Sponsored by Jennifer over at Reading with Tequila, this challenge was meant to see exactly where the blurbs on and in the books we read would take us. What we were meant to do was choose a starting book. Read that one. Then look at the blurbs and read a book by one of the authors who have been quoted. And so on. Do this for ten books and then see where your journey has taken you. If you start with a mystery, will you end in the mystery field or will you wind up in some far off country like non-fiction? The journey will be half the fun.
Here's my blurb journey:
1. The Last Matryoshka by Joyce Yarrow (7/2/11) [starter book which leads to...]2. Hot & Bothered by Jane Isenberg (7/9/11) [and that takes me to...]3. The Case of the Deceiving Don by Carl Brookins (7/13/11) [Onward I go...]4. The Mystery of the Third Lucretia by Susan Runholt (7/16/11) [which will take me to....]**
5. Bone Harvest by Mary Logue (7/17/11) [blurbed by Nancy Pickard]6. No Body by Nancy Pickard (7/24/11) [and that leads me to....]7. Random Walk by Lawrence Block (7/26/11) [blurbed by Harlan Ellison...]8. Shatterday by Harlan Ellison (8/23/11) [blurbed by Ursula K LeGuin, Ray Bradbury, Dan Simmons, Roger Coman, Michael Moorcock, Steve Allen, William Kotzwinkle]9. The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K LeGuin (9/18/11) [blurbed by Michael Chabon]10. The Final Solution: A Story of Detection by Michael Chabon (9/18/11)
**Could also have led to The Prop by Pete Hautman (which I read anyway because it looked interesting).
And....I started with a mystery and ended with a mystery. Took a little mystical, new-agey detour with Random Walk that led me into science fiction, but then right back to mysteries. Sort of like my real life reading journey--started out a mystery girl (way back when my mom handed over her Nancy Drew set), wandered into science fiction through high school and college, and now I'm back on my mystery-lover's kick. Not that I don't read other things--but that's my primary love.
Billed as a "suspenseful tale of compassion and wit that reimagines the classic nineteenth-century detective story" and set with "subtle revelations [that] lead the reader to a wrenching resolution." The Final Solution is about an elderly man who is in retirement deep in the English countryside. Villagers vaguely recall that he was once a famous detective up in London. Now his door is pretty well closed to the outside world and all that interests him is his beekeeping. But then he meets up with Linus Steinman, a nine-year-old boy who has escaped from Nazi Germany--alone and apparently mute with only an African gray parrot as his companion. The bird is known for the strings of German numbers which it recites. What is their meaning? Is it a top secret Nazi code? Combinations to Swiss bank accounts? Or maybe something far more dangerous. Soon there is murder done and the bird disappears. Will the elderly sleuth get to the bottom of it?
This is actually a reread for me. But other than remembering that The Final Solution was about an unnamed elderly beekeeper (who we all assume is Holmes) and a boy with a parrot, I remembered nothing else about it. So, when my Follow That Blurb Challenge journey brought me to Michael Chabon I decided to refresh my memory--and also provide a real-live review of the book since it had been read in my pre-reviewing days.
I was mildly disappointed. Oh, Michael Chabon can write. He even manages to bring off the mannered writing that goes along with Holmesian fare. But if it's a tribute (or "brilliant homage" as the synopsis claims) to the master then it falls a bit flat. I don't want to spoil anything....so let me just say that the final mystery isn't much. One expects a build up to possible Nazi codes and intrigue to actually lead somewhere. I mean, after all, this is Holmes we're talking about. Sure, he may be 89 years old but give the man a puzzle worthy of him. The clue (yes, indeed, that is clue singular) is clumsily presented and the denouement isn't all that exciting--and certainly not wrenching. I do see the overtones. I do "get" what the title of the story is referring to. But, honestly, it's quite heavy-handed in all the wrong places. I liked the interactions between the boy and the Holmes character. That was extraordinarily well done. More of that and I would be handing out a much higher rating. Three stars--just.
