obscure.

Well, thank goodness for Levitt and Dubner.  SuperFreakonomics is as entertaining and as thought-provoking as its predecessor.  The economic dynamic duo provide intriguing answers to great unasked questions like "why is a prostitute like a department store Santa?"  I know -- how could I resist?

What's more, the chapter that outlines the commonality between Al Gore and Mount Pinatubo seriously has me considering suggesting this book to Yann Martel as one of his recommendations to Stephen Harper (see my entry from January of this year.)   The Stevils (as I have decided to call them) suggest a solution to the pollution created by the Alberta tar sands which I think is bloody brilliant.  I can't believe that there hasn't already been a call to action and I might just be doing some follow up research of my own.  Maybe this is why I don't read more non-fiction -- I get so caught up in it that my mind doesn't have room for anything else.

SuperFreak is definitely worth of few hours of your time.  It is consumable, engaging, and not always altogether believable which makes it a lot of fun.  Three funkadelic stars out of five.

Milton, I'm so sorry ...

The Amber Spyglass
Philip Pullman
Yearling

Okay, the final instalment of Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy was so bad, so confusing, and so utterly ridiculous that I'm flummoxed as to how to give it a review.   I finished this book weeks ago -- more out of sheer stubbornness than anything else -- and still find that I have nothing to say. 

Don't get me wrong -- my reasons for not liking this novel have nothing to do with the anti-religious overtones.  I'm as much of a humanist as the next person and I didn't find the book offensive.  I just thought it was stupid.  And a little bit weird.  Part of me thinks that the author was trying to invert/reinvent/problematize the theist world view that is expounded by Milton in Paradise Lost.  Another part of me thinks that Pullman was trying to out-do Blake -- who himself tried to reinvigorate Milton in terms of Innocence and Experience.   I think I must have fallen off the turnip truck a little too soon because the majority of this book sailed right over my head.  It was a Whitbread award winner for goodness sake.  What did I miss?  Perhaps if one of you read it, and get it, you can explain it it me.  Two Little Girls Lost out of five.

Dear John

Mortal Causes
Ian Rankin
Orion

My dearest John,

What's up Buttercup?  I've missed you!  I know it has been forever since we have gotten together, but this week just isn't going to work for me.  Thank you so much for the invitation -- I would love nothing better than to hang with you at the Fringe -- but client deliverables, home renovations, and some rather odd health challenges are all keeping me busy.  Did I tell you that my new nickname is Ruby Splotches? Um, yeah.   Let's just say I've had more attractive days.

But enough about me.    I read in the paper that you've found yourself a new case.  Are you sure you shouldn't get out of homicide?  I actually resorted to calling Patience to track you down and she told me that you were having a "bit of trouble".  I couldn't tell if she was talking about your relationship, or the fact that you asked her to leave the flat due to safety concerns.  What the hell have you gotten yourself into now?  The paper mentioned that the kid you found is an illegitimate son of that mobster Big Ger Cafferty.  Didn't he just escape from jail?  Is that why you and Patience cleared out?  Ugh .. so many questions, so little time.

When I struck out with Patience, I tried Brian at the station and he said you'd been seconded to the SCS -- aren't they the "pricks" you were telling me about that deal with terrorism, organized crime, and all that "fun" policeman stuff?  No wonder I worry about you so.

Okay, I guess I should sign off.  Drop me a note to let me know how it all works out and when we can reschedule our date.  I checked out the programme for this year's line up and there is a show that we must see.  Robinson Crusoe the Lost Jedi Knight.  Sounds bad enough to be fantastic, right?  I heard it only got three stars, but who doesn't want to see Robinson Crusoe "Star Wars" style.  Hah!

love you,

DES xo

Lost in the Barrens

Late Nights on Air
Elizabeth Hay
McClelland

One of the weirder things about coming from the Great White North is the fact that most Canadians (something like 90% of the population) actually live within about 125 miles of the US border.  Globally, we are known as a winter nation and sure -- we do have polar bears, tundra and the midnight sun.  I would be willing to bet, however, that more Canadians have travelled to the Caribbean than to north of 60.  And that is just so damn sad.

Set in Yellowknife in 1975, Late Nights on Air tells the stories of the staff at CFYK -- the local CBC radio station.  Like most radio people, this particular bunch of characters have some definite quirks.  Like the landscape in which it is set, the story is unhurried, stark, beautiful, surprising, unforgiving, and above all else, inevitable.  This was definitely not the best book that I have read all year, but if you have ever been to a northern climate, you will recognize some truths in the writing.

