Bookish Renoir

Pierre Auguste Renoir - Girl Reading a Book

"A girl should be two things: who and what she wants."

--Coco Chanel

Another bookish thriller...

Anomalies: that was what they always looked for. Tiny tears in the thread of normality. Little departures from the logical sequence of a straightforward criminal investigation. It was in those insignificant details that something else often lay concealed, something that pointed to a different, unimaginable truth.

 There are a lot of story lines to keep track of in Donato Carrisi's The Lost Girls of Rome; these seemingly unconnected threads do eventually weave together into one intense psychological thriller, but it was a bit of a challenge at first keeping them all straight. I'm glad I persisted, though.

First, there's Sandra Vega, a forensic analyst who photographs crime scenes. Her photojournalist husband, David, recently died. His last message to her? It's freezing cold here in Oslo. The problem with that? He died in Rome. So, what story was he researching and who killed him? His last 5 photographs hold the clues and Sandra is determined to follow them and find the truth.

There's also a serial killer, Jeremiah Smith, and his most recent victim, a young woman named Lara who is still missing.

And an Interpol agent who claims that he knew David and who is searching for David's photographs...and for something else.

Then there's Marcus, part of an old secret society, who's looking into these seemingly random crimes, but who's own past is an ever bigger mystery. He may be suffering from amnesia, but he's the master of anomalies.

To say this book is complicated is an understatement. What holds it together are the characters, especially Marcus and Sandra. I liked them both. And Carrisi's deft writing kept me reading through all the strange twists and turns to the very end. And what an ending! Carrisi draws from real life criminal cases which adds authenticity to his novel. (Be sure to read his Author's Note at the end.) Plus, it's set in Rome. What more could you want? This is a fast-paced and intense mystery that'll leave you gasping.

Happy Reading!

The Whisperer by Donato Carrisi

Death is highly seductive.

Corpses always arouse our curiosity.

Death, especially violent death, 

exerts a strange fascination on the living.

Five missing girls. Six severed left arms. One criminal mastermind. Dr. Goran Gavila, a noted criminologist, is searching for the monster behind these crimes. Helping him, is Mila Vasquez, a young detective who's solved 89 missing-person cases. This case leads them and the other members of their team into a labyrinth of darkness, where each new clue that they find adds another twist to the mystery and seems to take them even further from the truth. 

I love a good mystery and The Whisperer is a chilling psychological thriller that is hard to put down. Not only is it literary and intelligent, it's also haunting. Carrisi's characters are complex and multifaceted, and each one has a secret, including Goran and Mila. And you won't believe the ending! I never saw it coming. This is definitely one of the best books I've read this year. In a lot of ways this book reminded me of two other books I really loved: In the Woods by Tana French and Now You See Me by S.J. Bolton. If you're a fan of either of these authors, I think you'd really like Donato Carrisi, too.

Happy Reading!

Becoming a Bibliophile...

bibliophile - n. a person who loves books

I was watching a 4th grade girl as she was trying to choose a book to read the other day at school; she picked up Charlotte's Web, flipped it open, then quickly put it back down.

     "Charlotte's Web is a good book," I said.

      She shook her head. "It's too hard; there are too many words."

She then proceeded to pick up and put down several more books in a row. It seems her sole criteria for choosing what book to read was not what it was about, but whether or not it looked easy. If it had too many words in it, or looked "too hard", she refused to even give it a try. She eventually ended up with one of those easy-reader books that a 1st grader could read. It was amusing at first, but then it made me sad. How is she ever going to learn to love books if she only reads those she finds "easy"? Think of all the great books she's missing out on!

I'm glad that when I was growing up my parents filled our house with books both easy and hard. They bought boxes of books from library sales and let me choose books from school book-orders. And if there was ever a book I wanted to read that seemed too hard, my mom or dad would read it with me. I was lucky. My parents taught me to love books and reading. They made me the bibliophile I am today. I just wish all kids were as lucky.

Don't Judge a Book by Its Zombies...

"My father was right. Monsters walk among us."

