Sunday Salon: A Psychological Thriller and Novels of Vietnamese Women

 

Just finished

The Last Days of Kira Mullan, by Nicci French. March 2025, William Morrow, NetGalley

Chef and restaurant owner Nancy North had a psychotic breakdown that has her at the mercy of her boyfriend, Felix, who is determined to run all aspects of her life from then on. No one believes her when she insists that downstairs neighbor Kira was murdered and had not committed suicide as ruled by the police.

I liked all aspects of the personality and character of Nancy, who fights for her independence and for her mental health, at the same time determined to see that Kira's death is seen for what it is. Together with detective Maud, the female investigator who is overlooked in her department, the two women dominate the story as two people who become friends, both fighting for their rights to be heard and to be given their due in their respective lives.

The ending is realistic, especially for Maud, whose outcome was nevertheless a bit disappointing for me. Overall, another good psychological mystery by Nicci French.

Reading about Vietnamese families

The Family Recipe by Carolyn Huynh, April 1, 2025, Atria Books, NetGalle

Genre: family drama, Vietnamese

Description: "a family dramedy about estranged siblings competing to inherit their father's Vietnamese sandwich franchise and unravel family mysteries. These mysteries begin to unravel along the way as they learn the real intention behind the inheritance scheme." 

I read the previous book by the author, The Fortunes of Jaded Women, about a group of Vietnamese women whose personalities it was hard to believe at the time. But since the author is from the Vietnamese community,  there must be  some truth to the portrayals, however humorous.

The Fortunes of Jaded Women by Carolyn Huynh. September 6. 2022, Atria Books

Genre: multicultural interest, Vietnamese, women's fiction, humor

Description: "a family of estranged Vietnamese women who experiences mishaps and unexpected joy after a psychic makes a startling prediction about their lives.

It started with their ancestor, Oanh, who dared to leave her marriage for true love—so a fearsome Vietnamese witch cursed Oanh and her descendants so that they would never find love or happiness, and the Duong women would give birth to daughters, never sons."

A humorous novel of family superstitions and family matters.

Forgot to mention, after reading books in French, I'm now reading books in Spanish - all on my Kindle of course, with its built in dictionary aids. I took only high school Spanish, but my first attempt at reading a long novel in Spanish is going pretty well. 

El Amante Japones (The Japanese Lover) by Isabel Allende, May 2015. 

Language: Castilian Spanish​

What are you reading/watching this week? 

Memes:  The Sunday Post, It's Monday: What Are You Reading, Sunday Salon, and Stacking the Shelves  

Invisible Helix by Keigo Higashino, and Shanghai by Joseph Kanon, Historical Novel set in the late 1930s.

 

The Invisible Helix by Keigo Higashino, December 17, 2024; Minotaur Books/NetGalley

Genre: detective novel, Tokyo

The body of Ryota Uetsuji was found floating in Tokyo Bay, and a suspect is his girlfriend Sonoka, but Sonoka was away in Kyoto at the time of the death and has an alibi. 

The themes of adoption and finding one's family years later is prevalent. The themes found in Sonoka's story of adoption are also threaded into the story of a police consultant, the brilliant physicist Yukawa. Misguided and misinformed individuals also make mistaken assumptions in this compelling story of family connections. 

I enjoyed the storyline and the easy way of writing by Higashino that made this detective novel enjoyable and also suspenseful. Another excellent book by Higashino and the fifth in the Detective Galileo series.

Shanghai by Joseph Kanon, June 25, 2024; Scribner

Genre: historical fiction, thriller, China

I just started this historical novel of Shanghia before WWII in the late 1930s. Daniel Lohr has escaped Germany on a boat heading for China, where refugees from the Nazis in Europe can find safety if they find their own way there.

Daniel meets another Jewish refugee, Leah and her mother Clara, on the ship heading east. He also meets a member of the Japanese military police, Colonel Yamada, who is keeping a close watch on the ship's passengers, all heading to Shanghai's international settlement, a section not under the control of the Japanese who invaded Shanghai and parts of China in 1937. 

The history of refugees in Shanghai from all over Europe and even from Russia has been covered in historical fiction and memoirs, and nonfiction. Kanon's book is the latest and I am reading it with interest in that period in China.

Update: my review of Shanghai.

