The Incense Game by Laura Joh Rowland

"The incense game begins," Usugumo said. The sisters sat up straighter, like warriors preparing for battle. "Listen to the incense. Let its voice tell you who it is."  

She set the celadon bowl on the floor between her and the elder sister and bowed.

Title: The Incense Game: A Novel of Feudal Japan
Author: Laura Joh Rowland
Published September 18, 2012; Minotaur Books hardcover
Genre: historical mystery

Book description: "In the wake of a terrifying earthquake, Sano Ichiro races to solve a crime that could bring down the shogun's regime.

When a massive earthquake devastates Japan in 1703, even the shogun's carefully regulated court is left teetering on the brink of chaos. This is no time for a murder investigation—except when a nobleman's daughters are found dead from incense poisoning and their father threatens to topple the regime unless Sano Ichiro tracks down the killer.

With the help of his wife, Reiko, and his chief retainer, Hirata, Sano begins a secret investigation that jeopardizes his whole family."

I enjoyed this historical mystery set in 18th century Japan and rated 4 stars!

Book Review: What the Zhang Boys Know by Clifford Garstang

Title: What the Zhang Boys Know: A Novel in Stories
Author: Clifford Garstang
Paperback published October 1, 2012; Press 53
Objective rating: 5/5

There are twelve short stories making up this novel, featuring the residents of the Nanking Mansion condominium at the edge of Washington D.C.'s Chinatown.

Comments: These are moving stories of lives accidentally touching through close proximity in the condominium of a busy cosmopolitan city. I found it excellent writing and story telling, realistic, with a framework that is perfect for these stories of urban life.

Linking the residents together are the Zhang boys, the two children of Zhang and his deceased American wife, Maddie. The children see and hear and observe a lot about the condominium residents, even though they might not fully understand everything, being quite young, one just starting kindergarten and the other not yet old enough for preschool. Simon and Wesley are often playing in the corridors or on the stairs, or might wander down into the basement, and so are in contact with the condo residents. Many befriend the boys, who may get a piece of chocolate or even dollar bills to be quiet and not tell anyone about some of the little things they come across, see, and may know.

At the beginning of the book, Mr. Zhang takes the boys to bring back their grandfather from China, to help take care of them. His friend Jessica comes over to help too, and is expected to one day fill the gap left by the boys' mother. But the boys, too young to understand death, expect their mother to come home any day. At one point, they leave home together, to try to find her in the streets of the busy city.

Book synopsis: The stories spotlight Zhang’s neighbors as they seek to fill gaps in their own lives: the young bookseller diagnosed with a life-threatening illness; the young lawyer trying to cope with a failed marriage; the obsessive painter haunted by the image of a face; the middle-aged woman forced to sell her possessions in order to survive; the sculptor, overwhelmed by longing for the son he didn’t know he had. And then there are the Zhang boys, who firmly believe that their mother is coming back. What is it that they know? (book description)


Clifford Garstang is the author of the story collection In an Uncharted Country and co-founder and editor of Prime Number Magazine. He is also author of the literary blog Perpetual Folly. Garstang served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in South Korea and practiced international law in Chicago, Los Angeles, and Singapore. Subsequently, he worked as a legal reform consultant in Almaty, Kazakhstan and was Senior Counsel for East Asia at the World Bank in Washington, D.C. Garstang teaches creative writing at Writers.com and elsewhere.

He currently lives in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia.

For other book reviews, visit TLC Book Tour for What the Zhang Boys Know.
Submitted to Immigrant Stories Challenge 2012

Misadventures of a Garden State Yogi by Brian Leaf

Maybe a little bit unorthodox, but a fun memoir, especially for those who do yoga or want to find out more about getting the most out of yoga. and kripalu yoga.

Chapter 2:
" I wanted to practice and study yoga as much as possible, so I incorporated it into my Georgetown classes in every way that I could. For philosophy class, I wrote a paper entitled "Was Plato the Founder of Yoga?".... And for Catholic imagination class I wrote "Did Jesus Do Yoga?" 

There are yoga practice hints throughout the memoir and appendices with sample yoga practices, meditation techniques, guided relaxation tips, and Ayurvedic recomendations for a healthy lifestyle.

Title: Misadventures of a Garden State Yogi: My Humble Quest to Heal My Colitis, Calm My ADD, and Find the Key to Happiness by Brian Leaf will be released October 9, 2012.

