Summers At The Saint

Talk about your perfect beach read - Summers At The Saint (#1,230) by Mary Kay Andrews fits the bill!  The Saint in the title is the St. Ceclia Resort, an exclusive enclave on a Georgia coastal island.  Families come and spend the "season" year after year.  Many have bought properties on the island and are members of the Saint.

So why is such a posh place losing money hand over fist?  And why is it so difficult to hang onto experienced staff?  These are just a few of the problems Resort Owner/Manager Traci Eddings is dealing with as the latest summer season is almost upon them.  The people she recruits for some crucial positions don't meet with the General Manager's approval, though.  Especially when those new hires start to question irregularities they notice while doing their jobs...

It's a suspenseful read with more violence than I might have expected after reading other books by Ms. Andrews.  Still, it moved the story forward.  I really enjoyed this book, and it would be a perfect fit for your own beach bag.

A Short Walk Through A Wide World

Douglas Weterbeke's A Short Walk Through A Wide World (#1,1229) is fantastical in all the right ways.  I've never read a book quite like this.  Aubrey Tourvel is just nine years old when she picks up a wooden puzzle ball outside a recently deceased neighbor's house in Paris.  Nothing is ever the same for her again.  Although she drops it down a well, it reappears the next day in her satchel.  And that's when Aubrey starts bleeding to death.  The only way to make the bleeding stop temporarily is to move on to a new location - over and over and over again.

A Short Walk chronicles Aubrey's adventures over the many years of her life.  Always on the move, she meets all sorts of people, but she can never stay long enough to build a relationship with most.  Her only respites are in the underground libraries which pop up in unexpected places.  There she can find endless shelves of fascinating books, food when she needs it, and comfortable places to rest.  When she emerges, she is always in a far different place than where she entered.  Aubrey slowly realizes she is not living in the same world as those who dwell on the surface.

More than just an adventure story, A Short Walk Through A Wide World probes Aubrey's interior life as well, and that's just as interesting.  No wonder this book has gotten so much buzz from the literary critics.  It might not be to everyone's taste, but I loved it.  Can't wait to see what Mr. Weterbeke has up his sleeve for us next!

The Royal Game

Perfect summer reading for royal fans, Linda Keir's The Royal Game (#1,228) combines an unlikely royal romance with aspects of a thriller.  It works well here.

Jennie Jensen is an American musician who's had success when a song she wrote was picked up as the main theme in a hit movie.  It's allowed her some financial freedom - enough to tour Mediterranean hot spots with her acoustic guitar.  She's living her dream when a rich, entitled Englishman disrupts her performance one balmy evening in Mallorca.  It turns out Hugh, the Prince of Wales, is a fan.  The rest, as they say, is history.

But an American as the Princess of Wales?  Many people don't want that to happen, and some are very determined to prevent it.  After all, look at what happened to Princess Penelope, Hugh's mother; she was killed in a tragic plane crash.  But as small snubs and mishaps begin to pile up, Jennie begins to wonder.  Was the Princess paranoid, or was someone out to get her?

The danger adds a special edge to this otherwise conventional love story, but it's enough to make this book a real page turner.  I thoroughly enjoyed this romance by writing team Linda Joffe Hull and Keir Graff.  Maybe it's the male perspective that helps propel the story.  Anyway, if you love reading all things royal, definitely add The Royal Game to your list.

The Murder of Mr. Ma

Looking for something different in a mystery?  The Murder of Mr. Ma (#1,227) by co-authors John Shen Yen Nee and SJ Rozan might fit the bill.  In classic form, the mystery kicks off with the murder of a moderately successful Chinese antiquities dealer living in London in 1924.  He was killed by a butterfly sword which was on display in his shop.

Since the victim was Chinese, the London Police aren't taking much of an interest in the case.  Enter two legendary Chinese cultural icons - Judge Dee Ren Jie and scholar Loa She - to investigate.  As the body count rises, the pair find commonalities in the victims - all members during World War I of the Chinese Labor Corps based in France on the front lines.

There's a slowly unraveling motive behind the killings, hostile police, a number of kung fu style fights featuring Judge Dee, and visits to some of the seamiest parts of London including its opium dens.  Nobody is whom they appear to be...

This was a lot of fun to read and imagine (Yes, it would make a great movie or tv adaptation!  Loved that the authors referenced the Frankie Drake tv mystery series for visual clues!).  Dee and Lao's English is usually more posh and polished than that of the characters they meet.  Though based on real people, their pairing here would have been impossible in real life, since they actually lived hundreds of years apart.  But here, they cozy up to Bertrand Russell and Ezra Pound without missing a beat.  I certainly hope this appealing pair of sleuths will be undertaking future cases!

You Dreamed of Empires

I remember hearing an interview on NPR when You Dreamed of Empires (#1,226) was first published.  It's Alvaro Enrigue's re-imagining of the confrontation between Spanish conquistador Hernando Cortes and the Aztec emperor Moctezuma (translated by Natasha Wimmer).   It sounded so off-the-wall that I immediately wrote down the title and author to add to my "To Read" list.  It's taken my local library a long time to finally acquire this slim volume, but I read it in essentially one go.

