Sunday Salon: A Glimpse Of What I've Been Reading and Crime Fiction on the Brain

My Bookmarks magazine arrived in yesterday's mail, but I have yet to flip through the pages for even a cursory glimpse. It is sitting here next to me, taunting me, full of books I will no doubt want to consider for reading.

Right now I am reading Sweeping Up Glass by Carolyn Wall, which is set in the fictional county of Pope in Kentucky. I have not made much progress in the novel, but it is not for lack of interest. I am already drawn to the main character, Olivia Harker Cross, and her grandson Will'm. Olivia's mentally ill mother promises to be an interesting character as well. As Olivia puts it: "All in all, I have a crazy ma'am who owns a hundred dusty Bibles, a leggy boy with a too-soft hear, and no man to bed down with." [pg 7] Olivia's taken up where her now deceased father has left off, caring for the area grocery store. Sometimes people pay in food and animals, too poor to afford their bills. Olivia has had a difficult life. She is bitter, but there is a softness to her that she tries to cover up with wry humor and a tough attitude.

Shortly, I will be starting on a nonfiction book about the underbelly of the drug world as a journalist offers the reader a glimpse into a Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) investigation. It is not my usual sort of nonfiction read, but I wanted to read the book both out of professional and personal interest. Plus, I love a good crime story.

A couple of brief book related stories of my own to share:

My husband and I were having lunch the other day, and he made the mistake of asking me how the book I had just finished turned out. I gave him the rundown, spoiler after spoiler, knowing he'll never read the book. He paused before asking, "And you liked this book?" I actually did. I liked the book quite a bit. I guess in the telling, it does sound a bit ridiculous. In the reading though, it was quite believable and was a story well told. I guess it's good I didn't write the book.

And then . . .

While we were out shopping for a new sofa set this past week, my husband kept sticking his hands under and behind the cushions. I didn't think anything of it until we got to the final store where we found one we liked enough to add to our serious consideration list. He told me that his favorite feature on the couch was the way the back cushions were positioned and sewn onto the couch. He said it would be perfect for hiding a gun. Not too obvious when you go to pull it out--no digging under the seat cushions; slip your hand in and out the gun comes. My jaw dropped, and I just stared at him for a minute. I finally asked him, "And why would we need to hide a gun in the couch?" Heck, we don't even own a gun. He replied that he's been reading a lot of mysteries recently, and they've gone to his brain.

I won't mention the direction my own mind went when we saw three police cars, sirens blaring and lights flashing, pass through the intersection in front of us on the way home that same afternoon. By the time I first saw them coming to after they'd driven out of sight, I had an entire crime scenario laid out in my head.

I had hoped to have my review of Last Night in Montreal up and ready for you tomorrow, but it looks like there will be a slight delay. Not a long one though. I am behind in writing of the review and, while I could whip one out tonight and post it before midnight, I am not sure how good it would be. And a book like that deserves more of my attention and care than that. Not to mention I just don't feel like putting the pressure on myself to rush it.

It is back to work tomorrow. I hope I can remember my gazillion passwords (or where I put the paper on which I wrote them all down).

Happy Reading!

Week in Review:
Review: A World I Never Made by James LePore & A Word from the Author
Wordless Wednesday: Riding the Highway (Part 1)
A Week of Bookish Memes on Thursday
TGIF: Mail Call and Friday Fill-Ins

TGIF: Mail Call & Friday Fill Ins (June 12, 2009)

*Click on the image above to get to the Friday Fill-In headquarters, hosted by Janet!*

1. I grew up thinking that my parents chose my name by drawing it out of a hat full of slips of paper with names beginning with "W". I would come to learn, however, that, while my parents did purposefully seek out a "W" name, they were quick to settle on "Wendy" from Peter Pan. No hat involved.

2. Stop, You're Killing Me! was the last website I visited before coming here.

3. Why don't you kick off your shoes and stay awhile, and maybe leave a comment? I'd love to hear from you!

4. Reading a book right before falling asleep for the night helps me relax.

5. Thanks for the well wishes! I haven't been very good about staying off my ankle what with the sofa and love seat shopping and all. Those furniture warehouses are huge! I will do better this weekend. Promise.

