June Reading Roundup

Let's just get right to it, shall we?

I designated June as a month for reading books with "watery" titles in honor of the beginning of the rainy season here. It's also the first month of hurricane season so I threw in a couple of hurricane-related books as well. 

So here's how the reading shakes out for June - a * means it was part of my little mini-challenge:

British mysteries & UK Crime fiction:
 Taken at the Flood, by Agatha Christie*
The Secret of Chimneys, by Agatha Christie
The Thirteen Problems, by Agatha Christie (not yet reviewed)
The False Inspector Dew, by Peter Lovesey (not yet reviewed) *
Deadwater, by Sean Burke*


General Fiction: 

Hard Rain Falling, by Don Carpenter*
Taroko Gorge, by Jacob Ritari (not yet reviewed) 

German Crime Fiction:
Black Ice, by Hans Werner Kettenbach (not yet reviewed)
  
Japanese Fiction:

The Sea and Poison, by Shusaku Endo*
An Artist of the Floating World, by Kazuo Ishiguro (not yet reviewed) *

Nonfiction
Zeitoun, by Dave Eggers
The Great Deluge: Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans, and the Mississippi Gulf Coast, by Douglas Brinkley (not yet reviewed)*

Scandinavian Crime Fiction:
The Ice Princess, by Camilla Lackberg
The Inspector and Silence, by Hakan Nesser

Spanish Crime Fiction:
Water-Blue Eyes, by Domingo Villar*

In other book-related stuff:
1) My book group read and discussed The Painted Veil, by Somerset Maugham; we're taking a break until the end of September and then we'll read Let the Great World Spin.

2) Added to the Amazon Wishlist:

• A Perfect Execution, by Tim Binding
• Dead Before Dying, by Deon Meyer
• Thirteen Hours, by Deon Meyer
• No Curtain Call, by K.T. McCaffrey
• Needle in a Haystack, by Ernesto Mallo
• Beasts of Prey, by Rob Marsh
• Night Bus, by Giampiero Rigosi
• Ghosted, by Shaughnessy Bishop-Stall 

  3) 13 books left the house to people on Swaptree or Paperback Swap; Aths from Books on a Rainy Day won the Zeitoun international giveaway I hosted. I also was honored to be the #1 promoter for Jo's International Aussie Author giveaway at Booklover Book Reviews and won a copy of Wanting, by Richard Flanagan. I received Taroko Gorge, by Jacob Ritari  from LT Early Reviewers, Invisible, by Paul Auster from Goodreads, and a copy of The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi on audio CD from Amazon Vine (which I'm still listening to).  And my thanks to Grove Press - Black Cat for a finished copy of Christopher G. Moore's crime fiction novel Asia Hand. I love his character Vincent Calvino and the Thailand setting of this series of novels.

4) The number of books I bought this month was a record, even for me - we won't go there. Let's just say that Book Depository is my new best friend.

July is for nothing but catching up on reviews and doing easy reading. I need to save my brain in August & September for reading the Booker Prize longlist which will be announced at the end of the month.

time to go read now!

My favorite book of the month international giveaway contest -- Zeitoun -- and the winner is...

drumroll, please.....

Twenty-one people entered to win, and I took the entries in the order in which they came. According to the random number generator, the winner is Aths! Congratulations!

I would like to thank everyone who put their name in the hat for this book. I'll choose another one toward the end of July and we'll play again.

It's Monday! What am I reading?

What? Monday already? Obviously, because it's time for the weekly "what am I reading" segment, hosted by Sheila at her wonderful blog Book Journey. Take a moment and go visit; she's an amazing person.

Extremely slow reading week for me - I managed to finish and review Deadwater
by Sean Burke, a very dark novel of crime fiction from Wales. I also finished Agatha Christie's collection of Jane Marple short stories called The Thirteen Problems.  That particular book has a story in it called "The Blue Geranium," which was the focus of Masterpiece Mystery yesterday evening. I will post a review of the book here shortly.

