Kittling: Books

The Plans Are Afoot Weekly Link Round-Up

2013-05-25T00:53:00.003-07:00

I have a feeling that you can tell how successful a vacation is by how quickly you start planning the next one. I'm moving through all our UK trip photos about as quickly as a geriatric glacier. I have posted my photos that were taken in the wonderful Leakey's Bookshop in Inverness on my Facebook pages, and I hope to have a write-up and a few of them ready to share with you here on the blog within the week. While Denis and I were in the Highlands, I fell madly in love with Balnakeil Beach, which is in a remote area of northwest Scotland. Beautiful cliffs, almost-white sand, deep turquoise waters.... *sigh* I told Denis that I wanted to find a suitable cottage that's within sight and a very short stroll of that heavenly place-- and I did!

The Bothy on Balnakeil Beach

It's a small cottage, and Denis and I are already planning to spend a week there. I don't care that it's remote. I like remote. We can get provisions on the way there, and if the only things I do for that week are spending time with Denis, walking that beach, hunting for shells, and reading, I will be thrilled. You can't see it in this photo, but there's a big window on the other end of the cottage that overlooks the beach. It'll be a couple of years before we get there, but just planning for it makes me smile!

Nothing much going on here at Casa Kittling. Cleaning, cooking, doctors' appointments, author signings-- and I've been on a reading high. This week I reviewed four books, two rated "A" and the other two rated an "A+". Now if that's not music to a bookaholic's ears then nothing is!

Bookish News & Other Interesting Stuff

Last week, I told you that a first edition copy of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone annotated by J.K. Rowling was up for auction. It sold for £150,000 ($227,000+). You can also read more about the other authors who annotated their books for this auction.
Why the great Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami translated The Great Gatsby.
I love some of the fake writing assignments this author gave to online cheaters.
Salon.com tells us "Beware of book blurbs." I don't put too much store in them-- especially the ones that have "..." in them. (It means they've left some important bits out!)
After forty years, a new Pearl Buck novel will be released this fall.
Even the royals love Harry Potter.
My heart goes out to the people of Moore, Oklahoma. (I know someone who lives there. Fortunately she and her house are all right.) For those of you who aren't familiar with tornadoes, you can read more about what happened... and you can see the utter devastation on Google Maps. The more I scrolled to trace the tornado's entire path, the more my heart broke.
I'm looking forward to the premiere of the second season of "Longmire," so here's an article about its star, Robert Taylor.
Stephen King on what he read as a kid.
The Rolling Stones' Keith Richards faces a pretty hefty fine for some overdue library books.
The world's most famous (well...almost) literary pub.

Digital Reading

The new E-ink Sony 13 inch eReader debuts, complete with video. They're also working on models with a flexible screen to be available in 2014.
The New York Times eBook bestseller list will be available online only.
Amazon is bringing out a licensed program for fan fiction.

I ♥ Lists

10 movie titles with bad grammar.
The most searched authors and titles on Google.
Eoin Colfer's top ten villains.
The great big reading poll.
10 classic books that have been turned into ballets.
Famous books that you didn't know were censored.
12 things famous authors absolutely hated.
8 animals as bookish as you are.
11 tactics to keep your reading choice a secret. (Frankly, my dears, I don't give a fiddle-dee-dee if everyone knows what I'm reading....)

Book Candy

The "This Is a Bookshop" sign has gone viral.
A bookcase that suspends books on threads.
Abibliophobia: the book lover's greatest fear.
Incredible reading rooms from around the world.
Love him or hate him, take a look at Dan Brown's house!

That's all for this week. Don't forget to stop by next weekend for more of my ramblings-- and a freshly selected batch of links for your surfing pleasure!

The Black Country by Alex Grecian

2013-05-24T11:39:00.000-07:00

First Line: It was an unusual egg.

The little girl who discovers a human eyeball in a bird's nest sparks fear in a small mining village in the black country of the English Midlands due in no small part to the fact that three members of a prominent family have disappeared. The local constable knows that he's in over his head, so he sends for help to Scotland Yard's new Murder Squad. Inspector Walter Day, Sergeant Nevil Hammersmith, and Dr. Bernard Kingsley have two days to solve the case, but they have no earthly clue what they're getting themselves into. Everyone has a secret in this tiny community, and most of the villagers' lives seem to be subsumed by superstition.

