Book Blogger Hop: Voltaire's Calligrapher

Welcome to Book Blogger Hop! Visit other blogs by linking up to the Hop at Crazy for Books, weekly from Friday through Monday, blog hop other blogs in the Linky list, and answer the question of the week.

This week's question: What are you reading now and why?

I picked up a slim paperback that has been languishing on my shelf: Voltaire's Calligrapher: A Novel by Pablo De Santis, published Oct. 1, 2010. I see it as literary fiction, but it's described also as "steampunk mystery set in the time of Voltaire." (Booklist) Wish I had started it sooner!

The novel was sent to me by the publisher and I'm planning a review. The author is South American but this edition is published in English.

What are you reading right  now?

Book Review: The Tapestry Shop by Joyce Elson Moore

Title: The Tapestry Shop 
Author: Joyce Elson Moore

"Catherine glanced at the musician; all eyes were on him. This musician has smitten all the ladies and probably cannot see past his Norman nose, pampered as he is in court circles." (ch. 7)

Goodreads description: "The Tapestry Shop, by Joyce Elson Moore, is an historical novel based on the life of Adam de la Halle, a 13th century poet/musician who entertained in France's royal courts and who left behind a vast collection of secular compositions.
 
While researching Adam's music, the author discovered ... that the earliest version of the Robin Hood legend may have been Adam's play, Le Jeu de Robin et Marion. Because Adam was patronized by royalty, his play was probably performed in English courts, and would have changed, as legends do. In the retelling, Robin became an English hero, and Robin's companions became the Merry Men.

The book draws the reader into the Middle Ages, where women joined the crusades and students held discourse on the Street of Straw, but the overriding appeal of The Tapestry Shop may be Adam's connection to the popular legend of Robin Hood."
 
Comments: Romance, religion, history, music and poetry all rolled into one in this novel by Joyce Elson Moore about Adam de la Halle, a French trouvere or troubadour whom she did extensive research on for her novel. Well worth while for lovers of poetry and literature, history, and legend.

Title: The Tapestry Shop (Five Star Expressions)
Published: October 15th 2010 by Five Star
Genre: Historical, biographical fiction
Source: ARC from Carol Fass Publicity
Objective rating: 4 out of 5

The Sari Shop Widow by Shobhan Bantwal

Welcome to the Sunday Salon. Click on the logo to join in!

I've read only three books since last Sunday but enjoyed A Heartbeat Away by Michael Palmer, Finding Nouf by Zoe Ferraris, and a third,

The Sari Shop Widow by Shobhan Bantwal, September 1, 2009, Kensington Publishing.

Genre: women's fiction
Rating: 4 out of 5
Source: personal library/book giveaway

Product description: "Pungent curry. . .sweet fried onions. . .incense. . .colorful beads. . .lush fabrics. Shobhan Bantwal's compelling new novel is set on the streets of Edison, New Jersey's Little India, where a young businesswoman rediscovers the magic of love and family. ..

Since becoming a widow at age twenty-seven, Anjali Kapadia has devoted herself to transforming her parents' sari shop into a chic boutique, brimming with exquisite jewelry and clothing. Now, ten years later, it stands out like a proud maharani amid Edison's bustling Little India. But when Anjali learns the shop is on the brink of bankruptcy, she feels her world unraveling. . .

To the rescue comes Anjali's wealthy, dictatorial Uncle Jeevan and his business partner, Rishi Shah--a mysterious Londoner, complete with British accent, cool gray eyes, and skin so fair it makes it hard to believe he's Indian. Rishi's cool, foreign demeanor triggers distrust in Anjali and her mother. But for Anjali, he also stirs something else, a powerful attraction she hasn't felt in a decade. And the feeling is mutual. . .

Love disappointed Anjali once before and she's vowed to live without it--though Rishi is slowly melting her resolve and, as the shop regains its footing, gaining her trust. But when a secret from Rishi's past is revealed, Anjali must turn to her family and her strong cultural upbringing to guide her in finding the truth. . ."

Comments: I learned a lot about Indian-Americans and Gujarati family traditions, how the East and the West meet and co-exist in contemporary times. I recommend this for those who read women's fiction and international authors.

My next read is Sometimes I Feel Like a Nut: Essays and Observations by Jill Kargman, a new release.

What have you been reading recently?

Book Blogger Hop: Murder in Passy by Cara Black

Welcome to Book Blogger Hop! Visit other blogs by linking up to the Hop at Crazy for Books, weekly from Friday through Monday, blog hop other blogs in the Linky list, and answer the question of the week.

This week's question: What book are you most looking forward to seeing published in 2011? Why are you anticipating this book?

Answer: I'm a fan of a California mystery writer who sets her books in Paris. Cara Black's latest, the 11th in the Aimee Leduc Investigations mystery series is due out on March  8 in hard cover and on Kindle, Murder in Passy: An Aimee Leduc Investigation Set in Paris.

I've read the ten books in the series and enjoyed them all. They describe Paris in detail, above ground and underground in the tunnels and catacombs that run underneath the city. They describe the different arrondisements or districts of Paris and the people who live and work there. Can't wait to read more about Aimee's adventures in Paris as an investigator in computer security. Cara first book, Murder in the Marais: An Aimée Leduc Investigation, is one of the best in the series and is out in paperback edition this month. Murder in the Palais Royal (Aimee Leduc Investigations, No. 10) is due out in paperback on March 8.

