Pretty Girls by Karin Slaughter

Posted on May 20, 2016 by bseat

Pretty Girls_Claire is waiting for her husband, Paul at the bar of a restaurant. They are celebrating the fact that Claire has been released from serving her time with an ankle monitor: her punishment for  getting into an altercation with one of the women in her tennis club. This brush with the criminal courts has been trying for Claire and Paul, upsetting their posh lifestyle in the suburbs of Atlanta. When Paul comes they have a drink and then decide to skip dinner and go home, when suddenly they are accosted by a man with a knife in the alleyway beside the restaurant. The hold up turns deadly and Paul dies of a stab wound right in front of her eyes.

This is the second time someone has left Claire so abruptly. The first time was when her sister, Julia, disappeared at age 19, leaving a void in their family that they never quite recovered from and creating an estrangement between Claire  and her other sister, Lydia. Reeling from the shock and feeling disembodied, Claire tries to go through the motions of making funeral arrangements and tying up the loose ends Paul has left behind. But as she sorts through Paul’s papers she begins to realize that her marriage and the life they enjoyed was not all that it seemed. Feeling out of her element and needing help to sort things through, Claire reaches out to her sister, Lydia to help her figure out the trail that Paul has left behind.

This is a disturbing and scary book! If books could be rated this one should be rated “read at your own risk” because of the harrowing exploration of a depraved serial killer’s mind. Slaughter is a good writer and she has written one of my favorite series, but this stand alone book was hard to read and hard to put down. Slaughter has created very nuanced characters, and Claire and Lydia’s sibling rivalry and the emotional toll that the loss of their older sister has had on their lives is told deftly and compassionately. Her description of the serial killer’s mindset and motivations are some of the best I have ever read, but were awful and emotionally exhausting to read. Slaughter has done something pretty amazing, but it is almost too real and too awful to enjoy.

Brenda’s Rating: *** (3 out of 5 Stars)

Recommend this book to? Only the brave!

Book Study Worthy: yes

Read in ebook format.

 

 

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The Secret Chord by Geraldine Brooks

Posted on May 13, 2016 by bseat

The Secret Chord_As someone who went to Sunday School from a young age, I am pretty familiar with the the story of David, the shepherd boy who killed the giant Goliath and became king of Israel. So I wondered what more I could learn about David from Brook’s new book, The Secret Chord which is about David’s life.  The answer is, quite a lot!

Told from the viewpoint of the the prophet Nathan, who became David’s conscience and moral compass we hear how David rose from the obscurity of being a shepherd boy, to the fearless young man who killed the giant Goliath, a Philistine who had been taunting the Israel’s armies. Although David then became a companion to King Saul, Saul’s madness and paranoia soon drove him into exile in order to save his own life and sets him on the path to eventually become king himself.  David’s failures as a husband and father as well as his ultimate betrayal of trust to one of the men who served him are vividly portrayed as well as Nathan’s role in calling him to account for his wrongdoing. This is the complicated story of a less than perfect man who somehow became one of the most loved kings of Israel, and who forged a strong relationship with his God in spite of his own short comings and imperfections.

From the beginning, Brooks transforms the biblical narrative of David’s early life giving context and meaning to why David was sent away from his family at an early age to become a shepherd for his father’s flocks. Her insightful reasons for why a father might do that sets the tone of David’s life and allows us to understand some of the choices he makes later on in his life in ways that I had not thought about before. I really appreciated how Brooks wove in many of the songs (Psalms) that are attributed to David throughout the book; letting his own words speak for themselves.  Brooks allows us to a see a more complicated human being, someone to whom I could relate to and identify with rather than just a story I heard in Sunday School and that is quite an achievement!

Brenda’s Rating: ****(4 out of 5 Stars)

Recommend this book to: Sharon, Keith and Ken

Book Study Worthy? Yes

Read in ebook format.