George Orr is afraid to dream. He has discovered that he has what he calls effective dreams. His dreams can change things. That pesky Aunt Julia who came to stay when he was seventeen? Suddenly she was gone and had never stayed with them at all. Not just vanished from their home--but dead in a car crash. That wasn't precisely what he wanted when he decided in his waking hours that he wanted her out of the house, but his subconscious seemed to think it an adequate solution and so he dreamed it. And it happened. And he was the only person who knew that it had ever been any different.
When George's fears reach the point that he is abusing his pharmacy privileges to try and prevent a dreaming state, he is referred to a psychiatrist for standard treatment. Dr. Haber begins by thinking he simply has to cure George of this irrational fear of dreaming. It isn't long before he realizes that George is right...his dreams can change the waking world. Haber decides to use George's unique power to make changes. He claims that it is for the greater good: to stop war, to prevent overpopulation, to wipe out hunger. But George becomes more and more uneasy with every change. Who has the power to decide what is best for all mankind? Who should have that power?
This should have been a very powerful book. The ideas behind it--just what is reality and who, if anyone, should have the power to shape it--represent very powerful and intriguing questions. However, I found the ideas getting lost in the psycho- and techno-babble that Dr. Haber spouts whenever he and George have a session. Talk of dream and sleep states and all the wondrous gadgetry of his Augementor (the machine that records and enhances George's dreaming powers), just weighed the story down. LeGuin can be an awesome writer (I love her Left Hand of Darkness and Always Coming Home), but I think she is at her best when she sticks with people--with the speculative stories of the human condition. Too much tech talk is definitely not her style. I would have appreciated more focus on George's struggle. And more straightforward discussion of the dream-power. And then to bring in the aliens and their alien terms for the power (which never get fully explained) didn't help matters at all. More explanation of how the aliens know about the dreaming power and how they helped George would have gone a long way. Two and a half stars.
It's funny where a book journey can take you. Back in June, I signed up for the Follow That Blurb Reading Challenge. In short, we were to pick a starter book, read that, then read a book by someone who wrote a blurb for that first book. And so on, for a total of ten books. Shatterday by Harlan Ellison is my 8th book. I started with a mystery. That book led me through five more mysteries. It was beginning to look like my little book trek was going to be all mysteries, all the time. Then book number six led me to a mystical, new-agey book by Lawrence Block (another mystery writer, granted--but I deliberately chose one of his books that wasn't a mystery). And that book brought me here.....to Harlan Ellison and some excellent classic science fiction.
It's been a long time since I've read any Ellison. I discovered him back in the day when I was on my science fiction kick. Let me just tell you straight....Harlan Ellison is not for everyone. He's not for the squeamish. Or the prudish. You want your fiction all neat and tidy and full of rainbows and sunshine and happily-ever-afters. Ellison is not your man. That's not to say he can't write a happy ending. He can. He does in this collection. But it's not your everyday, Disney happy ending....and getting there may be a bit more painful than you'd like. Ellison, as he puts it, walks through our lives and runs them through his spectacular imagination and hands them back full of all the horrors and nightmares and mortal dreads we don't want to face. No, I'm not talking about zombies or things that go bump in the night. At least not in most of the stories. "Flop Sweat" comes the closest to a nice horror-movie case of the screaming heebie-jeebies, but it's not the evil things that are the scariest. It's the idea that these things were called forth by human beings just like you and me.
And that's what makes these stories so great. Maybe we'll never climb into a space/timeship and go off to another dimension; maybe we'll never have to face a day when our self has divided and there's two of us and we have to figure out which one is real; maybe our past won't ever catch up with us and force us to do horrible things. But...then again. We can relate to the characters because somewhere, sometime there was a situation, not the same situation, but a situation nonetheless where we acted/reacted/didn't react like we should have...in just the same way. The stories show us to ourselves....and if we're brave enough we learn from it.
I had forgotten what a master storyteller Ellison is. I had forgotten his skill at twisting the everyday and making it thought-provoking. And I had forgotten what a slippery little cuss he is. Just when you think you've figured out what kind of writer he is...science fiction, speculative fiction, fantasy, horror, black comedy, psychological...he throws you a curve ball and does something completely different. No wonder he's racked up so many awards in so many fields. This is a fabulous short story collection. My favorites are "Flop Sweat," "The Man Who Was Heavily into Revenge," and "Count the Clock That Tells the Time." Five stars.
