A Stack of Eight

As the holidays approach and I get closer to having houseguests, I keep looking at all of the things that need to be tidied up and my stack of unreviewed books taunts me from the coffee table. Five of these are review copies too (as I've been trying to pare down yet another stack in another room) so I NEED to tell you about them. I don't know if I'll get to full reviews but I want to at least give these all a mention so here goes --

Reincarnation Blues by Michael Poore
I actually finished this story (of a man nearing the end of his reincarnation limit) at the beginning of November but could never figure out just what to say about it. There were things I liked about it and a couple of things that I didn't but it had me thinking for weeks about reincarnation and death and many other things. My spreadsheet note says "all over the place but mostly in a good way".

The Essex Serpent by Sarah Perry
This was more of a character development book than a plot book and I enjoyed meandering through it. There was also a feeling of sadness about the whole story. The main character was incredibly damaged and that followed her everywhere.

Supernova by C.A. Higgins
This is the second in a trilogy and it was ridiculously dark and, quite honestly, painful to read but it inspired a lot of thought about rebels and revolutions and the cost of bringing down an empire. I definitely want to finish the trilogy but I'll need a bit of a break before I dive back into the darkness.

Whistling in the Dark by Shirley Hughes
I adored this story of children in Liverpool during the Blitz. Hughes was a young woman during WWII and her experiences definitely come through and give this story depth and authenticity.

Yesternight by Cat Winters
This one was weird. It was atmospheric and bizarre and I'm not sure I liked the ending.

Good Evening, Mrs. Craven by Mollie Panter-Downes
These WWII homefront pieces that were originally published in The New Yorker were almost all from points of view that I had never read/heard before. Some of them were rather depressing, others inspiring. Again, it was educational and entertaining to read a different point of view that usual.

Ocean of Secrets, Vol. 1 by Sophie-chan
This is Sophie-chan's first manga and she says she has been working on the story for years. It is a good twist on the secret-princess story. The second volume comes out in a couple of months and I think this will be a fun one to follow.

Hogfather by Terry Pratchett
And this one was a bit hard to get into for some reason. By the end I enjoyed it but I think that there are other better books in the Death series. However, there were also a few things in it that I loved -- like the scenes with the wizards. They were especially funny this time.

Well, now I get to put all of these books away and make room for presents. Yay! If there's one you want to know more about, let me know in the comments and I'll write a real post in the new year.

Tidying up,
K

Do Not Miss: The Great Library Series

I've spent a lot of this summer searching for fun, escapist reads and I stumbled across Rachel Caine's Great Library series. It's an alternate history YA dystopia full of forbidden knowledge and peril and a wee bit of romance.

The first book in the series is Ink and Bone, the story of Jess Brightwell, a book smuggler from London who earns a place in the newest group of Great Library trainees. The Great Library (in Alexandria -- it never burned) is the ruling force of the world, keeping books and knowledge under lock and key, doling out only what they deem safe and in the best interests of the Library. Shortly, Jess and some of his fellow postulants will discover that their best interests might not be those that the Library has always dictated to them.

Picking up right where the first book left off, Paper and Fire follows Jess and friends as they become scholars, soldiers, and captives. However, the more information that they are exposed to, the more they are determined to help the Library become what it should be--a beacon of light and knowledge--rather than a scary, totalitarian regime.

I sped through these books. Seriously. I couldn't read them fast enough. They're chock-full of excitement, but excitement that has secret depth and some important themes about why we should value free-flowing information and ideas. The relationships are complex and no character seems off-bounds for disaster. I've already been shocked a few times, both by current actions and about revelations from the past.

I don't know how long this series is going to be but I'm a bit bummed that this second book JUST came out because I'm dying to know what is going to happen next!

Feeling the burn,
K

The Apothecary Series

After hours of walking around my neighborhood (not all at once!), I've finally just finished listening to the third book in the Apothecary trilogy by Maile Meloy. Since I walked through all of these books in just a couple of months, I can talk about them together today!

