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Dec 14, 2009

Tying up some loose ends

Finished the Cara Black - we are set up to do an interview between her and the mystery bookclub on Tuesday via Skype. I'll be interested to hear how she got her start, she was great when we did the run-through yesterday.

Of the two arcs I have left to blurb before our trip, the McCrery is almost finished. The synesthesia angle is pretty interesting. I watched a programme on the science channel last year about it, imagine your whole brain re-wired, you smell sounds and taste colours. Lapslie the detective in this novel can taste sounds and his condition appears to be accelerating. The other factor McCrery uses to great effect is the shocking Jill Dando case - she was gunned down on her boyfriend's doorstep in Chiswick. I was still in England when that happened and the press did fall over themselves to get justice for their fallen colleague but after accusing everyone from a nutjob stalker to the Serbian mafia the police ran out of leads and her murderer was never caught.

This is likely to be the last post of 2009. I didn't do a top ten this year because there are too many good books out there this year.

Happy Christmas and see you in 2010

Dec 10, 2009

New Lisa Lutz

Got the new Lisa Lutz arc yesterday - the fourth and last in the Spellman series - which comes out in March. Reluctantly I've had to put it on the bottom of the pile.

Dec 9, 2009

Two more arcs - and the best toffee apple ever.

Tooth and Claw by McCrery - about a detective with synesthesia and Heresy by Parrish which I'm pegging as a name of the rose type mystery. There's a tag line on the side 'choose a side, know your enemies, stay alive' so it could be Elizabethan 'survivor' I'll let you know.

Currently sticking up the keyboard because I'm eating the tastiest Christmas present a home-made toffee apple and instead of putting my characters into sticky situations this time I'm right in there with them.

Dec 3, 2009

Side note

The majority of the books reviewed here come from arcs. I have to point this out because I recommended Nocturnes by Ishiguro the other day much the same way I've recommended, Casebook of Victor Frankenstein by Ackroyd, Sum by Eagleman, the aforementioned Nocturnes, Dracula returns by Dacre Stoker, Anthologist by Baker etc.

Someone who was in the store that day and reads my blog (!) sent me an anonymous comment saying that I shouldn't have recommended it because they had searched my blog and couldn't find a review for it. First of all thanks for reading, second I don't review books that will basically sell themselves or another member of staff has taken the time to review or that we bought for their literary merit. Just for the record one of my favourite books Soldier of the Great War by Helprin isn't reviewed here.

The whole idea behind this blog is to introduce you to new books/authors some are part of established series which means a little back tracking. If I recommend a book in the store it means I've read it. Another reason why independent book stores rock.

Arc-ing nicely

Finished and blurbed the new Robert Crais, The First Rule due out January. My first LA noir for a long time. Will definitely be dipping into this series again. American Girl is next by Monika Fagerholm. Guessing this is going to be a slow burn, bit like Steig Larsson's millenium trillogy. Still sending out queries and have had a couple of requests for the full manuscript this week. Author party tonight at the store and then staff party tomorrow.

Nov 28, 2009

Tana French

Her new book is coming next year and will be entitled Faithful Place - the protagonist is Frank Mackey who ran Cassie in The Likeness - which is cool because we figured it would be Frank or O'Neil taking the lead on the next story and my money was on Frank.

Nov 25, 2009

Mo Hayder

Finished and blurbed Skin but as often happens with me I've come in the middle of series. I thought Ritual was the first of the Caffrey books but the first is Birdman, so now I have to put an order in for that. The blurbs for Hayder's books show me I'm going to like these as I'm a fan of PD Cornwell's early work and Lynda La Plante, the woman behind Widows and the formidable Jane Tennyson in the Prime Suspect series. Skin - Hayder's latest - is out in January.

Officially done

For some reason it won't let me put the logo on here so I've put a link to the page. Finished the Hayder, got the Crais arc ready to start - never read any of his stuff so we'll see.

Nov 24, 2009

Unofficially Done

I'm at just over 50K tomorrow I can scramble and plug in my numbers and officially be past the finishing line. Nano is such a great exercise, it shakes loose ideas and makes you write things you wouldn't normally dream of, I don't know if I'll use all of the stuff I wrote, but I did get some great ideas and a new character who is going to shake things up a bit.

Still reading the Hayder arc, requested a copy of the new Alex Berenson, I have at least three more arcs waiting in my box at work and we're picking up speed into December.

Nov 21, 2009

cracked 45K

yay! 5K left. Celebrated by picking up the arc of the new Mo Hayder. Nothing cozy about this!

Nov 12, 2009

Transported to Buckshaw

Tuesday -see previous post - I needed to be somewhere else so I dived into the new Alan Bradley arc. The Weed That Strings the Hangman's Bag (pub 2010) shows Bradley is growing Flavia and her talents even though he intends that she remains eleven years old.

Nov 11, 2009

Cracked the 20K and v sad news

A day of highs and deep dark lows. I cracked the 20K on nanowrimo which made me giddy 'cos when I started this time I didn't think I'd see it through.

The low, my beloved favourite Aunt - my Mum's older sister passed away yesterday afternoon. I cried buckets yesterday but as they say 'life goes on' and while I will mourn her in my own way she wouldn't want me to come unglued so I won't.

Nov 5, 2009

Pioneer Woman Rocks

I worked the Ree Drummond event last night. It was amazing - and the thing that will stick with me about the event was the people, they patiently queued, some ordered food from the Paris and had impromptu parties on the floor away from the queue until their end the alphabet was called. We had people chatting, networking, exchanging e-mail addresses. The staff (us) dealt with customer queries and in few cases complaints without losing our cool, we shared the love with all the local restaurants. It was a welcome shot in the arm for most of the businesses in that area. Ree was lovely, her sister took pictures, her Mum came and chatted with us up at the counter. Every book got signed including the pre-purchased ones. Props to Ree for touring indie bookstores ie small and with limited space to hold an event.

Nov 1, 2009

Vows of Silence, Susan HIll

This is the fourth of the Serrallier mysteries and as the series progresses Hill is starting to give PD James a run for her money.

Once again the Cathedral town of Lafferton is under threat this time from a gunman – not a crazed one – this one has a plan. His intended targets young woman under thirty. DCS Serrallier is stumped, no clues, no leads, no sightings of the gunman no idea of where he will strike next. Paula Devenish is worried, the press are busy hyping the killer and castigating the police. Another wedding looms this one with royalty attending. The whole force is on edge and with Simon dealing with a personal tragedy he could be losing focus. Simon takes a risk that if it fails could cost him his beloved career. Hill’s tale of family, deep religious themes, a killer addicted to killing and a lone wolf Superintendent determined to catch him is a page turner that will keep you on the edge of your seat and even make you cry a little.

Nano November

Just finished The Earth Hums in B Flat - already out, great bookclub book. Gwenni is 12 and a half and she can fly - in her dreams. Gwenni's trying to find Ifan Evans who has gone missing. Set in a close knit Welsh village in the 60's Gwenni's search unearths secrets among the villagers and in her own family. Also just finished Girl With Skirt of Stars by Jennifer Kitchell not out yet but very Hillermanesque.

I'm posting one review for the new Susan Hill and apart from that I'll be doing nanowrimo for the rest of the month so posts will be few and far between until I'm done.

Oct 29, 2009

Neuropath

Professor Thomas Bible’s best friend shows up out of the blue, then disappears.

Neil Cassidy, brilliant, charismatic and hunted by a watered down FBI taskforce for a series of horrific crimes that leave Thomas shaking his head in disbelief. ‘My best friend couldn’t have done that’ he says. But what if he did? What if Neil and his colleagues at the NSA found a way to shut off the circuits in the brain that induce fear, recognition, pleasure, pain or even love.

Set in a near future world where global warming has kicked in, Europe is in frozen chaos and Russia no longer a threat. Neuropath explores the dark recesses of the human mind and the consequences of rewiring our own circuitry.

Oct 24, 2009

What I read this week and a tough decision

Finished Gutshot Straight - good - comes in out in January of next year. Don't quite get the title. I would've said that was my favourite read of the week and then along comes Noah Boyd's The Bricklayer and consider me blown away. First in what I hope will be a long series, unputdownable with plenty of pace, twists and suspense but you'll have to wait until Feburary 2010 to get your hands on it. Next up Shades of Gray the new Jaspar Fforde.

The tough decision, losing the opening sequence of Tball - all 50 pages of it (gulp!). On the re-read it was too pedestrian and didn't reflect the growth or increased responsibility of the character. I'm sure the ripple effect will catch me out further down the line and I'm sorry my 'fixer' had to go but maybe I can use him for something else.

Oct 21, 2009

The danger of the single story

A friend sent me this podcast - click the title link to view it takes a while to fully load and please forgive the adverts at the end. Chimamanda Adichie gives an insightful talk which pricked my conscience several times. Don't worry if it pricks yours too.

Oct 19, 2009

Support your local bookstore!

This price war between Amazon and Sprawlmart is ridiculous. I know these are tough times but discounting books to under 10 dollars is only going to help those two companies bottom lines. It won't help the publisher, the new untried authors just waiting in the wings to wow you and most of all it will hurt the small indie bookstores like ours. We can't discount the way the chains do but the way they sell books they might as well be selling fast food. The only interaction you get is at the till where they try to up-sell you their discount program.

Indies all over the country are struggling and they provide a much better customer experience. We greet our customers, if they are repeat customers we often greet them by name. We recommend books based on our having read them not because the buyer at head office likes them. We are passionate about matching books with customers and we always want to know what you thought of our recommendations. We have a discount program and ours doesn't cost you a cent. So please after reading this post find out if you still have an indie bookstore in your part of the world and if you do - visit it - get to know the people who live and work in your community and after numerous visits you may even become friends. Give a giftcard from an indie bookstore (indiebound is valid at indies all over the country)

Use us or lose us.

