Mind of Winter by Laura Kasischke

Mind of Winter by Laura Kasischke

Ghost story?  Psychological thriller?  Creepiest Christmas story ever?  It’s hard to know how to feel about this book until the very end (which I will not give away so you, dear reader, can be as freaked out as I was).  Let’s just say that “something followed them home from Russia.”

This is the story of Holly.  Due to a genetic curse that claimed the lives of her mother and sisters, Holly has preventative surgery to remove her breasts and ovaries.  Since she cannot have children of her own she desperately wants to adopt and finds the perfect daughter in Siberia and names her Tatiana.  Our story starts Christmas morning of the year Tatiana has turned fifteen.  Holly and her husband have overslept and he rushes out to pick up his parents at the airport.  A freak blizzard keeps the guests away and Holly and Tatiana spend the day together as things get weirder and weirder.  What followed them home from Russia?

Strange strange freaky weird book.  But very well done.  It will keep you guessing until the final page.  Great on audio because you can really pick out the phrases that are repeated over and over again.  Hints?  Or warnings?  You decide…

The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt

The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt

Theo Decker survives a terrorist attack at the Metropolitan Museum of Art that claims the life of his mother.  While fleeing the chaos he awakens to in the aftermath he rescues a painting, The Goldfinch of the title, and spends much of his life wondering what to do with the priceless artwork.  For as time goes on he accepts that he hasn’t so much rescued the painting as stolen it.  The book is Theo’s life after the attack, dealing (sort of) with the guilt he feels for the death of his mother, and carrying the painting with him to all the homes he comes to know.

I was hesitant to read a 751 page book about an art theft, but after it won the Pulitzer I felt I had to give it a chance.  The book didn’t feel that long.  There was a spot or two that were slow, but overall the book moved and kept my interest.  (Especially the zinger three-quarters of the way through!)  But I don’t understand what has captivated so many people.  It was a good book, and the author is a talented writer, but overall it’s not staying with me the way many other lesser known books I’ve read this year have.  Plus, I didn’t like the main character.  I don’t have to like a main character to enjoy a book, but I have to relate to them in some way.  I couldn’t.  Theo was given a gift to survive this attack and he seems driven to ruin his life and the lives of those around him. 

As I’m thinking more about this book I’m finding more things I enjoyed about it that I can’t write about without totally giving the ending away.  Let’s just say I’m glad I read it, but it won’t be one of my top reads of the year.

What I Had Before I Had You by Sarah Cornwell

 

What I Had Before I Had You by Sarah Cornwell

Olivia has just divorced and feels she needs to return to her childhood home with her teenaged daughter and young son to face her memories, guilt and legacy.  Ocean Vista, the New Jersey Shore town of her youth, is basically unchanged and the past floods to meet her at every turn.  But she can’t wallow in nostalgia, her son Daniel has disappeared and she must find him.

The story is told in the present, the story of trying to find Daniel and struggling with his diagnosis as bi-polar at the age of nine, and Olivia’s past, her harrowing life as the only child of a severely mentally ill mother.  Olivia is a strong character and as she becomes a young woman and begins to venture out into the world beyond the insulated home her mother has created for them she realizes how different her life is.  Her friends don’t have a nursery set up in their home for two dead baby sisters, their mother’s don’t suddenly disappear for weeks at a time, and they know the real story of their family, a story Olivia doesn’t discover until she is a teenager.

At the core this is a story of the toll mental illness can have on a family and the struggle the afflicted and the ones who love them undergo.  Olivia can easily identify with her son since she too suffers from the illness, never quite so severe and not as early onset as her son, but she gets him and is willing to stand by him since she feels she abandoned and never truly understood her own mother.

This is a great choice on audio.  The accents of some of the characters really bring you down the shore.

Silence for the Dead by Simone St. James

Silence for the Dead by Simone St. James

Kitty Weekes flees her life in London for a job as a nurse at Portis House, a country manor turned hospital.  Two problems.  Kitty is not a nurse and Portis House is not a typical nursing facility.  It is a madhouse for shell shocked veterans of World War I.  Oh, and there is another issue to add to the mix.  It seems that Portis House is haunted, and whatever presence is there, it is not pleasant at all.

