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Apr 26, 2016

Sleeping Giants, Sylvain Neuvel

Like your science fiction with a dash of The day the earth stood still? Then this is for you.

Dr. Rose Franklin was 11 years old when she fell down a hole was rescued and inadvertently discovered a giant mechanoid hand. Rose, now a physicist is involved in a project to reunite the parts of a device that no one on earth could've built. The team she assembles, pilots Kara and Ryan, linguist Vincent and geneticist Alicia gather the parts with the assistance of 'the man with no name' a person who seems to wield more power than the commander in chief. Is his interest in the device as philanthropic as he claims?


A more thoughtful brand of sci fi, told through the team's interviews with Mr. no name, news reports and insight from the team members’ private journal entries. The story moves at a good clip to an intriguing conclusion. A sequel is coming.

Apr 25, 2016

Seven Days in the book world with Elizabeth Wein

Elizabeth Wein is the author of the New York times bestseller Code Name Verity and novels Rose Under Fire and Black Dove White Raven and the Lion Hunters series. She holds both a pilot's license and a PhD in folklore and she (like me) was a bell ringer (I haven't rung a treble in a very long time) Elizabeth and family live in Scotland but she will be attending the Symposium on Books for Young Readers at BYU this coming July.

Here is Elizabeth's week in her own words.


"I am the world’s most sporadic reader, and the reading I do is bound up not only in my own writing but in social interaction. Last week was pretty typical and, I suppose, gives you a good slice of my life as a writer… Though maybe not a TYPICAL slice of life as a writer!

Friday: Finished the second draft of my current Work-in-Progress and sent it off, a week late, to publishers in the USA, Canada and the UK. I then began re-reading the entire thing on my Kindle, highlighting plot-holes and typos. That’s what I spent the weekend reading – interspersed with Jo Walton’s Farthing, also open on my Kindle, which I’m reading partly for pleasure and partly out of professional curiosity to see how she went about writing a mock-Agatha-Christie-style mystery novel.

Saturday & Sunday: more of the same, and – ta dah! – I finished the proofreading of my own book.

Monday: After an email exchange with one of my publishers, I received an unexpected telephone call from my “expert reader” or fact-checker. This is a woman who’s been hired, at my suggestion, to advise me on the background and setting of my current manuscript. I was delighted (and a bit apprehensive!) that she’d got in touch with me directly, and we spent half an hour going over her very thorough notes for the first third of the book.

Tuesday: And now for something completely different! I’ve been Skyping with my brother on a weekly basis and we are in the middle of John Bellairs’s middle-grade ghost story, The House With the Clock in Its Walls, which I’m reading aloud chapter by chapter each week. This is, hands down, the SCARIEST STORY I HAVE EVER READ. First published in 1973, this book TOTALLY stands the test of time, and even though I’ve read it about twenty times it STILL gives me chills. Incidentally, Harry Potter fans would probably like this one, as it features wizards with PhDs living in the modern world and a very relatable, youthful, overweight and bullied hero who dabbles in the occult.

Wednesday: Once a week I join another writer friend for a work session at a hotel halfway between us. (This is the gracious venue: the Winter Garden of the Crieff Hydro  ) This week I was making notes on Bruce Myles’s Night Witches, a book I’ve just finished reading as background research for a non-fiction project. In between this note-taking, I’ve been working my way through another book for similar research, Reina Pennington’s Wings, Women and War. Both these books are about the incredible exploits of the young women, many of them only in their teens, who flew as bomber and fighter pilots for the Soviet Union during World War II – or as the Soviets called it, the Great Patriotic War.

Thursday: A day of talking to schoolchildren about my own books, and meeting other authors to talk about theirs, at the YAY!YA Scottish children’s book festival in Cumbernauld, near Glasgow. I and my fellow writers gave ten short but sweet readings to an assortment of 200 students over the course of the day. It was exhausting but exhilarating! On my return home, I found myself sorting through the stack of 200 unread books which just collapsed next to my desk. I’m trying to be brutal about getting rid of them, but I couldn’t help diving into P.E. Leathem’s The Short Story of a Long Life, which I ordered for another writer friend who was researching Leathem’s mother – I accidentally acquired two copies and kept one for myself. Leathem’s rambling style is charming and I’m greatly enjoying her tales of pig farming and being a codebreaker at Bletchley Park during World War II!