First of all, I highly recommend the audiobooks, narrated by Cristin Milioti. She is so good at doing the various voices that sometimes I would forget that it wasn't an ensemble performance. The Apothecary follows Janie Scott, a young American in 1952 whose family has fled to London after her Hollywood writer parents become targets of the McCarthy-era Communist witch hunt. She meets a boy at school, Benjamin, who happens to be the son of the kind apothecary near her new home. What Janie doesn't know is that Benjamin's father isn't a regular shopkeeper and that she and Benjamin are about to become tangled up in a race against time and the threat of nuclear war. Luckily, they have the weapons of science and nature to fight the poison the Russians are preparing to unleash on the world.

The first two books in the series fit together perfectly, with The Apprentices continuing the fight against those who are attempting to escalate the Cold War toward a nuclear end. In this book, however, Janie and Benjamin have been separated and are trying to find each other again. Janie is fighting against her need to prove herself and Benjamin is simply focused on reuniting with her.

And finally, in The After-Room, the teens have to deal with the consequences of their actions in this dark tale of loss. But, whereas the first two stories are based on the idea that there is a secret association of apothecaries/scientists/herbalists who understand the power of science and nature in such a way that it seems that they can do magic, the third part all of a sudden brings in real magic with no explanation. It was a very strange direction for the story to take and I didn't enjoy it as much as the original premise. However, I still highly recommend this trilogy, although for a slightly older reader than the middle grade audience it's marketed toward. Some parts are very dark and violent and there's a lot of relationship stuff that I'm not sure 10 year olds need to be reading about.

Believing in the magic of nature,
K

RIP X: 2, The Uninvited

My second RIP read of the year was the new release The Uninvited by Cat Winters. I got a review copy before it came out in August but I just couldn't resist saving it until time for the challenge.

Set during WWI and the influenza epidemic of 1918, Winters takes us to Buchanan, Illinois, former welcoming home of European immigrants but now a place of illness and suspicion. Ivy Rowan, a twenty-five year old "spinster" has just recovered from the flu and word has recently arrived that her brother Billy was killed in the war. The reaction of her father and other brother? Murder. This prompts Ivy to leave the home that she had been stuck in for years but what she finds in town might just be as horrible.

There are so many surprises and twists in this story that I don't want to say much more. I was annoyed by Ivy for a good chunk of the book but then, as I got to know her, I forgave more of her foibles. What was more interesting to me though (but also horrifying, especially when reading it in the context of current events) was the treatment of the German, Polish, and even Swedish citizens of this small town. Street and business names were changed, music and language were treated suspiciously, and, eventually, almost everyone who was different was either killed, arrested, or driven out of town. This was brutal to read about and almost as terrifying as the spooks. This was a fantastic historical fiction and a fairly good ghost story.

Trying to learn from the past,
K

RIP IX: Secrets and Murder

One of the first books I read in September for RIP IX was A Lesson in Secrets, the eighth book in Jacqueline Winspear's Maisie Dobbs series. As part of an assignment from the government, Maisie pairs her detecting skills with her teaching skills and joins the faculty of a college in Oxford that was founded after the First World War on the principles of pacifism and international cooperation. But, if the Secret Service's hunch is correct, the university might just be harboring the worst of the worst -- Nazis!

This series never shies away from tackling some of the most sensitive topics that came out of the Great War. This time it's the fates of those soldiers who decided at some point that they no longer wanted to fight. It's a heartbreaking subject but it's dealt with in a really thoughtful way in this story. I really do love this series and have the greatest admiration for Maisie Dobbs. I'm bummed to only have two more books before I'm caught up to the current book.

I picked up Murder on the Home Front by Molly Lefebure after hearing that it was made into a TV series and wanting to read it before watching the show. I didn't realize that it was a memoir and I certainly didn't know how awesome Lefebure was. The book chronicles some of her adventures in the five years that she spent working as the secretary to pathologist Dr. Keith Simpson in London and the surrounding counties. She highlights exceptional cases in a way that draws the reader in, whether it's describing an abnormal autopsy, a search for clues in a muddy field, or a trek down a darkened stairwell during the Blitz. Here is the list of qualities that she came up with when looking for her replacement:

'Typing.
Good verbatim shorthand.
Tact.
Interested in crime.
No objection to mortuaries and corpses.
Reasonably fast runner.'

