Mystery Read-A-Thon Jan. 16-17

My first Mystery Read-A-Thon, 12 hours reading mystery novels. Not an unpleasant task! The introductory questions:

1) Give us five fun-facts about you. (Things that are so trivial you wouldn't think of them right away, but that might make others smile.)
1. I wake up at 5 a.m. in the mornings unless I have a hangover. 2. I love sweets 3. I remember my bichon frise dog with great fondness. 4. I'm a secret gardener with a garden blog. 5. I'm a pack rat when it comes to books, especially mysteries!

2) What is on your TBR stack for the next two days?
Knit, Purl, Die by Anne Canadeo.

Pilikia Is My Business by Mark Troy, a book I've had for about a year now, but couldn't get past the tiny print. I understand it first came out in electronic format.

3) Do you have any specific hopes and plans for this read-a-thon?
Finish two books within 12 hours, then do a review of book one for Wednesday.

4) Did you participate in the Mystery Read-A-Thon in the past?
No, only because I just found out about it.

5) If this is your first Mystery Read-A-Thon, how do you plan to go ahead?
I'm finishing up the first book and hope to finish the second, which is 213 pages of very fine print!

And if you're on Twitter, search for the hashtag #mysteryRAT, for some chatter...

Book Review: The Last Surgeon by Michael Palmer

The Last Surgeon by Michael Palmer.  Published by St. Martin's Press, Feb. 16, 2010.

A good plot, fast paced action through quick dialogue, and an entertaining and suspenseful read  throughout.

A doctor with a heart of gold is pitted against a ruthless psychopath who has been hired as a contract killer by an unknown group. The killer thinks he is being humane by using bloodless and painless methods of dispatching his victims, but uses psychological terror nonetheless. Dr. Nick Garrity, in contrast, uses his talents to give medical care to the homeless and to war veterans. How their paths will cross, what far-reaching plot is behind the contract killings, and who will come out the winner are questions that kept me reading. Definitely an adults-only thriller, which builds suspense through psychological threats. Certainly not for the squeamish.

Publisher's description: "Everyone  told Gillian Coates that her sister's suicide was just that: a suicide.
    Everyone told Dr. Nick Garrity that his best friend, Lt. Umberto Vasquez, had simply disappeared, battling the demons of post-traumatic stress disorder.
    Gillian doesn't believe it. Nick doesn't believe it. And soon, they discover a chilling connection between these two seemingly random events...a common denominator that will lead a killer to the next victim...and the last surgeon.

 Thanks to author Michael Palmer for providing an  ARC for an objective review.

Challenges: 100+, Thriller and Suspense, Chill Baby, Chill!

Author Interview/Book Review: The Tricking of Freya by Christina Sunley

Q: Welcome to Book Dilettante, Christina! We'd love to hear how you came to write your first novel.


Christina Sunley, author of The Tricking of Freya: A Novel will discuss her book on Iceland and its history and culture. The daughter of Icelandic immigrants, her interest in history started with stories she heard from her mother.


Can you tell us the most interesting stories that prompted you to write the book?
Christina: There were two stories that my mother would tell me that especially struck me as a child. The first was of my grandfather as a young child in Iceland waking up to a morning sky black as night -- a volcano had erupted and caused widespread devastation in the area where he lived. The next story came from the following year in my grandfather's life, in 1876: impoverished by the volcanic disaster, his family set off on their shaggy horses under the midnight sun, crossed a river, and rode to the nearest seaport, where they took a ship to Scotland and then to Canada to join the "New Iceland" settlement. My mother also told me many stories about my grandfather's early experiences in the settlement, where they lived under harsh conditions as pioneers. I found those stories especially fascinating, and somehow haunting.


Q: What about the research you did to write the book - the time spent, the places you visited, etc?
Christina: Researching the novel was an incredible journey in and of itself. I made three trips to Iceland and one to Manitoba, and then did lots of reading, too, and pouring over old documents. I interviewed "old timers" in both Iceland and Manitoba, and met a number of relatives for the first time. A few experiences from my first trip to Iceland:

• Floating in a boat on a glacial lagoon – the same lagoon with its dramatic icebergs that years later is now featured on the cover of my book.

• Watching a sheep with spiraling horns climb on the ruins of the turf-roofed farmhouse where my grandfather had been born in another century.

• Sampling hákarl, an Icelandic delicacy consisting of fermented shark meat. Enough said.

