What's New On The Shelf?

Lots of things.

I went on a Reinaldo Arenas binge and bought The Doorman, Old Rosa and Hallucinations; his books show up relatively rarely in used or new bookstores, so when I see 'em, I grab 'em. I'm still missing volumes 3 and 5 of his Pentagonia series; they're just really hard to find.

I got Old Rosa at the Strand in New York and the other two at Raven Used Books in Harvard Square. I love those stores!

I got London Under by Peter Ackroyd from work; it's a history of the underground of London, not just the public transportation system but all the stuff under the sidewalks of the city. I thought it would be fun to read to prepare for my trip.

I picked up The Book and The Brotherhood by Iris Murdoch at one of my favorite used bookstores, the Montague Book Mill. Because you can never have too much Iris Murdoch in your life.

What's new on your shelf this week?

Movie Review: Exit Through The Gift Shop (2010)

Exit Through the Gift Shop (2010). Dir: Banksy. Starring Banksy, Thierry Guetta, Shepard Fairey, Debora Guetta. IMDB.

Exit Through the Gift Shop is one of those movies I've been meaning to see for a while, and as happens, I got sick recently and spent a few days at home during which I watched some movies I've been meaning to see for a while. Exit Through the Gift Shop is a somewhat controversial documentary about street artist Mr. Brain Wash, nom de travail of one Thierry Guetta, a Frenchman living in Los Angeles. He started, the film says, as a used-clothing merchant but became fascinated by street art and graffiti through his cousin, a street artist called Space Invader. Guetta, an obsessive-compulsive filmer of everything around him, started filming street artists, eventually getting to know luminaries of the field such as Shepard Fairey and even the reclusive, legendary Banksy, who directs this movie.

Guetta decides to get on the other side of the camera so to speak and becomes a street artist himself, starting with an illustrated picture of himself and leading to his meteoric rise in the art world after his first big LA show. Despite having referred to Guetta as a friend, Banksy and Fairey greet Guetta's success with derision; they openly mock him and deride his success in what struck me as some very mean-spirited and bitter postscript. But then I remembered that it's Banksy directing himself sounding like a jerk, so that pretty interesting.

Anyway so the controversy around the film is about whether or not the whole thing is a big Banksy prank. Banksy and Fairey swear that it's not for what that's worth. There are plenty of articles online on the subject- just plug Brain Wash and Banksy and prank into your favorite search engine. I think it probably is fiction.  There's plenty of close reading of the film and speculation but little in the way of evidence either way- starting with the identity of Guetta, who, depending on your interpretation, is either the real deal, an actor playing a part or Banksy himself. And, you know, if this guy exists and had a store etc., there would be some independent evidence, somewhere. But nobody really addresses that. Either way it's some kind of insight into the art world, the world of street art and the world of subcultures generally. I'll leave it up to you to decide what insight, exactly.

Rating: RENT (the movie equivalent of Backlist)

FTC Disclosure: I viewed this on Netflix streaming.

Review: SISTERLAND, by Curtis Sittenfeld

Sisterland, by Curtis Sittenfeld. Published 2013 by Random House. Literary fiction.

Curtis Sittenfeld's last two books haven't been white-hot page turners but what she does really well is chronicle contemporary American life in a detailed and thoughtful manner. In 2008's American Wife, she gave us a rich autobiographical fiction about a First Lady modeled on Laura Bush. Her character was intelligent, tough and independent and deeply committed to her marriage and her role within it, that of the stabilizing influence behind a mercurial and spoiled man-child. I read the book as a meditation on the ways that women compromise to meet the needs of self and family. Her latest book, Sisterland, is another meditation on the American family but this time it's more deeply concerned with motherhood and self.

Sisterland tells the story of Daisy and Violet Schramm, twin sisters with psychic abilities to "sense" things- events, feelings, what's about to happen. As the book opens, professional psychic Violet, the more flamboyant of the two, is making headlines with her prediction of a massive earthquake about to hit St. Louis, where both women live. Violet is a wide-hipped, loose-skirted tidal wave of a woman; her sister, who's changed her name to Kate, is a suburban wife and mom to two young kids who just wants to keep her head down and not make waves. She has a perfect sensitive husband named Jeremy, and she focuses most of her energy on baby Owen and toddler Rosie. Indeed the book is positively awash in the everyday details of motherhood, which Kate/Daisy seems to want to consume her.

But here's the thing. There a couple of twists coming. There's revelation about who was responsible for a news-making psychic message that made Violet's reputation years ago- and a big one about the true nature of this earthquake. The book takes a big left turn about 3/4 of the way through, changing the game and reinforcing the idea that Kate is a woman in deep denial about herself and her nature. Some readers have taken issue with this turn, but I think if you look at the story as a whole her transformation isn't really a transformation at all. Kate has never been what she wants so desperately to be seen as. She has been hiding from herself for years, from changing her name (Daisy Schramm becomes Kate Tucker- a different person entirely) to subsuming herself in motherhood, to denying her abilities, to her repulsion (envy?) towards her sister's larger-than-life personality, not to mention her large body. Vi breaks the rules that Kate keeps, at least until she doesn't. Is it really a surprise that she'd finally rebel with an impulsive act of pure desire?

Sisterland is a slow read though the suspense around the earthquake may be enough to keep the pages moving. I know from past experience to have faith in Sittenfeld's storytelling so I was not deterred by either the length of the book or the issues around pacing. Like American Wife, Sisterland is character-driven above all so if you enjoy literary fiction that delves deeply into the minds of its characters while not always offering exactly what you would have predicted, I do recommend Sisterland.

Rating: BACKLIST

FTC Disclosure: I received this book for review from Random House.

Review: THE CORONER'S LUNCH, by Colin Cotterill

The Coroner's Lunch, by Colin Cotterill. Published 2005 by Soho Crime. Fiction. Crime Fiction.

