Three Cheers for the Glad Game!

The Prometheus Deception
Robert Ludlum
St. Martins Press

While it is not my normal practice to use this blog as a forum for complaint (it is, after all, a book review site), let me just say that this last year has been pretty hard on me. My dad got sick, I had a terrible car accident, I was homeless for a couple of months, one of my dearest friends passed away unexpectedly, my aunt was diagnosed with breast cancer, and my dad has gotten sicker and won't be getting better. If you add the everyday crap to the pile (the occasional bad work days, the on again/off again relationship with my best friend and my growing hate for the 401 around Milton) I should be laid out on a couch somewhere undergoing intensive bouts of psychotherapy. But I'm not. And why is that, you ask? It's because I've found my inner Pollyanna and I'm constantly playing the Glad Game.

Take, for example, the subject of this week's post. I started to "read" the Prometheus Deception with my dad when we went for a drive to distract him from the pain. He's to the point in his illness where he can no longer comfortably read a conventional novel, so I picked up an audio book to see if that would do the trick. It did and he has spent lots of happy hours listening to one of his favourite authors. The fact that I became so engaged in this particular story was an added bonus -- see how this Glad Game works?

Now, about the novel ... Nick Bryson is a retired spook who had spent his entire adult life working for an ultra-clandestine organization called the "Directorate". After a significant period of adjustment, he has finally settled into his new life as a university history professor when he is suddenly pulled back into the game. Someone is trying to establish a global, supra-governmental organization that would threaten the privacy and security of civilization as we know it. It is up to Nick to track the shadowy leaders and bring them down. This novel was choc-a-bloc full of dangerous exploits, exotic locales, beautiful women and terrifying men. I was addicted to the story and could hardly wait for Nick to figure it all out. 2.5 action heroes out of 5.

Nick and Nora's Murder and Martinis

The Thin Man
Dashiell Hammett
Knopf Doubleday

Who knew murder could be so glamorous? Taking a break from their business empire, Nick and Nora Charles decide to spend Christmas in New York. Between going to shows, flirting, lounging in speakeasies, and drinking martinis in bed, the two beautiful people manage to find some time to help the police solve the murder of the secretary of one of Nick's former colleagues. Suspects in the case include the colleague's former wife, her new gold-digging husband, their odd children, and the secretary's gangster boyfriend. Yeah -- I know -- it's no wonder that they needed the drinks.

Like the Maltese Falcon, The Thin Man is very sophisticated read. I don't find Hammett's writing quite as hard-boiled as Chandler and in some respects, this novel reads almost like a Restoration comedy of manners. No matter how you look at it, however, Nick and Nora are a couple worth knowing. Three prohibition dodgers out of five.

The Tide that Binds

What I Was
Meg Rosoff
Doubleday Canada

Set in an English backwater boarding school during the early 60s, What I Was tells the story of 16-year old Hilary --a boy who has already mastered the art of disaffection. Having been expelled from two schools previously, H ends up at St. Oswald's and quickly settles into the same old routine of bad food, worse dorms and the torturous attentions of upper classmen. Just living in such a dour and dismal place proves to be an exercise of Sisyphean proportions. It all changes, however, the moment H meets Finn -- a boy of almost unbearable beauty who lives in a cabin at the edge of the sea.

H is taken with the young man on a number of levels. In fact, it is almost as if Finn is the mirror of what H desires to be --independent, confident, capable, smart and elusive. It has been quite some time since I have read a book that so captures the feelings first love -- the excitement, anxiety, fear and absolute yearning for someone other than yourself. As the friendship between the two characters grows, Rosoff takes her readers to an almost magical place where anything is possible. The real world eventually intrudes, however, and H's idyll collapses like a wave crashing against the sand.

What I Was is a lovely story in all ways. The author's prose was passionate, intimate and at times, left me breathless -- so much so that I want to visit the land, sea and sky that she has beautifully described. The fact the the story eluded my expectations was an unanticipated bonus. Three and a half wheeling seabirds out of five.

Romancing the Stoned, er ... Stone

Tribute
Nora Roberts
Jove Books

This past weekend found me up in the MoFo hanging with the parentals for the Easter holiday. I haven't been sleeping well in the last little while so my mom decided that it wouldn't hurt if I "borrowed" one of her sleeping pills. Note to self -- never read a romance novel after taking someone else's medication. The dreams are a little weird.

I am going to go on record and state that I actually liked this novel. If you recall from a few posts ago, Ms. Roberts had definitely let me down with her last series -- her trilogy was too long, too poorly written and the characters were uninteresting. Tribute has managed to restore my faith in her romance-writing prowess. This novel had a good plot, a mystery that kept me guessing, a hot graphic-novelist hero with an uber-cute dog, and an approachable, not-too-perfect heroine. All the right things to keep me entertained. Now if I could only figure out how to sleep. Sigh. Two point five superheros out of five.

Reading America

Run

Ann Patchett

Harper Perennial

One of the coolest things about my job is that I get to travel. Oh sure, sometimes it's a total drag, but if I'm honest with myself, I have admit that there are way more ups than downs. Take this past week, for example. When I left Toronto on Monday morning, we were in the middle of a freak snow storm. Tuesday morning found me running outside in shorts and tank top, watching the sun come up over the hills in LA. Who could complain about that?

Another benefit of being on the road is that I get to try on cities. Some, like Chicago, have the comfortable feeling of favourite sweater. I know I could live there and not feel out of place. Others, like Miami, are way more exotic ... kind of like eating a spicy new dish -- looks interesting, but you're not always sure that you're going to like it. Like travelling, reading can also let you try out new places. This week's novel, Run, is set in Boston and the city just pops out of the pages of this book.

Set over a period of 24 hours, this book is about family -- the ones you're born with and the ones you choose. It is about obligation -- both perceived and real and how that sense of duty nurtures and destroys. The book is also about love -- the kind that stretches beyond death and fills your soul with joy and sorrow. And finally, it is about secrets -- the unsaid truths that shape our thoughts and actions in unanticipated, sometimes unpredictable ways. In a nutshell, this book is about our own families. Read it if you dare. Three unhurried walks along the Freedom Trail out of five.

It's in the genes, baby, it's in the genes.

The Time Traveler's Wife

Audrey Niffenegger

Vintage Canada

I haven't actually been to the bookstore in a couple of months. My TBR queue is a little out of control from the wondrous giftage I received over the holidays and to be honest, I am desperately trying to save money. What the hell was I thinking in becoming a homeowner? The world is a cruel, cruel place when it forces you to choose between blinds for the windows or books for the shelves.

While I'm not exactly sure when I picked up this novel, I can tell you that I found it on the Chapters table of "great reads." From the publisher's blurb on the back, I knew it was the kind of book that I wanted to save for when I needed to lose myself for a little while. My timing, it seems, was perfect because once I started to read this novel, my everyday world faded away and I could think of nothing but the story of Henry and Clare.

