Sunday Caught My Interest

It is actually sunny here at nearly 60 degrees. We have crocus coming up in the back yard and himself went on a long bike ride today. I have been consumed with crafts, etc. this past week making a wreath for the front door and containers for the laundry room makeover. I did finish State of Wonder by Ann Patchett and I am halfway through The Drowning Tree by Carol Goodman. I can see echos of themes that also appeared in Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close in each work (although much more so with the Patchett) which makes reading always more interesting. I am letting State of Wonder percolate in my mind a bit before reviewing it.

Here is what caught my interest this week:

Danielle of A Work in Progress has a nice stack of new books to read – two of which have caught my interest. The first is The Spy Game by Georgina Harding. In January 1961, Alice’s mother gives her a kiss and disappears into the fog. Alice and her brother Peter are told she has died in an auto accident. There is no funeral and eventually the two children become convinced that their mother was a Russian spy and she is still alive. The book description ends, “The Spy Game is a beautifully wrought novel about loss, history, memory, and imagination, and the way in which we shape these to construct our own identities. It is a painful and tender reminder of the importance of understanding the past and, in turn, the importance of letting go.” All themes I love to read.

The second book in her stack that I would like to read is The Devotion of Suspect X by Keigo Higashino. This novel was the winner of Japan’s prestigious Naoki Prize in 2005. While part of a detective series, Suspect X is the first work of Higashino’s to be translated into English. The detective in this novel is Dr. Yukawa, a physicist who is called in by the police to help with certain cases. He feels that an old school mate, Ishigami has something to do with the murder of the ex-husband of Ishigami’s neighbor. The two smart men dance around each other each with different ends. This reminds me of old-school detective stories and I will look out for this one.

If you are in the mood for a sprawling family tale of romance, Becca from Bookstack has a book for you. It is The Orchid House by Lucinda Riley. Set in both modern times and WWII, the estate of Wharton Park ties the two times together. In modern times, Julia returns to the estate after a tragedy and when she and Kit Crawford, heir to the estate, discover an old diary, Julie seeks out the story of a WWII love affair that takes place in Thailand. This sounds like a perfect travel read.

It is spring which means track season so I am on the lookout for a series of books that can be easily read in spurts as there can be an awful lot of downtime in meets. Devourer of Books has just the series for me Charles Todd’s Bess Crawford Mysteries starting with A Duty to the Dead. The premise of the story has me hooked from the get go. Bess, a WWII nurse delivers a dying message to a soldier’s brother, “Tell my brother Jonathan I lied. I did it for mother’s sake, but it must be set right.” I really want to know what he lied about and the ramifications of delivering the message. While Bess may be somewhat comparable to  Maisie Dobb’s, there seems to be enough differences to make things interesting.

Suzanne of Bibliosue has a review that highlights why book groups are so wonderful. Her book group picked out a book that she would not have necessarily picked up and she loved it. Not only does she love it, it sounds like the type of book that will engender the best discussions. Wingshooters by Nina Revoyr is set in a small Wisconsin town in the mid-seventies,  Michelle LeBeau is a young girl living with her grandparents. Because she is half-Japanese she is considered an outsider by the town. Her grandfather, a pillar of the community, is conflicted because he loves his granddaughter but is also disturbed by her ancestry. Into this mix, a professional black couple move into the town and the community becomes very unsettled.  I am putting this one on my list for my next pick for my book group.

Happy reading!

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