Book Reviews – Page 31

Take me away…

I’m guessing you may be in the mood to escape and, as it just so happens, I have some reading recommendations to take you away for a bit (you’re quite welcome).

Taking you away to one of my favorite guilty reading pleasures – Time Travel.

Now don’t scoff, this genre is tricky – one false move and the novel is relegated to those dusty bookstore shelves of either fantasy or science fiction.

Accomplished authors convince the reader that time travel is not only credible, but enticingly possible. Like watching a magician perform or a classic Disney movie — the reader is happily ensconced between reality and make believe. Bring it on, I say — bring it on.

And so, without further ado, my favorite time travel tales…

A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, by Mark Twain (Samuel L. Clemens)

Near, and dear to my heart, this was my introduction to time travel, aged 12, sitting on the floor of my grandfather’s library, this book spread open in front of me.

In 1889, a practical Yankee is hit on the head and wakes up in England — in the year 528. He fools the inhabitants of the time into thinking that he is a magician and becomes Sir Boss of the Round Table. The Yankee believes that he is the saving grace for the people of Camelot, using capitalism as his means to set them free. The societal commentary and satire was above my head during that first reading. But upon adult re-reading, the lampooning of social class institutions and of inherited rank is pure Twain — witty (but sobering) sarcasm.

Here’s my cherished original copy from my grandfather’s library.

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A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle

I also read this as a young girl and have re-read it several times since. A Wrinkle in Time is written for young adults but can be enjoyed at any age. Winner of the 1963 Newbery award, it spins a captivating tale, which opens (wait for it) on a dark and stormy night. Meg Murray, her little brother Charles Wallace, and their mother are having a midnight snack when an unearthly stranger appears at their door. He claims to have been blown off course, and goes on to tell them that there is such a thing as a ‘tesseract’, or a wrinkle in time. Meg’s father had been experimenting with time-travel when he suddenly disappeared. Meg, Charles Wallace, and their friend Calvin venture to outwit the forces of evil as they search through space for their father. Pure fantasy, pure delight.

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Time and Again by Jack Finney

When asked about my all time favorite books — Time and Again has a permanent place on that list. I have bought and given away many copies of this book over the years.

In 1970, Simon Morley, an advertising sketch artist, is approached by U.S. Army to participate in a secret government project, which involves — in case you haven’t been paying attention here — yes, time travel.

Simon or ‘Si’, as he’s called, jumps at the chance to leave his twentieth-century existence and step into 1882 New York City. Aside from his thirst for experience, he has good reason to return to the past—his girlfriend Kate has a curious, half-burned letter dated from that year, which holds a mystery about her lineage. But when Si begins to fall in love with a woman he meets in the past, he will be forced to choose between two worlds—forever.

What sets this classic time travel novel apart from any other is the detail, the exquisite illustrations and curated photographs. Mr. Finney’s highly detailed descriptions bring the period to life – from the interior of the Dakota residence to the often pock-marked faces of the people, unprotected (as they were then) from small pox.

Warning, these descriptions may slow you down, but that’s fine, as this is a book to be read slowly and richly savored.

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Kindred by Octavia E. Butler

Equal parts time travel and slave narrative, this novel is still as popular as it was when it was first published in 1979.

Often studied as high school required reading, Kindred is the first-person account of a young African-American writer, Dana, who finds herself shuttled between her California home in 1976 and a pre-Civil War Maryland plantation. There she meets her ancestors: a spoiled, self-destructive white slave owner and the proud black freewoman he has forced into slavery and concubinage (I checked, yes, that’s a word…). As her journeys into the past become longer, Dana becomes intimately entangled with the plantation community, making difficult compromises to survive slavery and to ensure her existence in her own time.

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The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

A highly imaginative novel in which the author has combined time travel with the intricacies of love, marriage, children, sickness, loss, joy and sorrow.

Henry is a time traveler, although not by choice. A genetic mutation causes him to spontaneously travel through time without warning and he finds himself in the past or future, usually at a time or place of importance in his life. Clare, his wife has been with him through most all his time travels, and his various life stages. She waits for each of his visits throughout the years until they can meet in real time. Together they hold fast to their love and attempt to have some semblance of a normal life.

