A Work in Progress

Teaser Tuesday: The Blindness of the Heart

I've just started reading Julia Franck's The Blindness of the Heart, which won the German Book Prize and was a finalist for the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize.  This is a story that begins at the end of WWII and moves back in time to explain the events (am guessing anyway) that occur in the first few pages--namely the abandonment of a small boy in a railway station.  I tend to be drawn to fiction about this era and have noticed it seems to be a popular subject in works that get translated.  At least that is how it seems but it could be my reading tastes coming through in the types of books I pick up.  In any case I'd like to try and read more books in translation next year--and not just crime novels and books set during the war years.

The prologue focuses on Peter and tells the story from his perspective.  Peter is about seven or eight and he lives with his mother, Alice.  His father has gone to Frankfurt where he works as an engineer for the war effort.  His mother is a nurse who must often work night shifts, so he is left alone in the house, but both have survived the bombardment by the allies.  It's uncertain where they are but at the end of the war they, like everyone else it seems, is trying to travel west.  As he is only a child, he doesn't necessarily understand everything that is happening around him.  He sees and reads things that he can't quite interpret, so the beginning has a slightly disjointed feel to it that I'm sure will be explained and explored as the story unfolds.

My teaser isn't especially exciting as I've only just started reading, but you'll get a taste of the writing.  Peter finds his parent's relationship confusing, as he found a letter that had been hidden under his mother's pillow.  Not quite understanding it's contents, he does understand that his father is not planning on returning as he has met another woman.

"The photograph of the handsome man in the fine suit, leaning on the shiny black bodywork of the car with one arm elegantly crooked and glancing up at the sky, clear-eyed, as if he were looking at the future or at least at birds in the air, still stood in its frame on the glass-fronted kitchen cabinet.  Peter's mother said now that the war was over his father would come and take them to Frankfurt, where he was building a big bridge over the river Main.  Then Peter would be able to go to a proper school, said his mother, and it made him uncomfortable to hear her telling these lies.  Why doesn't he write, asked Peter in a moment of rebellion.  The post isn't working any more, replied his mother, not since the Russians came.  From now on he waited, with his mother, day after day.  After all, it was possible his father might change his mind."

I'm afraid this is not going to be a happy story, but as one of the blurbs calls it "an astounding piece of storytelling", I don't think I'll mind. 

The Twilight Time by Karen Campbell

In The Twilight Time Karen Campbell takes a run of the mill police procedural and breathes new life in it.  The story is fairly standard, but the characters who inhabit this world are quite human, in many ways flawed, and occasionally not overly likable.  It made for sometimes challenging reading, but I still felt compelled to keep going despite some eyebrow-raising moments.  Don't get me wrong, this is a well written and well plotted story, but the characters were a bit hard to warm up to at times.

Sargeant Anna Cameron, a ten year police veteran, has just transferred to the Flexi Unit--a sort of hands on department trying to clean up Glasgow's mean, dirty streets, and concentrating on a rather insalubrious area called the Drag where prostitutes and drug dealers hang out.  Upon first meeting her I thought Anna was a formidable woman, and she quickly proved me right.  As she is to head up the department no doubt she has to be.  One of her new colleagues tags her as the "ball-breaker" upon first meeting her, a label she abhors, but sort of lives up to.  When she was a rookie and just starting out she had an affair with a fellow police officer who dumped her in a very undignified manner and married a recruit from an incoming class.  Years later Jamie and Cath have a lovely little daughter, Cath is a stay at home mom and their marriage has hit a rocky patch.  Cath is up at all hours with the baby, hasn't quite gotten her before-baby figure back and is feeling tired, worn out and dumpy.  Jamie is feeling neglected, so when beautiful Anna comes back into his life, you just know trouble is around the corner.