I loved Molly and I loved this book. It turns out the the TV series is fictional and just based off of these memoirs (the lead character is called Molly Cooper, I believe) but I'm still looking forward to watching it soon. If it has half the wit of this book (something one certainly doesn't expect when reading about murders), it will be a fun show!

Crossing back over the Pond,
K

New Release: The Care and Management of Lies

Usually when there's a new Jacqueline Winspear book, I have to put my blinders on and avoid all details about them because they're new Maisie Dobbs stories and I'm still about three books behind the latest one (on purpose). But now she's written a stand-alone novel, The Care and Management of Lies, a very in-the-moment story of the First World War, so I got to read this one right away.

As you might expect from Winspear, this isn't a big action story. Rather, it's about the relationships between the characters, old school friends Kezia Marchant and Thea Brissenden, and their maturation into adults as they face the trials that come with a nation entering war. It's quiet and poignant, heartbreaking but also uplifting. It's a reminder that no lives were left untouched but that many people rose to the occasion and became the best version of themselves that they could be during a dark time. Winspear is really an expert at bringing this period of history to life.

Grateful,
K

p.s. I received a galley of this book from the publisher.

New Release: The Dead in Their Vaulted Arches

READ THIS SERIES!

Seriously.

I have told you so many times how amazing Flavia de Luce's stories are. The first time was after the joyous surprise that The Sweetness in the Bottom of the Pie turned out to be, then after I read The Weed that Strings the Hangman's Bag, then again after A Red Herring Without Mustard. And I believe I might have mentioned it again after I Am Half-Sick of Shadows and, yes, after Speaking From Among the Bones. And now I've just finished book six, The Dead in Their Vaulted Arches, and I'm going to make one more plea to those of you who haven't started this series yet to please, please, please give it a shot. The story gets better with every book and this latest one is absolutely fantastic.

I gave away two copies of Sweetness for Christmas, hoping to create some new fans of the series and this is my not at all subtle attempt to create a few more. Please, if you love mysteries and/or quirky characters and/or simply fun reads, give Flavia a try.

Practicing my broken record routine,

K

Long-Awaited Reads Month: The Final Solution

Some of us are thinking about Sherlock Holmes more than is perhaps seemly these days and so it seemed a good time to finally grab this very short novella, The Final Solution: A Story of Detection, off my shelves. I should have known after prior experience that Michael Chabon would pen a story both emotional and intelligent, this being the tale of the unnamed detective's decline into being, well, simply something less than he once was.

Though his name is never spoken, our elderly recluse with a stellar reputation and a penchant for bees is obviously none other than Sherlock Holmes. And when he is asked to look into a murder and the disappearance of a beloved bird, he attempts to step back into his well-accustomed role. And while it's true that he is still more capable than most anyone else, he also starts to experience the new limitations of his body and mind.

This was such a beautiful meditation on Holmes and his legacy and his inevitable decline. One can only muse on what it would be like to lose even a touch of one's genius to the aging process. It almost makes one understand why Holmes would choose to die young if given the chance (or would he?).

Unraveling the mystery of identity,
K

Summer Project: London -- Update Two

source

My summer London project is winding down now but I have a few more London books to share with you that I read this summer --

I finished Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens in a fairly short time. It was full of coincidences and unfortunate events that strained belief but I thought Dickens did a very good job of portraying the lives of the poor and the orphaned and those who either attempted to help them or used them to their own benefit. Though one of his more "issues" based novels, it was surprisingly not very preachy or wordy. There is definitely quite a bit of sarcasm in it (which I enjoyed). The portrayal of London as a place where one can just as easily be found as lost was also fascinating. Though a more violent novel, I think it's also one of Dickens' more accessible ones and I'm happy to now understand many of the references to this novel that I've encountered over the years.

Next I moved forward in time to Consequences by Penelope Lively, a journey through generations from the 1920s through modern days. With many different personalities and relationships, I thought this was a fascinating story. It was my first Penelope Lively and if her books are all as quiet and touching as this one, I'm sure I'll find my way back to her soon. As for London, it was interesting to see how a home and a neighborhood changed over time in what was once an affluent area.