My only criticism of Late Nights on Air is that it seemed, at times, to lack momentum.  I can't decide if Hay's narrative technique was intentional (a loaded word, I know) or happenstance.  Either way, it made for an interesting, if not urgent, read.  Three wandering grizzlies out of five.

Summer Lovin'

A Vintage Affair
Isabel Wolff
Harper Collins

Okay, haters, er, I mean loyal blog readers ... I have an admission to make that just might provoke images of the apocalypse.   Prepare yourselves.  Ready?  I bought a Kindle a few weeks ago.  An even bigger admission?  I LOVE IT!!!

I never in a million years thought that I would become a fan of the e-reader.   I'm a committed bibliophile, for goodness sake, and I have shelves, cupboards, cabinets and nightstands brimming with books that have already been loved or are waiting to be read.   The smoothness of a cover between my fingers, the weight of a novel in my hand, or that delicious feeling that I get when I manage to read a 800 page tome without ever cracking the spine just thrill me.  Utterly.   The act of reading is as much a part of the experience as the words on the page.  Or so I thought.

A Vintage Affair was my first e-read and I absolutely adored it.  Set in Hempstead, Phoebe Swift, a former Sotheby's clothing specialist decides to open a vintage clothing store and in the process, works through some of her own baggage from the past.  Dealing with the death of a close friend and a failed relationship, Phoebe throws herself into her work and forges new ties that help her face her past.  This is a lovely story -- let's call it chick lit with substance -- and I highly recommend it as a solid summer read.

In fact, I had been curiously attracted to the cover of this novel a number of times in the bookstore, but refused to buy it because I didn't want to pay trade paper back prices for "chick lit."  The Kindle edition was much cheaper and, well, I found the reading experience to be completely different, but curiously, no less enjoyable.  I guess once you get lost in a good book the rest just falls away.  A Vintage Affair gets three cupcake dresses out of five. 

Subtle?  Are you kidding me?

The Subtle Knife
Philip Pullman
Yearling

Part of me wonders if Pullman (or his editors) had his tongue planted firmly in cheek when he came up with the title of this novel.   There is nothing subtle about this book -- it is absolutely over-the-top and choc-a-bloc full of religious imagery and poetic allusion.  Milton, Blake, Calvinistic and Catholic interpretations of doctrine/dogma -- oh yes, this book has it all.  There must be a lot of brainy twelve year olds out there cause that's where I found this in the bookstore.

The Subtle Knife picks right up where The Golden Compass leaves off.  Lyra is introduced to a new character, the aptly named Will, and together, the two of them travel to new worlds in search of Lyra's answers.  While the narrative conforms to the conventions of the fantasy genre, there is so much more going on in this novel.  Part me thinks that the other is writing a response, of sorts, to Milton's Paradise Lost.  Angels figure prominently in this novel and it is clear that Lyra's father, the Lord Asriel, is the new Satan.  Another part thinks that this is no more than a classic bildungsroman and the coming of age of both Lyra and Will is representative of how everyone must grow up.

While I can't say that I really enjoyed this novel as much as the first, it did make me think.  And, I might add, has me seriously considering digging out my Milton textbook from university and turning the pages of Paradise Lost.  The Subtle Knife gets two stardust nights out of five.

Simply Lyra-cal

The Golden Compass
Philip Pullman
Knopf

A couple of months ago, my boss and I decided we needed a break from work and as often happens, we started to talk about books.   I had recently sent home the Cassandra Clare novels for her daughters to read and in return, she shared some of her favourites with me.  Near the top of her list was the His Dark Materials trilogy by Philip Pullman.  Of course, I rushed right out and bought the first instalment and put it proudly on my shelf.  "Oh yes,"  I said to myself, "this will definitely be my next read."  Hah!  Somewhere along the way I got distracted -- I think it was by Dostoevsky.  Anyway, I rediscovered my purchase last week and here we are.

Let me start by saying that I can totally understand why the Catholic Church felt threatened enough to ban these books in their schools.  The first novel in the series, The Golden Compass, tells the story of Lyra, a little girl who finds herself at the centre of an epic drama that spans dimensions. It has all the elements of classic fantasy -- talking creatures, magic, and a heroine who undertakes a journey of self-discovery.   Revolutionary, right?  Okay, not so much, but the obvious borrowing from the works of both William Blake and John Milton (and what the author has done with Paradise Lost, in particular) might just be enough to start people questioning.  Well, that and the overt slams to organized religion.

