Suspenseful Books . . . reviewed by Suzanne

Tsar by Ted Bell
Alex Hawke is an updated James Bond. Wine, women and danger are his metiers. Although he’s a British special forces veteran, he does special jobs for the CIA and the U.S. president. Hawke is wonderfully colorful. His father was a British lord, and his mother American. One of his ancestors was a pirate. The “Hawke” books are long and rather rambling, with several plots going on at once. You have to be patient and let yourself enjoy the stories and the quirky characters. As Tsar opens, Hawke is in Bermuda recovering from his last assignment. He meets a beautiful Russian artist with whom he has an affair, but has to leave her when he gets called back into action to foil a plot by a mad Russian who threatens to destroy the world. Not with Hawke and his team around! Ted Bell's website.

Now You See Him by Eli Gottlieb
The unraveling of the lives of two men who grew up in a small upstate New York town is the subject of this suspenseful novel. It’s told in 1st person by Nick, who learns of the murder-suicide of his best friend Rob and his girlfriend in New York City. Nick struggles to understand what could have happened to the handsome, talented Rob to make him end his life this way. In the meantime, Nick’s marriage is falling apart. It’s a story of secrets and lies. Eli Gottlieb's website.

The Ties That Bind: Family and the Shaping of a Woman’s Identity . . . reviewed by Gail

“The role of daughter, sister, and/or mother dramatically shapes who and what a woman will become and how she will live her life.”

“A woman’s experiences with the female relationships within her nuclear family determine who she will be today and tomorrow. “

“The close personal relationships (both positive and negative) and female bonding within the intimacies of family prepare women for the rigors of life and the complex relationships that will ensue.”

As a daughter raised primarily by a single mother, a sister to two older female siblings, and a mother of two daughters (who are sisters to one another), I can affirm with absolute certainty that these relationships have indeed made me the woman I am today and will continue to shape my identity.

What We Keep by Elizabeth Berg, I See You Everywhere by Julia Glass, and Things I Want My Daughters to Know by Elizabeth Noble capture the essence of the beauty, fragility, competitiveness, heartache, and solidarity of the bonds between mothers and daughters and sisters.

What We Keep by Elizabeth Berg
Two sisters growing up in the 1950s share a multifaceted love/hate relationship. One night, Ginny and Sharla overhear their distraught mother screaming at their father about her unhappiness and telling him that she is miserable and never wanted children. Their mother leaves, only to return a few months later to explain that she is never coming back. Although both girls tacitly agree not to forgive their mother, Sharla, the older of the two girls, is more stalwart in her position, while Ginny harbors romantic delusions of who her mother was. Sharla is furious with her mother, yet Ginny is heartbroken and always seems to make excuses for their mother’s erratic behavior. Over the years, the two sisters maintain a loving, yet distant relationship. Thirty-five years after their mother’s abandonment, Sharla calls Ginny to explain that she is awaiting the results of a cancer test and perhaps it is time to reconcile with their mother, with whom they have had no contact. In flashbacks, the author revisits the sisters’ childhood and examines the impact their mother’s leaving has had on them. Domestic details, the duality (strength and fragility) of the bond between sisters, and the inescapable tie that exists between a mother and her children are accurately and vividly portrayed. Berg pointedly examines the roles and relationships of mother and daughters and sisters and shows how forgiveness and reconciliation are possible. Elizabeth Berg's website.

I See You Everywhere
by Julia Glass
Louisa and Clem Jardine are as opposite as two sisters can possibly be. Louisa, the older sister and conscientious student eventually seeks marriage, children, and classic domestic sensibility, while Clem is lured by wild pursuits in both her career path and her love life. Told through alternating voices, the sisters recount very different versions of their lives from 1980 to 2005. The Jardine sisters share a complex bond always trying to outdo the other while simultaneously seeking approval from the sister they supposedly abhor. Glass’s well-drawn female characters embody the true meaning of sisterhood and the two-sided nature of the sister’s relationship makes for a compelling read. This is an engaging, intelligent, funny, and thoughtful novel with a surprising conclusion. Despite the Jardine sister’s differences, the ties that bind the two cannot be severed and, in the end, the love they share for one another can never be denied.

Things I Want My Daughters to Know by Elizabeth Noble
Four sisters, ranging in age from fifteen to thirty-eight, struggle to construct meaning from their mother’s demise as they comb through the letters and journal their mother left after her death from terminal cancer. Noble’s tearjerker novel will resonate with all mothers, daughters, and sisters, who recognize the importance of these female relationships within the intimacies of the nuclear family. Through their bereavement and soul-searching, the four sisters come to understand how their individual relationships with their mother and each of the sisters have shaped the women they have become. Without each other, they would not be the women they are. This novel provides a nice harmony among sadness, humor, regret, forgiveness, reconciliation, and hope. Things I Want My Daughters to Know is a fast-pace satisfying read. Elizabeth Noble's website.