Henry, as the book's title suggest, has a genetic disease that causes him to travel backward and forward through time. When he travels, he cannot take anything with him (he arrives naked and nauseous), he cannot "change" history, and he cannot control the length of his stay. What he can do, is visit the the older/younger version of himself. Can you even imagine what it would be like to drop in on yourself as a seven year old? Very cool. What makes the story so compelling is how it is told from both the perspective of Henry as well his wife Clare. Each chapter is time and date stamped with Henry and Clare's "ages" and often, each character narrates a portion of the text. I cannot begin to describe how intricately beautiful this love story is. I can guarantee you, however, that it will become a classic. Five weary travelers out of five.

Killing Me Softly

The Lovely Bones

Alice Sebold

Little Brown & Company

Over the years, I've known a lot of people who have read and recommended this book. To be candid, I was suspicious of its seemingly universal appeal and thought of it in the same way that I would an Oprah's pick -- it might be good for the "masses", but surely I wouldn't find it interesting. It wasn't until my boss tossed it on my desk that I gave it any consideration at all. I am so glad I did.

The Lovely Bones opens with the teenage narrator, Susie Salmon, telling you that she has been murdered by Mr. Harvey -- her neighbour from down the street. As Susie watches her family from a curiously godless heaven, her loved ones slowly start to disintegrate and then regenerate themselves in a post-Susie world. While the subject matter is a tough (Susie is, after all, killed by a serial murderer who never gets caught), the novel is uplifting in the sense that each of the characters end up in a place that feels "right" to the reader. Don't get me wrong -- it's not all sweetness and light -- but it did feel real and maybe that's the appeal of the novel. Three very friendly ghosts out of five.

Wizards of Oz

A Fraction of the Whole
Steve Toltz
Anchor Canada

Sorry that I have been away from you guys for awhile. Once again, my personal life has gotten in the way and left me with very little time to write. I have, however, managed to read a line or two and if you count trashy romances, I've knocked back three books in the past two weeks! Um, yeah. I'm definitely not bragging.

So, let's talk about the subject of this week's entry -- Steve Toltz's A Fraction of the Whole. I don't even know where to start -- this was one funny, if slightly acidic, book. The novel recounts the story of Jasper Dean, his misanthropic father Martin Dean, and his notoriously famous uncle, Terry Dean. This family definitely puts the "fun" in dysfunctional and parts of the novel had me snorting with laughter. Toltz's prose was also starkly beautiful at times, so much so that he moved me to tears. Think John Irving with a dash of Augusten Burroughs and a smidgen of Immanuel Kant. Yup -- it is that complex.

While I can totally appreciate why this novel was short-listed for the 2008 Booker, it boggles the mind that this is actually Toltz's debut work. I can't wait to see what he comes up with next. Four not-so-happy Schopenhauers out of five.

Just Friends

Strip Jack
Ian Rankin
Orion

Even though I've been crazy busy over the past few weeks, I managed to find some time to hook up with my old friend John Rebus. OMG ... it's so not what you're thinking. He's dating someone else at the moment (her name is Patience -- could that be more fitting?) and while I don't think they are going to last forever, she seems happy enough to put up with both his job and his lack of commitment. He doesn't seem any happier though. I wonder how long it will take for him to notice?

Anyway, even though it's against protocol, John also told me about the new case that he's working. It's an interesting one ... he and the team were doing a raid on a local brothel and someone tipped off the press. Not so unusual, except one of the patrons was a high-profile MP. As it turns out, the raid was only the beginning of the MP's trouble -- before the scandal could die down, his socialite wife turned up dead. John barely had time to talk to me -- he's heads down working all of his leads.

In fact, between the job and his new girl, I'm not sure when we will next meet. Maybe in a couple of months when things are a bit less zany for the two of us. We'll probably go to another restaurant though -- the location for this week's encounter only got three stars. The food was decent, but the place seemed a bit tired and formulaic.

Hurtin' My Head

Anathem
Neal Stephenson
William Morrow

A few days ago, one of my friends sent me the email equivalent of a chain letter in which he listed 25 random things about himself. In an ideal world, the recipients of his note were supposed to respond in kind, but since I don't exactly go for that kind of thing, I didn't reply. I did, however, spend at least a few minutes thinking about the types of things that I might write.

When I tried to come up with my favourite book of all time, I got stumped. It appears that I have a favourite song, a favourite colour, and a favourite city, but I can't seem to settle on just one "favourite" book. What about a favourite author? Well, that objective seems a little more reasonable and I think I've come up with a top ten.

The D-E-S Top Ten Authors, Poets and/or Playwrights (in no particular order):
Paulo Coelho
George R R Martin
Neal Stephenson
Robertson Davies
Geoffrey Chaucer
William Shakespeare
Edmund Spenser
James Joyce
Jane Austen
Margaret Laurence

Number three on this list, Neal Stephenson, writes super brainy, math-based fiction, and I think his latest offering, Anathem, has just made my top five books of all time. The story is narrated by a young monk, Fraa Erasmus, who wrestles with concepts of space, time, quantum physics, logic, and multiple realities. I'm not going to lie to you ... this was not an easy read. Once you start it however, be prepared to get lost in the 900 plus pages. It is totally worth it. Five almost Socratic dialogues out of five.

Booker or Bummer?

The Gathering
Anne Enright
Black Cat

I finished reading The Gathering a couple of days ago. I'm inclined to believe that it is one of those books that you have to think about for awhile before you can actually presume to analyse it. I can tell you right now that I could think about it for the next year and still not know what to write. It was one of those books that hurt to read.

The Gathering is narrated by Veronica, a thirty something housewife, who has just learned that her brother Liam has committed suicide by filling his pockets and walking into the sea. She goes off to England to retrieve his body and bring it back to Dublin for a traditional Irish wake. The story jumps back and forth through time in a decidedly stream-of-consciousness kind of way and we learn that Liam and Veronica shared a terrible secret that may (or may not) have led to Liam's death.

The secrets, sins, vices, and failings of the entire Hegarty clan are laid bare for all to see. In fact, the most compelling part of this novel is how Enright describes a family that is no more or no less dysfunctional than any other. There is a universality in her characters and the defiant vulnerability of the protagonists (both Veronica and the imagined ghost of Liam) is heart-breaking and achingly beautiful. Three and a half drams of whiskey out of five.

Fiends, Animals and Fucktards

You Suck
Christopher Moore
William Morrow

Over the past few months, I have spent a great deal of time in my car. The downside is that I don't particularly enjoy driving -- especially by myself. The upside is that I have recently discovered audio books. Thanks to both my kick ass sound system and my local library, the road is no longer a sad and lonely place.

Last week, I listened to You Suck by Christopher Moore. The book opens with the hero, C. Thomas Flood (aka Tommy) discovering that his girlfriend Jody has recently turned him into one of the undead. Like all good fledgling vampires, Tommy goes out and recruits a minion -- Abby Normal -- a sixteen year old goth girl who looks like a broken marionette. Abby is completely infatuated with "vampire" culture and lives for the day when Lord Flood will complete her transformation into a creature of the night.

