Two books on a hot summer day...

It seems like a long time since I’ve written about books.  Unfortunately I’m suffering from an unpleasant summer cold and so, instead of a hot cup of steeped chai tea, I’ve got a steaming cup of Neo-Citran in front of me as I write.  Not so nice, but necessary.  

I have two books to tell you about this week.  The first one I read was one I recommended as a purchase for my public library, The Day She Died by Catriona McPherson.  This psychological thriller begins with Jessie Constable, part-time charity-shop worker, bumping into a tall red-haired man with his two children buying groceries in Marks and Spencer.  She’s seen him before in passing, but he doesn’t appear to recognize her as she offers to assist him with his purchases.  He appears to be dealing with a crisis, and Jessie is good at helping people deal with crises.  She herself has to deal with her own overwhelming phobia, her fear of feathers (but she’s not afraid of birds).  Although at first it looks like the man, Gus, will refuse her offer, with a crafty and subtle turn of phrase, Jessie is suddenly installed at their secluded cottage near a caravan site far from her own home in Dumfries, and is making dinner for Gus’ two children, Ruby, aged four, and Dillon, aged two.  Gus, a sculptor, reveals that his wife, Becky, has disappeared, and they find a suicide note on the dresser in their bedroom.  Then police show up at the door to inform them that Becky has apparently driven off the cliffs - her car and body have been recovered.  Gus goes with them to identify the body, and comes home bereft, determined that Becky would never have killed herself.  Jessie is coerced into spending the night, and one day becomes two and then three, as she is seduced by Gus and by the gorgeous seaside setting.  Gus and Jessie quickly become lovers, and he reveals that he never really loved Becky, that their relationship was all a sham.  Jessie would love to believe this, but some niggling details bother her.  For one thing, there is the sudden departure of Becky’s best friend, Ros, whom Gus says just decided to return home to Poland.  Then there is the strange Polish man hanging around the caravan site who informs Jessie that Ros would never have gone back to Poland.  Why does Gus keep taking different ways to the cottage, first the back way, then the main route - is he trying to confuse Jessie or elude the farm workers and stay under their radar?  And what's with his obsession with the baby monitor? As more pieces are revealed, we become more entangled in the plot, until we don’t know what to believe, and nothing is as it seems.  We are led through a maze of details until the final satisfying conclusion, and while we as readers may find Jessie a bit too gullible at times, she shows herself to be a strong, resourceful and capable woman at the end and redeems herself, at least in this reader’s eyes. This is the second standalone novel I’ve read by this Scottish-born author (who now lives in Texas, I believe), and while it’s not great literature, it sure is creepy.  I’d give it a 7.5 out of 10 and would recommend it to readers who like mysteries where all is not what it seems, and hidden pasts play havoc on the present.  Note: I want to pass on my favourite quotation from this book.  Jessie is talking to Steve, a volunteer at the charity shop where she works, about having the contents of her dreams under control.  Steve, who has taken “every social sciences Open University course ever invented", says “The problem with positive thinking as a therapeutic device… is that it’s so depoliticized that it, in effect, privatises misfortune and turns it into blame” which, according to Jessie, “was a very typical Steve kind of thing to say and ended the conversation like only Steve can” (p 139).

And I read a book by Canadian writer Iain Reid, his first book of fiction, called I’m Thinking of Ending Things.  This book begins with an unnamed girlfriend confiding in the reader that she is thinking of ending her relationship with Jake, her boyfriend of about six weeks.  They are headed along a country road to his childhood home to see his parents, whom she has never met.  She recounts how she and Jake met, and the pros and cons of their relationship so far.  She is unsure about ending things, and thinks this may be a turning point for them, that this visit may just help her decide one way or the other.  But the reader senses that something is not quite right about this scenario, and these suspicions grow deeper as they arrive at the old secluded farmyard and farmhouse.  The interactions the girlfriend has with his parents over a hasty dinner, and her conversations with each parent individually as she explores the house deepen our suspicions and we want to warn her… but to do what?  We have no real proof that something strange is brewing, nor are either of her options good ones - stay with his parents or get back into the car?  As the tension mounts, we are led further and further into this unreliable narrator’s psyche as she tries to save herself from what she fears may be in store for her.  And then the final twist of an ending, which was, for me, a bit of a let-down, but I’m not sure what other ending would have worked.  It was not brilliant, but parts of the book were brilliantly written and made this reader think deeply about life and relationships.  I think I would rate it a 7.5 out of 10, and would recommend this short novel to readers who enjoy books where, once again, all is not what it seems, and whatever the narrator says should not be taken at face value. (Oh boy, so many books about ending things! Maybe I should choose something uplifting next!!)