What book are you looking forward to this year?

Found Books: Empress Orchid and Finding Nouf

Empress Orchid by Anchee Min
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (April 11, 2005)
Genre: Fictional memoir, historical novel

"My mother was taught the Ch'an concept of happiness, which was to find satisfaction in small things. I was taught to appreciate the fresh air in the morning, the color of leaves turning red in autumn and the water's smoothness when I soaked my hands in the basin."  (ch. 1)

Comments: I found this book among my niece's pile of books that I am storing until she reorganizes.  I've found some good books among hers, and this is another one. The writing is smooth and poetic and the novel is full of fascinating historical details about Yehonala, the last empress of China, a Manchu who ruled the Qing dynasty for over 40 years until it fell in the early 1900s.

Finding Nouf by Zoe Ferraris
Mariner Books (May 6, 2009)
Genre: mystery
Setting: Saudi Arabia

 This book I found on sale at the bookstore, a lucky find, as I love both mysteries and books that tell about other countries and cultures.

Here's a description of the book from Goodreads, which uses Barnes and Noble's book summary:  "In a blazing hot desert in Saudi Arabia, a search party is dispatched to find a missing young woman. Thus begins a novel that offers rare insight into the inner workings of a country in which women must wear the iabaya/i in public or risk denunciation by the religious police; where ancient beliefs, taboos, and customs frequently clash with a fast-moving, technology-driven modern world.

The missing woman is Nouf Shrawi, one of several sheltered teen aged daughters of a powerful local family. Hired to track her and her potential abductor is Nayir, a solitary, pious desert guide of dubious origin, and a friend of the family. As Nayir uncovers clues that only serve to deepen the mystery behind Nouf's disappearance, he teams up with Katya, a liberated Saudi woman who is engaged to one of Nouf's brothers.

As they move closer to the truth, the pair's detective work unveils layers of secrets. In a land of prayers, purity, and patriarchy, the dreams of mere mortals often go unrealized, and the consequences of misbehavior for both men and women are disastrous. The final revelation of the truth forces Nayir to confront his own attitudes about women and society and in his deepening relationship with Katya, to face up to his own long-denied yearnings for love and intimacy.
 
Comments: I've just started this mystery novel and find it intriguing on many levels.

Found Books is an occasional meme to introduce books recently bought or "found." You are welcome to join in!

Eating Animals: Jonathan Safran Foer, Teaser Tuesday

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

"The UN summarized the environmental effects of the meat industry this way: raising animals for food (whether on factory or traditional farms) "is one  of the top two or three most significant contributors to the most serious environmental problems, at every scale from local to global. (Animal agriculture) should be a major policy focus when dealing with problems of land degradation, climate change and air pollution, water shortage and water pollution and loss of biodiversity." (p. 58)

Title: Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer
Paperback: 368 pages
Publisher: Back Bay Books; Reprint edition (September 1, 2010)

Goodreads description: Jonathan Safran Foer spent much of his teenage and college years oscillating between carnivore and vegetarian. As he became a husband and a father, he kept returning to two questions: Why do we eat animals? And would we eat them if we knew how they got on our dinner plates?

Brilliantly synthesizing philosophy, literature, science, and his own undercover detective work, Eating Animals explores the many fictions we use to justify our eating habits-from folklore to pop culture to family traditions and national myth-and how such tales justify a brutal ignorance. Marked by Foer's profound moral ferocity and unvarying generosity, as well as the vibrant style and creativity that made his previous books, Everything is Illuminated and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, huge bestsellers, Eating Animals is a celebration and a reckoning, a story about the stories we've told--and the stories we now need to tell.

Book Review: A Heartbeat Away by Michael Palmer

Title: A Heartbeat Away
Author: Michael Palmer
Hardcover: 416 pages
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Publication date: First Edition edition (Feb. 15, 2011)
Genre: Political/medical thriller
Source: ARC from author

Plot: This is a medical and political thriller, involving a bio terrorist attack right in the Capitol building. A lethal virus is set off by a terrorist group, Genesis, in several parts of the chamber in which Congressional members, their staff, and the press are gathered for the President's State of the Union address.

There has to be a lock down and quarantine of the entire building, with the President, the Vice-President, and Speaker of the House included - the three in the top leadership position. President Allaire makes a desperate decision to find an antidote for the virus - he orders the freedom of a convicted terrorist, Griffin Rhodes, a virologist who had been jailed for stealing this same virus. Rhodes claims to have been set up, but agrees to work tirelessly against Genesis to perfect the antidote, his research at the time of his incarceration.

Who is Genesis and who are the masterminds behind the plot to destroy the government?

Comments: The plot may seem far-fetched but it serves as a great vehicle for a thrilling read. Rhodes races against time to save people about to die a horrible death inside the Capitol. At every turn, he is thwarted by Genesis. I found the action and plot very good reading and enjoyed the medical aspect of the thriller up to the end, where I found a disappointing wrap up of the story in the final blame for the terrorism plot. It seemed too easy an answer to give, like the ending of a James Bond movie, to be taken with a big grain of salt. The thrill of getting to the end of the book was all fun, however.

Objective rating: 4 out of 5.