This is a complex story, and even with Henry shuttling back and forth in every chapter, the author deftly keeps the plot clear, compelling and, at times heartbreaking. But, as the Washington Post said, this is
“ a love that works despite all travails and impediments.”

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A Murder in Time by Julie McElwain

I just finished my most recent time travel read the other night. Kendra is a tough FBI agent who goes rouge in order to assassinate the killer who brought down half her FBI team mates. She pursues the killer to Aldrich Castle in England and hides in a stair well only to emerge still in the same castle — but in regency-era 1815.

Mistaken for a lady’s maid hired to help with weekend guests, Kendra is forced to quickly adapt to the time period until she can figure out how she got there; and, more importantly, how to get back home. However, after the body of a young girl is found on the grounds of the county estate, she starts to feel there’s some purpose to her bizarre circumstances. Stripped of her twenty-first century FBI tools, Kendra must use her wits alone in order to unmask a cunning serial killer.

Pure entertainment with enough action and adventure to keep the reader entertained. Kendra, and her bad-ass self, turn the 19th century on its ear.

A digital review copy was provided by Pegasus Books via NetGalley

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So, dear Book Barmy readers, choose any of these books to take you away — away from your worries to these wonderful tales of other times — and other places.

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Book Barmy Birthday!

Given the last week or so, I forgot it was Book Barmy’s birthday.

It’s been four years (more or less) since the birth of this tiny little blog.

It all started with my scribbled book notebooks and Connie, my artistic and talented web designer, and now — well, shut the door — there’s all of you.

While I could plan a celebration…

I know you’ll understand, if instead, I celebrate this way…

I especially appreciate (and acknowledge) you turning a blind eye to my run-on sentences and errant punctuation — not to mention my often overwrought writing style. Not forgetting the often curmudgeonly rants and raves.

I love when you come by to visit Book Barmy and make a comment — I cherish every one.

Because of you, my loyal readers, this blog is now one of my favorite things in a wonderfully full, yet admittedly, barmy life.

HERE’s my very first post.

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Just not for me…

I recently read two books , well one I read and the other I abandoned, but neither were for me. I’ve decided that’s OK, as Simon, one of my favorite book bloggers says — someone else may love these novels.

This is Your Life, Harriet Chance!

by Jonathan Evison

I was initially drawn to this novel, because of its unique premise, which mirrors the 1950’s television series “This is your life”. In the show, a famous person’s life was re-told with flashbacks to life changing moments, the places they lived, the important people who played a vital part in said lives. See a sample of the show HERE.

The cover gives the appearance of a light-hearted novel (there I go again judging a book by its cover). Harriet is 78, her husband has recently died and she decides to go on an Alaskan cruise he planned before he got Alzheimer’s.

Ahh, a cheery-new-lease-on-life story you would think…but we are being led terribly astray. There is nothing cheery about Harriet Chance’s life.

Like the television show, we go back and forth in time to experience Harriet Chance’s life. But her life is littered with bitter heartbreak. There are betrayals at every turn. And the litany of tragedy goes on and on — there’s child molestation, rape, unwanted pregnancy, unfaithful marriage, alcoholism, drug addiction and as a final blow, bitter adult children trying to get her money. After awhile, I stopped keeping count of the awful events in hapless Harriet’s life.

As added angst, Harriet’s mean, dead husband appears to her in a caught-between-life-and-death role, which never feels fully developed and causes Harriet’s children to harbor suspicions about their mother’s mental stability.

The author is remorseless in his portrayal of seniors and dementia. Harriet herself is characterized as a terrible mother, a distant wife and a bitter old women. Her husband’s Alzheimer’s is portrayed with sneering and unfeeling sarcasm.

I kept reading, hoping for a ray of sunshine in this story, some sort of redeeming act or event that would make Harriet’s life, if not great, then at least OK. But nope, there is nothing — nothing to resurrect poor Harriet’s life

This is Your Life Harriet Chance! (I never really got the use of the exclamation point) is well written, but one of the most depressing books I have ever read.

A digital review copy was provided by Algonquin Books via NetGalley

The Bookshop on the Corner

by Jenny Colgan

The Bookshop on the Corner, came home with me from the library’s new arrivals shelf. I’m a sucker for a book about books or a bookshop and this one is set in Scotland – double points. Took it to bed with me that evening and set it down after five or six chapters and went to sleep somewhat disappointed.

