Review: How I Write, Secrets of a Bestselling Author, by Janet Evanovich

Honest, down to earth, gutsy and humorous: some great advice for writers by mystery author Janet Evanovich, in How I Write, published in 2006.

I picked up this book on one of my hunts through discount stores for older but brand new books, and I'm glad I found it. The 2006 book is a series of interviews on creating characters, structure, revising and editing, getting published, and also on "The Writing Life."

Here's one section I liked: on making yourself sit down to write every day - a really difficult thing to do. (from Part 7, "The Writing Life"):

Janet: Look. Nobody finds it easy to sit at a desk all day. It's lonesome, and it's hard, and it's scary. Being a professional is learning to be at your desk even when you don't feel like it. It's facing that blank screen and making yourself put some words where there are none. It's writing something every day, even if it's a single line....

I find it also helps to tell everybody you're a writer. Eventually it gets so embarrassing you actually have to write something."

Fans of her Stephanie Plum mystery series will like reading about how Evanovich creates and develops her characters and her plots, and about her writing techniques and habits. Nice thing about the series of interviews, you can pick the book up at different times and start reading on any page, which is how I'm reading it. A little handbook and motivator for would-be-writers.

There are other books on writing by bestselling authors as well. One of them is Stephen King's On Writing, which has had rave reviews.

Cuban-American Mysteries by Carolina Garcia-Aguilera

In honor of Hispanic Heritage Month, just passed, I'm reprinting this post on a Latina writer who writes mysteries set in Miami and Havana.

A Miracle in Paradise (1999)
The main character in the mystery series, Lupe Solano, is a private investigator in the Cuban-American community of Miami. She drinks mojitos the way other people drink coffee, wears Manolo Blahnik heels, and hangs with the community of elite Cuban exiles living in and around South Beach, Miami.

The novels are written by Cuban-born, Florida-bred author Carolina Garcia-Aguilera.

In the novels, the avidly anti-Castro father of the P.I. keeps a boat ready to return to Cuba at a moment's notice, at the first sign of "Cuba Libre," something he spends his life waiting for. On at least two occasions, Lupe uses his boat to sneak into Cuba, investigating lost or confiscated property, finding people, or recovering valuable artwork for her clients. Needless to say, her secret nighttime forays into Cuba provide some good suspense.

I found out about mojitos (a drink made with mint leaves, sugar, soda water, and rum) and the Cuban American community in Florida while reading these lively mysteries. They include Bloody Waters (1996), A Miracle in Paradise (1999), Havana Heat(2000), and Bitter Sugar(2001).

Book Review: The Texicans by Nina Vida

(p. 17)

"I've been thinking and thinking about Aurelia," Willie said to Oscar after Luz picked the baby up and took it inside. "I don't want to marry her, you see, but I'd like to buy her."

It's April 1844 in the Rio Grande Valley, Texas on the outskirts of San Antonio. Willie has heard about Aurelia's gift as a curer, a healer, and came to her because of a stomach disorder. Her family is poor and a marriage to Willie would be beneficial.

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme hosted by Should Be Reading Choose two sentences from your current read, and add the author and title for readers.


From the publisher's description:

"Joseph, a Polish-Jewish school teacher has become a rancher by chance. He marries Katrin, an orphaned immigrant from Alsace, to save her from an Indian chief, but he becomes obsessed with Aurelia, a Mexican girl who may be a witch. Together with two runaway slaves, and assorted Comanches, Tonkaways, and vaqueros, they struggle to settle in Texas. This is a gripping story of their trials and tribulations."

When I started the book, I didn't know what a "Texican" was, so looked it up in the Urban Dictionary online, which gave several meanings:

1. A person living in Texas during the time of the Republic of Texas. A person modern who advocates that Texas secede from the United States.

2. A native Texan of Mexican descent. 3. A Texan of Mexican ancestry. 4. A Mexican born in Texas.

5. A Texican is person of European descent in Texas. A Tejano is a person of Hispanic descent in Texas. 6. A Mexican living in Texas.

The novel includes all the above, the various people that make up the residents of Texas in the 1840s. This would also include the Comanches and other native Indian tribes.

The novel's main character is Joseph, a Polish-Jewish former school teacher who heads from Missouri to Texas after his brother's death there. Joseph meets a European girl in Texas who becomes his wife, and later meets a Mexican woman Aurelia, with whom he becomes obsessed.

Comments: The author is a skilled storyteller with excellent descriptions that evoke the time, the surroundings, and the people.

"The braves came home from the hunt with forty bison. They crossed the Colorado and rode into camp. Ten Elk riding ahead, the women laden down with supplies and dragging the butchered bison along behind them until the ground turned bloody and the bison meat was studded with gravel and dirt." (ch. 6)

I think of this as an historical novel telling the story of the variety of Texicans who lived in, settled in, and made up the new Republic of Texas.


Thanks to Nina Vida for a copy of the book for review.

Book Review: Julie and Julia

Julie and Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen by Julie Powell


My rating: 3 of 5 stars
I should have listened to worldwide bookish wisdom and not seen the movie before I read Julie and Julia. Seeing the film first absolutely ruined the book for me. I keep envisioning Meryl Streep as Julia Child and Amy Adams as Julie as scenes from the film kept intruding during my reading.

