Jo and I are enjoying our Labor Day weekend. I'm afraid to say it, but has that ever stopped me? We've enjoyed the Blue Jays series against the Oakland A's. 🧹 Now if they can continue the good play in the upcoming 4 game series against the Yankees.. 🤞 We actually had some rain this weekend, the first time in weeks. It's been a very dry summer.
5 days into September and this is my first reading update. I'm enjoying my books so far and I've finished my first in the month. I'll provide my review of it plus my last book of August. I'll also provide the synopses of the next books inline and those of some new books I got at the end of the month. Then I'll continue with my ongoing look at Women authors whose work I've been enjoying.
Just Finished
"Silent Voices is the 4th book in the Vera Stanhope mystery series created by British crime writer, Ann Cleeves. I've been enjoying 3 of her excellent series; Shetland, Vera and a new one for me, George & Molly Palmer. Each one is unique and different. The Vera series has been turned into an equally excellent TV series in Britain, starring Brenda Blethyn as Inspector Vera Stanhope. It is currently in its 11th season.
We find out-of-shape Vera at a local hotel / spa, swimming laps. She has been advised by her doctor that she is overweight, out-of-shape and needs to improve her eating and drinking habits and get more exercise. So Vera sneaks out each day and swims a bit. Finished she decides to use the sauna and while there discovers a body, one that has apparently been strangled.
There are many interesting threads to this fascinating investigation. The deceased was a social worker who was involved in an incident of a child dying while under the Social Work office's monitoring. Was she killed by an ex - employee or a family member? Her daughter is engaged to a young man of whom she didn't approve? Were they involved? It turns out that Jenny Lister was also writing a book about social work cases. Was a subject threatened by the content? Oh and someone was robbing lockers and customers of the spa.. Did Jenny catch the person in the act?
So lots of threads. Vera runs her team of Sgt Joe Ashworth, crusty veteran detective Charlie and young up-and-coming detective Holly, ragged, sending hither and yon trying to gather clues and information. Vera keeps her own counsel and likes to mull over her thoughts on the investigation, much to Joe's chagrin. He loves and hates her, enjoys their evenings at Vera's cottage, drinking and discussing the cases. But at the same time, he also finds her frustrating; her assumption that they are at her back and call, no matter their family lives. It's all very well-crafted and written, very entertaining.
The investigation moves along nicely, with lots of twists and turns; great characters, interesting mystery and all rounded up very satisfactorily. Cleeves is an excellent, talented story teller. Give her a try. (4.5 stars)"
"The Tombs of Atuan is the 2nd book in the Earthsea cycle, a fantasy series by American author, Ursula K. Le Guin|. Such an excellent story.
I found this a bit of a slow build but once I got into it, it just got better and better and better and I ended up enjoying so much. Young girl, Tenar, is taken from her home at the age of five to become the High Priestess of the Nameless Ones. She was born on the same day as the last priestess died; so in the same light as the Dalai Lama, she is perceived to be the High Priestess reincarnate.
The slow bit is the first portion of the story where Tenar, now named Arha, the Eaten One, learns about the role she is to play and her responsibilities. As she hits her teens, her guardian, priestess Thar, begins to show her the palace and the dark tombs beneath and finally the Labyrinth underneath the Hall of the Throne. This is the domain of the ancient gods, the Dark, Nameless Ones. Arha takes part in various ceremonies, including the punishment of faithless people. There is a darkness and bleakness to this story, but at the same time Le Guin, provides a rich description of the place and the events.
When Thar dies, Arha is more on her own and now must deal with the other priestess, Kossil, who runs the Temple of the God-king. She's not so nice and spies on Arha... OK, enough preamble, I don't want to tell the whole story. Cutting to the chase, Arha discovers a man in the Tombs (it's forbidden), this is Ged from the first story in the series, The Wizard of Earthsea. Ged is searching for something but Arha makes him a prisoner of the Tombs. The story now revolves around Arha and the decision she must make; follow her training as High Priestess or help Ged.
As I said, a bit of a slow build, but the story gets better and better, tension builds, it's all very exciting. Le Guin is such a great story teller, setting the stage nicely, developing her main characters and keeping your interest up.
As I neared the end, there were two statements that really struck a chord with me. It may be a fantasy, but they seemed so appropriate.
Talking about the Dark Ones "They have nothing to give. They have no power of making. All their power is to darken and destroy. ... There are sharks in the sea, and there is cruelty in men's eyes. And where men worship these things and abase themselves before them, there evil breeds...." I see it every day on my Twitter feed.
And... talking about freedom... "What she had begun to learn was the weight of liberty. Freedom is heavy load, a great and strange burden for the spirit to undertake. It is not easy. It's not a gift given, but a choice made, and the choice may be a hard one" I imagine Le Guin wasn't thinking of the current situation in the US in particular, but around the world, since she died in 2018, but I always find it amazing how Sci-Fi and fantasy can be related to the current world.