This is a great haunted house tale mixed with light romance.  It is also a wonderful period piece detailing the stigma men faced if they returned shell shocked from World War I.  There is a cross section of acceptance at Portis House – families that visit every week, men abandoned by fiancées, and those whose families are terribly ashamed of their returning soldiers whose minds were damaged by what they experienced. 

I really liked how the author had Kitty see the men as hurt individuals in her care, not just as madmen to be discounted, and how a purpose, coming together to face crises, brought out the best in the men and made them truly feel useful and like men again.

Frog Music by Emma Donoghue

Frog Music by Emma Donoghue

You can’t get much different from the author’s last bestseller Room.  Jenny Bonnet is a cross-dressing, hell raising, straight talking, frog catcher in San Francisco.  One day she runs into Blanche Beunon, highly desired burlesque dancer, with her high wheeler.  The two women strike an almost instantaneous friendship, much to the surprise of Blanche.  After meeting Jenny, Blanche’s life is turned upside down.  She takes her young son out of care, quits her job and leaves her man; each decision coming with consequences not immediately apparent.   The friends are only together for a few short weeks when disaster strikes.  Jenny is shot and killed while sharing a hotel room with Blanche outside the city.  Who killed Jenny?  Did they mean to kill Blanche?  Why?

While the main storyline revolves around solving Jenny’s murder the pasts of both characters play a large role in the narrative.  If you are not a fan of stories that jump back and forth in time, you may not like this book.  There is a lot of past, far past and present scenes that go back and forth at a fast pace.  It is a wonderful way to tell the story, but at times it is a little confusing. 

I really enjoyed this book on audio, the accents are clear and the songs are actually sung by the reader.  I have to admit I’m not sure how much I would have liked the book if I read it.  The storytelling added a lot of color and depth to the story that I’m not sure the words alone would have conveyed.

Frozen Assets by Quentin Bates

Frozen Assets by Quentin Bates

Officer Gunnhildur Gisladottir left the Reykjavik force years ago for a quiet fishing village of Hvalvik after a family tragedy.  Suddenly Hvalvik is not so quiet.  A man is found dead, floating off one of the docks.  Immediately it is assumed he was drunk, fell in the water and drowned.  Yes, the autopsy shows he was drunk, but he was so drunk he couldn’t have possibly driven the kilometers from the capital.  And if he did manage to drive where is his car?  Gunnhildur is sure that he was murdered and starts an investigation into getting a description of the car that could have delivered her body to her village.  Her digging results in finding out about more “accidental” deaths.  Could a multiple murderer be in Iceland?

This is a well crafted Icelandic mystery set in 2008 at the beginnings of the financial crisis in the country.  The politics didn’t overwhelm the plot, but became an integral part of the investigation.  Gunna looks like she’s going to be taking a job in Reykjavik which would allow the author to continue a police centered series.  Crime doesn’t much happen outside the capital in that country.  Looking forward to reading the next entry.

The Pyramid of Doom by Andy McDermott

The Pyramid of Doom by Andy McDermott

Archaeologist Nina Wilde and her ex-SAS husband Eddie Chase are back!  Depressed and unemployed Nina hardly leaves her dingy walkup in Queens, pining for the career and the adventures that have been taken from her as a result of her last outing.  But things are looking up.  An intern on a dig in Egypt searches Nina out and after a coffee shop meeting they are fleeing through midtown Manhattan in a “borrowed” cab and getting shot at by their pursuers.  Looks like life will be getting interesting again after all.

This is a typical entry in the Wilde/Chase series.  There is a lot of world hopping and break neck adventure with mythology and archaeology thrown in copious amounts.  I took this book on vacation with me and it is a perfect read when you don’t want to think too much, but you want to be entertained by fun dialogue, one liners and incredible action.