Currently I'm reading Douglas Brinkley's book The Great Deluge, about Hurricane Katrina. This August will mark the five-year anniversary of that unforgettable storm and its even more unforgettable aftermath.  And speaking of Katrina, you can enter to win a copy of Dave Eggers' most excellent book Zeitoun here.  The Great Deluge is the last of the planned reads for my little "watery titles" mini-challenge this month. This book will probably see me through until the end of the month, since it's huge.

 Next week begins a month of random crime reads, something easy prior to the August and September "she reads the Booker longlist" months, which I do every year. The longlist will be announced at the end of July, so it's just easy reading up until August 1.  On tap for next week: Peter Temple's Truth, Hakan Nesser's new book The Inspector and Silence, and one nonfiction, Murdering Stepmothers: The Execution of Martha Rendell, by Anna Haebich -- a book originally published in Australia. Of course, the verdict is still out as to whether or not I'll finish all of those, but if not, that's okay. I'm not in a hurry.

Time to go grab my coffee and read.

My favorite book of the month international giveaway contest -- Zeitoun -- through June 30th

To win a copy of Dave Eggers' wonderful book Zeitoun, all you have to do is to leave a comment with either your blog URL or an email address.  You do NOT have to become a follower -- just leave a comment.  The winner will be selected at random at the end of the month. The giveaway is open internationally and you can only enter once. June 30th is your last day, so if you've always wanted to read this book, now's your chance, and for free!

*Deadwater, by Sean Burke

 1852426934
Serpent's Tail Publishing
2002
186 pp

 It's 1989, the scene is the Cardiff (Wales) docklands area of Butetown, a small community commonly known as Tiger Bay. A prostitute who had been slated to testify against two rather nasty brothers -- Tony and Carl Baja -- has been killed in her apartment after changing her mind and returning home. The next day Jack Farrisey, a local pharmacist, wakes up covered in blood with no recollection of anything that had happened the night before, since he was in an alcohol-induced amnesiac state. The local police want this crime solved, because as of two years earlier, the docklands area had been slated for regeneration and redevelopment, so  unsolved murders or murders in general would not be drawing new businesses to the area. The police latch onto the Baja Brothers, who swear their innocence,  but Farrisey still needs to know exactly what happened to him that night, and he has to rely on his friend Jess for answers. But Jess is chasing his own demons that deal with Jack and his pregnant wife.  Both make statements to the police, along with some other members of the community. But to make matters even more complicated, Jack's wife, an attorney, has decided to take the brothers' case to try to prove they didn't do it.

While Deadwater is a novel of crime fiction, it's also an examination of impending loss and futility.   As a child Jack lived in and fully  experienced the community and its "spectacular noise, of cockatoos, penny-slot pianos, of hurdie-gurdies, irrepressible Breton onion sellers, West Indian newspaper touts and stentorian fish hawkers." He spent time with his dad down on the docks. On the other hand, he also remembered the 1960s, when ethnic groups were relocated in an attempt to clear out the area slums because authorities feared

the sight of a creole community evolving its own way of being, its own ethics of spontaneity, respect and cheerfulness -- without need of statute, politician or book..

And now, with redevelopment and change looming over this area that Jack calls home, the very identity and future of the Butetown/Tiger Bay community is at stake:

The promise of redevelopment seemed less an attempt to rejuvenate than to raze a community with its own, self-regulating and irregular forms of justice and peacekeeping.

Mirroring the community's impending decline and the futility of any kind of hope for its future is the downward spiral of Jack's friendship with Jess, as  it leads him down a path that will ultimately end in betrayal and worse.

Deadwater is not a feel-good kind of novel at all, and stays that way right up until the last word. It is bleak and despairing, dark and gloomy. In tone it reminded me a little bit of Ken Bruen's Jack Taylor novels, in which the reader feels like he or she is watching a train wreck about to happen but is somehow glued to the spot and can't look away.  Sean Burke is a wonderful writer whose prose seems a bit out of place in a crime fiction novel because it is so descriptively lyrical (Yes, I know that "lyrical" for prose is one of those words that is way overdone, but it actually fits here). He's established such a forceful sense of place that it is not difficult to imagine the loud pubs, the dark streets, and the docks while you read. There is nothing to distract from the plotlines, and Jack's character is well defined to the point where he becomes real for the duration.