Maybe it would have been a different experience had I read the novel instead of having listened to it, but the best parts of the narration were the "excerpts" from Abby's journal. When she called someone a fucktard for the first time I almost drove off the road I laughed so hard. Like all Moore books, You Suck was a hilarious. Three stoner stock boys out of five.

Ordinary People

Middlemarch
George Eliot
Penguin Classics

The problem with reviewing a "classic" novel is that everything relevant, interesting, or even slightly thought-provoking has already been written. Virgina Woolf once said that Middlemarch is a "magnificent book which, with all its imperfections, is one of the few English novels written for grown-up people." Um, yeah. Given enough time, I'm sure I would have come up with that line. Really.

Middlemarch, which was originally produced/written as a serialized novel, reads very much like the script of a daytime soap opera. The plot focuses on the stories/character development of three main families -- the Brookes, the Vinceys, and the Lydgates. The novel is set in a fictional Midlands town during the early 1830s, and like a modern-day soap, the different narratives intertwine and add all sorts of complication to the characters' lives. Also like a daytime soap, the novel explores contemporary social themes -- in this case, religion, class mobility, political reform, the status of women, the nature of marriage, love vs. passion, and individuality (self-interest) vs. the social good. Middlemarch is a big book about big ideas. The fact that it is also a delightful read is just a bonus.

And, while I don't normally talk about the author, I'm going to make an exception in this case. George Eliot, or Mary Ann Evans as she was also known, was an extraordinary woman. Shunned by "polite" society because she lived unmarried with her partner, George Henry Lewes, she was one of England's leading Victorian writers and intellectuals. Even though women were publishing at the time, she took a male pen name to ensure that her novels were taken seriously. At the heart of most of her writing was the belief that it is the mundane and ordinary that prove to be the most interesting. Middlemarch is a brilliant example of this belief. Four extraordinary ordinaries out of five.

Jane Eyre -- A Poem, by the D-E-S

Jane Eyre

Charlotte Brontë

Penguin Classics

Plain Jane, good and kind,
Met a man who knew her mind.
Loved him well despite his lie,
Became so sad she thought she'd die.

Plain Jane, a girl devout,
Left her man and ventured out
Into a world -- unknown and vast
Her soul adrift, her strength surpassed.

Plain Jane, a family found,
Joy and gladness all around.
But for the man she longed inside.
Buried deep, not cast aside.

Jane ... Jane, without a word,
His mind to hers, the call was heard.
To her Rochester she ran
Their souls entwined, their lives began.

----------------

Hey gang. I thought I'd mix it up a bit in terms of the reviews. I called my mom and read Jane Eyre to her over the phone (duh, the poem, not the novel ) and she gave me the green light to post the entry. The whole exercise seemed so Grade 5 that I figured I should pretend like it was homework.

Anyway, she said she'd happily take all criticism with regard to how poorly it is written and I cheerfully promised to pass it along. Oh -- and for the curious, Jane Eyre the novel gets 5 brooding heroes out of 5. I had forgotten how much I enjoyed it.

Postcolonial or Post 9-11?

The Inheritance of Loss
Kiran Desai
Penguin

When I was in grad school, postcolonial criticism was all the rage and as part of a number of courses, I had to read the likes of Said, Spivak and Foucault. While my brain is no longer capable of understanding and/or internalizing such big ideas, some of those lectures must have stuck because as soon as I picked up this novel words such as alternity, hybridity, otherness, imperialism and ethnocentrism immediately came to mind.

And it's true -- the novel, which is set in the foothills of the Indian Himalayas during the 80s, deals with all of these themes and how British and American culture, in particular, have altered the characters' perceptions of themselves. In addition to the collision of cultures, the story also examines the conflict between past versus present desires, the efficacy of terrorism, the gluttony of consumerism, and the cult of the individual. The more I read, the more I wondered if, despite the overt references to other examples of post-colonial literature, the novel was an expression of a post 9-11 sensibility? Is this even a legitimized critical approach? I would think so, but since I've given up academe, I'll have to leave it to the experts.

As for a rating, The Inheritance of Loss won the 2006 Man Booker prize so who am I to give it a score? I can say that it was lyrical, wise, beautiful and sad. In other words, a very good read.

May I have the envelope, please?

The D-E-S book of the year award for 2008 goes to (pause for drum roll and fumbling with a waxed seal ...) Diane Setterfield for her novel The Thirteenth Tale.

I absolutely adored this book and recommend saving it for one of those cold, rainy nights where you can curl up by the fire with a blanket, a glass of wine, and have the weather provide the soundtrack to the story. Don't plan on going to bed early though -- once you start this one, you might find it hard to put down. A few of my friends have written to complain of lost sleep and unproductive workdays. Do yourself a favour and start it on a Friday. Or better yet, take it up to the cottage and save it for a dark and stormy night. Enjoy.

I AM the Wolfman

Tooth & Nail

Ian Rankin

Orion Books

I read in the introduction to the novel that the original title of this book was Wolfman. It made me wonder how people come up with both titles and cover art. Does the publisher make the decision? Does the author have any creative control? And in the case of this particular novel, what do hydro lines and what looks suspiciously like starlings, have to do with a serial killer that bites his victims on the belly post-mortem? Maybe it's like a Warhol album cover for the Velvet Underground -- conceptual and far beyond my level of understanding.

Enough musings -- on to the meat of this post. Tooth & Nail is the third installment in the Inspector Rebus crime series by Ian Rankin. In this "episode", John finds himself shipped off to London to assist in the investigation of a particularly gruesome series of murders. As you would expect, nobody is terribly keen to have to listen to the "import" and as such, he seems more a fish out of water than ever. I particularly enjoyed the way Rankin used language in this novel to highlight Rebus' alienation. When Rebus' first gets to London, his accent and idiom are so thick that no one can understand him. We are meant to feel a little sorry for the rumpled old bloke. And I did.

I imagine we'll see Inspector Rebus at least a couple of more times over the course of the new year. For 2009, I'm going to try to branch out a little and read selections from outside my comfort zone. As for Tooth & Nail, this crime novel gets three hoolit cheers out of five. Fangtastic!

Four Reading Birds

My Sister's Keeper

Jodi Picoult

Washington Square Press

Another Christmas has come and gone (well, not quite -- technically this is just day four of twelve) and I have already made a dent in the new additions to my to-be-read pile. While I haven't yet opened up all of my gifts, so far I've received three books and a gift card. The best part, of course, is that I had yet to read and/or buy any of them. I'm so giddy I can hardly sit still. Well, until I get absorbed into the pages -- then you need a crowbar pry me from my seat.

First up was Jodi Picoult's My Sister's Keeper. I had heard a lot about this book and had even picked it up a few times at the bookstore before getting distracted by something else. As it turns out, I should have kept it in my basket. This was an amazing read.

