The Investigation by J.M.Lee, Translated by Chi-Young Kim

Posted on October 23, 2015 by bseat

The investigation_“Life may not have a purpose. But death requires clarity-not to prove that death occurred but for the benefit of those who survive.” And Yuichi Watanabe a Japanese soldier and prison guard during WWII, who is now charged as a low level war criminal by the US military is determined to get clarity and to make sense of what he saw and heard during his years at Fukuoka Prison.

It all started the morning that Sugiyama Dozen, Watanabe’s superior officer, was found murdered. It wasn’t just that he was killed, but it was the public and brutal way they found him; strung up naked from the high beam of the ceiling in the middle of prison ward three, his arms outstretched and blood dripping to the floor below making a sunburst pattern as it splashed. It had snowed the night before, making it clear from the lack of footprints that the murder was an inside job. Someone in the prison had murdered Sugiyama, one of its most tough and brutal guards.

Inexplicably, Watanabe, only a 20 year old new recruit, is assigned to investigate the murder and to report to the warden what he finds. One of his first clues is a poem that he finds in an inner jacket pocket. Written by hand the poem’s last stanza says:

I will not disturb you in your dreaming,

It would be a pity to disturb your rest:

You shall not hear my footsteps

Softly, Softly shut the door!

On my way out I’ll write

“Good Night” on the gate,

So that you may see

That I have thought of you.

Watanabe finds  the poem cruelly ironic given the way Sugiyama was found, but with nothing else to go on, he begins his investigation by focusing on one of Sugiyama’s duties which was as censor for any outgoing mail sent by the prisoners or guards. Eventually this leads him to Prosner 645,  a Korean who had moved to Japan in 1942 to enter the University to study English Literature and whom he suspects of having written the poem that he found in Sugiyama’s jacket.  But as he uncovers the connections between Sugiyama and Prisoner 645, Watanabe finds that he himself is drawn to this man with his facility for words and understanding of great literature, like Tolstoy’s, War and Peace and the poems of Rilke and soon finds that he is making up reasons to interrogate the prisoner just so that he can have an opportunity to talk with him.

Lee is masterful as he slowly reveals the treachery and greed that are at the heart of the murder of Sugiyama, even as he exposes the brutality of the of Japanese towards the Koreans who were imprisoned during the war. Based in part on a true story of the famous Korean poet Yun Dong-ju, this is an uncomfortable and unflinching look at the brutality of war, the loss of empathy that occurs when we see only “other” in faces of those we are told to hate, and the redeeming nature of art, music, literature and poetry, to help us retain our humanity even in the face of degradation and isolation. Thought provoking, challenging and inspiring, this was a book that was hard to put down!

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

 

 

 

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Alibi by Joseph Kanon

Posted on October 16, 2015 by bseat

Alibi_Adam MIller is desperately tired. As a US Army War Crimes investigator he has been working in Germany to bring the Nazis to justice, but it has taken its toll and he struggles with the enormity of the evil he has seen. Learning that his mother is in Venice, he decides to visit her there; to get away and recuperate away from the aftermath of war.

When he arrives, Venice in 1946 seems unaffected by the war. The expat community still gathers at Harry’s, the canals and the homes seem unchanged, and except for the fact that sugar and coffee are in short supply, it is hard to even see that the war has impacted Venice at all.  His mother, still recovering from the death of his father seems to belong here in ways that she never seemed to belong at home and Adam soon finds that the cause of his mothers’ happiness is Dr. Gianni Maglione, a genial but enigmatic Venetian of some standing in the community.

However, when Adam falls in love with Claudia, a Jewish woman who survived the war, he suddenly sees another Venice, a Venice that is much more sinister and with many secrets. As he confronts the horrors that Claudia endured, Adam unexpectedly finds himself confronting his own moral dilemmas. How much proof do you need to know someone is guilty? When is murder acceptable? How much is a perfect alibi worth?

Well paced, historically accurate, and with wonderful descriptions of Venice, Kanon immerses us in this post war world of intrigue and shameful secrets. He raises interesting questions about collaborating with the enemy, the uses of fear, the difference between proving a crime and knowing a crime was committed and the primal desire for revenge. Venice, the city, stars as a wonderful backdrop to this intrigue and pain, and somehow you know that those buildings and and cobbled streets have endured many such moments in history and remain as mute and enduring witnesses to the constant battle between our best and worst selves.

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

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

Book Study Worthy: Yes!

Read in ebook format.

