Paging All Bookworms! discussion

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Read any good books lately? We want to know about them.
How about real stinkers? We want to know about those too!


Enter your reading list and/or reviews here. Did you like it? Hate it? Feel lukewarm?

Share your thoughts with us.

Happy reading!

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Sorry for the late start of this month's thread. Just completely forgot we are in a new month!

Katherine E. Kelly, ed., The Cambridge Companion to Tom Stoppard [2001] 244 pages + 2 arts (32 pages)

The last book of my mini-project on Tom Stoppard, this collection contains fourteen articles. As with most of the Cambridge Companions, they are fairly useful and focused on the author and his works with a minimum of "literary theory". After the editors introduction, it conta ins a biographical article by Paul Delaney, an article on In the Native State and Indian Ink by Josephine Lee, an article on Stoppard's only novel, Lord Malquist and Mr. Moon, which I haven't read, by Peter Rabinowitz, one on the radio and television plays by Elissa Guralnick, one on Stoppard and film by Ira Nadel, one on the early stage plays by Neil Sammells, one on the three "middle" plays, Travesties, Night and Day and The Real Thing, by Toby Zinman, one on Stoppard's politics by John Bull, one on his use of Shakespeare by Jill Levenson, one on science in Hapgood and Arcadia, one on his treatment of love themes by Hersh Zeifman, one on his use of/relation to other writers by Enoch Brater, one on his ambiguous relationship to postmodernism by Michael Vanden Heuvel (which says that Stoppard appreciates postmodernism in the arts but dislikes it in philosophy and the social sciences -- which is about my own view), and a bibliographical article by Melissa Miller.

I also am adding in two other secondary articles I read which were too general to place under one of the plays: Moonyoung Chung, "Stage as Hyperspace: Theatricality of Stoppard" (Modern Drama, 48, 4, Winter 2005) 17 pages, interpreting Stoppard, and particularly Arcadia, in terms of the theories of Deleuze and Guattari, which I might have actually understood if I had ever gotten around to reading their work; and more interestingly, Christopher Innes, "Allegories from the Past: Stoppard's Uses of History" (Modern Drama, 49, 2, Summer 2006) 15 pages, which points out that his plays are almost all set in the past and deal with the nature of history.

Picture Miss Seeton – Heron Carvic – 3***
What a fun romp of a cozy mystery! Miss Seeton is a retired art teacher who has just inherited a cottage in the village of Plummergen, Kent. Whether she’s in London or Plummergen, she and her trusty umbrella do manage to wind up in the middle of all sorts of altercations. A bit slow to start, but once I got used to the style, I was hooked. Miss Seeton is a hoot, and I want to keep reading this series.
LINK to my review

Yi Kwang-Su, The Best Short Stories of Yi Kwang-Su [2016] 216 pages

Having just read Mujŏng, I decided to read this collection of short stories by the same author (but a different translator). It was a mistake; while the novel was somewhat hard to get through this was a real chore. The translator Chang-Wuk Kang is obviously not at all fluent in English; he does not know how the definite and indefinite articles are used in English, omits or misuses prepositions, confuses homonyms, mixes tenses at random in the same sentence, and constantly uses "as such" when he obviously means "thus" or "therefore". He should at least have had an English speaker copyread the text and render it in grammatical English. In addition, the Kindle edition which I read is not properly formatted for the device; words are broken up with hard hyphens when there should have been a soft hyphen, the text frequently ends in the middle of a sentence in the middle of a page (evidently hard page returns were also used), the numbers for the Endnotes are not actual links, there is no table of contents and the bookmark locations does not work so there is no way to go to the Endnotes and return to the story without writing down the location and using GoTo. All of which makes it hard to review the actual stories fairly, but I'll make an attempt.