Random Walk by Lawrence Block is another stop on my Follow That Blurb Reading Challenge journey. Originally written in 1987, this book is a departure from Block's usual mystery/thriller fare...something I chose deliberately. It was beginning to look like my Blurb journey was going to begin and end with mysteries. I was kind of hoping the trip would be a little more varied. So, when Block blurbed my last read (No Body by Nancy Pickard) I just kept scrolling through his work to see what might strike my fancy. And came across this unusual novel. Very unusual. I would say that 90% of the book is schizophrenic.
Yes. There are two main stories going on throughout most of the book. First, we have the story of Guthrie, a bartender who's fairly happy with his life--going along just fine--when all of a sudden one day while he's waiting on a friend who's having an abortion he hears a voice tell him to take a walk. So he does. Quits his job. Sells his car. Cleans out his bank account of all but the minimum and just starts walking East. That's all he knows--gonna head East from Oregon. Doesn't know why, other than it just feels right. Along the way, he encounters other kindred spirits who just join him. At the same time as he's getting his message from the astral plane or wherever, Sara in Fort Wayne, Indiana begins to go blind. And decides that she's meant to go blind so she can see better. She quits her job; takes her son out of school; clears out as much cash as she can; and hops on a bus headed West. So she can meet up with Guthrie and company. As they walk they pick up more and more people and all sorts of New Age-y, mystical, healing-power, find yourself, center-yourself-breathing, heal the planet stuff begins to happen. As Guthrie says, by the time they reach the East Coast the reader shouldn't be surprised if the group isn't able to keep on walking on the water of the Atlantic Ocean and go trekking through Europe.
In story number two we have Mark, a power-hungry businessman and serial killer who gets his sexual jollies from knocking off as many women as possible. He's been at it for eight years--previously taking it slow and only killing at random as he travels for business. But lately the hunger has built and he decided to up his travel schedule for the summer and see how many he can do before the cold weather hits. His path keeps circling closer and closer to that of Guthrie's group....what will happen when the New Age peace and love and healing meets such a definite evil?
Despite the serial killer in storyline number two, as I mentioned above this is NOT a thriller. We're not waiting to see if Mark gets caught and there's definitely no detecting and mystery going on (unless you count the mystery of the New Age stuff). This story is a journey. It's not about where they're going; it's about what happens while they're on their way. It's about growth and personal healing. I'm not much into the whole New Age philosophy, but there are definitely some pieces of the message in this weird book that the human race could stand to learn. That we're all in this together. That what we do to others affects us--who we are and what we are. That if we treated each other and the world we live in better, then we just might make it. And the world would be a lot better for it.
Like I said, this is one weird book. I didn't know quite what to do with it. But I was compelled to keep reading. Couldn't stop if I wanted to. That must be a sign of powerful writing--even if I don't entirely agree with the message being conveyed. Three and 3/4 stars (almost four)--all for that powerful writing.
No Body by Nancy Pickard is a fun and funny mystery that I picked up as part of my Follow That Blurb Challenge journey. This is the third story in Pickard's Jenny Cain series, but I had no problem stepping into the book without having read the first two. The story begins with Jenny's old sixth-grade teacher visiting the graves of her forbears only to be caught in a mud slide that reveals that her ancestors, along with 131 other "residents" of the New England cemetery are no longer resting in peace. In fact, they're not resting there at all. Following directly on the heels of this alarming discovery, the corpse of Sylvia Davis, secretary to the local funeral home, is found in the casket with John Rudolph just as his wife is preparing to see him safely stowed in the new cemetery. Rudolph's widow makes several scenes and then makes an appointment with the report Lewis Riss to tell what she knows. Before she can keep that appointment, she, too, is found murdered. It's up to Jenny to solve the two mysteries--the one with too few bodies and the one where the corpses keep multiplying.
Jenny Cain is a bright, witty character. She has a way of getting people to talk and finding out what they don't want her to know. She also makes her share of mistakes before getting to the final answer and this makes her very human. The writing is brisk and easy going down--making for a fun, quick read. There is enough humor to offset the rather depressing subject matter of funerals and funeral homes and graveyards. The mystery has enough twists in it to keep the reader guessing till the end. Three stars for a nice, pleasant afternoon read.