So if you've been reading my "It's Monday, What Are You Reading?" posts for the past couple of weeks, you already know how I feel about The Coroner's Lunch, Colin Cotterill's first entry into the Dr. Siri Paiboun series of crime novels set in 1970s Laos. If not, well, let's just say I loved it.

Dr. Siri, as he's called, is a septuagenarian doctor who had hoped he'd be allowed to retire, but Communist officials in Vientiane, the capital, have decided to keep him on as a coroner, a job that he has never trained to do. Using whatever resources he has at hand, along with two misfit assistants and a local cop on the side of the angels, Dr. Siri recognizes pretty quickly that he can do more than just determine the cause of death. He is, he realizes, in a great position to solve crimes. And, as a coroner, he doesn't have to go looking for victims; they're delivered to his doorstep every day.

As Dr. Siri settles into his new role, he's presented with several strange deaths. First up is the sudden death of an older married woman whose husband insists food poisoning is at fault. Dr. Siri is not convinced though. Unraveling this one will involve taking down someone close to him and exposing local corruption. But the centerpiece mystery of this book is the strange death of three Vietnamese men who are found in a river, two tied with flimsy rope and one weighted down. This mystery gets to the heart of the difficult relations between Laos and Vietnam, and will find Dr. Siri alternately threatened and revered as the reincarnation of an ancient spirit. Lao spiritualism and mythology, and the battle in Siri's heart between tradition and modern scientific thought all come into play.

And then there's Dr. Siri himself, curmudgeonly and tough and funny. What made the book for me was his character and his ongoing battle with just about everything around him. I loved the combination of politics and tradition, modern and mythic, and the black comedy that rises between the interplay of traditional Lao culture and the straight laced Communists running the country. The character of Dr. Siri brings all these elements together in a perfectly delightful package. I highly recommend The Coroner's Lunch to mystery and crime readers who don't mind a little mysticism thrown in alongside the bodies, and I will certainly revisit his world!

Rating: BUY

FTC Disclosure: I did not receive this book for review.

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

Last week I finished three books- two I'd been reading slowly for what seems like a very long time, and one that I just started last week.

The Teleportation Accident, by Ned Beauman, and Equal Danger, by Leonardo Sciascia, were the two longer reads; Equal Danger is a short book (about 120 pages) but it reads very, very slowly. The Teleportation Accident was a book my husband recommended and while I enjoyed it, it just wasn't a page-turner for me. My quicker read was the delightful The Coroner's Lunch, by Colin Cotterill, and I definitely have to read more in this series because I'm head over heels in love with Dr. Siri and his band of misfit sleuths.

This weekend I started Stav Sherez's very-good-indeed A Dark Redemption, set alternately in London and Africa, the present and the past. An aspiring musician goes on a post-graduation trip with his buddies that goes horribly awry, and then years later he's a detective investigating a murder that may be related. Sherez seems like he's channeling Derek Raymond both in the quality of his writing and in the social conscience he brings to the work. I love it when crime novels are more than procedurals and read like fully-realized works of literature.

What about you? Let me know in the comments. Read more at ShouldbeReading.wordpress.com.

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

Last week I finished I Will Have Vengeance, DNF'd another crime novel then started another. Phew!

I started The Coroner's Lunch, by Colin Cotterill, the first in his Dr. Siri series set in Laos. Can I just tell you, I love this book. I'm in where-have-you-been-all-my-life love with this book. It's got the gory and the suspense, but it's also got the funny, the human, the awesome. It's got the best detective character I've come across, the elderly Dr. Siri Paiboun, a take-no-prisoners old timer who just doesn't care what anybody thinks. The writing sparkles, the suspense keeps you reading, and it's set in a part of the world I've never read about before. What's not to like?

I'm still reading Equal Danger, by Leonardo Sciascia, too, and enjoying it. It's different but also really good!

Have you read Cotterill? I'm going to start hand selling him the next time I'm at work. I'm going to hand sell him to everybody!

What are you reading? More at BookJourney.wordpress.com.

Crafturday- An iPad Cover!

I spent some time over the past few months searching for a great e-reader pattern, one that would include sizes for lots of devices, and one that included a license to sell. Well, I found a great one, though I've lost the link (I have a PDF download of the pattern itself) and I've spent the past few weeks trying out different versions.

The fabric is called Fulham Road and it's by Alexander Henry. Constructing the thing itself was the easy part; the challenge is interfacing. For those of you who aren't sewers, interfacing is a layer that gives the finished product some stability and structure. Interfacing can be tissue-thin or thick as book board, and anything in between; it can be a fusible or iron-on layer that you adhere to the fabric, or a sew-in layer that sits either against the fabric layers or between them. It's essential to use at least something on any accessory-type project. If you don't, it's just going to flop around and have no heft at all.

The first time I tried, I chose a thin interfacing on the fabrics and a layer of quilt batting for padding; that was too cushiony. The next time, I went ultra-firm and found that unusable as well. The fabric wrinkled and I wouldn't have been able to turn it right-side out once I had sewn it. Then I tried sew-in fleece, and again it was OK but too soft. With this attempt, I used a layer of a firmer woven fusible (Pellon Shape Flex) on each main piece of fabric plus one layer of fusible fleece. I don't know if it's just right, but it's a big improvement and usable as far as I'm concerned. I would like to try a firmer fusible combined with the fleece, to see if I can give it a little more body, but I'm happy for now.

I'm not ready to start selling these cases- I still need to practice- but I made a big step forward!

Review: I WILL HAVE VENGEANCE, by Maurizio de Giovanni

I Will Have Vengeance, by Maurizio de Giovanni. Published 2013 by Europa Editions. Crime Fiction. Translated from the Italian.