In the morning I checked some of the reviews and publicity for this novel and found I was in the distinct minority. Ms. Colgan’s novel has been liked by one and all — just not me.

Nina, a recently laid-off librarian decides to travel to one of Scotland’s remotest areas. She discovers their library is closed and there is no bookmobile. So she decides to move up there with her vast collection of books and buy a van from which to sell her books throughout this remote corner of Scotland. Ah ha, this book is not about a bookshop, it’s about a book van – well I guess that’s OK, I’ll keep reading. After all Parnassus on Wheels was one of my favorite books.

But, turns out this is chick lit – disguised as a book for book lovers. Straining all credibility, there’s a handsome train engineer who leaves Russian poetry books for Nina in tree branches – really?. And just as in The Little Paris Bookshop, Nina feels compelled to recommend books to solve every problem or malady, with trite results.

I finally returned the book to the library, when I got tired of the Scots Nina encounters being uncharitably portrayed as if caricatures — less than bright and seldom clean.

I just couldn’t take any more.

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Waiting in the Wings by Geene Reese

Waiting in the Wings, by Geene Reese

Even though I’ve lived in San Francisco for 35 years, I never tire of its physical beauty, architecture, diverse culture, and most of all, this city’s colorful, and often, disreputable history.

So, I was very excited to receive Waiting in the Wings, a historical novel set in prohibition-era San Francisco and based on the true story of the author’s great aunt.

From the introduction: Hidden in a compartment of my grandmother’s bottom dresser drawer was an old scrapbook. Pressed inside were photographs of a beautiful young woman and hundreds of newspaper clippings about vaudeville shows and the movie industry. This, is how I learned about my great aunt Ruby Adams.

This is no dry historical biography, in just the first pages, both Ruby, a beautiful, spunky vaudeville performer, and 1920’s era San Francisco sparkle to life. For a San Franciscan, the opening chapter is pure delight as we walk the sidewalks of the city with Ruby — leaving the original St. Francis Hotel, crossing street-car-crowded Market Street, and into the historic Strand theater. On our way, doormen greet her and others smile in delight –everyone knows Ruby and her delightful vaudeville review.

This is a time of transition for vaudeville theater, as the moving picture industry is starting to encroach. Ruby, with her striking looks, is contemplating a move to moving pictures, but still gaily performs her vaudeville routine in the historic theater where she practically grew up.

We join Ruby as she prepares for her nightly performance, observing both the back stage workings and the show performance itself. We are also with Ruby, that fateful evening, when she is injured in a back stage accident.

Ruby’s injuries are extensive and the accident, upon investigation, reveals negligence. Her career over, Ruby files a lawsuit…and here Waiting in the Wings takes a compelling turn. Ms. Reese takes us into the corruption and prevailing attitudes of the time, with unscrupulous lawyers and shady dealings behind the scenes.

At this point in the novel, some non-San Franciscans may get bogged down with the name dropping. And yes, there are numerous names to keep track of — greedy politicians, questionable judges, and shady lawyers. Many of these names are still famous here today — Spreckles, Newsom, Davis –and, while I found it rough going at times, it was still fascinating.

Throughout it all, Ruby is resilient and carries on with unflagging spirit. There is romance as Ruby is buoyed through the ordeal by the affection of quirky, but lovable, speakeasy owner “Coffee Dan”.

This story of legal shenanigans and “death by a thousand delays” moves ahead with the help of actual newspaper clippings (with photos) and snippets of court documents. I won’t spoil the outcome, except to say, the case ends up in Superior Court. I found Waiting in the Wings fascinating and compulsive. I had to keep reading to find out what happens to our brave Ruby Adams.

It is clear that Ms. Reese did an enormous amount of research. This gives Waiting in the Wings pitch perfect realism — from the jargon and dialogue of the era, to the weather, the newspapers of the time, even the popular boxed candy gifts of the era (some still in business today).

But, most strikingly, this realism allows the reader a time capsule view of 1920’s San Francisco — with lovingly re-created scenes that pull from our city’s rich history, buildings, diverse neighborhoods and the never-ending, conga line of eccentric and questionable characters — nothing much has changed.

