I've been working in bookshops for many years now.
Why? I love the escape offered by reading and the people who read, publish and sell books are wonderful.
The Big Blowdown
George Pelecanos
July 2007
$22.95
Quite often the attraction of crime books for me is the sense of place that is created. I can forgive CJ Box when he loses control of the plot because he transports me to Montana. I can overlook Jim Fusilli's Terry Orr wallowing in grief over three whole books because I walk the streets of New York with Terry. I love New Jersey as much as Evanovich's Stephanie Plumb and I can travel vicariously to Rankin's Edinburgh, Laura Lippman's Baltimore, Hiaasen's Florida, Corris's Sydney and James Lee Burke's South.
Pelecanos has written about 14 novels set in Washington DC. The Big Blowdown is the first in the Washington quartet which comprises King Suckerman, The Sweet Forever and Shame The Devil.
It follows the lives and friends of Pete Karras, children of first generation Greek and Italian immigrants. It's set just after the Second World War and Pete & his best friend Joey have survived and are trying to become part of a gang led by a small time hood called Burke. Burke's after a yes man and Pete not only struggles with that but can't bring himself to shake down immigrants who have worked so hard for so little. Pete is taught a brutal lesson and the injuries change his life irrevocably. Three years later Pete is working in a friend's diner and Burke's gang including his ex best friend Joey, demand protection money. That's the bare bones of the plot but there's much more depth to the characters and story. The writing style nods to noir but Pelecanos has a unique voice. Quite a lot is left unsaid, the literary equivalent of a telling glance, which is unusual amongst contemporary American crime writers. I think he's one of the best crime writers of his generation.
The Hindi Bindi Club
Monica Pradham
July 2007
$32.95
This absolutely joyful novel is a delight. It's similar in theme to Amy Tan's The Joy Luck Club except in this case it's women from India immigrating to the Unites States. It seems the conflict between mothers and their daughters and the old ways and the new are universal. There are three mothers, Meenal, Saroj and Uma and their respective daughters Kiran, Preity and Rani and each get to tell their stories in alternating chapters. It's slightly chaotic but great fun just like one of Saroj's parties. There are recipes at the end of the mother's stories which sound delicious and I'm attempting one or two today so I'll keep you posted. They have extra cooking tips from the characters which is a very sweet touch.
Meenal, Saroj and Uma come from different parts of India and they all have family there. The reader gets to travel back to Mumbai with Meenal , learn about Partition from Saroj whose family was from Lahore and had to flee to India when Lahore became part of Pakistan. Uma is from an upper middle class family and was so bright she won a scholarship to a University in Boston. Her father refused to let her go overseas and dismissed higher education for women. Without her paternal grandfather's interference she would have remained in India. Uma has an unlucky birth chart. She is a manglik which means she could jeopardise the health of her spouse and very few families are willing to wish ill health, even death upon their sons. Fortunately her American husband Patrick is also a manglik so the bad luck gets cancelled out. It's fascinating to read how such beliefs can determine a woman's fate. The mothers had all ended up in Boston when they first immigrated and have been fast friends ever since. Their daughters have affectionately dubbed them the Hindi-Bindi Club.
The daughters stories are charming as they wrestle with the culture of their parents and their peers but their journeys are internal as Kiran resorts to an arranged marriage so she can start a family, Preity confronts her secret life and Rani her schizophrenia and what that means for her life as an artist. That makes the Hindi-Bindi Club sound a little grim but the novel is so full of life and stories that these issues just add shade to the light. This is one of those novels that ruin the next few books you read as they are not going to measure up to the charm of the Hindi- Bindi Club
El Dorado
Dorothy Porter
May 2007
$32.95
I have never read anything quite like El Dorado which means I haven't read anything written by the extraordinary Dorothy Porter. I'm completely in awe of her talent as El Dorado is one of the most gripping, emotionally powerful books I've ever read. The plot is quite straightforward. There is a copper, Bill' who is trying to stop a serial killer murdering young kids. His childhood and best friend Cath is on holiday from her high powered film career in LA and tries to help. Cath and his rebellious teenage daughter, Caitlin, are the loves of Bill's life. As a small sidebar, Cath falls in love with the much younger Lily. Dum de dum de dum, so goes the plot of many crime novels. The writing, well, oh my god! It's exquisitely paced. You will devour it and race through the thrilling bits (and it's so thrilling) and you will slow and weep through the rest. What Dorothy Porter says about love and friendship will stay with you. How she describes falling in love is exquisite. Apart from that it is just one of the best crime novels I've read. Don't be put off by the narrative verse, just read two pages and take the rest of the day off to finish it
Measuring the World
Daniel Kehlmann
April 2007
$34.95
This is a fictionalised account of the lives of two brilliant scientists who lived in remarkable times.
The novel opens in the late 1800s when two elderly scientists meet at a conference in Berlin. Carl Friedrich Gauss is a mathematical genius and Alexander von Humboldt is a renowned explorer. He is particularly famous for a journey up the Orinoco in South America some 25 years earlier. This journey which takes up about a third of the novel is absolutely fascinating and if I didn't know it is based on a real expedition I wouldn't believe a word of it. Both men have eschewed human relationships in their hunger for knowledge. Von Humboldt was from a wealthy Prussian aristocratic family whilst Gauss was a child prodigy from a dirt poor family. This sets the up the background of political upheaval that occurs in Europe nicely. Not that our two scientists are particularly concerned about that except when it effects their funding for various projects. Some of the great thinkers of the day like Kant, Goethe and Daguerre appear in surprisingly comic cameos. This book is a huge best seller in Germany and the author is only 31 and even in translation it's a fascinating and compelling novel.