Since reading this novel, I have actually completed the second in the series and am now on the third.  As the stories progress, they become incredibly didactic.  So much so, in fact, that I'm not even sure I will finish the third installment.  That said, The Golden Compass gets four shimmering constellations out of five.  Lyra is definitely a heroine to be admired.

Cetaceous Sea Slime 

Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters
Jane Austen and Ben H. Winters
Quirk Books

If you cast your minds way back to December, you'll recall that I selected Pride and Prejudice and Zombies at the D-E-S Book of the Year.  As I stated then, it definitely wasn't the best book that I had read in the past season, but it was one that I really, truly enjoyed.  I loved the idea of taking something canonical and adding utter ridiculousness to it.  The fact that it didn't really take away from Austen's story delighted me entirely and when I found out that Quirk was going to come out with another volume in the series, I thought "why the hell not?"

Sadly, Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters is not as well done as its predecessor.   In addition to pillaging Austen, the author borrows from the work of H.G. Wells, introduces elements of the Gothic novel that transforms Austen's mannered romance into something entirely different, and generally injects such an over-the-top weirdness to the novel that  it was, at times, a bit distracting.

Don't get me wrong, the portrayal of Colonel Brandon as a visually abhorrent facially tentacled sea monster is vastly entertaining.  The rampaging narwhals, the man-eating jelly fish and the ever-so-elusive fang beast all make for great, bizarre, fun.  I can't believe I'm going to say this, but SS&SM isn't quite as, uh, subtle as PP&Z.  Yes, I just referred to a book of manners about zombies and ninjas as subtle.  Use that, dear reader, as a guide when deciding to embark on this particular voyage.  Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters gets three giant lobsters out of five.

A different kind of Harlequin

The Golden City
John Twelve Hawks
Doubleday Canada

The Golden City is the last book of the Fourth Realm ttrilogy by the reclusive, off-the-grid writer John Twelve Hawks.  Like The Dark River, it continues to explore the themes introduced in the first novel of the series, and also like The Dark River, it does not up to expectation.

To read the publisher's blurb, you would think that the novel will take the reader on a fast-paced, literary journey that is part techno- thriller, part philosophical treatise, and part fantasy.  Unfortunately, the plot is predictable, the philosophy unclear, and the fantasy -- well, let's just say that Twelve Hawks was a little too Nora Roberts and not enough Neal Stephenson.  Two tired Harlequin warriors out of five.

Cougar Romance

Black Hills
Nora Roberts
Berkeley Mass Market

Let me start off by saying that the "Cougar" in the title of this post refers neither to me, nor to my dating habits.   It does, however, refer to the major preoccupation of one of the leads in this story.  Boys, you might as well stop reading now ... if you see the name Nora Roberts in the header, then undoubtedly I have fallen prey to the species known as the trashy romance.  I promise to review something way more testosterone worthy next time around.

Okay, so back to the book.  Black Hills is a love story set in one of the Dakotas.  Cooper, an eleven year old city kid, is dumped at his grandparents house for the summer and he is totally miserable.  His misses his friends, his apartment in New York,  and his Yankee's season tickets.  As it turns out, his only solace is his Gameboy -- the guilt gift purchased by his dad before sending Coop into exile.  One day a couple of weeks into his visit, his Grandma and Grandpa take him over to the neighbours' for dinner.  Coop meets 10-year old Lil and falls head over heels in love.  They are destined for one another.  Well, until he dumps her while she is away at college.  Just like a man, isn't it?

Flash forward to today.   Coop returns to the Dakota ranch to help his ailing grandpa with the family business.  He and Lil have only occasionally run into each other over the years so the, uh, tension is rather high.  Add to the fact that Lil suddenly becomes the focus of a crazed Sioux stalker, and well, we have lots of reasons for old feelings to resurface.

As far as romance novels go, this wasn't awful.  I read it in a few hours and it was a good distraction from a rather crazy week.  I'm not going to recommend it though -- she has written much better stuff with a lot more thoughts.  Two crazed cougars out of five.