Posted in Fiction, Historical Fiction, Literary Fiction | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

The Japanese Lover by Isabel Allende

Posted on May 6, 2016 by bseat

the Japanese Lover_Fearing the worst, Alma’s parents sent her away from Poland in 1939, as they experienced the rising threat of Nazi Germany. They sent her to her uncle’s family in San Francisco where they lived in a mansion overlooking the water, with the hope that they might be reunited again after the war.  Alma, uprooted and lonely finds a special friend in the Japanese gardener’s son, Ichimei and for a time she finds that she can forget about her parents in Poland and the life she knew there. But the war intrudes and when the Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor, Ichimei and his family are forced into an internment camp far from San Francisco. Although the two friends try to stay in touch by correspondence, eventually the distance proves too muvh and they lose touch.

Now almost 70 years later Alma has retired from her life as an artist, business woman, socialite and philanthropist and has moved into Lark House a delightfully bohemian retirement home with eccentric and odd residents who allow Alma to blend in almost unnoticed. Irina, one of the new staff people takes an interest in Alma and soon they have established a comfortable if not affectionate relationship. Seth, Alma’s irrepressible grandson, comes to visit often as he tries to coax Alma to tell him about their family and her life for his new project- a novel. But Alma has been keeping secrets for a long time  and is resistant to Seth’s desire for more answers.   With Seth visiting more regularly, however, he notices that Alma suddenly disappears for several days every time a yellow envelope arrives in the mail. Enlisting Irina’s help, Seth tries to find out what the yellow envelopes contain, hoping they will offer some clue to the secrets he knows his grandmother is keeping.

Allende has captured the spirit of Alma with deftness and tenderness. Alma is a strong woman who has suffered incredible losses and disappointments and experienced love and joy as well. Now at the end of her life she is trying to come to terms with the cxhoices she made and the secrets she has been carrying, trying to find closure before she dies. Allende, portrays this process without sentimentality, showing us Alma’s clear sighted honesty as she looks back on her life and in doing so we can be grateful that the choices Alma had to make are no longer choices that would be required of her today. Allende is not as skillful in portraying her other supporting characters like Seth or Irina who seem less fully realized in comparison to Alma. The portions describing the round up of Japanese for internment were quite powerful, reminding us that fear exerts a powerful cost on individuals caught up in its clutches as well as to the fabric of society when it is allowed to run rampant.

While I enjoyed this book I do not think it is as well written as some of Allende’s other works.  The story, however, is quite compelling and carried me through to the end which was quite satisfying.

Brenda’s Rating: ****( 4 out of 5 Stars)

Recommend this book to: Keith, Sharon and Marian

Book Study Worthy? Yes

Read in ebook format.

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The Lake House by Kate Morton

Posted on April 29, 2016 by bseat

Lake House_With the words, “Don’t come back until you’ve got yourself sorted,” ringing in her ears, Sadie Sparrow left London and her job as a detective in the police force, to visit her grandfather in Cornwall. Those words, spoken by her partner Donald, were both a warning and a plea, because this time Donald might not be able to cover up the mess she had made. She had been making a lot of mistakes on the job recently, but this one, leaking information to the press implying that the police might have botched their investigation on the disappearance of a young woman, was beyond the pale. And that was why, with the press in a feeding frenzy, Donald had warned her that for her own sake and his she needed to go away and stay away.

With her mind filled with remorse and confusion over what she had done, Sadie decided to take her grandfather’s dogs for a run, and didn’t notice until it was too late that one of the dogs had wondered off into the woods. Trying to find the dog, Sadie comes into a clearing with an old, rather elegant, abandoned house.  With a lake in front and some over run gardens, it is clear that the house was beautiful in its time, but that had been a long time ago.  When she returns to her grandfather’s home she begins to ask questions about the house on the lake and the people that lived there.

Sadie’s interest and questions about the house on the lake eventually lead her to Alice Edevane, a mystery writer of some repute,who has been carrying a secret for many years regarding the disappearance of her younger brother, Theo. As the mystery begins to unravel, neither Sadie or Alice could have anticipated what it would reveal

Kate Morton writes about the complex nature of women with a clarity and empathy that is often missing in contemporary fiction. Her characters are always sharply delineated, with their own motivations, and characteristics. Her characters span generations, which is also unusual, and older woman like Alice are portrayed sympathetically as complex, smart people who act their age without being a caricature. The plot was quite complex and Sadie’s story line and Alice’s story line although separate became intertwined in a way that was most satisfying and with an ending that was quite surprising!