Oct 17, 2009

arcs galore

Current on my to-read pile, The Bricklayer by Noah Boyd, the new Jasper Fforde which I'm so excited about I forgot the title and one called The Bellringers which I want to read but may run out of time before doing so.

Oct 16, 2009

The Gates by John Connolly

Started this yesterday and finished it this morning. Connolly the author of The Book of Lost Things has come up with a tale perfect for Halloween.

The Gates of the title are the Gates of Hell which the inhabitants of 666 Crowley Road in the sleepy hamlet of Biddlecombe have inadvertently driven a wedge into. But the event was witnessed by young Samuel Johnson and his faithful dog Boswell out trick or treating three days early. This is a young adult book but would appeal to older readers too. Of course being a little boy no one believes Samuel, not his soon to be divorced Mum, his teacher or his local priest. Samuel teams up with his young friends, the scientists manning the Large Hadron Collider at CERN in Switzerland and a very confused banished demon with a passion for jelly beans and driving fast cars while hiding under a blanket.

This book is laugh out loud funny in parts - the local vicar taking down a very bad tempered (and long dead) Archbishop named Bernard the Bad is priceless. It's Shaun of the Dead meets Harry Potter. Fans of Terry Pratchett, Neil Gaiman or the late Douglas Adams will love this.

Oct 15, 2009

Nutty week

Two more shifts and this nutty week will be over. Sherman Alexie was incredible last night - we had at least 200 people over at the Framery, the Bagley/Dixon event on Tuesday was well attended and for tweens we had Kaleb Nation - the twilight blogger guy - on Monday. On my break last night I managed to sneak a peak at 'And Another Thing' by Eoin Colfer. Douglas Adams' estate asked him to a Hitch Hikers Guide sequel and judging from the first couple of chapters I think they picked the right man for the job.

In the middle of 'Gutshot Straight' right now. Also starting to re-read Tball and do a page by page of what needs changing/fixing/polishing but at least I've got a first draft of the second book.

Oct 9, 2009

Some thoughts on Paris Under Water

This isn't out until January but several things struck me as I was reading that can't really go into a blurb. The first - how visible officials were, they not only visited the worst hit areas, they sent aid when it was requested sometimes in a matter of hours. In Jackson's book there are numerous photos of Louis Lapine prefect of police and the Premier and President - Briand and Fallieres wading in mud, sitting in rescue boats, showing the people their government was in this disaster with them. Not one minister left his post - in fact the National Assembly continued to meet even as its corridors filled with flood water.

Second the modernisation of Paris, especially the Metro enabled the flood waters to reach farther into the city, in some cases engineering made the situation worse.

I couldn't help comparing the Paris flood of 1910 with the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

Lastly the 1910 flood lasted just over a week and stretched the civilised Parisian's social fabric to breaking point. If it had continued into the second week this might have been a different story. Take away our creature comforts for a couple of weeks and watch us descend into chaos.

Oct 8, 2009

Ups and Downs

The ups - having a request for the full manuscript - not just a partial or the first two chapters - the whole thing!

The downs? another rejection letter waiting for me when I got home last night and the fact that I just agreed to work Monday thru Friday next week! To avoid any further damage I'm taking myself and my laptop to an anonymous coffee shop as of now - I'm in the home stretch of the second book:-)

Oct 7, 2009

Still caught up in the Paris floods

Finished the Propher Murders, next up is Crush by Jacobsen. Still working on the Paris arc, plus Gutshot Straight by Lou Berney just hit my in-box. The blurb reads like an amped-up version of The Transporter and therefore right up my street.

Oct 2, 2009

last but not least

The Violet Hour by Daniel Judson

The power of a lie, it can come back to haunt you and destroy everything you love. Cal Rakowski is about to learn this the hard way. Someone he knows, someone he trusts isn’t who they appear to be and mechanic Cal whose off-the-book job is about to go up in flames has no idea of the trouble headed for the tiny town of Bridgehampton in the run-up to Halloween and beyond. An ex husband with limitless resources and a sadistic streak, a fixer with his own personal female assassin, a tenacious FBI agent all looking for or looking to kill Cal’s friend. It’s going to be hell in the Hamptons.

Another new October title

The Hunt for Atlantis by Andy McDermott

Dr Nina Wilde has made the discovery of the millennium, the location of the mythical Atlantis. Helped by the philanthropic Frost foundation and protected by Eddie Chase a blunt Yorkshireman with an SAS background Nina and the Frosts race to uncover the temples of Poseidon before the mysterious and deadly brotherhood can destroy them forever.

The action careens from the streets of New York, via Iraq to the Gulf of Cadiz and the mountains of Tibet. With the brotherhood hard on their heels and a traitor in their midst Nina and Eddie must uncover the truth and battle a revelation so explosive it could bring about the end of one civilization and the resurrection of an old order. Throw in an undiscovered lost tribe, a megalomaniac bent on global destruction and the revelation that ‘they walk among us’ and you’ve got a thriller that’ll keep you reading into the small hours.

The first in a rip-roaring new adventure series that has movie franchise written all over it.

New for October

Rizzo’s War by Lou Manfredo

There are clean cops and dirty cops and then there’s Joe Rizzo. Joe is the kind of cop who puts away the bad guys, calls in favours when he needs them and tries to break only five rules a day. He’s on internal affairs’ radar but Joe considers himself and his fellow officers chemotherapy for the cancer of petty crime that ails New York City. So he’s wary when city councilman Daily has him and his new partner Mike McQueen assigned to an off-the-books search to find Daily’s messed up runaway daughter. What did she take that he so desperately wants back and can Rizzo and McQueen handle the fallout that their investigation is about to generate.

Manfredo’s gritty debut thriller strips away the car chases and gun fights of TV cop shows and takes you deep into the nuts and bolts of police work and as Rizzo tells his young partner. ‘There’s no wrong. There’s no right. There just is.’

Sep 30, 2009

Wednesday Roundup

Back from chilling out in Vegas. I've just started 'Paris Under Water' by Jackson. Non fiction and so far fascinating - who knew Paris flooded - when I think of floods I think of Venice. Bought the first of the 'Turkish Delight' mystery series by Mehmet Somer because I just requested an arc for the third in the series and thought maybe I should read the other two first! I also have in my box a manuscript which I'm going to give the 50 page treatment.

At breakfast this morning Sally or 'the beloved' as we call her said that on a Utah talkshow they called the staff at TKE snooty. I've worked with this lot getting on for four years and they are like family to me and they are lovely, whip-smart on their chosen subject and fairly savvy on the rest of the inventory, we try and greet all our regular customers by name and we say hi to anyone who walks into the store. How is that snooty? Comments welcome - good bad whatever - I want to know what you the book buying public think of us staffers at TKE.

Finally one of the blogs I read on a regular basis is Nathan Bransford's - an agent at Curtis Brown - and he always has some great insights into the industry but yesterday's post bordered on genius. As a writer I'm working my way through the list of agents I can submit to with varying degrees of success. Nathan suggests that while submitting to an editor at a big press is a no-no, you can still submit to smaller presses. In fact some of the people commenting on his post said that they got a deal with a small press before they got an agent. I'm still going to work my way through the list but at the same time I'll start compiling a list of small presses.

Sep 23, 2009

Research teaches you the weirdest things (part 3)

So Tball is rolling along nicely but I wanted some factual reports on a particular substance because while it sounded tailor made to my plot it had 'Urban Legend' written all over it. Most of the reports seem to be coming from Colombia and there are sites that let you read the local papers - all over the world. So off I go to 'paperboy.com' and load a bunch of Colombian online newspapers.

The first thing that happens is my system slows down, way down. My babel fish translator seems to have hopped off my computer and google translator is having a really hard time. I killed all the tasks I had running, rebooted and then ran virus and adaware scans. In the 10 minutes I was in virtual Colombia my computer picked up 14 dataminers and 1 keylogger. I'm having coffee with a friend this morning over at 'the evil giant' so I will make full use of their medical dictionaries and see if this stuff really exists.

Virtual Colombia - bad!

Same idea - different direction I hope!

Our trip starts tomorrow so will be off until next week. So here's something to think about. Why is it that every year you get pairs of books that are so similar in subject that the authors could've been looking over each others shoulders while they were writing them. I'm not saying that they did I'm saying that ideas are viral almost like a radio station you can tune into if you know how. Just by comparing the blurb Neuropath shares many traits with Mariposa by Greg Bear. I may try and read Mariposa since it doesn't come out until November. Another thing the title didn't exactly shout tech thriller at me in fact it made me think of flower arranging!

Sep 20, 2009

Neuropath - freaky!

I just finished the arc it's a near future thriller with elements of The Matrix and Frankenstein about it oh there are plenty of mad scientists in here. The thing that will keep me up at nights for a while is the fact that science can already pinpoint which areas of the brain respond to which stimuli. How soon will some overzealous scientist start trying to rewire the best computer ever - the human brain?

Sep 18, 2009

2 new arcs and no I haven't read The Lost Symbol - yet

I ordered my copy of Crush this week - hope that this lives up to the blurb!

Managed to snag a couple of arcs yesterday. Neuropath by R Scott Bakker and Pais Under Water by Jackson. Neuropath (like Psychopath) comes out next month so I'll get cracking on that one first. The Paris arc is Jan 2010.

We sold out of all of our copies of Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol and because of the drum-tight secrecy there were no advanced reader copies. I may have to buy a copy to read on the plane in December. On Saturday we've all been drafted for the Shannon Hale event because she is local and has such a loyal following the store will be packed and time will fly.

Sep 12, 2009

The Twelve

This was a quick read, I liked it but there wasn't any real conflict. Max leads a fascinating life and the book poses some theories of what could happen when the Mayan calendar ends. So here's the blurb.

Max Doff is a bright little boy with a strange affinity for numbers. On a routine visit to the Doctor's office Max 'dies' and before returning to his body he is shown a list of twelve names. Over the course of his life he comes into contact with each of the twelve in order. Synchronicities occur that ensure this happens. Max's role seems to be to bring this group together but can they bring on the planetary shift that could save humanity and who is The One.