Bone Harvest by Mary Logue is a bit more of a thriller than I usually read...it's also American and more recent. But I'm very glad that the Follow That Blurb Reading Challenge led me to it. It is a very absorbing read--quick-paced and well-written.
The story takes us back and forth between modern-day Wisconsin and the same town 50 years ago. In that small-town half a century ago, an entire family was murdered in a remote farmhouse. The town rocked from the impact of the horrible deed and eventually came to terms with the fact that the killer was never brought to justice. But one person never forgot what happened that day. And now, fifty years later, he wants the truth to come out. And he's willing to do some very dreadful things to see that it does. The modern portion of the story begins with a robbery at the local farm co-op. A large quantity of two very dangerous pesticides are the only things missing. And the thief has left a strange calling card: a tiny finger bone from a child long dead. Soon the pesticides are put to use--killing the flowers in front of the sheriff's office, poisoning a local farmer's chickens, and finally being mixed up in a deadly batch of lemonade at the annual Fourth of July Festivities. And with each occurrence another bone is left. Deputy Sheriff Claire Watkins is put in charge of the case and finds herself in a race against time to unravel the past before the next stage of the game.
Logue handles the parallel stories in a very deft manner. Her writing is fluid and quite beautiful, even when describing very horrible deeds. Her characters are strong, smart, and well-defined and she makes the reader care about the inhabitants of Pepin county. She even makes the culprit a very sympathetic character. The interludes where she shows us what he is doing and allows us to understand his character are just enough. Much more would have been too much. I enjoyed this story a lot--even though I recognized the culprit well before the end. Four stars out of five.
I got onto The Mystery of the Third Lucretia by Susan Runholt courtesy of the Follow That Blurb Reading Challenge. This is a middle grade mystery which stars two fourteen year old girls who are best friends and interested in art. Kari Sundgren has a mom who writes for a magazine which sends her on assignments to other countries. Lucas Stickney comes from a wealthy family who doesn't mind if she flits off on these journeys with Kari and her mom. The mystery begins when the girls are at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts and a snarky painter tells them to "Go A-Way!" The man is doing a copy of one of Rembrandt's famous Lucretia paintings and makes it clear he doesn't want anyone peering over his shoulder while he works. Then Kari's mom gets assigned to a story in London and the three make a trip to Britain. Kari and Lucas are very surprised to the Gallery Guy (as they dubbed him) in disguise and painting away in front of Rembrandt's companion piece. They are sure that he's up to no good and decide to do some detective work to try and figure out what he's up to.
After an adventure that involves multiple disguises, the release of a harmless snake, and an intense argument with Gallery Guy, the girls finally see enough to reproduce his work in a painting of their own. It isn't until the next trip (scheduled for France and Italy) that they see an article about a recently discovered "third Lucretia painting by Rembrandt" which was found in the Netherlands. The girls convince Kari's mom to take a detour to Amsterdam where the adventure really begins. Young mystery lovers will enjoy the excitement that follows Kari and Lucas and trying to figure out exactly how they're going to help catch the master art criminal.
This book tells me why I don't read young adult and middle grade books much. It is a perfectly good middle grade novel. I am quite sure that young readers will love it. And I'm quite sure that I would have if it had been around when I was in my Nancy Drew and Trixie Belden phase. But I just can't get myself into the young reader mindset anymore. That's one reason why I keep thinking about rereading Nancy, but then I don't. I'm afraid I won't enjoy her anymore and I'd rather remember the books with great fondness than to be disappointed now.
I'm going to give this one three stars. The rating is for good clear writing. An interesting mystery and believable characters. The wrap-up is exciting and well done. Recommended for the young mystery lover in your life.
Much like another reviewer on Goodreads, I first got interested in this one because I thought perhaps the "don" in the title referred to a British academic (and you know how I love me an academic mystery). But it winds up that we're talking Don like Don Corleone. Like the Mafia. Like messing with the "family." So, okay...I need this book for my Follow That Blurb Challenge--gotta go with this one or else I'll have to start the whole darn journey again. So, I brought it home from the library anyway. And, boy, am I glad I did.