In the Beginning …

Study in Scarlet
Arthur Conan Doyle
Penguin Books

Many moons ago (that is, the summer following my graduation from university,) I decided that I would spend my non-working time reading for pleasure. I’ll never forget that first book – Maugham’s Of Human Bondage – and how it felt to luxuriate over the words. That summer I also read Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Hound of the Baskervilles (not to be confused with Tess of the D’Ubervilles – it was a busy summer, what I can say?) It was my first Sherlock Holmes mystery and I recall thinking that the writing was interesting enough to read more. For whatever reason, I never did. Until now.

A Study in Scarlet is actually the first Holmes novel and as such, introduces us to the backgrounds of the quirky detective and his trusty companion. What was most surprising was the structure of the novel. Holmes actually answers the question “whodunit?” halfway through the text. The rest of the novel tells the back story of Holmes’ suspect. And what a story it is! Mormons, wagon trains, murders, international travel – heck, there was even a mention of St. Petersburg! The perfect holiday read, A Study in Scarlet gets four watching the detectives out of five.

Fool’s Gold

Fool
Christopher Moore
Harper

You have to love an author who is brave enough to eff with the classics. Moore’s Fool is an off-the-wall, non-re-telling of Shakespeare’s King Lear. Often zany and always funny, this tragic-comedy is narrated by Pocket, Lear’s Black Fool and erstwhile companion of the princess Cordelia.

The plot is complicated – Lear, an aged and sorrowful king, decides that it is time to divide his kingdom (England, Scotland, Wales, etcetera) among his daughters. The allotment of the realm will be determined by the girls themselves. He has asked each of them to publicly declare their love for him and be judged by their words. Sycophants and flatterers to the bitter end, Regan and Goneril lie through their teeth and speak of their deep and abiding love for their father. Lear is well pleased. Cordelia determines to speak the truth and admits to a deep filial love and nothing more. Lear decides, the kingdom is divided in twain, and Cordelia is exiled.

Enter the Fool. A true jackanapes, Pocket incites civil war, hangs with Macbeth’s witches, gets visited by a ghost, kills a nasty steward, takes care of a Natural named Drool, and recounts the innumerable times where he had occasion to shag Goneril and Regan rotten. As if that weren’t quite enough, he also introduces the reader to a wonderfully inventive swear word. Ready for it? Fuckstockings! I’ll be saying that for weeks!

While I didn’t love this book as much as Moore’s Lamb, I did enjoy it immensely. The numerous references to the Bard’s other works kept it interesting and I think I counted at least six or seven – maybe more. Three rollicking bollocks out of five.

Ditched Again

The Judas Strain
James Rollins
Harper

Last Thursday, I left hearth and home and headed overseas. One of my friends was getting married in Germany and that was all the excuse I needed to plan a bit of a jaunt. Of course, it wouldn’t be a holiday without a companion, so I invited Commander Pierce along for the ride. You remember him, right? Tall, dreamy, and oh-so-dedicated to the Sigma Force? Sigh. What is it they say about best laid plans?

Now that it is all over, I guess it’s okay to dish. Gray, as you know, just can’t seem to stay out of trouble. This time he and the gang were involved in some sort of bio-terrorism plot, so it was off to Southeast Asia to find the source (and hopefully cure) for this “new” disease. I say “new” because it turns out that there was a link between Gray’s case and the mysterious disappearance of most of Marco Polo’s returning fleet. Apparently, when Polo left China to return to Italy, he led a flotilla of sixteen ships. When he got home, there was only two left.

All that to say that I got ditched. It’s okay though. The wedding was beautiful and I think the bride and groom are the type of couple (unlike Gray and I) who will make it through anything. I’m now in St. Petersburg, sans Gray, and having a fantastic time. In fact, I’m at the Telegraph Pub enjoying a pint of maiden’s piss, er, I mean Harp, right now. Aside from the kitsch, nothing in the joint is in English and surprisingly, it hasn’t been a problem so far. The pub? Oh, it gets a three out of five stars.

Happy Birthday Daddio

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest
Quercus
Stieg Larsson

My dad's birthday was on Friday and I find that I miss him terribly.  It will soon be a year since he passed away and not a day goes by that my heart doesn't ache for him.  Losing a parent sucks no matter how old you are and I would give almost anything to have him back.  Sigh.  No one said life was fair.

So, I'm wondering if it is any sort of coincidence that I picked this weekend to read the final installment Larsson's Millennium series.  Honestly, this is crime writing at its best and almost everyone to whom I have introduced these novels have asked to borrow the second and third books.