Sep 9, 2009

Up for Nano again this year

I wasn't going to do Nanowrimo this year - the idea I've been working on has run its course and produced not one but three manuscripts - one finished, one a work in progress and the last one is still as raw as the day I finished Nano last year. But. Well I'm going to do it again because I had a cracking idea over the weekend. I was re-reading dialogue that I wrote for one of my characters and the idea just popped into my head! The craziest thing is it was such an off-the-cuff remark and I already have a name I can use for the main character because I saw it last week and thought that's such a cool name. One change of format this one won't be first person, first person is hard!

Sep 7, 2009

From my own collection

Come on admit it. Like me you all have books that you don't loan out - to anyone - ever. And I respect that, really I do because in some cases the books a) went out of print in the 80's. b) are priceless signed first editions or c) you still have that battered old copy of Lady Chatterly's Lover with PC 4 SL in it. Anyway I digress. On our UK trip in May I managed to bring home both my remaining Lovejoy books and this afternoon I re-read the Sleepers of Erin and fell for the rouge all over again.

Lovejoy is a charming, roughish antiques dealer, he is also what is known as a 'divvie' someone who can tell just by looking at an antique if it's real or fake. His track record with women and local law enforcement is about as solvent as his bank account. In East Anglia he's something of a legend amongst the antiques community. Lovejoy's antiques patter is as fascinating as his schemes are harebrained and he's not a man to be mucked about. The sleepers of the title are part of a scam going down in Ireland with Lovejoy trying to stay one step ahead of a gang of con artists and keep both feet out of his own grave. Aided by a ward sister and her suitor Gerald - who resembles a stick insect it's up to Lovejoy to sink the scammers and liberate a few choice antiques along the way.

So that's Sleepers of Erin for you. Better yet Gash didn't stop writing Lovejoy novels, he's still out there with a brand new one coming in December!

Sep 3, 2009

curse of the arcs

I've come to the conclusion that arcs have blunted my judgement. In life before TKE - yes there was such a thing - the book jacket told me all I needed to know. I bought the book, read the book, loved the book (or in a few cases left said book in a variety of public places - youth hostels, trains, on several transatlantic flights so that someone else could dispose of it but lets not dwell on that.)

Now my modus operandi goes like this, hear about a hot new author, go to work and look for the arc, read arc, blurb, etc. Not this time. Two books that sound really good and we have no arcs for them. Worse than that we haven't got any on order. What's a girl to do? Go back to the old fashioned way. So yesterday I ordered copies of Crush by Alan Jacobson and The Twelve by William Gladstone. They had better not suck!

Good news for those of us who love Flavia De Luce - Alan Bradley is hard at work on a second novel. If you haven't read The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, Bradley's first Flavia mystery, then what are you waiting for? Flavia is a great character and in crossover land I would love to see what Jasper Fforde's bookworld would make of a meeting between his Thursday Next and little Flavia.

Sep 1, 2009

Her Fearful Symmetry Audrey Niffenegger

Elspeth Noblin’s will leaves her Highgate flat in London to her American twin nieces Julia and Valentina. The twins look alike, dress alike but as with Elspeth and her sister Edie one is more dependent therefore more dominant than the other.

Living in London Valentina wants to attend art college and starts a relationship with Elspeth’s downstairs neighbour and lover Robert Fanshawe. Julia becomes friends with Martin an obsessive but brilliant crossword compiler who cannot leave his own flat because of crippling OCD. The stage is set for hauntings, doomed love and a breathtakingly callous betrayal that will alter your perception of one character completely. If there is a moral to this story it’s be careful what you wish for – you may get it but it might not be your own wish.

Available September 29th

The Coral Thief Rebecca Stott

In the breathing space between the exile of Napoleon and the coronation of a new King young Daniel Connor arrives in Paris but his job may be over before it starts. While he slept a beautiful stranger stole his papers of introduction and priceless coral specimens.

Daniel becomes obsessed with this philosopher thief. As the soldiers of foreign governments strip the city of treasures plundered by Napoleon she opens him up to heretical new ideas of evolution and becomes his first love but men in love are careless and a corrupt official with an old score to settle is closing in.

Available September 15th

Hammer – A Novel of the Victorian Underworld Sara Stockbridge

Amid the gritty backdrop of the infamous Whitechapel murders, Brick Lane, Bell Lane and sundry public houses old Horatio Blunt is searching for Grace Hammer. Grace, protector of her children, but putty in the hands of handsome Jack Tallis keeps her family out of the gutter not by turning tricks but by picking the pockets of any rich tourists fool enough to venture into London’s dark heart. It’s a down and dirty Victorian underworld full of scheming women like Miss Spragg and Mirabelle Trotter, weasel Ivor Spall, killer for hire Happy Harry Harding and watchful Byron Stanley. Blunt is now hot on Grace’s trail and when he finds her he plans to reclaim his twice stolen property and wring Grace’s neck.

In the Valley of the Kings Terrence Holt


A collection of short stories and one novella. Difficult to classify as any one genre, the topics range from a word as plague and deep space paranoia to the macabre tale of a son who keeps his father’s still beating heart in a jar. The novella about a man’s obsession with a missing Egyptian king and his ‘words of power’, Charybdis and ‘O Aoyoo’ are standouts. Sometimes the writing verges on poetry but with a creeping undertone of unease.

Stardust - Joseph Kanon



1945 : Ben Collier, US Citizen but German Jew by birth arrives in Hollywood to sit by his brother Danny’s deathbed. Danny took a drunken swandive off a rented apartment balcony. His wife Liesl thinks he tried to kill himself the police have it down as an accident but some of the pieces don’t fit. Seeing the life Danny had and the wife Ben’s having trouble keeping his hands off he can’t see why Danny would try to kill himself. But did Ben really know his brother at all. To find out what happened to Danny Ben will have to become him, walk the same paths, inform, cheat, lie, steal. Enmeshed in the studio system, Ben is caught between the German émigré community, the unions and an ambitious commie hating Senator who wants Hollywood to dance to his tune. This book is a rich tapestry of old Hollywood glamour, shot through with glimpses of the show trails of the McCarthy era.

Published 29 September.

Aug 31, 2009

Monday Roundup

For the last few days I've been flat on my back - I hate being ill and I was wiped so I didn't get a chance to jump into any books. Today however I'm fighting fit, so back to it.

Finished the Ellory yesterday - A Quiet Belief in Angels is already out but it is interesting how the story of Joseph Vaughan mirrors Ellory's life. Good page turning mystery, Vaughan's voice is strong and he doesn't go deep into gory details. Also finished Lev Grossman's The Magicians and while there is much to like about this book I didn't love it. There are nods to Harry Potter, Narnia, etc but towards the end there was more humping than fighting and one character who was begging to be killed off wasn't. Plus magic wasn't the gift it was supposed to be but Quentin could never turn away from it completely despite everything he lost.

Also did my first book talk last week which was scary good. I blew through the nine or so books I had but the twenty (!!) - or so ladies that attended said they enjoyed it and they picked nearly all of the books I pitched them. The other thing I did was start reading chapters from the Nikki Heat novel by 'Richard Castle' a) to see if it was any good and b) to try and suss out who abc are using to write it and so far my guess would be Patterson.

September tomorrow and I can finally post a bunch of reviews I've been sitting on for months!

Aug 24, 2009

Accents can be a curse as well as a blessing

Over the last two days my english accent has landed me in a little trouble. Not in the store - at least not so far. So here's the story. I was posting a couple of submissions and a birthday card for a friend who lives in Mallorca, Spain. The guy posting his letters held the letter box open for me and I thanked him. Then he looked at me, looked at the letter and gave me what we at home used to called the stink eye. Then he told me that you english should be ashamed of yourself. I managed to not say 'what for posting a letter' and I don't think he was outside my house at 5am this morning when it was raining and the sprinklers were on so I can only guess that he was holding me personally responsible for the UK government's latest dumb decision. To clarify my position life means life if a convicted terrorist has terminal cancer - tough let him die in prison. The incident left me a little shaken and the more I think about it the angrier it makes me.

Monday Roundup and a submissions horror story

Finished and blurbed Rizzo's War and that means I'm up to date with my arcs! until I go into the manager's office tomorrow and see more that I want to read.

I'm still cringing over this and I would've caught the mistake if I had double checked the submission before I sent it out. I used the correct name and address for the agent but (argh) used the previous agents name as the salutation. I doubt she will read my blog after this but if you do - sorry! Note to self - check and re-check everything

Aug 19, 2009

Kid in a candy store

The absolute last thing I should be doing is seeing reading material everywhere. I've got blurbs to do for next month's Inkslinger but yesterday I did just that. Rizzo's War is coming along nicely and the story proper is just starting but I'm halfway through the book which means that the characters are well-established and on my break I was supposed to be reading that but...Terry Goodkind's new one The Law of Nines (it's The Rule of Nines oops!) caught my eye. Several chapters later it was still holding my attention. Goodkind normally writes sci-fi but this is a newly published mystery thriller and we didn't have an arc for it which kind of bummed me out but served as a reminder to concentrate on the book in hand. Then in the back room I saw another search for Atlantis based thriller but I mananged to resist - just and finally the awesome and wonderful Sally who I worked with last night managed to snaffle an arc of Lev Grossman's The Magicians which she will pass on to me after she's read it.

Aug 16, 2009

Monday Roundup - one day early

Apart from sending off two more submissions (keeping ten out there at any one time) Mondays are the only day this month I get to write.

Hunger Games is YA and came out about a year ago. It's a nightmare scenario of a nationwide reality show gone mad that manages to keep you turning the pages and rooting for the young heroine all the way to the end. Won't say any more about it because we are discussing it for club J.