Some other books I've read on Shanghai in the 1930s include:

Bernardine's Shanghai Salon: The Story of the Doyenne of Old China by Susan Blumberg-Kasoff

The Jewish salon host in 1930s Shanghai who brought together Chinese and expats around the arts as civil war erupted and World War II loomed on the horizon. (publisher)

The Far Side of the Sky by Daniel Kalla

 In November 1938 after a night of terror for Jews across Germany, Dr. Franz Adler, a surgeon in Vienna, flees to Shanghai, China with his young daughter Hannah and his brother's widow, Esther. 

The Far Side of the Sky focuses on a short but extraordinary period of Chinese, Japanese, and Jewish history when cultures converged and heroic sacrifices were part of a quest for survival. (publisher)

White Shanghai by Elvira Baryakina. The title refers to the White Russians, those fleeing the "Reds," the Russian revolution. 

Among the refugees is Klim Rogov, a journalist whose life and marriage have been destroyed by the Russian revolution - all he has left are his quick wits and a keen worldliness that will serve him well in the lawless jungle of Shanghai.  (publisher)

China to Me by Emily Hahn, a memoir.

 The American journalist/traveler Emily Hahn wrote about her own experiences living in Shanghai, Chungking, and Hong Kong from 1935 to 1943. Her book about revolution and war in China and how it affected the local people and foreigners alike is titled China to Me: A Partial Autobiography, first printed in 1944. It's fascinating reading.

When We Were Orphans by Kazuo Ishiguro. October 30, 2001, Knopf Doubleday Publishing

My 2017 review: 

"A book I have wanted to look at again. Set in the 1930s, it's about a young English detective with a faulty memory who returns to wartime Shanghai in 1937 to find his parents who had disappeared there years ago when he was about nine years old. As he is an unreliable narrator, readers have to figure out the puzzle of his past and become detectives themselves to decide what is fact and what is fiction.  Christopher meets a Japanese soldier in Shanghai who may or may not be his playmate from years ago, before the war. How Christopher reacts or doesn't react to him and how he ignores his surroundings in Shanghai during the Japanese invasion is part of his strange, delusional persona. This book intrigued me so much, I want to try again to get the hard facts of Christopher's journey, which may not be possible, given his inaccurate memory. Ishiguro, born in Nagasaki, Japan and now a British citizen living in London, is also author of The Remains of the Day, a Booker Prize-winning novel made into the award winning film with Anthony Hopkins." I'll just add now that on reading it again the past two days, I found the narrator Christopher to be a kind of English/European version of the Ugly American, representing the tunnel vision that ignored the reality of what was going on in Shanghai before and during WWII. These are some of the books I read or featured on my blog about Shanghai pre and during WWII. I would suggest looking at some of them before reading Kanon's book, Shanghai , as Kanon seems to assume his readers of the novel will already know the history.  What books are you reading this week?  Memes:  The Sunday Post, It's Monday: What Are You Reading, Sunday Salon, and Stacking the Shelves

Sunday Salon: Love the Stranger, and Christmas Books

 

Love the Stranger (A Queens Mystery) by Michael Sears December 3, 2024, Soho Crime ARC

Description

Ted Molloy, a Queens attorney, investigates the murder of a corrupt immigration lawyer in the follow-up to the 2022 Nero Award winner Tower of Babel.

I'm half way through this mystery novel, a legal thriller, set in Queens, NY. I enjoy the setting, reading about the multicultural, multilingual residents in the diverse area of shops, restaurants, coffee houses, grocery stores, and more in this borough of NYC.

In the book, a teenager from Yemen is suspected by neighborhood activist Kenzie, of being the hooded figure she saw leaving the scene of a crime - the murder of an immigration lawyer known to fleece his clients. However, the lawyer's files show that there may be more to his dealings than simply a disgruntled immigrant. 

I'm reading on to see what's behind the crime and the motives. 

 Christmas cozy and romance

Dark Deeds on a White Christmas: A Retired Sleuth and His Dog Historical Cozy Mystery  by P.C. James

Published August 17, 2024; BooksGoSocial

Description: He tries to live and let live. But when a killer drops by for Xmas, can this retired copper keep an innocent from going down for the crime?

England, 1964. Ex-police inspector Tom Ramsay agrees to a shared vacation with his assistant, her parents, and his loyal dog. But soon after they arrive at the hotel, the good tidings take a deadly dive when his assistant’s mother is found crouched over a corpse holding a knife.