That’s all for today.  I hope to be feeling better next week as I write my first post for the summer vacation.  Stay cool and keep reading!

Bye for now…
Julie

Let's try this again...

For some reason, yesterday's post did not get delivered to my email as it usually does around 4pm, so I'm going to repost as if it were a new post and see if this will fix things (don't know what happened - I was looking at my email settings yesterday, so hopefully I didn't mess things up!!) Thanks for your patience.

Yesterday's post:

I’m certainly appreciating my steaming cup of chai tea this morning, as it’s a brisk, windy 13 degrees, quite a change from the extra humid day we had yesterday.  

I have a book and an audiobook to tell you about today.  The book is one I read just for fun, Thursday’s Children (alternate UK title Thursday’s Child), a psychological thriller by Nicci French.  I must have read a review of this book somewhere, as I can’t imagine why else I would have requested it from the library.  I’ve read other books by this British husband-and-wife writing team, but not for quite a few years.  This book is the fourth in the “Frieda Klein” mystery series, and opens with Frieda having tea with a friend while waiting for an old school mate to show up.  It is clear from the first few pages that Frieda is not very open about her past, and that she is reluctant to share any information about it with those who are currently in her life, which is interesting since Frieda is a psychotherapist, someone who helps others come to terms with their past and take control of their lives.  Maddie shows up at Frieda’s door seeking help for her teenaged daughter, Becky, who claims to have been raped in her home a few days before.  Maddie doesn’t believe her, and thinks that Becky is just seeking attention and being dramatic, but asks Frieda to assess her and try to help, as she has stopped eating and has become withdrawn.  When Frieda hears Becky’s story, there are details that ring true and Frieda believes her, because when she was sixteen, Frieda herself was a victim of the same rapist.  She offers to do a proper assessment of Becky and then recommend a therapist, and Becky seems to be getting a bit better and even agrees to go to the police, but Maddie is more angry than ever, because she still doesn’t want to believe that her daughter was raped and feels that Frieda is just encouraging Becky in her attention-seeking behaviour.  Then Becky commits suicide, and Frieda must go back to Braxton, the small town where she grew up but a town she has avoided since she left suddenly shortly after her own rape.  Her mother, too, did not believe her, but she eventually went to the police anyway, although that investigation led nowhere.  Frieda visits her mother, whom she hasn’t seen in 23 years, and it becomes clear where Frieda learned to be so antagonistic.  She reaches out to Maddie for information because she doesn’t believe that Becky committed suicide, but Maddie just wants her to go away.  So, forced back into her old life, she sets herself up in Braxton and tries to contact people from her past who could help her piece things together from that night 23 years ago when she was raped in order to figure out who the rapist/murderer is.  All of this leads to a nail-biting conclusion that makes me want to read the first three books in this series, as well as the next two.  While not everything was totally believable, and Frieda’s character was not terribly likeable, the story was complex enough and fast-paced enough to keep me anxiously turning pages and looking for extra opportunities to read.  It definitely would have been helpful to have read the earlier books in order to better understand the relationships between Frieda and most of the male characters in the book, who all seem to be a little in love with her, but you could read this one on its own and still get most of it.  I was reminded of the awesome British film, “Truly, Madly, Deeply”, about a woman who can’t seem to get over the death of her partner, who comes back to haunt her flat and help her move on.  There are many men in her life who are also a little in love with her, and all want to help her with her grief (and her rat problem).  There are many similarities between the characters in the book and in the film, except that the main character in the film, Nina, is wonderful, while Frieda is, well, not-so-wonderful.  Anyway, I’d give it a 7.5 out of 10, and would recommend it to anyone who likes a complex, fast-paced psychological thriller.  As an aside, since I finished reading this book, I haven’t been caught in the rain!