I knew 'The Murder of King Tut' was going to be a page turner. But James Paterson's unfussy style makes the book fairly race along. Published in September. Still reading the Ellory and about to start on Rizzo's War.

Aug 14, 2009

Good job I'm organized

Getting an agent is a little like speed dating - you have to impress them right off the bat if you are going to get another date - or in my case a request for a partial. Now this works both ways, I got a snail mail rejection yesterday that didn't even give the name of the agent I submitted to which would've left me scratching my head if I hadn't set up a submission spreadsheet. I know these people are busy I read Nathan Bransford's blog and I even participated in his agent for a day competition. In my old job we had form letters for all of the consultants, we could get up to 500 applications in a day if a file ended up in the no box I simply printed out a copy of the letter and left it for the appropriate chap to sign or initial when there were a lot. Off my soapbox and back to Hunger Games.

Aug 13, 2009

This working for a living is playing havoc with everything else!

In life we must have balance - I'm not sure which philosopher said that but at the moment my balance is out of whack. When even your horoscope says you've taken on too much well it's enough to make you drop your coffee in your lap (and I don't recommend it - it was iced and iced coffee on cream trousers not a good look!)

Posts might be a little slim for the next four weeks, but I will still be reading when I get the chance. Have to read Hunger Games for Club J by Sunday and there's another arc in my box Rizzo's War. Also the Lev Grossman book The Magicians - I managed to sneak the first chapter last night - think a Harry Potter style academy for magic in upstate New York with nods to Rowling, CS Lewis's Narnia etc. Managed to cram a bit of writing in yesterday as well. I know have a clear timeline for the second book, one that makes sense plot wise.

Aug 11, 2009

Quietly Brilliant

I read a review of A Quiet Belief in Angels last week and it is so not my usual read. For a start it's set in Georgia but comparisons to The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo were enough to attract me to it, the story spans a character's life and it is a literary thriller and I'm hooked.

Aug 10, 2009

Monday Roundup

Finished reading The Coral Thief, out in September by the same author as Ghostwalk - which I now have to read. This wasn't one I asked for it seems I've landed on a list - which is fine by me. Two other arcs I picked up The Murder of King Tut by James Patterson and A Quiet Belief in Angels by Ellory.

Aug 3, 2009

Some thoughts on Her Fearful Symmetry

On the whole I liked HFS but the actions of one character led me from liking and feeling a kind of admiration for them to hating them for a jaw-droppingly callous act of betrayal. Apart from that the writing, the characters even the 'here it is take it or leave it' science worked. I'm sure that Highgate Cemetery will have an influx of American visitors wanting to take the "Robert Fanshawe Tour' next Summer.

Quickie

I'm waiting for the fireplace people to come and fix our gas leak (!!) so this will be short and sweet. The Niffenegger has taken a turn hope to finish it today and blurb it. I watched the excellent Every Little Step last night it's a documentary of the auditions for the revival of 'A Chorus Line' and one quote struck me as applying to writing as well as dancing. One of the producers said that every time you audition you are giving an opening night polished performance, laying everything on the line. Although IMHO dancers have thicker skins because they are rejected in person!

Jul 30, 2009

Violet Hour, Fearful Symmetry and plenty of butter

I enjoyed the Violet Hour, Judson has been likened to Ellroy or Raymond Chandler - Judson does misdirection well he also plays around with time a little bit to allow certain things to happen. Towards the end the body count soars and I did have a little voice in the back of my head saying that injuries sustained by one character would make it tough to do what he does but that's the writer in me talking. A few years ago it wouldn't have bothered me.

The Niffenegger - thankfully she hasn't tried to revisit TTW territory - this is not a sequel. It's dense and complex and as well written as time traveller so mark your calendars for September.

Also in bang goes my diet news. TKE has started selling mini's cupcakes one of those cross-promotional things we do with local first in Utah - oh they are soooo good!

Jul 29, 2009

The 5 million dollar book

The arc of Her Fearful Symetry - the new Audrey Niffenegger for which rumours say that she got a $5 million advance - landed in my box last night. I'm excited and pardon the pun a little fearful. I loved The Time Traveller's Wife and didn't think she was writing any more books.

Jul 26, 2009

Read and Reading

I finished Elegance of the Hedgehog partly because I've been laid out by some weird bug for the last 2 or 3 days. I really didn't like the ending but overall not bad. I liked Hammer, I thought Stockbridge's London very much like the one Holmes and Mary Russell inhabit and the book isn't too long either - under 300 pages. It doesn't give the conclusion I was expecting and that didn't bother me. The all-seeing narrator took a while to get used to. I gave the Rosner 50 pages but it didn't make me want to go any further - note to self I think I prefer my murders fictional - this is a non fiction account of the notorious Burke and Hare murders.

One arc - The Violet Hour by Daniel Judson - dropped in thanks to Minotaur. I have requested tons but they always seem to get lost in the system so this time as Sue suggested I asked them to send it home and that worked. Violet Hour is set from 'mischief night October 29th through the 'day of the dead' Nov 2nd and I'm well over 100 pages into it. I'm doing this now because I have bookclub tonight and tomorrow I'm going to take the laptop somewhere shady and just write.

Jul 20, 2009

Monday Roundup

I got a lot of comments about this last week so as long as I have a ton of stuff to read I'll do an MR post.
Pub = books already out
Arc = books coming in the next six months or so.

Pub
Elegance of the Hedgehog - have to have this finished by Sunday for book club.

Arc
Hammer - Sara Stockbridge - want to get this blurbed by Friday.
The Anatomy Murders - Lisa Rosner - will try it.
Reheated Cabbage - Irvine Welsh - no pressure to read this.
How to Rule the World from Your Counch - Laura Day - my final galley grab from atria.

Kindle versus real books IMHO

I've been watching the 'orwellian rumpus' surrounding Amazon's Kindle. There are several different versions of the story some of them flawed but the main point is this. Amazon giveth and Amazon can taketh away as well. I have a serious technology habit, Itunes, Skype, the latest and greatest is always on my radar but Kindle and its ilk just leave me cold. I can't dispute the portability and the ease of downloading as many titles as you can afford but when was the last time you couldn't finish that gripping novel because your book didn't have enough charge left, you dropped your book and the pages cracked. I like books, the physical feel of them, the way the paper feels against your fingers as you turn the page, the cover (ok sometimes I hate the cover), that new-book-smell. I love to look at the stacks of arcs I have to work my way through, and the pile of purchased books just waiting to be read and enjoyed. The biggest point is that I buy a book and it's mine the book police aren't going to come to my house and take it away because they feel I shouldn't be reading it. Buy a book on Kindle and you're only borrowing that title for as long as the company you bought it from sees fit to let you have it.

If you ever see me with a Kindle or any kind of electronic reader feel free to grab it off me and beat me around the head with it.

Jul 17, 2009

The Girl who played with Fire

The book has a laydown date of July 28th which means it can't be sold before then. But to whet your appetite...

In this riveting follow up to The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo Larsson reintroduces us to Lisbeth Salander. Now financially secure Lisbeth has been travelling, become fascinated by Fermat’s Theorem and is finally starting to put together a life for herself in readiness for her guardian Nils Bjurman to declare her mentally capable and then it all goes horribly wrong.

Lisbeth becomes the prime suspect in a triple murder and only journalist Mikael Blomkvist is convinced that she didn’t do it. The police are hunting her, the media paint her as a psychotic deranged killer. While Blomkvist begins his own investigation into the murders others are hunting Salander down, people from her past with secrets to hide and scores to settle. Its time for Lisbeth to confront her demons and they may well destroy her.

Jul 16, 2009

Stories from the Valley of the Kings

The last short story collection I read was Smoke and Mirrors by Neil Gaiman and this collection of Terrence Holt's is rivalling that. His fresh perspective on things that might seem tired in the hands of another writer keeps you reading. In places the language is almost poetic, subjects range through a world threatening plague to a sentient machine a deep space 'and then there were none' via a boy who keeps part of father in a jar.

Next I'll be reading the Sara Stockbridge book, her name was familiar but I couldn't place it until today. She was fashion designer Vivian Westwood's muse back in the 80's.

Jul 15, 2009

Three arcs and a tug at the line

I have three new arcs to read and blurb "In the Valley of the Kings" by Terrence Holt - a collection of short stories that I only read about yesterday and thought sounded interesting. We had the Norton rep in yesterday and if the first story in this collection is anything to go by this is going to be good. The others are "Hammer" by Sara Stockbridge and "Reheated Cabbage" by Irvine Welsh.

And in fishing parlance yesterday I had a nibble.....and then got thrown back.

Jul 12, 2009

Sweetness at the bottom of the pie

Alan Bradley's debut novel introduces the delightful and rather wicked 11 year old Flavia de Luce. In post war England her hobbies include, bike riding, snooping around and chemistry. How she loves cooking up poisons. A normal day in the de Luce household goes awry when their cook discovers a dead black bird with an orange stamp impaled on its beak lying on the kitchen step. That same night Flavia overhears an arguement and the following morning finds a dying man in their cucumber patch. Intrigued that a member of her family might be a killer and determined to prove otherwise the youngest de Luce marshals her test tubes in an attempt to solve the case before the police - who think that Flavia is only fit for organizing cups of tea!

Jul 9, 2009

Happiness is....

A bookseller armed with a gift card - I bought 2 more of Laurie Kings one Mary Russell and one is the Kate Martinelli book - the jacket blurb was what got me reading King in the first place. I also picked up a copy of The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley

Jul 6, 2009

The Monday Roundup

Finished the Kanon - this was a great story. I'll add Alibi, Good German and Los Alamos to my 'books to read on a plane list' I'm still in the middle of Vows of Silence, this is tighter, there are a lot more red herrings floating around and Hill is another writer who really puts her characters through emotional hoops especially Cat.

More rejection slips but I sent off another batch of queries this morning and one was quite cheeky. Well no one's going to toot my horn for me. One of Linda's comments after reading the first draft last year was that my writing was similar in style to Sue Grafton. I've just queried Sue Grafton's agent.