This is one of those novels that are not for the casual mystery reader - it is filled with tragedy and is definitely not for the faint at heart or people who think there is some measure of redemption in any situation. At the same time, I couldn't help but be blown away by Burke's rather heady writing which captured my attention from the outset and never let me down. I would recommend it, definitely, but beware the darkness.

fiction from Wales

It's Monday! What am I reading?

It seems like forever since I've done this; probably because it has been. Busy busy busy, a death among friends, family stuff, it's all kind of caught up & prevented me from getting back into the flow. But that's all in the past and I'm back.

First, my thanks (as always) to Sheila at book journey for hosting this weekly post. She's so busy, yet always finds time to pursue her passion for blogging and books.

This month marks the beginning of hurricane season, and that brings with it the ever-present 3 in the afternoon thunderstorm. So my personal mini-challenge this month has to do with books that have "watery" titles. It was a bit of a challenge, really, to comb through my library and see exactly what I had that met this odd requirement, but so far I've managed to do okay.

Catching up from 2 weeks ago, here's what I've read:
1. Taken at the Flood, by Agatha Christie (apa: There is a Tide)
2. The Sea and Poison, by Shusaku Endo
3. Water-blue Eyes, by Domingo Villar (a bit of crime fiction from Spain)
4. The Ice Princess, by Camilla Lackberg (crime fiction from Sweden)
5. Zeitoun, by Dave Eggers (not a "watery" title, but a book about Hurricane Katrina - and my favorite this week)
6. The Secret of Chimneys, by Agatha Christie (again...not watery but well, I wanted to read it)

Currently I've just finished
Deadwater, by Sean Burke (crime fiction from Wales - review to follow)


and plan to read the following this week:

The Great Deluge: Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans and the Mississippi Gulf Coast, by Douglas Brinkley
Gone Fishin' by Walter Mosley
and whatever else strikes my fancy at any given moment

 that's it - I should go read now.

The Secret of Chimneys AND how the heck did Jane Marple get there?

9780312979744
McMillan/Minotaur
2001
288 pp.
originally published 1925

As the novel opens, one Anthony Cade, is working as a tour guide in Africa. At a bar one day Cade meets an old buddy, James McGrath, who has been tasked with the delivery of the memoirs of the now-dead Count Stylptitch of Herzoslovakia to a London publishing firm. But McGrath has decided to seek his fortune in the gold fields, and offers Cade a tidy sum to go to England with the memoirs and a stash of letters that could be blackmail fodder for an unsuspecting Virginia Revel. Cade is off to England, and finds himself caught up between two sides of a touchy political situation. He also finds that he is a target of some very nasty people who are trying to get both the memoirs and the letters. The situation leads him to a house called Chimneys, the home of Lord Caterham, his daughter Bundle, and various diplomats and others interested in the political situation in Herzoslovakia. Upon his arrival, Cade finds himself as a chief suspect in the death of Prince Michael Obolovitch, the heir to the Herzoslovakian throne and negotiator of British oil interests in that country. Enter Superintendent Battle and the hunt for the murderer begins.

As with most Christie novels, there are plenty of suspects, an abundance of motives, and an interesting array of lead characters. Unlike most of her stories, this one is filled with political intrigue, and the reader has to digest the background story of the country of Herzoslovakia before really delving into the mystery. This may be a bit off-putting to regular Christie readers, but it's worth the time and effort to get the story and the list of who's who regarding that nation as it sets an important backdrop to the various criminal activity throughout the book.  It is rather complicated and at times convoluted, but still an interesting read, with a lovely twist at the end. 

If I were a reader who has decided that he or she would like to read through the Christie novels, I would not want to start with this one, since imho, it doesn't deliver the best Christie has to offer. My advice: read through the Poirots and the Marples, then tackle the others for something just a bit different.