Most of the action in this bizarre story takes place on a day when Cortes and his soldiers are invited into the capital city of Tenoxtitlan.  Moctezuma's councilors cannot understand the emperor's actions.  Why not squash these invaders as they deserve?  But Cortes has one thing that Moctezuma has determined he wants for future conquests: the horses.

The descriptions of the ancient Aztec city and the customs of its peoples are utterly fascinating.  It sounds so civilized - except for the constant blood sacrifices of almost anything that breathes.

If you remember your history, you know how this story ended in fact.  After reading about the actions of the conquistadors here, I have to admit, I prefer Enrigue's alternative, highly satisfactory ending.  It's a weird book, but if you have the stomach for it, worth the time.

The Tainted Cup

I do love a good murder mystery!  Robert Jackson Bennett's The Tainted Cup (#1,225) is one of the best I've come across in a long, long time.  Many whodunit fans will miss this one entirely because it is labeled science fiction.  Set in an empire beset by leviathans attacking from beyond its heavily fortified sea walls, it is also plagued with a series of unnatural deaths.  An official Investigator, Ana, and her recently appointed apprentice Assistant Investigator, Din, are assigned to look into the matters.  Are the deaths merely unfortunate contagions, or is there a pattern and motive behind these disparate events?

Din is the eyes for Ana, who belongs to a race so sensitive to outside stimuli she must work through a proxy.  He still doesn't know the full range of his abilities, but Ana has chosen him based on what she suspects about him.  Together, they make a formidable team - like Sherlock and Watson.  When they draw close to the truth of the matter during an impending breach of the sea walls by the second rampaging titan in a matter of days, someone is planning to take advantage of the chaos to rid themselves of these impediments.

The world Bennett has built is fascinating with its dangerous landscapes, magical plants controlled by the bureaucracy, and of course, the hierarchy that controls, and is controlled by the empire and the wealthiest power players.  I really hated to see this book come to an end, I enjoyed it so much.  I am very glad to see that there will be a second book in this series to be released next February.  I can't wait!

Lies And Weddings

I just finished Kevin Kwan's latest dishy novel Lies And Weddings (#1,224).  Who doesn't love reading about over-the-top society weddings being ruined by an inconvenient volcanic eruption? And it just keeps getting better from there!

The main characters in this romp are the Earl of Greshambury and his family along with their neighbors, the Tongs.  Despite the lavish spending by the Countess Arabella (a former Hong Kong super model) Francis, the Earl, has never had the courage to tell her economize as their fortune slowly disappears over the decades.  When push comes to shove, the solution to their financial woes is obvious: their two lovely daughters and the hunky son Rufus, Viscount St. Ives, must all marry money.  Piles and piles of money. 

 You know that's never going to work out.  Rufus has been in love with the girl next door for years.  Eden Tong doesn't believe anything will come of it due to his social position, even though she returns his regard.  Besides, both she and her father have busy medical practices to keep them occupied when not being summoned up to the Manor to treat the Greshams.

The plot skips merrily around the watering holes of the rich and famous as scheming mothers jockey for the most eligible catches on any continent...  Will love win in the end?  Oh, I think it's got a pretty good chance with Kevin Kwan pulling the strings. (And writing those delicious catty little footnotes!)

Do, by all means, add Lies And Weddings to your summer reading book bag!

The Berry Pickers

The Berry Pickers (#1,223) by Amanda Peters has justly received favorable buzz.  The pleasure in reading this novel is not the suspense - we know from the beginning that the two Points of View will converge, like a well-written Regency romance.  It's how the writer gets us there that matters.

Back in the 60's, a four-year-old Mi'kmaq girl named Ruthie goes missing from the berry fields in Maine which her migrant worker family and friends are harvesting.  Meanwhile, Norma is having bad dreams in her middle-class Maine home.  Her mother smothers her with attention, but Norma remembers smells and flashes of another mother.  Although she speaks to a family friend about her dreams, nothing comes of it. The journey on both sides to fill in the missing gaps in their emotional lives plays out, bittersweet.

Well worth the time.

Becoming Madam Secretary

I heard about Becoming Madam Secretary (#1,222) at one of my book clubs.  It's Stephanie Dray's fictionalized biographical novel about Frances Perkins.  She became the Secretary of Labor and first female Cabinet Secretary in the Administration of Franklin Delano Roosevelt.  If you've ever earned or received a Social Security benefit, you have Miss Perkins to thank for it.  For someone who so broadly affected everyday Americans' lives, it is astonishing how few people have ever heard of her, or realize her significance.

Ms. Dray has done an admirable job of fixing that knowledge gap.  She makes Frances Perkins' life relatable and compelling.  She certainly did not have an easy life, but she was driven by her conviction to do the "right thing" and make people's lives better.  She was fortunate to have met up with the powerful movers and shakers of her era to make her forward progress possible.  It's quite a story.  Highly recommended.

Just one minor quibble: Frances Perkins was known for wearing the then-fashionable tricorn hats.  In fact, Ms. Dray even states in her prelude "...in a fur-trimmed coat and my trademark tricorn hat".  So why, in both the standard and large-print editions of Becoming Madam Secretary does the cover art show her in generic round-brimmed hat?  Oh, well.  At least her story's out there now.