Historical Fiction – War Stories . . . reviewed by Suzanne

The Piano Teacher
by Janice Y.K. Lee
This is a stylistically conventional story, but very well told, about British and Chinese people in Hong Kong during WWII and about how they survive (or not) during the Japanese occupation. The story flips back and forth from the wartime setting to 1952 and ‘53 and the survivors of the war. Stories begin to be told about who did what during the war and accusations of collaboration rear their ugly heads. Several characters bridge both stories; the main one is Will Truelove (hmmm!), who after the war works as a chauffeur for Victor and Melody Chen. Before the war he was in love with Trudy Liang, a Eurasian woman who refused to evacuate before the Japanese arrived, and who has a tough time of it during the war. There's also a subplot about art treasures claimed by the Chinese and the British that were hidden during the war and that the Japanese command wanted to get their hands on. The novel reminds me of those '50s movies about doomed lovers in wartime that my mother used to love to watch and cry over. Janice Y.K. Lee's website.

Tallgrass by Sandra Dallas
Rennie Stroud is 14 and living in Ellis, Colorado, when the Japanese arrive. They're actually Japanese-Americans, but because they're deemed a "security risk" they are forced to live at the camp built for them in nearby Tallgrass. The Strouds are a close-knit, loving family and refuse to participate in the racism and hatred of their neighbors. Mr. Stroud hires some of the young men from the camp to harvest beets, a move that angers many of the townspeople. This is a heartwarming book about decent folks who do the right thing.


Life Class by Pat Barker
Pat Barker is the author of the Regeneration trilogy, which has become a modern classic about WWI. She returns to the Great War in this heartbreaking story (is there any story about WWI that is not heartbreaking?) about a group of young art students in London. Their hopeful lives are ripped apart by the war. Read the New York Times review.

Recommendation from Julie

The Small Boat of Great Sorrows by Dan Fesperman
When an exiled policeman from Sarajevo is called in to work with the International War Crimes Tribunal to find an ex-Nazi collaborator he finds himself drawn into a world of espionage, intrigue and family secrets in postwar Bosnia and post-cold war Europe. Exciting! Dan Fesperman's Website

Mysteries: Noir, Historical and Detective. . . reviewed by Julie

South of Hell by P.J. Parrish
This is my second Louis Kincaid novel and I enjoyed this one as much as the first. I love the way the author has parallel plots going on with different characters at the same time. This was a quick, easy and fun read.
P.J. Parrish's Website





The Color of Blood by Declan Hughes
This took me awhile to get into it but once I did I was hooked. The plot was exciting and that is what kept you going. Ed Loy is an interesting detective but I didn't really learn much about him. The Irish Catholic elements I found very interesting.





The Barbarous Coast by Ross MacDonald
I love Ross MacDonald—he's a classic noir writer in the style of Raymond Chandler. He is great at providing a sense of moral decay in L.A. and always has a misguided, troubled daughter to rescue.






A Paragon of Virtue by Christian Von Ditfurth
As members of a wealthy real estate family in Hamburg, Germany are murdered, the police are led to believe that the motive can be found in the past—during the Nazi regime. Stachelmann, a history professor who specializes in Nazi Germany becomes involved and through both research and footwork solves the crime. This is the first of a series and was absolutely fascinating.

Expand Your World, Read International Literature . . . from Suzanne

 

A friend came into the library recently and asked me for book recommendations. She’s a former language teacher, has traveled widely, and particularly likes books with foreign settings. The first books that came to mind were some of my stand-by favorites. These included:

• The Seven Sisters by Margaret Drabble, set in England, plus in the course of the novel the narrator takes some friends on a trip to Greece, I believe.
  
• Heat Wave by Penelope Lively, set in the English countryside.
  
• Out Stealing Horses by Per Petterson, set in Norway.
  
• The Sixteen Pleasures by Robert Hellenga, set in Florence, Italy.
  

Since then I’ve been making a list of other books to recommend to her and other readers who like to travel through books, and specifically about books translated from other languages. Two of them are:

• Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon (Spain, Barcelona specifically)
  
• Night Train to Lisbon by Pascal Mercier

Thoughts on International Literature

The most dramatic change in fiction publishing over the past 5 years, in my opinion, is the proliferation of contemporary fiction titles from abroad that are translated into English. I’ve read in various journals, including Publisher’s Weekly, about the challenges faced by foreign publishers because of the expense of translations, with no assurance that books that have been best sellers in Europe are going to make it big in the U.S. market. In fact, two books whose U.S. publication I anticipated for a long time, both blockbusters in Europe, have not had huge sales here. These are:

• Cathedral of the Sea by Ildefonso Falcones de Sierra (Spain). This book is an 811-page saga of a Catalan family whose story is told in the context of the building of the Church of Santa Maria in Barcelona over an 80-year period. It’s long and rambling, and not as melodramatic as Ken Follett’s medieval soap operas, but better, if you have the patience.
  