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The Moor’s Account by Laila Lalami

Posted on October 9, 2015 by bseat

I don’t know about you, but as a reader I often fall into a rut.  I will find a certain author or genre that I like and will read them almost exclusively until I am bored or forced to read something else by someone you can’t refuse! (You know who you are!) Recently, however, I noticed that I was in another kind of rut, one that was geographic. I realized that I tend to read authors from North America, Western Europe (mostly Great Britain) or Japan and basically ignore the rest of the world.  So this year I have been trying to include books outside my normal  range in order to expand my horizons and gain new perspectives.

The Moor's Account_The Moor’s Account by Lalami, a Pulitzer Prize finalist, satisfies my criteria on several counts: Lalami was born and raised in Morocco and the book is about a Moroccan slave named Mustafa whose Spanish master, Dorantes, joins an expedition to claim a part of the New World for the Spanish crown.

Mustafa, known by his master and the others on the expeditions as Estabanico, begins his narrative as a counter point to  the official story that is eventually told by the survivors of the expedition, and a grim and awful tale it is. Starting out in 1527 with a crew of six hundred men and nearly a hundred horses, the conquistador Pánfilo de Narváez sailed from the port of Sanlúcar de Barramedto towards the Gulf Coast and Florida.  Their goal was to find a city of gold rumored to exist in this New World and to return with more wealth and become more famous than Hernán Cortés.

But from the beginning the expedition is plagued with problems. Navigational errors and poor judgement cause the expeditionary forces on land to become separated from their ships and supplies and soon they are decimated by disease and the persistent resistance of the local tribes.

As he narrates the expeditions failures and rapid decline, Estabanico’s unerring eye for truth and his unsentimental portrayal of his fellow expeditioners allows us to confront the greed and moral failure at the root of the expedition.  Ironically, the expeditions’ precipitous decline eventually forces them to rely on the kindness and generosity of the local tribes who only a short while earlier they were trying to kill or subdue into slavery. But in spite of that, many of the survivors, rather than being grateful, resent this kindness and refuse to engage the natives as equals, and insist on clinging to their vanished and questionable superiority.

Lalami recreates the age of conquest vividly. Estabanico is a wonderfully insightful narrator and his “otherness;” of being a slave and a moor rather than European give us another perspective in looking at our history. Her characters are complicated and multi dimensional and her portrayal of the native peoples is nuanced and realistic without becoming romantic. When an author can not only transport you to another time and place but also to a different perspective and understanding, that is a gift!  A gift I could not have received without stepping out of my own comfort zone.

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

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

Book Study Worthy: YES!

Read in ebook format.

 

 

 

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The Murderer’s Daughter by Jonathan Kellerman

Posted on October 2, 2015 by bseat

The Murder's Daughter_Prolific authors can sometimes be intimidating, especially if they write a series. Although you might want to read their books it is hard not to feel overwhelmed by the sheer number of books you will need to read!  Kellerman is such an author, with 30 books to his Dr. Alex Delaware series of psychological detective novels. Luckily, every once in awhile he writes a stand alone novel so you can enjoy his writing without having to make the commitment to reading  his whole series!

Dr, Grace Blades, an eminent psychologist, specializes in working with those she calls, The Haunted, people who are victims of psychological monsters.  Her patients include people like Helen, whose daughter was raped, strangled and mutilated by a predator who was killed while being arrested.  Fourteen years later, Helen still makes an annual visit to see Grace on the anniversary of her daughter’s death.  For The Haunted recovery is slow and incremental and although Grace considers Helen one of her success stories, she still makes time in her schedule to see her whenever she needs it, especially around that anniversary.

What makes Grace so effective with those she works with is probably because of her own traumatic childhood. By age five Grace had learned that she could not count on her mother or her erratic boyfriend to feed her or take care of her and learned to fend for herself. After witnessing the murder/suicide of her mother and boyfriend and being shuttled between one foster family after another, Grace was in danger of becoming just another casualty of the system,  except for the special interest that one of her social workers showed her.  Eventually Grace found a loving couple who adopted her and she was able to create a life for herself. Her past, however, has marked her and Grace knows that she is not like others; that she is more detached and has trouble feeling emotion in the same way that most people do. Sometimes, just in order to feel something she engages in risky behaviors. but that part of her life is far removed and compartmentalized from the professional person she portrays to her patients and friends.

Then, inconceivably, her two worlds collide. Her last appointment of the day, before going on vacation, turns out to be the man that she had met and seduced  the night before in a hotel bar. Politely refusing to treat him further she tries to maintain the separation of her two lives, but when the man is found dead and a homicide detective shows up on her doorstep, the threat to her two lives becomes even greater.  As she begins her own investigation into his death, while trying to maintain her secrets, she begins to see that the past can influence the present in ways that no one could have anticipated.

