Short Story Review: Dandy Detecs

Author: M. Louisa Locke
Genre: Mystery
Published: 2010
Personal rating: 4/5
Yearly short story count: 1

In the fall of 1879, San Francisco swelters under a heat wave while Barbara Hewitt, a reserved school-teacher, uncovers a mystery with the help of her son’s dog, Dandy.

This is a story from the author of the full novel Maids of Misfortune, and this short story uses a minor character from that novel as the main character. I liked the fact that because a minor character from Maids of Misfortune was used (and not the main character), I didn’t feel like I was missing something even though I haven’t read that novel. But after reading this charming short story I would very much like to read Maids of Misfortune. I did figure things out before Barbara Hewitt did, but that didn’t dampen my enjoyment in the least.

Wandering Feet Wednesday: Nebraska and Iceland

A new weekly theme here on Bookworms and Tea Lovers to document my fictional travels. For my Book Around the World I have a list of specific books I want to read, one for each country, based on setting. But of course I read much more than just those books. So this weekly theme will follow me on my fictional travels of all the books I read. So, where do my books take me this week?

I visited two very different places this week. First I was in the wilds of Nebraska, USA with the pioneers that started homesteading there. From the descriptions in Sixteen Brides by Stephanie Grace Whitson Nebraska was (probably still is) a very beautiful state.

From Nebraska I travelled to Iceland with Last Rituals by Yrsa Sigurdardottir. Quite a change, but no less enjoyable. Iceland can be a beautiful if brutal country.

The coming week I'll be staying in Europe, but where exactly I'll tell you next week!

Bookreview: Last Rituals

Author: Yrsa Sigurdardottir
Genre: Mystery, Crime
Published: 2007
Personal rating: 4.5/5
Yearly count: 7

After the body of a young German student—with his eyes cut out and strange symbols carved into his chest—is discovered at a university in Reykjavík, the police waste no time in making an arrest. The victim's family isn't convinced they have the right man, however, so they ask Thóra Gudmundsdóttir, attorney and single mother of two, to investigate. It's not long before Thóra and Matthew Reich, her new associate, discover something unusual about the deceased student: He had been obsessed with the country's grisly history of torture, execution, and witch hunts. As Thóra and Matthew dig deeper, they make the connection between long-bygone customs and the student's murder. But the shadow of dark traditions conceals secrets in both the past and the present, and the investigators soon realize that nothing is as it seems . . . and that no one can be trusted.

This book was definitely a page-turner. With every bit of the puzzle revealed the mystery grew deeper, urging me to keep reading to figure out what really happened. The pace was fast – the entire investigation is done within about a week – but it never got too fast, nor did it ever become unbelievable, despite the sometimes bizarre subject matter. The good writing and the likeable Thóra as main character made me fall in love with this book. The setting of the story in Iceland was icing on the cake.

However, I have one quibble with this book that made me give it four and a half stars instead of the full five. The ending – the conclusion of the mystery – was in my opinion fairly sudden. I like the solution, the whodunit and the why – but the way mainly Thóra pieced everything together was too easy in the end, too much like a lucky coincidence. I thought that took away from an otherwise brilliant book with a very well thought out plot.

But all in all I highly enjoyed this book. I highly recommend it and I will definitely go in search of the next book in the series about Thóra!

Sunday Salon: Personal 2012 theme: The Second World War

Last year one of the theme reads on the Reading Globally group over at LibraryThing was “War and Regions in Conflict” for which I decided to read about World War Two, one of my favorite periods in history to read about when it comes to non-fiction. We were encouraged to read from different sides of the conflict, which I thought was a bit more difficult with World War Two since it has more than one battlefield and more than two sides. But, I made a plan – unfortunately real life got in the way.

But, this theme would just not leave me alone. So, for 2012, I’ve decided to start my own World War Two theme. For now I’ve decided to focus on the European part of the war (including America’s involvement in the war), leaving out the Pacific and African battles, unless I just happen to read something that fits that. This theme will probably continue past this year, so expansion is always possible. My planned reads can be found here.

But my plans to focus on World War Two don’t stop with fiction. On one of the bookshelves in my house stands Sir Winston Churchill’s The Second World War in 12 volumes. I’ve always wanted to read it, but for some reason never started. Now, however, I’ve decided to read one volume a month, so I will have finished it at the end of 2012. I’m working on volume 1 now, Milestones To Disaster, which encompasses the period of 1919-1939. So far it’s very good, although sometimes I don’t know all of the people Churchill mentions – I think they were household names, especially in Britain, right after the Second World War, but I just don’t know them all. Still, it’s very clear and concise, and he manages to point out both the good and the bad.