There were two stories which seem as though they would have been worthwhile if properly translated; the first story, written in 1917 at the same time approximately as Mujŏng, deals with the same theme of arranged marriage, though in a more obvious, propagandistic manner, and one later story in the first person about a group of prisoners. Toward the end, there was also a collection of vignettes about a farm and various anthropomorphized birda and animals, which might appeal to those who like that sort of thing. Most of the "stories", however, seem to be basically sermons or vague disjointed essays about the evils of the world (in very general terms) and a sort of Buddhist-Christian syncretic spiritualism. It's hard to tell given the problems with the translation, but it seemed to me that the stories written during and after World War II represent a definite falling off in both thought and writing ability compared to the earlier stories and Mujŏng.

I'm going to begin The Soil, written in 1932 and translated by a team of one Korean and one American; hopefully it will be better but at over 500 pages I may drop it if it isn't.

Becoming – Michelle Obama – 5*****
Michelle Obama’s memoir / autobiography takes her from her childhood through college, her first years as an attorney, meeting Barack and their time in the White House as President and First Lady. Through her words I felt that I really got to know this remarkable woman.
LINK to my review

Three Wishes – Liane Moriarty – 3.5***
Moriarty excels at exploring relationships within an ensemble group of characters. Here she looks at the Kettle sisters, a set of adult triplets, their partners and their parents. As she did in Big, Little Lies Moriarty begins at the end, and then backtracks to lead us up to that climactic event. It's a story of sibling rivalry, and love found / lost / and found again. A fast read and quite entertaining.
LINK to my review

The Kill (Predator Trilogy #3) by Allison Brennan
5 ★

When Olivia St. Martin was 5 years old, she helped convict the man who raped and murdered her sister. 34 years later he has been released. DNA testing proves he did not do it. Olivia is haunted by the fact the she may have been wrong and starts to research the case. She soon finds similar murders all over the US. She blames herself for the serial killer being out there and sets out the catch him.

Any book that is centered around the brutal deaths of children is hard to read, but the author does a nice job making the subject low key. There are no graphic scenes and no detailed accounts.
Olivia St. Martin is a strong troubled woman who does what anyone would do to find the truth. Even risk losing her job. I can understand her need to set things straight, but I wish she could have done it without lying to Zack Travis. Zack Travis is a good cop and just as determined as Olivia is to catch the killer.
It was nice seeing Quinn and Miranda again. I like how the author worked them into the story since Olivia was in Seattle.
The back story of the killer is a tragic one and is told from his point of view throughout the book. I like when authors do this. It breaks up the story and gives the reader insight into why the bad guy is doing what he’s doing. The reader is able to get his side of things. This story also follows Brian Hall, the man falsely accused of Olivia’s sisters’ murder. The reader gets to see what can happen to someone who spends 34 years in prison as an innocent man. The ending is expected, but not overdone.
The romance between Olivia and Zack is slow and easy, not forced. It’s just the right amount to go along with everything else.

Chen Qiufan, Waste Tide [2013, tr. 2019] 347 pages

I've been waiting for this Chinese sf novel to come out in translation since I read some of Chen's short stories for a Goodreads group last year. The premise of the novel is similar to Hwang Sok-yong's Familiar Things -- a community of low-wage workers built around processing waste, although Hwang's novel was magical realiism set in more or less the present while this is science fiction set in the near future. It wasn't a bad novel, but I was rather disappointed in it.

On the positive side, it was a very good extrapolation of how the capitalist class would "solve" the ecological crises at the expense of the working class, especially of workers in less developed countries, which is an important question now that "moderate" conservatives (known in the United States as "liberal Democrats") are looking to "green" corporations for solutions to these problems. It also avoids the trap of seeing the ecological or environmental problems solely through the lens of "climate change", which is not dealt with here; it highlights the problems of waste and pollution instead. Another theme, as in most good sf, is the misuse of technology for its own sake (and of course for profit) in a consumerist economy, and the way differential access to advanced technology augments the effects of class stratification. Whether it's due to the heritage of post-capitalist China during the Maoist period, or simply to the realities of the Chinese economy since then, there is far more awareness of economic class than one would find in American sf authors, who seem to ignore the question altogether (and this is true not only of Chen but of much of the little Chinese sf I have read.) This is not to say that it is "socialist realism" or even written from a specificly Marxist perspective, which it is not.