Now this is the way books about private investigators ought to be written. It's fun and tongue-in-cheek, with just enough of the hard-boiled patter to make it right. (After all, our hero uses Chandler and Hammett and all the rest as his PI handbooks.) PI Sean Sean (yes, that's his name) is a not-so-hard-boiled detective operating in the Twin Cities of Minnesota. He may not be tall, but he's got a big heart and is willing to go the extra mile when a case interests him (or when someone needs the help). He wears red Keds and rarely packs heat. He's just starting to figure out the mysteries of computers and the internet and hasn't quite talked himself into a cell phone yet. He's a gumshoe just beginning to burst into the 21st century.
The book begins with a bang--quite literally. As Sean is making his way home one evening, he comes upon a murder scene. An elderly patient of the local nursing home was out for a regular trip around the block when his wheelchair exploded--directly across from Sean's home. At first, Sean is interested merely because of the proximity. But then a couple of large toughs hire him to investigate and his interest becomes professional. With the help of a feisty fellow resident of Sheltering Limbs (the nursing home), Sean soon discovers that there was more to the dearly departed than meets the eye. Not to mention some of the activities of the Director of the home. Things really get interesting when the FBI gets involved and then someone begins taking potshots at Sean. Is he getting too close? And just exactly who is getting skittish about that?
This is a delightful read. Fast-paced and smooth. It goes down like Sean says a single malt does (I'll have to take his word on that). Lots of action and interesting characters. I absolutely love Sean's interaction with Blanche, his contact in the nursing home. And Sean is a very likeable protagonist. I look forward to trying more of the series. Four stars.
Thanks to the Follow That Blurb Reading Challenge I have discovered a new academic mystery series starring tenured professor Bel Barrett and her mid-life detective sidekicks. In Hot & Bothered by Jane Isenberg citizens of Hoboken, New Jersey are trying to pick up the pieces in the aftermath of the horrifying attacks on the World Trade Center. Bel is determined to continue life as before and not to live in fear. As she moves on with her life, she is bothered by a seemingly never-ending kitchen renovation and dismayed to find herself coping with her partner Sol's steady disintegration from post traumatic stress. There is also the annual neighborhood block party to plan, arguments to settle over the disbursement of a local scholarship, and her new Faculty Development Seminar to organize and run. Then one of her colleagues and fellow scholarship judge is found stabbed to death. Eunice Goodson was a young, promising new instructor at the River Edge Community College in Jersey City and a member of Bel's seminar. She was also moonlighting as an exotic dancer at a club in Manhattan.
With a police force still coping with the aftermath of 9/11 as well as many false alarms over anthrax and other terrorist "sightings," little time is given to the death of a stripper. And the cops seem ready to take an easy suspect--the disgruntled young woman who did not receive the scholarship and who believes Eunice was to blame. Bel is determined to seek the truth--not only because she wants her friend's killer caught and doesn't want an innocent girl charged with the crime, but also because Sol is taking an interest and she hopes it will help him with recovery. With the help of her friends--Illuminada Guttierez, a private detective, and Betty Ramsey, the Executive Assistant to RECC's president--Bel begins examining Eunice's connections both at school and in the city. Their search will lead them to a clergyman with a secret, a sister with a problem, a jealous scheduler at the club, a faculty member doing a little extra "research" at the cub, and a neighbor who may not be what he seems.
This was a fun, fast read. Very likeable characters and even though I've managed to dive in right in the middle, I felt right at home with Bel and her friends. Having a loved one who has gone through post traumatic stress, it was easy to sympathize with Bel and Sol and the struggles they faced. This made the characters very real to me. The mystery was complex enough to keep me interested...although the solution seemed a bit forced. A few more clues dropped along the way would have helped. But overall, a good solid mystery. Three and a half stars.
This also counts as my "Blurb" entry for the Take a Chance 3 Challenge.
I picked up The Last Matryoshka by Joyce Yarrow purely because her last name starts with a "Y" and I needed a "Y" mystery author to help me complete the alphabet in the A-Z Mystery Author Challenge. I'm also using it as a launching pad for the Follow That Blurb Challenge and one of the Take a Chance 3 categories.