Alex Grecian's The Yard was one of the few books I purchased during my recent trip to the UK, and when I'd read it and turned the last page, all I could say was "Wow!" I'm thrilled to say that The Black Country has now firmly placed this author on my Must Buy list.

Grecian has a very visual style of writing that makes me feel as though I'm right in the thick of things. His setting of a small mining village that's virtually cut off from the rest of the world adds the perfect Gothic atmosphere-- especially since the mine has tunneled underneath most of the buildings, and the town has been slowly sinking into the shafts for years.

Taking these three out of London gives them a chance to bond and form a relationship away from all the other characters-- in particular Day and Hammersmith-- and although I did miss some of the cast from The Yard, this element worked very well. The villagers add just the right touch of helpfulness and obstinacy and are brilliant at showing how people's histories intertwine in such a remote place. In fact their closely woven lives add all sorts of complications to the detectives' investigation.

My mother once told me that she believed I must have been a miner in a previous life (one that died in a cave-in) because I refuse to go underground. If you see me at someplace like Carlsbad Caverns, rest assured that I'll be camped out in the parking lot. With my fanatical passion for these Murder Squad books, and with a character like Nevil Hammersmith who literally grew up in a coal mine, I think I shall have to resign myself to having the heebie jeebies when I read parts of these books because they do go down into the earth from time to time. In this case, however, these sections heighten the suspense and sense of danger... a delicious way of scaring myself, I suppose you would say.

Creepy atmosphere, wonderful characters, a convoluted mystery, all wrapped up in the Victorian Era's conflict between science and superstition. What a marvelous reading experience Alex Grecian has created! Do I recommend his Murder Squad series? You bet I do!

The Black Country by Alex Grecian

ISBN: 9780399159336

Hardcover, 400 pages

Historical Mystery, Police Procedural, #2 Murder Squad

Rating: A

Source: LibraryThing Early Reviewer program

Norwegian by Night by Derek B. Miller

2013-05-23T00:52:00.000-07:00

First Line: It is summer and luminous.

When you're in your eighties and a widower, the last thing you want to do is to move from your home in New York City to a new place with your granddaughter and her Norwegian husband in Oslo, Norway. But as Sheldon Horowitz knows, sometimes the last thing you want to do is the only thing you can do. He's lonely and wants to be with his granddaughter. His granddaughter has seen signs of dementia in her beloved grandfather and wants to keep him close to her.

What neither one of them could possibly predict is an act of incredible violence that leaves a little motherless boy in old Sheldon Horowitz's care. Now the old man and the little boy are on the run from everyone who's chasing them, and we can only pray that the killer isn't the one who finds this odd pair first.

This is a book that defies categorization. It's part thriller, part police procedural, part road trip, part commentary on aging/relationships/dementia-- and it has flashes of comedy throughout. When I began reading this book, I was worried about Korean War veteran Sheldon Horowitz because I was remembering when my own grandfather lived with me. By the time I finished reading Norwegian By Night, I had a big smile on my face and wished that we could all be as demented as Derek B. Miller's main character.

This is a book that has so much to say-- and it manages to say everything in a rather concise manner. What this debut novelist says in 300 pages, most other writers would take at least twice the space. Miller never lets his foot off the gas-- this tale moves swiftly and surely from beginning to end. If you're the type of reader who wants a fast-paced book that starts at Point A and leads directly to Point B, you might want to give Norwegian By Night a miss. From time to time, the narrative wanders off onto dark alleys and narrow country lanes, as Sheldon visits the Korean and Vietnam Wars, memories of his wife and son... and as we learn a bit about the background of the silent little boy Sheldon is trying to keep safe. These diversions add a richness to the story that it cannot live without; they are the life's blood of Miller's characters. It takes an incredible amount of skill to be able to introduce these flashbacks and themes and not have them slow down the pace of the story, and Miller accomplishes it with ease.

The element of the chase keeps the story's pace flowing quickly, while those diversions add dimension to both characterization and to the themes of aging and regret that run throughout the book. And when the action gets too scary or one of the themes gets too dark, Sheldon Horowitz is there to say or do something that will make us laugh.

This book fed my mind on so many levels! It's been a long time since I've finished a book with such a huge smile on my face, wanting to invite a character home to live with me. Should we all be as crazy as Sheldon!

Norwegian by Night by Derek B. Miller

ISBN: 9780547934877

Hardcover, 304 pages

Fiction, Standalone

Rating: A+

Source: Amazon Vine