Author Archives: witchyrichy

Reading on the Road

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I spent most of August on planes and in hotel rooms. Bad for the soul, really, but good for the reading. I wrote a long letter to a reading friend and here’s the section about books:

I finished off Maisie Dobbs and am working on Bernard Cornwell’s series on Alfred. I picked up a few books at the airport that were fun: Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children was an engrossing fantasy story with a sequel coming out in January. David Baldacci’s One Summer was a bit predictable, but I enjoyed it anyway. I’ve also been diving into some young adult fiction from Cory Doctorow who writes about ed tech topics. Little Brother and Homeland were really science fiction but dealt with contemporary issues of privacy and surveillance.

I also read Rhett Butler’s People, authorized by the Margaret Mitchell Foundation. It took me a bit to get into it as it was written in somewhat stilted prose but it turned into a good story, very sympathetic to Rhett. And it led to another book by Donald McCaig that is waiting on the Kindle: Jacob’s Ladder, considered one of the best fiction books about the Civil War and set in Virginia.

And more: Wallace  Stegner’s Angle of Repose, The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, and West of Here by Jonathan Evison. The last was sort-of-historical fiction set on the Olympic Peninsula. The story moved between past and present. It took me a few chapters to get into it, mostly because I was only able to find time to read a few pages here and there, but one I started in earnest, I found it hard to put down.

I’ve also been listening to a new mystery series set in London during WW II. The main character is an American, Maggie Hope, who ends up as Winston Churchill’s secretary. Lots of fun work with cryptography and cyphers that has led me to Alan Turing and more about Blechley Park.

Now, I’m recuperating with a few days at the beach, and I visited the Island Bookstore in Corolla, always a favorite. I have a bagful of books. I pulled out Beautiful Ruins and read it in two days. I loved the complexity of the characters but also the engaging prose.

One more link to a blog entry I wrote about unions on my professional blog.

OK, just one more link: here’s the full list for 2013. I’m up to 54 since the Daniel Pink anthology included five novels.

Book Buying

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Reading books and owning books are two different things. I have resumed my love affair with the library when it comes to books I want to read. Generally, these are popular fiction or mysteries that I will read in a few days. They are all part of a series with, in some cases, eight installments. And they rarely come up in the bargain ebook bin. With five of them under my belt, I’ve probably saved $50!

Which I then invested in analog books. The library will never replace buying a book for me and it seems as though book shops have been throwing themselves in my path. I had to take an extra suitcase to San Antonio that would be essentially empty coming back but still have to be checked. What to do? Fill it with books!

I investigated independent bookstores in San Antonio and found The Twig Book Shop, but it was too far away with my limited schedule. One evening, however, I wandered through the Rivercenter Mall and came upon the Thai Princess Book Shop. It was an intriguing shop, small with extensive collections of a few popular authors and then an interesting smattering of other stuff including San Antonio authors. That’s mostly what I bought along with two of the Thai Princess’s books.

Yes, there is a Thai Princess and she’s been endorsed by Oprah! Her name is Nuensie Nancy Suku Oakley. Poor, abused, she fought hard to become a successful businesswoman. The proceeds from her books go to charity. I had the privilege of talking with her and she promised to come help me when I’m ready to open my own book shop.

Here’s the list of what I bought. I’ve already finished Simple Genius, the third book in David Baldacci’s King and Maxwell series. It was a well written version of a pretty formulaic genre. So much so, I borrowed the first book in the series from the library. Split Second was also good…a little creepier than Simple Genius but with similar dead ends, plots twists, and generally well-developed characters.

My folks invited me to spend a few days with them in their condo at Massanutten. It was a last minute trip…they didn’t expect to have a second bedroom. I accepted and had a lovely visit with them that included some Skyline Drive, an interesting lunch at the Thomas House restaurant in Dayton, and a trip to the Green Valley Book Fair. I resolved to only fill one basket and managed to do so quite nicely. I bought a couple cookbooks and six other books. Here’s the list, which includes books purchased when I was there in the spring. I picked up Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter today and am finding it intriguing and a bit fun.

Speaking of book shops appearing out of nowhere, I don’t think I posted about the books I bought when I was visiting in Pennsylvania in early May? Turns out BJ’s Wholesale Club has a pretty good selection of recent titles. I walked away with a few books including Edward Rutherford’s new tome, Paris, which I started but then abandoned until I have a few days when I can immerse myself in the sprawling novel.