In Hornet's Nest, Lisbeth Salander is recovering in the hospital from a gunshot wound to her head.  Her treatment at the hands of the Swedish government is a secret that cannot get out and the Zalachenko club within the secret police conspire to make the story go away.  Salander is charged with the attempted murder of her father (she did, after all, take an axe to his face,) and she must construct her defense from within her isolated hospital room with only her lawyer to help her.  Well, that and maybe a little bit of outside help from Mikael Blomkvist.

I half expected this novel to be quite slow and plodding.  Most of the action happened in the previous two books and the purpose of this volume was to tie up the loose ends.   While I'm willing to admit that it could have been as a result of my mood, I devoured this story and read it in huge hungry chunks. If I'm sad that Salander and Mikael will no longer be a part of my life, I'm happy that in a few years, I can re-read these wonders and enjoy them all over again.  If it were only so easy with real people.  I miss you Dad.  xok.

To Russia with Love

The Last Watch
Sergei Lukyanenko
Doubleday Canada

In preparation for my trip to St. Petersburg, I thought that I should get in the mood by reading some Russian literature.  The options are pretty impressive -- Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Chekhov -- you can't go wrong reading anything from that group. Once I got about a hundred pages or so into Anna Karenina, I decided that I might be better served if I were to read it when I am overseas.   I'm going to have a lot of airport time and AK will be just the ticket.

Of course, that left me scrambling for another Russian to read.  A quick trip to the bookstore and I was happy to learn that Sergei Lukyanenko actually published a follow up to the Night Watch series.  In this episode, Anton is sent to Edinburgh to investigate the murder of a young Russian tourist.  Normally, this kind of assignment would be beneath the notice  of a Higher Other such as Anton.  The tourist, however, was drained of all his blood and the Watches realize that they have a rogue Vampire on their hands.

Structured a little bit differently from the other novels in the series, The Last Watch again explores the relative notions of Good versus Evil.  Anton is a cynic, a skeptic, a believer, and an optimist.  If you're asking yourself how he can be all four at the same time, then you've just hit on one of the major themes of the novel.  Three thinking wizards out of five.

Location, location, location

A Reliable Wife
Robert Goolrick
Algonquin

When I travel, one of the things that I inevitably find the time to do is ... drum roll please  ... go to a bookstore.   Hah!  I can tell I surprised no one with that comment.  Would you find it more interesting if I told you that I always visit three "sections" on these jaunts?  Yep -- I check out the bestseller wall and/or table, the "staff picks" section, and the "local reads" area.  Of the three, my favourite is usually the staff picks.  I especially like those stores where mini-reviews are hand-written on recipe cards and thumb-tacked to the shelves.

Every once in a while, however, I manage to find a gem in the local reads section of the store.  That is exactly what happened on my last trip to Chicago.  It was the title that caught my eye, but it was the fact that the story was set in early 1900s Wisconsin that grabbed my imagination.

Goolrick's The Reliable Wife is a beautiful story about love, hope, passion, and despair.  Catherine Land, the novel's inscrutable heroine, answers an advertisement in the newspaper.  A prosperous gentleman, Ralph Truitt, is looking for a reliable wife.  Catherine responds by saying she is honest, simple, and the daughter of a missionary.  In reality, she is scheming and complex and a high-priced whore.  In fact, she is looking to marry Truitt and to leave Wisconsin a wealthy widow.  Arsenic is her weapon of choice.

The story unfolds in a most unexpected way and Catherine ends up experiencing passion with a complex man who has secrets of his own.  I really enjoyed this novel and would recommend it for a rainy weekend when you need to get lost in a book.  Three private railcars out of five.

The jokes I could make about beavers ...

Cherished
Elizabeth Thornton
Zebra Historical Romance

No disrespect to the author, but I am having a very difficult time finding anything relevant to say about this book.  Part of the problem is that I'm in the midst of reading Anna Karenina and while I am only a few chapters in, it is already consuming most of the thinking space in my brain.  The other issue is that I have actually read this book before .  The fact that it took me almost 100 pages to recognize the novel as a "been there, done that"  doesn't say that much about me.  Or about the writing.  How sad.

