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So... since my last update, I've received 4 new books, finished 4 books and started another one. I'll update these and continue with my ongoing look at the works of Women authors I've been enjoying.
New Books
"The odds are stacked against Chuffy when he falls head over heels for American heiress Pauline Stoker. Who better to help him win her over but Jeeves, the perfect gentleman's gentleman. But when Bertie, Pauline's ex-fiancé finds himself caught up in the fray, much to his consternation, even Jeeves struggles to get Chuffy his fairy-tale ending."
"A revealing collection of interviews with one of the greatest artists in the history of rock ’n’ roll—as brilliant, punchy, and blustery as the man himself.
In this collection of powerful interviews given over thirty years—including his final interview—Lou Reed oscillates between losing patience with his interviewers (he was famous for walking out on them) and sharing profound observations on the human experience, especially as he reflects on poetry and novels, the joy of live performances, and the power of sound. In conversation with legendary rock critics and authors he respected, Reed’s interviews are as pithy and brilliant as the man himself."
"Some days Cincinnati police detective Sonora Blair doesn't want to be a cop. Not when she has to tell the father of two young children that the body parts turning up along I-75 belong to his missing wife, Julia. Eight years ago she witnessed a murder that was never solved, but not forgotten. A murder in which the body disappeared, and no one believed her story. Years later, Julia thinks she sees the killer. Then Julia disappears. And a dangerous sociopath, left undisturbed for eight years, is back in business in Cincinnati."
"Marking the highly anticipated return of popular crime-busting heroine Lena Padget, "Fortunes of the Dead" is the finest novel to date from award-winning author Lynn Hightower. Private investigator Lena Padget has seen far too many women and children fall through the cracks of the legal system, and she has made it her life's work to redeem as many of them as she can. She and her lover, homicide detective Joel Mendez, have just moved into their dream cottage, signifying the beginning of a committed relationship. But Lena and Joel are soon torn by the need to balance personal trust with professional commitment when they find themselves working different ends of the same case.
For two months running, Joel has immersed himself in an investigation full of dead ends: the disappearance of college intern Cheryl Dunkirk. Cheryl's sister, Miranda, has turned to Lena for help. Just as Lena agrees to look into the case, Joel is teamed with Los Angeles ATF Agent Wilson McCoy, whose investigation of the Branch Davidian cult holocaust in Waco, Texas, cuts right into the heart of Joel's case. It will take all three of them -- Lena, Joel, and Wilson McCoy -- to track down the killer. A killer who has been flying under the radar and threatens to slip away again; whose brutality will make you turn away. A killer who will keep you awake at night, contemplating the struggle for death and redemption."
Recently Finished
"I picked up A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers, mainly because of the title, the fact that it was relatively small and I really liked the cover. Chambers was a new author for me, but the synopsis sounded interesting. In fact it made me think of City by Clifford Simak; I mean, robots right? While I stood looking at other books, both of the ladies who worked in the store gave me a thumbs up. I was waiting for my wife to finish her shopping so I sat out in the mall and started reading. Well, the rest, as they say, is history. I loved this story.
One of the comments on the cover described it in this way "Reading this book felt like a warm cup of tea made by someone who loves me...." That's a pretty good description.
Sibling Dex, a monk on the planet (or maybe it's a moon) Panga decides they (Dex uses they as their descriptive pronoun. It took me awhile to wrap my head around this but the story flows once I did. My problem, not Dex's) wants to hear crickets. You can't hear them in the City. So they decides to become a tea monk and travel around the planet / moon providing tea to the people living in outlying areas. The planet / moon is made up of one continent, half has been turned over to wilderness. While on his voyage, which takes place over quite a long time, Dex decides he needs something else and heads into the wilderness to see the Hermitage, an abandoned monastery. (My terminology might be incorrect, remember Panga isn't Earth... I don't think)
Dex now encounters a robot, Mosscap. In the planets past, robots were used for all construction / industrial activities. At some point, humans recognized them as more than that and offered to let them leave if they wanted or to become citizens. The robots disappeared. This encounter is the first since their departure. Mosscap volunteered to visit humans to see how they had progressed and to see if the robots can help.