The novel avoids a simplistic heroes and villains dichotomy; all the major characters, whether they play positive or negative roles, are seen as intending to act for the social good as they understand it, as well as their own interests; the problems are structural to society and the characters are all constrained by their social and economic positions to identify their own interests with society. Perhaps I could express this by saying that Chen (and many other Chinese sf writers) are within a realist tradition, while most American sf is within a romantic tradition (there are exceptions, of course, which are usually the ones worth reading.)

Why, then, did I find the book somewhat disappointing? Chen is very definitely influenced by the writing of Liu Cixin, who is the best known recent Chinese sf author (both within China and abroad); he tries to use the same style of unexpected events and hidden motives which are ultimately revealed -- but he doesn't quite bring it off. While Liu's plots in the end form coherent logical patterrns, much of the motivation here remains unclear and characters' actions seem to be for no better reason than to produce an exciting plot. (Even the technological background doesn't seem quite coherent, or able to explain the way the plot develops. I can't go into detail without spoilers.) The plot is indeed exciting and fast-paced but in the end not quite believable. Another implausible feature (which he shares with Liu) is that the background of the novel goes back to the 1950s, and is based on events which one cannot quite believe happened then -- technological advances which never existed, historical events which never occured, etc. Perhaps, since the events in question are located in the United States (and many of them are supposedly top secret), Chen simply assumes that his Chinese audience will not know they are unrealistic, just as an American writer could say almost anything about China during the same period without putting off most American readers. (In fact, Chen seems to know about and refer to much more American pop culture than any American writer would know, or could get away with alluding to, about Chinese pop culture.)

In short -- better than the average formula science fiction, but not quite what I had hoped for.

The Good Thief’s Guide to Amsterdam – Chris Ewan – 3***
Charlie Howard is a successful mystery author, writing a series that features a professional burglar, Faulks. As a sideline – and I guess you could call it research – he also occasionally accepts a commission to steal certain items. This was a highly entertaining mystery. I couldn’t help but think of Lawrence Block’s Bernie Rhodenbarr series, but the comparison is a good one. The pace is quick, the characters interesting, and the charms of Amsterdam (a city I have visited) evident.
LINK to my review

My Cousin Rachel Daphne Du Maurier
4 ★

When Philip Ashley is orphaned his cousin, Ambrose, takes him in and raises him as if he is his own. Ambrose is a devout bachelor, but when he travels to Florence he meets Philip’s cousin Rachel he falls in love. When Ambrose gets sick and suddenly dies, Philip is sure that Rachel had something to do with it. Especially after the letters he has received from Ambrose. When his cousin Rachel shows up in England, Philip finds himself pulled into the charm of Rachel just as Ambrose was.

Although this novel starts off slow, it ends with a bang. There is a lot of back story and not much dialogue between characters that had me originally giving it a 3 star rating. Ambrose and Philip are very close and I liked the family dynamic they had. Ambrose had a unique way of raising him, but Philip grew up respecting Ambrose.
Rachel is probably the most confusing character I have ever read about. One minute you love her and the next you can’t help but not trust her. I was all over the place trying to decide if she was truly as sweet as she seemed or a complete fake. The way Philip fell for her was also irritating. He believed that she had something to do with Ambrose’s death, but that completely left his mind when he met her. I can understand Louise’s, Philip’s friend, reaction to Rachel. Philip is extremely spontaneous throughout the whole book and makes some huge mistakes.
The last few chapters had me riveted. It wasn’t until the last chapter or two that I figured out how it was all going to end. Rachel really surprised Philip as well as me. I didn’t think she would do what she did.
Rebecca will always be my favorite book by Daphne du Maurier, but this one was good and I look forward to reading more by her.