So, here's the plot ...  Leon has loved Emily from the time they were both children.   A little bit older than his true love, he understood that it was not proper to have impure thoughts about one so young.  To  deal with his feelings, he was mean to her and took every opportunity he could to torture and tease.  When Emily finally turned sixteen and had her coming-out ball, she witnessed Leon in the throes of passion with another woman and became quite distraught.  He followed her, a scene ensued, and they ended up marrying.  Agreeing with her guardian that Emily was too young to be a wife in the true sense, Leon took off to America to make his fortune in the fur trade. 

Flash forward five years.  Leon returns and takes Emily as his own.   There is danger afoot, however, and Leon decides to take his bride to America.  After the requisite amount of drama, (which includes voyageurs, Metis, and a bizarre love triangle)  the couple confess their love for each other and all is right with the world.  Is it any wonder that I forgot this book?  One grizzled fur trader out of five.

She wouldn't have a Willy or a Sam

Wolf Hall
Hilary Mantel
HarperCollins

Winner of the 2009 Man Booker Prize, Wolf Hall is definitely the best novel that I have read in the past year.  Told from the perspective of Thomas Cromwell (but curiously, not narrated in the first person), the book is almost written  as a series of tableaux vivants that describe the comings and goings of all the major players at the Tudor court of Henry VIII. 

The real story, however, focuses on the "upstart" Thomas Cromwell.  The son of a blacksmith and sometime alehouse proprietor, Cromwell manages to  escape his low birth and somehow become one of the most influential legislators and religious reformers of the 16th Century.  Eventually rising to the position of Henry VIII's  "right hand man," it is clear that Mantel's Cromwell has more in common with Machiavelli than just fluency in Italian.  From the outset of this story, Cromwell is observing, guiding, and taking advantage wherever and whenever possible.  He is the embodiment of Castiglione's courtier and Machiavelli's Prince.  Sigh.  The perfect man.

Despite the fact Cromwell is definitely the star of the show, Martel's other characterizations are equally interesting.  She made me hate Thomas More, adore King Henry, and absolutely despise all of the scheming Boleyns.  If you are at all interested in historical fiction, and willing to be surprised by a new twist on old territory, you should definitely read this book.  Five burning heretics out of five.

Not so Final Fantasy

Shadowrise
Tad Williams
DAW

Okay ... so non-hardcore fantasy fans can stop reading now.  This entry is only for the geeks.

OMG -- Williams has done it again.  Shadowrise is the third installment in what was supposed to have been the Shadowmarch trilogy.   Like Memory, Sorrow and Thorn, however, dude has more plot than pages and the final book as been split into two.  I'm not complaining and will happily add the fourth and final novel to my Christmas list.

Back to Shadowrise -- this book has it all.  Magic, heroes, battles, swords, heroines, gods, poets, dwarves and lots and lots of mayhem.   I think Williams might now be in the lead for my favourite fantasy write of all time.  Yes -- it was that good.  Five dashing princes out of five.

Return of the Mack

The Black Book
Ian Rankin
Orion

Call me lame, but  I hooked up with John a couple of weeks ago.  He was on a "break" from his girlfriend and I figured, what the hell -- what could it hurt?  Sure, he's a little disorganized, slightly misanthropic, and still has a more than questionable relationship with the bottle, but he's also funny, wickedly smart, and ever so manly.  I like manly.

As usual, we didn't spend too much time together.  He was working a case that was more personal than professional and it took up quite a bit of his time.  Apparently, one of his constables was put in the hospital and for some reason John thought the attack was related to a fire that he investigated about five years ago.  Turns out that the fire was an attempt to cover up a murder and you know my boy John ... can't leave a sudoku unsolved let alone a homicide.

On the upside, we did spend some good time together and he actually made me dinner one night.  I'd give it a three out of five in terms of effort.  On the downside, John has decided to get back together with his girlfriend.  Frankly, I'm not sure what the attraction is between the two of them.  They are always fighting and/or trying to avoid one other.  The make up sex must be spectacular.  I'll let you know if I see him again.

Immortal Beloved

Tuck Everlasting
Natalie Babbitt
Square Fish

What would it be like to live forever?  Would it be a curse or a blessing?  This is just one of the questions posed by Babbitt's 1975 classic Tuck Everlasting. 

When the story opens we are introduced to Winnie Foster, an eleven-year only child growing up in the late 1800s in America.  It is the dog days of August and Winne is oppressed by both the languid heat and her over protective parents.  School is still weeks away, she is bored and she is considering running away.