The Name of the Star by Maureen Johnson was one that I was going to save for the RIP challenge but then I was in the mood for something more modern after all of this summer spent mostly with a London of the past. What I got was one of the most "YA" books I've ever read. It took me a while to get into it, into the teenage awkwardness and drama, but once the supernatural part of the story started, I was hooked. There was a very terrifying villain and the main character, Rory, was interesting and convincing in all of her "teenness". This story took me back into the underground areas of London but also gave me a look at boarding schools and pubs. Quite fun and I look forward to the next book in the series, The Madness Underneath.

Finally, I had a hankering for some Agatha Christie and I still have a couple of unread novels sitting on my TBR, mostly those that feature Poirot and were made into tv films. I had to wait long enough until I couldn't remember the solution anymore so that they would be interesting reads. Hickory Dickory Dock is a boarding house mystery full of unlikeable twenty-somethings. With plenty of mentions of race relations (and some of Dame Agatha's own questionable descriptions of those non-white characters), this was a look into the workings of the succotash (please tell me a better word for it if you have one!) that is London.

This might be the end of my London reading for the summer. It was a really interesting experience to see so many different ages and sides of a single city and its people. One day I'll get to visit London and hopefully fill in the gaps that must exist after only learning about the city from books. I can't wait.

Letting my anglophilia shine,
K

A Week of Gift Ideas: For Romantics

Next up is a gift that marries World War I and romance in a bittersweet and thoughtful way.

The Walnut Tree is a companion novel to Charles Todd's Bess Crawford series and Bess makes a couple of short appearances in the story, however, you don't have to know anything about the original series to enjoy this book. The tagline is "A Holiday Tale" but it only brings Christmas in at the end. More than that, it's a short tale that explores obligation and duty as they relate to family, soldiers and friends. It also delves into Scottish culture, class structure and the roles of women in the first World War.

I found all of this to be fascinating and I read the book almost all the way through on a two hour flight. A couple of editing issues (odd sentence fragments) threw me off at the start but they were quickly left behind as I got caught up in the story of Elspeth Douglas and her quest to find meaning and love in her life. The romance was very gentle and proper for the time. And the period was portrayed so authentically that I can't wait to finally start reading the Bess Crawford books I already own.

I just thought of the perfect person to give this to. I hope she enjoys it as much as I did.

Feeling the chill of war and winter,
K

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay

A couple of years back, we took a family vacation up to Victoria, BC and I was lucky enough to meet up with a fellow blogger at the gorgeous Munro Books. I didn't buy many books there though because they cost so much more in Canada than in the US (even though the currencies are almost equivalent right now). But, they had this UK version of Michael Chabon's The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay on the remainder table and I liked the cover more than the standard paperback in the US and so I grabbed it. It's a book I knew I should read but it took me until now to want to read it. Now I fully regret waiting so long because it's a masterpiece and is not just for comic book fans (though there are fun tidbits in it for those fans).

This is the story of Sam Clay (Samuel Klayman) and his Hungarian cousin, Joe Kavalier (Josef). Following them from childhood through middle age, these cousins who become close friends and brothers, are the creators of the superhero The Escapist. But Joe is never free from the feelings of obligation toward the family he left behind in Prague at the start of WWII and Sam is never free from the weight of his absentee strongman father.

This is simply an incredibly well-crafted novel. Though its subjects and locales are diverse, I think there will be some aspect to speak to almost any reader. I never felt that I couldn't relate to these boys whose lives were so incredibly remote from my own. In fact, I felt that I learned a lot about the Jewish experience in New York during the War and about the history of comic books and about magic and art and so many other things. The blurb on the front of my copy from Tom Payne (Daily Telegraph) says "Perfection. There are perhaps four other books I've loved this much, and none that has made me cry more." I was feeling a bit cheated because I didn't cry while reading the book and I'm quite well-known for getting emotionally involved in stories. But then, on page 633 of 636, there was one single line of dialogue that had me weeping because it revealed one of the inevitabilities of parenthood, one that I think about sometimes with sadness. This connection is one I hope to find again the next time I read Chabon.

In awe of amazing,
K

New Release: The Secrets of Mary Bowser

Destined to be on many "best of the year" lists, Lois Leveen has truly brought history to life in The Secrets of Mary Bowser. Starting from the briefest of mentions of this remarkable woman in historical records, Leveen deftly fleshes out the story of Mary Bowser, a freed slave who was educated in Philadelphia and who returned to Virginia to become a spy for the Union during the Civil War. Exploring such weighty topics as slavery, abolitionism, religion and war, this is also a story about family, friendship and the spaces in between.