Anna is an interesting, if very prickly, character.  Sort of ice princessy in looks and attitude, her house even reflects her personality--all austere with blonde wood and smooth, empty surfaces.  She loved her father, who has long since passed away, and is ignored by her mother who remarried and lives abroad.  She has no women friends and her significant other is a slightly older married man who is higher up in the police ranks and mostly absent from her life.  So, her life is her work even if she doesn't always do things by the book.  Do you see a pattern forming here?  But beneath her cold, hard shell you do get glimpses of a more fragile interior.  She is not one to let that aspect of her to show though very often, however.

Her main priority is to find the man who has been assaulting prostitutes and carving what seems like the letter 'I' into their faces.  There's a certain amount of contempt between the police and the streetwalkers who believe the investigation is all show and empty promises as they are harassed as a matter of course.  In the middle of all this an elderly Polish man is heinously murdered after having been the victim of a hate crime.  His flat, as well as the flat of a Pakistani family had been graffittied with swastikas and other racial expletives.  Anna had just met Ezra, a seemingly respectful and even suave older man who kept to himself.  He was brutally murdered, his flat ransacked and a collection of war medals were stolen.

Not only does Anna occasionally take matters in her own hands when she should be passing along information to her superiors, she has to put up with belligerent and sexist attitudes from her colleagues and the group of officers she leads.  I was telling a friend about this book and she remarked that it sounded a bit like Prime Suspect and the difficulties Helen Mirren's character has to put up with.  There's a certain amount of bantering that goes back and forth in the book, though it was occasionally hard to tell how much of the vitriol was real or simply imagined by me.

I suspect Karen Campbell knows well what she writes of, however.  Both parents worked in the Strathclyde Police, she is a former police officer and she met her husband through her job as well.  She certainly knows how to write an atmospheric story where you get a good sense of place--including all its dark, nasty corners.  It's peppered with slang and colloquialisms as well, some of which where harder to puzzle out than others.  Oh, and Anna drinks Irn Bru, too!  There are two more Anna Cameron mysteries already published.  I'll add them to my list, but I think I need a little familiarity now, so I've picked up the most recent Inspector Lynley novel, This Body of Death.  Lynley hit a rocky patch the last couple of novels, but I've heard things are mostly back on track in Elizabeth George's latest endeavor. 

November 28: Yet More Reading Notes

I'm thoroughly addicted to the British TV show MI-5.  I've been making my way through the previous seasons on DVD as I'm not sure it actually airs here in the US right now.  After having been left hanging at the end of season six I had to make a special trip to the library this weekend to pick up season seven.  Sometimes the shows can be quite a rollercoaster of a ride and the agents tend not to have a very long shelf life.  Just when I think I'm settled in the story and the characters' lives, something awful happens or someone retires.  I won't deny that Rupert Penry-Jones is very easy on the eyes, but I've just been introduced to Richard Armitage, who is just as swoon-worthy as I've heard.  How have I not seen him in anything?  I'm having the overwhelming desire all of a sudden to read Elizabeth Gaskell's North and South, just so I can see the film adaptation which he starred in.  Nothing like hiring someone like Richard Armitage, Rupert Penry-Jones or Rufus Sewell to make the classics sexy!  However...that's not why I'm hooked on MI-5 (though I'm certainly not complaining either).  There's something very high adrenaline about watching the show--just like reading a really good crime novel or mystery, only you get the visuals in color, too.  Compared with the earlier seasons the show has gotten very sophisticated and you sometimes can't tell who is working for whom and who you can trust.  I watch very little TV but this is the one show that I will set my reading aside for.  Season eight won't be released here on DVD until later in January, so I should probably try and ration my episodes.    

Sorry, that was a little digression, since this is supposed to be 'reading' notes.  I have been doing lots of reading over my break, but a little movie watching as well.  I've finished two books (will write about them in the coming week), and have spent lots of time reading from my stack, and have a few new books lined up as well.  My library pile is actually down to a respectable number, I've organized my books according to what I want to finish this year and what will be held over to next, and I even have a 2011 reading list going.  All in all I've had a  productive and relaxing break.  And there is still one more day to go.

