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.