Kellerman  is excellent in pacing the story, feeding us just the right nuggets from Grace’s past at times that are most relevant to the larger story.  Grace is a complicated character, one that is hard to fully identify with, because she does seem remote and detached.  But that is actually the point of this character, to get us to think beyond the familiar and to see how someone not quite like us can think and respond to the world around them in ways that are so different from our own.  In that I feel like he has really succeeded. This was a compelling and interesting read which makes me think I should reconsider and take the plunge and read his Alex Delaware series!

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

Recommend this book to: Marian, Lauren and Sharon

Book Study Worthy? Yes

Read in ebook format.

 

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Perfidia by James Ellroy

Posted on September 25, 2015 by bseat

The reading life sometimes raises interesting conundrums. Originally, I believed that once I started a book I should finish it.  Just like the “clean plate” rule my parents instilled in me for eating food, I approached my reading in the same way: Once you start you need to finish.  This seemed like an honorable way to approach books and was probably reinforced by my limited selection while living in Japan. However, at some point I became aware that I was limiting my selections to tried and true genres or authors, rereading old favorites and in general missing the wide and awesome smorgasbord of choices that were available, just because I was afraid I would be trapped into reading something I didn’t like or enjoy.  So my rule changed to the “life is too short” rule which allowed me to dip into and taste a wide variety of books, authors and genres and if I didn’t like something I could put it down; since life is too short to read what you don’t enjoy!

Generally I do not talk in my blog about what I don’t like since it is hard to write about things you don’t like or couldn’t finish but on further reflection it is sometimes the things that we don’t like that reveal more about us or prove more useful to a reader than what we do like!

So in that spirit this blog posting is about a book I couldn’t finish.

Perfidia_Perfidia has been in my book queue for quite a while.  It had all the right components: a murder mystery set in LA right before the beginning of WWII and the hysteria that lead to the internment of Japanese Americans.  Additionally Ellroy is a solid author whose books I have enjoyed when they were made into movies-Black Dahlia and LA Confidential. So all the components were there, but I just couldn’t finish it because it was so toxic.

Every page was filled with racist and ethnic slurs. Most of the main characters were misogynistic, corrupt and brutal as they tried to out maneuver each other in their efforts to gain more power.  Although the investigation into the murder of a Japanese family right before Pearl Harbor had intriguing plot twists, it got lost in the toxic interactions between the characters. Generally, I love authors who conjure up the life and times of their characters since it adds a sense of realism and integrity to the story. Gritty, colorful language, regional accents and swearing can all contribute to that sense of realism but in this case the “color” overwhelmed the main story line making it impossible for me to read. I have been quite surprised by my reaction since I really am not a sensitive reader, but some combination of things in this book just got to me and I just had to put it down.  I am disappointed and even embarrassed to confess this but I am sure you too have experienced this at some point in your reading life.  I hope that you will take time to share your own “couldn’t finish it” books. Who knows it might be cathartic!  In the end, all I can say is that we have to shake off our disappointment and that smidge of embarrassment for not being able to gut through books we don’t like and then we must be vigilant to not let that experience taint our ability to try new books, or new authors or even new genres, because that would be the real perfidia!

Brenda’s Rating: Zero out of 5 Stars

Recommend this book to: Only those with tough stomachs!

Book Study Worthy? maybe

Read in ebook format.

 

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The Burnable Book by Bruce Holsinger

Posted on September 18, 2015 by bseat

A Burnable Book_Agnes, watched from a deep hedge while a nobly born woman was brutally murdered. The man who did it seemed familiar to Agnes but she can’t quite place him. There is no doubt the man was after something because after he killed her he stripped her looking for whatever it was he wanted. But finding nothing he left without any concern for the woman lying there naked and exposed. Now Agnes finally moves, her arms and legs cramped after hours of hiding in the hedge, and realizes that she is still clutching the small rectangular package that the woman thrust at her moments before the man caught up with her.  Agnes can still here the strange words the woman said just moments before she died:

Though faun escape the falcon’s claws

And crochet cut its snares,

When father, son, and ghost we sing,

Of city’s blade beware!  

Slowly she unwraps the package. First there is a beautiful cloth with intricate embroidery and then inside that is a book with only writing and no pictures. Agnes is uncertain. What was worth dying for? The cloth, the book or the verse?