Set somewhere in New England, the novel tells the story of Anna and Kate. Kate is a sixteen year old girl who, at the age of two, was diagnosed with a rare form of leukemia. Anna, her thirteen year old sister, is a genetic match who was essentially bred by her parents to act as a donor of cells, marrow and tissue. The books opens with Anna visiting a lawyer's office to become emancipated from her parents -- they want her to donate a kidney to her dying sister and she has finally had enough and wants to be able to decide what to do with her own body. I was hooked from the opening word.

Putting aside the interesting moral issues that the book raises (which I will admit rescued it from being just another schmaltzy melodrama), I was very much engaged by the narrative technique used by the author. Each chapter in the novel is narrated by a different character in media-res. There are a couple of flashback chapters that fill us in on the back-stories of the various characters, but essentially, the reader lives the drama with the protagonists. Except for Kate. We don't hear from her until the very end of the novel. I'm not going to tell you how it turns out. I will say, however, that I was surprised and genuinely sad. Three point five breaking hearts out of five.

Always a Bridesmaid ...

The Prairie Bridesmaid

Daria Salomon

Key Porter Books

Okay -- so I now have a new rule when going to the bookstore. Do not buy books based on the on-air musings of your favourite radio host. It doesn't matter that you have a slight crush on him, that you totally dig the groovy music that he plays, or that he actually smells fantastic (I know this for a fact -- he once sat next to me in the Atrium and I was sure that I was in olfactory heaven.) Matt "Slivertongue" Galloway cannot be trusted -- he can make anything sound good. Even a poorly-written, angst-filled piece of crap.

The Prairie Bridesmaid is a novel about Anna -- an unhappy, almost thirty-something who decides that she's got a lot of bad in her life -- her job as a high-school English teacher is completely unrewarding, she's in a soul-sucking relationship, and she smokes and drinks far more than is good for her. While she is trying to sort out these woes, she's also dealing with a bunch of other dramas -- namely, an ailing grandma, a flighty-sister, and a wedding-from-hell.

Is this ringing any bells with you? Yup ... substitute New York for Winterpeg and you have every other chick-lit novel that you ever read. Sure, Salomon was witty, sardonic and more than just a little bit cynical. She just wasn't as good as the hype. One tattered crinoline out of five.

Bloody Awful

The Pagan Stone
Nora Roberts
Jove

Have you ever read a book that is just so terrible that you don't have the words to describe it? Um, er, ah ... oh forget it -- I give up. This book totally sucked.

I have to admit to feeling a little betrayed. Normally I can count on Ms. Roberts to take me away for at least a couple of hours of good clean fun. Her "family-based" romances are usually quite engaging and in the past, I've often found myself wistfully enjoying her unrealistic, yet slightly addictive, version of boy meets girl.

I don't know if it was the combination of romance and poorly-written fantasy that irritated me, or if the goddess of the romance market was just off her game. In any case, do not pick up this book. In fact, give the whole series a miss. It started out on solid footing and with a hundred or so more pages, could have beeen wrapped up beautifully in one tidy (and enjoyable) volume. Minus two pebbles out of five.

Soul Reading

Hey kids! Isn't it amazing how quickly the year passes? It seems like just the other week that I was wracking my brain trying to figure out how to come up with a shortlist for the 2007 D-E-S Book of the Year.

Well, this year's exercise hasn't been any easier. I read so many fantastic books in the past twelve months that it really is a difficult task to come up with a top five. Because of you, dear reader, I expanded my horizons and read outside my comfort zone. I flirted with mysterious men, I fell in love with circus performers, and I opened my mind to theories (economic and otherwise) that I thought I'd never understand. Thank you ever so much.

So, without further ado, I am pleased to announce this year's six nominees for the D-E-S Book of the Year:

• Water For Elephants - Sara Gruen
• The Thirteenth Tale - Diane Setterfield
• The Professor and the Madman - Simon Winchester
• Lonely Werewolf Girl - Martin Millar
• The Maltese Falcon - Dashiell Hammett
• A Thousand Splendid Suns - Khaled Hosseini

As always, I'll make the official announcement sometime after Christmas day. This isn't like Canada Reads, so please feel free share your favourites via the comments/feedback link. I'm hoping that at least one of you makes a suggestion or two that will influence future posts in this space.

Have a warm, safe and happy holiday season. Wishing each of you peace and joy for 2009.

Crazy is as Crazy Does

The Professor and the Madman
Simon Winchester
Harper Perennial

You've probably all figured out by now that the D-E-S is a bit of a word nerd. It could be because my given name rhymes with Librarian, or maybe it's because my parents encouraged me to read from a very early age -- I'm not sure. What I do know is that I unapologetically love language and I get genuinely excited when I add something new to my vocabulary.

It was with utter delight and a great deal of excitement that I started The Professor and the Madman -- a non-fiction work that tells the story of the creation of the OED -- the Oxford English Dictionary. I know, you're thinking "there she goes again -- spinning that EMBS propeller," but honestly, this book was fascinating. Started in 1857, the first full edition of the OED took over 70 years to write. In this account, we are introduced to two of the main contributors to this ambitious project -- Professor James Murray, one of the principle editors of the first edition, and Dr. Charles Minor, a prolific contributor, Civil War veteran, and resident in a facility for the criminally insane.

Murray and Minor corresponded for over twenty years before they actually met face-to-face. Minor, who killed a man in a fit of paranoia was to be incarcerated "until Her Majesty's Pleasure be known." He entered an asylum when he was 37 and died, in custody at the ripe old age of 85. During that time, he contributed thousands of words and quotations to the OED and managed to carry out his meticulous research while suffering from what would now be diagnosed as severe schizophrenia. James Murray, while a little less colourful, was no less interesting. He came from family so poor that he had to leave school at the age of 14. His thirst for knowledge, however, was unquenchable and by the time he was a young man, he had a seat on the Royal Philological Society. It was a short hop, skip and jump from there to full-fledged lexicographer and editor of the most exciting, ambitious dictionary project the world had ever seen.

Even if you're not a word nerd, The Professor and the Madman is still a very interesting read. So much so, in fact, that I think I'm going to break with tradition and put it on the list for the D-E-S book of the year. I liked it that much. 4 printing plates out of 5.

Teenage Fangst

Twilight
Stephanie Meyer
MT Books - Little Brown

While I don't normally give into peer pressure, I picked up this book because it has suddenly appeared on the reading lists of many of my friends. The publisher's blurb describes it as a kind of modern day Romeo and Juliet set in the Pacific Northwest. And yes, while it is directed at a young adult audience, it is another book about vampires. I'm sorry -- serious-minded folk should stop reading right now. My next post will have something with substance (and reflection). I promise.

If I'm being generous, I'd say that author takes a conventional, over-used narrative and at least tries to do something interesting. The main characters are Bella and Edward. She's an ethereal beauty who has just moved from the land of sun and energy to a small town in Washington State. He's a 100-year old conscience-plagued vampire, enrolled as a junior in high school since he was only 17 when he was transformed. Of course, they are partners in Biology class and the chemistry is electric. Wait, I mean biology ... oh ... you get the idea. I never really was that interested in science.