A copy of the book was provided by the author, in exchange for a honest review.

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News of the World by Paulette Jiles

News of the World

by Paulette Jiles

You may remember THIS post, where I had just finished an exceptional book but still in proof/advanced reader’s format. It’s been driving me slightly crazy, but I had to keep silent as the original publication date (March) had been pushed back to October.

Today News of the World is released and I can finally tell you about what other reviewers are calling a “gem” of a book. And I agree wholeheartedly, News of the World is just that — a “must have” gem.

This short novel (200 pages) is set just after the Civil War in 1870’s Texas. Captain Jefferson Kyle Kidd is a widower in his seventies who fought in two wars. A former printer, the captain enjoys a vagabond existence as a news reader. He travels to small towns in Texas, reading the news from a wide range of newspapers. His audiences, who either can’t read or don’t have access to the newspapers Kidd orders from around the world, pay a dime admission to hear the news from as far away as London or New York.

The Captain is mindful about what he reads, sometimes skimming over politics or post Civil War uncertainty, and always ends his readings with a fascinating or exotic tale.

One evening the Captain is approached by a freed slave who is traveling with an orphaned German-American girl. Now 10 years old, Johanna was taken captive at age six, by the Kiowa during a raid during which her parents and sister were slaughtered. Now, four years later, she has been sold by the Kiowa to the army for a few blankets and some old silverware. The child must somehow be returned to her uncle and aunt who live 400 miles away near San Antonio. The freed slave, a black man, is reluctant to be traveling with a white girl child through territory still reeling from the aftermath of the Civil War. Kidd accepts the monumental sum of $50 to take the girl back to her relatives and he plans his news readings to follow a route that will eventually take them to San Antonio.

Thus begins a journey through the beautifully described Texas hill country. The relationship between the Captain and the reluctant, Kiowa speaking Johanna grows close and protective as they journey towards their destination. She calls him “Kep-dun” and he teaches her English name which they agree will be pronounced “Chohenna”. She distastes shoes and grapples with the many layers of woman’s dress of the time. The aging Captain, meanwhile is trying to protect them from marauding Indians, cowboys and rove soldiers while simultaneously showing her how to eat food with utensils and to use a gun.

There are harrowing attacks, harsh weather and long boring days in a wagon and while their journey is suspenseful and often amusing — it is mostly heartwarming as they start to form an unlikely affection for each other.

News of the World is chocked full of details — of horses, weapons, dress, and society’s attitudes at the time — but rather than weigh down the story, these details bring it alive for the reader.

With Johanna, Ms. Jiles beautifully renders the trauma and readjustment of children captured and adopted by Native Americans. And Captain Kidd is one of the finest western characters ever written — reminiscent of Lonesome Dove or True Grit.

I especially savored Captain Kidd’s newspaper readings which are filled with fascinating (there’s that word again) historical references of the time, from arctic explorers to the politics of Hamilton and Davis.

This is historical fiction at its best, with a riveting story line, memorable characters, and writing that is graceful and spare. And if you’re like me, you need a few moments to compose yourself after the ending.

News of the World is up for the National Book Award and is at your independent bookstore today. Highly recommended.

An Advanced Readers Copy was provided by William Morrow, a division of Harper Collins publishers.

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In the Woods by Tana French

Years ago, I used to devour those quick, cozy, connect-the-dots mysteries, often reading nothing else for months on end. Then, suddenly, I ground to halt, having grown tired of the often predictable plots and one-dimensional characters. I vowed to only read mysteries that were well written, with intelligent plots and fascinating characters.

I voiced my new resolution and high standards to my bookgroup at the time and was quickly introduced to a range of authors including Deborah Crombie, Elizabeth George, and Peter Robinson On my own, sans bookgroup, I’ve since discovered Louise Penny, Kate Atkinson, and Susan Hill. So, my mystery reading days are back in full swing.

Thanks to a friend’s urging, I’ve just discovered a new series and author — Tana French. I must have been under a rock, because In The Woods (her first in the series) was published in 2007. I was aware of this book, having seen it over the years. But, look at that cover — doesn’t it look like a horror filled, psychological thriller? Shame on me for judging a book by its cover.