In this wonderfully written book we are dropped into London in the year 1385. The young Richard II is on the throne. Treachery and fear of foreign and domestic attempts to overthrow the king are rampant and suspicions abound. But in the midst of all this political intrigue life goes on. We are introduced to Geoffrey Chaucer, who is just beginning to think about writing his magnum opus and his friend, John Gower, a fellow writer and trader in information, meet after a long absence and renew their acquaintance.  Slowly, however, the clouds of intrigue settle on London. The naked body of the brutally murdered woman is found and suddenly rumors of a book that contains prophecies of the deaths of all the monarchs of England including the present one begin to be heard in local taverns and in the corridors of power. John Gower using all his skills and knowledge must determine what is a real threat and what is mere fiction and try to head off whatever treachery is planned before it is too late.

This is a first novel by Holsinger, who is a professor of English at the University of Virginia, and it is quite an a achievement!  Like The Crimson Petal and White by Faber or Dissolution by C. J. Sansom, Holsinger is able to imbed us into a medieval time period and give us a deeper insight into the people, their lives and times. His ear for the vernacular;   the language of whores and butchers and noblemen, adds an extra layer of texture and authenticity that is so often lacking in historical novels. Characters like Agnes, John Gower and even Chaucer are fully realized and their struggles become our struggles. Holsinger is welcome new voice in historical fiction and I have already downloaded his new book: The Invention of Fire!  

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

Recommend this book to: Sharon, Marian and Lauren

Book Study Worthy? Yes

Read in ebook format.

                    

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In Memory of Ann McGovern

Posted on September 14, 2015 by bseat

I am not  Stone Soup_sure when I first read Stone Soup, but I remember the impact it had on me. The sly, tricky way the stranger elicited cooperation so that all in the village could eat well was one of those “Ahaa” moments that still resonates with me. I remember reading that story to my children never realizing that someday I would meet the author, Ann McGovern.

Ann was a force of nature: Intelligent, curious, opinionated, generous and driven.  Once you were in her orbit you needed to let go and enjoy the ride until you spun out of her orbit once again. Grandmother to our daughter’s fiancé, we were the recipients of Ann’s hospitality many times, while visiting our daughter in NY and each time I was struck by her adventurous spirit, passion, artistic interests and love of life.

A prolific author of children’s books and poetry, Ann wrote about what inspired and interested her. From Stone Soup to a story about the tiny house in NY that she lived in, to scuba diving which was one of her passions, to stories about inspiring women like Harriet Tubman, Deborah Sampson or Eugenie Clark, the Shark Lady and even social issues like homelessness, Ann wrote from her own experiences, sharing what she knew and loved and in the process inspired and taught her readers to follow their own passions and dreams.

At her memorial service on September 10, family and friends gathered to celebrate the life of a remarkable woman who on facing into her own mortality penned this poem:

Obit

She died of too much amazement at this life

and insatiable curiosity about the next.

 

Already she’s started a poem about the fog lifting

and the chocolates. They have different names there.

 

What a relief. There are no genders.

Only sex.

 

And sometimes peace,

Sometimes painted, sometimes danced.

 

Everyone is over eighty

In robust health and quick of mind.

 

Say your favorite color and the ethereal

designer will dye your hair to match.

 

You’ll learn Argentinean tango in one day

and all the old songs will come in to your head.

 

Eventually you’ll see for yourself.

 

Thank you, Ann!

 

 

 

Posted in Children's Books, Uncategorized | 3 Comments

The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu and Translated by Ken Liu

Posted on September 4, 2015 by bseat

The Three Body problem_The search for alien life has been going on for more than thirty years, but if you are like me you don’t think about it about it very much, except when you watch the movie Independence Day and see the SETI researchers scrambling when they hear the communications of the alien space ships making their final approach towards Earth. And yet, at some point it is possible that we will find life beyond our planet and we will be faced with the dilemma about what to do with that knowledge. It is this very question that is central to Liu’s novel, The Three Body Problem.

At first Wang Miao was not even aware that scientists were disappearing or committing suicide in vast numbers. As a scientist himself, working on nanomaterials, he was oblivious to what was going on outside of his own little world. but that all changed when Captain Shi Qiang came to visit and insisted that he help in the investigation into the disappearances.