Our Man In Havana – Graham Greene – 4****
A delightful send-up of espionage / spy thrillers, starring a hapless vacuum cleaner salesman whose daughter has expensive tastes. Wonderful supporting cast of shady characters, corrupt police officials, and clueless bureaucrats. A nice romantic twist and a not-to-be-believed ending. Great fun, though the British humor is a bit dry. I've never seen the movie, but kept picturing Sir Alec Guinness in the lead role.
LINK to my review

Robert Payne, The Fortress [1967] 628 pages

After reading The Coast of Utopia I was looking for a book that would give me more information about the early nineteenth-century Russian revolutionary figures who played important roles in the play, such as Bakunin, Ogaryev, and Nechayev; most of what I found on Amazon was out of print or beyond my budget, and this was a free read on Kindle Unlimited, so I downloaded it. I didn't expect much, having read Payne's unreliable and inaccurate attack biography of Lenin over fifty years ago in high school, and it was as bad as I expected. The most negative aspect of the book was the frequent gratuitous, irrelevant and inaccurate comments about Lenin and the Bolsheviks which are sprinkled throughout; Payne obviously has no idea of their actual politics. To give a general characterization, the book is written in the style of "popular" history which is modeled after historical fiction, with sunlight glinting on the walls, moonlight reflecting in the rivers, snowflakes drifting down and so forth; I have to admit that it was very vivid in the details, although there is not much about the political ideas involved. It does, however, give generous quotations from the writings of the various revolutionaries themselves, which is the one redeeming feature of the book.

The Fortress, as its title indicates, is ostensibly organized around the common thread of people who were at some time or another imprisoned in the Peter and Paul Fortress, but by the middle of the book that criterion was obviously abandoned. After a first chapter giving the history and description of the prison itself, the book begins with the revolt of the Decembrists. It then has parts, made up of one or more chapters each, on the circles around Petrashevsky, Bakunin, Chernyshevsky and Zaichnevsky, and the beginnings of terrorism with Karakozov's attempted assassination of the Tsar. The next part on Nechayev is the center of the book both literally and in terms of the narrative, and is by far the longest, consisting of six chapters. Payne seems fascinated with Nechayev's nihilist beliefs, which he claims (absurdly) were the inspiration and model for Lenin (I recall that he included the whole of the Revolutionary Catechism in his Lenin biography; it is included (more relevantly) here as well.) There are then parts on Zhelyabov, Narodnaya Volya and the assassination of Alexander II; Sazonov, the Socialist Revolutionary Party "Terrorist Brigade" and the assassination of Plehve; Kaliayev and the assassination of Grand Duke Sergey, and other terrorist attempts. He even has a chapter on Alexander Ulyanov, Lenin's older brother, which is apparently included only so he can contrast Alexander as the perfect student, filial son, etc. with his brother as lazy, sullen, dishonest and rude to his parents. An indication of Payne's obsession with terrorism is that he devotes all of two paragraphs to the 1905 Revolution and the first Soviet, as compared to four entire chapters on the assassination of Plehve.

He ends up with a chapter on Kerensky, the great revolutionary, heroically striving to keep Russia in the war, who could have accomplished all of the ideals of the revolutionary tradition if he hadn't been tragically overthrown by the Bolshevik "coup d'état". If that seems a little far-fetched, it appears from the bibliography that it is based entirely on Kerensky's own recollections.

As bad as the book is, there are a few things which it makes very obvious. Firstly, as much as the author sympathizes with the terrorists, their strategy was totally ineffective; even in the rare instances when their assassination attempts succeeded, they were basically counterproductive, only resulting in greater repression and the destruction of their own organizations. Secondly, the police themselves, by their random mass arrests and arbitrary sentences, essentially turned people who were far from radical into terrorists. Finally, it demonstrates just how backwards and repressive the Tsarist regime actually was.

