Guest Blog - A Study in Valor

In the last few weeks, I have overheard at least two women recommend that their friends read The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom. It is a story of courage and hope. The Ten Boom family in the Netherlands sheltered Jewish people during WW II. Eventually the hiding place was discovered and the two sisters were sent to German concentration camps. It really is an amazing story. It has been years since I last read Ten Boom's book. I don't remember all of the details but I still remember the effect that it had on me. I had the same feeling when I read Viktor Frankl's book, Man's Search for Meaning, about his survival in a German concentration camp. I felt reverence and awe for these individuals who faced one of life's most horrible nightmares but retained their integrity and dignity. And in the case of the Ten Boom sisters, their faith.

Perhaps my curiousity about how people face unthinkable adversity and survive is what prompted me to read A Study in Valor: the Faith of a Bataan Death March Survivor. The story of Clarence Bramley's experience during WW II is retold by William T. Garner. Bramley actually was able to keep a small journal and his parents kept his letters. The book also has historical pictures that bring the reality forcefully to mind.

Bramley joined the Army anticipating that he would go to flight school and learn to fly an airplane. When he returned to the US, he found out that he had passed his tests and was accepted for training. However, he arrived in the Phillipines only about a month before Pearl Harbor and the susquent attack upon the Phillipines by the Japanese. Only a few months into the Japanese assault, McCarther left the island and left the men he could not evacuate to surrender to the Japanese.

Clarence was one of the men who was forced to march and to do hard labor in camps in the Phillipines. Although the narrative does not go into detail about fellow soldiers being killed by being beaten with a rifle or at the point of a bayonette or even beheaded as they struggled to walk next to Clarence, it takes little imagination to visualize the agony of these soldiers. Clarence was one of those who against all odds survived. When McCarther actually did return to Bataan, a peninsula in the Phillipines, Clarence was one of the captives who was put on a ship and transported to Japan. Although he had heard the sweet sound of American planes in the air, he was not there to be rescued from his prison.

The continuing faith of Clarence is inspiring. Throughout his imprisonment, he always believed not only that the US would win the war but that he would survive. Probably that faith is what motivated him to continue struggling against enormous odds.

One lesson I learned from this book was a greater understanding of why the US resorted to destroying two cities in Japan with atomic bombs. The devistation was so vast. Sixty-five years after the end of the war, one can easily weep for the loss of life of those people.

Garner tells of an incident early in the book when several Japanese soldiers who had surrendered to the Americans were returned to their company. There was no trial. No words were spoken. The soldiers who had surrendered were immediately executed. There was no shame greater than surrender. Clarence came to realize that his Japanese captors held the Americans in great contempt because they had surrendered instead of fighting to the death. They treated their captives accordingly.

Reading this book, was probably the first time that I understood why Truman felt that the only solution was to drop bombs on Japan. The US was convinced that Japan would never surrender otherwise and the human cost of the war in the Pacific was so staggeringly high already. Truman did not want the war to drag out for months with young Americans dying in such great numbers. He wanted the killing of American soldiers to stop.

Somewhere along the way in my life, I discovered that history does not remain the same. As years pass, history is reinterpreted as new facts are learned or perspective is altered. This is true whether the history is of a nation, the world or your personal life. It should motivate all of us to leave a bit of our history behind.

Guest Blog - A Comrade Lost and Found: A Beijing Memoir by Jan Wong

Several years ago I heard an interview with Jan Wong on the radio and became interested in finding out what happened to the comrade whom she betrayed while she was a student in Beijing. However, it was a long time before I came across a copy of her book A Comrade Lost and Found: A Beijing Memoir. In a couple of libraries the copy was missing.

In early December I had the chance to read the book. Note that I have not read Red China Blues. Both books are biographical. I found the experiences and the glimpse of Beijing in the pre-Olympic years interesting. Not to give away too much to those of you who might read this book - when by a series of chance encounters, Wong does find her fellow student, the resolution is so simple that I am disappointed in myself that it did not cross my mind.