I'm going to participate in a blog tour in January.  I've been trying to avoid taking part in anything that has a specific posting date attached to it, but the book was so tempting I couldn't say no.  Matthew Gallaway's The Metropolis Case is set in the music halls of 1860s Paris and modern day New York.  "Matthew Galloway's debut novel gives voice to the sweeping tale of an unlikely quartet, bound together by the strange and spectacular history of Richard Wagner's masterpiece opera Tristan and Isolde."  I know zilch about opera, but from what I understand knowledge of opera isn't really necessary to appreciate the story.  I am familiar with the story of Tristan and Isolde, though, so I'm curious what sort of spin Gallaway puts on it.  The book just came in the mail, and while I don't want to start reading too soon, I am tempted to crack it open and get a little taste of things to come.

Along with starting From the Land of the Moon by Milena Agus, and Heart of the Night by Judith Lennox, I also have dipped into Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep by Philip K. Dick.  I've wanted to read him for ages.  I almost never pick up a science fiction novel, though it has less to do with the fact that I don't like the genre and more that I'm just not very familiar with it.   So far I'm really enjoying it, feeling a little like I'm in a game where I don't know the rules, and have to keep reminding myself that this was written in 1968--which makes for interesting going.  I'm not sure I'd like all science fiction (just like I don't like all mystery novels), but I wouldn't mind trying some other authors or other books by Philip Dick.  Any suggestions? 

Since there is still a month left in the year I've not come up with my favorites list, though I have several books in mind.  I might yet read something really spectacular, so best not to make it too soon.  However 'Best of' lists are starting to pop up.  I'll leave you with the 100 Notable Books of 2010 compiled by the New York Times and The Guardian's Books of the Year (as chosen by authors).  I've not read a single book on either list (wait, correction--I'm reading the new Lydia Davis translation of Madame Bovary).  Does it count that I at least own a few of them? 

November 24: Reading Notes

For a short work week it's felt like a long week indeed--you know how that goes.  Too much anticipation maybe?  I wanted to post about a book I've just recently finished but wasn't feeling very inspired to finish writing about it, so I'm being lazy instead.  Maybe you know how that goes, too. 

I've got a few new books (well, old but new to me) to share.  The top three are Bookmooch books.  Fay Weldon had come up in discussion not too long ago--finally an author whose books I can find on Bookmooch.  I have no idea really where to start (had hoped to get her autobiography, but no luck) so I requested the easiest titles that I could find--The Life and Loves of a She Devil and She May Not Leave.  The Peter Dickinson mystery, The Old English Peep Show, is just a bonus.  I've not read his work yet, but I think I might like him.  The nice thing about Bookmooch--no real risk taken.  If I don't like something I'll just put it back up for mooching and pass it on to someone else.

The bottom book is the sequel to Lynn Reid Banks's The L-Shaped Room, which I really enjoyed.  The Backward Shadow picks up where the first book left off, though now Jane is living in the country and not London.  The blurb calls it a "bittersweet sequel".  I'm looking forward to revisiting Jane's world and hope to start it soon.

I have started a couple of other books, however.  I couldn't quite wait for my break to start, so I decided to just dive right in rather than wasting precious reading time later choosing.  I will likely finish reading From the Land of the Moon by Milena Agus soon as it is such a slender novel.  It's books like this that I always have to tell myself to slow down and enjoy the story as it goes too quickly otherwise.  You barely blink and it's over with.  Did I already mention I want to read more Italian fiction/classics next year?  It's not too soon to be thinking about next year, is it?