Whew. That was my first reaction to finishing this firecracker of a who-dun-it by Italian crime writer Maurizio de Giovanni. Set in 1931 Naples during Mussolini's reign, I Will Have Vengeance tells the story of the murder of Arnaldo Vezzi, a larger-than-life tenor and star of the opera. An all-around jerk, Vezzi is pushy, arrogant, bossy, self-centered- and extremely talented. But he is a star, and the livelihoods of many people depend on him, so he's catered to and deferred to, at least until he crosses the one person in his life most vulnerable to his mercurial temperament.

Commissario Ricciardi, a reclusive bachelor from an aristocratic family, is assigned the case, because Ricciardi has an impressive track record when it comes to tracking down murderers. He also has a secret- he can see visions of the dead in their final moments. This ability is a liability and an asset; he can gain valuable clues but the images can also mislead him. They are also very traumatizing for him, and the emotional suffering he feels at being so close to death, all the time, is one reason why he is so reclusive. Other policemen think he's weird and avoid him, except for Brigadier Maione, who feels a kinship with the troubled detective.

And away they go. Along the way we meet a colorful cast of theatrical characters, get a taste of life, death and police politics under Mussolini and experience Naples of the 1930s. The plot proceeds briskly, peppered with lots of details of time and place. Ricciardi arrests a suspect, but it becomes clear that that's only the first step to solving this crime. Ricciardi believes all motives can be boiled down to two basic principles, love and hunger, and bases his investigative technique on a psychological as well as physical examination of the crime and those close to it. When he learns the truth about this one, he has to ask himself some hard questions about what justice really means, and how best to pursue it. A must-read for crime fans, I Will Have Vengeance is a home run; I can't wait to read the next de Giovanni in my pile!


This is my tenth book for the 2013 Europa Challenge!

Rating: BUY

FTC Disclosure: I received this book for review from Europa Editions.

Review: A BAD DAY FOR SORRY, by Sophie Littlefield

A Bad Day for Sorry, by Sophie Littlefield. Published 2009 by Minotaur Books. Fiction. Crime Fiction.

So I started off International Crime Month by reading a very American crime novel, the first in a series starring middle-aged quilter-turned-vigilante Stella Hardesty, a southern woman who killed her abusive husband in self-defense then launched a service helping other abused women keep their men in line- or just away from them. When she's not busy running her sewing shop, she's trussing up good ole boys who mistreat their women and convincing them to change their ways. A Bad Day for Sorry introduces Stella with the case of Chrissy Shaw, whose young son Tucker has gone missing along with Chrissy's nasty boyfriend.

By turns violent, funny, suspenseful and touching, A Bad Day for Sorry is great fun overall. Stella is a tremendously likable character and Chrissy, the young woman she's helping, is a believable victim-turned-heroine. I loved the attraction between Stella and the sheriff, "Goat," and her troubled relationship with her daughter Noelle, who's inherited Stella's (former) penchant for abusive men. The book reminds me a little of Joshilyn Jackson's book Backseat Saints in the way that Littlefield blends black humor with a very real and serious problem. There are some believability issues with what exactly Stella does and how she gets away with it but you can kind of gloss over that and just enjoy the ride.

Which is what I recommend if you think you might be interested in this book. I think it's a great choice for crime readers, especially those who like female-driven crime novels and those on the light side. I love that Stella gets herself out of a pretty serious jam using a rotary cutter and her cloth-cutting scissors. European crime novels are great but they do tend to be rather testosterone driven and I liked reading about women from a woman's point of view. I enjoyed my visit to Stella's world and plan to come back soon.

Rating: BEACH

FTC Disclosure: I did not receive this book for review.

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

This past week I read A Bad Day for Sorry, by Sophie Littlefield, a crime novel set in the American South. I know it's not "international" per se but it's still a crime novel, so it fits with the month's theme. It's the first in a series that I will be revisiting at some point.

I'm finishing up I Will Have Vengeance, by Maurizio de Giovanni. I'm actually about to find out who the real killer is, after Commissario Ricciardi arrested a red herring. A whodunit set during Mussolini's rule, this book has been a great read. I have two more de Giovanni books in the pile and definitely want to continue in this world.

I started Equal Danger, by Leonardo Sciascia as well. This book is set in an unnamed place and concerns the murder of judges in a very corrupt society. The story gets more and more complicated as it goes along. I only just started it but I'm really enjoying it. Sciascia was a Sicilian crime writer who was mentioned a lot in the International Crime Fiction primer I read last month. When I saw one of his books at the bookstore, I knew I had to read him!

What are you reading today?

More at BookJourney.wordpress.com.

Review: YOU ARE ONE OF THEM, by Elliott Holt

You Are One of Them, by Elliott Holt. Published 2013 by Penguin. Literary Fiction.

Those of us of a certain age remember, at least vaguely, the Cold War.  I was in grade school when Ronald Reagan was president and Russia was still the USSR, when we had to know where the bomb shelters were, when nuclear war was a threat we lived with every day. I remember angsty pop songs and TV specials and nervous conversations about what would happen in the event of an attack. It was a scary time to be a kid.

You Are One of Them tells the story of two girls whose lives were shaped by that fraught and fragile time. Sarah's family is already broken when the story starts. Her older sister is dead and her father has left the family for his native England, leaving behind a mother paralyzed by anxiety and a daughter who sees loss and death and loneliness around every corner. She finds consolation and companionship with her neighbor Jenny Jones, a pretty and easygoing girl with picture-perfect parents, the kind of girl to whom life will come wrapped in a bow. Growing up in Washington, D.C. during the Cold War, their lives are stained with political anxiety; Sarah decides to write to Soviet President Andropov to ask for peace, and Jenny joins her. But it's Jenny's letter that Andropov answers, Jenny who gets to go to the Soviet Union and become a celebrity. And it's Jenny who dies under mysterious circumstances, and Jenny whom Sarah goes to find in the new Russia years later.