That brings us back to Friday! As I was finishing this post, the phone rang – it was my fact-checker letting me know that she’s finished her full set of notes and that she enjoyed the manuscript! (And she had some excellent suggestions for it, too.) So that’ll be me back to revising next week. And I’m still working my way through all these half-finished reads."

Elizabeth's week in nutshell

Farthing 2006
The House With the Clock in Its Walls 1973
Night Witches 1981
Wings, Women and War 2001
The Short Story of a Long Life 2009

Code Name Verity is available now 9781423152880

More at http://www.elizabethwein.com/

Apr 19, 2016

The Letter Writer, Dan Fesperman

An explosion on the ship Normandie marks Woodrow Cain's arrival in New York City. Only months after Pearl Harbour the city reeks of paranoia and Cain, a southerner taking up a detective's position in the 14th precinct is having to go along with the culture of corruption in his new precinct just in order to work cases.


Cain's first case is that of a dead immigrant dock worker which brings him to the attention of Max Danzigger. Danzigger, who provides a letter writing service for the local mainly illiterate immigrant population has some information that ties in with Cain's case. Information is Danzigger's currency, is it also the thing that could get him and Cain killed if they can't quickly learn to trust each other. As the two begin working together they have no idea what kind of unholy alliances they are about to uncover.

Apr 18, 2016

Seven days in the book world with Scott Graham

Scott Graham is the National Outdoor Book Award-winning author of the National Park Mystery Series for Torrey House Press (torreyhouse.com).

Here is Scott's week in his own words.

Like most writers I know, I keep a pile of books around my house and spend my evenings working through as many as I can. As a longtime author of nonfiction turned mystery author, I mostly read mysteries these days, with great pleasure, generally at least one a week.

I’ve found reading mysteries with the eye of a reviewer helps me focus on what’s working, or not, with my own work. As an example, here’s a review of Margaret Mizushima’s excellent recent debut, Killing Trail, I wrote for the monthly Prose & Cons review column I write with Chuck Greaves, whose mighty fine Tom & Lucky and George and Cokey Flo was a Wall Street Journal Top 15 Book of the Year for 2015.

———

Killing It

Mystery lovers in the West who love dogs—or dog lovers who also love mysteries set close to home—have reason to cheer.

With Killing Trail, Margaret Mizushima has launched a fine, Rocky Mountain-based mystery series featuring kind-hearted, small-town cop Mattie Lu Cobb and her K-9 partner Robo.

Canine aficionados will be happy to hear Mizushima devotes plenty of ink to the dog star of her series.

In her Timber Creek K-9 Series debut, Mizushima calls on Robo to play critical roles in every step of the investigation into the murder of a teenager high in the Rockies. Robo locates the buried body of the victim, sniffs out drugs, comforts frightened children, protects Cobb from harm, tracks suspects as directed by Cobb, and points out others of his own volition with growls and bared teeth.

Robo even plays the part of potential murder victim—a role generally reserved for whodunnit sleuths at the point in mysteries when sleuths get too close to their prime suspects. In the case of Killing Trail, when the unknown murderer grows frustrated by Robo’s uncanny tracking abilities and throws tainted meat over the fence into Cobb’s back yard, Robo wisely turns up his finely tuned nose at it.

Mizushima, the wife of a veterinarian and an obvious animal lover, describes in absorbing detail the involved process by which Cobb trains, readies and works with Robo. The author makes clear, for example, the differences between K-9 searches aimed at finding hidden contraband and those tracking humans.

Though the book is her first, Mizushima understands the expectations of her mystery-reader audience. While Robo is an example of canine, and K-9, perfection, Mizushima’s human protagonist, Cobb, is flawed in all the right ways. As the insecure young adult of a foster-home upbringing, Cobb in Mizushima’s assured hands is tentative professionally and uncertain in the ways of love, endearing herself to readers from page one.

As Killing Trail progresses, readers easily find themselves rooting for Cobb and Robo as they work their way through numerous suspects—in Cobb’s case, with street smarts, logic, and not a small amount of compassion for the shortcomings of her fellow small-mountain-town citizens, and in Robo’s case, with a nose that knows no bounds.

