The Medici Return

More skullduggery at the Vatican in Steve Berry's latest Cotton Malone thriller The Medici Return (#1,313), this time involving an old Medici loan to the Papacy which could be called in by a legitimate Medici heir for billions of euros.

Stephanie Nelle has asked Cotton Malone to check on whether or not a specified amount of money is being stored at the summer residence of a German cardinal as a favor.  It is, but he realizes he's been set up when the police show up to arrest him.  Also caught in the web of deceit is the cardinal himself.  The money was planted to implicate him in a Vatican Bank scandal presently on trial in the Holy City.  But who is pulling the strings?

The trail leads from Cologne back to Florence and the medieval city of Sienna, just in time for its famous Palio horse race, tracking the ancient documents signed by Pope Julius II and Giuliano Medici.  Good thing there's no Medici heir...

Berry delivers another fast-paced thriller in colorful settings.  As always, he separates the facts from the fiction at the end of his novel.  There's usually some history for me to follow up on after reading one of his books.  I definitely have to put Sienna on my "To Visit" list!

Now Or Never - Thirty-One On The Run

I can't believe Now Or Never (#1,312) is the thirty-first Stephanie Plum novel!  Janet Evanovich keeps pumping them out, but somehow the books never get old.  She's one of the few writers who can actually make me laugh out loud.

Stephanie is really in a pickle here.  She's finally engaged.  To two different men.  How's a girl to choose?  These things just happen.  Meanwhile, she's got to bring in some FTAs to earn enough money to start refurnishing her fire-bombed (for the third time!) apartment.  She's getting tired of smelling like a s'more all the time, so some new clothes wouldn't hurt either.

She's hot on the trail of one of the most dangerous mob bosses in Trenton, a masked Robin Hoodie whose spoils go to the homeless and a self-proclaimed vampire.  Who knew going to a laundromat could be so dangerous?  Or that there would be so much at stake?

Lots of decisions for Stephanie, aided by her usual crew of Lula, Connie and Grandma Mazur.  Does she choose wisely?  You'll have to read Now Or Never to find out!

The Lotus Shoes

Set in China at the end of the nineteenth century, The Lotus Shoes (#1,311) by Jane Yang tells the stories of two young women, mistress and slave.  Chapters alternate between Little Flower, the slave and Jinling, the daughter of the First Wife in a wealthy household.

Little Flower is sold by her mother at age six to the powerful Fong family.  Her sacrifice will save her mother and brother from death by starvation. Her mother has tried to do right by Little Flower by beginning the process of foot binding to produce "golden lilies".  No Chinese woman can rise above peasant status without them.

Jinling has been spoiled all her life as the favorite of her father in a house full of women.  When Little Flower is given to her as her personal slave, she takes out her frustrations on Little Flower.  She orders Little Flower to unbind her feet before her "golden lilies" are fully formed, setting in train a life of misery.  Jinling is jealous of Little Flower's ability to do exquisite embroidery, winning Lady Fong's attention.  

When disgrace expels Jinling from her home, she takes Little Flower with her into an even more perilous situation in a Celibate Sisterhood run by her aunt.  She is compelled to labor in a silk-reeling factory.  Treated as a peasant herself, she watches Little Flower rise in the factory as she brings her embroidery skills to bear to improve her own and others' positions.  Jinling finally sees a chance to topple her rival forever.

While I did find the story interesting, and the many details of life in a rich Chinese home fascinating, I was less impressed by the characters of Little Flower and Jinling.  I found them too one dimensional.  Little Flower had a difficult, painful and brutal life while soldiering on stoically.  Jinling, on the other hand, was almost always portrayed as mean, spiteful and selfishly self-involved.  And to have the final confrontation between mistress and slave be over a man was a bit too much for me.  I certainly didn't find him worthy either of the obsession by Jinling, or the capitulation by Little Flower.  Ho-hum.  Read it for the insights on Chinese domestic life.

Worst Case Scenario

So glad I'm not flying 4 - 6 times a week anymore after reading T.J. Newman's lastest thriller Worst Case Scenario (#1,310).  First she wrote about a pilot's family being held hostage so he will be forced to crash the commercial jet he's flying.  Next, a plane goes down in the ocean shortly after takeoff.  Will there be any survivors?  This time, the worst-case scenario is a jet crashing into a nuclear power plant in the Midwest.  Meltdown, anyone?