This novel is author Elliott Holt's first and it's a very well-written and and engaging debut. Personally, being about the same age as these characters, I related to their Cold War upbringing and enjoyed reading a book set in that time. I found the central mystery of the book to be interesting and the execution of it suspenseful and more or less believable. There are plenty of real-life events similar to what goes on in the novel; a little girl named Samantha Smith was asked to the USSR by Andropov after penning a letter similar to those written by Sarah and Jenny, and in recent years there have been various spy scandals that find an echo here. I don't want to spoil the story too much though.

At heart You Are One of Them is a coming of age story about a woman who grows up in the shadow of her dead friend after living in it for a while, and how that woman can or cannot move past that relationship to find herself. Ultimately Holt doesn't give us any easy answers but leaves us to ponder how we live with ourselves when that which defines us no longer exists. Sarah is a melancholy, lonely woman and as one reviewer has noted, the book is shot through with her loneliness. Holt depicts Russia as desolate, a land with little to offer someone seeking human connection. The suspense made it hard for me to put the book down; its sadness makes it hard for me to leave behind.

Rating: BUY

FTC Disclosure: I borrowed a galley copy of this book from the bookstore where I work. I did not receive a copy for review from the publisher.

Review: THE MAN IN THE WOODEN HAT & LAST FRIENDS, both by Jane Gardam

The Man in the Wooden Hat, by Jane Gardam. Published 2009 by Europa Editions. Literary Fiction.

Last Friends, by Jane Gardam. Published 2013 by Europa Editions. Literary Fiction.

The Man in the Wooden Hat and Last Friends are companion books to Gardam's Old Filth, a celebrated and popular novel about Edward Feathers, QC, a British lawyer born in Malaysia at the start of the 20th century, whose life spans that century and by all accounts, has been a pretty good success. He's had a great career in law, a happy marriage, and all appears to be well. But Feathers is a man who doesn't quite know how to love, and thus there are problems that nearly escape the eye, both with his marriage and his few friendships. Central to his life are his wife Betty and his rival (and her lover) Terry Veneering. Each novel, which together comprise one story, tells the story of these lives from the perspective of each character in turn.

Book two, The Man with the Wooden Hat, is Betty's. We see her as a young woman just as she's about to marry Edward, and we see the beginning of her relationship with Veneering and we see how her life stretches out into different kinds of disappointments, finally ending in a kind of reconciliation and acceptance of what she's made of it. I love the way this book rounded out her character and shared her secrets. Particularly touching is her relationship with Veneering's son, Henry. In Last Friends, we get Veneering's story, as well of that of a heretofore minor character called Frederick Fiscal-Smith. Veneering is a lonely man;  the son of a scrappy and passionate young woman and a shady Russian she meets in a circus, Veneering is constantly trying to reinvent himself and find his place in the world. His love for Betty is the one constant in his life but of course she is already married. His family life is a failure but his career is a success, and in the end he consoles himself with the friendship of the one man he never expected to provide that- Edward Feathers. Their friendship is one of the mysteries of life, and one worth exploring.

I really loved all three of these books. I think they should be read together, as one narrative, starting with either Old Filth or Wooden Hat and finishing with Last Friends. It's elegaic and a testament to a lost world, albeit one many do not miss. Last Friends also sees the comic character of Fiscal-Smith transformed and fleshed out, something I did not expect but enjoyed. Jane Gardam is one of those writers who just sneaks up on you. It's been a few years since I read her and I almost forgot just how good she really is. The books have all been popular book club choices and I hope her fans come in for this one, because it's really superb and offers a lot of insights into the characters that she seems to have been saving for this volume. She shows so much empathy for these wounded and vulnerable characters, and she ends the last book on such a sweet note of compassion and hope, as though the story doesn't have to be over, at least not quite yet.

These are my 7th and 8th books for the 2013 Europa Challenge. I finished them in May.

Rating: BUY for both

FTC Disclosure: I received The Man in the Wooden Hat for review from Europa Editions; I purchased Last Friends.

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

Well, I need to rethink what I'm reading because after being traumatized by last night's "Game of Thrones," I think maybe crime novels aren't what I should be reading! But June is International Crime Month and so I will be reading crime novels all month.

Last week I finished Elliott Holt's You Are One of Them, which comes out this week. I'll have a review later in the week but the bottom line on this is that I thought it was a very strong and suspenseful debut, as well as a moving coming of age and portrait of Cold War-era America.

Today I'm continuing I Will Have Vengeance, by Maurizio de Giovanni, also an appropriate follow-up title to "Game of Thrones" last night. It's about an opera singer murdered in his Naples dressing room, starring a detective who has some kind of psychic visions. Interesting!

Still working through the comic-absurd The Teleportation Accident. It's a fun read.

My bedside book is Jame Joyce: A New Biography, by Gordon Bowker, which I'm reading to prepare for my trip to Ireland in the fall. I'm not a big Joyce reader but it's an interesting portrait of Irish life and I'm certainly interested in learning more about him anyway. I'm enjoying reading it at about a chapter a day.

What are you reading? See more at Bookjourney.wordpress.com.

June is International Crime Month!

Do you read crime fiction? If so, this is the month for you. And if you don't, there' s never been a better time to start. This month, Grove Press, Akashic Press, Melville House and Europa Editions are getting together to promote the crime genre.

Start with World Noir, a sampler published by Europa Editions. You can pick it up for free from independent bookstores, or download it here.

The book features essays by publishers, crime writers and critics with tributes, essays and interviews. Then, there is a series of samplers from Europa crime titles like Jean-Claude Izzo's classic Total Chaos, Kirkus-starred The Crocodile by Maurizio de Giovanni and Philippe Georget's Summertime All the Cats are Bored. The book also features a country-by-country guide to crime fiction, including those published and not published by Europa Editions.

