Library Loot: Mysteries and Women's Fiction

Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Marg @ ReadingAdventures and Eva at A Striped Armchair.

I've done it again. I've gone to the library and borrowed too many books, all of them unusual in their genre, a few downright bizarre. I have an eye for mysteries and books set in exotic places - that's the armchair traveler in me.

Here's what I found in the mystery genre:

Snakes Can't Run: A Mystery by Ed Lin. (Hardcover - March 30, 2010).
"An epic of New York Chinatown noir in the vein of George Pelecanos and Richard Price. This is the riveting sequel to This Is a Bust." (Minotaur Books description, front flap). I was intrigued by the book cover, a photo of a woman's back tattoed with a phoenix and Chinese characters. The author's web address, edlinforpresident.com, shows his sense of humor.

Arabesk: Inspector Ikmen #3 by Barbara Nadel (Paperback - July 25, 2009). "Confined to his home on sick leave... Inspector Ikmen of the Istanbul police is forced to hand his latest case over to his protege, the newly promoted Suleyman....At the real heart of this operatic catastrophe, are the conflicts inherent to the city itself." (Publisher's description).

A Dead Hand: A Crime in Calcutta by Paul Theroux. (Hardcover - Feb. 11, 2010). Paul Theroux, well-known travel writer, tries his hand at crime fiction. I'm half-way into the novel and think I've already figured out the culprits and the motives. Can't wait to see if I'm correct.

To balance things out, I borrowed three contemporary works of fiction by women authors:

 Perfection: A Memoir of Betrayal and Renewal by Julie Metz. (Hardcover - June 9, 2009). "A breathtakingly honest, gloriously written memoir about the complexities of forgiveness - the story of a young widow who discovers her husband's secret life only after his sudden death." (Publisher's description, front flap).  I was attracted by the cover, the title, and the summary on the book jacket. Can't wait to read this one.

Pearl of China: A Novel by Anchee Min. (Hardcover - March 30, 2010). Set in the end of the 19th century in China, the book tells the story of the young Pearl S. Buck, later a Nobel Prize-winning author, and her new Chinese friend, Willow, whose friendship endures through adulthood and the tumultous years that follow. I assume the novel is based on historical fact and want to know more about Pearl Buck's life in China.

Noah's Compass
 by Anne Tyler ( Hardcover - Jan. 5, 2010). "From the
incomparable Anne Tyler, a wise, gently humorous, and deeply compassionate novel about a schoolteacher, who has been forced to retire at sixty-one, coming to terms with the final phase of his life." (Publisher's description, front flap). That first paragraph was all I needed to borrow the book!

I think I came away with a great set of library books. Now to read them all...among others, is the challenge.
 

Review: The Old Capital by Yasunari Kawabata (Sunday Salon)

Welcome to the Sunday Salon! There are two very good books I read last week that I recommend.

 by Yasunari Kawabata made me think of spring and my trip to the city of Kyoto in March 2008, just before the cherry blossoms came out.  I spent two days walking through the old districts and visiting shrines, including the Heian-jingu shrine, described in the novel .

The Old Capital by Yasunari Kawabata, published 2006.

Comments: Kyoto in spring and during its many festivals throughout the year are the background for Kawabata's novel. It's an homage to the Old Capital of Japan, with its age-old temples, shrines, and gardens, and its history of artisans - silk weavers, pottery makers, designers of traditional silk kimono.

Here is a picture I took in Kyoto, the Old Capital.


This Torii, a Shinto gateway, is flanked by evergreen trees. It is one of the largest in Japan.

Plot: The main character in the book, a young woman named Chieko, finds out that she was a foundling,  adopted by her parents, a Kyoto kimono designer, Takichiro, and his wife Shige. Shige has always told Chieko she was found under the trees during cherry blossom time in the Gion district and kidnapped. The neighbors say she was found outside the lattice doors of her parents' warehouse, a foundling abandoned by her real parents. Chieko grew up privileged. Her discovery of who she might be leads to an interesting revelation in the novel.

I could picture some of the places described in Kyoto and I also liked the sense of beauty and love of the outdoors in The Old Capital. Chieko and her friends enjoy special trips to see the cedar trees, the mountains, the cherry blossoms in the spring that Japan is famous for. Inbetween festivals, Chieko also learns more about who she is and about her good fortune with Takichiro and Shige.

Yasunari Kawabata was born in 1899 in Osaka, Japan and became an orphan at age two. Also author of Snow Country, Beauty and Sadness, and Thousand Cranes, he won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1968.

Last week I also finished a good Parisian mystery,  Murder in the Palais Royal (Aimee Leduc Investigations, No. 10). I've read all the books in the series and enjoyed every one!  A review later. Am now in the middle of a new library find,  A Dead Hand: A Crime in Calcutta by travel writer, Paul Theroux.

My review of At Home with Laurie Ann, an interior decorator's guide, was posted Tuesday. A very colorful book.

I looted the library of about six other books, most of them mysteries. The covers, the titles, or the authors or all three combined convinced me to borrow them, even though I am way behind in my schedule of "many things to do."

How was your week?

Book Review: At Home with Laurie Ann: A Decorator's Guide

Teaser Tuesdays, hosted by MizB, asks you to choose two sentences at random from your current read. Identify the author and title for readers.

"Whether you seek an all-out overhaul or a visual shake-up of your home, you'll begin the same place - with your taste, your needs and your dreams.

Spot your style" (p. 15)

At Home with Laurie Ann,  A Decorator's Guide: Turn the Place You Live into a Home you Love by Laurie Ann McMillin Ray, an interior designer from Southern California who shares her knowledge and experience in this how-to book.