And the audiobook I want to tell you about is March Violets by Philip Kerr, narrated by my favourite reader, John Lee.  I mentioned this book last time in relation to All Quiet on the Western Front and book banning in Nazi Germany.  Well, I’m not quite finished, but I don’t think I will have time to write a post next week, as I will be going away for a “girls’ weekend” and will be getting back late on Sunday.  Bernhard “Bernie” Günther is a 38-year old ex-cop-turned-private investigator in 1936 Berlin who is hired by Hermann Six, a rich industrialist, to track down the diamonds stolen during the home invasion that led to the murder of Six’s daughter and son-in-law and the fire that destroyed their house.  Günther’s investigation leads him to discover that Six and his son-in-law, Paul Pfarr, were at odds with one another, and that Pfarr was planning to reveal Six’s shady dealings to the SS.  One discovery leads to another, including corruption within the government and illicit relationships.  All of this takes place against the backdrop of Nazi Germany just before the outbreak of WWII, and the horror of what is happening is ever-present.  It really hits home during the disturbingly detailed scenes in Dachau camp.  If you are like me, your understanding of the conditions in Germany at that time have been informed largely by films and popular books that depict these conditions.  I have not read extensively outside of the usual material, but this section of the book gives me a fresh look at the horrors that took place in the years leading up to the war.  This seems to be a major theme, the everyday violence, as well as horrific conditions, Jews and others faced at that time, and the inability or reluctance of ordinary Germans to do anything about it.  I’m nearly finished, and it’s certainly been an interesting listening experience so far.  This is Book One in the Berlin Noir trilogy featuring Bernhard Günther.  I’ve listened to Book Two, Pale Criminal, recently, and will definitely check to see if the third book, A German Requiem, is available as an audiobook.  I give it an 8 out of 10, and would recommend it to anyone who likes reading detective novels set in WWII, especially if you enjoy the Philip Marlowe novels (Bernie is definitely his German counterpart).  

Time to get outside and enjoy all the gorgeous sunshine!

Bye for now…
Julie

Book and audiobook talk on a cool, bright morning...

I’m certainly appreciating my steaming cup of chai tea this morning, as it’s a brisk, windy 13 degrees, quite a change from extra humid day we had yesterday.  