I have not felt spurred on to check out Red China Blues even though it is presumably a good account of the tragedy at Tiananmen Square. Do I really want to know? However, I enjoyed this glimpse into Beijing during and after the Cultural Revolution. I could do worse than to take a bit of time to learn more about this rapidly emerging power. I have to admit that the mysteries written by Lisa See are more up my alley, square, sidestreet....

The House of Dead Maids

In Clare B. Dunkle’s young adult novel The House of Dead Maids, orphaned Tabby Aykroyd arrives at Seldom House to be a caretaker and playmate to the young “master.” She is immediately haunted by ghosts of her predecessors and tries to save herself and her young charge from a similar fate.

Dunkle’s novel is a fast, enjoyable read and maintains a consistently unsettling atmosphere throughout. The book cover is one of the creepiest I’ve seen, but it also claims the novel is “A Chilling Prelude to Wuthering Heights.” Dunkle ties the story to the Brontë family in the last few pages; however, I found this maneuvering unfortunate and gimmicky. The book could easily stand alone as a dark glimpse into a pagan Victorian England and only loses credibility by trying to piggyback on the Brontës’ fame. Enjoy Dead Maids what it is and not for what it is trying to be.

Room

Five-year-old Jack in Emma Donoghue's Room has lived in the same room since his birth. His mother, Ma, has lived there for seven years—ever since she was kidnapped by “Old Nick.” The story of their captivity is narrated by the young Jack.

A lot of buzz has surrounded Donoghue’s latest novel—I first heard about it on NPR—mostly because of the young narrator. Jack’s voice is definitely unique. However, it is also often jarringly inconsistent. At times, Jack sounds like a caveman. At other times, he has the vocabulary of a PhD. Many times, Jack’s narration distracts from an otherwise interesting story.

If you can get over Jack’s voice, the story of what Ma does to survive and to protect her son, and the consequences of their captivity, is an intriguing one. The reality of teenagers and children held captive for years seems to be becoming more prevalent, and I appreciate Donoghue’s attempt to tackle such a sensitive topic without being overly sentimental.

Lost in Austen: Create Your Own Jane Austen Adventure

“Your name: Elizabeth Bennet. Your mission: to marry both prudently and for love, avoiding family scandal. Equipped with only your sharp wit, natural good sense, and tolerable beauty, you must navigate your way through a variety of decisions that will determine your own romantic (and financial) fate. Ever wonder what would happen if Elizabeth accepted Mr. Darcy’s proposal the first time around? Or ran from his arms into those of Persuasion’s Captain Wentworth? Now is your chance to find out.”

How could I possibly resist this blurb on the back of Emma Campbell Webster’s novel Lost in Austen: Create Your Own Jane Austen Adventure? As a child, I was a huge fan of the Choose Your Own Adventure series (and still lament its demise) and eagerly jumped into this grown-up, literary version.

Although the book is essentially a retelling of all Austen’s novels, Campbell Webster adds clever commentary and re-imagines what would have happened if Elizabeth Bennet had married Willoughby or Mr. Knightley rather than Mr. Darcy. Her portrait of other Austen heroines isn’t always flattering, and Elizabeth’s fate often ends in marital failure (or worse), but the novel is meant to be all in good fun.

Guest Blog - 61 Hours

I have had so so feelings about some of Lee Child's Reacher novels. 61 Hours in not one of them. Decidedly one of Child's better books. I cannot top the NY Times review of the book. It was very enthusiastic and points out that this mystery ends with a cliffhanger. The new book, Worth Dying For, which picks up where this one leaves off is already out. But you know me. It is so hard for me to part with the price of a hardback novel even from Amazon. Especially if it is one I am not likely to read a second time. Reacher is good the first time around but I am not sure Child's books are the read over and over again variety.

Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie

I’m a year (or two) behind the times—but, hey, I’ve been living in Turkey—and finally read Alan Bradley’s Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie.