The Pirate (Bloodlands Collection) by Harold Schechter
3 ★
The story of pirate and mass murdered Albert Hicks, who murdered his 3 shipmates in 1860.
This was my first Audible Audiobook and I found it quite entertaining. It’s a short story read by Steven Weber who did an excellent job keeping the listeners attention. The murders are described in vivid detail and I was surprised at the interest that P.T. Barnum had in it. Albert Hicks became America’s first celebrity killer due to the amazing turn out at his hanging.

Nobody’s Perfect – Donald E Westlake – 3***
Dortmunder’s gang is back for their fourth “can’t fail” scheme. This time the “victim” has arranged the theft as part of an insurance scheme. Westlake has a way of putting obstacles in the path of his loveable gang of thieves that just tickles my funny bone. I enjoy watching them scheme, and how exasperated Dortnumder gets with Kelp’s attempts to “help.” I was somewhat disappointed in the cliff-hanger ending, however.
LINK to my review

Burglars Can’t Be Choosers – Lawrence Block – 3***
This is the first in the series starring Bernie Rhodenbarr, a professional burglar with loads of charm. I love this series, and this is a second reading, though I didn’t remember any of the plot, so the twists were all a surprise to me. I like Bernie as a character. He’s smart and nonviolent. The plots are intricate and the supporting characters a delight. And I love the way Block writes about New York City; I really feel as if I’m walking the streets right along with Bernie.
LINK to my review

Rosemary’s Baby by Ira Levin
5 ★

Rosemary and Guy Woodhouse have moved to the “Bram”, an elite apartment complex. When a tragedy accords at the apartments they meet the elderly couple who live above them, Minnie and Roman. Minnie and Roman take a quick interest in Rosemary and Guy and the interest gets a bit intrusive when she gets pregnant. What secret are they hiding and why?

There are very few movies that follow the book as well as Rosemary’s Baby. I watched the movie many years ago, several times, and I was able to picture the movie while reading. The characters are fabulous and you can’t help but like Minnie and Roman. They may be a bit annoying and always around, but they are so sweet.
The author does an excellent job with descriptions and the scenes that are meant to evoke fear are wonderful. They are so vivid and move quickly. The book itself is a quick read. There were times when I didn’t want to put it down.

Yi Kwang-su, The Soil [1933; tr 2013] 529 pages

Another novel by Yi Kwang-su, written fifteen years later, this is obviously less important historically than Mujŏng, which was the first in vernacular Korean, but also seems to be better written, although it's hard to be sure given that they were translated by different translators. The repetitions are mostly gone, and although it is certainly didactic the didactic passages are handled in dialogue and given to appropriate characters rather than being intrusive monologues by the narrator. Some aspects of the plot are similar -- the weak protagonist who lets himself be convinced to marry the wrong, rich woman rather than his original love, the good kisaeng (spelled gisaeng in this book), the girl who goes to Tokyo and becomes a concert musician, and so forth. The emphasis on serving Korea is even more central, although education here is subordinated to economic concerns of the peasantry and setting up of a cooperative in the countryside.

The protagonist, Heo Sung, is a law student in Seoul, originally from the village of Salyeoul; he abandons the village girl he loves, Yu Sun, to marry Yu Jeong-seon, the daughter of a wealthy patron who pays for him to get his law degree. The marriage is unhappy, and Sung returns to Salyeoul to work for the peasants. The former gisaeng, Baek Seon-hi, meets him on the train and ends up accompanying him to the village where she becomes a kindergarten teacher. The novel then focuses on the countryside and its problems, as well as the relationship issues between Sung, Sun, Jeong-seon and Seon-hi. I don't want to go too much into the plot, but it involves slander, murder, prison, and a much darker overall feeling than Mujŏng, despite a not entirely convincing optimistic ending.

This is more of a propaganda novel than great literature, but still worth reading for the historical background.