I like her emphasis on developing your own style. The author describes basic decorating styles as "Formal", "Romantic," "Tranquil," "Contemporary," and "Eclectic" and tells the reader to "Try different combinations until you get it right." The 224-page book is very rich visually, with many full-page color photographs of the decorated rooms.

 I like her tips for the Guest Room: " Add a vase of your visitor's favorite flowers, preferred magazines, a framed photo of someone they love and a luxurious terry cloth robe hung on a decorative hook - your houseguest will be at home."

The photographs were eye-catching but I would probably choose only one item or piece furniture from each of the pages. I don't think Laurie Ann meant the rooms to be as they appear - they are too richly decorated. I would have preferred seeing simpler rooms in the five styles instead of overly decorated rooms that became a blur of color and pattern. The book has some good tips on how to approach decorating, though. I especially  liked the advice for a quick home make-over: "For an eternally fresh look, rearrange the furniture several times a year."

Publication date: February 2010
Publisher: Laurie Ann Publishing, Inc.
A copy of this book was provided for my objective review.

Book Review: Love in Mid Air by Kim Wright

Love in Mid Air by Kim Wright

Publisher's description:
"A chance encounter with a stranger in an airplane sends Elyse Bearden into an emotional tailspin. Suddenly, Elyse is willing to risk everything: her safe but stale marriage, her seemingly perfect life in an affluent Southern suburb, and her position in the church. As Elyse embarks on a risky affair, her longtime friend Kelly and the other women in their book club begin to question their own decisions about love, sex, marriage, and freedom. In the end it will take an extraordinary leap of faith for Elyse to find - and follow- her own path to happiness."

Comments: I found the main character Elyse frantic and the pace of her narrative staccato and disjointed. I didn't find her sympathetic and I was put off by her grammar/speech/narrative very early in the book.

ARC provided by the publicist for my objective review.

The Sunday Salon: Ho, Hum week

Welcome to the Sunday Salon!  You can join in and sign up by clicking on the salon logo.

In between full time work, I did only two book reviews the past week. I tried to sneak in as many pages of reading as I could during lunch and breaks. I'm on the computer all day but can't blog, of course. It's been a busy but Ho Hum week.

Posted a review of The Writing on My Forehead: A Novel by Nafisa Haji (March 2009) for TLC Book Tours, plus a guest post by the author on writing.

The Godfather of Kathmandu by John Burdett, detective fiction, also got a review, which I changed around a few times as I had a hard time expressing how I felt about the book. There was just so much to it.

I'm half way through The Old Capital by Yasunari Kawabata, a short novel about the beauty of the old Kyoto, the ancient capital, and about a young girl finding out that she is adopted. Straight forward and easy to read.

I reviewed a new mystery novel, Murder in the Palais Royal (Aimee Leduc Investigations, No. 10) by Cara Black, set in Paris. One of my favorite mystery series.

Then there is a love story, Love in Mid Air by Kim Wright, a debut novel which I've started but not yet finished!

On the 6-hour drive to and from Canada last weekend, we listened to 8 discs of the 17-disc audio of  The Swan Thieves: A Novel.  My hubby, who loves art and a good mystery, really liked it. 

It will rain tomorrow. Later, I'll take down the old robin's nest in the tall bush/tree outside my window. I think robins build new ones each year.

Ho, hum, time to turn in! What did you do last week?

Book Review: The Godfather of Katmandu by John Burdett

In The Godfather of Kathmandu, a crime thriller with a twist
by John Burdett, Royal Thai police detective Sonchai Jitpleecheep must solve the bizarre murder of a wealthy American filmmaker in Bangkok.

Detective Sonchai is the son of an American father whom he never knew and a Thai mother whom he is devoted to. At the beginning of the novel, he doesn't know what to make of the apparent murder of the American visitor, a well known director of Hollywood films, whose death in a Bangkok flophouse is staged in a theatrical and shocking manner. Solving this crime takes all his effort and insight and introduces Sonchai to some very colorful individuals.

Comments: The personality and character of the detective makes and carries the book, no doubt about it. Sonchai is torn between doing the bidding of his corrupt superior
 in the Thai police force, and following the directions of his spiritual Buddhist mentor, Norbu Tietsin. When these two people both pull him into an illegal transaction,
the detective is torn between duty, his sense of right and wrong, and the difficulty of his situation. He develops an ironic and sometimes comic view of himself and everyone around him by the end of the book.

"I'm supposed to be a mafioso, a despicable international drug trafficker, a poor sucker among six billion poor suckers ensnared irrevocably in karma from which there has never been any escape and for which therefore I experience no responsibility even if it is all my fault."

All clues seem to lead to Katmandu, Nepal, which Sonchai visits several times, getting information there and in Hong Kong, and back in Bangkok.

An incredible plot, I thought as I read along; I finished the book and gave it four stars. Burdett has written at least three other crime novels featuring Detective Sonchai Jitpleecheep, all entertaining semi-noir fiction.

(Also reviewed by The Book Catapult and Eurocrime)

Challenge: 100 + Reading Challenge,Support your Local Library Challenge, Thriller & Suspense Reading Challenge

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50 Famous Authors and their Favorite Books

A blog post by onlinedegrees.net has a list of  50 Famous Authors and Their All-Time Favorite Books.

Joyce Carol Oates chose Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky.



George Pelecanos listed All the King's Men by Robert Penn



Sue Monk Kidd's favorite was The Awakening by Kate Chopin.



Ha Jin chose War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy



Robert B. Parker listed the short novel, The Bear by William Faulkner



Alice Hoffman's favorite was Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte



For the entire list of authors and their favorite books, see 50 Famous Authors

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