This begins a journey with the two, Dex hesitant to remain with the robot and Mosscap persuading them. It's a fascinating story and journey. Chambers draws lovely photos of the planet and creates two fascinating characters, a confused Dex and an outspoken, exuberant robot. The story was so wonderful, caring and just drew you in. I definitely want to visit Panga and I want to meet a tea monk to sell me tea and make me feel comforted and happy. Thank you for such a great story, Becky. What a lovely surprise. (5 stars)"
"I first heard of Go Ask Alice by Beatrice Sparks (aka Anonymous) when it came out as a movie back in 1973. Last year I purchased a 50th anniversary edition of the book.
Basically, the story revolves around Alice (the Alice mentioned in Jefferson Airplane's White Rabbit song; "Go ask Alice, when she's ten feet tall") is a teenage girl filled with normal teenage angst. Her university professor father has just received a new job as a professor in California. The family is excited and nervous about this big move. Alice's younger brother and sister make new friends right away, as does her mother, and her father fits right in at his new job. It takes Alice more time to become comfortable at her new school (she never really does). We learn all of this from Alice's diary, which she has begun to write in.
Alice finally makes a girl friend, Jill, who invites her to a party where one of the boys slips her some LSD in a drink. This begins a spiral downwards in Alice's life, running away from home, hooked on drugs, forced into degradations to continue to live and afford drugs. Every time she tries to break away from using drugs, going back home to try and start over, something happens to force her back into the drug life.
It's a relentlessly depressing, terrifying story. It's one I personally can't relate to as I guess I lived a sheltered life, maybe, but I'm unaware of any of my friends or acquaintances falling into these circumstances. How prevalent was the drug problem back in the '60s and '70s? It's not something I ever researched. It's a story that probably should be read, just to provide a perspective. If you want to be scared straight, this is the book. (3.5 stars)"
"They Called Us Enemy by George Takei is the story of how 120,000+ Japanese Americans were sent to concentration camps by the US government after the attack on Pearl Harbor in the 'belief' that all Japanese Americans were potential insurrectionists. This happened in Canada as well, where over 20,000 Japanese Canadians were sent to internment camps in the interior of British Columbia. Like their American counterparts, there properties were confiscated, everything they owned....
The story is told from the perspective of the events that happened to Mr. Takei and his family; father Takekuma Norman Takei, mother Fumiko Emily Nakamura, younger brother Henry and sister Nancy. Under Executive order 9066, his family were removed from their home in Los Angeles, taken by train along with so many others to one of 10 interment camps. The Takei's was the furthest east at Camp Rowher, Arkansas. There they spent most of the rest of the war. From young George's perspective, as a young pre-teen boy, it was a huge adventure. For his parents, it was shameful, dispiriting to say the least. They considered themselves loyal American citizens. Mrs. Takei was born in the US, his father born in Japan and emigrated to the US as a child.
The story presents the facts in an honest, dramatic fashion, showing how the events unfolded historically and how it impacted these people. Towards the end of the war when the US needed more soldiers they asked these Japanese Americans if they would be willing to serve in the US army. But before they were permitted to do so they had to sign a document stating they were willing to serve in the Armed Forces on combat duty and also foreswear any and all obedience to the Japanese emperor. George's father, like many others signed no and no. For the first, the US wanted these Japanese Americans to pledge their lives to a country that had placed them and their families behind barbed wire fences and secondly to sign a document that rested on a false premise that they all had a racial allegiance to the Emperor of Japan. So this group were called No-No's. George's family were again resettled to a harsher camp, this time in California.
There is so much in this story that is both fascinating, interesting and terrifying. It's easy to see who even a democracy can descend into a form of totalitarianism when it is threatened and how easy it is to do it again and again. To blame things on perceived outsiders, different looking people and to want to keep them from attaining the same right. Mr. Takei presents his story objectively, factually and personally and his story needs to be read. (5.0 stars)"
"I've previously enjoyed two other books by author, John Christopher, The Lotus Caves, a young adult Sci-Fi story which was ok and The Death of Grass, a dystopic future, which was terrifying and fascinating. The White Mountains is the first book in the Tripods trilogy, another young adult Sci-Fi story. I enjoyed very much and look forward to reading the next two books in the trilogy.
Earth seems to have been taken over by giant Tripods, machines of some sort (maybe a la George Orwell's Martian invaders). It's many years in the future and it seems that Earth folks are basically assimilated. When children reach a certain age, the beginnings of adulthood, they are 'capped'. Basically it seems that a mesh cap is inlaid into their skull by the Tripods and they become the next people indoctrinated by these beings. Sometimes the capping doesn't work and these people become Vagrants, spending the rest of their lives wandering the countryside, muttering to themselves and living off the generosity of the rest of the world.