I liked the film. Unfortunately, I didn't think the book had much more to offer once I knew the story. I keep admiring Julie's determination to finish cooking all the recipes in Julia's Mastering the Art of French Cooking, and I admire her tenacity and blogging successfully about it. I wish there had been her actual blog posts, printed chronologically with the dates for each one, instead of a continuous narrative based on her blog. Then there would have been something interesting to read after the movie!

I like that Julie added questions at the end of the book to help the reader on, and also her list of favorite related books. One entry that did not help me with the book. however, and stood out as a complete non sequitur to her previous list of recommended books on cooking:

"And a couple of random good reads to round things out...

"The Zombie Survival Guide: Complete Protection From the Living Dead" by Max Brooks. Words cannot describe how I adore this book.... I couldn't think of a way to justify putting the complete DVD set of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" on a reading list, but this is the next best thing."

Now if there is one set of books/DVD I would not read or watch, it's Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Just not my genre.

It goes without saying though that those who haven't seen the movie should really enjoy reading this interesting and unusual story about the love of cooking, Julie and Julia.

Thanks to the publisher for a copy of the book for review.

Book Review: Hardball by Sara Paretsky

Two missing persons - one that lawyer and private investigator V. I. Warshawski is hired to find, the other someone that she must find. Those who want to learn more about the city of Chicago, past and present, will certainly get a lot from reading Hardball.

Synopsis: V. I. Warshawski, lawyer and private investigator, is hired to find a missing man, Lamont Gadsgen. In the meantime her cousin Petra disappears, possibly abducted while visiting Warshawksi's office with two unknown men. The security cameras capture the three blurred figures on film. Warshawski has to find Lamont, who has been missing for many years, and also try to find Petra and calm down her father, who blames her for Petra's mysterious disappearance. The plot ties into the history of Chicago in the 1960s.

I like a cleaner, more focused mystery than the current one by Paretsky, however. Maybe I'm too familiar with Chicago, but I felt that Paretsky tried to cram as much of Chicago as possible into her book, more than the plot warranted. Chicago's southside urban ghettos and its gangs and the 1967 race riots in Marquette Park are central to the plot, but the author also throws in Navy Pier, the Polish community, more than enough Chicago politics, and lots of landmarks. I found it distracting.

Also, I was put off by the number of different characters introduced at the beginning. I didn't know who to focus on. The book would have been better had the writing and plot been more streamlined. Even then, you really can't describe all aspects of this city in one book.

I also found it interesting that Warshawski's love interest is named Morell. The name reminded me too much of Stephanie Plum's on-and-off-again boyfriend Morelli in the Janet Evanovich mystery series. Another unfortunate distraction!

Thanks to the publisher for an ARC for review.

Book Review: The Elegance of the Hedgehog

The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery


My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I loved this social satire on modern French manners and society through the main characters.

Take one disenchanted 12-year-old child, smart but cynical for her age, add an equally cynical but likeable concierge/caretaker in a building of private apartments, and then mix in an erudite and wealthy Japanese gentlemen - shake together and see what happens when they meet and interact.

What they have in common is a love of beauty and art. Young Paloma thinks the world is not worth living in, until she discovers what she describes as perfection - the movements of a rising young player in a football game, for instance. The concierge, Renee, hides her love of good food, art, music, and literature behind nondescript clothing, unkempt hair, and a blank face that she shows to the tenants of her building. The Japanese gentleman, Mr. Ozu, is a new tenant who enjoys fine painting, music, and literature.

When Paloma and Mr. Ozu reach the conclusion that Renee the concierge is smarter than she lets on, Mr. Ozu is certain that Renee's cat Leo is named after the Russian writer Tolstoy. Renee decides that Mr. Ozu has found her out; his two cats have the names of characters in Tolstoy's War and Peace after all, and he has begun to observe her with curiousity. Ozu and Renee play cat and mouse games at first, trying to discover more about each other.

Young Paloma is anxious to get away from her wealthy parents and irritating older sister, who are always trying to draw her into meaningless conversations. She finds refuge in Renee's apartment. Mr. Ozu decides to invite Renee, whom everyone sees as a lowly concierge, to his elegant apartment for tea and again for dinner.

What happens next? Well, I won't tell everything!

I liked Renee's philosophical discourses on art, literature, beauty, and life. Her character is drawn to show that social stereotypes are just what they are - stereotypes. A concierge brought up in relative poverty is not what may seem to the outside world. She hides her knowledge of literature and art and her love of classical music because she, like the young girl Paloma, wants to be left alone by people who wouldn't understand her.

For those who like unusual and rebellious characters and who enjoy reading social satire, I recommend The Elegance of the Hedgehog.

Can't wait to read Muriel Barbery's previous book, Gourmet Rhapsody, now out in translation.

The Art of Meaningful Living by Christopher F. Brown

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme hosted by
Should Be Reading. Choose two sentences from your current read, and add the author and title for readers.

"Meaningful living is choosing your passions over your fears. It is accepting what you cannot control and focusing on what is in your power."
(from the cover of The Art of Meaningful Living by Christopher F. Brown, art by John Palmer)

A coffee-table style book with self-help advice on wisdom, action, and resilience. It is illustrated with 75 pieces of colorful abstract art.