I did write about my visit to Blue Whale Books in Charlottesville.

It has been a good book shop year so far…not sure what I’ll find this summer. It’s going to be an airport summer, and I found some great books last summer in the airport book stores. I’ve already gotten started with Flight Behavior by Barbara Kingsolver. I bought it in the Richmond airport and finished it during a recent trip. I did bring it home…any one want to borrow it? It’s a novel with a message about environmental stewardship woven into a complex tale of family and community.

I’ve been reading quite a bit, it seems, escaping the afternoon heat and incoming emails for an hour here and there. I’ll post a longer review of Wallace Stegner’s Angle of Repose, which flowed richly from the page, a big story of the West that managed to also be an intimate portrait of a marriage.

I am going to start my career as a bookseller this summer. We’re going to have a table at the local farmers’ market, and I’m going to fill up my book spinner with a few paperbacks. I think I can part with a few things. I need shelf space for the new books I bought.

Guilty Pleasures: James Lee Burke

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Creole Belle CoverI generally do not like violent mystery stories where psychopaths practice their evil and tormented detectives struggle to bring them down. But, I got hooked on James Lee Burke in my commuting days when Will Patton‘s gentle southern voice made the violence less stark and the introspection more riveting. Burke’s thick prose rolled from his tongue like molasses from a spoon, and there were moments at the end of a paragraph when I just had to hit pause and even rewind.

I don’t listen to audio books much anymore, and I managed to miss two additions to the Dave Robicheaux series: The Glass Rainbow and Creole Belle. My public library had both of them and I managed to breeze through them in just a couple days. Just in time for the latest book–Light of the World–that will be coming out in July.

Here’s just one example of his prose from Creole Belle:

The winter was not really winter at all, and therein may lie Key West’s greatest charm. If one does not have to brood upon the coming of winter and the shortening of the days and the fading of the light, then perhaps one does not have to brood upon the coming of death. When the season is gentle and untreatening and seems to renew itself daily, we come to believe that spring and the long days of summer may be eternal after all. When we see the light trapped high in the sky on a summer evening, is it possible we are looking through an aperture at our future rather than at a seasonal phenomenon? Is it possible that the big party is just beginning?

And I discovered that you can view all the Kindle highlights as well.*

Rich, luscious, sometimes over the top…but riveting and really just fun even in its violence and introspection.

And, I also noticed that it’s written in a mix of first and third person although we understand that Dave is telling us the story. But sometimes he is getting us caught up on what other characters were doing and tells that in the third person. It helps relieve some of the stream of consciousness that happens with all first person books. Sometimes, I just need a break from the thoughts of one character.

Here’s my biggest question: just how old is Dave Robicheaux? He made a comment in one of the books I just read that he was entering his 8th decade. Really? According to wiki answers, he is 72. Seems a bit improbable. And Clete Purcel, his buddy, is always on the edge of dying but somehow continues to survive.

Now that I’ve gotten caught up with Burke, I’m moving on to Bernard Cornwell’s Saxon Chronicles series and Jacqueline Winspear’s Maisie Dobbs. I’ve checked them out from my local library who has an amazing interlibrary loan system. If they don’t have it, I get it within 24 hours. I’ve saved almost $50 in the past week! It’s meant a few trips to the library, but it’s only a few minutes away and I get to know more people each time I make the trip.

*One downside of library books: I had dog-eared a few pages with juicy quotes to share (I know, I know, I’m a criminal) but I would have had to type the quotes from the book and I wanted to get to the library before the worst of the storm hit. Maybe there’s an app for that.

 

The Potential Problem with First Person

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I seem have to stumbled into a mystery series cycle lately. I read the first two books in the Josiah Reynolds series, set in Lexington, Kentucky. The main character is a middle age beekeeper whose sleuthing begins after a body is found in her beehive. I also read the first book in the Jesse Watson series, set in Stanardsville, Virginia. Jesse is a single 30-something who moves to the mountains with her parents and takes up work with a private investigator.

Both are written in the first person so we hear both the thoughts and the voices of the women. In both cases, we learn a lot about the women, including their past and their relationships with the other characters as both of them are part of ensembles. While the mysteries form the centerpieces of the stories, they are enhanced by these other relationships.