Jul 2, 2009

Stardust

Good so far - and I'm a sucker for 'old' Hollywood. Kanon does a wonderful job of sprinkling Stardust over the intrigue. This one comes out in November. I got my grubby little mitts on Vows of Silence by Hill as well so that's me set for the fourth of July weekend.

Jul 1, 2009

Stardust and a new Susan Hill

Tomorrow I am going to concentrate on writing so today I'm going to read as much of the Kanon as possible before I go into work. Cross your fingers that I can get that Susan Hill arc, I liked the last book but didn't love it. This one looks like an interesting premise I just have to get it assigned to me. Yesterday Rachel and I spent most of our shift building the new glasses display for TKE, bet you didn't know that being a bookseller involves construction skills. The instructions were hilarious, parts labelled one through eleven, five pictures with 8, 2, 3, 4 underneath not to mention the adgressive (sic) tape. The thing looked like a drunken dalek by the time we'd finished!

Jun 29, 2009

Out in paper this week and a question

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by Larsson. We have loads of copies at the store and by the time you've finished you won't have to wait long for The Girl Who Played With Fire, the next in the trilogy

I'm throwing this out there because I don't know the answer and maybe one of you does. A customer asked me why all the new books she wants to read are in hardback, 'why can't they go straight to paperback' I'm wondering if a film anaology might work here, straight to paperback being the equivalent of straight to video in the mind of the author. Because I used to travel a lot I know about the 'airport editions' but for most people - me included - who want to take a good thriller (or romance if that's your thing) to the beach or poolside in Vegas you don't want a hardback because a) you might end up with carpal tunnel and b) you run the risk of braining yourself with the likes of Verghese or Ruiz Zafon.

Agent quest update - thanks for all the e-mails and in-store verbal encouragement - no luck yet I sent this weeks ten queries off this morning 5 e and 5 snail.

Jun 25, 2009

Thereby hangs a tail

I've only just started this but already I love it - Spencer Quin's lovable canine PI Chet is probing a case of skullduggery in the world of show dogs and trying to keep owner Bernie Little of the Little Detective Agency solvent.

This is totally out of left field but last night I was chatting with a lady about books and she gave me this brilliant tip. If you have a lot of books, like me and all the other worker bees at TKE after a bit of storage time they start to smell musty. Instead of throwing away your used dryer sheets keep them and insert a sheet between the pages of say every fifth book it will keep the musty smell away. Don't do this if you have a priceless collection of first editions!

And - this is huge - well for me anyway - we are getting an arc of a Lovejoy book - which means one of two things. Either they are re-issuing the entire series or someone else has taken over the reins from Jonathan Gash. Will post when I know more.

Jun 22, 2009

Finished Atlantis book during a thunderstorm

OK now this is what I mean by a book that grabs me. Hunt for Atlantis comes out in October with another Wilde/Chase adventure The Tomb of Hercules arriving a month later - trying to get the arc for that one. Three fast moving thunderstorms, driving rain and throughout I was sitting out on our deck glued to the Atlantis arc, only stopping when the wind got so strong it unhooked the awning and stowed it for me.

I'll post the full review in October but in the meantime some thoughts. I loved the vague sense of unease that McDermott builds up until he springs the twist on you that I didn't see coming because I was too busy trying to ferret out the traitor in the Frost's camp. I love the idea of having the bodyguard be a coarse Yorkshireman, nb action heroes don't have to be drop dead gorgeous, with an accent that fell off the back of a Sandhurst lorry. McDermott really puts his characters through it - hurting them quite badly and there's an in joke with a helicopter that turns out not to be funny at all. Pacey, action packed and I learned a little Plato too, this would make a great movie.

Jun 19, 2009

Alan Furst

I was working for the Michael Malone event the other week and they weren't on the patio so I couldn't listen in. Wendy told me that he discussed a lot about writing and the writing process - as he's a teacher as well as a writer. Last night however I went to the Alan Furst reading, we had a good turnout and he was an interesting speaker. Among the questions he got asked, were things like, how often do you write and for how long, do you use pen and paper or a computer, how much research do you do and my favourite "you seem like such a happy chap, why is there this sense of melancholy about your books" - the answers 3 hours a day 1000 words, typewriter - he doesn't like Mr Gates getting between him and his words, he picks a country learns it's politics and goes from there, of course the books have a sense of melancholy about them war is hell - as they say.

I got my copy of The Spies of Warsaw signed and as I was walking back to my car it occurred to me that Furst and Dubus III and Michael Malone and the like are the equivalent of the rock stars of the book world. It still amazes that these guys don't let the fame go to their heads.We had one author last year who popped into the bookstore incognito just to check the place out. He said in his intro that wherever he went he heard booksellers talking books with customers. We should have a sign on the door that says 'books spoken here'.

Jun 17, 2009

Books for older clients

We had a reading by Andre Dubus III yesterday he read for a while and then did a very lively q and a. If you missed it check out the Garden of Last Days. But back to the reason for this post. We quite often get customers coming in for books for their mother who is 'in her 70's or 80's a case in point was last night when a chap came in wanting a couple of suggestions for mysteries for his 80 year old mother. Now this might seem obvious but nothing with any sex or gratuitous violence and they mostly do not want hardbacks.
Here's my list

Beekeepers Apprentice - Laurie King first of the Mary Russell Sherlock Holmes series
Three Bags Full - Laurie Swan - a whodunnit where the detectives are sheep!
Nine Taylors - Dorothy L Sayers - a Lord Peter Whimsey Mystery set in the 30's I think
Gurnsey Potato Peel Pie Society - Mary Ann Schaeffer - a story told in letters difficult subject (occupation) dealt with with grace and quite a bit of humour.

Also Nancy one of our regular customers recommended Hothouse Flower and the Nine Plants of Desire by Margot Berwin I'd already been drawn to the cover because it is hot pink ie very eyecatching. So I'll be juggling books again, Troubles is turning out to be a meaty book, Atlantis well that's pure pleasure and now the hot pink book as it will now be known from now on. I've abandoned Shadow and I've bought a cookbook - one even I can use called Supernatural Cooking.

Oh and an agent update I'm still actively sending out query letters and being patient.

Jun 11, 2009

Bogged Down

I'm having a really hard time with Shadow of the Wind - it's not a bad book far from it but I just haven't had that bumping into furniture moment with it. I know I will read it eventually but just not now. Still sending out the submissions and because I'm signed up for publisher's lunch I did Atria's Galley Grab one of which is the new Chet and Bernie - the follow-up to Dog On It by Spencer Quinn. The Atlantis arc is good and it seems there are a number of novels coming out one of the galleys was an Atlantis action thriller. Also yikes! we have ten copies of Farm City in the store it's a timely book but 10 is a lot of copies to sell in a week. Oh well, here goes.

One caveat - again to do with Agent Query. Always, always double check their information. One of the agents name's was misspelled on their site and another agent listed a one page summary which wasn't in the guidelines put up on AQ's site. AQ do a great job just don't follow them blindly - the number one turn-off to an agent is having their name spelt wrong.

Jun 5, 2009

Rejected!

First blood - I wasn't sure how I would feel. But instead of wanting to jump into a tub of Hagen Das and stick pins in my eyes it's actually quite liberating. Although it was an e-mail 'no' it still counts. One side note I used agent query to search for agents who could shop a quirky mystery and that's how I built my list but the agent who turned me down said she didn't represent that genre - oh well. Onwards and upwards.

Jun 4, 2009

Farm City

It’s not easy being green. When Novella Carpenter and her boyfriend Bill moved into a duplex in Oakland they started with just a beehive on the deck. She recycles the abandoned waste ground next door into a garden full of fruit trees and heirloom vegetables. Under the empty threat of developers turning the garden into a condo Novella experiments with raising turkeys for thanksgiving, chickens for eggs, rabbits for meat. She becomes yet another colourful character in a neighbourhood full of them. Novella’s accounts of killing turkeys, a buck humping the wrong end of a doe, the infamous water melon theft and dumpster diving with Bill to feed her pigs and chickens mingle with getting to know the area around the 2-8 and its regeneration which will eventually lead to their farm’s demise.

For those of us flirting with self-sufficiency this book comes at a good time. It is a reminder that farming wherever you do it is a combination of hard work, success, heartbreak and back ache.

May 24, 2009

2 x Lovejoy

I managed to bring a couple of Jonathan Gash books back with me from England "Grail Tree" and "Sleepers of Erin" My copy of the "The Judas Pair" has vanished - not sure how to track that down. Currently reading Shadow of the Wind for bookgroup - although now we're skipping that one and going straight to Elegance of the Hedgehog which I haven't even started yet.

This weeks mistake I saw an arc by Andy Mc and grabbed it thinking Andy McNabb - ex SAS Bravo Two Zero etc always good for a cracking story but when I got it home it's by Andy Mc-Dermott. I read the first 50 pages yesterday without any problem. "The Hunt for Atlantis" is in the same vein as Matt Reilly's Jack West series, we've already had two murders, one attempted, a car chase and a reclusive billionaire searching for the lost city etc - so far so good.

Before I Wake

If you have read any of Mark Frost's books - List of Seven and the Second Objective being my favourites then you should try and find this book. I'm about 2 thirds of the way through it. Eric Bowman is a name Frost used and one of things I always say about him is that he creates characters you really care about and then does the most terrible things to them and this book is no exception. It's a really cool premise, we know who the killer, is he states it on page one. The real cat and mouse game begins when NYPD star detective Jimmy Montone begins to suspect that Terry Keyes isn't just a writer researching his new book but a cold blooded killer. Montone risks his reputation and his life going up against Keyes and only one of them is going to come out of the encounter alive.

The bad news - this book is out of print so it is not easy to get but if you can get your hands on a copy this is well worth a read.