I read this book through and really enjoyed it. I learned a lot about what characterizes Mediterranean Noir as well as its literary and cultural heritage. I strongly recommend this book to anyone interested in international mystery and crime!

The participating publishers are running a number of special events at various bookstores around the U.S.; check the events calendar of your local indie to see if something's coming your way!

What's New on the Shelf?

I added a couple of new things to the TBR pile this week.

I got Hanif Kureishi's The Buddha of Suburbia, finally. I tried to read it a few years ago but gave up on it for some reason. We were planning a trip to London that ended up falling through, and the travel guide suggested this as a kind of classic about the city. I'll give it another try this summer.

Also added to the summer reading pile is Michael Frayn's Booker-nominated Skios, a farce comedy set in Greece. I seem to be reading a lot about Greece lately! Anyway I'm looking forward to a little literary light-heartedness on the beach with this one.

That's it! What's new on your shelf this week?

Movie Review: NICKY'S FAMILY (2011)

Nicky's Family (2011). Documentary. Dir: Matej Minac. No rating.

Nicky's Family is the story of Sir Nicholas Winton, a centenarian who made his fortune in the stock market, but made his name as a rescuer of children from Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia on the eve of World War 2.

Nicholas "Nicky" Winton was a carefree young man planning a ski trip with friends when circumstances conspired to change his life, and that of hundreds of Jewish children. He ended up in Czechoslovakia and toured refugee camps with his friend, who was trying to attract the attention of the international community to the plight of that country's Jews. Winton was so moved by the plight of the families struggling for some way to free themselves and their children from the Nazis that he formed a one-man committee to advocate for the children and arrange shelter for them with British families. The arrangements were only supposed to be temporary, until things improved and the children could rejoin their families, but they never did.

The film follows the story of how Winton accomplished his improbable mission and features interviews with Winton and with several of the people he saved- now elderly adults with families of their own. We learn about what happened to many of the kids in later life. Some joined the military to fight for Britain during the war; others returned to Czechoslovakia or ended up in Australia and the United States. The film also shows many of the people inspired by Winton's courage and tenacity and kindness, and the good deeds that they have done in turn. The film is truly inspiring and moving. I burned through every tissue in my purse by the end of this heartwarming, wonderful film.

I never knew anything about Winton's role in saving so many lives during the war, and I strongly recommend this film to anyone interested in the topic. It was amazing, what he was able to do!

Rating: RUSH

FTC Disclosure: I received free passes to this film from its distributor, Menemsha Films.

It's Monday- What Are You Reading?

 

So I finally finished the wonderful Corelli's Mandolin and reviewed it last week. I also finished Jane Gardam's The Man in the Wooden Hat, another luminous entry in the Old Filth trilogy. I read Old Filth a long time ago and never reviewed it on the blog; I loved it, and I don't know why I never got around to reviewing it, but now that the third and final volume in the series is out I decided to dig in and finish it. Jane Gardam is one of those writers who's just really, really good. Not flashy, not fancy, not out there, just really solid.

This week I'm reading the final volume of the Old Filth series, Last Friends. Each book told pretty much the same story but focused on different characters- their background, point of view, details particular to that person. Old Filth focuses on the eponymous character, Edward Feathers QC. The Man in the Wooden Hat centers on his wife, Betty, and her relationship with her husband and her lover, Filth's rival Terry Veneering. Last Friends is about Veneering and what makes him tick. I think the three books should be read together, as one long book, but they stand alone fine and I think can be read in any order. If you like British literary fiction you should not miss these gems.

And I'm still working my way through the enjoyable The Teleportation Accident, by Ned Beauman. He is the son of Nicola Beauman of Persephone Books, which I find interesting. I like the book so far. I'm about halfway through and the story of Egon Loesser, perpetual left-behind of the German avant-gard set on the outbreak of World War 2, is a witty and fascinating romp.

I DNF'd my latest bedside book and I'm trying to decide with what I should replace it. James Joyce biography? Serge Gainsbourg? A book about the Blasket Islands of western Ireland? Lots of choices. What are you reading?

See more at BookJourney.wordpress.com.

Review: CORELLI'S MANDOLIN, by Louis de Bernieres

Corelli's Mandolin, by Louis de Bernieres. Published 1994 by Vintage. Literary Fiction.

So, it took me almost a month, but I finally finished Louis de Bernieres's wonderful, wonderful Corelli's Mandolin, and now I'm sad, because I'm done reading this beautiful book.

Set on the Greek isle of Cephallonia during the Italian occupation of World War 2, Corelli's Mandolin is primarily the love story of Pelagia, a young Greek woman, and Antonio Corelli, captain of the forces occupying her island. We don't meet Corelli for a little while though, and in the mean time we get a multiple-voiced narrative about life on the island, the war in Greece and Italy and the political situation of the island. So the first 100 pages are a little slow, I'm not going to lie to you. But I bet you'll get hooked nonetheless.

What makes the book is the rich panoply of characters, starting with Pelagia, her father Iannis who is the island's doctor, her fiancé Mandras with his own sad arc, the music-loving Antonio Corelli, and his soldier and close friend Carlo. But the minor characters are just as memorable, like Mandras's mother Drosoula, a priest who loses his mind, the English soldier Bunnius who provides some comic relief, the little girl Lemoni, and even a pine marten has an important role to play. Pelagia starts off as sort of just another pretty girl but her personality fills out to become the center of the whole story. Mandras and Carlo will break your heart in different ways, and the love story between Antonio and Pelagia is something you will never forget.

