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Monday, March 18, 2024

Act Like A Lady, Think Like A Lord

Hmm.  Not sure how I feel about Celeste Connally's Regency mystery Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Lord (#1,209).  The cover blurb promises "Bridgerton meets Agatha Christie".  I can't tell whether or not the comparison to Bridgerton is fair or not, since I've neither read nor seen either series.  As for Agatha Christie - not exactly in her league.  It's easy to spot the ending well in advance.

The premise is that the lords in Lady Petra Forsythe's social circle are sharing the name of a gentleman who will, for a price, arrange for the troublesome women in the peer's life to be taken to an estate in the country "for her health".  Most are never seen again, and some are rumored to have died.  One of Lady Petra's friends has been removed thusly from London society when she succumbs to her depression.  Based on overheard snippets at a ball, Lady Petra doubts very much that the story of her death is true, so she investigates, putting her directly in the crosshairs of the villain of the piece.

And of course she falls right into the trap set for her in her very own house, no less!  And of course the handsome hunk comes to her rescue.  But wait!  The dangling thread about the cause of Lady Petra's fiance's death in a fall down stairs shortly before their wedding is used to cast doubt three years later on Lady Petra's childhood friend and new main squeeze.  I guess there will be more, but I won't be reading any sequels.  Sorry, Ms. Connally.  I much prefer Georgette Heyer.

The Year of the Locust

I had to keep lugging the 800 page copy of The Year of the Locust (#1,208) around with me because it was so hard to put down.  It may have been a long wait for Terry Hayes' next thriller after I Am Pilgrim, but I think it was definitely worthwhile.

Kane, his latest protagonist, is a Denied Area Access Agent working for the CIA - the most stealthy of spies sent in country against all odds to carry out their missions.  In this book, he is up against the faceless Abu Muslim al-Tundra, determined to destroy anyone not part of his fundamentalist Islamic sect by any means possible.  His methods are extreme and frighteningly plausible and his reach is global.

This time Kane has a bigger stake in the game when he's sent in - he's seen Abu Muslim al-Tundra's face, and he is leaving his partner behind on this mission.  He's also seen what the future can be if al-Tundra succeeds.

The plot does take a distinct turn towards sci-fi towards the end, but bear with it; the conclusion is oh-so-satisfying!

Thursday, March 14, 2024

Horse

After reading Horse (#1,207), I am reminded of why Geraldine Brooks is one of my favorite authors.  In it she interweaves several stories: a painting of a thoroughbred horse discarded in a curbside pile; Theo, the art student who discovers it and is determined to track down its provenance; Jess, the manager of a lab at the Smithsonian Museum who helps him and is tasked with helping a British researcher with a skeleton in the Smithsonian attic; and Jarrett, the enslaved boy who grows up with the horse and bonds with him indelibly.

The horse, it turns out, is real.  Lexington was one of the finest thoroughbreds ever raised and raced in the United States in the mid-nineteenth century.  He sired many prize-winning horses, including Preakness, for whom one of the Triple Crown Races is named.

It's also the story of racism, both before, during and after the Civil War, as well is in the contemporary love story.

The story does jump back and forth in time, and the plot is presented from many points of view.  I found it absolutely fascinating.  I've always had an interest in horse racing, but I learned so much in reading this book that it made me realize just how little I did know.  It's a piece of American history not many know about.

Since I had to read it for my book club, I couldn't wait for the hard copy book to become available to me, so this is the first novel I've read on my Kindle.  Was I ever grateful for the dictionary function built into it as I encountered lots of unfamiliar vocabulary!  

This was a great book on so many different levels.  It provided plenty of fodder (pardon the horsey pun) for book club discussion and was a universal hit with my group.  

The Frozen River

In her latest historical fiction, Ariel Lawhon has taken the diaries of real-life Maine midwife Martha Ballard and used her entries as the basis for an intriguing murder mystery set in the small town of Hallowell, Maine during one brutal winter when the Kennebec River froze solid from November to April in the late 1780s.  