Brenda’s Rating: ****(4 out of 5 Stars)

Recommend this book to: Lauren, Marian and Sharon

Book Study Worthy? sure

Read in ebook format.

 

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The Hidden Man by Charles Cumming

Posted on April 22, 2016 by bseat

Spies and books about spies have always intrigued me. Maybe it was because I grew up overseas and had to learn how to fit into another culture or maybe it was just because I loved the suspense that accompanies spy novels. What I hadn’t always considered however, was the affect that such a life would have on a spy’s family, especially the children.

the Hidden Man_A man is murdered in cold blood in his apartment.  He had worked for MI6, and made a name for himself as a good but some what difficult operative. More recently however, he was working in the private sector helping companies negotiate the intricacies of doing business with former communist countries.  His name was Christopher Keen.

The brothers, Mark and Benjamin Keen never really knew their father since he left to take an overseas posting while they were quite young and never returned to the family. Now more than twenty years later, they are suddenly contacted by the authorities and told that their father is dead and that his death is probably a homicide.

Benjamin never wanted to reconnect with his father. His resentment towards his father for his abandonment was so strong that he wanted nothing to do with him. Even when he got married recently, he never considered inviting his father.  And yet, knowing now that his father has probably been murdered, is strangely unsettling and dredges up conflicting emotions.

Mark is shocked at the news. Unbeknownst to Benjamin, Mark has been in contact with his father. The company Mark works for, a vast entertainment conglomerate, with plans to expand their nightclub business into Russia, had hired the consulting firm Divisar, where Christopher worked, to help in their negotiations. Mark has always been curious about his father, wanting to get to know him and the work that he used to do for MI6, so he was glad that they would have this opportunity to work together. But now that opportunity is gone leaving Mark grieving and confused.

As the investigation into the murder progresses it becomes clear that this was a murder of revenge but the police are uncertain about who or why.  MI6 and other agencies, including the CIA are soon involved, trying to figure out the motive, but only end up muddying the waters of the investigation. Worried that their father’s murder will just become an unsolved murder, Mark and Benjamin begin their own effort to solve the mystery of who killed their father.

Cumming’s cool, crisp prose grabs your attention and pulls you quickly into the lives of the characters. Mark and Benjamin with their conflicting feelings towards their father are complicated and interesting characters. The back story of the complex relationship between the West and the Soviet Union during the Cold War is told simply and clearly giving added dimension and complexity to the motives for murdering Christopher. This is a thoughtful, satisfying and perceptive book about the lives of spies and the costs that life inflicts on those around them!

Brenda’s Rating: ****(4 out of 5 Stars)

Recommend this book to: Keith, Ken Sharon and Marian

Book Study Worthy: yes

Read in ebook format

 

Posted in Fiction, Mystery, Spy/Covert Operatives, Suspense, Thriller | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Lamentation (The Psalms of Isaak) by Ken Scholes

Posted on April 15, 2016 by bseat

lamentation_

I have been wanting a good fantasy series to read after Fool’s Assassin Fools Quest by Robin Hobbs (which I totally snarfed and enjoyed.) But let’s be real here, all you fantasy fiction lovers out there know that I am really just killing time until George R.R. Martin finally gets it together and releases the 6th book in his Song of Ice and Fire series (Hurry Up, George!) So I was pleasantly surprised to find Ken Scholes and the Psalms of Isaak series just when all seemed lost! This a great read and a great intro into what promises to be a captivating series with a new world, great characters and an incredibly complex plot line!