About the author: Brian Leaf is the owner and director of the New Leaf Learning Center in Massachusetts. He has studied, practiced, and taught yoga, meditation, and Ayurveda for 23 years. Information:http://www.misadventures-of-a-yogi.com/praise.html

I received a review copy of the memoir from the publisher, New World Library.

Wordless Wednesday: Last Rose of Summer

Wordless Wednesday:The last rose of summer has a Georgia O'Keefe feel about it.

The Last Rose of Summer

  Thomas Moore(1779–1852)

’TIS the last rose of summer   Left blooming alone; All her lovely companions   Are faded and gone; No flower of her kindred,   No rosebud is nigh, To reflect back her blushes,   To give sigh for sigh. I’ll not leave thee, thou lone one!   To pine on the stem; Since the lovely are sleeping,   Go, sleep thou with them. Thus kindly I scatter   Thy leaves o’er the bed, Where thy mates of the garden   Lie scentless and dead. So soon may I follow,   When friendships decay, And from Love’s shining circle   The gems drop away. When true hearts lie withered   And fond ones are flown, Oh! who would inhabit   This bleak world alone?

 (from Bartleby.com : Great Books on Line)

By Royal Decree by Kate Emerson: Book Teaser

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly meme hosted by MizB; choose sentences at random from your current read. Identify the author and title for readers.

Title: Secrets of the Tudor Court: By Royal Decree
Author: Kate Emerson
Published December 4, 2010; Gallery paperback

"Stubborn fools, you and Will both, to live in hope of a royal decree." (ch. 18)

The last wife of Henry VIII of England, Katherine Parr, gives harsh advice to one of her ladies of the court, Elizabeth Brooks, who is in love with Queen Katherine's brother, Will Parr, the new Earl of Essex. Will is divorced by Parliamentary decree from his unfaithful wife but has to remain single as long as his former wife lives, unless otherwise decided by the king, that is, overruled by royal decree.

I'm on chapter 20 of this third book in the Secrets of the Tudor Court historical series, having finished the The Pleasure Palace, and Between Two Queens. There are two more books in the series, At the King's Pleasure and the most recent, The King's Damsel. Based on life at the Tudor court of Henry VIII, the novels feature the lives of several noblewomen who are called to court at different times to serve the queen of the moment - there are six queens in all during Henry's tumultuous reign. Descriptions of the life of the 16th century court, its manners, dress, customs, and intrigue are deftly folded into the plots.

Thanks to the publisher for sending all five books for possible review.

About the author: 
Kate Emerson was born in Liberty, New York and received an A.B. from Bates College and an MA from Old Dominion University. She is a member of the Historical Novel Society, the Mystery Writers of America, and Sisters in Crime. She lives in Maine.

October Cozy Mysteries

A few new October cozies from Obsidian and Berkley....just in time for the cooler weather.

If Mashed Potatoes Could Dancee
Mrs. Malory and A Necessary End,
A Marked Man,
A Grid for Murder,
Deadly Patterns.

The titles read like a cozy poem.

Book Review: The Thief by Fuminori Nakamura

Title: The Thief by Fuminori Nakamura, translated from the Japanese by Satoko Izumo and Stephen Coates
Published March 20, 2012; Soho Crime
Source: library

I was pleasantly surprised by this award winning novel by the young Japanese writer Fuminori Nakamura. He won Japan's largest prize, the 2009 Oe Prize, for this book and I can see why.

Not nearly as noir as I was expecting, the book shows the flaws and the humanity of this young man, a Tokyo pickpocket so skilled that he can unbutton a man's coat, take a wallet from the inside pocket, and rebutton the coat without being noticed or caught. Working in tandem with two others, he can even remove the cash and return the wallet to the unsuspecting victim's pocket in the flash of an eye.

The Thief targets only wealthy, well dressed Tokyo businessmen, as they walk along the street or ride on the subway. This is until he gets involved in more serious pickpocketing for gang members who have a political agenda. The noir ending I was expecting didn't happen, and there is hope for the Thief who risks his life to protect a young boy, a budding pickpocket, and put him on a path different from his own.

This was an easy read, only 211 pages. The dialogue and plot lines are both excellent.

Nakamura's first book, The Gun, has also won an award.

Visit Saturday Review of Books for a weekly collection of book reviews.