In the Woods immediately pulls you in, the terrifically written prologue sets the stage and puts the reader into a carefree summer day in a 1984 suburb of Dublin with three children playing in the woods.

When the children don’t return home, only one child, Adam Robert Ryan, is found catatonic, remembering nothing but his shoes are soaked with blood. Now twenty years later, Ryan, going only by Adam Ryan, is a detective for the Dublin Murder Squad. No one knows of his connection with the 1984 incident. A young girl is found murdered in the very same woods and Ryan finds himself in his old hometown which triggers memories of what happened on that tragic day.

In the Woods is narrated by Detective Ryan and Ms. French has given him a complex voice – taunted by the past, torn up with survivors guilt and the hard, cool viewpoint of a detective.

What I warn you to remember is that I am a detective. This is my job, and you don’t go into it — or, if you do, you don’t last — without some natural affinity for its priorities and demands. What I am telling you, before you begin my story, is this — two things: I crave truth. And I lie.

Detective Ryan and his partner from the Dublin murder squad, Cassie Maadox, begin their gentle but relentless investigation into the death of young Katy Devlin. Their relationship is intricately developed and compassionate.

How can I ever make you understand Cassie and me? I would have to take you there, walk you down every path our secret shared geography. The truism says it’s against all the odds for a straight man and woman to be real friends, platonic friends; we rolled thirteen, threw down five aces and ran away giggling. She was the summertime cousin out of storybooks, the one you taught to swim at some midge-humming lake and pestered with tadpoles down her swimsuit, with whom you practiced first kisses on a heather hillside and laughed about it years later…

Ms. French deftly weaves back and forth between the two plots and it’s fascinating to see if two murders relate or are a mere coincidence. The interrogation scenes are some of the best parts of this debut;

It becomes second nature, interrogation; it seeps into your blood until, no matter how stunned or exhausted or excited your are, this remains unchanged: the polite professional tone, the clean, relentless march as each answer unfolds into question after new question.

There is rich atmosphere, from the Irish weather;

It was your basic Irish summer day, irritatingly coy, all sun and skidding clouds and jackknifing breeze, ready at any second to make an effortless leap into bucketing rain or blazing sun or both.

To the murdered girl’s autopsy;

I thought of the old superstition that the soul lingers near the body for a few days, bewildered and unsure

In the Woods is atmospheric and engrossing, with richly drawn characters and some lovely detailed writing. Hard to fathom that this is Ms. French’s first novel.

I read most of the day – couldn’t put it down. The ending does not tie up all the loose ends but I’m hoping the next in this intelligent series will start to resolve some of the questions.

Out of my way folks — got to get to the library for the next one, The Likeness.

Warning, the crime(s) are graphic and do involve child rape.

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The Light Between Oceans by M.L. Stedman

Some people have this problem…

I never do, I always — always race to read the book before seeing the film. I even avoid the trailers as I don’t want the character images in my head shattered by the Hollywood portrayal.

The Light Between Oceans is a enthralling tale, capturing me from this first line:

On the day of the miracle, Isabel was kneeling at the cliff’s edge, tending the small, newly made driftwood cross,

This is a debut novel by M.L. Stedman, who was born and raised in Western Australia. Her knowledge and descriptions of the coast of Australia are beautifully rendered. There’s even a map at the beginning. (I love me a map with a novel). The author has also done her homework on light houses — but I’m getting ahead of myself.

Tom Sherbourne has miraculously survived World War I, but only just. Still shattered, he is hired to keep the lighthouse on Janus, an island off the coast of Australia. As the sole inhabitant of the tiny island, he finds comfort with the precision and routine of manning the lighthouse;

Stick to the solid. To the brass fittings which had to be polished, the glass which had to be cleaned. Getting the oil in, keeping the cogs moving, topping up the mercury to let the light glide. He gripped each like a rung of a ladder, by which to haul himself back to the knowable; back to his life.

But then during a break on the mainland, he falls in love with Isabel, they marry and return to the island to run the lighthouse together. The chapter where he shows Isabel around the lighthouse and explains how it works is pure magic with lovely descriptive writing. Isabel sees the lighthouse as…”a palace of prisms, like a beehive made of glass”.