Neb,  a young apprentice and his father, Brother Hebda  are on the outskirts of the city of Windwir, when they suddenly realize the apprentice has forgotten the bishop’s letters of introduction and credit which are vital to their trip to the Wastes. With no other choice, Brother Hebda heads towards the city to retrieve the letters, leaving Neb to watch their things.  Feeling miserable for having caused this delay, Neb is caught unaware until a silence like he has never felt before envelops him. Along with the silence comes a wind that seems to bend the sky and both darkness and light fill his eyes. Transfixed, he watches as the ground shakes, birds scatter and the city spires and roofs tumble and collapse and a wall of fire burns everything in its path until there is nothing left but the Desolation of Windwir.

Many miles away General Rudolfo has just completed one of his rounds to the Houses of the Ninefold Forest. Having completed his duty to dispense justice and listen to the concerns of the that House’s steward he is now moving onto the next House. Traveling with his Gypsy Scouts through the wide ocean of yellow grass that separates the Houses from one another and from the rest of the Named Lands, Rudolfo is at peace for it is in these wide open spaces that he finds freedom from the duties he carries. As they turn south towards the next House, Rudolfo sees something strange in the distance. A pillar of smoke billowing high in the sky. Something that massive could only mean devastation.

Scholes has created a vast and engaging world, set far into earth’s future where once again the ability for massive destruction has been unleashed. As the leaders of the Named Lands gather around the desolation that is now Windwir, they must confront the possibility that one among them may have caused this devastation and potentially has destroyed all knowledge, for Windwir was the depository of knowledge and enlightenment in the Named Lands.

Scholes characters are engaging and interesting. He gives them different perspectives and motivations which allow us to see things from various points of view and we can see both the differences and the commonalities that allow for alliances and mutual distrust. His plot lines are complex and keep you guessing, which adds another layer of interest and intrigue. This is the first in a four part series and I am really looking forward to reading the rest to see what happens next!

Brenda’s Rating: ****(4 out of 5 Stars)    

Recommend this book to: Lauren and Marian

Book Study Worthy: yes

Read in ebook format

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The Saxon Tales Series by Bernard Cornwell

Posted on April 8, 2016 by bseat

As you already know, I am a pretty big fan of Bernard Cornwell. So when I recently was preparing to go on vacation and stocking up on books to take on my Kindle, I discovered a whole series by Cornwell that I had not gotten around to reading! You, my fellow book lovers, will totally understand the joy, excitement and sheer exhilaration that comes from such a discovery! I promptly downloaded all 9 books and snarfed them during vacation!

The Last Kingdom_As a child Uhtred was the son of a nobleman living in Bebbanburg a wild North Sea coastal fiefdom in what would later become England, but was now just a loose federation of four kingdoms whose leaders were constantly feuding against each other. But in the 9th century however, their squabbles seemed almost childish compared to the fierce and powerful vikings who began ravaging their coastlines seeking treasure, slaves and new lands to conquer.  And so it was that Bebbanburg’s downfall also came at the hands of these powerful Danes who went a viking. In Uhtred’s case his father was killed in the attack and his uncle, seeing his chance for power made a deal with the Danes to leave him in place as ruler of Bebbanburg with a promise to pay tribute thus depriving Uhtred of his birthright. Uhtred, instead, ended up as part of the spoils of war given to a Danish warrior who had resettled his family in this new land and luckily was accepted as part of the family.  As Uhtred grew he was able to train in the Danish style of warfare, learned the art of the shield wall, worshiped their gods and accepted their way of life, until no one could tell that he had not been born into a Danish family.

This good life however was suddenly destroyed when a rival Danish warrior who took offense, came and destroyed their home and killed Uhtred’s adopted mother and father in a horrific slaughter.  Uhtred who managed to hide and keep quiet, watched from the forest as the horror unfolded leaving him an orphan for the second time.

Vowing revenge and hoping to maybe be able to regain control of Bebbanburg again, Uhtred makes his way to Alfred the King of Wessex and offers to help him oust the Danes who have caused such havoc all over the four kingdoms.