Regardless, as much as I would like to share my friends' enthusiasm, the best that I can say is that the book had some genuinely sweet moments. The author is able to channel the roller coaster of emotions of a teen in love and for that, I have to give her at least a little credit. Twilight gets two murky stars out of five.

Needle and the Damage Done

The Journal of Dora Damage
Belinda Starling
Bloomsbury UK

The D-E-S has received a few emails in the past couple of weeks wondering about my temporary disappearance from the blogosphere. I'm sorry gang,
I just haven't been in the mood to read. One of my closest friends, a gentle spirit, and a frequent commenter on this site passed away quite unexpectedly a few weeks ago. It's been tough. I know I haven't been reading because I've been avoiding the blog. I haven't wanted to write. I know that VL would want me to keep at it, so here I am. I'll apologize now for the crap entry. Every time I start it, I begin to cry.

While I didn't know it at the time of selection, The Journal of Dora Damage proved to be an apt choice for this week's entry. Set in Victorian England during the 1860s, the novel tells the story of Dora -- a fearless woman who, when faced with the loss of the family business due to her husband's ailing health, takes over the bindery and opens a new line of business. That's right, kids, she binds porn novels for London's finest citizens. Helping her in her illicit endeavours are Din -- her soon-to-be lover and escaped slave from America, Jack -- a drunken young dandy who gets thrown in jail for his homosexuality, and Pansy, a victim of sexual abuse who needs to support her dozen or so brothers and sisters.

For a first novel, this was a pretty good effort. At times, however, it seems that Starling was trying to "out Dickens" Dickens and I will admit to wanting to skim over large sections of text. We'll never get to know if Starling's sophomore effort would have been much improved. Like my friend VL, she passed away at too young an age with much of her life unlived.

And finally, a few words for that "curmudgeonly old troglodyte". We miss you, VL. A lot. When I'm ready, I'll read (and review) Anna Karenina. It was the last book you bought for me before you gave up going to the bookstore. It figures that you stuck me with a gigantic Russian tome -- I know you're laughing wherever you are. Love you always.

The Bard and Bull

Shakespeare
Bill Bryson
Harper Collins

No, the title for this week's post is not the name of my local pub (although it is kinda catchy.) "The Bard" (for those of you who have been living under a rock your entire lives) is an oft-used moniker for one of the greatest English language writers the world has ever produced--William Shakespeare.

Part of me wonders what Bryson was thinking. Why would someone knowingly write yet another biography about one of the most researched subjects/authors in all of English literature? What new, interesting and enlightening scholarship could he possibly have to add? Well, the joy in this book is that Bryson resists conjecture and sticks only to the facts. Yes, it is a slim volume, but what he does write makes for an elegant, accessible, and entertaining read.

Did you know, for example, that of the six recorded signatures by Shakespeare, not one of them is spelled the same? Were you aware that the words "abstemious, antipathy, ... lonely, leapfrog, zany, well-read, and countless others - including countless!" were first found in Shakespeare's works? Bryson manages to take an over exposed dude like Shakespeare and reinvigorate the subject while leaving the reader amused. Three kingdoms for a horse, er, I mean out of five.

Re-Branded

My Booky Wook

Russell Brand

Hodder

As mentioned a number of blog posts ago, I'm not a huge fan of the memoir. I think there's something dishonest about a genre that purports itself to be "non-fiction" when we all know that it is next to impossible to accurately remember events without the cloudy lens of perspective. That said, when I do read some kind of autobiography, it is usually of the train wreck variety. A few months ago, I read the latest offering from Augusten Burroughs. Funny and only slightly disturbing. This week's subject matter, British comedian Russell Brand, is infinitely more so in both categories. Hilarious and, well, more than just a little bit shocking.

For those of you who aren't familiar with Russell Brand, I would say that he's one of the UK's top comedians. His brand of humour is hard to describe, but he is very articulate, extremely witty and often very silly. What sets him apart is that he doesn't seem to come with boundaries and will do pretty much anything to get the laugh. He did, after all, get fired from MTV for showing up to work the day after 9/11 dressed as Osama bin Laden. He's also a man who has found the inner resolve to work through a number of addictions and his memoir, My Booky Wook, walk us through his life up to the point where he gets clean.

This book has often been described as laugh-out-loud funny. I decided to put that claim to the test and every time I caught myself chuckling, I put a big fat check mark in the margin. There's at least 10 ticks in my copy and would have been more had I also been keeping track of the smiles and occasional snorts. Three outrageous stand up acts out of five.

I'm So Done with Vampires ...

Lonely Werewolf Girl
Martin Millar
Soft Skull Press

Over the past few months, life for the D-E-S has been a little chaotic. Aside from the occasional stolen moment, I haven't had a lot of down time and one of the things that I've longed to do is spend an entire day reading a really good book. This past Sunday, the Powers that Be presented me with the perfect opportunity - I was alone in a foreign country, I had completed enough of my work to avoid feeling guilty, and I had two (count 'em two!) books that looked like they might turn out to be a solid, friendly companion.

From the moment I picked up Lonely Werewolf Girl, I was completely entranced. I mean, who's kidding who? Werewolves are usually depicted in Fantasy Lit as brutish, furry, and well, mostly uninteresting. Imagine how engaged I was when the characters in LWG were all complicated, gritty and incredibly evocative. Take the heroine, Kalix, for example. She is a seventeen year old Scottish werewolf who has been kicked out of the family clan for attacking (and severely injuring) her father. Living in the alleyways of London, Kalix, while achingly beautiful, is a cutter and an anorexic who believes that no one loves her. Her older sister, Thrix, is a London clothing designer who counts among her clients the otherworldly Malveria -- Queen of the Fire elementals (and quite a character besides.) Kalix's two cousins and fellow family outcasts, Beauty and Delicious, are wannabe rock stars who have travelled so far down the road to hedonism that they have forgotten how to turn into werewolves. Add a battle for the head of the werewolf clan between Kalix's brothers and we've got enough drama to fill an entire day.

Lonely Werewolf Girl was totally worth the read-a-thon. I loved it so much that I flew through the 558 pages in less than twelve hours. That included time off for good behaviour (eating, peeing and going to the gym!) LWG gets four howling death-machines out of five.

Fallen Stars & Faerie Tales

Stardust
Harper Collins
Neil Gaiman

In the spirit of full disclosure, I should tell you that I have a mild crush on Neil Gaiman. It's not like I've progressed to the threshold of stalker, or anything, but I really do think he's pretty groovy. His blog is awesome, his hair is spectacular, and his writing makes me forget the world around me. What else do I need to be happy?

Stardust is the story of a young man, Tristran Thorn who falls in love with a beautiful girl. While watching the night sky one evening, the pair witness a falling star. Tristran offers to retrieve the star as proof of his love for the young maid, she grants him permission to set out on his quest, and off he goes into the land of Faerie.