I know many of you may already have started seeing positive reviews about this novel and some of you might even have review copies. I strongly urge you not to put off reading this one. It does not read like a first novel at all thanks to Leveen's smooth prose and tight story. The story is, in fact, so believable that the reader must constantly remind herself that much of it is only supposition. But if Mary Bowser was even half the woman that she is made out to be, then she deserves to have her story told.

I also had the opportunity to meet Lois at Third Place Books on Tuesday night and hear her read from the book. I even asked a couple of questions, something I rarely do. It was an enlightening evening and led me to an even greater appreciation of the novel. If you happen to be in Birmingham, Alabama, you can go to one of her events tonight!

In awe of those who came before,
K

A Weighty Pair: Blackout and All Clear

To save you the trouble of picking up one of these books without the other, I've gone ahead and merged Connie Willis' hefty Blackout and All Clear into a single 1132 page tome (which is also the way I read it). Look at how seamlessly the books fit together! Wikipedia actually calls it "two volumes that comprise a [single] novel" and that's the truth. It was meant to be a single book but then, as Willis says in the Acknowledgements at the beginning of each book, "it morphed from one book into two". What she ended up creating, regardless of length or format, was an amazing story that was entirely engaging from beginning to end. It got me through a snowstorm that kept us trapped on our property for an entire week and I definitely have to thank Connie for that!

Continuing with the world that Willis explored previously in the short story Fire Watch and the novels The Doomsday Book and To Say Nothing of the Dog, this is the tale of time-traveling historians Merope, Michael and Polly from Oxford in the year 2060, who independently head to WWII England and become a much larger part of the war effort than they ever imagined they would and certainly more than they thought possible under the rules of time travel. Skipping between narratives, including a couple told by initially unknown persons, this is a complex web that keeps the reader thinking, guessing and, ultimately, hoping and praying.

In 2011, this dyptych won the Nebula award for Best Novel, the Locus award for Best Science Fiction Novel and the Hugo for Best Novel. And it's not a mere matter of luck that she also was nominated for (and usually won) these same awards for the previous two novels set in this future of time travel and historical interest. The level of depth that she plumbs to make the world tangible and believable is nothing short of amazing. I frequently felt that I too had been transported to another time while reading. I found myself sitting in a packed tube station, waiting out a night of bombing during the Blitz. I looked into the burning mess of ships that was Dunkirk in May of 1940. And I held my breath as incendiary devices fell on St. Paul's Cathedral and threatened to set the wooden roof timbers ablaze. I'm still not entirely sure that Connie Willis isn't a time traveler who experienced these events firsthand!

And, lest this sounds like too gushy of a review, I had one small complaint -- that this story was split into two books. I am a reader who frequently goes back to look things up that I read previously and it was difficult when I couldn't remember if the passage I was thinking of was earlier in All Clear or all the way back in Blackout. Yeah, that's my complaint. Not really a deal-breaker, is it?

You still have time (until the end of February) to pick something up for the 2012 Science Fiction Experience. If you aren't sure where to start with the Oxford series, Connie's blog has an Oxford Time Travel Guide. It even has links to read or listen to the short story Fire Watch, which I will be doing soon. I just don't want to get through everything too quickly because I love this world and don't know if she will write another story in it. That said, I fully anticipate reading Fire Watch and The Doomsday Book before the end of the year.


Finally, congratulations are in order as Connie Willis was also just named a Grand Master of Science Fiction in January. And, as these books are just a drop in the bucket of her collected works, can anyone suggest what I should read of hers next after I finish these books?

Wishing I could travel back and read these again for the first time,
K

"So this, said Kay to herself, is the sort of person you've become ..."

Next up in my attempt to remedy the fact that, until recently, I hadn't read any Sarah Waters books is The Night Watch. This is a somewhat hefty book (thought I wouldn't call it a chunkster at only 524 pages) but I rushed through it in just a couple of days, intrigued by the unique story structure and drawn in by the well-developed characters.