Eleven-year-old Flavia de Luce resides in an English country manor with her widowed father and two older sisters. Despite the seemingly-idyllic location, Flavia lives in a post-WWII society and family that struggles with the effects of war and the loss of its mother. She also happens across a dead body outside her bedroom window.

Flavia is a precocious crime solver who meddles in the police investigation and isn’t afraid to go anywhere or talk to anyone in her pursuit of answers. This cozy mystery is as charming and inoffensive as a murder mystery can be, and I can understand why it’s a bestseller.

Flavia, however, has some nastiness to her that I found rather off-putting. She deliberately destroys her dead mother’s pearls and sets out to poison one of her older sisters. I don’t expect—or want—a perfect lead character, but I prefer flaws that I can relate to rather than sociopathic tendencies.

Overall, the novel is enjoyable and held my interest. Yet, despite Sweetness’s popularity, I’ve noticed the sequel, The Weed that Strings the Hangman’s Bag, doesn’t seem nearly as in demand, which might really reflect readers’ feelings about the series.

The Best Birth

The title of this book, The Best Birth: Your Guide to the Safest, Healthiest, Most Satisfying Labor and Delivery, caught my attention since most expectant mothers, like me, must decide whether or not to have a “natural” childbirth or one using “medical pain-management options.” However, the introduction to the book might scare off many readers as it promotes the “McMoyler Method, the childbirth method for the twenty-first century.” Who is McMoyler of the McMoyler Method? Sarah McMoyler, the author and a labor and delivery nurse.

Ultimately, the book is less about promoting a certain method and more about providing a good discussion of what to expect during a natural, medicated, or cesarean childbirth. The author also includes helpful tips for what to bring to the hospital, how the husband or partner can be more involved in childbirth, the role of each member on the hospital staff, and even some of the nitty-gritty details women may not know about the birthing and recovery process.

This book is a manageable length, about 250 pages, and can be a helpful resource for any woman expecting a baby and looking for more information on the process.

Guest Blog - The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest

I just finished Stieg Larsson's last book, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest. Once again his book was extremely difficult to put down to pay attention to real life. Definitely his best book. It is a loss to readers that he wrote only three books before his death.

Spoiler Alert: At least this book has a feeling of resolution and does not have a cliffhanger ending.

Thank you Larsson for hours of "sitting on the edge of my seat" worried about what is going to happen next.

Guest Blog - Double Play by Robert B Parker

Several years ago I heard a program on NPR which talked about Hank Aaron. Aaron was the man who broke Babe Ruth's home run record. The program recalled the many threats that Aaron received. Some of them were from fans of Ruth who did not want to see his record broken. Most of them were race related.

Double Play (2004) is about another courageous man who broke "the color" barrier in major league baseball; Jackie Robinson. In 1947 Jackie Robinson joined the Brooklyn Dodgers. The novel is a piece of historical fiction. It follows the path of Joseph Burke, a returning WW II veteran, who eventually ends up being Robinson's body guard.

A parallel story runs through the book. It is the story of Bobby Parker who was 9 when the United States entered the war. He was 15 when Robinson became a major league ball player. As most American boys of that era he was an avid baseball fan. He followed the statistics in the paper and listened to games on the radio.

The story is interesting, but examining the racial tension of that era is more intriguing. Both the white and the black fans and players felt threatened by this change. Robinson was in a position where no matter how angry he might feel about some of the abuse he received, he had to remain calm and ignore it. He had to be the perfect gentleman so that this experiment in crossing racial borders had a chance to make it.

Reading the book was a good reminder that we have come along way since 1947 in how Blacks are treated in the US. Unfortunately, we still have a long way to go before we accept all minorities as fellow citizens.

Guest Blog - Bury Your Dead

Bury Your Dead is without doubt Louise Penny's best book yet. The story and emotions are complex. In fact there are three different story lines in this novel. Both Chief Inspector Gamache and Inspector Beauvoir are dealing with the wounds and scars left from an ambush only two months earlier. Both of them are on leave still recovering from the physical damage they incurred in the shoot out. Gamache is visiting his old friend and mentor in Quebec City in February, the month of the annual winter carnival. Beauvoir is back in Three Pines. He is supposed to be relaxing but is actually there at Gamache's request to look at the murder of a hermit. In Penny's previous novel, The Brutal Telling, the team investigated the murder of a recluse who lived in the woods outside the town.

