Bookmarks Spring 2008 edition of the BOOKLOFT NEWSLETTER
What's Mary been reading?
Mystery Morsels
I've been reading mysteries lately, with a couple of good novels thrown
in for diversity. I also notice that most of them are set in various international
locales. Vicarious travel as well as thrills.
A favorite author, Michael Dibdin, died last year. I have enjoyed his detective novels featuring the Italian, Inspector Aurelio Zen. Each Zen story takes place in a different part of Italy. Fortunately for me, I have been stockpiling Dibdin's last 5 or 6 books, so I have a few more treats ahead. I recently read Blood Rain which is set in Sicily. As Zen has received posting around the country, he has been dreading this one, the home of the Mafia. And, true to his fears, shortly after he arrives, he is assigned to a case involving various conflicting "families". Zen is not exactly a bumbling detective, yet he seems to stumble on to the truth of a situation rather more by chance than by clever insight. Yet, he always figures out his cases in a manner that makes him appear clever. He's a great character. Dibdin also gives the reader a wonderful sense of the different areas of Italy in which the books take place. $13.00 Vintage
Another writer who sets her detective novels
in Italy is Donna Leon. Her Commissario Guido Brunetti books are set in
Venice. The detective spends his time solving crimes in this beautiful,
old and romantic city. His experiences are anything but romantic though,
as in the one I recently read, Uniform Justice. A death occurs
at a military academy for boys. It appears a suicide, yet Brunetti is tenacious
in his belief that it was murder. Pursuing his investigation despite pressures
from wealthy and politically-connected supporters of the school, he unravels
the true story from a web of lies, prejudice and greed. $7.99 Penguin
Coming out this Spring in paperback
A new Sheriff Walt Longmire mystery by Craig
Johnson, Kindness Goes Unpunished
Tracy Chevalier's novel featuring poet William Blake, Burning Bright
Anne Lamott's first memoir full of offbeat spiritual humor, Grace (Eventually)
The Good Husband of Zebra Drive by Alexander McCall Smith
Jane Kirkpatrick's latest, A Mending At the Edge
The Madonnas of Leningrad by Debra Dean
Debra Dean was a speaker at the recent Winter Fishtrap conference. Her novel The Madonnas of Leningrad is a beautifully told story of Marina, who was a docent at the Hermitage Museum in Leningrad before World War II and remained there during the siege of Leningrad by the Germans. Now she is living in the Seattle area and is suffering from Alzheimer's. Her memories of the art pieces she used to talk about are more present to her than events in her current life. As her family struggles to keep her focused on an upcoming granddaughter's wedding, her mind drifts off to recollections from the very difficult time of the siege. Although the circumstances then were quite horrific and survival was of crucial concern, Marina distracted herself back then by wandering through the now empty museum and remembering which art pieces were located where and trying to call up the details of each masterpiece. She seemed to find particular comfort of those works with Madonna figures. The novel is a moving look at two trying times in the character's life, the horrors of each lightened by Marina's ability to focus on the beautiful things surrounding her whether natural or man made. $13.95 Harper
Stalking Ivory by Suzanne Arruda
On to Africa, where I read a lighter, but no less intriguing novel, Stalking Ivory, by Suzanne Arruda. This second story featuring Jade Del Cameron deals with ivory poachers in what was, in 1920, British East Africa. The very feisty heroine and sleuth is in Africa to photograph elephants when she wanders into territory being used by poachers to obtain and store their ivory. Having been raised on a ranch in New Mexico and having driven ambulances in World War I, Jade is no frail female ready to back down at the hint of trouble. Instead, she plunges in determined to bring the cruel elephant killers to justice. She is surrounded by an enjoyable and diverse group of other characters who alternate the plot between tension, romance and humor, all in a beautiful and exotic setting. $14.00 Penguin
During the recent month-long "Wallowa County Reads" project, many community members read and participated in various events related to Craig Lesley's book River Song. Among other things, the book describes Indian fishermen along the Columbia River and the difficulties they faced after the drowning of Celilo Falls. For those interested in reading more about this topic here are a couple of recent books. Death of Celilo Falls by Katrine Barber is a well researched and interesting look at the two communities most affected by the building of The Dalles damCelilo Village and The Dalles. Rather that just presenting an historical narrative of the events, the author instead looks at the relationships between the two and the effects on each of having a large public dam built adjacent to them. $22.95 University of Washington Press
Empty Nets: Indians, Dams and the Columbia River, written by journalist Roberta Ulrich, is based on interviews with many river residents. Ulrich focuses on the 1939 promise by the U.S. government to provide Columbia River Indians with replacements for traditional fishing sites flooded by the Bonneville Dam. She recounts the Indians' decades-long struggle, in the courts and on the river, to persuade the government to keep its promise. $19.95 Oregon State University Press.
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