Mizushima has finished the second installment in her series, Stalking Ground, which will be released later this year. Assuming Cobb and Robo remain at the top of their respective games, look for Mizushima’s sophomore effort to be another winner.

Scott's week in a nutshell

Killing Trail 2015

Yellowstone Standoff  comes out in June

Apr 11, 2016

Seven days in the book world with Alex Grecian

Alex Grecian has written five bestselling novels about Scotland Yard’s Murder Squad. The fifth, Lost and Gone Forever, will come out May 17th in the US, and 16 June in the UK and elsewhere. He lives in the American Midwest and is currently working on the first book in a new series.

Here is Alex's week in his own words.

"When it comes to reading material, this past week was all endings and beginnings, with no middles. I tend to read two books at once, usually a novel as well as a memoir or essay collection. I gravitate toward nonfiction in the morning while I’m drinking coffee, but I prefer a story when I’m winding down at the end of the day.

The week divided itself neatly in half. I finished rereading my favorite bits of This is the Story of a Happy Marriage by Ann Patchett, and I wrapped up Faceless Killers by Henning Mankell.

Anyone who writes or hopes to write, for a living (or as a hobby), ought to seek out Patchett’s Happy Marriage. Particularly her essay “the Getaway Car.” I read the whole book through once in order, and now I go back to it occasionally, rereading random chapters for inspiration. Especially when I’m having a tough time with something I’m writing.

I’d heard of Mankell’s Wallander books, but somehow they didn’t pop up on my radar until the BBC adaptation aired here in the states. Then I found a blog that somehow likened my work to Mankell’s books and I decided I ought to take the plunge. Halfway through reading Faceless Killers I went ahead and bought the next book in the series (the Dogs of Riga, which I’ll get to next week, I suppose). I don’t know that Mankell’s style and my own are actually similar, but I’m tickled by the comparison. I just wish I could read them in the original Swedish. I always wonder what I’m missing when a book’s been translated.

After re-shelving those (Patchett’s book stays in my office, Mankell’s novel belongs in our home library), I started both Writing in Restaurants by David Mamet, and Ripley’s Game by Patricia Highsmith.

I’m not enjoying Writing in Restaurants as much as I did Mamet’s Three Uses of the Knife or On Directing Film, but anything by Mamet is worth seeking out.

I’m slowly working my way through the five Ripley books (I have WW Norton’s beautifully designed box set sitting on the windowsill in my library) before moving on to the rest of Highsmith’s oeuvre. The prose is meaty and engaging, but Tom Ripley’s such a nasty protagonist that I have to take little breaks to cleanse my palate between each book in the series. Ripley’s Game is the toughest yet because I made the mistake of seeing the movie first. So there are no surprises here, but Highsmith’s word choices are a pleasure.

Friday afternoon the mailman delivered a guilty pleasure: the League of Regrettable Superheroes by Jon Morris and I couldn’t resist dipping into it a bit over the weekend. Each page is an encyclopedic entry that delves into the weirdest corners of American comic book history, so I don’t feel especially obligated to read it in order.

And, finally, there are the many metric tons of magazines that pile up around here. I managed to get through a New Yorker and an issue of the Believer this week before the recycling truck came by, so when I’m eventually buried alive under paper the pile might be a wee bit lighter than it might otherwise have been."

Alex's week in a nutshell

This is the Story of a Happy Marriage (2013)
Faceless Killers (1991)
Writing in Restaurants (1986)
Ripley's Game (1974)
League of Regrettable Superheroes (2015)

Lost and Gone Forever comes out May 17th 2016

Apr 5, 2016

Murder of Mary Russell, Laurie King

In the most recent episode of 'Sherlock' , Mrs. Hudson complained to Dr. Watson that she was 'more than just a plot device' and here King gives her center stage.

Sherlock Holmes' Sussex home has been invaded, there's a pool of blood on the floor, the raw scent of cordite in the air and no sign of Mary Russell, except for bloody drag marks leading to the front door. What has become of Mary Russell and what part did the redoubtable Mrs. Hudson play in her murder?