This is a book in three parts -- beginning in 1947, moving back in time to 1944 and then concluding in 1941. The main characters are Viv and Helen, who work at a post-war matchmaking agency, Duncan, who is Viv's younger brother, works at a night-light factory and has been to prison, and Kay, a lesbian who appears to be entirely alone and aimless. What could have been an overly tedious journey through the lives of these men and women has instead become a series of moments that create the people that you meet at the beginning of the story. Then things that you might have assumed are proved wrong and characters that you might have liked are proved to be weak, selfish or worse when you finally learn about their pasts.

I have heard both good and bad opinions of this book. I am definitely on the side that enjoyed the story and found it to be a very strong novel. I didn't find it to be boring or confusing and I appreciated the decision to tell it in such a unique timeline. It also turned out to be very interesting to read this book so soon after the Henrietta novels. Where those represented the war as experienced by English villagers and was bittersweet and funny, this was the gritty and gruesome story of those in London, living through the worst horrors of the war and trying to navigate life after it. I will admit that I am exhausted by WWII right now, though, and this is part of why I will be escaping into fantasy for a while.

Exploring the intersection,
K


Support our site and buy The Night Watch on Amazon or find it at your local library. We bought our own copy.

At Home with Henrietta

Henrietta Brown is the creation of Joyce Dennys. In 1939, Dennys began regular submissions of fictional letters to Sketch magazine in which she was Henrietta, a middle aged woman living on the Devon coast and writing (and sketching adorable little drawings) to Robert, a childhood friend away at war in France. These letters were very popular and she continued writing them until the war ended in 1945. The subtitle on these books is "News from the Home Front" and that pretty much says it all. Henrietta writes about gardening, cooking, clothing and so many other things from the point of view of a Doctor's Wife in a village setting. All of these aspects of life are affected by the war but Henrietta also knows (especially from the grumblings of the London evacuees) that they are also lucky to be where they are.

There is an amusing cast of characters in these letters, from the aging Lady B, who is always able to stay calm and look on the bright side, to the irritable Mrs. Savernack, who treats Henrietta like she's a bit simple and utterly hopeless. The group of people from the town have children fighting in this war and some have even lost children in the last war. They are trying to cope without friends, husbands and all of the niceties in life. Silk stockings must be worn with "ladders" (runs) because there are no replacements. Fuel shortages make people close up parts of their homes to economize. Walks on the shore are hampered by barbed wire and land mines. These letters reveal so many of the small details about life at home in England during the war that one might have heard of but never put together in such a complete picture.

The letters, finally published in book form in 1985, are divided into two volumes -- Henrietta's War: News from the Home Front 1939-1942 and Henrietta Sees it Through: More News from the Home Front 1942-1945. I suppose they were divided in order to avoid a 300+ page collection but I decided to sit down and read both books back to back and I didn't lose interest at all. In fact, I found it more satisfying to have VE Day to look forward to at the end, rather than stopping on a melancholy note in the middle of the war.

Also, I'm happy to finally get to one of these beautiful Bloomsbury books (my copy of Henrietta's War is actually an older Penguin edition). I have heard so many good things about the series and now I truly appreciate what they have brought back in print. This pair of novels present a unique portrait of a segment of the British population that is regularly forgotten behind the tragedy and magnitude of the Blitz. I can't recommend these books enough to anyone interested in a sweet but melancholy stay in Devon during WWII.

Taking nothing for granted,
K


Support our site and buy Henrietta's War: News from the Home Front 1939-1942 (Bloomsbury Group) and Henrietta Sees It Through: More News from the Home Front 1942-1945 (Bloomsbury Group) on Amazon or find them at your local library. We bought our own copy of the first and received a review copy of the second from LibraryThing.

New Release: A Fierce Radiance

There seems to be no shortage of books set in World War II these days.  And yet each one manages to explore and expose the conflict from a different perspective.  Lauren Belfer's A Fierce Radiance is set in New York City and touches on a variety of issues -- the role of photographers in a time of tragedy, the changing roles of women, the difficulties of parenting during wartime and the development of antibiotic drugs, just to name a few.  Each is presented in a bleak but honest light and one cannot help but want to explore many of these issues in a deeper way after finishing this strong novel.