• Riding a snowmobile over Vatnajökull, Europe’s largest glacier, and trying not to panic when it broke down in the midst of the vast icy wilderness.

• Trekking a still-steaming lava field in the north, where astonishing ribbons of lava seemed frozen in midstream, gleaming with the colors of undiscovered planets.

• Driving for hours by myself in a rented jeep and never seeing a single car or house or road sign along the way.

• And, of course, writing down absolutely everything I saw, smelled, heard or imagined in my notebook.

On my second trip to Iceland, I spent a month in Reykjavik taking an intensive language course in Icelandic. The next year, I spent a month as a writer-in-residence at Klaustrið (The Monastery), living alone in a stone farmhouse bequeathed by one of Iceland's most famous writers. It was just downstream from where my grandfather had been raised. I arrived at the beginning of May in the middle of a tremendous blizzard. It was so stormy most of the time I could hardly venture outside without getting blown over. There was nothing to do but write. I got more writing done in that one month than I had in the whole previous year.


Q: Is the town of Gimli in Manitoba, Canada a real place? Are any of the characters in the novel based on real people?Christina: Gimli is a very really place – in fact, it was one of the first places the Icelanders named when they arrived at Lake Winnipeg. Gimli refers to a kingdom in heaven in Norse mythology. Today Gimli is a tiny Canadian fishing village with strong Icelandic roots. They still hold a large Icelandic Festival there each summer, which I write about in my book. Only one of the characters in my book is loosely based on someone real. Freya’s family friend, Stefan, was inspired by an Icelandic-Canadian historian and genealogist named Nelson Gerrard, whose research and publications are a great inspiration for me. You can learn more about his work at Nelson Gerrard.

Q: You mentioned that only about 5 percent of your historical research findings went into The Tricking of Freya. How do you plan to use the other 95 percent?
Christina: Probably what I meant to say is that only about 5% of the historical material that I wrote ended up in the book. There were several chapters of historical fiction taking place at different points in Icelandic history that I ended up cutting out of the book. Although I’m not sure I’ll ever be able to recycle those chapters anywhere, it did leave me with a longing to write a historical novel about the Icelandic immigration.


Q: Have you always wanted to be a writer? At what point did you make this decision?Christina: My mother wrote my poems down for me before I knew how to write! I’ve always loved writing and started making “books” of stories and poems when I was about nine years old, but it’s something else entirely to declare oneself a writer and then manage to get writing done while living life and making a living….


Q: What are some of the books and authors that have influenced you over the years?Christina: I love Michael Cunningham, Michael Ondaatje, Virginia Woolf, Annie Proulx, Paul Auster, Halldor Laxness, to name a few. To the Lighthouse is probably my favorite novel of all time.

Q: Is there anything else you would like to add for readers?
Christina: I’m heading to Iceland for a book tour in June, where the book has been released in an Icelandic translation called Freyjuginning. Very exciting! At the end of March the paperback will be coming out in the US and Canada, from Picador, with a new cover and a readers guide for book groups in the back. I love talking with book groups, so if you have a group and are interested, please contact me through my website at Christina Sunley.

Thanks for the interview, Christina, and have fun in Iceland on your book tour in June! It should be beautiful during summer there.

BOOK REVIEW of

The Tricking of Freya: A Novel by Christina Sunley

Synopsis: Young Freya has been tricked more times than she likes, both in big and small ways. The biggest trick begins with an unexpected trip, when she is enticed by her aunt Birdie to travel with her for three weeks to the land of their ancestors, Iceland, supposedly to find the lost letters of their grandfather, the famous poet Olafur, Skald Nyja Islands.

Freya normally lives in Connecticut with her mother Anna and only travels every summer to the small New Iceland community in Manitoba, Canada where her aunt and grandmother live. Freya is intrigued by her temperamental aunt Birdie, an aspiring poet who has manic highs and lows. In her good moods, Birdie teaches Freya the complex grammar of the Icelandic language and its folklore.

Following that first trip to Iceland with Birdie, a disastrous summer trip that seemed like a wild goose chase, Freya visits Iceland again many years later after Birdie's death, this time alone and to find answers about the past, the identity of a mysterious relative, and about the biggest trick of all that had been ongoing over the years.

Comments: I found this wonderful book at the library and borrowed it twice. The rich array of fictional characters created in the Icelandic community in Canada and in the homeland - from  traditional to progressive to manic personalities - makes this an engrossing story, expertly told.