What’s your favorite time in history? Are you doing any themed reads this year

Bookreview: Sixteen Brides

Author: Stephanie Grace Whitson
Genre: Historical
Published: 2010
Personal rating: 3.5/5
Yearly count: 6

Sixteen Civil War widows living in St. Louis respond to a series of meetings conducted by a land speculator who lures them west by promising "prime homesteads" in a "booming community." Unbeknownst to them, the speculator's true motive is to find an excuse to bring women out West in hopes they will accept marriage proposals shortly after their arrival! When the women discover the truth on the way, six of them decide to stay in the fledgling community Plum Grove, Nebraska and try to make their original plan of homesteading work anyway. But each woman carries her own burden which she must overcome to make life on the frontier a success.

The historical setting in this book is amazing. The details are part of the story, never interfering with the plot, yet they paint the picture of 1872 Nebraska in great detail. No lengthy expositions, just information sprinkled through the story in a logical fashion – something that’s hard to do and Stephanie Grace Whitson does with seeming ease.

What I also really liked was the way these women felt so real. All of them were different, had different reasons for trying to homestead alone, yet they never felt like a modern woman transposed into a historical setting. It was the same with faith – this book is technically Christian fiction – it was woven into the story in a believable way; there’s no beating anyone on the head with a stick with the moral of the story or with God. Just simple faith of people in a setting where that faith existed, and each one believing in their own way. No cookie cutter characters to be found here!

However, the amount of characters make slow reading a must to avoid getting confused. Especially in the beginning it was hard to keep track of who was who. It took me until about half-way through the book before I could easily remember, but then the story truly took off for me. Don’t get me wrong, it's not a bad book by any means, but I think it could have been so much better if there were less characters that it focused on, or if it was just told from one POV, or even if each character she uses as a POV character had her own chapter. Even just a list of characters to refer to would have helped a lot.

But, all in all, I found this a very enjoyable book. Stephanie Grace Whitson has a way of bringing the historical setting alive using nothing more than some well-placed details while telling a compelling story with realistic characters. I will definitely try more of this author’s books.

Wandering Feet Wednesday: Washington D.C. and the Balkan

A new weekly theme here on Bookworms and Tea Lovers to document my fictional travels. For my Book Around the World I have a list of specific books I want to read, one for each country, based on setting. But of course I read much more than just those books. So this weekly theme will follow me on my fictional travels of all the books I read. So, where do my books take me this week?

I’m playing a little bit of catch-up this week, as I’ll be talking about all books I read since the year began. At the start of 2012 I was in Washington, D.C. with Flowerbed of State by Dorothy St. James. I stayed there with my next book Affairs of Steak by Julie Hyzy.

And just yesterday I finished my visit to the Balkan with The Tiger’s Wife by Tea Obreht. There are no further specifics of where in the Balkan this takes place and the place names that are mentioned are invented. Still, this book has a very good sense of place – some reviewers even place it in Yugoslavia, though I wouldn’t go that far.

My current reading has me traveling various places in the USA, not Washington D.C. this time, and also Iceland. But more on that next time!

Bookreview: The Tiger's Wife

Author: Tea Obreht
Genre: realistic
Published: 2010
Personal rating: 5/5
Yearly count: 5

The time: the present. The place: a Balkan country ravaged by years of conflict. Natalia, a young doctor, is on a mission of mercy to an orphanage when she receives word of her beloved grandfather's death far from their home under circumstances shrouded in confusion. Remembering childhood stories her grandfather once told her, Natalia becomes convinced that he spent his last days searching for "the deathless man," a vagabond who claimed to be immortal. As Natalia struggles to understand why her grandfather, a deeply rational man, would go on such a farfetched journey, she stumbles across a clue that leads her to the extraordinary story of the tiger's wife.

How to review The Tiger’s Wife? It’s hard to put a label on this book, let alone explain exactly how this story engages the reader. It’s a powerful book, with lots of story strands that are told in a meandering yet somehow logical way. This book has so many layers, stories within stories that are all connected in a way that you don’t fully understand until you have read the last sentence.

When the book was finished, I was left behind still not knowing everything and being content with that. It resonated with something deep inside of me, was always on my mind when I wasn’t reading it, and I found myself slowing down so I could savor it longer. It is certainly a story that will stay with me for a good long time. I cannot recommend it enough.