Christmas at the Little Paris Hotel by Rebecca Raisin, September 17, 2024; Boldwood Books

 

Description: Turn a tumbledown Paris hotel into a perfect boutique, bookish retreat, and have it open for Christmas? What could possibly go wrong?

When Anais receives a near-derelict Paris hotel in her divorce settlement, her first thought is to tidy it up and sell it immediately. All she wants is to move on and forget her disaster of a marriage ever happened.

What books are you reading this week? 

Memes:  The Sunday Post, It's Monday: What Are You Reading, Sunday Salon, and Stacking the Shelves  

Note: Amazon Affiliate and will earn a small commission with  purchases made through the blog links, at no extra cost to you.

Joie de Vivre in France, Paris in the 1960s, and a Novel in French:Three Books

 In my mailbox: France and the French

 

 Joie de Vivre:  Secrets of Wining, Dining, and Romancing Like the French

by Harriet Welty Rochefort, October 2, 2012, Thomas Dunne Books

 I love all the tips about visiting and/or living in France among the French, from their food, to their customs, to the French love of bureaucracy, to marrying a Frenchman, living among the French, and much more.

The author is an American who visited Paris and met and married a Frenchman. Of course, they still live in France and are still trying to understand each other! 

I am enjoying the author's advice on meeting and greeting various people, expecting the French love of argument and conflict in conversation, which they see as just so much fun, and their petit habits - eating petit, having petit amusements, finding joy in small moments like petit snacks, petit promenades, etc. The word petit implies a small joy. 

The French joie de vivre or love of life is made evident throughout  the book. Though this memoir was printed about 12 years ago, I am assuming not too much has changed culturally. So, I'm getting prepared for a visit to Paris and France by taking in the book's advice for armchair travel or actual travel!

I won this book in a sweepstakes from this year's July in Paris hosted by Words and Peace.

 

The Propagandist by Cecile Desprairies, in translation

Published October 8, 2024; New Vessel Press ARC

Genre: historical fiction, autobiographical novel

Fascinating book about French women who informally reveal their past role in Nazi occupied France. 

Description: In a grand Paris apartment, a young girl attends gatherings regularly organized by her mother (late 1960s). The women talk about beauty secrets and gossip, but the mood grows dark when the past, notably World War II, comes under coded discussion in hushed tones. Years later, the silent witness to these sessions has become a prominent historian, and with this chilling autobiographical novel she sets out to unmask enigmatic figures in and around her family. Why, she seeks to understand, did they betray their Jewish neighbors and zealously collaborate with the Nazi occupation of France, remaining for decades hence obsessive devotees of that evil lost cause.

I'm one third of the way into the book. I find it intriguing that the author was the young girl who listened in to the women as they discussed their Nazi sympathies during the war. 

I won an ARC of this book from Words and Peace, in a giveaway during July in Paris 2024. 

I meant to buy this 1973 Italian detective novel in English, but landed up with the French translation, La Femme du Dimanche. Lucky for me, the French version is half the price of the English. I'll be using my dictionary to slowly read it. 

It was made years ago into a film available through Amazon Prime, and is by the same authors who wrote The Lover of No Fixed Abode (see Aug. 17 Sunday Salon post). 

Curious about Brazil, I found the perfect book that describes Rio and the beauty as well as the poverty and conflicts of the people there. 

Tropicália: A Novel by Harold Rogers

July 18, 2023; Atria Books

Genre: fiction, Brazil

Description:

Old secrets are brought to light when a family matriarch returns to Brazil after years away in this “original and highly immersive” ( Good Morning America ) debut that explores the heartbreak and hope of what it means to be from two homes, two peoples, and two worlds.

What new books or programs are you reading/watching this week? 

Memes:  The Sunday Post hosted by The Caffeinated Bookreviewer. Also, It's Monday: What Are You Reading, Sunday Salon, and Stacking the Shelves 

 

Note: Amazon Affiliate and will earn a small commission with  purchases made through the blog links, at no extra cost to you.