What I enjoyed most about this novel was how Gaiman takes the standard conventions of the romantic epic and tweaks them in such a way that you're not sure if he is taking the piss, or if he is being genuine in his appreciation for the rules of the genre. In the tradition of the Brothers Grimm, Gaiman's fairy tale isn't full of sweetness and light and some of the scenes are actually quite violent. As always, Mr. Gaiman was able to transport me into a different world if only for a few hours. Three and a half magic spells out of five.

I Love a Rainy Night

The Thirteenth Tale
Diane Setterfield
Anchor Canada

Yesterday was almost perfect. When I woke up, I put on the radio, made a nest of the covers on my bed and snuggled back in for an extra half hour of sheer laziness. Once I finally roused myself, I randomly grabbed a book off the nightstand, popped it into my bag and headed out the door for the day.

I started reading The Thirteenth Tale at the hair salon. It next came out of my bag over lunch at the mall. I really meant to go for a run in the afternoon, but instead I found myself curled up on the couch unable to put the book down. At suppertime, I had to tear myself away to meet my friend Janice for dinner. I considered bringing it along in case she was late and even went so far as to put it in my purse. I took it out at the last minute -- didn't want to seem rude.

When I got back to the house, I contemplated watching some television or putting in a DVD. That thought lasted, oh, maybe thirty seconds. Instead, I took up the book and read until it was done. It was totally worth it. In fact, I liked the book so much that I'm not going to tell you what it was about. It stands a pretty good chance of being the D-E-S book of the year and I wouldn't want to ruin the surprise. Four melodramatic twists out of five.

Apocalypse Now?

An Illustrated Short History of Progress
Ronald Wright
Anansi

This poor book has been through a lot in the past few weeks. I started reading it at the last Argo home game where, in a moment of mad cheering, I spilled some pop on it and dropped it on the floor of the stands. Gross. Good thing you can use hand sanitizer on a book cover.

It then accompanied me on a road trip to Michigan where it was exposed to what I can only imagine to be the somewhat toxic fumes of a NASCAR race. (Um yeah, I'm pretty sure I was the only fan there who had a book in her purse.) Some of the tire debris actually got stuck to the pages. We were only a few rows up from the track and we all looked like grease monkeys before the afternoon was out.

This book was also my in-car companion on moving day. Happily, my friend Peter rescued it for me from what was left of Finnigan after I rolled it on the 427 (a major expressway in Toronto for those of you from out-of-town.) Apparently, the poor thing flew from my purse and landed in a heap of shattered glass and gum drops. The corners are a little dog-eared, but it wasn't that much worse for wear. And neither am I.

So the question is ... after going through all that was it a good read? The answer is definitely yes. An Illustrated Short History of Progress is a cautionary tale that advises us to learn from our mistakes and look to the burn out of past civilizations in order to help us avoid our own demise. It's not the most uplifting read, but it is very enlightening. Three and a half declining empires out of five.

Geeks, Freaks & Oh, So My Peeps

American Nerd -- The Story of My People
Benjamin Nugent
Scribner

Benji, Benji, Benji ... I hate to be the one to tell you, but in reading this book, you proved to me that you don't know from nerd. Take it from someone who made the first of many trips on the short bus in Grade 5 -- you've left a few things out.

Your definition of a nerd is so, well, limiting. In my humble opinion, a nerd is a member of the geek family in that both species express an "over-developed" interest in a particular topic -- it doesn't, as you suggest, have to be something technical. I also disagree with your contention that nerds typically use formal speech. Did you actually speak with any nerds as part of your research? Dude -- in my experience nerds love words and speak only as formally as the situation warrants. To be candid, hardly anyone in my circle of friends speaks High Klingon anymore. Get with the times, bro.

And finally, what's all this crap about poser-nerds? What you were describing as a co-option of nerd culture (floodpants, dark rimmed glasses, and argylish sweaters) doesn't necessarily mean that the cool kids want to go nerd. I think what it means is that the crappiest parts of '50s (and '80s) fashion have made a come back -- end of story.

Despite my objections to your characterization, you get a B+ for your efforts. We'll let the geeks in the crowd figure out what that is as a score out of five. Qapla'.

Knit Lit?

The Friday Night Knitting Club
Kate Jacobs
Berkley

We should probably just file this book under the category "what the hell was I thinking?" and leave it at that. Unfortunately, that wouldn't make for much of an entry, so I guess I will go ahead and give you the gruesome details.

The Friday Night Knitting Club is set in a New York City wool shop where a bunch of eclectic women get together to learn stitches, trade gossip and share the narratives of their lives. The main character is Georgia -- a single mom who is in the not-so-envious position of raising a tween. She is also the shop's proprietor and part of her job is to be the (sometimes reluctant) good friend and sounding board to the women who frequent her establishment. Georgia's life is quite idyllic and it seems like she has it all. That is, of course, until she gets cancer. Georgia ends up dying before the end of the novel but not before all of the other subplots are brought to a happy conclusion. Methinks the author listened to the wrong REM song. This novel needed way more "Everybody Hurts" and way less "Shiny Happy People." One dropped stitch out of five.

Not so Beautiful Music

Music of the Primes

Marcus du Sautoy

Harper Collins

So, I think it is time for another heartfelt admission from the D-E-S. As much as it pains me to say it, I can be a terrible procrastinator. I know that some of you reading this are snorting in disbelief, but it's true. Very occasionally, I put things off until they pile up and loom over me like a darkling cloud. Lately, my procrastination has involved two things -- getting myself sorted out for my upcoming move and sitting down to write the blog entry related to Music of the Primes. My move date is, gulp, Wednesday, so I had to get my asterisk in gear today to finalize the logistics. Since I had some time to spare, I figured I should get this task over with as well. Here goes nothing ...

The Music of the Primes is a book about math. More specifically, it explores the magic of prime numbers and in particular, takes a good look at the Riemann Hypothesis -- one of mathematics most famous, and still unsolved, hypotheses. If I were to pick a single word to describe this book, however, it would be "dissonant". The parts of the work dealing specifically with prime number and number theory were, to a lay person, very engaging. The author also attempts to provide a brief overview of the history of mathematics and here is where the book, for me, starts to fall apart and loses my interest. Some of my friends absolutely raved about this text and maybe, just maybe, my expectations were just a little too high. Two whole numbers (or is that integers?) out of five.

Um, Neil Diamond?

Forever in Blue -- The Fourth Summer of the Sisterhood
Ann Brashares
Delacorte Press

So, I was sitting at my desk looking up quotes about autumn for this entry (don't ask) when it hit me. Forever in Blue. Travelling Pants. Forever in Blue Jeans. Neil Diamond. Of course! The author was making an oblique reference to the 70s song lyrics that provided her with the inspiration to come up with the Travelling Pants idea in the first place. Um ... yeah. I think I've been watching too many Gilmore Girls episodes lately. Call me Kirk.