The Frozen River (#1,206) is an engaging read as the fictional Martha stands by a victim of a rape by two men while her husband was away.  When one of the men's body is found frozen in the river, Martha is called in to observe the body.  In her role as midwife, she has standing with the court to testify on certain matters. But when she testifies the death was the result of murder, she creates a furor in the town.  It soon becomes clear that the other powerful man in town accused of the rape is determined to get his revenge on anyone who dares to speak out against him.  That includes the Ballard family and their lumber mill.

It is told in such a way that you want to read just one more chapter...

A minor nit about some of the anachronisms that creep into the book, but most people probably won't even notice them.  It certainly doesn't prevent it from being a well-told story about a remarkable woman who managed to leave her mark on history.  Recommended.

Chesapeake Requiem - A Year With the Watermen of Vanishing Tangier Island

In Chesapeake Requiem - A year With the Watermen of Vanishing Tangier Island (#1,205) journalist Earl Swift spent a year living on Tangier Island, set in the Virginia area of Chesapeake Bay.  Tangier has been in the news recently because it is vanishing into the Bay, large chunks of it washing off its shoreline as the island simultaneously sinks.  What will the islanders who have lived there for many generations do as their land shrinks and the crabs and oysters that provide their livelihood become scarcer and scarcer? And there are fewer and fewer opportunities for their young folks.

Mr. Swift tells their stories in a sympathetic way only possible by becoming one of their community.  He crabbed with them, sat in their "Situation Room" where the men gathered to discuss everything, attended their church services and ate with them.

The islanders have appealed for help to the Army Corps of Engineers, hoping that they would build a breakwater to stem the corrosion, but the wheels of government grind so slowly that likely if the Corps do decide to reinforce part of the island, it will only benefit a potential wildlife preserve, not the people.

Mr. Swift puts the reader right in the middle of island life, and by the time you have finished reading this compelling book, you will feel that you know many of these folks.  Right now, the only thing you can do is stayed tuned to the news to see what will happen to them.

If you live in a coastal area anywhere in America, this book should be mandatory reading.


Thursday, February 22, 2024

Clytemnestra

Costanza Casati has chosen a much-reviled character from Greek mythology to base her debut novel on: Clytemnestra (#1,204).  Here she has retold this story of wrongs and revenge with a sympathetic eye in a compelling narrative.  

Raised in Sparta, Clytemnestra eventually becomes the wife of Agamemnon, leader of the Greeks in the Trojan War.  His brother Menelaus is married to her sister, Helen.  But in order to sail off to Troy, Agamemnon sacrifices his oldest daughter Iphigenia to raise a favorable wind.  Clytemnestra is devastated, and vows to rule Mycenae in his absence.  It gives her plenty of time to plot her revenge.

Her story isn't pretty, but is typical of the way women were disregarded in the ancient world.  You'll recognize the names of most of the players in this book, but Ms. Casati helps to straighten out the often tangled relationships.

It's a big book, but I wanted to find out what would happen next, and how Clytemnestra would react.  It's reawakened my interest in Greek mythology.  I can't wait to read The Iliad.

Wednesday, February 14, 2024

The Secret Book of Flora Lea

I read Patti Callahan Henry's novel The Secret Book of Flora Lea (#1,203) because she will be a guest author at our upcoming BookMania!.  If it hadn't been for that, I never would have bothered to finish it.  

The premise is that a young woman working at a rare book shop in London in 1960 receives a first edition  children's book from America with its accompanying original illustrations.  The whole package is expected to fetch a pretty price for the shop's owners.  Hazel Linden is convinced that the book's title, Whisperwood and the River of Stars means that her six-year old sister, lost many years ago during WWII  when they were evacuated to a village on the banks of the Thames, is still alive.  Whisperwood was their own private world, not to be shared with anyone.  So how could the author have stumbled upon this title.  Could it be Flora Lea?  Hazel is so determined to find out the truth that she steals the book.

Personally, I found Hazel to be an incredibly selfish and self-centered character.  She has blinders on when it comes to Flora Lea.  Her loss is Hazel's fault alone, therefore, only she can make it right.  Blah, blah, blah.  Not a fan of Ms. Callahan's work, but plenty of others seem to like it.  Every book has its reader, after all.