Cornwell bases Uhtred on a distant family relative and you can tell that he has done enormous amounts of research to bring the time period and culture to life. The clash of faith between Uhtred who worships Thor and Alfred, also know as the Monk King for his devotion to Christianity, is of significant import in this story. Uhtred who was baptized as a child in the Christian faith, now has nothing but disgust for the “nailed god” who Christians worship and similarly Alfred cannot fathom those who choose to follow pagan gods in the face of the one and only Truth.  But in spite of their antipathy for each other’s faith, Alfred and Uhtred must forge an uneasy alliance in order to get what they want from each other.  For Alfred, Uhtred is a rich source of knowledge of the Danish fighting style and the strategies that might be used to overcome their superior force. For Uhtred, Alfred is the one person who can give him his birthright, Bebbanburg.

If you love historical novels, you will be spell bound by a master story teller who lets you inside the minds of people of the 9th century, allowing you to understand their way of life and their deeply human responses to betrayal, hope, and faith. An added bonus for readers is that BBC is now adapting these books into a TV series called The Last Kingdom!

For ease of reading the following is the the series in book order.

  1. The Last Kingdom
  2. The Pale Horsemen
  3. The Lords of the North
  4. Sword Song
  5. The Burning Land
  6. Death of Kings
  7. The Pagan Lord
  8. The Empty Throne
  9.  The Warriors of the Storm; with more to come!

Brenda’s Rating: ****(4 out of 5 Stars)

Recommend these books to: Ken, Sharon and Marian

Books Study Worthy? yes

Read in ebook format!

 

 

 

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The Dark Monk by Oliver Potzsch

Posted on April 1, 2016 by bseat

Sometimes you get all the things you like in one bite! Much like the chocolate turtles with their chocolate, nutty, and gooey caramel goodness that I love, this book has all the things I like in books, a mystery set in medieval Europe with protagonists who are interesting and different from the norm.

Dark Monk_Magdalena is the daughter of the village hangman, Jakob Kusil. She lives with her family in the small town of Schongau in Bavaria but they are ostracized by the villagers because of her father’s work as the town’s executioner. Magdalena feels this antipathy most keenly now that she is of marriageable age, and realizes that no one will want to have her marry their sons, even if she has become very clever with making herbal remedies and has been apprenticing with the local midwife. She has been seeing a local man named Simon, but she knows he has a roving eye, and her father has been trying to persuade her to marry another hangman in the city of Augsburg who was recently widowed. Her limited choices have made her irritable and so when the neighborhood women who had gathered to support their friend during a difficult labor accuse her of jinxing the birth, she snaps at the women, causes a scene and the midwife has to ask her to leave to restore order. Which is why she is in the street when a beautiful woman rides up on an imposing stallion. The woman calls out to Magdalena and introduces herself as Benedikta. She explains that she is the sister to one of the pastor’s in the community, an Andreas Koppmeyer, and wonders if Magdalena might be willing to direct her to her brother’s church. Glad to get away from the scene of her humiliation, Magdalena, happily shows this strange and exotic woman to the church. but once they get there they discover both Simon and Jakob investigating the scene of a murder-Andreas Koppmeyer’s murder, and soon all five are caught up in the quest to find out who has done this terrible deed.

Potzsch has researched the time period extensively and the character of the hangman is based on his own family’s history of several generations of hangman’s in the family lineage. This is the second in the series, the first being The Hangman’s Daughter, and I find that what I really enjoy about these books is that you really get a sense of how people lived. Potzsch describes the cold, how the roads were rutted and muddy, the warmth of the tavern and the smell of beer and stew, the light through stained glass, and the penetrating cold of a church. He obviously loves the area in Bavaria where his books are set, and is able to give a sense of geography and setting that brings the story to life.

I hope you will give this series a try. They certainly have been quite enjoyable and satisfying to me!

Brenda’s Rating *** 1/2 (3 1/2 out of 5 Stars)  

Recommend this book to: Marian and Sharon

Book Study Worthy: yes

Read in ebook format.

 

Posted in Detective novel, Fiction, Historical Fiction, Mystery, Series, Suspense | Tagged , | 2 Comments

The High Mountains of Portugal by Yann Martel

Posted on March 25, 2016 by bseat

Yann Martel burst onto the literary scene with his award winning seafaring fable, The Life of Pi.  Now fifteen years later he has returned with another story about the meaning of loss and the way we journey through grief.

