Tag: fiction

The Thirteenth Tale, by Diane Setterfield

Leave a comment

Cover ImageFinished 3-3-08, rating 4/5, fiction, pub. 2006

  This is a beautifully written mystery, family study, and ghost story all wrapped up in one.  Margaret, lonely employee of her father’s bookstore and Vida, ailing best-selling author, come together for a wonderful tale that envelopes you completely.   Vida needs someone to tell her life story before she dies and she chooses Margaret, who has never before written a biography about a living person.  The friendship between the two women grows as Vida’s story is told. 

Vida draws us into a world of incest, neglect, insanity, love, murder, and jealousy.  Even as you are drawn in there is uncertainty about the truth which encourages you to keep turning the pages as fast as you can so that you can know what is real.  As Vida tells her story, we also are involved in Margaret’s life of loneliness and secrets.  The stories intertwine perfectly to make this a compelling novel.

At last the truth is revealed and all is right with the world.  My only small (very small) complaint was that the end seemed to wrap up a bit easily.  This book has been compared to Jane Eyre and Rebecca and I don’t disagree.  They feel similar although at its heart this is not a love story.  I recommend this book to anyone who loves books, words, and fans of Jane Eyre and Rebecca.

Invisible Prey, by John Sandford

1 Comment

Cover ImageFinished 2-23-08, rating 4/5, fiction, pub. 2007

The Prey series never disappoints.  It is edge of your seat action with a gritty detective at its heart.  This is the 17th installment and Lucas is as entertaining as ever.  You don’t need to read the series in order, but if you are like me you prefer it.  John Sandford’s website, www.johnsandford.org, lists all the books in order.

A rich widow and her maid are bludgeoned to death in one of the most impressive mansions in Minneapolis and a politician is caught with his pants down with a 16 year old girl.  Lucas started as a detective and now he works for the state on special  cases such as these.  There is an art heist, fraud, murder, a dog named Screw, and a curious threesome thrown in to keep you turning pages long into the night. 

Lucas is now a family man.  His wife Weather, his son Sam, and ward Letty, all make a limited appearance.  I also enjoyed seeing old friend Sloan living his retirement dream.  Sandford never replaces action with relationships no matter how intriguing  they are.  It is for this reason that I rarely put a Prey novel down before I’ve finished.

Sharp Objects, by Gillian Flynn

Leave a comment

Cover ImageFinished on  audio 2-20-08, rating 2.5/5, fiction, pub. 2006

This is a mystery wrapped in a disturbing family drama.  Camille must go back to her small hometown, Wind Gap, to cover a series of child murders for her Chicago newspaper.  There she is forced to confront her own troubled childhood and try to deal with her mother and half-sister.  Further complicating matters is that Camille is only six months out of rehab for cutting herself. 

Camille was a cutter from 13 until she was 30.  She carved so many words into her skin that she has to wear pants and long sleeves to cover them all.  Visions of Camille’s naked body with words cut into her flesh by her own hand is difficult to stomach.  It is through her relationship with her mother that you come to understand the psyche behind her obsession.

This was a haunting book.  Camille is difficult to relate to not only because of her cutting, but also because at every turn she was doing such stupid things.  This got great reviews, but I’m not sure I’d recommend it.  I think it might be a perfect fit for a book group because of the multitude of issues that are dealt with in this debut novel by Gillian Flynn.

A Patchwork Planet, by Anne Tyler

3 Comments

Cover ImageFinished 2-19-08, rating 4.5/5, fiction, pub. 1998

“Oh, what makes some people more virtuous than others?  Is it something they know from birth?  Don’t they ever feel that zingy, thrilling urge to smash the world to bits?”      Chapter 1

Who knew that one day I’d have a crush on a man named Barnaby?  Barnaby is the black sheep of a well-to-do family and his mother never lets him forget it.  His family has the charming belief that for generations each member has been contacted by a personal angel.  This angel is to help them find their way in the world.  Barnaby is a 30 year old divorced father and he is still waiting for his angel.

Barnaby has a dead end, but fulfilling job at Rent-A-Back where he spends most of his days doing the bidding of senior citizens who in turn love him and drive him crazy.  He is renting the basement of a house and his car is always in the shop.  One Saturday morning when the car was in said shop, he hops on the train from Baltimore to Philadelphia for his monthly visit with his daughter.  He becomes intrigued by an exchange he witnesses and convinces himself that he has found his angel.

Barnaby is a complicated man who doesn’t fully realize his own worth.  That is the powerful and moving journey of this book.  I loved it.

Los Alamos, by Joseph Kanon

Leave a comment

Cover ImageFinished 2-2-08, rating 3.5/5, fiction, pub. 1998

 It’s 1945 and Los Alamos is the the heart of scientific discovery.  The Manhattan Project has been working on the atomic bomb that will end the war when the murder of a security officer worries those in charge of the project’s secrecy.  Michael o is called in to find out what happened and make sure there are no leaks at Los Alamos.  His investigation takes him to neighboring Santa Fe and the lonely areas surrounding it. 