And for a little comfort read (because I don't get in enough of those sorts of reads...) I've started The Heart of the Night by Judith Lennox.  This is one I will likely not finish during my break, but it's one to read slowly I think.  These sorts of books are my guilty pleasure.  I know I should probably be reading someone like Roberto Bolaño or Philip Roth or the latest Booker Prize winner, but the Lennox is the sort of book that I can escape into and loose myself for a while.  I probably can with the other books as well, but they require a bit more effort and consideration--not at all a bad thing, but everything has it's moment.  I'm still eyeing my pile for other reading possibilities, too.

Also over my break I want to think about where exactly I'm going with this space.  I feel like I talk too much about the quotidian details of my reading life and how exciting can that be for anyone out there to read?  I've not been feeling especially inspired or creative lately and I'm sure that must show.  If you blog, what do you do when you're feeling blah?  Where do you find inspiration?  And if you don't blog but read blogs, what appeals to you?  Time is limited and there are so many blogs to choose from, so what makes you click through to someone's space?

So, I'll leave those questions for you.  I'm off to go read something good and will be back later this weekend.  If you are celebrating Thanksgiving I wish you a very safe and happy holiday.  If you aren't celebrating have a great rest of the week.  And happy reading everyone.

Styx and Stones by Carola Dunn

I don't think you can get any cozier when it comes to cozy mysteries than Carola Dunn's Daisy Dalrymple series.  Although there is plenty of misbehavior in Daisy's world, which she often seems to stumble upon unwittingly, nothing is too dastardly as to shock and you can be reasonably assured that in the end the criminals will be caught and the world will be set to rights and most likely Daisy will have had a hand in the unraveling of clues and apprehension of the culprit.  And through it all she will have kept her cool, though she might have had just a little assistance from her fiancé, Detective Chief Inspector Alec Fletcher of Scotland Yard.

I've mentioned before how much I like Daisy, or I should say the Right Honorable Daisy Dalrymple.  Although Daisy's family is upper class, they've no longer the money associated with the title, so Daisy must work to earn her living.  Unthinkable in a previous generation, Daisy is a modern woman, or as modern as any 1920s woman might aspire to be.  She's a free lance writer for women's magazines, and has the uncanny ability to find herself right in the middle of murder investigations, kidnappings or whatever criminal activity happens to be the plat du jour.  You might say she is inordinately curious.  And it's through her extracurricular sleuthing that she met Alec, a widower with a young daughter.  The Great War has changed the world irrevocably and one result is the blurring of class lines.  Although educated, Alec is decidedly working class, and a detective on top of that, but a romance has managed to blossom between the two despite any misgivings of their families.

Daisy has gained a small reputation for having helped solve crimes, so it is to her her brother-in-law turns in a small personal matter.  After the war he committed an indiscretion that he hopes will not come to light, but after he receives a series of poison pen letters he fears his wife Violet, Daisy's sister, will be told.  Lord John Frobisher asks Daisy to look into the matter and perhaps discover who is behind the letters.  Although she knows Alec won't approve, the temptation is too great so she agrees to travel to Kent and ask a few questions--it all seems harmless enough.  Besides Violet is her sister, so she can't say no to Lord John and his wish to avoid any sort of scandal.

So off Daisy goes to Oakhurst with Alec's daughter, Belinda, in tow as this is meant to be a short holiday away from the sweltering heat of London.  Belinda has become very attached to Daisy and looks forward to the day when Daisy will become her mother, Belinda's own mother having died of influenza when she was only a baby.  As she's being raised now by her grandmother whose ideas of children are rather Victorian in outlook, Belinda appreciates Daisy's attention and affection.  Daisy expects that any questions she asks about the poison pen letters will be low key.  She quickly discovers that Lord John isn't the only recipient of these nasty notes, and when she comes across a body in the churchyard, she knows she's in over her head. 

 In a way this story is very Miss Marple-ish--a quaint English village filled with gossipy backstabbing residents, intrigue and resentment, and any number of the villagers might have not only motive but opportunity for committing the crimes.  It's not just a matter of nasty notes but now someone has been murdered.  When Alec finds out that Belinda might be a witness to a crime, he's furious with Daisy for having brought her into harm's way.  Daisy finds herself in the middle of quite a muddle.