At this point in the story I believe the reader should adapt what is called a willing suspension of disbelief. Isabel and Tom have suffered two miscarriages and tragically, a third stillbirth.

A few weeks later, a canoe washes ashore containing a dead man and a live baby girl. Tom wants to report the dead man and take the baby to the mainland to find her family — but Isabel begs him to keep the child. He reluctantly agrees and this begins the cycle of consequences.

Thus, the suspension of belief – I kept reading, entranced but amazed at their actions. They bury the man and keep the baby. Both Tom and Isabel fall completely in love with the little girl they name Lucy. When they found Lucy, all that was with her was a beautiful silver rattle. There is no other identification.

Do they wonder about the baby’s grieving family on the mainland? Don’t they want to know the circumstances of the man’s death, not to mention his identity? Aren’t they concerned by the fact that they have broken the law? The couple suspend all rational actions and thoughts, and they blithely build their idyllic life on the island, with their magic baby.

Now dear readers, we’re at the middle of the novel and this is where my willingness to suspend belief almost became a willingness to suspend reading. But, I had to carry on, keenly interested to know the outcome for our little family on the island.

Now we read through redundant circles of Tom grappling with his love and loyalty to Isabel and his sense of morality of what they have done We experience the anguish and consequences of the decisions made, and not made. We meet the real mother and discover how nothing is purely right or wrong — all beautifully written but overwrought. In the back of my mind I kept thinking, “This would make a great film”.

The second half of the book is stoked with pathos and emotions on full power. And the ending, though probably right and ultimately quite moving, leaps over many of the key events – leaving much for the reader to question.

I gave my copy of The Light Between Oceans to a departing house guest and decided to only say, “this will be a great plane book” – which I am positive it will be.

Because, despite my criticisms, I was smitten by this best-seller and I kept reading to the end. I’m sure it will make a lovely, tear jerking, Hallmark sort of film — not to mention, a very successful new author.

If you want to see the film trailer before reading this novel you can see it HERE.

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Very sad news…

If, like me, you’re a fan of Louise Penny ~ there is sad news tonight.

Her beloved husband, Michael passed away. He suffered from dementia and his long good-bye is gently over.

Here is her eloquent and simple farewell,

Michael passed away last night, at home, at peace, with love. “It’s not so much that his heart stopped, as that he’d finally given it all away.” Surprised by joy.

I harbor no hubris that Ms. Penny has ever visited Book Barmy, but I hope you, my loyal readers, will join me in sending our collective comfort out into the universe for her.

Thank you, Ms. Penny for sharing your journey with your comrade and partner, Michael. You wrote of your love with honesty and grace.

May peace slowly come to you, even as your grief ebbs and flows, and may his light be all that remains.

Surprised by joy…

News release from CBC HERE

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The book before the film…

The Light Between Oceans

by M. L. Stedman

I recently saw a trailer for this film (opening this weekend) and I vaguely remembered I had a copy somewhere and unearthed it in my ~~toppling stacks~~ collection of TBRs.

Curious, but also a firm believer in reading the book before seeing the film, I gave it go.

The Light Between Oceans just plain riveting, it’s got me hooked. I’m on the last third of the book, so a review will follow.

So, before venturing to the theater this weekend, may I suggest you venture instead to your local independent bookstore or your local library and read the The Light Between Oceans first. I’ll be telling you why shortly.

+++++++++++++++++++++++

In the meantime, Husband and I are headed to the Sierras for a week-long hiking trip.

Before you imagine us lugging big packs and sleeping bags, it’s going to be a week of day hikes. Each hike to be followed by a soak in a hot tub, a refreshing shower and a nice meal before falling into a real, bonafide bed. (The vision of the hot tub is all that keeps me going for the last 2-3 miles, the mantra in my head “hot tub, hot tub… repeat”.)

There’s also this ~~

I rest my case…

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A Great Reckoning by Louise Penny

It’s finally here! Today, the new Louise Penny is released. Now, if you took my previous post heed, you called in sick to work, cancelled all appointments, and this morning, you were at your local independent bookstore as it opened. Now you’re installed in a coffee shop or back home about to settle in with this latest installment in Ms. Penny’s stellar Inspector Gamache series.