Anyway, I ramble and digress. Suffice it to say, another excellent tale by Ursula K. Le Guin. I have the next book on my shelf and look forward to savoring it as much as I did this one. (4.5 stars)"
Currently Reading
"Mischa Novikov died trying to preserve his discovery of the Impossible Virgin, a secret that meant enormous wealth. But right at the last moment, he babbled. When Modesty makes a forced landing in Central Africa, she meets the man who possesses Novikov's secret without knowing it — Giles Pennyfeather, the guileless and blundering young doctor with a gift for healing. In saving Giles from Brunel, a dangerous killer, she buys yet another ticket to danger, for Brunel is determined to have the secret. Modesty and her lieutenant, Willie Garvin, take on Brunel and his partners in a fierce and devious battle, where Modesty is brought to the most shattering reverse she has ever suffered. How she fights back, and at last learns the truth of the Impossible Virgin and her ferocious guardians, brings this fifth tale in the saga of Modesty Blaise to an astonishing climax."
"Lieutenant Davenport's sanity was nearly shattered by two murder investigations. Now he faces something worse...two killers. One hideously scarred. The other strikingly handsome, a master manipulator fascinated with all aspects of death. The dark mirror of Davenport's soul...This is the case that will bring Davenport back to life. Or push him over the edge."
New Books
"There will always be an England, and in the world of traditional crime fiction, there will always be an Upper Quintern, the sort of Little English Village that is home mostly to the very rich and the servants who make their lives delightful. But Sybil Foster s life is not delightful, even if she does have an extremely talented gardener. Exhausted from her various family stresses a daughter, for instance, who wants to marry a man without a title! Sybil takes herself off to a local hotel that specializes in soothing shattered nerves. When she s killed, Inspector Alleyn has a real puzzler on his hands: Yes, she was silly, snobbish, and irritating. But if that were enough motive for murder, half of England would be six feet under."
"What’s the point in solving murders if we’re all going to die soon, anyway?
Detective Hank Palace has faced this question ever since asteroid
2011GV1 hovered into view. There’s no chance left. No hope. Just six
precious months until impact.
The Last Policeman presents
a fascinating portrait of a pre-apocalyptic United States. The economy
spirals downward while crops rot in the fields. Churches and synagogues
are packed. People all over the world are walking off the job—but not
Hank Palace. He’s investigating a death by hanging in a city that sees a
dozen suicides every week—except this one feels suspicious, and Palace
is the only cop who cares
"Jazz Bashara is a criminal.
Well,
sort of. Life on Artemis, the first and only city on the moon, is tough
if you're not a rich tourist or an eccentric billionaire. So smuggling
in the occasional harmless bit of contraband barely counts, right? Not
when you've got debts to pay and your job as a porter barely covers the
rent.
Everything changes when Jazz sees the chance to commit the
perfect crime, with a reward too lucrative to turn down. But pulling
off the impossible is just the start of her problems, as she learns that
she's stepped square into a conspiracy for control of Artemis
itself—and that now, her only chance at survival lies in a gambit even
riskier than the first."
"Henry, Tess, Winnie, and
Suz banded together in college to form a group they called the
Compassionate Dismantlers. Following the first rule of their
manifesto--"To understand the nature of a thing, it must be taken
apart"--these daring misfits spend the summer after graduation in a
remote cabin in the Vermont woods committing acts of meaningful
vandalism and plotting elaborate, often dangerous, pranks. But
everything changes when one particularly twisted experiment ends in
Suz's death and the others decide to cover it up.
Nearly a decade
later, Henry and Tess are living just an hour's drive from the old
cabin. Each is desperate to move on from the summer of the Dismantlers,
but their guilt isn't ready to let them go. When a victim of their past
pranks commits suicide--apparently triggered by a mysterious
Dismantler-style postcard--it sets off a chain of eerie events that
threatens to engulf Henry, Tess, and their inquisitive nine-year-old
daughter, Emma.
Is there someone who wants to reveal their
secrets? Is it possible that Suz did not really die--or has she somehow
found a way back to seek revenge?"
"When rich, nasty Hale
Gibbings turned up in Sader's office one October morning, that
independently minded, Long Beach, California private eye took a healthy
dislike to the old man. But the case Gibbings offered was hard to
resist: it involved saving a very young child from the most brutal kind
of mental and physical abuse.
But neither Sader's client nor
anyone else in the case seemed willing to level with him, and the only
person who might have been persuaded to tell the truth was suddenly
murdered . . ."
"Kate, a former
investigator for the Anchorage D.A. and now a P.I. for hire, is missing
after a winter spent in mourning. Alaska State Trooper Jim Chopin,
Kate's best friend, needs her to help him work a new case. He discovers
her hiding out in Bering, a small fishing village on Alaska's western
coast, living and working under an assumed name-- working hard, as
eighteen-hour workdays seem to be her only justification for getting up
in the morning. But before they can even discuss Kate's last several
months, or what Jim is doing looking for her in Bering, they're up to
their eyes in Jim's case, which is suddenly more complicated-- and more
dangerous-- than they suspected.