I am not sure if you need to have read any of the previous books in order to enjoy this one. It is hard for me to be objective since I have read and liked all of Penny's mysteries. Although I think some type of acquaintance with her characters probably would help with understanding this novel, I don't want to discourage anyone from opening it up to read. The issues of dealing with change, tragedy and a need to belong are ones that all readers will identify with. How do you move on after loss or tragedy? Where do you fit in society at large or within a small circle?

This tale is not only thought provoking, it is an edge of the seat thriller as well. What really happened when one of their own was kidnapped? Is Olivier who is in prison a killer or not?

Probably adding to my enjoyment of the book, I have been to Quebec City in the winter although not for Carnival and there were so many sites that I recognized as Penny talked about them. I much prefer Quebec in the spring or fall. I found myself very interested in the history. I had no idea that although Samuel de Champlain died in Quebec that no one has any idea where he is buried. Other historic figures she talks about are genuine as well.

I have found that the books I enjoy most are often the ones that cause me to look up information online or lead me to read another book. This book certainly falls in that category. If you are only looking for a good mystery be sure to try Louise Penny. She has only a few books, but is well worth looking for. Fortunately Penny's novels are available in the US as well as Canada.

If you click on Louise Penny above, you will be connected with her personal page which includes some great pictures of Quebec City.

Heist Society

As a fan of Ally Carter’s Gallagher Girls series, I eagerly read Heist Society. If possible, I actually enjoyed this book more than the series.

Katarina “Kat” Bishop tries to escape the “family business” and experience a normal adolescence by entering a prestigious boarding school. She lasts only a few months before being wrangled back into the fold, this time to save her father who has been accused of stealing five paintings from an unsavory collector.

In order to help her father, Kat gathers together a group of teens with special, if not necessarily legal, skills in order to pull off an impossible heist. Rather than let their age and experience handicap them, the characters use their teen status to their advantage.

Overall, Heist Society is a fun and fast read. Underlying the clever mayhem, though, is a surprisingly serious storyline about stolen artwork and restitution, as well as a hint of pedophilia. I was a bit disappointed that Carter doesn’t dwell more on these truly somber aspects and instead focuses on the fun. And this book is definitely good fun.

Fly on the Wall

Gretchen Yee, in E. Lockhart’s young adult novel Fly on the Wall: How One Girl Saw Everything, is a sophomore at the Manhattan School for Art and Music. When she wishes she were a fly on the wall of the boys' locker room, she never expects her wish will come true in such a dramatic way.

Gretchen isn’t exactly an average teenage girl, so some readers might have difficultly relating to her. She attends a special high school for artistic students in New York City and spends her time reading and illustrating comic books. Ultimately, though, she deals with family problems, boy troubles, and friend issues, like any other teen.

Since Gretchen spends much of the book hanging around a high school boys’ locker room, some readers might also find her experiences uncomfortable or offensive as she frankly describes both what she sees and hears.

Lockwood’s novel has a unique premise, although the execution leaves something to be desired. The ultimate message, though, is a good one: high school boys aren’t that different from high school girls. They also struggle with body image, identity, and relationships.

Guest Blog - Paper Doll by Robert B Parker

Since I have read all of the Jesse Stone novels and a good share of the Sunny Randall ones, I thought it was time I tried a Spenser book. When Spenser for Hire was on television, I caught glimpses of it when my husband watched. I knew that Robert Urich played the lead and that Spenser had a friend named Hawk. That was about it.

I was surprised at how much I enjoyed this 1993 novel. In Paper Doll Spenser looks into a murder that looks as if it was random street violence. When the police can go no further, the husband of the victim hires Spenser to solve the cold case.