Thrillers on the Nile and China, and Women in Modern China: Sunday Salon

Latest read

Havoc by Christopher Bollen  Publication: December 3, 2024; Harper, NetGalley

Genre: suspense literary fiction, noir mystery, Egypt 

My review:

Eighty-something year old Maggie returns to the Hotel Karnak on the banks of the Nile to live out the rest of her life, but then meets an unlikely eight-year-old, Otto, a guest with his mother at the hotel, who gets in the way of her lifestyle and unusual hobby. Maggie is a self-made love arbitrator who has decided on the sly to interfere in couples' lives and engineer their break up when she thinks someone in the marriage is or will be unhappy.

Otto has witnessed Maggie at work, when he sees her leaving false trails that led to the break up of a family in the hotel. He decides to play cat and mouse with Maggie throughout the book and is diabolical in getting back at her when she doesn't give in to his blackmail for video games and expensive items for his mother.

A dark tale of warring minds, old versus young, both getting ever more desperate, until the two seem to go off track. It was hard to believe that an eight year old could be so diabolical, but then I'm reminded this is fiction and Maggie is equally wicked. The last page of the book left me wondering if Otto intended such an ending. The Egyptian god of disorder, violence, and foreigners in Egypt, Set, who is mentioned in the book, seems to reign over these two opponents.

It was an engrossing noir read, leaving the reader wondering during the book, what craziness will they have in store for each other next? 

 

At the library

A modern day spy thriller 

  

The Expat: A Novel by Hansen Shi ( Pegasus Crime, July 2, 2024)  

Description: Piercingly intelligent and ruthlessly contemporary, The Expat: A Novel is both a white-knuckle spy novel and a thrilling exploration of the myth of meritocracy, high-tech immigration, U.S.-China conflicts, identity, and disaffection. 

Princeton graduate, Michael Wang finds himself enmeshed in a dangerous web of industrial espionage and counterintelligence when he goes to China for an engineering job in the auto industry. Caught between two countries that view him as a pawn, where do his loyalties lie? (publisher)

Young women in China trying to make it in the new economy

 

Private Revolutions: Four Women Face China's New Social Order by Yuan Yang 

Published July 2, 2024, Viking

Genre: women's history, nonfiction, Communism and socialism

Description: A sweeping yet intimate portrait of modern China told through the lives of four ordinary women striving for a better future in a highly unequal society

While serving as the deputy Beijing bureau chief of the Financial Times, Chinese-British journalist Yuan Yang began to notice common threads in the lives of her Chinese peers—women born during China’s turn toward capitalism in the 1980s and 1990s, who, despite the country's enormous economic gains during their lifetimes, were coming up against deeply entrenched barriers as they sought to achieve financial stability.

The book traces the journey of four such women as they try to make better lives for themselves and their families in the new Chinese economy. 

 

What new books or programs are you reading/watching this week? 

Memes:  The Sunday Post hosted by The Caffeinated Bookreviewer. Also, It's Monday: What Are You Reading, Sunday Salon, and Stacking the Shelves 

 

Note: I am an Amazon Affiliate and will earn a small commission with each purchase through blog links, at no extra cost to you. Thanks for your support.

The Lover of No Fixed Abode by Carlo Fruttero and Franco Lucentini: A romance in Venice

 Books set in Italy and Alaska

The Lover of No Fixed Abode by Franco Lucentini

Gregory Dowling (translator)

Published February 20, 2024; Bitter Lemon Press

Genre: travel, Venice, art history, romance, literary fiction

The novel is a love story of a modern day Roman princess who buys art for an auction house and a tour guide, the enigmatic Mr. Silvera, both of whom meet on a flight to Venice. The two share three unforgettable days in Venice,  their passionate affair including touring the canals, streets, bridges, museums and palaces of the city.

I loved this unusual book, the art and historical details of Venice that it gives the reader, and the romance between the two intriguing main characters themselves. Mr. Silvera's background is ambiguous and his wandering life is something he cannot escape. Learned in history, art, languages, he tells the princess that he must leave soon and she will not be able to follow him. Jewish himself, Mr. Silvera likens his life to the story of the Wandering Jew, who is condemned to wander till Judgement Day. This gives a certain melancholy to the entire book.

The romance between the two people is both heartfelt and tragic. But the book is also about Italian art, the trading of very costly works and the subterfuges and scams used in buying and selling. But overall, it's also a sophisticated love story of Venice. 

The book made me feel as I had visited the city and its surrounding islands in person!