It's nail-biting stuff, but T.J. Newman (a former flight attendant) adds enough human interest in the character sketches of the townsfolk cut off by the crash, and the staff of the nuclear power plant in the middle of an ordinary day when the unthinkable happens to make you root for them all.  I have to admit going through a number of tissues while I was reading.  I was totally wrapped up in the story she spun.

Her first two novels are coming out soon as major movies.  I'm sure Worst Case Scenario will follow.  The question is, do I actually want to see it on screen, or was picturing it in my head the farthest I want to go?  You'll have to decide for yourself, but no matter what, remember that the book is always better!

Banyan Moon

Maybe I just picked the wrong time to read Thao Thai's novel Banyan Moon (#1,309).  It's been a popular book club choice, but I have to admit I got bogged down in the middle, and just barely managed to soldier on and finish it.  Should I have bothered?  I'm not sure.

Banyan House takes a central role in this family saga of three generations of women, the oldest of whom came from Vietnam at the end of the war in the 70s.  The point of view rotates between the grandmother, mother and daughter at different points in their lives.  Relationships are fraught with love and jealousy amongst them poisoning their attitudes.

Ann, the youngest has escaped the backwater Florida town where she grew up as soon as she graduated high school.  But her unexpected pregnancy brings her back to Banyan House just after her beloved grandmother dies.  Much to their surprise, Minh has left Banyan House jointly to Huong and Ann, in hopes that it will bring this mother and daughter closer.  Maybe.  But the story just petered out at the end in terms of emotional punch, leaving me with a meh attitude about the book.  There were also a number of elements throughout the story which were just left hanging.  For example, there were mysterious hints dropped several times about just how Minh acquired the crumbling mansion in the first place.  No satisfactory explanation was ever given.  If it wasn't part of the plot, why hint at it?

Perhaps it's also because I just finished reading Amy Tan's debut novel The Joy Luck Club whose story of Chinese mother/daughter relationships is so compelling it was hard to put down.  I kept drawing parallels between the two books and Banyan Moon suffered in the comparisons.

Just as aside, Thao Thai also writes under the name Nora Ngyuyen, and I really enjoyed her Adam and Evie's Matchmaking Tour.   Perhaps you should check that out instead!

The Joy Luck Club

It's hard to believe that The Joy Luck Club (#1,308) was Amy Tan's debut novel back in 1989.  She has since become a doyenne of American literature, so that it's hard to imagine the pantheon of American authors without her.  Somehow, I've never gotten around to reading this seminal work until now!  I have to admit, it wasn't at all what I was expecting.

The novel is essentially the interwoven stories of four Chinese women fleeing World War II China and its aftermath, and their American-born daughters in San Francisco.  I always felt as I was reading it that it was a series of related short stories more than an integrated novel.  Each chapter stood on its own and was compelling in its own way. It made sense to me when I looked up the CopyRite that a number of the stories in this book were in fact originally published as short stories across a number of publications. 

Clashes of customs and generations, misunderstandings common between children and parents and decisions made with life-changing consequences make the stories here relatable, no matter the language spoken.  Trauma and coping, love and hope are universal themes.

The book when first published was so successful that a movie version was made.  I guess just from the few clips I saw from the movie's trailer that I was expecting women sitting around playing mah jong with a much more structured social dynamic.  It just goes to show that the book is always better than the movie!  This is a great time to read The Joy Luck Club for the first time or re-visit an old friend.

The Grace Kelly Dress

I seem to be on a roll reading about fashion with Brenda Janowitz's The Grace Kelly Dress (#1,307).  Grace Kelly set off a copycat frenzy after she appeared in a beautiful lace wedding dress for her church wedding to Prince Rainier of Monaco. Every bride wanted to look like Princess Grace on her own wedding day.  This novel explores the story of one such dress, worn by three generations of women, each making the dress uniquely hers.

A talented Parisian dressmaker working in the atelier of the foremost wedding gown designer of her day is responsible for the impeccable construction of the Grace Kelly inspired dress for a wealthy customer.  In a twist of fate, she wears it on her own wedding day.  Carefully preserved, her American daughter dreams of the time when she will walk down the aisle wearing that dress.  Who stands at the altar awaiting her seems far less of a concern...  Rocky, the daughter and granddaughter, has her own sensibilities about wedding attire.  She initially has no desire at all to cave to tradition and wear the gown at her own wedding; it's just not her style.  What changes her mind about incorporating tradition into her quirks?

The story is entertaining, whether or not you ultimately agree with the fate of the dress in each generation.  Half the fun is deciding what you would have done with the dress, given the chance.  If you're interested in how fashion is made, this is the book for you!