6. Arrogance and rudeness are very off-putting.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to trying out my new sofa (if it's actually delivered same day like they promise) and finishing off season 2 of Torchwood, tomorrow my plans include cozying up with a book (and staying off my foot) and Sunday, I want to avoid thinking about having to go back to work on Monday!

---

Here's a look inside my mailbox on this Mailbox Monday on this Friday (brought to you by Marcia at The Printed Page ):


Dragon House by John Shors
The Help by Kathryn Stockett

A Week of Bookish Memes on Thursday

This week's Musings Monday question:

Do you have a set reading time (before bed, perhaps)? Do you read more at night or during the day? Is there a day of the week, perhaps, that you set aside to catch up on reading?

June gloom has settled in this week. The sky is covered in gray clouds and the sun is no where to be seen. The week is nearly over. My week of vacation. I had planned to schedule more reading time in, but it did not work out so well. There was company to entertain, errands to run, household chores that couldn't be put off any longer, movies to watch, and all the other stuff that comes up; and, while you would think spraining my ankle (yes, again) would keep me down, not a chance (maybe that's why I'm in this predicament, perhaps?).

I have been fitting in reading time before I drift off to sleep at least. Though, only once this week has my husband had to pry my book from underneath me, save my place and set my book aside. One of my favorite times to read is right before bed, actually. I like to curl up under the covers and read a bit before I can no longer keep my eyes open. My dog settles in for the night in his bed and the cats curl up on mine. It's such a peaceful time. Sometimes my husband will join us and read in bed too, but more often than not, he is still at his computer, typing away.

The weekends trump bedtime reading. If I can swing it, I can sit for hours reading, stretched out on the couch or sometimes even on top of my bed. More often than not though, I snatch an hour or two here and there, in between whatever else I have going.

I also read during my half hour lunch breaks at the work. My staff have gotten into the habit of asking me each day where I am headed. They don't mean the breakroom or my car or even an empty cubicle where no one can find me. No, they want to know what adventure my book will take me on that day.

It is not unusual to find me sneaking a moment with my book here and there: while waiting in line or for an appointment, for example. These moments aren't nearly as fulfilling, but they are rewarding in their own way.

When all is said and done, I never feel as if I have enough time to read. An extra few hours in the day just for reading would be nice. Hours without the distraction of computers and such, included.

---

Hosted by MizB Should Be Reading

A little tease from where I was:

When Lilia was very young the entire world seemed composed of motel rooms, strung like an archipelago across the continental United States. Island life was fast and transient, all cars and motel rooms and roadside diners, trading used cars at sketchy lots on the edges of places, long rides down highways in the sunlight, in the rain, talking to waitresses who thought she was too young for coffee, nights spent under the scratchy sheets of cheap roadside motels, messages written secretly in motel-room Bibles. I don't want to be found.
[pg 91, Last Night in Montreal by Emily St. John Mandel, ARC]

A little tease from where I am:

He took my jaw in his hand, and I jerked away. But his hands were firm, and he turned me back, ran a thumb over my broken lip and the other ropy scars, and told me I was the prettiest girl he'd ever seen. I called him a lying dog.
[pg 91, Sweeping Up Glass by Carolyn Wall, ARE]

A little tease from where I will be:

Every time Club Kids showed up on TV, new young converts from middle America would be inspired to run away to New York to join them. Alig let them believe that in his world, they could become freakish superheroes. It was liberating and boundless.
[pg 88, Chemical Cowboys: The DEA's Secret Mission to Hunt Down A Notorious Ecstasy Kingpin by Lisa Sweetingham]

---

Hosted by Jill of Breaking the Spine

This book caught my attention as I was catching up on my BookBrowse recommendations.

Brodeck by Philippe Claudel
Translated by John Cullen
Release Date: June 23, 2009

Book Description: Forced into a brutal concentration camp during a great war, Brodeck returns to his village at the war's end and takes up his old job of writing reports for a governmental bureau. One day a stranger comes to live in the village. His odd manner and habits arouse suspicions: His speech is formal, he takes long, solitary walks, and although he is unfailingly friendly and polite, he reveals nothing about himself. When the stranger produces drawings of the village and its inhabitants that are both unflattering and insightful, the villagers murder him. The authorities who witnessed the killing tell Brodeck to write a report that is essentially a whitewash of the incident.