Paper Doll has lots of surprises. Nothing about the victim is as it seems at first glance. When Spenser starts asking questions, someone in a powerful position tries to keep him from asking any more.

I thought this was a good mystery. A little more rough language than I prefer but other than that I felt comfortable trying out a whole new world with lots of books by Parker.

Something Wicked: A Horatio Wilkes Mystery

I can't remember the last time I wrote a review, but now that I'm back in the US and have access to an English-language library, I have no more excuses. I'll start with a short one to ease myself back into the routine:

Something Wicked is the second entry in Alan Gratz’s Horatio Wilkes Mystery series. In this retelling of Shakespeare's play Macbeth, Horatio attends the Scottish Highland Games with his childhood friend, Mac, and Mac’s demanding girlfriend, Beth. When Mac’s grandfather is murdered, Horatio joins forces with the local police to solve the crime.

Horatio is a bright and witty hero, but sometimes he reads much older than a junior in high school—particularly when he casually throws off references to Shakespeare and Freud. Perhaps this maturity is why his parents allow him to go alone to the Highland Games for the weekend, rent a room in a seedy motel, and solve murders. Overall, Something Wicked is a fast and entertaining read, but the light tone does mean the murders can come as a bit of a shock.

Guest Blog - Candle for a Corpse

At the moment, my husband and I are living in a huge apartment/condominium complex in Northern Virginia. One of the minor amenities is a small library in the "commons" area. It is completely borrow and return on your own. No oversight whatsoever. Recently I picked up a few mysteries to read. I started a very promising little one by a Canadian author I did not know. However, I was not stealing time from other responsibilities to read it. That really is my measure of how much I am enjoying a book.

I picked up another book and started reading it and didn't want to put it down after the first few pages. I have heard of English author Ann Granger but don't think I have ever read anything that she has written. This one, Candle for a Corpse, is a cozy mystery. Right up my alley.

When a grave is opened to bury an elderly woman with her long gone parents, the grave diggers discover the bones of a young woman. Superintendent Alan Markby and his friend Meredith Mitchell become involved in trying to find out who the young woman was and how long ago she was killed and buried. It is a satisfying mystery with plenty of interesting characters and complications.

The book had another intriguing feature. Periodically all of the way through the book, words were underlined. Perhaps only one on a page. Some pages had no underlining. At the beginning of the book little notes had been made next to the highlighted words. The notes were in Chinese characters. Of course, I was interested in the mystery of the paperback book itself. I noticed that the underlined words were usually ones that were idioms. Some word that an English as a Second Language reader might be completely unfamiliar with. In fact an American reader might wonder at the usage of a word by the English author. What is chutney or daft? What does "twelve years back" mean? The notes in Chinese ended after about page 95 but underlined words in pink highlighter continued to the end of the book. Did the original reader finish the book? Was it someone else who underlined the occasional word on the remaining pages? I will never know. However, the previous reader added to my enjoyment of reading the mystery. I wonder if I will find another book with marginal notes in Chinese. I hope so.

By the way, I have been wondering if small English villages still have a grave digger who uses a shovel to prepare the ground for a funeral. I am pretty sure that here in the U.S. a grave digger operates a backhoe. According to Granger in the early or mid 1990s, England made it mandatory for people to be buried or cremated in biodegradable material. I don't think I have anything that is all cotton or linen to be buried in. I had better hang on for a few more years.

Guest Blog - Hard Row by Margaret Maron

Hard Row came as a bit of surprise to me. I thought that I did a fairly good job of keeping up with the latest books by some of my favorite mystery writers. I don't know how I missed this one by Margaret Maron. It was actually published in 2007. It is a Judge Deborah Knott mystery. She is recently married to Sheriff's Deputy Dwight Bryant with his son a part of their family. On the domestic side Knott is cautiously feeling her way through her new role as a stepmother but loving being married to Dwight. On the legal side, there are still lots of glimpses into the crazy cases brought before Judge Knott.