As with her previous novels, Dunn's mystery is not only entertaining but her characters are charming.  I do warn you, however, if you pick this up, don't do so on an empty stomach.  Whatever their sins, the village ladies are perfect hostesses.  Daisy drinks copious cups of tea and is offered cherry cake and jam tarts and Dundee cake and...you get the idea.  Styx and Stones is Dunn's seventh Daisy Dalrymple mystery.  She's now written a total of eighteen and has a new one coming out next year.  I think I've got most of these on hand and I expect it won't be long until I pick up Daisy's next adventure.  Definitely recommended to cozy mystery lovers.    

Looking Forward to . . .

. . . Vacation!  Okay, so I have three more full work days to go after this weekend, but then I'm going to have five lovely days off.  This is a break that is much needed and I've been counting down for days now.  Granted two of those days are weekend days that I would have off from work anyway, but I won't complain about an extended weekend.  I've been plotting for a while on how I'm going to spend my time--my anticipation is that great.  I'm going to take a bit of a blogging break as well.  I'll be checking in and likely will post once or twice, but for the next week I think I'd rather spend time visiting other blogs.  I've gotten so far behind and feel I am missing out on some wonderful discussions, and I'd rather not admit to how full my email inbox has gotten (forgive me if I owe you an email!).   Along with catching up on blog reading I just want to relax, read my books and maybe do a little needlework.

I have a few books that I will be spending most of my time with--two are library books that need to be returned right after the holiday: Twilight Time by Karen Campbell and The Pumpkin Eater by Penelope Mortimer.  I'm making fast progress through both, so I don't think I'll have too many worries there.  And I had to share Anna Karenina--notice how the bookmark has moved passed the halfway mark and now I have fewer pages at the back of the book than I did not so long ago.  I love that feeling with a heavy book when the latter half of the book becomes smaller and smaller.  I may not finish reading Anna K. during my mini break, but I do plan on spending some serious time with her.  

And then I was thinking how nice it would be to start something new--a book from my own shelves, a book that I keep thinking about reading but never seem to give myself the excuse to do so.  I'm going to give myself the excuse.  There are so many that fall into this category that it's hard to choose just a handful, but I did narrow them down:  The Heart of the Night by Judith Lennox (historical romance set during WWII), Hearts and Minds by Amanda Craig (Orange Prize nominee set in contemporary London), Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K Dick (classic sci fi from 1968--made into the film Blade Runner), From the Land of the Moon by Milena Angus (new Europa title--WWII family saga), and The World from Rough Stones by Malcolm Macdonald (first of a series of novels set in the Victorian period).  I'm not sure which I'll end up reading, but part of the enjoyment is thinking about them and deciding on one (or maybe even two...).  Of course anything on my nightstand is also fair game.  I think it's fair to say I won't be lacking in reading material for those few days! 

In the meantime, enjoy the weekend and happy reading.

November 18: Reading Notes

Drum roll please.  I am officially past the halfway mark of Anna Karenina!  As this is a nice, chunky book this pleases me to no end and makes me feel like I am actually making serious progress.  (A couple possible spoilers coming up, beware).  Kitty and Levin are finally getting together and I am reading about their wedding at the moment.  I love all the little cultural details that Tolstoy includes and should be marking pages with little post-it notes, but I never seem to have them when I need them.  Anna, however, has run off with Vronsky after giving birth to their daughter and nearly dying.  Strangely I've become quite sympathetic towards Anna's husband who has redeemed himself somewhat--my first impression of him was very poor.  Now I'm not sure what to feel and think about Anna, but I reserve judgment  until I have more facts. 