May 2, 2009

Shadow of the Wind and Troubles

These are supposed to be my on-the-plane reading but packing an extra 25 bucks in my house account I bought them yesterday. Shadow of the Wind has a new cover because Angel's Game is coming out in June and I much prefer this to the old darker one. Want to read Angel's Game but it is really tough getting hold of the arc for it. Also dipped into 'The Sweetness at the bottom of the Pie' by Bradley and liked the first chapter but we don't have enough copies to check one out.

Apr 29, 2009

Secret Speech

Tom Rob Smith's follow-up to Child 44 is set in post-Stalinist Russia where Khrushchev – Stalin’s successor - denounces his master as a tyrant and a murderer. This ‘Secret Speech’ causes a massive backlash against the MGB and the past rises up to confront former MGB agent now homicide detective Leo Demidov. People connected to an arrest at the beginning of Leo’s career are committing suicide and the person at the center of the spider’s web has a agenda against Leo, his family and particularly his daughter Zoya. Smith’s chilling glimpse into Soviet Russia on the eve of great upheaval repels and attracts in equal measure. Difficult to put down.

Some reviews for May - Red Squad

The next couple of reviews are out in May but we won't be here for much of the month - flying to England and then over to Holland - I'm posting these now so that I can get back to editing.

The Red Squad E.M Broner

An ensemble story told through the eyes of Professor Anka Pappas. Now an English professor at Ohio state but back in the 60’s a PhD-in-waiting instructor at a state college in Detroit and a passionate activist against the war in Vietnam.
When Anka receives ‘herself ‘ in the mail – a red squad file which details the lives loves and crimes of ‘the bullpen ‘ the group of teachers Anka thought of as her family - it unsettles her. Who was the informer among the group? Why send the file now and stir up so many old - sometimes painful - memories
Red Squad is touching and hopeful but also laced with humour that’s as academic and acerbic as Anka herself. Red Squad isn’t so much a whodunit as a whydunit

Farm City arc

Just finished Farm City it will be out in June. It's the story of an urban farm in Oakland California and it's a bio. Full review to follow but just a couple of thoughts. First I will never be able to raise animals for food and second in the 70s there was a huge back to the land kick. The BBC even made a show about it called 'The Good Life' this book reminded me how much that show inspired my Dad. He bought a freezer and for 3 or 4 years he grew veggies in our back garden of course that was when we had a back garden! He never tried bee-keeping though - kind of glad about that.

Apr 24, 2009

Apr 21, 2009

Book of Love

If you haven't read The Expected One - the first in the trilogy I would suggest you do before tackling BoL. It deals with similar themes to The Davinci Code but from a female perspective and with much more controversial subject matter. When we had Kathleen McGowan at the store to read in 2007 we had to hire security as part of the deal. I'll be honest - when I went to hear her I was just there to make up the numbers but she was a fascinating speaker and on the strength of that I bought the book. Again (honesty being the best policy today) church matters make me want to run a mile but this book got under my skin and I found myself crying while reading parts of it.

So on to The Book of Love. This is really the story of two Expected Ones, Maureen Paschal who uncovered the gospel of Mary Magdalen in the first book - see told you it was controversial - is now tasked with finding the Book of Love a gospel written by Jesus himself. The other is Matilda of Tuscany, Countess of Canossa (1046-1115) warrior, strategist, architect, lover of Pope Gregory VII and a force to be reckoned with in the fight between Germany and The papacy in Rome. She is buried in St Peter's basilica in Rome - unheard of for a woman of that time but it sounds like Matilda was a woman out of her time. There are many references to the labyrinth at Chartres and I recently found out that we have at least two labyrinths of the same design right here in Utah. Might have to go and check them out. I hope the third part of McGowan's trilogy "Poet Prince" doesn't take another two years to complete although I'll be patient if it does.

Having read the book I'm going to try and get hold of 'Tuscan Countess: The Life and Extraordinary Times of Matilda of Canossa' by Michele Spike which McGowan used in her research.

Apr 20, 2009

Reading, writing and neck braces

Reading Kathleen McGowan's follow-up to The Expected One called The Book of Love. If you like Rose Labyrinth then BoL will interest you and not for its spiritual content. Warning contains God - but not in a ram-it-down-your-throat way.

Writing. I am in adverb hell! Will be fixing that this afternoon.

Neck braces. Hubby has sprained his neck again and it would be easier to find a snowball in hell than a foam neckbrace in SLC.

Apr 13, 2009

Secret Speech

Just finished 'The Secret Speech' by Tom Rob Smith. It comes out in May and I'll write a full review then but it did make me glad that I never lived in the Soviet Stalinist era where the wrong word or even a look could get you a one-way trip to the Lubyanka.

Still deciding about the video reviews. I'm thinking I'll try one and monitor the visits to that page. Also thank you to everyone who has sent me e-mail info or dropped into the shop with an article (thanks Nancy!) to do with publishing a book. What lovely people you are!

Apr 9, 2009

Shaking things up a bit.

I've been reading a lot of articles about the way we book people review new and favourite books. It used to be that a quick blurb and word of mouth would be enough to inspire interest in a title. Recently we've been putting our name-bookmarks into new books which we really like or old favourites that we can't put on a display because there are only a few copies but the big box stores are starting to put up video reviews and it occurred to me that with a webcam and a wee bit of practice I could do that too. Another thing I'm considering is posting photos of the front of the book along with the review so that people can see what the cover looks like and therefore don't go to their local indie bookstore and go 'it's got a blue cover'.

Your comments would be welcome - either through the blog, facebook, e-mail, face-to-face or family can Skype me.

Apr 8, 2009

Good Conversation

This morning summed up my job for me. We were having breakfast and talking about all sorts of things books - of course! the fact that Sue really should see Little Miss Sunshine, how much we miss Jan, why drugs should/shouldn't be legalized and a couple of times I noticed the guy in the booth behind us looking over but didn't really think anything of it. Anyway long story short he came over after his meal to say how much he'd enjoyed our conversation and we of course directed him to the bookstore which he didn't know existed. A couple of the things he said made me think. The first is that we - the booksellers - are the public face of the bookstore and just listening to us chat made him want to come and visit the store and talk books. The other he is a published author but he is LD - learning disabled. He can't read, he dictates using voice recognition software and then if a word sounds wrong he goes back and changes it until it 'sounds right'

Apr 6, 2009

Red Squad

Red Squad is by E.M. Broner and comes out in May so there'll be a full review then but I enjoyed it. Thanks for all the advice/names/websites I should check out and several to avoid. Also for the solicited and unsolicited comments both verbal and e-mailed on the subject of agents or the lack of them.

We had our monthly movie night yesterday - Sunshine Cleaning - a drama/comedy I refuse to use that weird contraction. In the discussion afterwards - which had nothing to do with the film we talked a lot about Ireland. I have promised to read 'Troubles'by JG Farrell, 'Shadow of the Wind' by Ruiz Zafon - that's because I still haven't and 'Death in the Garden' by Elizabeth Ironside - which sounds really good. I also have another TV tie-in - Burn Notice - that I was saving for our trip this weekend but we won't be poolside so I won't be reading.

Apr 1, 2009

Agent or no agent??

Two days of solid research would seem to suggest that agent = foot in the door. Now all I have to do is land an agent - hah! all I have to do. When I say land an agent I mean a good agent - there are a ton of scammers out there. Did you know that there are no actual qualifications you can get to become a literary agent. No people there isn't a literary agents academy. If the agent is a member of the ARR - the Association of Author's Representatives then that's a good sign but some of the good ones are not members of ARR so go figure.

Cautionary tale - I very nearly fell into a scam within the first 30 minutes of searching. I won't name the agency but I had actually bookmarked their e-form but just to be on the safe side almost as an afterthought I ran a search using their name and came upon the site 'Writers Beware' which listed agency x on their list of the top 20 worst agencies!

Writing is most definitely the fun part. I love to write and I love to tinker with what I've written to hopefully make it better. This next bit is going to require some serious hard graft.

One thing that would really help me out. If any of you have had a bad experience with an agency or agent, names would be nice. Hard work is one thing but wasted effort is quite another.

Mar 28, 2009

a promise

having read back over a couple of posts - I keep finding 'fast-paced' in my reviews. Although it is true that the books I've been reading have been exactly that I'm going to try and use some different terminology next time 'fp' gets old after a while.

Beat the Reaper - Review

Meet Dr Peter Brown, he’s about to go on the night shift having dealt with an attempted mugging en route. But Peter isn’t his real name. Before he became a doctor Peter was a heavy hitter for the mob and his old life is about to collide with his new life head on.

Grey’s Anatomy this is not and its way better for it. Bazell’s take on the strata of the medical profession left me hoping that I never have to go into hospital and thanking god I have health insurance. Fast, fierce, occasionally gross but great.

Mar 24, 2009

Next up

That would be 'Beat the Reaper' NYT gave this a great review (from the looks of the first couple of pages for once I agree with them) and wouldn't you know it the arc that has been languishing on the pile next to the timecards for months has gone. Also - Ignite the Genius Within - billed as 'The Artists Way for the Matrix Generation' so by next week I should be able to understand string theory and complete Einstein's unified field theory - yeah right!

Good Thief's Guide to Paris - Review

After a week of cold, snow and bad news this just made my weekend and to say I laughed my socks off at one point in the book would be an understatement. You'll just have to read the book to find out what I mean because I wouldn't want to spoil the surprise.

Anyway here's the review

The second in the series finds Charlie Howard full time writer and part-time thief in Paris. In his writing life he’s working on a Faulks bank heist set in Cuba, giving a reading at Paris Lights and trying to explain to his agent Victoria why he looks nothing like his author photo. In his other life he’s up to his neck in trouble.

First, there’s the job that smells just a little off but Charlie does it anyway and then there’s the decomposing dead body in his Paris apartment. Add in a fixer who has some hold over the local gendarmerie, double and triple crosses and the most unlikely gang of thieves this side of The King’s English and you’ve got the ingredients for a fast, fun, chase through the streets of Paris where Charlie may just pull of the biggest heist of his career so far.