In Alice in Zombieland, Gena Showalter has written a fast-paced and fun teen read where everything is heightened and intense--the fight scenes, high school, the romance between Alice and tall, dark and dangerous Cole Holland, and, of course, the zombies. Showalter's zombies are not your typical zombies; her zombies are infected evil spirits that have risen from the grave rather than mere flesh and blood, and only a few humans can see them. As for fighting them? Well, that's where it gets challenging. Luckily, Alice has Cole and his gang of  friends to help her figure it out.

It was the title that made me reach for this book, I admit; I just couldn't resist a book called Alice in Zombieland. (Although there's not a lot of Wonderland in this book.) I did like that Showalter brought a new and unique take on the usually formulaic zombie genre. I also thought she captured the angst and drama and language of high school. (Although some of her choices made me wince.) As for her Alice? I'll let you decide that for yourself:

     Had anyone told me that my entire life would change course between one heartbeat and the next, I would have laughed. From blissful to tragic, innocent to ruined? Please.

     But that's all it took. One heartbeat. A blink, a breath, a second, and everything I knew and loved was gone. 

     My name is Alice Bell, and on the night of my sixteenth birthday I lost the mother I loved, the sister I adored and the father I never understood until it was too late. Until that heartbeat when my entire world collapsed and a new one took shape around me.

The BEST zombie book I've read:

     World War Z by Max Brooks

Third Classic of 2014...

It's not plot that drives a Barbara Pym novel, it's the characters. And in Jane and Prudence, Pym has created some delightful ones. Prudence Bates is 29, "an age that is often rather desperate for a woman who has not yet married." She works in London, is in love with her employer, and specializes in unsatisfactory love affairs. Jane Cleveland, on the other hand, is 41, and a clergyman's wife trying to adjust to a new parish, who "reads too many novels." She's a bit scattered and not very domestic, has one daughter, Flora, and is determined to find Prudence a suitable widower to marry. These two friends from Oxford are the heart and soul of this charming novel.

I happily immersed myself in their lives, enjoying their various encounters, sympathizing with their defeats and disappointments, and laughing at their astute observations of life. Take this bit of dialogue between Prudence and Jane's "suitable widower":

     "I always think women who write books sound rather formidable."

     "You'd prefer them to be stupid and feminine? To think men are wonderful?" (Prudence)

     "Well, every man likes to be though wonderful. A woman need not necessarily be stupid to admire a man."  

See what I mean? Pym's writing (like Jane Austen's) is witty and insightful and her novels are delightful and funny. My favorite is still Excellent Women, but I enjoyed this one almost as much. Plus, it filled another category for me in the What's In A Name Reading Challenge that I'm participating in this year. (Not that I needed another reason to read this Barbara Pym novel; her novels are reason enough.)

Happy Reading!

What's in a Name 2014 Reading Challenge Update: 2 books read; 3 more to go.

Category completed with this read: Read a book that has a forename (or names) in the title.

 

Musings

• Did you know there are 365 beaches on the island of Aruba? That's a beach a day for an entire year! I think I need to go there.
• I have 12 squares filled in on my bookish Bingo card (and 7 squares on my YA card). So close to Bingo; still a ways to go for blackout. But definitely having fun.
• Memorable quote from The Taliban Cricket Club by Timeri N. Murari: "To read a language, any language, is a wonderful gift ... I remember my own excitement at discovering the alphabet -- first the letters formed words and then sentences, paragraphs, and pages, and ultimately they provided the pleasure of reading a whole book ... " I couldn't have said it any better.
• An overheard snatch of conversation that could be the title of a book: All the Ruths Are Dying. Isn't that great? I have no idea what kind of book it would be, but I know I would definitely pick it up to find out.
• I like to go birdwatching, and this week I was finally able to add my 100th bird to my birding life list: the common goldeneye. (I saw about 6 females at the Jordan River Parkway--brown-headed ducks with a white band around their necks and bright yellow eyes.) Yay. My 100th bird!!
• And lastly, here's some good advice from Matt Haig's delightful (and funny) novel The Humans:  Your life will have 30,000 days in it. Make sure you remember some of them.