I've been wondering about an author's intentions towards his characters.  Do you think he might make them (perhaps) immoral or selfish or whatever, and pass judgment on them and therefore make them "pay" in the end?  Or might he be sympathetic towards them, yet still make them "pay" in the end as that is what society expects?  I don't know enough about Tolstoy, and maybe it is unfair really bringing him into the equation and not letting Anna stand on her own, but I get the feeling sometimes that he doesn't like Anna.  I'm not quite sure where my thoughts are going with this, but it seems like there is a double standard going in the story (Anna's brother very happily and without any repercussions has been unfaithful to his wife), which has bothered me from the start.  Perhaps it's a case of my own modern perception of things. 

And for something entirely different, though maybe not considering my recent proclivity towards Scottish crime novels, I've been reading Karen Campbell's The Twilight Time.   I've moved from Edinburgh to Glasgow in this first Anna Cameron mystery.  I'm not entirely sure what I think, though it has nothing to do with the writing, which is very good, and everything to do with the characters.  They are portrayed in a very realistic light, which means warts and all.  Sometimes they're not especially nice or likable--including Anna.  And I wonder about police protocol as well (are the 'polis' really like this?  Maybe.), but maybe I'm being too judgmental (ahem, what was I saying about judging characters in just the paragraph above?) and more importantly I might be lacking in humor, though the humor here is on the dark side.  Maybe police officers are every bit as crass as some of these characters.  Despite my occasional misgivings, I want to keep reading and when I set the book down, it's not long before I pick it up again.  In its own way it is a compelling read and in many ways surprising compared to other books I've been dipping into lately.  By the way, any idea what a 'ned' is?  I'm thinking it must mean a criminal.  And a 'gaffer'?  Am thinking some sort of boss.  There's lots of slang and colloquialisms, which is certainly giving me a taste for what must be the seamier side of Glasgow.  Has anyone read Karen Campbell?  I'm curious to know what other readers think.

I'm also quite close to finishing Cathi Unsworth's Bad Penny Blues, which I've greatly enjoyed.  It's definitely not your normal take on everyday crime fiction, but Unsworth gives the story her own spin.  It's wonderfully atmospheric and you feel as though you've stepped back in time to the swinging sixties.  I wouldn't mind getting ahold of a few of her other books.  I've finished several books now and will hopefully be writing about this and the others soon.

One last note.  Tove Jansson's The Summer Book has been chosen as the next Slaves of Golconda read.  We'll be discussing it at the end of January, and you are welcome to join us.  I've had this book on my bookshelves for some time now, and I expect it will be a welcome read in the middle of winter!  I can already imagine the sand between my toes and the sun beating down on me.  Bliss.

The Romeo Flag by Carolyn Hougan

Carolyn Hougan's The Romeo Flag is mixed bag of treats.  Published in 1989 it's a post-Cold War thriller of sorts combining elements of the mystery and spy novel genres with a dash of romance and family drama thrown in for good measure.  Reading spy novels seems a natural progression from my normal mystery/thriller fare which I enjoy so much, and while not a perfect read this was probably as good a place to start as any.

Divorced school teacher Nicola Ward may be leading an uneventful life in Maine, but her world is about to be turned upside down when a mysterious trunk arrives after a forty-year journey that began in Shanghai during the war.  Nicola was born in Shanghai but was taken by relatives to America to keep her out of harm's way.  Her family perished during the war leaving Nicola an orphan, so the trunk is a welcome sight which she hopes will shed some light on her family's history.  Inside the trunk are a diary and other documents written in Russian and Chinese along with a Russian icon and what appears to be an authentic Fabergé egg.

The contents seem innocuous enough, but for Nicola they may be the answer to her financial worries according to the experts at an auction house where she has taken them for appraisal.  As a matter of fact there is a suspicion that the contents may have ties to the Imperial Russian family, the Romanovs.  The diary and photos are passed along to an expert, someone with intimate knowledge of Russian history, culture and most importantly someone who can translate the documents into English.  Neil Walker is an ex-CIA agent who retired from the service after one too many bloody missions.  His work in the field has helped set him up nicely in the business of researching the provenance of Russian artifacts and translating documents.