A magnificent crime novel about
life in America's last wilderness, the heart-wrenching grief that goes
with love, and murder, "Midnight Come Again" is Dana Stabenow's best
novel to date."
Women Authors I'm Enjoying - Cornelia Funke
Cornelia Maria Funke is a German author of young adult fiction. She was born in West Germany in 1958. 
Cornelia Funke
"I enjoyed this story very much. I was introduced to it by the movie, which was also quite excellent. It took me a couple of years to get around to buying a copy, but I'm so glad that I did. I thought the concept of the story; reading characters out of books, basically, was quite interesting. I liked the characters, especially Meggie, Elinor and Farid. There was definite suspense and tension, especially with villains like Basta and Capricorn. All in all, it grabbed my attention quickly and held it until the end. I look forward to finding the second book, Inkspell. (4 stars)"
"Inkspell is the second book in the Inkworld series by Cornelia Funke. I enjoyed the first book very much and this second book was just as good. It's a very rich fantasy peopled with interesting characters and a wonderful story.
In the first story Mo and his daughter Meggie and aunt are harassed by characters from a story created by Fenoglio. At the end, Meg's mother Resa is returned from captivity in Lombrica, but is unable to speak any more. Some of the characters from the book remain, especially Mortola and Basta and the are a threat to Mo and his family. With the help of Orpheus, and later Meggie, Mortola, Basta, Mo, Resa, Meg and Farid all get sent to the fictional world. Mo is shot and lies critically injured.
The story moves from the various characters as they search for each other and interact with the other characters that reside in this rich, wonderfully described world. You have two competing Kings; the Laughing Prince and the Adderhead. Fenoglio the author of the story and creator of this world, has also been sent there and tries to influence events. There are almost too many events and characters to give you a complete impression of the story and people.
There are so many unique aspects; the fire creating abilities of Dustfinger and Farid, this ability to change lives with the written / spoken word. I loved the 'good' people; Roxane, the Barn Owl, Resa, Dustfinger, etc.. and the villains are very scary. Mortola and Basta especially. It's just a fascinating second book and I can't wait to see what happens in the final story. The story was resolved to an extent but there are still unresolved issues that I need to get satisfied.. Excellent!! (5 stars)"
"Inkdeath is the 3rd and final book in Cornelia Funke's Inkworld trilogy. It's an intimidating length but once you get going and back into the flow of Inkworld, it's a page turner that you'll find difficult to put down. I admit it took me a while to finish but then again I'm usually reading more than one book at a time. Today I sat down the final 200ish pages and just went at it. So good!
It's such a rich, fascinating series that it's difficult to describe the story in a few words, but let's see. Inkworld is a world in a book series created by Italian author, Fenoglio. Over the course of the 1st two books, characters from the books have been read into our world by Mo and Meggie. Mo is a bookbinder and has the ability to read characters from books out of those books, hence his nickname Silvertongue. There are other people who can do this, including Mo's daughter, Meggie, bad guy Orpheus and others. Mo's wife, Resa, spent the 1st book a prisoner in Inkworld. Mo and Meggie live with Mo's aunt, Elinor, a big-time book collector.
By the time we get to Book 3, pretty well the whole family, sans Elinor, as well as Orpheus, Fenoglio, Farid (a character read out of Ali Baba and the 40 thieves) find themselves transported to Inkworld, along with all of those characters who had originally come from Inkworld. (Confused yet?) Mo has now become the Blue Jay, a character created by Fenoglio to battle against the books' villains especially the evil King, the Adderhead. Inkdeath chronicles everybody's adventures until the final, fantastic ending.
So much goes on in this story and we meet so many fantastic characters and creatures. It's not a story for the faint of heart. It's gritty, depressing at times, filled with action and many interacting story lines. The villains are really bad people, from the Adderhead, to the Piper of the silver nose and Thunbling (can you guess how he got his name?) Orpheus is really really bad, selfish, willing to do anything to gain riches etc. The good guys are out and out good guys and some are a bit more enigmatic. But there are so many great ones, Dustfinger of the fire creating hands, brothers Darius and the Strongman, the Black Prince and his bear, Minerva, the wonderful landlady of Fenoglio and Roxanne, Dustfinger's wife, etc. And there are so many others, tragic, like Violante, the Adderhead's daughter and her son, Jacopo... I could go on. I liked the creatures too, especially the Glass men, who work as scribes for Fenoglio and Orpheus and are great spies. It's so rich and wonderful.
There are ups and downs, surprises, both of the good kind and traumatic. It jumps from character to character and keeps you on your toes. As the story builds, it gets better and better. I loved the ending and was at the same time happy and sad; especially knowing it was the last of a wonderful trilogy. It left me choked up and feeling somewhat bereft that I won't get to spend time with these people anymore. So excellent. A must read series. (5 stars)"
There you go. Want to try the series? The complete listing of Cornelia Funke's work can be found at this link. Enjoy the rest of your Labor Day weekend if you're celebrating. Stay safe. 😷
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