I came away with a better understanding of Icelandic culture, the land and language, its folklore, and the history of Icelandic immigration to Canada beginning in the 1870s.  The Tricking of Freya was published 2009 by St. Martin's Press.

Other reviews of the book: Rose City Reader and The Boston Bibliophile.
(To have your review listed here, leave a comment with your link).

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Book Review: Truly, Madly by Heather Webber

Truly, Madly by Heather Webber

Lucy Valentine is psychic - she can't see people's auras as her father can, but she can find lost objects and see into the future, just by shaking someone's hand.

The plot for this cozy mystery is unique - Lucy takes over her father's successful and well known match-making business while her dad recuperates after heart surgery. She matches couples by the color of their auras noted by her aura-seeing father in each client's personal file.

Synopsis: When Lucy gets a new client, shakes his hand, and sees a vision of the ring he has lost, she literally freaks out. The ring just happens to be on the finger of a skeleton buried in a grave in a forest preserve.

How Lucy solves this mystery and determines who-dunit is the basic plot of the book. Along the way, she plays Cupid to several other couples, both clients and friends, and does her father proud as an asset to his matchmaking business. She also finds the love of her life.

Comments: The book has all the elements of a nice cozy - the murder takes place off scene, the mystery is light and easy to read, only the bad guys get hurt, and everything is hunky dory at the end. Love blooms throughout, so make this book a cute romance as well.

I'm looking forward to more Lucy Valentine books - she is a very likeable and lively character with psychic as well as sleuthing abilities and a personality you'll just love.

(ARC made available through LibraryThing Early Reviewers). Submitted to the Thriller and Suspense Reading Challenge 2010 and to the 100+ Reading Challenge.

Other review of Truly, Madly: Just One More page...Or Two, Crazy for Books

Asian Print and Music

To celebrate reaching the 100 mark for followers of my blog, I've created an Asian theme with a Japanese woodblock print of a woman in a kimono and with links to a traditional Japanese celebration and to classical Chinese music. Hope you will enjoy them.

The print above is courtesy of Dover Publications. Today, the second Monday in January, is Coming of Age Day in Japan, a holiday when 20 year olds officially reach the status of adult and are able to vote, among other pprivileges.
In Japanese Customs and Traditions, Muza-chan has posted pictures of 20-year-olds dressed in colorful costumes to celebrate their coming of age. Though in formal kimonos, the young women chose bright, flowery patterns and have pinned flowers in their hair! There is also a video of a Coming of Age ceremony held in a Shinto shrine.

For Asian music, there are two videos of Classical Chinese Music performed in the Golden Hall in Vienna with traditional instruments such as the two-stringed erhu. Hope you enjoy them.

The Sunday Salon, Jan. 10

Things are slow and I'm not posting as often as I used to in 2009! I've decided to take it easy, read at leisure, and post reviews only when I'm good and ready:)

I did only one book review last week: Map of Paradise, but it satisfied three different reading challenges I'm doing this year: The China Challenge, the Chill Baby, Chill! review challenge, and the 100+ Reading Challenge. I love when one book counts for more than one!

I started a cozy I got from LibraryThing, Truly, Madly by Heather Webber - a mystery/romance novel, which I am liking very much - humor, good plot, clever writing.

Haven't gotten an answer back from author Christina Sunley re the Q & A interview I planned, so that may not happen, though I hope she's not too busy and may yet come through!

Posted a Wordless Wednesday photo of red berries, which many people liked - a spot of color in the winter white.

I finally bought The Wind-up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami, a novel which has to be savored and cannot be read in a hurry. I'm savoring it at leisure.

New book to be reviewed: Dino Vicelli, Private Eye in a World of Evils by Lori Weiner. The hero is a private detective who just happens to be a nattily dressed Italian greyhound. Beats the talking cats in that other mystery series.

For next week, I hope to do two book reviews and start reading a new memoir, The Youngest Son: Memoirs from the Motherland by Oreste LeRoy Salerni, about a teacher's sabbatical year in Italy.

What have you done this past week?

Wordless Wednesday

Winter berries are still on the bush,
though the leaves have now gone. They stand out in the snow.

The bush is a rockspray cotoneaster, identified for me by Jodi of Blooming Writer: Gardening in Nova Scotia. Click on the picture to enlarge it, and click on the link to visit Jodi's wonderful garden blog.