Mar 20, 2009

time to bite the bullet

A number of thing happened yesterday that made me re-think well a lot of things - I'm being cryptic for a reason. But the point of this rambling is the following. Time to stop being an unpublished writer and throw my hat into the ring. Giving myself a month of polishing and then I'm going to submit my manuscript. Wish me luck.

On a lighter note the copy of Good Thief's Guide to Paris arrived at the store yesterday so that's me set for the weekend:-)

Mar 19, 2009

Research teaches you the weirdest things (part 2)

Research is important - in this case research on airbags. I won't go into why I'm doing this but apart from all the how it works stuff I learned a very important fact. I've been sitting too close to the airbag - I should be 10-12 inches away! That thing shoots out of the steering wheel at the equivalent of 200 mph.

Risk comments

Didn't write anything yesterday but being doped up after a trip to the dentist I was able to sit down and just read.

Enjoyed Risk of Darkness - the book is out now and has been reviewed many times. A couple of comments, I liked the fact that Simon got a taste of his own medicine although his character seemed to regress mid-book (Diana!) and by the end he was back to about the same point. A couple of loose ends were wrapped up a little too quickly. I didn't like the 'gay' angle - the character is complex enough without adding that into the mix. The resolution of the child abduction story from the previous book was an interesting case study in how impossible it is for police officers to stay detached and the psychological effects that result.

Mar 12, 2009

Risk of Darkness

This book is out right now but before you go diving into it I would recommend reading The Pure in Heart. Why? Because Risk of Darkness is in many ways a continuation. The child abduction case that haunted Serrailler and his colleagues in the last book isn't going away and I'm only a few chapters in.

Mar 11, 2009

Finished the Larsson

and its good! Without giving away any of the book I would love to know if Lisbeth actually existed or is she just a figment of Larsson's imagination. He handles all of the threads easily, weaving a completely different story from the one he leads you to believe you are going to get. Although I did work out a major reveal a little earlier than I should have but that's my fault for trying to figure things out rather than letting the writer show me.

Mar 8, 2009

Mental Doodles

Off the grid for the last couple of days because of the Larsson (and several extra shifts). As usual I'll post the review when it comes out in June but I wonder if the guy knew he was dying because there are elements of 'something' haunting one of the characters and it would seem a bit odd if you didn't know what happened to the author. Off to write now at Divas. I was so pleased with myself on Thursday because of a plot device I worked out - which really exists - but then I realised that means a major rewrite. Plus it's only taken me three years to realize that working in the bookstore means that I have the perfect way to get all the books that I had to leave behind when we moved. But not the Judas Pair! Damn things out of print.

Mar 6, 2009

Finally!

Yay its raining arcs - well two of them at least. The Girl Who Played With Fire - the second Larsson book which I am really looking forward to reading. The Strain - not a request but I'll give it the 50 page treatment and we never got an arc of the Hill so I had to buy it so at least I can savour that one.

Mar 5, 2009

Outliers - Malcolm Gladwell

This is fascinating. Gladwell takes our notions of what it takes to be successful and digs deeper. What he finds is that it matters when you were born - even the month can make a difference. He strips away the 'rags to riches' and 'overnight success' stories and replaces them with a crucible theory. 10,000 hours of experience at your chosen subject whether you're a computer nerd like Bill Gates or Steve Jobs or a concert pianist. Gladwell is highly critical of the way our education systems function and how IQ is used as the only tool for measuring a student's potential. Of course being brilliant helps but it doesn't mean that doors will automatically open for you. Each of these stories has a background of hard graft, skill and sheer luck.

Mar 1, 2009

Fault Line – Barry Eisler

Alex Treven, hotshot patent lawyer at a prestigious Silicon Valley law firm suddenly finds his world falling apart. Could it have anything to do with the patent he’s working on for Obsidian? Desperate, Alex turns to his estranged brother Ben a soldier who ‘kills for America’.

Ben and Alex haven’t spoken in years but Alex is family so Ben grudgingly offers his help. In between keeping Alex and his associate Sarah from getting themselves killed. Ben has to work through the issues that blew his family apart in the first place. His loyalty to his country is about to be severely tested and he’s finding himself increasingly attracted to Sarah whom Alex has had his eye on for some time.

Eisler gives us an America that talks loudly and carries a big stick. This is a fast paced tech heavy thriller liberally dosed with issues of morality and family loyalty.

The Believers – Zoe Heller

Heller introduces us to the Litvinoff family at a crisis point. Joel, the head of the family suffers a stroke at the start of an important trial in a New York courtroom. His wife Audrey calls her son and two daughters to his bedside. In between battling with the Doctors over her husband’s medical care and wrestling with her conscience over keeping him alive Audrey learns that Joel had a mistress – she was tolerant of his many affairs – but this mistress had a son which Joel has secretly been supporting and the family has its own troubles.

Lenny the recovering drug addict may have fallen off the wagon again. Barren Karla, dieting social worker whose husband Mike is so desperate to foist an adoption on her that’s he pushing her towards another man. And finally Rosa, whose radical atheist upbringing means that her work with disadvantaged African American kids should be ideal. But instead she feels a pull towards her Jewish roots and beings to explore her denied faith.

A complex study of nature over nurture in post 9/11 New York.

The Alexander Cipher by Will Adams

Present day Alexandria where corruption is a part of life and the Supreme Council for Antiquities has the authority to start or close down excavations at will. Discovering an ancient burial ground on a hotel construction site triggers a series of events that could uncover the final resting place of one of the greatest warriors in history, Alexander the Great. In the hunt are the head of the SCA, the rich and powerful Dragoumis family and a group of archaeologists linked by more than just their profession.

Dragoumis and his son seek the body of the real Alexander a symbol that they can use to incite the Macedonian people to rise up and take back their homeland from the Greeks and they don’t care who they have to go through to get it.

A fast paced chase across Egypt with a good dose of the history of Alexander and some complicated interpersonal relationships to keep the story moving.

Outliers

I've been wanting to read this for a while but its one of those 'tidal' books. It comes in and goes out the door pretty quick so I bit the bullet on Friday and bought the last copy we had in the store. At least that will trigger us to order some more. Spent the morning in the dome at Divas. The members of the Rose and Cactus society are still pretty stiff after yesterdays cross country skiing marathon but we managed to get quite a bit of writing done in spite of the book talk going on in the corner. Nothing juicy this week though! As it's now March I'm going to post several reviews for books coming out this month. Enjoy

Feb 24, 2009

FYI

In an earlier post I talked about the new Susan Hill novel. Went and had a look at her website and it looks like the books will be coming to TV in the UK - the rights to the first three novels have been bought by Bentley Productions the people behind Midsommer Murders. Have to hope the series is picked up by BBC America. Her new one 'Risk of Darkness' it is out in hardcover here in March.

Matt Reilly's sequel to 'Six Sacred Stones' is 'Five Greatest Warriors' and it comes out in UK in October '09 and the new Larsson 'The Girl who Played with Fire' should be out in July.

Revenge of the Spellmans - Lisa Lutz

In this, the third of our visits to Spellman world Izzy’s latest hobby case – Ernie Black - whose wife may or may not be having an affair seems like a simple surveillance job. But if its so simple why is a rival PI firm following Izzy around? Why is her father so keen on lunch all of a sudden and what’s with all the life changes? Henry Stone is dating. Younger sister Rae can almost be charged as an adult, brother David has turned from successful lawyer to eco warrior. Everyone is evolving or moving on - only Izzy remains static.

Izzy, in court ordered therapy and squatting in David’s basement apartment has a month to decide whether to take over the family PI business or have it sold out from under her.

The Spellmans still put the fun in dysfunctional and the characters grow with every book. A great read.

Comment on Good Thief's Guide and a drought in the arcs department

Thanks to Chris Ewan for his comments re the Good Thief's Guide to Paris post!

I knocked off all 3 Torchwood titles as I suspected they really didn't take long to read. I'm trying to get hold of a copy of The Manual of Detection by Jedidiah (spelling) Berry but our copies haven't come in yet and I can't find an arc for it - bummer! Also I noticed that the new Lisa Lutz is out so I'll post the review of that next. Where are all the good arcs??? I went through the whole pile yesterday while searching for the Berry arc hoping I might come across the new Susan Hill or the next Matthew Reilly or even the next Larsson but natch.

Murder in the Museum of Man

As I mentioned a few weeks ago this book by Alfred Alcorn caught my eye whilst I was shelving and now I've managed to read it. I went into work yesterday and bought the second one.

Norman de Ratour is a tall prissy academic (think Niles Crane) working at the Museum of Man which is being threatened with takeover by Wainscott University. As we join him he's contemplating the disappearance of the Dean, thinking of writing a history of the museum and preoccupied with the woman that he let get away. Then the Dean's remains turn up and Norman decides that rather than be regarded under the same pall of suspicion as his esteemed colleagues he should find out who killed the Dean and served him with pesto. Some things are rotten in academia including mad chimpanzee research, dubious funding, strange goings on at the genetics lab and a rumoured 'cult' of cannibals some of whom may still be on campus. Then the replacement Dean vanishes...

Feb 19, 2009

Good Thief's Guide to Paris

Subtle hint to hubbie - this would make a great birthday present.

Feb 18, 2009

Rainy Paris, the arc that shall not be named and Murder in the Museum of Man

Would you believe I was in Paris on Monday and it rained. Well I cheated a tad it was Paris - Las Vegas but the rain, the grumbling, it could easily have been the city of light. Late Valentines pressie from hubbie and now back to reality.

I rarely get assigned arcs but yesterday I did and I hereby invoke the 50 pages rule. Plenty happened in those first 50 but nothing I want to really remember. Don't get me wrong I like dark, twisted mysteries but this was way too graphic for my taste so will be handing that back tomorrow.