Neither character is all that happy: Josiah’s late husband had had an affair with a younger woman before he died, and she struggles with finances as she tries to keep up her house and farm. Jesse ends up in the mountains because there seems nothing to tie her down in Newport News. No boyfriend and no real work prospects.

Jesse is a bit more dramatic and immature than Josiah that makes her seem younger than 31. She sometimes seems like a middle schooler mooning over boys. But Josiah is also somewhat abrupt and often rude even with those who are her close friends. She only seems happy with her bees.

And, there’s my problem…I just don’t really like these characters. I don’t care which main Jesse ends up with but am mostly just bored with the obsession. And while I identify with Josiah a bit better, I still find myself feeling frustrated with her stubbornness. I’m wondering if this feeling comes from the use of first person…just too much of their presence as part of the mystery and their personal problems since the stories themselves were interesting and kept my attention. In the case of Josiah Reynolds, I immediately bought and read the second book since the first ends with a real cliff hanger that I didn’t see coming.

Meanwhile, I am almost done with Book Eight of the Maisie Dobbs’ series by Jacqueline Winspear and may read the rest of them in a Maisie binge since my library has all of them. The series has some similarities with the other two: a female detective, a small entourage, mystery interwoven with personal. Granted, it has the added interest of being set in England in between the wars so there is an historical aspect that appeals to me. And the main character is much more reflective and serious than the other two. Not much screaming or crying going on.

It also uses third person narration: we are told the story by a narrator rather than hearing from Maisie herself. While the omniscient narrator lets us into her thoughts and we mostly see the world from her perspective, we aren’t hearing her stream of consciousness the way we are with the other two.

Finally, it may just be writing style that influences my opinion here*. There is an elegance to Winspear’s prose that seems to match the elegance of the main character and the world in which she lives. The third person narration helps to add to that elegance. The other two books are less precisely crafted. And, their style matches that of their characters, seemingly always just on the edge of losing control of themselves, their lives and, in the case of the authors, their stories.

*I realize the next mystery on my list dispels this theory. I love Dave Robicheaux  and just dive into the thick language of James Lee Burke with all its slow southern description. And, it’s written in first person.

Binge Reading

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No matter how busy I am, I find time to read…last night, after many hours in the garden, I carried a drink out to the front porch and read well past sunset. And the book list grows: I’m a James Lee Burke fan and realized yesterday that I missed a couple Dave Robicheaux books. I’m getting caught up on Maisie Dobbs and really want to move forward with Bernard Cornwell’s Alfred series. These last three really cry out to be borrowed from the library and my public library has all of them in their catalog. Unfortunately, my library card has expired. I love the IDEA of the public library but have never been a very good patron. I like owning books and the digital age has only enhanced that desire. But, I’m not going to reread the above books so being able to get them for free makes a lot of sense. So, I shall make the trek this week.

Meanwhile, I have three books going right now. The literary book is Wallace Stegner’s Angle of Repose. It was a natural follow up to Ivan Doig and tells the story of Lyman Ward, who from the view of his own mortality, explores the life of his grandparents, particularly his grandmother who made the journey to the West in the name of love. It is beautiful in so many ways: lyrical prose, engaging story, deeply developed characters. I’m reading it slowly, a chapter each night before I fall asleep.

Then there’s the fluff…both came by way of Kindle daily deals. At least Death By A Honey Bee provides some insight into my latest hobby of beekeeping. It’s the first in a series by Abigail Keam. I share some similarities with the main character in terms of age and interests but I am hoping that she is wrong about the murderer since the mystery seems solved with more than half the book to go.

The second one is borrowed from the Kindle lending library and is set in Stanardsville, Virginia. Also the start of a mystery series by Ann Mullen, it’s called What You See. It has its moments and it’s always fun to read something regional.

These two are easy to pick up and put down so they are perfect for summer days when I need a coffee or tea break from gardening.

But now…it’s time to tend my own hives.

Craving A Book…The Real Kind

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I am taking a break from A Song of Ice and Fire and dove back into the Maisie Dobbs series by Jacqueline Winspear. Just finished An Incomplete Revenge. Excellent…a solid, well told mystery with well developed characters and a bit of history and psychology woven throughout. I bought a two-book bundle from Amazon so I have the next one, Among the Mad, ready to go when I need a gardening break today.

