A Pocket Full of Rye by Agatha Christie

#6/2012:

A Pocket Full of Rye by Agatha Christie

Agatha Christie wrote several novels that were based off of children's nursery rhymes: And Then There Were None, One, Two, Buckle My Shoe, Five Little Pigs, Mrs. McGinty's Dead, and Hickory Dickory Dock. In A Pocket Full of Rye, the "king" of a dysfunctional family, Rex Fortescue, is found dead in his office at a "counting house" with a a handful of rye seeds in his pocket, and the deaths of his queen and the maid follow right along with the poem, "Sing a Song of Sixpence." Which member of the family seems the most likely to be crazy enough to carry out such a plan? I love a Miss Marple mystery, so I was glad to see her when she showed up. This one was nothing particularly special, but it's a solid plot with all the usual suspects.

I can't move on the next book in line, Destination Unknown, until I order it. I thought I already had a copy of it, but it turns out that I didn't, and since it was recently republished, it wasn't even available for purchase until last week. Kind of unusual for a book that was written in 1954! I do have a few other things to read in the meantime. I'm actually just finished with Robert B. Parker's God Save the Child, from the Spenser for Hire series, so I'll get that written up soon.

Silver Sparrow by Tayari Jones

#5/2012:


Silver Sparrow by Tayari Jones

Some books are wonderful even though they don't have a great deal of plot, usually because the characters are so rich and real and interesting that you tag along through their day-to-day lives simply because you want to know and understand these people. Silver Sparrow is like this. If you must have car chases and wild romance and espionage, then you probably won't make it through the first half. But if you like to read a book about women and their relationships with each other - mothers, daughters, grandmothers, friends, neighbors, strangers - then you will meet some nearly real people in this book.

The basic plot outline is somewhat sensational at first glance. The book is divided into two sections, each narrated by one of James Witherspoon's two teenage daughters (set in Atlanta in the '80s mostly). Dana Lynn goes first because she's the daughter who knows about James' other family and other daughter. He's a bigamist, and Dana Lynn and her mother are his secret family. Chaurisse, in the second half of the book, is the legitimate daughter who, along with her mother, is completely in the dark about James' other life. Most of the book involves the two girls telling the stories of how their parents came to meet and marry and have a child, and then later, how the two daughters come to meet and the consequences. You know the author has done a beautiful job crafting believable people when no one is a hero and no one is a villain. I even thought at several points throughout the book that I would really love to read at least a short story told from the point of view of James and his foster brother Raleigh, the two main male characters in the book, because their perspectives and conversations would also be so interesting. Maybe I should email Tayari Jones and suggest it.

Cookbook Round Up

For my birthday this year, I received a wealth of cookbooks, at my request. My parents and my brother and sister-in-law sent me books on Chinese, Mexican, and Cajun cooking! It's international buffet night at the Fowler household.


Easy Chinese Recipes by Bee Yinn Low

Maggie LOVES chinese dumplings, so I'm going to have to get to work learning how to make them. I'm already in the process of mastering fried rice (it's actually not that hard) and I can't wait to try out her tip on how to tenderize chicken to get the exact kind of silky "mouth feel" that the Chinese like best for their stir fry.


Mexico One Plate at a Time by Rick Bayless

My dad's favorite mexican chef on TV. I could just sit and read this cookbook like a travel guide (which I have also been know to just sit and read; just like the encyclopedia).


The Justin Wilson Gourmet and Gourmand Cookbook by Justin Wilson

When I was a kid, we always watched Justin Wilson's show on PBS, Louisiana Cookin'. I love cajun food and wanted to start learning how to make a few favorite recipes like gumbo and red beans and rice. I've already tried the beans and rice recipe and it came out pretty good... I gar-on-tee!

Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris

#4/2012:


Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris

Just revisiting an old friend. I love EVERYTHING David Sedaris has ever written (and everything Amy Sedaris has done as well) . I needed something to read on the iPad and felt I could use a few laughs. His essay about trying to explain Easter to non-Christians in Paris using only Intro to French language skills is a classic.

After the Funeral by Agatha Christie

#3/2012:


After the Funeral by Agatha Christie

This is the 48th AC mystery I've read since I started trying to reread all her books in chronological order three years ago. Her first novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, was published in 1920, and this current novel was published in 1953. There are 22 full-length novels left to go (published right up until she died in 1976) and 17 more books of short stories (some of which were/are only published in the UK, so I might not be able to get my hands on them). This list doesn't include plays or the two or so novels that were finished by other authors after her death.

I may read those too, but we'll have to see if I'm totally sick of her by the time I get to the end! I doubt it though because I've actually already read most of these books before. They never get old! However, I do, so I can't remember the conclusions to half of them even if I recall the characters and settings. It's convenient.

After the Funeral is post-WWII, so much of the world that provided the settings of Christie's earlier novels is fully on it's deathbed - the stately homes, the servants, the jet-setting leisured aristocracy, the Empire upon which the sun never set. In just a few years, all those Gothic Victorian mansions are going to be bought up by working class blokes who hit it rich as members of British Invasion bands, and they'll use the libraries to smoke hash and practice the theramin instead of poisoning the butler. All the characters in the book spend a lot of time complaining about taxation and the impossibility of finding affordable maids, and the family manse is going to have to be sold off to become some kind of institution since the old patriarch has died suddenly (was it or wasn't it murder???). I always love the history lesson and period atmosphere these novels provide, but the '50s were a gloomy decade in England and After the Funeral is a pretty straight-forward, middling quality, all-in-the-family style Christie mystery.

Next up is Pocket Full of Rye, and I do prefer a Miss Marple to a Hercule Poirot.

The Friends of Eddie Coyle by George V. Higgins

#2/2012:


The Friends of Eddie Coyle by George V. Higgins

In the introduction to my copy of this book, Dennis Lehane (author of many Boston crime classics such as Gone Baby Gone, Mystic River, and Shutter Island) writes:

You hold in your hands the game-changing crime novel of the last fifty years. It is also quite possibly one of the four or five best crime novels ever written. It casts such a long shadow that all of us who toil in the genre known as American noir do so in its shade. Same goes for all of us who write novels set in Boston. How can a slim book with minimal description and no heroes lay claim to the status of modern masterpiece?

That right there is all you need to know about this book before you read it. Go read it.

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

#1/2012:


The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

My first book of 2012, already finished! My friend Wendy, pusher of kiddie lit, sent me this book for Christmas, and once AGAIN, she was right about it being a perfectly great book on it's own for adults as well as teenagers.

When I first started reading, I wasn't so sure about The Book Thief because:
* it's YA. (I know, I know, I'm learning to love it.)
* it is set in Nazi Germany, and I'm not the only one who suffers from quite a bit of literature fatigue concerning Holocaust books, even if that makes me sound callous.
* the narrator is Death - that's right, Death. He says he doesn't really carry a scythe.
* the prose is kind of flowery and artsy at times, and I was afraid it was going to get very old very fast.

However, I kept reading and it was well worth it in the end. The plot is actually quite good; Death himself says he doesn't enjoy trying to work up the suspense when you probably kind of know what the outcomes are likely to be anyway, so the story ends up not feeling like forced excitement but just kind of spins out in a nice way. The journey is more enjoyable than the destination, which seems kind of rare in fiction pacing these days. The characters are the best part of the book: relatable and real and still lovable. Death ends up making some quality points without being too heavy-handed, and the poetic posey of words serves the voice and atmosphere more than it distracts. A quick read and a good recommendation for people who love words.