Forever in Blue is the conclusion to the four book Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants series. The girls have made it through their first year of college and instead of spending the summer together, each of them heads off in separate directions in search of themselves. The pants (a pair of jeans that impossibly fits all four of the girls distinct figures) are a talisman of sorts that get passed from girl to girl and make good things happen. This year, the pants are stolen and the girls head to Greece in search of their magic. Well, they don't find the pants, but they do reconnect with each other in a way.

On it's own, this book wasn't very good. It was trite, predictable, and the characters, while becoming slightly more self-aware, didn't really grow. Read in conjunction with the other three novels in the series, however, Forever in Blue ties up some loose ends and satisfies my expectations in terms of where the larger narrative was going. One pair of cutoffs out of five.

Ollie Ollie Oxen Free!

Hide and Seek

Ian Rankin

Orion Fiction

My new boyfriend is such a complicated guy. I'll be honest -- the emotional (okay, mushy) part of me thinks that we're soulmates. He listens to Radio Three, he's got books strewn all over his apartment, and his commitment issues make Mt. Kilimanjaro look like a drumlin. Curiously, those are all traits that appeal greatly to this thirty-something girl.

The logical part of my brain whispers something different. It says "careful there, poptart. He's a cop. Worse -- he's a homicide detective. Can you really handle the secrets, odd hours, and sketchy people?" I'll give you an example. The other night, John had invited me over to, uh, hang out and there was a knock at his door. It was a girl from one of the cases he's been working on. Apparently, one of her junkie friends overdosed recently and both he (the deceased,) and now she, thinks he was murdered. Of course, John invited her in, gave her a meal (accompanied by some of the wine I had just bought) and offered her the couch to crash. The next morning, I overheard him on the phone with one of his work-colleagues and they think there might be some kind of satantic/ritual angle to the whole thing. It gives me the shudders just thinking about it.

So, I'm not really sure that Mr. Rebus is the guy for me. Maybe I should just break up with him and get it over with. Sigh. I don't know -- there are parts of him that I think I could get to like. A lot. And then there are those other bits (did I mention the drinking?) that make me think he's just Mr. Right Now. If you were to ask me to rate my chances of staying with him, I'd say that it's about 50/50 -- a two and a half out of five, if you will. I'll keep you posted and let you know how it works out.

Phlegmish Thoughts

The Flanders Panel
Arturo Pérez-Reverte
A Harvest Book / Harcourt, Inc.

Composing this week's blog post has not been an easy task and I've practically worn out the delete key with all the false starts. The problem is that I don't know how to discuss this book in a way that would make sense to someone who hasn't read it. The basic premise is as follows: Julia, an art restorer living in Madrid, has been asked to work on a 15th century Flemish painting so that the owner can put it up for auction. While she is restoring the work, she discovers an inscription that the painter had hidden under an additional layer of paint. Figuring out the meaning of the inscription would add significantly to the value of the painting and Julia decides to solve the mystery contained within the panel.

Halfway through the novel, Julia solves the riddle and structurally, I think this is where the book starts to fall apart. You see, while Julia has been trying to figure out the whodunit in the panel, a couple of her art-world colleagues are murdered. We are meant to think that these present-day murders are somehow linked to the murder mystery referred to in the painting, but even to a non-discerning reader, it's too big of a stretch. In fact, while the last half of the book is beautifully written and is packed full of allusions to great literary works, fascinating chess moves, and some interesting philosophical discussions, it fails because the plot just doesn't make sense.

I desperately wanted this book to be better than it was and if I'm honest, I have to admit that sections of the novel were absolutely brilliant. Sadly, though, I guess the old saying isn't always true -- the whole isn't always greater than the sum of its parts. Two beguiling rooks out of five.

Ran Away and Joined the Circus

Water for Elephants

Sara Gruen

Algonquin Books

Last weekend, when I was hanging in the MoFo (aka Mount Forest, Ontario, population 5121), I decided to wander over to my aunt's place to sit on her front porch, drink one or two of her beers, and read my book. As I was heading up the street, I found that I couldn't resist temptation and I engaged in the dreaded "walk and read." One stumble, a narrow miss with a failed poop n' scoop, and a couple of amused pedestrians later, I finally made it to my destination. I couldn't help myself ... Water for Elephants was just too good to put down!

Set sometime during the Depression, the novel opens with Jacob Jankowski just learning that his parents have been killed in an automobile accident. Despairing of the knowledge that he literally has nothing to go home to, Jacob walks out of his finals at Cornell and hops a train heading west. Much to his surprise, he finds out that he has jumped smack into the middle of a circus troupe -- the Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth.

This story is very compelling and engages the reader on a number of fronts. For the romantic souls in the crowd, there's a love triangle that involves Jacob, the beautiful Marlena and her "paragon schnitzophonic" husband, August. For the history buff, the story is replete with detail regarding the American circus trains, the state of prohibition, and the speak-easy subculture of the 30s. And finally, for the animal lovers out there, one of the central characters in the novel is Rosie, the Polish-speaking elephant who becomes the star of the show. I couldn't put this book down and I'll bet that you won't be able to either. I'm confident that it will end up on the D-E-S selection list for Book of the Year. Water for Elephants gets four side-show attractions out of five.

Tripping the Life Fantastic

A Scanner Darkly

Philip K. Dick

Vintage

Don't let the cover shot of Keanu Reeves put you off -- this novel is definitely worth reading.

Set in a dystopic Orange County sometime in the late 20th century, A Scanner Darkly tells the story of Bob Arctor, a small-time drug dealer/burnout who is addicted to a drug called Substance D. Unknown to the junkies that share his house, he is also Agent Fred -- an undercover police officer who has been assigned to follow Bob Arctor and to determine where he gets his supply. Fred has the authorities plant recording devices in Bob's home and Bob/Fred essentially narcs on himself. Confused yet? We're just getting started ...

There is so much packed into this novel, it is hard to know where to start. In some respects, the text reads a little like Kerouac's On the Road. The hip talk, the overt misogyny of some of the characters, and the drug-fuelled subculture all reminded me a little bit of the morally corrupt, but ever so interesting Dean Moriarty. Unlike Dean, the main character in this novel, Bob/Fred, is a good man travelling down a bad path not necessarily of his own choosing. Dick goes to great pains to show the layers of manipulation that has Bob/Fred becoming a junkie. Then again, maybe becoming an addict is more of a personal choice and Dick was making some kind of comment about society, scapegoating, and/or peer pressure. So hard to know. Three hits of acid out of five.

More Grit Lit


Troy -- Fall of Kings
David and Stella Gemmell
Transworld

I have to admit that I started this book with some trepidation. As documented somewhere else on this blog (oh, if only I could figure out how to link to previous posts!), I very much enjoyed the first two installments of Gemmell's series. To recap briefly, the author takes familiar characters from Greek mythology and mashes up heroes, gods and events to create a fabulous retelling of the Trojan War.