I have a book and an audiobook to tell you about today.  The book is one I read just for fun, Thursday’s Children (alternate UK title Thursday’s Child), a psychological thriller by Nicci French.  I must have read a review of this book somewhere, as I can’t imagine why else I would have requested it from the library.  I’ve read other books by this British husband-and-wife writing team, but not for quite a few years.  This book is the fourth in the “Frieda Klein” mystery series, and opens with Frieda having tea with a friend while waiting for an old school mate to show up.  It is clear from the first few pages that Frieda is not very open about her past, and that she is reluctant to share any information about it with those who are currently in her life, which is interesting since Frieda is a psychotherapist, someone who helps others come to terms with their past and take control of their lives.  Maddie shows up at Frieda’s door seeking help for her teenaged daughter, Becky, who claims to have been raped in her home a few days before.  Maddie doesn’t believe her, and thinks that Becky is just seeking attention and being dramatic, but asks Frieda to assess her and try to help, as she has stopped eating and has become withdrawn.  When Frieda hears Becky’s story, there are details that ring true and Frieda believes her, because when she was sixteen, Frieda herself was a victim of the same rapist.  She offers to do a proper assessment of Becky and then recommend a therapist, and Becky seems to be getting a bit better and even agrees to go to the police, but Maddie is more angry than ever, because she still doesn’t want to believe that her daughter was raped and feels that Frieda is just encouraging Becky in her attention-seeking behaviour.  Then Becky commits suicide, and Frieda must go back to Braxton, the small town where she grew up but a town she has avoided since she left suddenly shortly after her own rape.  Her mother, too, did not believe her, but she eventually went to the police anyway, although that investigation led nowhere.  Frieda visits her mother, whom she hasn’t seen in 23 years, and it becomes clear where Frieda learned to be so antagonistic.  She reaches out to Maddie for information because she doesn’t believe that Becky committed suicide, but Maddie just wants her to go away.  So, forced back into her old life, she sets herself up in Braxton and tries to contact people from her past who could help her piece things together from that night 23 years ago when she was raped in order to figure out who the rapist/murderer is.  All of this leads to a nail-biting conclusion that makes me want to read the first three books in this series, as well as the next two.  While not everything was totally believable, and Frieda’s character was not terribly likeable, the story was complex enough and fast-paced enough to keep me anxiously turning pages and looking for extra opportunities to read.  It definitely would have been helpful to have read the earlier books in order to better understand the relationships between Frieda and most of the male characters in the book, who all seem to be a little in love with her, but you could read this one on its own and still get most of it.  I was reminded of the awesome British film, “Truly, Madly, Deeply”, about a woman who can’t seem to get over the death of her partner, who comes back to haunt her flat and help her move on.  There are many men in her life who are also a little in love with her, and all want to help her with her grief (and her rat problem).  There are many similarities between the characters in the book and in the film, except that the main character in the film, Nina, is wonderful, while Frieda is, well, not-so-wonderful.  Anyway, I’d give it a 7.5 out of 10, and would recommend it to anyone who likes a complex, fast-paced psychological thriller.  As an aside, since I finished reading this book, I haven’t been caught in the rain!

And the audiobook I want to tell you about is March Violets by Philip Kerr, narrated by my favourite reader, John Lee.  I mentioned this book last time in relation to All Quiet on the Western Front and book banning in Nazi Germany.  Well, I’m not quite finished, but I don’t think I will have time to write a post next week, as I will be going away for a “girls’ weekend” and will be getting back late on Sunday.  Bernhard “Bernie” Günther is a 38-year old ex-cop-turned-private investigator in 1936 Berlin who is hired by Hermann Six, a rich industrialist, to track down the diamonds stolen during the home invasion that led to the murder of Six’s daughter and son-in-law and the fire that destroyed their house.  Günther’s investigation leads him to discover that Six and his son-in-law, Paul Pfarr, were at odds with one another, and that Pfarr was planning to reveal Six’s shady dealings to the SS.  One discovery leads to another, including corruption within the government and illicit relationships.  All of this takes place against the backdrop of Nazi Germany just before the outbreak of WWII, and the horror of what is happening is ever-present.  It really hits home during the disturbingly detailed scenes in Dachau camp.  If you are like me, you’re understanding of the conditions in Germany at that time have been informed largely by films and popular books that depict these conditions.  I have not read extensively outside of the usual material, but this section of the book gives me a fresh look at the horrors that took place in the years leading up to the war.  This seems to be a major theme, the everyday violence, as well as horrific conditions, Jews and others faced at that time, and the inability or reluctance of ordinary Germans to do anything about it.  I’m nearly finished, and it’s certainly been an interesting listening experience so far.  This is Book One in the Berlin Noir series featuring Bernhard Günther.  I’ve listened to Book Two, Pale Criminal, recently, and will definitely check to see if the third book, A German Requiem, is available as an audiobook.  I give it an 8 out of 10, and would recommend it to anyone who likes reading detective novels set in WWII, especially if you enjoy the Philip Marlowe novels (Bernie is definitely his German counterpart).  

TIme to get outside and enjoy all the gorgeous sunshine!

Bye for now…
Julie

Post on a cool, overcast morning...

As I sit down to write, I’m enjoying a steaming cup of chai and some fresh Ontario “first-pick” strawberries that I got at the market yesterday, along with a slice of freshly baked Date Bread.  Although I know it will get warmer and more humid this afternoon, we had thunderstorms last night so this morning it is cool and overcast and looking like it could rain again at any moment… very fall-like, and just the kind of weather I love!  