Thanks to Bitter Melon Press and publicist for a review copy 

New books from Soho Crime set in Tuscan, Alaska: 

The Road to Murder by Camilla Trinchieri, a Tuscan mystery

Published March 5, 2024; Soho Crime

The setting in a little town in Tuscany is a big draw for readers of this mystery series. Local food, people, and customs are highlighted. 

Description:

Ex-New York City detective turned amateur chef Nico Doyle is asked by the local carabinieri to help. A woman has been found dead in her home, slumped over her piano, and the sole witness speaks only English. Nico reluctantly agrees to help Perillo with the case.

I've read several of the other books and am looking forward to this one too. 

 

Big Breath In by John Straley, former Writer Laureate of Alaska

Publication: November 12, 2024; Soho Crime

Setting: Alaska 

Description: Delphine, is a retired marine biologist, and a terminal cancer patient. However, she is determined to carry on with life as usual, and sets out to find the missing mother of a young child whom she had observed being harassed by an unknown man. What ensues is a rescue mission across the Pacific Northwest. 

I'm eager to get to the chase, but I'm first reading the first part of the book, which is all about sperm whales and their habitat and habits.

Straley's wife Jan is a marine biologist who specializes in studying humpback whales, while he is a well known writer of Alaska mysteries. 

 

What new books or programs are you reading/watching this week? 

Memes:  The Sunday Post hosted by The Caffeinated Bookreviewer. Also, It's Monday: What Are You Reading, Sunday Salon, and Stacking the Shelves 

 

I have an affiliate link with Amazon and will earn a small commission with each purchase through my blog links, at no extra cost to you. Thanks for your support.

Wait: A Novel by Gabriella Burnham: Sunday Salon

 Book Review

Wait by Gabriella Burnham

Published May 21, 2024; One World, NetGalley

Genre; literary fiction, contemporary fiction, adult fiction, immigrants

I enjoyed this novel about two American born sisters - Elise, a recent college graduate and Sophie, a high school student, whose mother, illegally in the U.S., was deported back to Brazil after being arrested for long overstaying her work visa. The girls' father, a visitor to the U.S. himself, left the family to return to Ireland a long time ago when Sophie was two years old. 

How the sisters, half-Irish, half-Brazilian American citizens, manage alone on Nantucket Island, their home, while waiting for their mother to acquire a green card from Brazil is the crux of this novel, a story of one illegal immigrant and her children.

Heart warming as well as revealing, the book looks at the children, especially the older child Elise, who is more affected by the change in their family situation than her younger sister. The story of the girls living their own lives on their own in the U.S. while they wait, and their mother adjusting to her own life back in her country, Brazil, leaves the reader both joyful and a little sadder.

A wonderfully written and executed book on a timely and relevant topic.

Currently reading

See: Loss. See Also: Love,  a novel by Yukiko Tominaga

Published May 7, 2024; Scribner, NetGalley

Genre: adult contemporary fiction, literary fiction, Japanese fiction

Description: A debut novel following a Japanese widow raising her son between worlds with the help of her Jewish mother-in-law as she wrestles with grief, loss, and—strangest of all—joy. 

Shortly after her husband Levi’s untimely death, Kyoko decides to raise their young son, Alex, in San Francisco, rather than return to Japan. Her nosy yet loving Jewish mother-in-law, Bubbe, encourages her to find new love and abandon frugality but her own mother wants Kyoko to celebrate her now husbandless life. Always beside her is Alex, who lives confidently, no matter the circumstance.

Four sections of vignettes. 

I'm intrigued by the mixing of cultures, people, and family in a novel about love and loss.

The Olympics

 

I found myself getting involved in more games than I thought I'd like, watching fencing and archery, as well as diving, track, cycling, soccer, volleyball, table tennis, gymnastics and more.

Thanks to my son who subscribed so we could enjoy watching the games on tv!  Did you watch any of the games? 

One of my favorites - the final men's soccer match between France and Spain. Spain won a hard fought game. 

What are you reading/watching this week? 

Memes:  The Sunday Post hosted by The Caffeinated Bookreviewer. Also, It's Monday: What Are You Reading, Sunday Salon, and Stacking the Shelves

As an Amazon Affiliate, I earn a small commission on each purchase through my blog links. at no extra cost to you. Thanks for your support.