Sadly, Gemmell passed away before he could complete the last book in the trilogy and I was more than a little worried that his principal researcher and wife, Stella, wouldn't be up to the task. Boy ... was I wrong! In my opinion, Fall of Kings was even better than Shield of Thunder. There was still enough testosterone in the writing to make the book have that gritty appeal (hell -- my dad read this book!) and the story was jammed full of admirable men and dastardly villains.

I could probably go on about this book for quite some time. But I won't. I will, however, issue a word of caution. If you read this series (and I highly recommend that you do), don't break out your Bulfinch. The Gemmells definitely took some huge liberties with the traditional Greek stories and mythology purists might actually be horrified. No matter. Fall of Kings was fast- paced, engaging, and even a little suspenseful. No mean feat when the reader already knows/anticipates how it's going to end. Three winged chariots out of five.

Despair Has Its Own Calm

The Historian
Elizabeth Kostova
Little Brown

Looking back over the past few entries, I realize that I've been in a tremendous rut. Please accept my sincere apologies for boring you all to death with formulaic, lame and often insipid writing. I can offer no excuses. Hopefully this week's post won't suck. (Read on kids ... pun definitely intended.)

The Historian is an intricate, well-crafted novel that is, on one level, a modern reworking of the Dracula myth. At the beginning of the story, we are introduced to the narrator who, as a young girl, discovered a mysterious vellum-bound book in her father's library . Overcome by curiosity, she approaches her parent and asks about the book's history. At first, her father is reluctant to discuss it -- but she persists and eventually he shares the book's tale. The story is so horrific -- so dangerous, in fact -- that the father can only relate it in bits and pieces and it is over the course of a few years that the narrator learns that the book is tied to a great evil -- Vlad Ţepeş of Wallachia. Vlad, it seems, is still alive and the narrator's father is on a quest to find Dracula and to figure out a way to kill him.

On another level, the novel is really about the idea of history and how cultural, social, political and even religious narratives impact our present and future lives. This novel is rich in historical detail and I learned quite a great deal about both medieval and cold war Eastern Europe. I also received an important lesson in early Western/Islamic relations. Reading The Historian has encouraged me to do some research on the Ottoman Empire, the fall of Constantinople, and the blend of Eastern/Western cultures in Turkey, Bulgaria and Hungary. Any novel that makes you want to read history doesn't suck ... even if it is about Dracula. Four impaled Wallachians out of five.

Summer Reading

The Hollow
Nora Roberts
Jove Books

Way back in high school, one of the best parts about the summer was going up to the cottage with a stack of books. When the weather was cooperative, I would literally spend hours drifting in a floating chair tied to the end our dock. Since I didn't want to ruin any of the books that had made the trip with me, my dad made me a "reading plank" that he affixed to the top of the pontoon arms. Attached to the base of the chair was a mesh bag that would drift alongside me. As a kid, it contained juice boxes and pop, as I got older, it kept beer and bottled water. Sigh. I miss those days.

So, why the stroll down memory lane? Well, I'm not ashamed to admit that a good number of the books that I read in those summers could be classified as trashy romances. In fact, two of my aunts would bring up plastic shopping bags full of Harlequins, Regencies, and Silhouettes to be read by anyone who had the time. Happily, I had a lot of time and I would bounce between Dickens and some torrid romance without giving it a second thought.

While not exactly torrid, Robert's The Hollow is definitely a fine example of a good summer read. It had some sex, a little wistfulness, a bit of intrigue and a happy-ish ending. As a follow up to Blood Brothers (the first novel in the trilogy and previously reviewed on this blog,) I'd say that Roberts' accomplished her main objectives -- she advanced the plot, had another budding romance unfold and not so subtlety foreshadowed the next novel. 2.5 floating chairs out of 5.

Mystery Man

Knots & Crosses
Ian Rankin
Orion Books

When I started this blog, one of my primary objectives was to read outside of my comfort zone. Up until a couple of years ago, I wasn't an adventurous reader. Sure -- I owned all sorts of works that you'd find on a grad school syllabus, but aside from the occasional romance, there was nothing on my shelves that remotely resembled "popular" fiction. In fact, you could say that I was a classic EMBS -- English Major Book Snob. Happily, I'm recovering now, but only because you guys (my friends and some loyal blog readers) have taken me beyond the "fiction" section of the bookstore and encouraged me to read other things.

Knots & Crosses, for example, was recommended to me by my BFF Pete. He's been reading Rankin for quite some time and noted two things that have struck him in particular about the series. The first is that the main character, Detective Sergeant John Rebus is a rumpled, imperfect, complicated, yet wholly likeable guy. Peter actually described him as a "good" man and that's not a term that he uses lightly -- even when talking about a fictional character. The other point of interest is that when you start reading the series from the beginning (Knots & Crosses is set in 1985), Rebus exists in a policing world that is essentially still pre-technology. Curiously, the lack of "modernity" didn't seem to date the story in any way and it was that, more than anything else, that sucked me in. So much so, that I was off to the bookstore this afternoon to buy book number two.

I think Rebus and I are going to become friends before all of this is over. I certainly need someone that I can count on in times of trouble and he seems like just the man to fit the bill. Three point five good guys out of five.

I'm 2 Old 4 this Shiz

Londonstani
Gautam Malkani
Harper Collins

When I was growing up, I lived in a small town that wasn't exactly what you'd consider ethnically diverse. While we were less than an hour from the city, you could count the number of non-white families on one hand. One of those families, the Fleckers, lived across the street and I spent a tonne of time hanging out in their home. Mr. Flecker was brilliant, a bit eccentric, and always laughing. Mrs. Flecker, by far the best hugger and most gentle spirit on the block, was a schoolteacher and activist. I loved discovering her latest cause via the articles that she'd cut from the paper and post on her fridge. I guess on some level I knew that they weren't "like me", but they were part of the fabric of my youth and and I loved them.

One day, on a visit home from grad school, I pulled into the driveway and waved at Mr. Flecker who was out watering his plants. It was like I was suddenly struck by lightening. I rushed into the house and in an astonished voice cried "OH MY GOD. Mr. Flecker is Indian!" My mother just looked at me and calmly said "Yes, honey, he is. What did you think?" I have to say, that until that precise moment, I had never given it a thought. Up until that morning, he was just Mr. Flecker -- the nice man who used to rummage in his desk to give me a present whenever I wandered over. What had changed in me that I suddenly noticed that he was brown? I'm still searching for the answer to that question and quite honestly, it was a defining moment in my life.

Gautam Malkani's novel, Londonstani, also poses some questions about culture, class, community, family and relationships. Written in an idiom/language that is as complex as the characters are stereotypes, the book explores the Indian "sub culture" in contemporary London and in particular, in the mostly Indian borough of Hounslow. If you can handle the combination of txt msg, Panjabi, and gangsta-speak, this book is well worth reading. The ideas that it posits about cultural (mis)appropriation and Bling Bling economics are particularly interesting. And, bruv, b on da look out for da killa twist at de end, in't. Three point five bhangra beats out of five.