As Brodeck writes the official account, he sets down his version of the truth in a separate, parallel narrative. In measured, evocative prose, he weaves into the story of the stranger his own painful history and the dark secrets the villagers have vigilantly keep hidden.

Set in an unnamed time and place, Brodeck blends the familiar and unfamiliar, myth and history into a work of extraordinary power and resonance. Readers of J. M. Coetzee’s Disgrace, Bernhard Schlink's The Reader and Kafka will be captivated by Brodeck.

What's your "waiting on" pick this week?

---

There are certain types of books that I more or less assume all readers read. (Novels, for example.)

But then there are books that only YOU read. Instructional manuals for fly-fishing. How-to books for spinning yarn. How to cook the perfect souffle. Rebuilding car engines in three easy steps. Dog training for dummies. Rewiring your house without electrocuting yourself. Tips on how to build a NASCAR course in your backyard. Stuff like that.

What niche books do YOU read?

At first thought, my response is that I do not read niche books, not of the variety the questioner refers to. While I focus mostly on fiction, I read such a wide variety that there is no particular area that stands out for me more than another. I read an awful lot of crime fiction. Perhaps that could be considered a niche. But I also really enjoy reading fantasy of just about every kind. I read and enjoy quite a bit of general and literary fiction as well. The classics and the contempories. Historical time periods: I am especially interested in the World War II era, but I am also interested in other historical time periods too as well as other wars. And locations. Anything overseas. I love to learn about other cultures and people. I also enjoy reading about books set in my own backyard. I enjoy reading series books and non-series books, genre and non-genre. I read a variety of nonfiction when I do read it, although I suppose you could say that my niche in nonfiction is human interest stories--and those come in a variety of forms. That's not so unusual though, is it? When all is said and done, I am just your average reader with no out of the ordinary reading tastes and interests.

Although, I do occasionally pull down the pet medical advice book when I am looking for a specific answer to a question. And I sometimes will read professional journals related my line of work, but not very often (terrible, I know). Does that count?

Wordless Wednesday: Riding the Highway (Part 1)

Hosted by Wordless Wednesday

Review: A World I Never Made by James LePore (& A Word from the Author)

She's dead, Pat wanted to say. I'm too late. But he could not form the words. He heard them echoing in his head, but though he tried he could not get them to his lips. Then suddenly he was crying, holding his hands to his eyes to hide his tears. [pg 13]


A World I Never Made by James LePore
The Story Plant, 2009
Suspense/Thriller; 262 pgs


The novel, A World I Never Made, opens with Patrick Nolan sitting across from a French Inspector. He holds his daughter's suicide note in his hands. He had never been close to his daughter, Megan. After his wife died while giving birth to their only child, Pat held onto his guilt and kept his distance from her. Megan's death brings his regrets to the surface. Only, as Pat will soon discover, it is not Megan's body which lies in the coroner's office. Under the impression that Megan was trying to fake her own death, Pat remains silent, going along with the ruse that his daughter is, in fact, dead.

Officer Catherine Laurence of the judiciary police is assigned to keep an eye on Pat Nolan. He is not the only one who knows his daughter is not truly dead, and there are those in power who hope he will lead them to her. Megan's name has turned up on a terrorist watch list, the Saudi police claiming she was involved with the planning of several suicide bombings in Morocco.

Catherine and Pat are thrown together in the search for Megan when they realize someone else is stalking Pat as well--someone who is much more dangerous, and those under his order will not hesitate to kill everyone in their wake. Pat and Catherine must get to Megan before those she is hiding from find her first.

Woven between the chapters of the race to find Megan, is the story of why Megan has gone into hiding, of why she felt the need to lie about her death. Megan, a freelance journalist, has always been an independent spirit, headstrong and motivated. She goes after what she wants, be it a man or a news story. And, in this case, she goes after both. There is much more to her current lover, Abdel al-Lahani, than she at first realizes. She soon finds her very life on the line, and she must flee before it is too late.