But there is plenty of plot, too, plenty to keep you turning the pages and a lot to learn about Greece's role in the war. De Bernieres shows us the war in Greece from the point of view of politicians, rebels, soldiers and ordinary people. The story follows almost Pelagia's whole life and we see some post-war Greek life and the changes that come with it.

I am so glad my friend at the bookstore persuaded me to read this book. Corelli’s Mandolin is historical fiction of the old school, a sweeping story to get lost in and fall in love with. It would appeal to almost all readers of adult fiction save hardcore genre readers. I would give it to just about anybody, male or female, young or old. It totally took me by surprise. I hoped I would like it, but I didn't think I would love it this much. It's also a wonderful summer read, a book to linger over, smile over, cry over, a book that will leave its mark on your heart forever.

Rating: Are you kidding? BUY!

FTC Disclosure: I did not receive this book for review.

Review: THE HUMANITY PROJECT, by Jean Thompson

The Humanity Project, by Jean Thompson. Published by Blue Rider Press, 2013. Literary Fiction.

So, I became a fan-for-life of novelist Jean Thompson after 2011's luminous The Year We Left Home, and I jumped at the chance to review her latest, The Humanity Project. It's a little more outlandish than her last book, a little less grounded in ordinary life and more about people on the margins of American society, but it's just as wonderful in its own way.

Set in the present day and mainly in California, the book starts with a car accident that in one way or another will shape the lives of all the book's characters. Down-on-his-luck blue collar guy Sean goes to a bar to meet a woman for a drink. On the way back, he's in a horrific crash that lands him in worse shape than before. His son Conner, a smart kid trying to do the right thing, tries to take care of his dad but they're broke and basically homeless. He goes to work as a handyman for the wealthy, elderly Mrs. Foster, who is in the process of growing a foundation, called the Humanity Project. Her nurse, Christie, lives next door to Art, a lonely bachelor and unwitting father caring for his teen daughter Linnea, who is traumatized following her survival of a school shooting.

Everyone in this book is walking wounded, in one way or another. Conner is in the unenviable position of having to care for his parent. Sean means well but he's hooked on pain medicine and falling apart. Art, who never intended to raise his daughter, can't relate to her and can't help her. She falls into a loose group of kids roaming San Francisco and forms a tentative bond with Conner. Mrs. Foster earns the consternation of her grown daughter with her foundation, which has no clear mission but to make the world a better place. A noble ambition, to be sure, and Mrs. Foster does make the world better for these characters, though not in the way she intended.

I really enjoyed this book. It covers a shorter space in time than Year but Thompson shows the same warmth and compassion towards her characters. My favorite character is Christie. Mrs. Foster makes Christie the head of her foundation, and for a while we think Christie's found a purpose. But when she does discover the purpose of her life, it turns out it's right there all along, where she least expects to find it. Each character has his or her own story but the way Thompson brings them together is sweet and tender and very memorable. Once again Thompson creates a rich portrait of contemporary American life in all its strangeness, wondrousness and truth.

Rating: BACKLIST

FTC Disclosure: I received this book for review.

Movie Review: CLOUD ATLAS (2012)

Cloud Atlas (2012). Dir: Tom Tykwer, Andy Wachowski, Lana Wachowski. Starring Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, Jim Broadbent, Hugo Weaving, Jim Sturgess, Doona Bae, Ben Whishaw.

I've finally seen the masterful, moving film adaptation of David Mitchell's amazing novel, and if you haven't guessed already, I loved it.

Directors Tom Tykwer, Andy Wachowski and Lana Wachowski have taken Mitchell's multi-layered narrative and turned into one of the strangest and most beautiful movies I've ever seen. No, it's not perfect, and it's not even a perfect adaptation but wow they did a good job. I'm going to refer you to my review of the book for a plot summary. Mitchell tells his story by alternating several stories which are tied together by theme and language.The filmmakers interleave the stories by flipping from one to the next over and over, and even reusing the same actors in different roles in each story. The viewer leaps around in time, place, setting, plot, and sees the same faces pop up again and again, often in unexpected ways.

I'm not surprised the movie didn't fare well at the box office. It's weird, unconventional and difficult. But it's also incredibly beautiful and accomplished. The filmmakers made some changes in their adaptation; that's to be expected and for me the changes worked well, even the last change, at the very end. At first I went, "wait a minute, that's not how the book ended," but then I think I realized that even though the movie takes us a long way from the book in many ways, it remains essentially true to its spirit and the decisions the filmmakers made suit the screen just as Mitchell's suited the page.

Tom Hanks in particular stood out in terms of acting. He has an incredible variety of roles to play and he manages to be menacing, hilarious, moving, and just plain wonderful throughout. I also loved Hugh Grant's appearance. My favorite story in the book was my favorite in the movie, that of Timothy Cavendish and his "ghastly ordeal." I think I need my undefinable-in-terms-of-genre stories with a healthy dash of humor. I absolutely loved Hugo Weaving in this segment in particular. I'm not going to spoil it- just see it.

I would absolutely recommend you read the book before seeing the movie, but I've talked to lots of people who saw the movie first and enjoyed it a lot, so if you don't want to read the book don't miss out on the film. You'll probably want to read it later anyway, and you should!

Rating: RUSH

What's New on the Shelf?

So I guess you could say I haven't been in much of a mood to blog lately. Just been busy, you know? But I wanted to catch up with you a little and share some recent things I've added to the shelf.

Fallen Land, the upcoming novel by Patrick Flanery (whose Absolution I adored) landed on my doorstep this week. It comes out in August and it's set in the United States this time (Absolution was about South Africa) and centers on life and death on a Midwestern farm.

I picked up David Sedaris's latest, Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls, the first day and it came out and started reading it then, too. It's a lot of fun, a mix of fiction and nonfiction with his usual wit.