I think I liked Hard Row more than any of Maron's other mysteries set in North Carolina. This time we got to see the information not just from Knott's view but also from her partner in life and crime solving, Dwight Bryant. In the past Knott has been a bit of a pain, sticking her nose in where it really didn't belong. Now their partnership makes a logical and complete working relationship. They pool their information and find the killer who cut up a body and distributed the parts along the banks of the river.

You don't have to have read other books about Deborah Knott to enjoy this one, but it does make it a bit easier if you have already been introduced to her extensive family and bootlegging father. Maron does a good job of filling in the gaps though if you are a first time reader of her mysteries.

The first Margaret Maron I read was located in New York City with Sigrid Harald, a police officer. I met her in Corpus Christmas and really liked this heroine. I wasn't sure whether I would like the Knott mysteries but am well hooked. There are two more recent books out there that I have not yet read. I'll be looking for them so that I can catch up the the Knott-Bryant saga and a good mystery.

Guest Blog - Split Image by Robert B Parker

Much to my delight, I discovered that before Robert B Parker died in January, he had finished a book about Jesse Stone and sent it on its way to the publisher. After reading Split Image, I felt that Parker must have known it was the last Jesse Stone mystery that he would ever write. It has a very satisfactory ending in Stone's personal life. The novel left me with a feeling of completeness and appreciation for the author.

Split Image is a bit of a strange premise for the murder mystery but it is a good read. Of course, for every 'yup' that Stone says, I can see and hear Tom Selleck. Which doesn't hurt my perception of Stone one single bit.

If you have never read one of Parker's Sunny Randall books, I highly recommend them. Especially since Randall shows up in this final story about Stone. I found a Randall mystery, Melancholy Baby, at the Goodwill bookstore and read it just after I had finished reading Split Image. I am a Sunny Randall fan and liked this novel. Randall and Stone have a lot in common. Both of them are struggling to get passed their attachment to their ex-spouses. In Melancholy Baby, Randall's ex remarries. That leads her to seek someone new to see for counseling. This is a good look into a therapist/client relationship besides a very good mystery.

I am sorry that there will be no new Jesse Stone or Sunny Randall novels to enjoy. I have read that Tom Selleck is going to do more stories about Jesse Stone despite his new series premiering this fall. I am delighted.

Guest Blog - Appointment with Death

A few weeks ago, we watched the new Poirot on Mystery. Of course, my problem with Agatha Christie stories is that I keep saying "it didn't happen like that in the book." I have really tried to contain myself and not bore my family to death with such comments. I found it interesting the next day that one of my daughters sent me an email message saying that she found the show disturbing. I didn't hesitate to tell her that my memories of the book were that it was quite different. I don't think that Agatha Christie was into child abuse. Manipulative people and controlling people but not ones who enjoyed the physical punishment of children.

By chance I came across a 99 cent copy of Appointment with Death at the Goodwill Bookstore. Naturally I had to reread it. This time I really do think that Christie got the story right and the recent production of her book got it wrong.

Christie's second husband, Max Mallowan, was an archaeologist and she traveled with him frequently to excavation sites in the Middle East. Appointment with Death is set in Jerusalem and Petra. The mystery is center around an American family that is controlled by a power hungry matriarch. As in many of Christie's mysteries, the person you 'love to hate' is the victim. Since Poirot has no tolerance for murder he feels compelled to investigate.

If watching the recent PBS show disappointed you, I really encourage you to try the book. It has a satisfying ending that puts the problems of all of the characters into perspective. Much more satisfying than this Mystery.

Guest Blog - The Double Comfort Sarari Club

During the last several summers, I have stayed at the "cottage at the beach" and have read all summer long. This summer, I am just not reading as much. In fact I feel as if I have read very little this year.

However, I recently finished Alexander McCall Smith's last book about Promise and Grace. I frankly have to think of the two of them that way, because I have far too difficult a time with their surnames. The Double Comfort Safari Club proved to be an enjoyable encounter with old friends. Life continues to have its challenges and ups and downs but the people I have become fond of over the years are doing well. If you are a fan, I think you'll enjoy the book. It was a comfortable afternoon past time.