• The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery. I read this book last month, and it immediately became one of my favorite novels of the year. Rather than write a review, I’ll put you on to Michael Dirda’s Review, which sums up the loveliness of this book.

For all of you who, like me, love to “expand your borders” through books I have some recommendations and some websites. You’ll notice that a lot of these are by French authors, and that’s because I’m an ardent Francophile.

• Nada by Carmen Laforet (Spain)
  
• The Theory of Clouds by Stephane Audeguy (France)
  
• The Yacoubian Building by Alaa al Aswany (Egypt)
  
• The Mystery Guest by Gregoire Bouillier (France)
  
• Hotel Crystal by Olivier Rolin (France)
  
• The Waitress was New by Dominique Fabre (France)
  
• The Lost Daughter by Elena Ferrante (Italy)
  

Websites with Book News and Reviews

Two excellent websites for information about literature in translation, literary prizes, essays and stories are:

Words Without Borders
Man Asian Prize

I found a great list of translated books nominated for the “Best Translated Book 2008” award from Three Percent, a resource for international literature at the University of Rochester.

Three Percent

Thrillers Again . . . reviewed by Suzanne

The Black Tower by Louis Bayard
The only son of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, the guillotined king and queen of France, was locked in the Temple Prison where he languished for years, an innocent victim of the revolutionaries' hatred of the French monarchy. History tells us he died there . . . or did he? In this historical thriller, Dr. Hector Carpentier is contacted by the great Vidocq, former convict, police spy and "scourge of criminals". Carpentier's name and address were found on the body ("Never let your name be found in a dead man's trousers.") of a murder victim. The story is told by Hector and through the entries in his late father, Dr. Hector Carpentier's, journal. The older physician recounts how he treated a young patient in the Temple Prison when Hector Jr. was just a child. The tone is witty, and there is just the right amount of pathos in the appropriate places. The characters travel around 19th century Paris, which is dirty, dangerous and rat-infested, not the City of Light it is today. Great fun and a book with heart!
Louis Bayard's Web Site


The Legal Limit by Martin Clark
Mason and Gates Hunt are brothers. While Mason went to law school, married and went on to a successful law career, Gates drank too much, did drugs and was eventually arrested and convicted for selling them. Instead of taking a plea, Gates insisted on going to trial, where he lied on the stand. Even after years in prison, he continues to cast blame, not on himself, but on his brother, who he insists could "pull strings" and shorten his sentence if he tried. Flash back to their youth, while Mason was in law school and long before Gates's conviction, when an event occurred that Mason thinks is long behind them. One night, during a confrontation with a rival over a woman, a drunken Gates killed a man. It was senseless and indefensible act of brutality. Mason helped his brother cover up the crime, and neither of them has mentioned it since that night. Now it comes back to threaten Mason. This is a top-notch legal thriller. I recommend it for fans of James Lee Burke.
Martin Clark's Web Site


The Last Patriot by Brad Thor
"At the end of the day, Harvath always did the right thing." In spite of his bravery and dedication, Scott Harvath, the hero of Thor's series, lacks the humor of Lee Child’s Jack Reacher and the sex appeal of Daniel Silva’s Gabriel Allon. The attempt to create a love life for Harvath is not convincing. He's just too serious to have fun! I’m convinced Scott would rather sleep with his gun. The books are competently written, and this one has an interesting story that hinges on a discovery about the Koran made by Thomas Jefferson. The good guys (Harvath & Co.) are trying to find an unknown document that will shed a new light on Islam, and the bad guys (Islamic extremists) are trying to find it and destroy it. I liked that this book had less graphic violence than some of the other books in the series. And it has a satisfying twist at the end. Recommended for thriller fans.
Brad Thor's Web Site


Le Crime by Peter Steiner
I picked up a copy of this book in my local independent bookstore because it's a thriller and it's set in France. The protagonist is a former CIA operative who left the agency in disgrace years previously. He also left his wife and children. When the book opens, he's living in a small town in France. One morning, sitting on his patio eating his croissant, he sees a body in his front yard. He interprets this as a warning that he is targeted for assassination. I liked that the narrator describes himself as an "old man" and contemplates his aging and sagging body in unflattering terms. There's a flashback to a pilgrimage he took through France, which is how he found the village he lives in. The plotline is thin, the reason he's being pursued by bad guys is - if I understood it correctly - ridiculous, and there are some details about other murders that were not cleared up, unless I missed something. Still and all, I was drawn to the narrator and his French comrades-in-arms, I thoroughly enjoyed reading it, and I'll pick up the sequel, "L'Assassin" when I get a chance.

Reviewed by Suzanne