Young Will spends his time with his best friend Jack, somewhere in England. Jack is a year older and about to be capped. When it happens Will is very lonely. He begins to talk to a Vagrant who calls himself Ozymandias and is visiting Will's town. Ozymandias tells Will that he's not really a Vagrant and that his 'cap' is fake. He says that if Will wants to avoid capping and wants to help the remaining 'free' humans battle the Tripods, he needs to go to The White Mountains (Switzerland, it seems) and join the people there.
This begins the first part of this 3-part adventure, with Will running away from home and journeying across England and parts of Europe, trying to avoid Tripods and get safely to the White Mountains. On the way, he will meet other companions who will join him. It's a fascinating, entertaining story and obviously with so much more to come. It's a good introduction to Will and his friends Henry and Beanpole and gives you an idea of the Tripods and their control over Earth. But obviously more to come, more explanation on how it happened (maybe) and the fight to end the occupation (I'm guessing). The story flows nicely, the characters are interesting and sympathetic and there is enough action to entertain you. (3.5 stars)"
Just Started
"A comical futurist fantasy, first published in 1904, about a tradition-loving suburban London community of the 1980s at war with its modernizing neighbors. Chesterton's splendid storytelling gifts and his sympathies for the plight of small nations trying to remain independent are strongly in evidence. 7 illustrations by W. Graham Robertson. New Introduction by Martin Gardner."
Women Authors Whose Works I've Been Enjoying - Susan Hill
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| Dame Susan Hill |
"Children have been vanishing - there are no leads- just a kidnapper at large. The police have failed, the families are distraught and the morale at Lafferton station has collapsed. Then Detective Chief Inspector Simon Serrailler receives a call: a child has been snatched in Yorkshire. Has the abductor struck again? And will they find this child alive?"
"Simon Serrailler is on a sabbatical when he is recalled to Lafferton to investigate the murders of two local prostitutes. By the time he returns, another girl has disappeared. Is this a vendetta against prostitutes by someone with a warped mind? Or a series of killings by an angry customer? But then one of the Cathedral wives goes missing, followed by another young married woman, on her way to work. Serrailler follows lead after lead, all of which become dead ends. It is only through a piece of luck, a chance meeting and a life put in grave danger that he finally gets a result..."
"A cold case comes back to life in this sixth book in the highly successful Simon Serrailler detective series "eagerly awaited by all aficionados" (P.D. James). Freak weather and flash floods all over southern England. Lafferton is under water and a landslide on the Moor has closed the bypass. As the rain slowly drains away, a shallow grave--and a skeleton--are exposed; 20 years on, the remains of missing teenager Joanne Lowther have finally been uncovered. The case is re-opened and Simon Serrailler is called in as senior investigating officer. Joanne, an only child, had been on her way home from a friend's house that night. She was the daughter of a prominent local businessman, Sir John Lowther. Joanne's mother, unable to cope, killed herself 2 years after Joanne disappeared. Cold cases are always tough, and in this latest in the acclaimed series from Susan Hill, Serrailler is forced to confront a frustrating, distressing and complex situation."
"Duchess of Cornwall Close: sheltered accommodation, a mix of bungalows and flats, newly built and not quite finished. Despite the bitterly cold weather, elderly residents are moving in. They don’t notice the figure in the shadows. Someone who doesn't mind the cold.
Then, one snowy night, an old lady is murdered – dragged from her bed and strangled with a length of flex.
DCS Simon Serrailler and his team are aware of bizarre circumstances surrounding her death – but they keep some of these details secret, while they desperately search for a match. All they know is that the killer will strike again, and will once more leave the same tell-tale signature.
The break comes when Simon’s former sergeant, the ever cheerful Nathan Coates, tracks down a name: Alan Keyes. But Alan Keyes has no birth certificate, no address, no job, no family, no passport, no dental records. Nothing. Alan Keyes does not exist."
"DCS Simon Serrailler is watching a cricket match with his nephew, Sam, one June Sunday afternoon. It's his day off and the sun is shining. Whatever may happen in Lafferton has nothing to do with him. But what does happen has huge implications for a large military Parade the following month, and this time, Serrailler is in the front line."
The complete listing of Hill's works can be found at this link. She is definitely worth checking out. Oh and all is well with the world as the Blue Jays won 9 - 2!! Double header tomorrow. Enjoy your Canada Day weekend or your Independence Day weekend if you are celebrating that.
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