High Mountains of Portugal_Set in Portugal, the story begins with Tomas, who in the space of one week has lost his father, his young wife and their newborn son. Slightly unhinged by grief, Tomas discovers an old journal written by a priest who served as a missionary on an island used as a base for slave traders. The priest, also slightly unhinged by what his experiences, hints at a religious artifact that Tomas is convinced will redefine history. So Tomas sets out on a quest to the high mountains of Portugal in one of the new fangled machines called an automobile, to find this mysterious artifact.

Thirty-five years later a Portuguese pathologist, who loves Agatha Christie mysteries is visited by an old woman who demands that he perform an autopsy on her husband to find not how he died, but how he lived.  Strangely the doctor finds, during the course of this highly unusual autopsy, the connections between this man’s death and the quixotic quest of Tomas.

We then jump some fifty years ahead and meet a Canadian senator who returns to his native land of Portugal after the death of his wife. Traveling with an unusual companion, a chimpanzee, he finds in a remote village in the high mountains, acceptance as well as the answers he needs to find closure for his grief and loss.

Martel has offered us a tender, surprising and at times, even humorous story about the the vagaries of loss, the weight of grief and the soul’s endless search for meaning. Spanning through the century, it is partly a historical novel and yet its surprising twists remind us that we are not traveling in a straight line through the territory of reality and facts, but often stray into the land of metaphor, faith and the heart. Martel’s prose is seamless and descriptive and the emotions of the characters; their grief, anger, joy and love are vibrant and deeply felt. This is an exquisite meditation on grief, faith and the depth of the soul’s work to find meaning in our pain.

Brenda’s Rating: *****(5 out of 5 Stars)

Recommend this book to: Sharon, Marian, Lauren Keith and Ken

Book Study Worthy? YES

Read in ebook format.

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The Expatriates: A Novel by Janice Y. K. Lee

Posted on March 18, 2016 by bseat

The Expatriates_Living abroad can be both exciting and challenging.  Dealing with a new culture and language, and more importantly finding a place of your own in the constantly changing landscape of the expatriate community can be difficult.

Mercy, a recent graduate from Columbia University came to Hong Kong hoping it might be  be just the thing to restart a career that had led nowhere.  Maybe in Hong Kong, she thought she could find a place where she could excel and thrive in a way that she had been unable to do at home. But things did not go as planned and soon after her arrival a terrible incident occurred and it seemed as if the bad luck she had experienced in the US has followed her to Hong Kong, only this time with devastating consequences.

Hillary, followed her husband to Hong Kong when he was transferred there. She was used to having status and wealth since she came from a wealthy family and has thrived in Hong Kong with its expectations of having daily help and drivers and all the other extra perks that come to executives and their families who live overseas. Although she has become one of the leaders of the expat community, Hillary feels like there is something missing in their lives and wants to have a child, which she believes might just save her marriage.

Margaret, a mother of three, had immersed herself in the joys and messiness of being a “mother.” She had been active in her children’s school and had created close bonds with the other mothers and their children. She had felt that living overseas was a wonderful experience for her family and had used their vacations to visit other countries in Asia and Europe in order to enrich their children’s lives. Her children and family were the center of her life. But now, after a shattering loss, she is questioning the very nature of motherhood and is just barely able to go through the motions of daily life.

Lee weaves the stories of these very disparate women into an extraordinary novel of overcoming tremendous loss and the natural inclination to blame others for our misfortunes, into a celebration of true friendship and the deep ties that bind women in inexplicable ways.  Lee’s writing is warm and descriptive, giving us a sense of what life is like in an expat community with it’s forced intimacy and competitiveness. The women are complicated, and although initially, Hillary especially seems shallow, Lee is able to tease out the real humanity and depth of character each woman must reach for in order to carry on with their lives. This is a rich and engaging book!

 Brenda’s Rating: ****(4 out of 5 Stars)  

Recommend this book to: Lauren, Marian, Sharon and Keith

Book Study Worthy: Yes

Read in ebook format

 

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