The main character of the book is Claire Shipley, a staff photographer with Life magazine.  She is a single mother, living on her own in New York City.  When she is asked to follow the story of a patient at the Rockefeller Institute who is one of a few penicillin trial patients, the story hits a deep chord for her.  She lost her own daughter to an infection almost eight years earlier and this is a drug that would have saved her life -- and if successful will indeed save the lives of millions around the world.  However, when her story is not printed, she questions why and finds out that the government has taken over the penicillin project for the war effort.  Eventually she becomes deeply involved in the penicillin web -- through ties of love, blood and patriotism.

Moving smoothly between plot lines of science, romance, business and espionage, this novel takes the reader on an emotional journey through the trials of Americans during the war.  There are the boys sent off to fight and the families left at home.  There are the women left to work and make do with what they can gather despite rationing.  There are the scientists who are trying to save lives while under the constraints of a government that is currently in the business of ending them.  When this all comes together, it is a rich story that leaves one with the obvious conclusion that there are very few lives that are left untouched by war.  There are very few who are not forced to confront demons -- either within or without.  This is a powerful narrative that succeeds in providing a glimpse into these lives.

Seeing everything now in shades of grey,
K


Support our site and buy A Fierce Radiance on Amazon or find it at your local library.  We received an advanced review copy from a publicist.

"Last November I had a nightmare."

Continuing with my recent unwitting focus on wartime England, I recently picked up Kate Morton's The House at Riverton.  Told from the point of view of Grace Bradley, an old woman at the end of her long and fruitful life, we learn the story of Riverton House and the grandchildren who regularly came to visit.  Grace begins service in the house at the age of fourteen -- the same age as the middle child, Hannah Hartford.  Hannah's close relationship with her younger sister, Emmeline, and older brother, David, is something that Grace envies.  However, the delicate triangle is put off-balance when David brings a friend, Robbie, home from school with him -- a boy who has a strange effect on the girls.  Shortly after, the First World War breaks out and David and Robbie leave along with many of the other men.  Few of them come back and those that do are damaged -- victims of their own mental battles.  The women are also forced into a new and evolving world of independence that doesn't always mesh with the world of obligation that they grew up in.  As Grace reveals the intertwined stories of many people, we find ourselves in the midst of both heartbreaking tragedy and also true love.

One of the things I dislike about many Victorian novels is their portrayal of the serving class.  This novel was definitely an exception with a decent and normal life "below stairs".  Grace was an engaging narrator although a bit disturbing in her brief dismissal of each death that occurs throughout her story.  Most were presented with a single sentence and little emotion.  I couldn't tell if this was on purpose because the narrator herself is close to death and doesn't want to dwell or if this was a hangup for the author.  Another small disappointment for me was that this book was set up as a mystery and yet so much of it was obvious from early on.  There was one major reveal that should have been life-changing that was given barely any weight and no follow-up at all.  It was a bit unsettling.  Overall, though, I did enjoy this book and will certainly be reading Morton's second book, The Forgotten Garden, which I thought was a sequel of sorts but appears to be its own story.

Recognizing that everything should and does change,
K


Support our site and buy The House at Riverton on Amazon or find it at your local library.

"The young policewoman stood in the corner of the room."

Pardonable Lies is the third of Jacqueline Winspear's Maisie Dobbs novels and it is somewhat similar to the first two but also a departure from them.  As is usual when I review one of a series, I will attempt to be as general as possible in the summary but please skip it if you want to be sure nothing is given away.

Maisie, Psychologist and Investigator, is having continued success in her business and seems to have everything together.  But when she must return to France as part of her investigations, she suffers from a post-traumatic stress event when the memories of her time as a nurse in the Great War come back to her.  Her current cases cause her to re-evaluate friendships, loves and losses and it is a mystery if she will come out of this episode in her life unscathed.

I appreciated the cracks in Maisie's varnished finish that came through in this story.  It seemed a bit callous and unlikely that she would be able to completely put her time as a trauma nurse behind her.  I felt this novel made Maisie a bit more human than she was in the last one.  Conversely, I did not think it was necessary for Winspear to give Dobbs psychic abilities.  It was a silly plot element and there wasn't really a point to it.  I hope that this isn't included going forward in the series.