Some secrets are better left locked up and forgotten, but when Nicola and Neil begin asking questions about the photos and diaries, long buried misdeeds threaten to come to light, which puts the two and their unsuspecting families in a precarious situation.  Does Nicola have ties to the Romanov family?  What really happened to her parents during the war?  And are the answers worth killing for?  The closer they come to learning the truth, the more dangerous their lives become until finally they have to run with their families while they find some sort of leverage to fight back.

There's a definite spark between Nicola and Neil, both single parents with unhappy pasts and difficult family problems to deal with.  Nicola's daughter is suffering from anorexia, and daily she watches her waste away fearing that nothing will bring her back from the brink.  Neil's wife died in a car accident while he as away on a mission, something he will never forgive himself for as he was meant to be driving.  His son survived but can only walk with difficulty.  There's a lot going on in the story and a full cast of characters, which Hougan manages well.  It's sufficiently thrillerish with just the right dose of espionage that reaches as far back as the war and as high as the upper echelons of the American government.

The Romeo Flag was written in the late 80s and there are moments when it wears its colors very brightly.  There were a number of cultural markers that set the tone of the time, but no worse than any other book.  Still I had to chuckle when I read this passage about Neil doing research at the Library of Congress and was amused by how much things have changed!

"Walker proceeded through the huge room toward the alcove which housed the Xerox machines and the Scorpio computers.  The computers were only knowledgeable back a certain way in time: only books printed since 1965 were listed.  The staff struggled to keep them up to date, and then chip away at the centuries of books that remained to be added to the database.  Still, he was after broad, contemporary knowledge.  He wanted to compare Borodin's narrative to other source material describing the final days of the Romanovs.  He typed in the search command for Romanov, narrowing his focus as he went, then told the computer to print out.  He ripped off the short list, printed on thin shiny paper, and got up.  The monitor read: this search required 4.75 minutes.  SCORPIO is a service of the Library of Congress."

Wow.  So fast?  How did the world ever function without Google?  Imagine putting in a few search terms and then waiting five minutes for the computer to grind away (which is an eternity when you are searching online) for your results.

All in all this was an entertaining read.  My only quibble is that after a lengthy set up and a chase scene that was somewhat ragtag (both kids and parents along with a neighbor were involved), the ending was somewhat anticlimactic.  I think I've watched too many MI-5 shows, which are so much edgier (to say nothing about violent), so it's not really Hougan's fault, since I was expecting something a little more cutthroat perhaps.  Still the story whisked me away mentally during a week or so of gym visits, and I can't ask for more than that when it comes to a good thriller.  Sadly Hougan passed away only a few years ago.  I plan on reading her other novel, Shooting in the Dark, which is also published by Felony and Mayhem Press.  The Chicago Tribune called it "shamefully neglected" and "a veritable Fabergé egg full of treasures and delights", so I look forward to it.  She also wrote a number of thrillers with her husband.   

I'll be looking for other good thrillers/spy stories to read, and at the moment I'm working on At Risk by Stella Rimington, which is a story about an MI-5 agent that is set in contemporary London.  Recommendations for good espionage stories are very welcome.

Teaser Tuesday: The Mistress of Nothing

I've always thought it curious that you travel 'up the Nile' when in fact you are traveling south, but then I'm sure that is my own weird geographic egocentricity talking.  In Kate Pullinger's The Mistress of the Nile, Lady Duff Gordon and her lady's maid, Sally, are traveling up the Nile towards the interior where it will be warmer, and thus much more conducive to Lady Duff Gordon's health, which is precarious.  She is suffering from TB and is hoping the warm, dry climate will help bring about a cure.  Nothing else has helped and now she is faced with years away from her family and friends in England.