The Tenderness of Wolves
Steff Penney
March 2007
PB $22.95
The Tenderness of Wolves first won its category of "best first novel" in the UK's Costa (formerly the Whitbread) Awards and we al felt that a wise choice had been made by the judges. When it subsequently went on to win the overall Costa we were delighted. This completely absorbing novel is set in the north of Canada around the 1860s.The Hudson Bay Company's dominance in the fur trade is coming to an end as most of the animals have been hunted to near extinction. Two settlements, Dove River and Caulfield, are peopled by immigrants who have been driven out of their homelands. A trapper, Laurent Jammet, has been murdered, scalped in his cabin. His young neighbour Francis Ross inadvertently sees the man he believes to be the killer and takes off after the suspect without telling anyone his plans. Naturally Francis falls under suspicion in the small community. Other characters with their own interests in mind, pursue the tracks in the snow left by the murder suspect and Francis. It has everything this novel. It's a fine thriller, a love story; it has vivid descriptions of landscape and a wonderful cast of characters all deftly woven into a satisfying whole.
Quarter Tones
Susan Mann
May 2007
PB $32.95
This absolutely gorgeous, gorgeous novel is set in South Africa with side trips to London & Paris. Ana returns home after the death of her dad, Sam who raised her after the death of her mother in childbirth. As she reopens the dusty cottage memories come flooding back. Her neighbours Franz Van Der Veer and his estranged brother Daniel offer a welcome and hint at more than neighbourly regard. Her husband Michael is remote physically and emotionally, caught up in his work with aid agencies. As Ana regains her sense of self, her ability to play and connect deeply with her music(she is a flautist), emerges. The plot is unexpected .The writing is deft and the touch feather light. It's a deeply satisfying read
Winter's Bone
by Daniel Woodrell
2006
PB $29.95
Great things come in small packages and this book is a gem. Set in the Ozark Hills where making crystal meth has replaced moonshine, 16 year old Ree has been waiting for her father to come back for days. Her mother is catatonic with an undiagnosed mental illness and she is responsible for her two young brothers. If her Dad doesn't show their house and land is forfeited to the bail bondsman. It's a cracker of a book and beautifully written.
Cross
Ken Bruen
April 2007
PB $32.95
The Cross is set in Galway and the main protagonist is Jack Taylor, ex- police or Guard. The Irish call them Garda Siochana and they are not beloved by the populace.
Jack Taylor struggles with addiction and some of Bruen's best writing throughout the series is about Jack's alcoholism and recovery. Ken Bruen torments his character unmercifully. Jack's relationships are heartbreaking, even his mother is a cold hearted cow. In one book Jack moves to London thinking a change of scene will help him give up the booze but Bruen gives him a cocaine addiction instead. These novels are black noir with a glimmer of Irish humour to relieve them. In Cross , Cody , a young man Jack considers a son, lies in a coma after taking a bullet meant for Jack. When an eighteen year old boy is found crucified and there are no leads, Jack tries to alleviate his guilt about Cody by investigating the crime. When the boy's sister is burnt alive in her car the plot thickens. The Jack Taylor series is not for the faint hearted but the quality of writing makes Bruen the most literary of the British crime writers about today. Check out www.kenbruen.com
My favourite book
(One of) My Favourite Books of All Time One Pair of Hands by Monica Dickens
Monica Dickens is Charles Dickens great grand daughter and was born into the upper classes. This autobiography is about her experiences between the wars as a cook and general servant. Bored with the life of a debutante she does a flash French Cooking Class in Paris and much to the horror of her family and friends goes into service as a cook general. She can do a perfect souffle (most of the time) but hasnt got a clue about kippers as she was never allowed in the kitchen ("the cooks domain") growing up. Cleaning is also a learning experience. It was unheard of for young women of the upper classes to work in those days and she certainly wasnt expected to stick it out. The family were scandalised. I have read two copies of this book to pieces and still snort with laughter. Its a fascinating world and she has a wicked eye for human foibles. She gets placed in various "situations" by the agency so we get to experience all sorts of households from a new young wife to a great estate in the country where she must invent a mysterious husband and be known as Mrs Dickens as a Miss Dickens would never get the gig. One Pair Of Feet which recounts her experiences as a trainee nurse during ww2 is also rather wonderful. Nurses did an awful lot of cleaning in those days.
My favourite author
Tim Winton
mmm this is like asking who your favourite child is - totally depends on the day. Today its a tie between Tim Winton, Richard Flanagan (new book coming later this year - yippee) Kate Grenville, (her latest novel, The Secret River, is just superb) and Jane Austen.
Tim, Kate and Richard tell great yarns that involve characters that I get emotionally involved with and learn from. I travel Australia vicariously because their sense of place is wonderful and they dont fuss with their sentences. Their books are devoured not just read. Pride & Prejudice and Persuasion I consider "therapy" and read them every year when I feel blue.
What's beside the bed
Fault Lines by Nancy Huston who is a respected Canadian writer. The Outcast by Sadie Jones which I've picked up simply because of the gorgeous jacket.
Castle Waiting by Linda Medley which is a graphic novel of linked fairy tales that have been given a modern twist.
Ministry Of Special Cases by Nathan Englander one of the New York Times notable books of the year.
The Pirate's Daughter by Margaret Cezair-Thompson promises to be a wonderful historical novel set in Jamaica.