As an antidote I've started Murder in the Museum of Man and so far so good.

Feb 11, 2009

Safer by Sean Doolittle

Who watches the watchers? While reading Sean Doolittle’s latest novel you may ask yourself that question more than once. Less than five months after moving to the small town of Clark Falls the police arrest English Professor Paul Callaway for allegedly making kiddy porn. As his life gets ripped apart Paul explains the sequence of events that led to his arrest. How can Paul possibly prove his innocence when evidence and witnesses keep disappearing, when his lawyer is threatening to fire him and his only ally is a promotion hungry TV journalist. Paul is up against a pillar of the community, a grieving widower, caring neighbour, a man who just wants to make his town safer and will go to any lengths to do so.

Silent Man, Mesmerizing Steig Larsson

In the middle of Silent Man at the moment. When I first started it I thought maybe John Wells name should be changed to Jack Bauer but for a action thriller this is more cerebral than I would have given it credit for. Not only does it explore the consequences of the so called 'war on terror' it shows that every man has a limit and when he is pushed beyond it by whatever means his judgement and emotions are blunted and the animal in him takes over. By a combination of luck and sheer balls a group of jihadists get their hands on two nuclear bombs and smuggle them out of Russia. At the same time John Wells is suffering the consquences of his actions from six months previous. The bomb is headed for up-state New York but the men waiting for it don't need the detonation codes they want the fissile material inside. Wells is a unguided missile heading for Russia. At some point they are going to collide and then it's going to get really messy.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is Larsson's first book (he submitted three manuscripts which were all accepted but then sadly he died before he could see them published.) I am loving this. Lisbeth Salander isn't even the main character but she jumps right off the page at you and spits in your eye. Salander is an investigator for Milton Security - their best. She is also deemed mentally incompetent and has been assigned an Advocat. This is common in Sweden. The Advocat has the equivalent of power of attorney, controlling their charges bank accounts and keeping them on the straight and narrow. Salander has just completed an investigation of M Blomquist for the powerful Vanger family. Blomquist is about to go to jail for libelling a business magnate without proof. Blomquist is hired by Henrick Vanger to look into the disappearance and possible murder of his niece Harriet and as new information emerges engages Salander as his researcher but at the same time Salander's old Advocat dies of a stroke and her new Advocat is something else altogether. If Lisbeth is this engaging when she isn't the central character I can't wait to see what happens in the next book.

Feb 3, 2009

busy busy

At work yesterday picked up two of those arcs I asked for - although they weren't in my box just sort of lying around. Silent Man and Scavenger's Manifesto. I also bought Murder in the Museum of Man by Alfred Alcorn - not Acorn!! Tomorrow I'll be working on T'ball it's that or start a completely new project. Until I hear back from Jennifer I don't want to do any more to draft 3.5.

Sad to report that our writing group has pretty much bitten the dust. We're all doing our own things and although it was so great to see everyone again we didn't attempt to nail down a meeting date. The Rose and Cactus society however is up and running. We spent Sunday morning pounding keyboards at Diva's. They've opened up the green dome and even though there is a sign on the table at the far end people didn't read it or didn't really understand what it meant. I do that's why I didn't sit there, it's like the whispering gallery of St Paul's Cathedral in London. Every word clear as crystal from that table right into my ear!

Feb 2, 2009

Dog on it

Dog on it is by Spencer Quinn and I've had the arc in my box for about a week and having read it if you can pardon the pun its doggone good.

Meet Chet - he has a good eye for colour a keen sense of smell and his favourite foods are hotdogs and leather handbags. Chet partners Bernie Little a down on his luck PI. Bernie takes on a case of a missing 15 year old as a change from divorce work. She could just be a teenage runaway but Bernie doesn't think so, he has a nose for these things. Through Chet's Sam Spade narration the case unfolds and it's a tangled one involving kidnap, dodgy land financiers, abandoned mines and the bright lights of Vegas. Quinn is working on his second Chet and Bernie mystery right now so lets hope we hear more of this canine detective.

Jan 30, 2009

Visiting Booksellers

What a lovely bunch! We had quite a few coming through yesterday and all of them were so nice.

Going to be a busy weekend there's the TW reunion tour Saturday morning - hopefully we can get the group back on track and start having meetings again. Sunday is writing with Donna so taking a page from our blogs The Rose and Cactus society! Also because its good to learn something new I'm adding Brazilian Dancing and Hoop Dancing to my day not just because they are fun to learn but I find that I'm much more creative after that kind of workout and don't laugh - no please don't - I was having a problem with ending a conversation between two characters - for months it's just had 'finish this' in caps at the end of it. I was thinking about it just before I went to sleep and with my brain in that loosened state the words I needed just jumped into my head and they stayed there until I got them down on the page the next day. Yay!

Jan 29, 2009

Among the Mad - Jacqueline Winspear

Christmas 1931. Maisie Dobbs witnesses a suicide on a London street close to her office. One man is holding London to account and he mentions Maisie by name in his first communiqué to the British Government. As his attacks escalate Special Branch co-opts Maisie as an advisor. Soon the capable Miss Dobbs is dealing with Union agitators, followers of Oswald Moseley, Military Intelligence Section Five and a string of medical men and women in a race against time to track down a broken genius. She is also trying to her help her assistant Billy Beale whose family is still reeling from a recent tragedy and may have worse to come.

The Alexander Cipher

Finished the Alexander arc and it's good. Comes out in March so I'll post the full review then but I have to say as I was reading it I was casting characters in my head. I don't know if Will Adams intended it to read like a movie but it does and I loved the sly wink at the character of Yusuf Abbas. Adams clearly has as much respect for the SCA head as I do! More rewrites yesterday had to go back and read the whole thing again just to be sure it still holds together. Tomorrow I'm going to take version 3.5 to my lovely colleague Jennifer for her professional opinion. I'll be looking for some more arcs to read but might not get the chance as Winter Institute has started so we're going to get swamped with booksellers my shift should fly by.

Jan 24, 2009

Daemon - Daniel Suarez

We've had the arc of this for ages but we just got the book in so I took the arc home and it pushed the Alexander arc to the sidelines

This is a fast-paced tech thriller in the vein of William Gibson, Tom Clancy etc if you want a book for the video gamer in your household then this is it.
Computer genius Matthew Sobol is dead and on the day his obituary hits the internet it triggers events that will change the world. Two of Sobol's employees die within hours of each other and no one knows what they were working on. Detective Seebeck will take his last case, Anji Anderson will be fired from her TV fluff spot and Jon Ross will fix a server problem that could cost him his liberty and even his life. Something is controlling their destinies something created by a dead man.
I came away from this book with a what if vibe. Suarez' vision of a new world order is chilling but highly plausible and if you want happy endings this isn't the book for you!

Jan 20, 2009

Angel Maker review

The Angel Maker – Stefan Brijs

Country Doctor Karl Hoppe’s son Victor arrives back in his home village of Wolfheim to restart his father’s shuttered practice. With him come his three infant sons. He soon gains the villagers’ trust despite his abrupt manner and on the surface everything is normal. But underneath….

The villagers start asking questions. Where is the triplets’ mother? Why don’t any of the villagers see or hear the boys. Why did Dr Hoppe give up a massive genetic research grant at the University of Aachen to become a simple country Doctor.

Victor has a terrible secret, one forged by the fire and brimstone religion of his upbringing. He believes that Jesus is good and that God is full of wrath and vengeance and therefore evil.

And Victor wants to beat God at his own game.

Brijs instills just the right amount of creepy unease into this modern day horror story.

New week, new, president, new arc

When we arrived here in March of 2001 it wasn't a good year to be coming to America but how was anyone to know that. Even amidst these eight years when the US's reputation was flushed down the toilet by Bush and his cronies we've been made to feel welcome and we have some very good friends here. That's why it's a good day today, a shiny new president, a man with vision. I'd love to be in DC right now but I'll have to settle for watching the swearing in on TV.

Finally the arcs are flowing again - picked up one yesterday by Will Adams called the Alexander Cipher and it hooked me from the prologue!

Jan 18, 2009

Sundance and Winter Institute

Busy couple of weeks at the store - Sundance always brings new visitors to the bookstore and this week is no different and the following week it's Winter Institute. This is a program of lectures and information that the american booksellers association has been holding for the last few years and this year it's in down town SLC. So 500 booksellers will be hitting Salt Lake, if you are one of them come and see us.
No arcs this week - but I did put some of my hard earned bonus into the new Christopher Fowler "The Victoria Vanishes" and I visited his website to see if this was the last peculiar crimes mystery and it's not!

Jan 11, 2009

Revenge of the Spellmans

Izzy Spellman is back I just finished the arc and I'm blurbing it right now. Comes out in March and as usual I'll post my full review then. Also got some more feedback on Friday (good feedback!) so this morning I reread and did some more rewrites and fleshed out one of my characters a bit more. When to stop tinkering? - not yet!

Jan 3, 2009

Happy 2009

I've only read two arcs so far this year. One is already out and the other comes out in February. First, The Book of Unholy Mischief by Elle Newmark - this just came out.

Luciano is a street urchin surviving on his wits until he is plucked from the street and deposited into the kitchen of the Doge of Venice. Apprenticed to the Doge's chef Amato Ferrero, Luciano learns of the unlikely Guardians and in the Doge's court and in the streets rumours abound of a book that contains some things called Gnostic Gospels and more importantly how to turn lead into gold and the secrets of eternal life. This thriller set in Venice has some of the most delicious descriptions, I could almost taste the words the emphasis on food being a powerful tool as well as just very satisfying is a clue to the Guardians identity but Luciano's misplaced sense of loyalty to his former street friends and his obsession with novice nun Francesca could prove his undoing.

I just finished the sixth Maisie Dobbs novel - Among the Mad - it's very good comes out in February and I'll post the review for it then. Tomorrow it's back to writing. I can't believe I haven't written anything for two whole weeks!