Since it has turned colder where I live, and we've already seen our first snowfall (which has thankfully almost completely melted away), the sun and warmth of Egypt sound blissful.  Egypt also sounds wonderfully colorful and exotic, and certainly to Sally's eyes the chaos and light amaze and seduce her.  I have a feeling it is going to be Sally who is transformed rather than Lady Duff Gordon, though Sally is totally dedicated to her mistress.  Sally is telling this story, and this is what she sees as she travels up the Nile.

"Those white hills, I see them when I close my eyes against the darkness of my cabin; that's the desert, I tell myself.  The desert.  The word itself is frightening.  That's where the lush green ends, where the Nile, despite its abundance, cannot reach.  Sometimes, as the sun beats down on our boat, Zint el-Bachreyn (I roll the words around my mouth again and again), and I look for somewhere to escape to, somewhere I can lie back and rest and not feel as though I am burning, burning--sometimes when I look across the water, across the cultivated land, and see those white hills, I am frightened.  The desert, in all its blank enormity; the Egyptian desert, peopled as it is with the dead, with mortuaries, funerary temples, mummies in their tombs, workers in their graves.  I have to look away."

Cold weather almost always makes me want to read 'warm' books.  What is your favorite bookish destination at the moment?  Egypt suits me very well.

New from the Library

Oh, is this open window for me?  Excuse me, pardon me, passing through.  Oh, were you doing something with this stack of books?  Let me get out of the way.

Have you noticed that anything you might be doing, you are actually doing for the cat?  Open the window to take advantage of the sun...it's all for the cat.

Sorry about that little intrusion, I just wanted to share my most recent library finds, and Dulce wanted to get a better look at what's going on in the neighborhood.  Now that we've gotten ourselves sorted out...

I've already mentioned that I'm reading Kate Pullinger's The Mistress of Nothing.  I'd been in the mood for something set in the Victorian world, so this came around at just the right time.  I'd read several very positive reviews of the book, which is based in part on the real-life Lady Lucie Duff-Gordon and her experiences in Egypt, though the story is told by her lady's maid, Sally.  I've only just started reading this past weekend, but she has me hooked.  First person narratives, when done well, are so enticing to me.  I love being in the mind of the person telling the story.

Jillian Lauren's Some Girls: My Life in a Harem happened to come in a book shipment at work last week.  It sounds a little bit salacious, doesn't it?  Maybe not my usual sort of read, but I bet it's a page turner.  Lauren was a theater school dropout when she went on a casting call.  A rich business man working in Singapore was looking for pretty girls to jazz up his parties and Lauren was promised a large sum of money for a two week stint, which turned out to be an entirely different sort of work. 

Wish Her Safe at Home by Stephen Benatar is another book that I first heard about when Darlene read it and wrote about it earlier this fall.  It looks like it was also a popular reading choice for the recent NYRB reading week hosted by The Literary Stew.  "In Wish Her Safe at Home, Stephen Benatar finds humor and horror in the shifting region between elation and mania.  His heroine could be the next-door neighbor of the Beales of Grey Gardens or a sister of Jane Gardam's oddball protagonists, but she has an ebullient charm all her own."  Sounds a bit like Annie in A Kind of Intimacy as well!

And I can't wait to start Julia Franck's The Blindness of the Heart, which won the German Book Prize.  It took some time for my library to find a copy to borrow and I had almost given up hope.  A.S. Byatt gave it a thumbs up, and it seems to have gotten a number of very good reviews.  It is a multigenerational family saga that begins in 1945 when a mother abandons her son in a train station.  The question of why is answered by looking back into the woman's WWI childhood.  There are a few books in line before this one, but I hope to start reading it soon.

I know this is a totally undignified photo, and Dulce would be aghast if she knew I shared it, but it expresses how I feel on Monday mornings so well...Don't worry, immediately after snapping this shot, she wandered off to her comfy (and warm) kitty bed to catch up on her sleep.  If only we couldn't all be so lucky.