Vinegar Girl – Anne Tyler – 3***
A retelling of Shakepeare’s The Taming of the Shrew that doesn’t quite work. Tyler shines when she explores relationships, but here she has to find a plot to adequately mirror the bard’s play. Not her strong suit and it detracted from the relationships. Some things to like about it, but overall ‘meh’.
LINK to my review

Son of Rosemary by Ira Levin
3 ★

It’s 1999 and Rosemary and her son have reunited. Her son, Andy, is a very popular public figure who has big plans for the New Year. The year 2000 is going to start off with a bang and Rosemary must decide if her son is on the side of good or evil.

***Spoiler warning***

Rosemary’s Baby and Son of Rosemary were written 30 years apart, but the author never missed a beat. It has been 27 years in the book and Andy is going on 33 years old. Rosemary has been in a coma for the past 27 years and awakens suddenly when the last member of the original coven dies. I didn’t feel like her recovery was very realistic though. Someone who has been in a coma that long should need extensive rehab. Also, Rosemary seemed to adjust to the 1999 world very easily. Her reunion with Andy is quick and too planned. Guy, Rosemary’s husband, is mentioned a few times throughout the book, but the subject of what happened to him was avoided. Rosemary seemed a bit naïve as well. She just took to Andy too quickly and never seemed to doubt him or his actions. It was like she forgot who had raised him.
With that said, the book moves very quickly and ends very quickly. The ending is actually a bit confusing and can be interpreted differently depending on the reader. I enjoyed the story and the storyline. It was compelling.

The Flight of the Maidens – Jane Gardam – 4****
In the summer of 1946 three young women prepare themselves to head off to university and explore the world beyond Yorkshire, England. What I love about Gardam’s writing is the way she paints her characters and shows us who they are. Gardam changes point of view from chapter to chapter to give each girl a chance in the spotlight. Still, while Leiselotte’s journey is the most wide-ranging and full of surprises, I’m not sure I ever really got to know her and felt that her story was somewhat tacked onto that of the other girls.
LINK to my review

Lee Mun-yol, Hail to the Emperor! [1986] 490 pages

Another novel by the author of Son of Man, Yi Mun-yol (Yi and Lee are variant spellings of the same name, which also plays a role in the book itself), this is a very original and interesting (and comic) novel which is (like Yi Kwang-su's stories, which I reviewed earlier this month) unfortunately spoiled somewhat by a very wretched, ungrammatical translation. (I don't understand why Korean translators don't at least have a native speaker edit their translations for idiomatic, or at the minimum grammatical, English.) In the frame story, set in 1978, the narrator, a reporter for a small magazine, visits the area of Mt. Kyeryong to write a human interest story about a "heretical sect". He runs across a man named Wu Bal-San making offerings at a gravesite, and from him learns the story of the "Emperor Paik" and reads the True Record of his "reign", which he then turns into the present novel. (The translator in his introduction in my opinion totally misunderstands the novel by not realizing that it is told by a very unreliable narrator, or even that it is intended comically.)

The book struck me as essentially a Korean version of Don Quixote. The protagonist is convinced by his father from birth on that he has been chosen by Heaven to replace the decaying Yi dynasty with a new 800-year dynasty of Chong. He spends his early life reading the Chinese and Korean classics and esoteric old books of prophesies, which have the same effect on him that the novels of chivalry have on Don Quixote. Throughout the book he misinterprets the modern reality in terms of precedents from old Confucian and Taoist texts; in one very "quixotic" episode early on, he mistakes a train for a dragon. He collects various disciples from time to time whom he appoints as generals and ministers; one of the first, and the one who stays with him to the end, is Wu Bal-San, a peasant who more or less plays the role of Sancho Panza. At one point the Emperor comes to rule over a small village, which the Western reader will recognize from Cervantes' novel. The book does not follow Don Quixote all that closely, however.