Kill and Be Killed, Louis Begley

Sequel to last years 'Killer Come Hither'.

Jack Dana, former marine, now full time writer avenged his uncle Harry's death and because of that lost his lover Kerry in the process. He's still in love with her and he plans to show how much by flying home from Italy to try and win her back. Before he can do so, terrible news reaches him. Jack has no time to mourn Kerry's death. Someone is after him too.

Rise of the Rocket Girls, Nathalia Holt

The Jet Propulsion Laboratory started as a division of Cal Tech, known as the ‘suicide squad’ because of their propensity for blowing things up (on campus!).  JPL used a lot of computers in their early days. Back then the word ‘computer’ was used to define a math genius who could turn strings of figures into useful data armed with just a notebook and pencil. The ‘computers’ at JPL were all women with mad math skills and an unshakeable work ethic. They literally got the space program off the ground long before NASA even existed.  

You still see their work in every launch and they plotted the trajectory and course changes for unmanned missions like Voyager and Mariner. These women were space pioneers, hopefully this book brings them the recognition they’ve long deserved. 

Apr 4, 2016

Seven days in the book world with Carole DeSanti

Carole DeSanti is Vice President, Executive Editor at Viking Penguin, where she is known as a champion and curator of outstanding, original voices --  among them, Ruth Ozeki’s A Tale for the Time Being,  Melissa Bank’s Girls’ Guide to Hunting and Fishing, George Hodgman’s Bettyville  and Deborah Harkness’s All Souls Trilogy.  She is the author of the critically acclaimed novel, The Unruly Passions of EugĂ©nie R.  Here is Carole's week in her own words.

"Dear Paula,

Funny you should ask because last week was truly a wild and delicious week of reading.   Having been in deep mourning upon reaching the finale of Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan novels  (a reading experience like no other) I did not know where next to turn.  But a stroke of good fortune took me to Italy, in fact – to Rome – and there I continued an Italian Odyssey (first stop: English Language bookstore).  As it is short, and there were many sights to see, I first dove into Henry James’s classic fictional character study Daisy Miller.  The story is set in Rome, reminding us of the long history of travelers there – and it also figures in the plot of a novel I’m about to start editing, The Maze at Windermere by Gregory Blake Smith (you heard it here, first!)  

From there, Jhumpa Lahiri’s beautiful and mysterious journey away from the English Language, In Other Words carried me into new ideas about life and language (and I’d heard Lahiri speak about Ferrante recently, and sensed connections afoot).  Interwoven with this was – on a tip from a good friend –  Dacia Maraini’s stunning novel The Silent Duchess, about a deaf and mute woman in Sicily in the mid-18th century.  Truly a work to savor and with a great deal to teach us about life.  … Why did the duchess fall deaf and mute?  The reason resonates well beyond her time.  (With deep thanks to The Feminist Press for keeping it in print.) 

I also picked up a copy of Elsa Morante’s History, A Novel to re-read in homage to Ferrante and because I loved it 25 years ago – an re-reading, as I have found, is one of the great pleasures of later life.   But, meanwhile, I had a date with the British Library, and another world of books:  research for a new project.  Unlikely to go to the top of most reading piles, these ingredients for my creative stewpot – which simmers on the back-burner as it must, a lot of the time --  included 1) Dekker and van der Pol’s survey of female transvestism in the early modern period,   2) a 17th century philosophical work about the natural world called The Wisdom of God by John Ray and 3) a highly illuminating work on the slave trade, Slavery Obscured, by Madge Dresser. Among various and diverse other sources…

For a total change of palette – and the plane ride home –  I decided to laugh my way across the Atlantic with an early copy of Gina Barreca’s just-published collection of spot-on cultural observations, If You Lean in, Will Men Just Look Down Your Blouse? 

So, a trip through time and many minds.  Happy reading, and don’t forget to range freely!"

Carole's week in a nutshell  

The Neapolitan Novels (2011-2014)
In Other Words (2015)
Daisy Miller (1879)
The Silent Duchess (1990)
History, A Novel (1974)
If You Lean in, Will Men Just Look Down Your Blouse?  (2016)

Unruly Passions of Eugenie R is available now 9780547840215
More at www.caroledesanti.net.