My volunteer book group met yesterday to discuss All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque.  This is one of the books that I’ve had on my shelf for years and falls into Italo Calvino’s category of “books you’ve been meaning to read for ages and now it’s time to finally read them”.  Written by a German who was a former soldier during WWI, it tells the story of Paul Bӓumer, a German soldier in WWI.  But unlike other “war stories”, it is, as he writes on the first page before the novel begins, “neither an accusation nor a confession, and least of all an adventure, for death is not an adventure to those who stand face to face with it.  It will try simply to tell of a generation of men who, even though they may have escaped shells, were destroyed by war.”  There were, of course, battles and attacks, and leaves to go home, and card games, and trysts with French women, and hospital stays, and dealing with the wounded, both German and French, in the field.  But there were also many scenes of philosophizing about war and life amongst the men of Bӓumer’s battalion, as well as contemplation about the nature of war, and how it affects soldiers, both during the war and afterwards.  While on leave, Paul finds that he has difficulty fitting into his old life, and just wants to get back to his men.  This leads to consideration about what he will do after the war, how that sort of life is almost impossible to imagine.  My group was definitely glad to have read it, although, as is typical for us, it was certainly not an uplifting read.  We discussed the nature of war as we understand it.  I read aloud a section of the book when the men in Paul’s group are discussing war, and one man, Kat, is pointing out that, in war, unlike in real life, “(a man’s) head is turned by having so much power”.  Someone brought up that famous quotation, “Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely”.  Paul considers his experiences so far, as he is barely nineteen years old, and says “We are forlorn like children, and experienced like old men, we are crude and sorrowful and superficial - I believe we are lost.”  This really speaks to the point Remarque states at the beginning of the book, that even the men who are spared the shell are destroyed by war, that they will never have a chance to grow up and experience life as others have, they will always be separated by this horrific period in their lives.  We spoke about the poetic language of the book, and one member who read this many years ago in the original German said that the translation she had (translated by A. W. Wheen in 1929, which is the one we all had) was not a very good one, that some of the English words used were not accurate, particularly when the men are speaking.  But she said that the sections concerning philosophy and contemplation were fairly well translated. We all agreed that this book made us feel deeply, and think deeply about war and politics.  I’m listening to an audiobook that is a historical detective novel called March Violets by Philip Kerr, set in Berlin in 1936.  When I’m finished listening to it, I’ll write about it more fully, but it was interesting that just as I was finishing Western Front, which was one of the first books banned and burnt by the Nazis in 1933, one of the characters in the Kerr novel tells the main character, Bernhard Günther, that he should read a particular book now while it’s back in print.  He says that the book was banned by the Nazis and she agrees, telling him that it’s back in the bookshops to make the tourists in Berlin for the Olympics believe that things are not as bad as they have been led to believe.  That was a curious coincidence, and made me feel that I was meant to read this book now.  And with tomorrow being D-Day, thoughts of war linger.  We discussed the difficulties of readjusting to civilian life a soldier had, after different wars, and how the affects of war were not really acknowledged by family members, that former soldiers were expected to come home and just get on with things.  We talked about the different major wars, and how public responses varied according to how the causes of that war were perceived.  This led the group to think about other novels about war, and some of the titles we mentioned were Regeneration by Pat Barker, Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut, and The Wars by Timothy Finley.  This is, of course, a very short list.  I also mentioned a German film that this novel brought to mind, “Das Boot”, based on the 1973 novel The Boat, by Lothar-Günther Buchheim.  I would definitely recommend this book as essential reading if you want to understand the experiences of soldiers in WWI, and would rate it a 9 out of 10.

That’s all for today.  This cool, overcast, rainy weather perfectly suits the book I’m reading right now, Thursday’s Children by Nicci French, a British mystery where the characters seem to always be getting caught in the rain.  

Bye for now…
Julie

Later: I went out briefly this afternoon and, as if predicted by my reading selection, I did, in fact, get caught in the rain! I find it kind of eerie when my books mirror my life...