Wang is quickly introduced to several people who are also helping the investigation and becomes acquainted with a computer scientist who is immersing himself in a virtual reality game in which the player must solve Euler’s three body problem in order to survive. After playing it several times himself, Wang begins to suspect that it is much more than just a game and may have something to do with the the disappearances. As he extends his investigation he also meets Ye Wenjie, now retired, who was the astrophysicist instrumental in developing China’s Red Coast parabolic antenna listening station up in the Greater Khingan Mountains. From her he learns how against the back drop of the Cultural Revolution she was able to surmount enormous difficulties to be one of the leading scientists at the Red Coast facility. As Wang tries to uncover what is behind the mysterious disappearances, he himself and the research he is doing on nanomaterials is threatened and slowly he becomes aware of the larger more ominous threat to all of humanity.

Liu is a celebrated Syfy author in China. This is the first of his novels to be translated into English and it is part one of a trilogy which is followed by The Dark Forest and Death’s End. Liu’s world view, is of course, Chinese centric, which offered me a new perspective from which to see the world.  And yet the questions he raises are really questions for humanity, and Liu is able to tease that apart and help us confront what it means to be human.  There is a lot of scientific material in this book that might slow some people down, but I found his explanations and discussions to be quite helpful and interesting.  Thank’s to Chris for recommending this book! I am not sure I would have found it on my own, so I am sure glad you pointed it out to me!

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

Recommend this book to: Marian, Sharon and Ken

Book Study Worthy: Yes

Read in ebook format.

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All The Old Knives by Olen Steinhauer

Posted on August 28, 2015 by bseat

All The Old Knoves_Six years after the dreadful hijacking in Vienna and the resulting loss of life of those on the plane, Henry Pelham is traveling to California to visit, Celia, a former colleague and lover who was working in Vienna with him on that day.  They were both assigned to the CIA’s Vienna station; Henry as a case officer and Celia as an analyst. At some point they believed they had an agent on board who was able to give them inside intel so a rescue could be attempted, but something went terribly wrong, their agent compromised, and leading to the loss of all life on board the plane. Everyone always wondered what happened and some even suggested that there was a leak inside their own office, but nothing was ever proved. After the debacle however, Celia decides that she has had enough and left the CIA, quickly got married and had children.

As these two former colleagues and lovers sit down to dinner the questions of whether their agent was compromised and if so by whom are never far from their minds. But like the good spies they are the conversation begins slowly as they talk about their lives and Celia shares her satisfaction at finding a new life away from the CIA. Inevitably, however, they turn to those lingering questions and the terror of that day and their mood becomes darker, and the conversation more pointed. Like a game of cat and mouse, they each reveal what they know and in flash backs we see the dreadful day unfold until the traitor is fully revealed.

Steinhauer has created a tight, suspenseful, thriller that unfolds around a dinner table, a feat in and of itself!  Masterfully written, with great dialogue and character development, this short, succinct book shows Steinhauer at the top of his form!

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

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

Book Study Worthy? Yes

Read in ebook format

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

Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng

Posted on August 21, 2015 by bseat

Everythig I Never Told You_“Lydia is dead. But they don’t know this yet.” And with these two sentences we dive deep into the life of a family, who until this moment do not realize how broken they are.

The Lee’s are a Chinese American family living in a small college town in Ohio. James, who is ethnically Chinese, is a professor of American History and has always realized how different he is and how he stands out.  When he met his wife Marilyn, who is white, he thought he had found a way to blend in and be accepted, but that did not happen as easily as he expected, and now he hopes that his daughter, Lydia will be able to bridge the gap and become popular and accepted.

Marilyn thought that she could have it all. To be married and have a career and do something beyond being a mother and a wife, like her own mother.  Gaining recognition for your intellectual accomplishments rather than your baking was her goal.  But once the children came and interrupted her efforts to become a doctor she had to put her dreams on hold, and eventually abandon them all together. Now she is desperate to make sure that her daughter will not make the same mistakes she did, and she challenges Lydia to excel in all the tough classes that Marilyn loved and excelled at.

Nathan is older and heading for college and is confused by the emphasis in the family on Lydia. Along the way he has been able to be the sounding board that Lydia needed when the pressure grew to great, but now that he is leaving for college he has become resentful that his parents seem so oblivious to him and his own accomplishments and as a consquence ignores Lydia.

Hannah, still in elementary school sees more that anyone realizes, and she may be the only one who knows what really happened to Lydia. As she collects precious things that no one seems to miss, it is she alone who may be able to guide her family back to wholeness.

Part mystery, but mostly a cautionary tale about the harm we do out of love, Ng has caught the essence of the cost of being different, the burden of parental expectations, and the despair of a child who struggles to be what she is not.

Brenda” Rating: ****(4 out of 5 Stars)

Recommend This Book To: Ken, Sharon, and Keith

Book Study Worthy: Absolutely!

Read in ebook format.

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