This book is a murder mystery, but because of it’s setting it is much more.  Kanon delves into the ethics of making the bomb, paranoia, homophobia in the military, and communism, while still keeping the story a mystery at heart.  There is also a surprising love affair and I enjoyed the realistic grit of it. 

Some of the characters, Robert Oppenheimer, General Leslie Groves and others, are based on the actual people working on the project.  This is a wonderful blending of reality and fiction.  This is Kanon’s first novel and I was impressed.  This is a great read for mystery lovers or those interested in the Manhattan Project.

Plum Lucky, by Janet Evanovich

Leave a comment

Cover ImageFinished 1-19-08, rating 2.5/5, fiction, pub. 2008

I’m not sure why I continue to read the Stephanie Plum novels, especially these missives she calls “Between-the Numbers.”  This one is a mere 166 pages.  I fell in love with bounty hunter Stephanie in her first novel, One For the Money, and followed her through many zany adventures.  Somewhere around the sixth book the novels became a cartoon of their earlier versions.

Okay, Plum Lucky.  Stephanie receives a visit from her Between-the Novels pal, Diesel, and her Grandmother finds over a million dollars that she claims as her own.  There is also a leprechaun, a horse, ex-hooker Lula, and a shootout with a rocket launcher.  This book is almost all dialogue and very little little heart. 

So, why did I bother if I am no longer enjoying the Plum novels?  Because yesterday when I stopped by the library they gave it to me.  And I read it because it was too short not to.

Mad River Road, by Joy Fielding

Leave a comment

Cover ImageFinished audio 1-17-08, rating 2.5/5, fiction. pub. 2006

“Brad” was released from prison on a technicality and wasted no time in planning revenge against those who wronged him.  His first step was finding a woman with a car to warm his bed.  Enter Jamie, who had just found out her boyfriend was married, and you have a scary combination of recklessness and danger.  They begin their trek from Florida to Ohio to find his ex-wife and his son. 

The book had potential, but never really pulled me in.  There was only one sympathetic character of the bunch.  And I kept waiting for something to happen, but had to wait until the last part of the book.

A good reader can make a good book better or a bad one worse.  The reader used different voices for the many characters, but a few of the characters sounded so silly.  So, I’ll allow for the possibility that it may have been better if I’d read it, but I still wouldn’t recommend this book.

Tourist Season, by Carl Hiaasen

3 Comments

Cover ImageFinished on 1-13-08, rating 4/5, fiction, pub. 1986

This comedy was published in 1987, but it is based on a modern day premise of over-development.  Popular Miami journalist Skip Wiley has formed his own band of terrorists to take back South Florida from the rich developers and Yankee tourists.  He has an elderly Native American, an ex-pro football player, and a Cuban revolutionary with faulty bomb making skills to help him fight his cause.  There is no one safe from their special brand of terror.  

Brian Keyes is a journalist turned private detective who has been asked to find Skip before he kills anyone else.  Brian has a few well placed allies and is able to locate Skip, if not stop him.  Skip and his band of  misfits leads Brian and the rest of Miami on a twisted ride toward chaos. 

 This all sounds so very serious, but told with Hiaasen’s light touch and slick humor it turns into a page turning caper that even a high body count cannot stall.   I thoroughly enjoyed it, although I was a little surprised at the relationship between 32 year-old Keyes and a 19 year old beauty queen.  I guess the unexpected is what keeps me reading 🙂

In 1997 at a Barnes & Noble manager’s conference Hiaasen came to speak and sign books for us.  I still have the personalized signed copy of Lucky You on my shelf.  I think I’ll have to finally read it!

The Painted Veil, W.Somerset Maugham

Leave a comment

Cover ImageFinished the audio on 1-8-08, rating 3.5/5, fiction, pub. 1925

I really enjoyed this book.  It is set in the 1920’s and is the story of pampered Kitty who marries a man to please her mother.  Kitty was beautiful and spoiled and Walter loved her.  She agreed to marry the bacteriologist and they were off to Shanghai where Kitty began an affair with the ambitious and married Charles.

  When Walter finds out he is heartbroken and forces Kitty to face an uncertain future in a cholera infested Chinese village.  There Kitty must face her own worth and take stock of her life.  Walter dies before true restoration can be made in their realtionship.  Kitty must travel back to Shanghai a pregnant widow.   

She must face Charles again and I was really rooting for her to show her spunk.  She did show her spunk, but she also showed her vulnerabilty.  The pages after she gave in to Charles once again were the most moving to me.  It was a heartwrenching look into a flawed woman who was desparately trying to overcome her faults.  She travels home to the one parent she has left and is met by a distant father who is facing his own freedom just as Kitty is facing the end of hers. 

 This was a wonderful novel.  I thought the reader. Kate Reading, was excellent and I am looking forward to checking out the latest movie version of this book.  I think Naomi Watts will make a great Kitty.