I read somewhere that Yi Mun-yol is one of the Korean novelists who is most accessible to Western readers -- with the exception of this book. It is true that throughout it alludes to or quotes traditional historical and literary figures in the Confucian and Taoist traditions, but I would say that the Western reader no more needs to be familiar with these traditions than the reader of Don Quixote needs to be with the mediaeval romances. The comedy is in the misapplication of these historical precedents to the situation of a handful of deluded individuals in a modern context of WWII and the Korean War. (The Emperor comes to believe that he and his followers drove the Japanese out of China and Korea.) One thing I think the book does is satirize both North and South Korea by presenting them in the distorted mirror of the True Record. There is really a lot here in terms of historiographical satire and a humanist understanding of history, politics and so forth; if this were a bit shorter and a lot better translated it would have been a good choice for a book club discussion.

The Last Days of Night – Graham Moore – 4****
Moore’s novel is historical fiction that focuses on the question of genius, and the war between Thomas Edison and George Westinghouse on WHO invented the light bulb and was entitled to power the country. I was completely captivated by the narrative. The characters fairly leapt off the pages. Moore also does a fine job of setting the scene. In short, it was fascinating, engaging and illuminating.
LINK to my review

Maryse Condé, Moi, Tituba. Sorciere [1986] 242 pages [in French, Kindle]

The imagined life of Tituba, the "witch" from Barbados who apparently was responsible for the Salem witchcraft scare, told in the first person. A well-written novel, which is compatible with the known history but goes beyond it in both directions, describing her life as a slave in Barbados and her return to Barbados after the Salem events. The book accepts the reality of her supernatural powers, so I can't really consider it as a pure historical novel, but the setting in both Barbados and Salem seems to be well depicted. Some of the dialogue seems a bit anachronistic, but since the dead with whom Tituba is in communication know the future I suppose it could work in the context of the book.

Yi Mun-yol, Our Twisted Hero [1994] 134 pages [Kindle]

One of Yi's best known books, this was a very quick read -- less than two hours. Ostensibly, it is a forty year old man's recollection of a conflict in fifth grade, but actually it is a metaphor for the Korean dictatorship. The story concerns a class monitor who is able to wield extreme power over all the students because they are afraid of him; the narrator resists and is ostracized by the other students. More of a long short story than a novel, it is concise and almost perfect in its genre. Highly recommended, five stars and a favorite.

Mr Mercedes – Stephen King – 4****
Book Number 1 in the Bill Hodges Trilogy, featuring retired Detective Bill Hodges in an unnamed Midwestern city. King is a masterful writer and he doesn’t disappoint in this thriller / police procedural. The reader always knows who the perpetrator is, but that doesn’t lessen the suspense as Hodges and his assistants race the clock to solve the puzzle.
LINK to my review

Yi Mun-yol, The Poet [1992, tr 1995] 207 pages

A novel about the life of the early nineteenth century poet Kim Pyong-yon, told as the speculations of a present day narrator. The poet was the grandson of a "traitor", Kim Ik-son, who was executed for his support of a rebellion against the dynasty, and as a result was ostracized and excluded from the scholarly career he might have expected. He ultimately rejected the conventions of society and became a wandering poet. The novel is based on the facts of his life and his poetry, but at the same time it has a symbolic dimension, given the similar ostracism of many South Koreans (including Yi Mun-yol himself) whose relatives supported the North Koreans in the Korean War. While the novel was interesting with the discussion of the functions of poetry, the fact that I don't know Korean and have never read any of Kim Pyong-yon's work meant that much of it was not really meaningful to me. I was particularly disappointed in the ending when it veers into mysticism.

The Good Thief – Hannah Tinti – 2**
An orphan with a missing hand falls in with a group of scam artists / thieves in early 19th century New England. I had heard good reports of this novel and I was intrigued by the premise. Tinti captured my attention at the beginning and certainly kept me reading, but I found it very dark and distasteful. The scenarios, schemes, and twists in the plot just seemed like a list of “what will be next to befall this kid.” Tinti does give the reader a real sense of the time and place. I also really enjoyed Mrs Sands and descriptions of life in her boarding house. But in the end, the things I liked didn’t quite make up for what I didn’t like about it.
LINK to my review