This is an American mystery starring Jo Epstein, a performance poet and private investigator. She uses her New York street smarts to outmaneuver a master Russian criminal on his own turf. The story begins with her Russian-born stepfather, Nikolai, who needs help escaping a blackmailer who can frame him for a particularly brutal murder committed in the elevator of Nikolai's building. It soon becomes clear that there is more to the plan than simple blackmail as threats arrive inside not-so-traditional Matryoshka (nesting) dolls. The dolls have been altered and contain symbols from the honor code of the vory (Russian criminal caste). Jo and her stepfather have never been bosom buddies--but she is willing to help him for her mother's sake. But can she trust him? It doesn't help that it is obvious that he is keeping information from her. Jo's investigation will take her from the height of fashion in NYC to the Vladimir Central Prison in Russia. From a lonely backroom knock-off shop to the dark Russian forest and from the Moscow Criminal Police headquarters to the monasteries of Suzdal. In the end she will race the clock to solve crimes committed on two continents.
I have to say that in the normal course of things this isn't a book that I would have picked up and brought home with me from the library. A. It's current--published in 2010. B. It's American (I'm a Brit Lit girl). C. It's about the Russian underworld and I'm not all that into organized crime. This is a decent mystery. A nicely done plot about long-term revenge. I really like Jo Epstein as a character. She's well-rounded and she is very believable as a private investigator. I do wonder a bit about her actions in Russia, however. Without giving too much away, I just think that as a PI with her experience that her alarm bells should have been going off on several occasions. But maybe we should chalk that up to her inexperience with the culture. And to be really honest, my favorite part of the whole book is the poem that appears at the front of the book (untitled) about detectives and poets.
An action-packed mystery. Well-written and an interesting back story for the characters. Not my usual cup of tea...but I'll give it three stars for a good, solid read.
So.....there I was, just minding my own business, looking through my blog feed, and guess what? Temptation wandered across my path and I found another reading challenge! As Oscar Wilde said: "The only way to get rid of temptation is to yield to it." AND "I can resist everything but temptation." [Especially when it involves books.]Anyway, so I'm signing up (like you really believed I wouldn't). And here's the scoop:As Jennifer over at Reading with Tequila says, the importance of blurbs on book covers is often debated. A blurb on the cover of a book is usually written by an author who writes in the same genre, but occasionally you find a quote from a high-profile, but seemingly random author. After noticing a few of these peculiar choices, she started wondering - if I followed the blurbers, where would they lead me?Well, she's developed this challenge to see exactly where the blurb-path will take us. What we have to do is choose a starting book. Read that one. Then look at the blurbs and read a book by one of the authors who have been quoted. And so on. Do this for ten books and then see where your journey has taken you. If you start with a mystery, will you end in the mystery field or will you wind up in some far off country like non-fiction? The journey will be half the fun. The challenge runs from July 1, 2011 to June 30, 2012. So, if you think this sounds interesting, hop over to Tequila's site (link above) and join us. Now, I just have to figure out my starting point....1. The Last Matryoshka by Joyce Yarrow (7/2/11) [starter book which leads to...]2. Hot & Bothered by Jane Isenberg (7/9/11) [and that takes me to...]3. The Case of the Deceiving Don by Carl Brookins (7/13/11) [Onward I go...]4. The Mystery of the Third Lucretia by Susan Runholt (7/16/11) [which will take me to....]**
5. Bone Harvest by Mary Logue (7/17/11) [blurbed by Nancy Pickard]6. No Body by Nancy Pickard (7/24/11) [and that leads me to....]7. Random Walk by Lawrence Block (7/26/11) [blurbed by Harlan Ellison...]8. Shatterday by Harlan Ellison (8/23/11) [blurbed by Ursula K LeGuin, Ray Bradbury, Dan Simmons, Roger Coman, Michael Moorcock, Steve Allen, William Kotzwinkle]9. The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K LeGuin (9/18/11) [blurbed by Michael Chabon]10. The Final Solution: A Story of Detection by Michael Chabon (9/18/11)
**Could also have led to The Prop by Pete Hautman (which I read anyway because it looked interesting).
Challenge Complete 9/18/11