Having said all of that, my local PBS station is airing "The Secret of Chimneys" as part of the Masterpiece Mystery! series, which is set to TiVo from my television this evening. For me, there is absolutely nothing like reading a book and then watching it come to life on the screen (in that order).  So wondering who's going to play whom, I went over to the PBS website and discovered that lo and behold, the star of this program is Miss Jane Marple, you know, the newest one, Julia McKenzie.  And then I said "what?????"  Okay, actually my "what" was more like WTF -- this isn't a Miss Marple mystery at all! How does it happen that this nice little old lady from St. Mary Mead is dropped into a murder mystery at an English country home filled with political intrigue and some pretty rotten bad guys when she wasn't even in Christie's original story? And why does the blurb say "based on the novel by Agatha Christie?"

I wonder if the writers of the screenplay (John Strickland, Paul Rutman) were sitting around one day thinking that they ought to throw in Miss Marple just for the heck of it, because surely they actually read the original story.  But perhaps not -- it seems that Miss Marple has shown up in a Tommy and Tuppence adventure as well. As a Christie purist, this really upsets me and takes out some of the fun of watching the televised Secret of Chimneys because I know that Chimneys didn't really host Miss Marple, so what is she doing there? Maybe the screenwriters thought no one actually reads Agatha Christie any more and that no one would notice.

Not that this issue will consume my entire day, but it is rather annoying. Is it too much to ask, do you think, that screenwriters at least get the characters straight? I like my screen adaptations to be adapted -- not made up. Maybe I'll drop a line and see if I get an answer!

 fiction from England

Zeitoun, by Dave Eggers

9780307367943
Vintage (paperback)
2010;
originally published 2009, McSweeney's Books
337 pp.


In 2005, Abdulrahman Zeitoun and his wife Kathy, along with their family of three children, lived in New Orleans. That summer, life was going on as normal for the Zeitouns - after years of working for others, Abdulrahman ran a successful contracting and painting business, their little girls were watching and acting out the dvd of Pride and Prejudice for the umpteenth time, and Kathy acted as stay-at-home mom as well as business partner for her husband. Life was good for this family. 

But as Katrina approached the Gulf, expected to hit New Orleans and hit it hard, Kathy started getting nervous and grabbed the kids, some clothes and the family dog and left to stay with family in Baton Rouge. Her husband decided to stay back and look after the house & his business interests. Kathy wasn't happy about his decision, but Abdulrahman was insistent.  Then came the hurricane, the breaking of the levees, and the aftermath of it all. After the storm was over,  Kathy, unable to get back into the city, was able to keep in sporadic contact with her husband, who managed to convey that he was okay. Day after day she listened to the news, and as the situation deteriorated there, she grew more uneasy. And then one day, Abdulrahman just stopped calling.

The straightforward prose is easy to read and although the book weighs in at about 300 pages, it captures the imagination quickly as the reader gets caught up in the story.  As it goes on, the intensity picks up to where this book is nearly impossible to put down. The story clearly belongs to Abdulrahman Zeitoun and his family, even though it is Dave Eggers who brings their account to life in a professional and journalistic manner, helped by an army of researchers and fact checkers as well as the Zeitoun family itself.


Zeitoun examines the post-hurricane situation through the eyes of a man who lived it and the effects his experiences had on himself and on his family. It's not just an account of a Katrina survivor, nor is it an in-depth  tell-all about the failures of the local, regional, state and  federal government responses. There are plenty of places where those types of accounts are available. Instead, Abdulrahman Zeitoun's story steers the reader to the point of  a head-on collision between post-9/11 policies, racial & religious intolerance, and the efforts of these agencies to regain any measure of control after the most devastating natural disaster in this country.  The book sends the message that something vital to our sense of well-being as American citizens is broken and desperately needs fixing -- and I'm not talking about the levees in New Orleans.

Read this book, then pass it along to someone you know. If you're not shaking your head in disbelief, let's just say I'll be very surprised.

(sorry about the typeface change...I am having trouble moving from MS word to here.)