Love, Lies and Spies – Cindy Anstey – 3***
Anstey has written a young-adult, mystery/romance set in Regency England. I really enjoyed this fun, fast read. I could definitely hear the echo of Jane Austen. I liked Julianna’s spunk and intelligence. I also appreciated the slow-burn pace of the central romance. I did figure out the master spy / traitor ahead of the reveal, but not by much. Nicely done!
LINK to my review

Choi In-hun, The Square [1960, tr. 2013] 158 pages

The November read for the World Literature group on Goodreads, this short novel written in 1960 was among the first modernist novels in Korean. The translation is not perfectly idiomatic, but much better than many of the ones I have read lately. (This is the only book by Choi that I have found in English, but there are a couple in Spanish translation that I may read next month.) The novel begins with the protagonist, Lee Myong-jun, on board a ship of former POWs from the Korean War, en route to resettlement in India. We then follow his previous life through (possibly distorted) memories, first in South Korea, where he was persecuted because his father was a Communist who chose to live in the North, then as a "defector" himself in the North, where he becomes disillusioned with the Stalinist regime that he describes well as "an imitation of a revolution." (I'm always impressed by authors who realize the problem with these regimes is not that they are "communist dictatorships" but that they are bureaucratic parodies of communism, although oddly Choi -- or perhaps only Myong-jon -- doesn't seem to realize that that was true of the original Stalinist regime as well.) He joins the military during the Korean War, is captured by the Americans, spends some time in a POW camp and at the end of the war chooses to go to a "neutral country" rather than either South or North Korea.

The central theme of the book is contrasting "The Square" (always capitalized), the public, objective sphere of life, with the "room" or "private chamber" which represents the subjective private life of the individual, and arguing that The Square in both Koreas has been so corrupted that Koreans have retreated entirely into private life. (This is one of those "sixties" ideas on the borderline between phenomenology and Marxism; my philosophy-student subconscious kept suggesting vague and possiblly irrelevant memories of Habermas.) There is of course much about his loves and his mental life and growth. I enjoyed the novel. Unfortunately, as with so many novels that start out well, he can't seem to end it without introducing a rather mystical conclusion.

The Vintage Caper – Peter Mayle – 3.5***
This is book #1 in the Sam Levitt series. Mayle has given the reader a crime caper with a plausible (if fantastic) plot, a wonderful cast of characters, and mouth-watering descriptions of food and wine. Mayle’s love of France shines through; I could practically smell the aromas from a restaurant’s kitchen and feel the sun on my face. And I love that twisty ending! A fast, fun, delicious read.
LINK to my review

The Silvered Serpents (The Gilded Wolves #2) by Roshani Chokshi
5 ★

It has been 2 months since Severin and his team defeated the Fallen House and they have all gone in different directions. Tristan’s death has changed them all. Now Severin may have a clue as to where The Divine Lyrics is located and calls them all back. Without question, Laila, Enrique, Zofia and Hypnos answer his call. Now they are racing against time and into Russia to find the long lost artifact.

It’s rare for me to find an author whose characters are so real that reading the second book in a series is like catching up with old friends. Roshani Chokshi has accomplished this and gone beyond my expectations. All the chapters are told from a different characters perspective and the first few give the reader an update on what each of them has been up to. The change in voice of each chapter helps break up the story and keeps things flowing.
This book gives the reader more insight into each character’s past and what they have gone through. We learned more about the relationship between Severin and the matriarch of House Kore, Delphine. This knowledge actually made me feel a bit more sympathy for Delphine. It also helped me understand why Severin changed so much after Tristan’s death.
The character that stands out this most in this book is Zofia. She finally sees how important she is to the team and finally has the confidence to act on her own. She’s probably my favorite of them all. The story has some very interesting myths and Enrique’s history lessons are mesmerizing. There is a heartbreaking scene toward the end, but there is also a twist at the end that is amazing. I eagerly await the next book in this series to see where their search takes them.
(ARC courtesy of St. Martin's Press and Goodreads)