Equilateral, by Ken Kalfus, is a book blending historical and science fiction that caught my eye after reading a review in Kirkus. It looks just so intriguing!

I've also received a bevy of international crime from Europa Editions lately. Maurizio de Giovanni's I Will Have Vengeance, Blood Curse and his Kirkus-starred The Crocodile all await, as well as Zane Lovitt's The Midnight Promise and Stav Sherez's A Dark Redemption. June is International Crime Month, so guess what I'll be reading? I also picked up Jane Gardam's Last Friends, the third in the Old Filth Trilogy, and started it earlier this week. It's great!

Some of my crime customers at the bookstore are giving me great feedback on the de Giovanni books so I think if you're a crime reader definitely check them out!

The most exciting thing to come my way recently is a galley of Margaret Atwood's upcoming MaddAddam, the third in her trilogy that started with Oryx & Crake and continued with The Year of the Flood. I have dipped into it and I can't wait to find a time to really do a belly flop. MaddAddam comes out in September.

What's new on your shelf? I've been just as bad about reading blogs as I have about writing, so let me know!

It's Monday! (Tuesday) What Are You Reading?

Well I'm lingering on my current reads and DNF'd two that weren't holding my attention. I'm loving Louis de Bernieres's Corelli's Mandolin; I feel like this is one of those "where have you been all my life?" books. Like, why have I never read this? It's amazing. I've heard the movie is pretty bad though I'll probably end up watching it anyway, just to see.

Today I'm starting Ned Beaman's The Teleportation Accident, which is not science fiction despite the title. My husband read it thinking it would be sci fi but quickly discovered it was mere literary fiction. Nonetheless he really enjoyed it and has been encouraging me to read it ever since. And since May is Recommendations Month, I can hardly say no.

Europa-wise, I'm looking forward to starting Maurizio de Giovanni's I Will Have Vengeance as soon as possible. My crime customers at the bookstore are raving about this one; I have to check it out!

My current audiobook is Ben Macintyre's Double Cross, about World War 2 double agents. It's great!

What are you reading? See more at Bookjourney.wordpress.com.

Press Release: Literary New England Fund-Raising Campaign

Literary New England is a great podcast hosted by Cindy Wolf Boynton, focusing on books and authors connected to the New England area. I've appeared on the podcast a couple of times now, and I'm a big fan of what Cindy does. She's launching a fundraising campaign to support the show and help produce the Literary New England Travel Guide, to be released in September. Please check out her campaign and her podcast and help support a great supporter of books!

One-of-a-Kind Author Experiences Among Giving Perks in Literary New England Fund-raising Campaign

Brunch with "Defending Jacob" author William Landay, lunch with "The Unfinished Work of Elizabeth D" author Nichole Bernier, an Adriana Trigiani walking tour of New York, and personally inscribed copies of Tara Conklin's "The House Girl," Andrew Pyper's "The Demonologist" and Cathy Marie Buchanan's "The Painted Girls" are among the many perks being offered to supporters of Literary New England's fund-raising campaign.

  

Money raised will be used to help the weekly Literary New England Radio Show continue to air ad free, as well as to complete the Literary New England Travel Guide that will be released in September in print and e-form. The campaign, hosted on Indiegogo, will run through May 30.

About the Literary New England Radio Show

Founded in December 2011, the Literary New England Radio Show [http://www.litnewengland.com/] airs on Mondays at 8 p.m. on BlogTalk Radio, featuring author interviews, book giveaways, event coverage and a celebration of all things literary New England. Listenership has skyrocketed from six to the first episode to as many as 10,000 per episode now and growing. Equally exciting is these listeners' diverse geographic locations, which include not just New England and throughout the United States, but Japan, the United Kingdom and other countries.

"New England is home to so many authors, and serves as the setting and inspiration for so many books, that the possibilities of who and what we can feature on the show are endless," said Literary New England Radio Show creator and host Cindy Wolfe Boynton.

An award-winning journalist, playwright and poet, Boynton is a long-time freelancer for The New York Times, Boston Globe, Better Health and other publications. As regular Literary New England Radio Show listeners know, she's also a college English instructor and big believer in the transformative power books and stories can have on both reader and writer alike.

"Books create connections, help us better understand ourselves and others, and can change lives," Boynton added. "The opportunity to use the show to talk about titles and writing, share author interviews and take listeners to book-related events they might not otherwise be able to attend is a real privilege. And the show fills a real niche."

Featuring both established and emerging authors and writers, Literary New England Radio guests have included Margaret Atwood, Joe McGinniss, Richard Russo, Jodi Picoult, Jenna Blum, Tara Conklin, Aria Beth Sloss, Will Schwalbe, Sebastian Junger, Amy Brill, Nathaniel Philbrick, Alice Hoffman, Owen King, Nathaniel Hawthorne’s great-great-granddaughter Alison Hawthorne Deming, Anita Diamant, Alan Lightman, Geraldine Brooks and more.

For those unable to listen live on Mondays, past episodes can be accessed from the Literary New England Radio Show archives [http://www.blogtalkradio.com/literarynewengland].

About the Literary New England Travel Guide

Written by Boynton and scheduled for release in September, the Literary New England Travel Guide will take actual and armchair travelers to more than 500 New England locations featured in contemporary and classic books and related to popular authors, as well as provide a list of the best New England bookstores, book fests, writing workshops, retreats, and more.

Produced in both print and e-form, the guide will also include maps, suggested itineraries and author interviews. Travel spots include:

- Wally Lamb’s Three Rivers

- The Matlock Paper’s Carlyle U

- Stephen King’s “Pet Sematary”
- The Gloucester port from “The Perfect Storm”
- Truman Capote's high school
- Mark Twain’s home
- The Little Women house
- The apple orchards in Jodi Picoult’s Songs of the Humpback Whale
- William Styron’s and Arthur Miller’s graves
- The foghorn that appears in many Eugene O’Neill plays
- The Weissmanns’ Westport
- Where Linda Greenlaw set The Lobster Chronicles
- And many more

"The response to both the Literary New England Radio Show and Travel Guide have so far been amazing, exceeding all of our expectations," Boynton said. "Our commitment to those who support us and this campaign is that we'll do everything possible to make sure Literary New England exceeds all of your expectations, too."