The two storylines eventually intersect, the pieces of the puzzle falling into place. Author James LePore has crafted an exciting and heart pounding novel. A father and daughter lost to each other for most of their lives rediscover each other as death chases right on their heels. The death of his wife Lorrie had devastated Pat. He blamed himself. He closed himself off from not only his daughter, but also from letting anyone into his heart. Believing his daughter was dead, even if for a short while, changed all that, as did his meeting of Catherine Laurence, the beautiful detective who carried her own baggage. She, too, had a well guarded heart. At first I wondered at their falling for each other so quickly given their defenses, but taking into account the high emotions, their current circumstances and the common bond they felt for one another, it does fall in the realm of believability.

I was not sure I would like Megan at first. She uses men and in the beginning came across as cold and calculating. She grew on me though. Like her father, she is a complex character with many layers. Her father's absence in her life wounded her and has influenced her life choices. She is intelligent and has a confidence and strength about her, which has seen her come out on top more often than not. It is easy to see why she was drawn to Lahani. He is charming and mysterious. They are very similar in that they hold parts of themselves back from one another. Neither wanting to let the other in, at least not completely. This in juxtaposition to Pat and Catherine whose hearts are just beginning to thaw.

The novel takes the reader all over Europe and North Africa, including France, Germany, the Czech Republic and Morocco. James LePore puts the reader right there in the midst of it all. His descriptions of the locales and people are rich and detailed, which is balanced out by the crisp dialogue.

I was most fascinated by the gypsies. They played a significant part in both Megan and Pat's stories. Their own history and mysticism is touched on ever so slightly in the novel. Having just read Precious by Sandra Novack, in which the mother was born to a gypsies during the Second World War, my interest was particularly heightened as I came across mention of that again in A World I Never Made.

Another aspect of the book that interested me is related to Megan's journalistic work: the culture and influence of Islam, particularly that of fundamental Muslims, in European countries, such as France and Spain. It is not something I have given much thought to but is worth looking into further for a better understanding of world events.

It was easy to get swept up in James LePore's novel. His writing is beautiful and the story is captivating. I really grew to care about the characters, especially Pat. It is a shame it ended so soon.


Rating: (Very Good)


Challenge Commitment Fulfilled: ARC Challenge, New Authors Challenge & 2009 Pub Challenge

---

I have not had a chance to do much traveling to other countries, and while reading about them is no substitute, it does offer me a glimpse into cultures and places I have never experienced. With the traveling I have been able to do, mostly within my own country, I know exactly what James LePore means when he says traveling "stirs the imagination." It certainly does mine! Please welcome author James LePore to Musings of a Bookish Kitty!

* * *

Wendy has asked about the research I did for A World I Never Made, which I am happy to write about because in doing it I get to relive the travels I took to places that ultimately became the venues--France, North Africa, The Czech Republic--for the novel. I made those trips in the late nineties, primarily to take pictures, but when it came time to write A World I Never Made, I found that I had done research by osmosis; images, sights, sounds, people, places, even smells, came back to me with such vividness that I knew I could describe them not only credibly but in a way that put the same scenes as vividly, or nearly so, into the reader’s mind as he or she went through the book. The thing about traveling, I think, is that it stirs the imagination in ways that you don’t know are happening, a sort of stealth insight is gained that you don’t know you have until you sit down later and start to create something, a painting for example or in my case a novel. A World I Never Made started with the idea of an estranged father and daughter and what road they might take to redeeming what they thought was a lost relationship. It became a thriller or suspense novel as well, with settings that are inherently romantic to a reader, a combination that I could not have accomplished without buying those airline tickets.

The rest of the research I did on line. Questions like how the French police jurisdictions are structured, or the timeline of the EU opening its internal borders, were all answered via search engines. I will tell you one secret: The Falcon of Andalus was a stroke of luck. I found him while researching the history of Islam in Spain, and I knew I had to use him somehow.

* * *
Check out James LePore's website for more information about the author and his book. And visit TLC Book Tours for a list of James LePore's tour stops!

Many thanks to author James LePore and TLC Book Tours for the opportunity to be a part of this book tour.