I'm very curious about the fourth book in the series, Messenger of Truth, because it's quite short.  Maybe I will pick it up in the next month or so.  After that, I will need to get copies of the remaining three books that have been published.  This is definitely a series I want to continue with!

Admiring the well-organized but vulnerable mind,
K


Support our site and buy Pardonable Lies on Amazon or find it at your local library. We bought our own copy.

Book Club Read: Brodeck

The first selection for the Not The TV Book Group was the novel Brodeck by Philippe Claudel and was selected by Lynne at Dovegreyreader Scribbles. The discussion begins today at her blog. I invite you to head over there for the summary and discussion.

Briefly, this is the story of a man (Brodeck) who has been tasked with writing an account of an atrocity that has happened in his town.  He is already scarred by having been found orphaned in the charred remains of his home town (presumably in WWI) and then dragged from his adopted home as a young man by soldiers (in a WWII scenario).  He survives to return home but finds his town changed by the occupation of the soldiers and, eventually, the arrival of a stranger in town (the Anderer) triggers a series of shameful events.  Brodeck decides that along with the official report he was asked to write (to provide justification for the town's acts), he is going to write his own story and the full version of events.  This is what we are reading in the novel.

This was a heartbreaking story that rang too true.  Though there was an assumed time frame, this story had a definite fluidity of time that gave it the ability to apply to almost any period of hatred and fear in world history. I believe that the message of the book is that emotions do not end with a conflict.  The signing of a treaty does nothing to change the evil already sown in men's hearts.  There remains a heightened awareness of those who are different and those who were ostracized.  There also remains the ability to perform horrific acts once the mental barriers to them have been brought down.

This book lends itself to much discussion so if you are interested, find a copy and head over to the discussion which will be ongoing.  It's called Brodeck in the U.S. and Brodeck's Report in the U.K.  It is translated from the author's native French.

Quiet with introspection and sadness,
K


Support our site and buy Brodeck on Amazon or find it at your local library. We borrowed our copy from the library.

"Oh yes, we're here."

I am normally not influenced to read a book by its having been considered for or having won awards.  I am happy when a book I have already enjoyed receives an award but it doesn't usually change whether I will choose a book in the first place.  That being said, award-nominated books do tend to gain a certain visibility and clout and when I was offered Simon Mawer's Booker-nominated novel, The Glass Room, I was definitely curious.  I'm happy to have given this book a chance.

The titular Glass Room is part of the Landauer House, built in an unnamed Czechoslovakian city for Viktor and Liesel Landauer in the 1920s.  Viktor is the owner of a very successful motor car company and is also a non-practicing Jew.  Liesel is a German and a Christian who sees nothing wrong with marrying the man who she fancied as a young teen.  When they go to Venice on their honeymoon, they happen to meet Rainer von Abt, a very modern architect who offers to build them a dream house.  What he gives them is much more -- a home of transparency and light.  However, the house also masks the secrets of its owners and leaves them visible ten years later when the Nazi Germans come to Czechoslovakia.  Though the Landauers flee, the house remains and lives its own life through the times of the Nazis and the Communists.

The writing in this book is very simple and clear -- like the Landauer House and its Glass Room.  The most poignant writing of the entire book, though, is in the Afterword where Mauer explains that the German concept of "room" is not a single space with four walls and a function but is more than that.

 "It is spacious, vague, precise, conceptual, literal, all those things.  From the capacity of the coffee cup in one's hand, to the room one is sitting in to sip from it, to the district of the city in which the cafe itself stands, to the very void above our heads ..."

This description could really also apply to the novel.  Though the story seems straight-forward--the story of a marriage and a house--there are much deeper layers and more space in the story.  Some parts made me uncomfortable, some sad and others made me ill.  And yet, there was also a light that penetrated through the story -- a hope for the survival of a people, for the happiness of individuals and for the advancement of the civilized world.

The story begins with Liesel's return to the house thirty years after abandoning it so some things are already expected but the strength of the story is in seeing how the details unfold.  Based on Mawer's writing in this book, I will definitely be looking into his others.

Seeing the light past the darkness,
K


Support our site and buy The Glass Room on Amazon or find it at your local library.  We received our copy from the publisher.