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

Well last week I didn't finish anything, but I started a bunch of new books. I started reading Falling to Earth, the Kate Southwood, about a hurricane that hits a midwestern town in early 20th century America. Actually I started that the day that my town was on lockdown following the Boston Marathon terrorist attacks, which was the worst day to start a book like that, and then put it down and picked it up again. But my theme for May is recommendations, and I'm starting out strong with Louis de Bernieres's Corelli's Mandolin, which I'm enjoying. It's an old-school historical epic, about World War 2 and Greece, and a really great read so far.

I'm also dipping into Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls, David Sedaris's new collection. No laugh-out-loud moments for me so far, but it's funny. I feel like he's mellowing with age or something. Not that it's not funny, just that it doesn't impact me the same way. And I'm still on Jen Lancaster's Such a Pretty Fat, but that's my bedside book and lately I'm just falling asleep without reading.

In audioland, I started Ben Macintyre's Double Cross, his latest World War 2 true-spy-story. I love his books, I've decided!

What are you reading? See more at BookJourney.wordpress.org.

Crafturday-Zippers!

So, among the many reasons I haven't been blogging a lot lately is that when I'm home pretty much all I want to do anymore is sew. I recently learned simple zipper installation, and I can safely say that life will never be the same again.

I've been experimenting with lots of different kinds of bags and pouches. Yesterday I started a jewelry roll, which I completed this morning:

The zippers don't match because I'm buying them in small assortments right now and I never get two of the same color. I made this for practice so I don't really care if the zippers match, but when I make a nice one either for myself or as a gift, I'll need matching zippers! I'll also match the thread next time. I found the pattern here, on the Fiberosity blog.

I liked the way this came out. I made a couple of changes already, in that I didn't use premade cord to tie it up and I interfaced the pockets. The next time I plan to make a few further tweaks, but these instructions are a wonderful place to start.

I've experimented with other zippered pouches too but my very favorite comes from the wonderful sewing blog Dog Under My Desk, Easy Zippered Pouches. I've made two of these so far and I plan to more. The first is a quilted pouch just like the sample:

I love love love this little guy, just big enough for some cash and a chapstick. I want to make a thousand of them. I have a friend who would just love this but I have to keep it for myself. Maybe I'll make her one next! It doesn't take much fabric. And then today I made this one, out of oilcloth:

I used the same measurements but because it's not quilted or lined and thus not as bulky, it came out a little larger. It's still quite small though. I bought a fat quarter of oilcloth and I could make several of these pouches from that fat quarter. I love love love this one, too! And I love Erin's blog. I've already bought one of her patterns and I'll surely come back for more.

I may end up selling these in my Etsy store, Pandora's Craft Room, at some point but I'm still just playing around with zippered pouches for now.

Review: AT THE END OF A DULL DAY by Massimo Carlotto

At the End of a Dull Day, by Massimo Carlotto. Published 2013 by Europa Editions. Crime Fiction. Translated from the Italian by Antony Shugaar.

So. Where do I begin? Last year I read a phenomenal crime novel called  The Goodbye Kiss, by my favorite crime writer, Italian crazy man Massimo Carlotto. I loved this book. I even persuaded my husband, who never reads crime fiction, to read it, and he loved it. So you can imagine when I heard that Europa would be publishing not only another Carlotto as part of its World Noir series but the sequel to my favoritest crime novel ever, I was pretty flippin' excited. And then one day it showed up in my mailbox! Have I ever mentioned that I love Europa Editions?

The Goodbye Kiss told the story of Giorgio Pellegrini, a guy who gives "mad, bad and dangerous to know" a whole new set of wheels. In that book, he was out of prison and looking to settle down into a quiet life. Sometimes a guy just doesn't want to get hassled by the police and go to jail and all that. But the catch is, to get it, he needed to cause a whole lot of mayhem. But he did get his quiet life in the end. He opened a restaurant, married a beautiful woman, and all was supposed to be well.

And for a while it was. At the End of a Dull Day opens eleven years later. He's not exactly living clean- he's running a brutal prostitution ring, and he's the worst husband ever. I mean, if your husband doesn't openly cheat on you and make you exercise till you pass out every night, you're doing better than Giorgio's poor wife. But even a guy like Giorgio has his problems. For starters, his crooked lawyer just stole a bunch of his money and sold him out to the mob, and he's taking liberties with Giorgio's prostitutes as well. The mob has its boot on his throat, and Giorgio is used to being the one doing the windpipe crushing. So this has to end. And you'd better believe there's going to be a body count and some humiliation served up piping hot for his enemies.

Dull Day is another fun read from Carlotto. Giorgio is a guy you love to hate. And you'll really hate him. But he is the hero of this tale, so you kind of have to root for him too. Because really, there's no one better, except for the poor women. Women always get the worst of it in Carlotto's books, but I'm convinced that it's not the kind of titillating brutality you get in Stieg Larsson and his ilk. It's just nasty and brutish, gritty and dark. I really enjoyed my latest foray into Carlotto's world. I hope this book brings him to some new readers and pleases his longtime fans as well. You don't have to have read The Goodbye Kiss to get into this one but if you can, you should, just for fun.  If you like crime fiction you really can't do any better than these books!

This is my seventh book for the 2013 Europa Challenge.

Rating: BUY

FTC Disclosure: I received this book for review from Europa Editions.