One morning with adventure in mind, she wanders into the wood that is on her property and comes across a beautiful young man who is sitting by a large tree and quenching his thirst in a spring.  Long story short, the spring is essentially the fountain of youth and the young man, Jesse, and his family haven't aged since drinking from it over eighty years ago.  To protect the secret, Winnie gets kidnapped by Jesse and his family.  Eventually, Winne has a decision to make -- should she drink from the spring and live forever or should she continue to grow, become a young woman, have children and eventually die?  That's a lot of thinking for one so young.  I'll not tell you how the book ends.

Without a doubt, this is the best story that I have read all year and if I were in charge of such things, it would find its way into hands of every little girl in the country. Please please please read this.   Five hot summer days out of five.

The Surreal Life

Fall
Colin McAdam
Penguin

I finished reading Fall on a Sunday afternoon about three weeks ago.  I tried to write about the book later that evening, but found that I didn't have the words.  I still don't seem to have them.  This is one of those novels that disturbs you on a fundamental level and once read, it is hard to get it out of your head.

The story opens at St. Ebury's -- a posh Ottawa boarding school.  Noel and Julius are roommates attending their senior year.  Noel is the son of a Canadian diplomat who is stationed in Australia.  He is quiet, obsessive, and unbeknownst to the rest of the school, a violent sociopath.  Julius is the son of the American ambassador to Canada.  He's tall, beautiful, athletic, and is the type of boy the Noel wishes he could be.  Fall, the character who lends the book one aspect of its title, is Julius' girlfriend and part of Noel's obsession.

I'm not sure why this book bothered me so much.  Admittedly, the subject was a little disturbing and it is clear from the opening passages that something is, well, not quite right.  Perhaps it was the narrative structure that threw me for a loop.  Noel, Julius and Julius' driver all take turns telling portions of the story and it is Noel's narration that is the most clear.  Or is it?  It has been weeks since I read this book and it is still taking up space in a corner of my mind.  The author either did a very good job, or something more is going on and I just need to figure out what it is.  Three pensive stars out of five.

Into Thin Air

The Smoke Thief
Shana Abé
Bantam

I'm sitting in front of the television trying to generate the enthusiasm to write this post.  I've been to the gym, I've gone for a walk and I've even checked my work email all in the spirit of procrastination.

Okay ... I'll just spit it out.  This book was terrible.  I'm not sure who gave the author the idea to mix a regency style romance with dragon-lore, but she probably should have backed away.  Here's the premise ... somewhere in the English countryside there is a closed society of almost-humans descended from a race of jewel-loving shape shifters who are, of course, dragons.  No one is allowed to leave the tribe and when someone does try to escape they are hunted,returned and punished and/or killed.

The heroine of our story, Clarissa, is one such escapee.  On her seventeenth birthday, she learns that she can shape shift (unusual in clan women) so she fakes her own death and moves to the city.  Fast forward a decade.  Now a notorious jewel-thief, Clarissa's clandestine activities attract the notice of the dragon mean and the hunt begins.  The rest of the story is so predictable that I won't bore you with the details.  I promise to never read anything by this author again.  One golden dragon out of five.

A Twofer.  Fangtastic!

City of Ashes
City of Glass
Cassandra Clare
Simon & Schuster

Okay, so I'm going to cheat a little.   I was on holiday a week or so ago and I started my vacation by reading the second installment of Cassandra Clare's Mortal Instruments trilogy.  The flight to St. Lucia is rather long (not that I'm complaining -- I would totally go back), but had the plane gone down, I probably wouldn't have noticed.  City of Ashes was as good, if not better than City of Bones and I was totally hooked.  So much so, that I finished the novel before we disembarked.

As you might have noticed from the entries in the past week, I did a lot of other reading while on vacation.  Is there anything better than a hammock, a palm tree, a good book, and an even better daiquiri?  I think not.  Stupidly, I had decided not to bring City of Glass along for the ride since it is only out in hardback.  If you have read any of my earliest posts, you'll know that I have very specific rules about what constitutes good plane fare.

So, I waited.  And wow -- City of Glass was totally worth it.  Even though it is classified as young adult fiction, the Mortal Instruments series is much like the Harry Potter body of work in that it is consumable by all ages.  I understand that the author is currently writing a "prequel" to the events in this series and as horrific as it sounds, I'm actually looking forward to it.  The Mortal Instruments gets four singing swords out of five.