Or…I might read something else. The last five books I’ve read have been on the Kindle. I mostly read them on my iPad but I am finding that increasingly distracting. I’ll read a chapter and then check Facebook or Twitter or try to beat that last level on My Kingdom for a Princess. At night, I read from the real Kindle, and I do like the way it syncs between devices. But I think I am mostly craving a real book, one with pages that feeds the tactile senses. One that doesn’t have other content loaded on it, calling to me.

I practiced bookstore tourism this week, stopping at Blue Whale Books in Charlottesville to browse and buy a few books. I fed my nature and books collections and was charmed by the discovery of Sixpence House: Lost In a Town of Books by Paul Collins. It describes Collins’ move to Hay-on-Wye, the bookstore town in Wales. I made the pilgrimage to Hay when I was in Wales and have often imagined what it would be like to live in a place where you could slip into a bookstore every day just to browse.  Maybe I’ll dig into what the Boston Globe called “the bookworm’s answer to A Year in Provence.” (I know I have read that book but it must have been pre-Library Thing as it’s not in my reading list.)

On a side note: one of my favorite children’s authors died yesterday. I must have read From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler 25 times when I was a kid in a small country village imagining life in New York City. I reread it when I started teaching middle school and was delighted all over again. E.L. Konigsburg had a wonderful sense of mystery, magic and wonder.

When A Book Breaks Your Heart

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First, a confession…I immediately started the third book of the A Song of Ice and Fire series. In A Storm of Swords, everything is in chaos. And, yesterday afternoon it broke my heart. All that hope I thought I saw in the second book evaporated in the space of three pages. Favorite characters were killed violently with little warning. (I know, I know, there was lots of foreshadowing but I guess I just didn’t want to believe it.)

Now, in despair, I continue to read just waiting for the glimmer of hope to return. But, I’m not trusting that I will find it. Lovers are torn apart, horrible dead things stalk the land, women and child are murdered…and the evil people are really winning now. I may definitely have to take a break after book 3 for something a bit more upbeat.

I did have a good laugh related to Game of Thrones. I stumbled on this music video by comedy group Axis of Awesome. It is, as they say, explicit: there’s bad language and a bit of nudity at the end. But, if you have reached the depths of despair along with me, it provides a little pick-me-up:

Your imagination is a fun place to explore…

 

 

Love & Hate & Game of Thrones

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I just finished the second book in the series, and I find myself drawn to the series the way people are drawn to a train wreck. Unlike Cornwell’s novels, the good guys don’t always win. In fact, it seems like the really evil people are winning. Yet, there are glimmers of hope and that’s what keeps me going, along with Martin’s terrific writing. He captures the richness of the world he has created from the descriptions of the frozen North to the waterfront of Quarth to the beauty of the godswood. While many of the characters seem flat, those who headline the various chapters offer complex personalities, with even the most evil having occasional glimmers of empathy.

I’m not ready to start the third book yet, and I’m not sure I want to watch the television series. But, I have been enjoying the wiki that follows the television show but also describes how it differs from the book.

Finally…

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I have been reading a bit in this new year, but it seems to take me a long time to finish a book with just a few minutes here and there. Work has kept me busy, and we filled the last three Saturdays with beekeeping classes. And, truth be told, the books I have read were good but not the kind of page turners that seem to keep me glued to the chair, swearing that I would stop at the end of the chapter and go do something productive.

Until now, that is. I finally started Game of Thrones, a five-book series that came highly recommended by a reading friend. I bought all five books in a Kindle bundle but wasn't sure I would like them as they seemed more violent than I liked. Finally, last week, I decided to get started. And, I'm hooked. I finished the first one early this morning and am already part of the way through the second one. I keep saying I'm going upstairs to do some cleaning but then the next chapter pulls me in.

The books are reminiscent of Bernard Cornwell and JRR Tolkien, mixing fantasy with royal feuding to create a compelling story. I always think of Cornwell as a man's writer with great swashbuckling heroes who are never happier than on the battlefield with its clashing swords and swarming hosts. But, Martin also finds a place for the women: conniving mothers of young kings but also brave women who face their fears and take their places among the men in battles and castle halls.

I recommend them with the warning that you won't get much else done…now, really, I'm going upstairs to clean.