So how to tell you about A Great Reckoning without giving too much away? Very carefully, I promise, no spoilers here.

I can start by admitting I fell hard for this book and didn’t come up for air for a couple of days (Husband calls this “she who is with book” and gamely forges for his own dinner and watches TV on low volume.)

A Great Reckoning opens in Three Pines where Gamache and Reine-Marie are still living their idyllic life in the village (how they both don’t weigh 300 pounds is beyond comprehension);

The next morning Reine-Marie invited her husband to breakfast at the bistro. Henri came along and lay quietly under their table as they sipped bowls of café au lait and waited for their maple-cured bacon with scrambled eggs and Brie. The fireplaces on either end of the long beamed room were lit and cheerful, conversation mingled with the scent of wood smoke, and there was the familiar thudding of patrons knocking snow from their boots as they entered.

I can also tell you, that the mystery begins with an old map found boarded up in the walls of the bistro. At first, the map seems to be no more than a curiosity. But the map uncovers village secrets from WW I, and leads Gamache to an old friend, and even older adversary and to places he wishes not to re-visit.

Gamache, the retired Chief of Homicide for the Sûreté du Québec has been taken out of retirement and assigned to takeover the Süreté ‘s cadet training academy. Gamache seems invigorated and firing on all cylinders as he confronts corruption, greed and possible abuse at the cadet academy.

Ms. Penny always has a theme running through her novels and A Great Reckoning is about misfits and the myriad ways they are flawed and judged. Misfits who have been wounded but survive and learn to thrive – and even shine. (Ruth and her foul mouthed duck are, of course, a prime example of such shining misfits.) From the cadets at the academy, to Gamache’s old friend, to the commanding officers at the academy – we recognize these misfits at every turn. Yet they are depicted with compassion and intelligence. Once again, Ms. Penny brings humanity to even her most damaged and suspect characters.

A Great Reckoning, like all the others in this series, is chocked full of fascinating historical and cultural perspectives. This time we learn about maps, early map makers and their vital role in uncharted territory explorations. In terms of current culture, there’s always some new insights for non-Canadians. We get a glimpse into maple sugaring and a typical “sugar shack” as well as, the oddities of Quebéc communications;

They were in the odd position, as sometimes happened in Quebéc, where the Francophone was speaking English and the Anglo was speaking French.

But some of the observations are applicable to any country and its politics:

“A man driven by an infected ego. But he was also a powerful man, I’ll give him that. A charismatic personality. Stupidity and power. A dangerous combination, as we’ve found out many times, eh Armand?”

Long time fans of Ms. Penny will be pleased with the delightful humor and witty rapport between the quirky, but lovable, Three Pines villagers;

Myrna sat down heavily on her side of the sofa, almost catapulting Ruth into the air. “I always suspected Ruth would end up a stain on the wall,” Gabri said to Clara. “But, I never thought the ceiling.” He turned to Myrna. “I’ll give you five dollars to do that again.”

Ruth is her usual cranky self when confronting a breakfast meal being served for dinner;

“How long have I been asleep?” asked Ruth looking down at her plate. “Victoria is no longer on the throne, if that’s what you’re wondering,” said Myrna. “The good news is, we do have another queen,” said Oliver glancing at Gabri.

The final chapter – again I’m being careful not to give anything away — showcases some of Ms. Penny’s best writing with guns as metaphors and surrender of same — as redemption. I read it twice, as it was that subtly crafted.

But what brought actual tears to my eyes was after the novel ended — in the afterword. Here, Ms. Penny lovingly acknowledges Michael’s (her husband) dementia and writes of her gratitude to his doting caregivers, as well as her readers for giving her the support and encouragement to keep on writing despite this heartbreaking situation. (She’s already well into writing the next novel.)

So in summary, A Great Reckoning gets not only my glowing review, but a standing ovation.

If you’re new to Louise Penny’s intelligent, and often brilliant series, you should start at the beginning with her first, Still Life. You can see why she’s one of my most admired authors HERE, HERE and HERE.

Now I’m off to make something special for poor Husband’s dinner, — maybe a breakfast for dinner?

A digital review copy was provided by St. Martin’s Press via NetGalley

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